Incoming

Lucky me, I won another blog giveaway. This time it's 4 machine embroidered quilt blocks. I think I see another baby quilt in the near future. Stacey has a cute little shop called Sew Far Sew Good Quilt Shop. She also has a  blog called Driving Miss Stacey.
Go visit with her for a while.

Too cute.

I also got another postcard. This one is from Daniel. He lives somewhere near Leicester in England.

What was I thinking?

My studio (spare bedroom) is only 10' x 10'. It doesn't have much storage space at all. There is fabric, notions, tools and stuff stashed in every place I can think of. I need to finish some projects and get them out of here. With that goal in mind I went through some drawers and found this lovely 1930's green drunkards path. I have no idea what I initially intended for this but I was determined to finish it and get it donated to Quilts for Kids. All the necessary parts were there, just cut up some of the fabric for a border. I layed out the back and used some spray basting for the batting. Some more spray basting and the top went on. I was pretty confident that I could machine quilt some straight lines even though this top measures 38" x 38".
The first diagonal row went on a bit wonky but not too bad. The second, third and fourth rows were making it worse. I removed the stitching and started again.  The same thing happened again and again with each row. The back of the thing was nothing but pleats, folds and bumps. I ripped the stitches out again.
I give up! I can't get it smooth, I can't get it quilted. Is there anyone out there who wants it, top, batting, backing and binding? The only catch is you will have to donate it to Quilts for Kids, or the Binky Patrol or a childrens charity of your choice.

Bingo

Bingo Bonnie asked me to remind you about the 2011 Annual Fat Quarter Bingo game which will start on April 1, 2011. You are probably thinking that it's a tad early to be thinking about it but you would be wrong. If you visit the Fat Quarter bingo site now, you can let Bonnie know that you might (nothing written in stone, just a big maybe) want to play next year. She will add your name and email address (which she shares with no one) to the list. Next year, she will send you an email with all the important info. You can decide then whether or not you want to sign up. I don't know about you, but my memory sticks and I do not visit the HGTV message boards very often. I am so grateful Bonnie sent me the invitation to play.
So go to the Fat Quarter Bingo site now, and let Bonnie know you're thinking about it.

Another Preemie Quilt

I put the blue Key West fabric squares together with some bleached muslin. I added an accent of lime green. It was kind of loud and needed some toning down. I searched my newly acquired Bingo stash and found this medium blue tone on tone.

The one yard piece was enough for the border, backing and binding with a 20x20 inch piece left over. I think it turned out great.

Preemie Quilt

Yesterday, the anticipation of my Bingo winnings arrival was killing me. I couldn't concentrate on anything and certainly did not want to work on anything too complicated. That means I either work on string blocks or make a preemie quilt. I decided on the later. Because I didn't have any pieces of fabric large enough to use, I thought I would raid the large box of 2 1/2" squares. I found the last of my old, old Key West fabrics, pulled out 24 pink squares and cut up some plain white.

I can't seem to get a good shot that shows the brightness of the colors, but there is some yellow, navy blue and even some orange in there. Have you checked out the price of Key West Fabric lately? I know I can't afford to buy any. I bought a bunch of it at a rummage sale many years ago and have used bits and pieces of it many times over. I am down to just a handful of pieces. I have pulled out some blue ones to make another preemie quilt.

I'm not sure what to do with the remaining few. Maybe another item in my shop.

BINGO

It's here, It's here, my Bingo winnings have arrived. HOLY COW, what a big box of goodies. According to Bonnie, there are 28 one yard cuts of fabric and 44 fat quarters. By my calculations that's somewhere around $400 worth of fabric. I am just too thrilled.

This diaper box doesn't look like that much fabric could possibly fit in a box that size, but check out some of the contents.

I am thrilled to find many dotted fabrics.

And I still have half the box to unpack. It's a good thing it got here when it did because look what happened when I plopped the box down on the chair.

My thanks to Bonnie for all her hard work, and for all the wonderful ladies who sent in such fabulous fabrics.

New in the Shop

How the dinosaurs became exctinct

Now that's funny!

When all else fails

When I have no bright ideas. When I'm feeling blue. When I need to accomplish something....quick. When everything I try comes out like crap. I make preemie quilts. I know they are quick, easy and will almost always come out looking good. I tore through my stash and found this piece of Hey Diddle Diddle fabric. I do not remember purchasing it (of course I don't remember much of anything lately) but I know it was intended to be a preemie quilt. There is just enough fabric to make two, so it looks like a second identical quilt will be made this week.

Zentangles

I ran across Zentangles about a year and a half ago. The whole doodle idea really appealed to me. When I was still working, I bought a pad of paper at the dollar store, and I would doodle at work, usually when I was on a phone call. When I was laid off, I also laid off the doodling.
I still follow several blogs, and blogs lead to blogs which leads to even more blogs. Today I followed a link which brought me to The Quilt Rat. Jill does the most beautiful work and I especially like her postcards. Because I have no original idea of my own, I tried to make some Zentangle postcards of my own.

Not bad for a first attempt, but my work seems to lack the fine lines and details that Jill's work has.

Incoming

I've been in need of something to smile about. Today I received two postcards and incoming mail always makes me smile (except when it's a bill).
The first card is from is from Bostjan, a 31 year old who works in business development of a telecommunication company. The card is from Piran, Slovenia and sad to say I'm going to have to get out a map to figure out where that is. It sure looks like a pretty little town.

The second card is from Jenna. She is a 17 year old, studying radio and TV work. She does not say, nor does her card reflect what city she is from, but she does say she is from Finland.

I'm really enjoying this new hobby of postcarding

It Just ticks me off

Sometimes, I run across something that just peeves me. I ran across a quilt for sale this morning on Etsy. I have been annoyed by it all day and if I don't bitch to someone quick, I'm going to blow a gasket.
The first thing that got my attention is the word Vintage. I recognized this pattern as one that was designed by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs. The quiltmaker did not give Anne any credit for being the designer. She admits to be making quilts since 2003, so the oldest this quilt could possibly be is 7 years old. I hardly think this qualifies as Vintage.
The quiltmaker states that she hand appliqued the designs. It is hard to tell but does appear to be hand appliqued, but then she failed to do much quilting on it. This quilt would not hold in in sort of cleaning process. Which brings me to her statement that she would dry clean the quilt as it has many embellishments. OMG, where did she learn to quilt? Who in their right mind would dry clean any quilt?
Lastly, this quilt is not very big. It measures 53 x 54 and she refers to it as a wall hanging. The price for this ........$725.00. Some quilters are just too full of themselves.
As Dennis Miller always says, this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

In a Slump

I don't know what's wrong with me, I just don't feel like doing anything. I would like to start a new charity quilt top but I don't have enough of any one fabric to pull it all together. I would make some string blocks but I'm a bit peeved. I sent the last two batches off and it cost me ten bucks to mail them (that's a lot when you're out of work). All I asked is that the recipient let me know that she got them. Two emails and one web site post and she still hasn't even bothered to respond with a yes or no.
I would love to join some small group that works on charity quilts locally but most of the guilds meet at night or on Saturdays.
Any suggestions?

Better late than never

I had this Quilts for Kids quilt top completed before I had my surgery. But getting back to it has been hard and has taken far too long. I managed to get it quilted last week. It is much easier now that I have my new quilting gloves and self threading needles. I did get the binding on, but it has taken me a week to hand stitch it down. I think it turned out great.

I am especially happy with all four corners. I have never had all four turn out so perfect.

Happy Dancing

Did you sign up for Bingo Bonnie's annual fat quarter bingo game? The last few days have had everyone on the edge of their seat wondering who would win. Today there is a total of 8 winners and one of them is me. I am so excited I can't see straight. I don't know yet just how much fabric I have won, but it's going to be a lot.
The other day, I won another blog giveaway. This time I won some handmade artisan soap from Aquarian Bath. I received a bar of pumpkin poppy seed soap. I know it sounds weird but it is really nice. It has a lovely lemony smell.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Happy Sink-Oh-de-MAYO ;)

Shamelessly pilfered from Bingo Bonnie.

Incoming Mail

I received a second postcard, this one from Katrina in Werl, Germany. She managed to squeeze a lot of information on the back of her card. She told me all about her city which was founded in 1272 and was once very famous for salt. I think I'm really going to like Postcrossing.