Too Cute Two

I thought I had a few more weeks to finish the hand quilting on the baby quilt for my neighbor. But she had the baby two nights ago and came home yesterday. There is no way I could have finished that quilt in just a few hours so instead I made a basket and filled it with a few baby items I found in the supermarket and a gift certificate to purchase diapers. I decided that these baskets needed something so I am now adding a yo-yo flower to them. I just happened to have some ribbon that says 'It's a boy" so I added that too. I am really liking these baskets.

Birthday Block

I have completed the About.com September birthday block. Susan has requested a card trick block in Christmas colors. Hope she likes this block. I took this picture yesterday in the sun hoping the color would come out a bit brighter. It still looks washed out to me. Oh well, the block is nice in person.....really.

The New Improved Zizzy Dot Swap

I don't know about Dotti, but I sure have run out of ideas for some new swaps. So we both decided to have a monthly swap and the topic would be the month itself. We would both mail out our cards on the 29th of the month. I know it's only the 28th but Dotti got antsy and sent me hers already. Here is the Zizzy-Dot Swap #13 August..........


Dotti lives in Nevada and she says it is hotter than blazes. This card sure represents that well. Can you see all those beads. Gorgeous card don't you think?







I made my card early in the month, long before Fay, Gustov or Hanna. I remember Andrew was in August and every year I hope and prayer that the hurricanes stay well off our coast.







Have I mentioned that the old toothpick repair just wasn't cutting it any more and my laptop died a horrible death. I got a new fancy schmancy laptop. It has (groan) the new dreaded Vista. I have lost some information but not much. Unfortunately, there are no drivers to support my scanner so I cannot use it anymore. My husband is talking about getting a wireless printer/scanner...we'll see about that. In the meantime, I do apologize for the quality of the postcard pictures as I have to use the camera, and we all know what a lousy photographer I am.

I dislike it when there is a prayer request on a quilters message boards. But this is my blog and I am going to break my own rule. My Mom is having surgery today. This will be her 5th surgery since May 2007. She is 89 years old. Her bones are brittle but her mind is sharp. Our biggest fear is that she won't wake up.

If you are inclined to pray, please say one for my Mom. If you are not one who prays, please have a moment of good thoughts for her.

Thank you all.




Update: Mom has come out of surgery with flying colors. The surgeon said the operation was a complete success, he even thinks there is a good chance she may walk again. Thank you all for your good wishes and prayers.

Too Cute

Marlene at the Pincushion Diaries made a few really cute mini baskets. I still had some Halloween fabric left over so I just had to try one. The very detailed, easy to follow pattern can be found at the Pink Penguin. So I ask you, is this the cutest thing you ever saw? I think I need to make a few more with the rest of the left over Halloween fabric. Then I need to make a few autumn ones, a few Thanksgiving ones, a few Christmas ones, Valentines day, Easter, 4th of July, summer, spring, baby showers, birthdays................................................ maybe I could sell them.................. how much should I charge................................. there I go running away with myself again. I will most likely make it to 3 mini baskets and get bored.

Happy Halloween

A few months ago I dragged out some Halloween fabric for the CYOC string block swap. I had a bunch of nickel squares I had gotten in a trade several years before. I had a few fat quarters and quarter yard pieces I got from the fabric of the month club at Keepsake Quilting. And then there was a hunk of this

I could not have been in my right mind whenever it was that I bought it.

I just got the Sept/Oct issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting and found a pattern they call "Boo". I knocked it out pretty quickly using fusible web and machine button hole stitching. My free motion quilting is the pits, (which is why I hand quilt more important pieces). This piece is not going in a contest nor will it be an heirloom piece, quick was of top importance. I think I have forgotten the eyes on the bat, darn, I thought I was done.

And I even got to use up some cute but otherwise useless pieces on the back.

Molly's got a giveaway

Another scrap fabric giveaway. Everybody cross your fingers for me, you know I love those scraps.

http://www.sewhappy10000.blogspot.com/

I found these cute foam letters in the supermarket last week. They are supposed to be for children to play with in the bathtub. But I had another idea........they make great templates.

There' another cool blog giveaway. This one is over at Debi's. Check it out.

http://debiquilts.blogspot.com/2008/08/200th-post-giveaway.html

String X Completed

I was going to go to Joann's to find some border fabric when I got an idea. Why bother with buying some border fabric when all I need to do is make some more string blocks. I pulled out some teal fabrics that I have had for more years than I care to mention and started sewing. It was pretty quick and I really like the results.

I am enjoying this quilt and have started another. I have a nice hunk of yellow that I can use for the background and I guess I could sew a bunch of greens strings for the border. I'm on a roll.

Party!!!

http://saltcreekquilts.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/600/

Obsessed

String piecing has taken over and I am getting a little nuts about it. It's not that I don't have enough fabric, nor would it be a sin to waste a little. But these darn little pieces get speaking to me, "don't throw me away". So what do you do when you have a big pile of little pieces?

You sew them together and make more strings of course.

Why?

When I was a kid and would ask my Mom why, her answer was always the same, "because I'm your Mother and I said so!" So when Judy L started asking why, my first reaction was to give her Cindy's answer......

But I'll be a good girl and attempt to answer her questions.



1. Why do you quilt? It relaxes me and gives me a sense of accomplishment. I am not very good at anything else.


2. How long have you been quilting? Despite several sad attempts before, I started to quilt seriously in 1993.


3. What made you start quilting? A picture of a log cabin quilt on the cover of a magazine.


4. What sewing machine do you use mostly for piecing? Bernina Inspiration


5. What machine do you use mostly for quilting? My left hand and my right hand.


6. If you could have any sewing machine you want -- money isn't an issue -- just get anything you want . . what would you get? Not something I have even thought about.


7. When you buy a sewing machine, how long do you expect you'll keep it? Til a newer and bigger and better model comes out? Til the old one refuses to make another stitch? My Mom is still using her Singer that she bought in 1949 and she was a seamstress who did a ton of sewing. I thought I would use my Bernina at least that long.


8. On a scale of 1 - 10, how much do you love your stash? (10 means you LOVE it! 1 means you'd get rid of it all today if you could!) About a 7.5, lots of color but all small pieces


9. Why do you have the stash? How did it come about? Why is it the size that it is? Just in case.


10. When we talk about "stashbusting", what are your thoughts? Use up all those little pieces and make some room for some new stuff.

Another good start

I am trying to put all those wonderful strings that were donated to me to good use. There are so many options when you make string quilts, sizes, layouts, decisions, decisions, decisions. I have visited Bonnie Hunter's site many time and really like her String X quilt which is on her custom quilting site. I have followed her instructions exactly, I even used telephone pages for foundations.

A block for the jellybean

I am not really crazy about fabric with sparkles on it, but I had to use this light pink sparkly fabric for the crown. The hearts are gold with metallic gold blanket stitch. The scroll is also gold metallic thread. The jewels will be sewn on after the quilt is constructed and quilted (heaven knows how long it will be until that happens.

New Projects Part 2

So now you know my nick name for my granddaughter. And you also now know what I planned to do with the jelly bean fabric. I think I'm off to a good start.

While surfing the net looking for some more jellybean fabric, I came across these three. Luckily, they were all on sale. Princess Ballerinas, ballet slippers and jelly beans, what more can a five year old want?

Color me surprised!

It was back around the beginning of the year when I really started to get ticked off at all the postcards and blocks that were owed to me and never received. One gal commented that if it bothered me so much, I should just quit. So that is what I did. I unsubscribed from one postcard site and did not sign up for any more swaps on the other postcard site. The very last swap I was obligated to was the "Something starting with O". I made 4 cards but only sent out 2 because two of the participants were notoriously late. The deadline for this swap was the end of March.

This weekend I was cleaning out some of the junk piled on my desk and came across my postcard trading notebook. I figured I would not be hearing from any of the people that owe me cards, so I threw out all my notes.

Fast forward to Monday and look what was in the mail.



I cannot believe it, but Angelcat fulfilled her obligation with this gorgeous card. In case you don't know, I love screaming orange. What is really funny is that her card is O for Orange and so was mine.

New Projects

I have wanted to make some of Tonya's free style letters for a while now, but I had no ideas as to what to make. So when my granddaughter said she wanted a "big girls" quilt, my mind flooded with ideas. I pulled all the pinks in my meager stash along with the jelly bean fabric (you'll find out why later). Seems like all I had was some darker pinks (stack on the right) and I needed some light ones. I went to Joanns on Saturday and purchase some light pink fat quarters along with a few browns (stack on the left).


Before I can fool around with granddaughters quilt, I decided to make some blocks for the August Block lotto over at the Forum (which is why I bought the browns).

Two more finishes

I have been busy. I have a few new things I would like to start, but I really need to clean up the clutter first. I got that last block done for the log cabin quilt and put it all together. Almost all the fabrics were from donations and I thank you all again. I will ask Alycia if she wants it for her QOV project.



You might remember a few months ago I participated in a Choose your own Color string block swap. I had asked for dark green centers with autumn color string. Even though I received a set of blocks from everyone who signed up, there were not enough blocks to make anything bigger than a wall hanging. I have been making extra blocks from donated fabrics, on and off for a while now and finally have something to show for it. Isn't it amazing how many people are involved in making this quilt. This will most likely go to Mary for the Heartstrings project.