Come on Weekend!

I have a list a mile long and I'm so ready for a three day weekend. I'll work a bit in the mornings, but the afternoons are for fun!

I put some side pieces on two of the squares for the Hands2Help Charity Quilt....
































You can click on my OleFrogEyes widget to see how it's going to look, when I get it done. I have some great fabric from my H2H partner to use for a border, and I'm thinking a simple black binding would frame it nicely. Or, since the quilt will meet size suggestions without the border, perhaps I will cut the border fabric in such a way that it could be a binding, with the design on the bias.... Decisions, decisions.


Hopefully this weekend, the Red Hot Sew'nSews will be meeting at the Orange Quilt Bee on Monday for a free sew! If we're able to meet, I'm bringing this project to work on. :)

Not much to show, but some progress!

In the past few days I've done a few more FW blocks....

And a few more blocks for my Hands2Help Charity quilt. Here's another cute dragon, framed with his star block.

I got the rest of the blocks cut, and everything stacked and organized. I'll have 16 squares, each with a varied border. The quilt will be 60 inches square when I'm done, which is the size requested. This has been a fun one to work on. I don't have any grandchildren, but I would Sew buy some of this fabric and keep it to make one of these if/when the time comes. I love the pattern and it will be a keeper for sure!

I haz big purse!

My old purse was tattered, torn, mended and just sad looking. Okay, so I switched to another one I made from fabric I love.... but I'm just not loving the purse. It doesn't hold things as conveniently or hold as much, has no pockets, and while it was a fun purse to make, I'm just not feeling the love.

Here's the one I'm not loving...



















I still love that fabric, dog gone it!

Anyway, I wanted to try the Charm Tote pattern I got at Long Beach last year. At Easter, one of my prizes during the Easter Egg hunt at the Orange Quilt Bee was a charm pack! I got home with the one I picked out and raced upstairs to peek at my stash. Sure enough, I had a matching charm pack from another giveaway, from the same line. That meant I had enough to make the Charm Tote!

And for free!

It took me two evenings, because I kept getting sidetracked with NCIS episodes, but, I have a nice big bag that I really like!



















It holds EVERYTHING, and has convenient pockets inside, etc. I even had enough charms to piece the handles out of charms.





































Whoo hoo! I'm eyeing a few other charm packs and getting ideas! This one is more fall colors, I think. I would love to cut some red/white/blue charms and make one for summer. And I think I can score those right out of my stash. Yay for another frugal purse!

After finishing it, I moved on to a few more Farmer's Wife blocks.

I'm going to finish this row, and then I'm going to get serious about the next row on my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. Farmer's Wife seems easier to me, but I will conquer the next Sylvia row. Or else!!

P.S. Look what lives at my Home Depot now!

The guys in the garden section put out feed for them every night. They've been living there over a year! I'm always glad to see them. Someday, I'll have a few of my own!

Gardening and Sewing

A few pix of the garden... this is the terraced portion on the slope between our house and the neighbor.














Squash (yellow crookneck, yellow straight, zucchini, Mexican, etc!) In the back next to the fence, pole green beans which will climb (hopefully) the barely discernable net trellis stapled to fence. And near each fence post is a very tiny tomato plant which I will cage and tie (the cage) to the fence post. Hope springs!
















My peas have found the trellis (I am SO late with the peas this year - hoping they produce before Blast Furnace Season bears down on us!).














One of Michael's roses. The name escapes me. I just call her Pretty!














And tonight's Farmer's Wife block.

It was a good day! :)

Pattern picked, test block completed!

I was working on my next Farmer's Wife block last night, and midway through, I couldn't stand it any more, and I had to try my first block for the H2H Charity Quilt Challenge....

I know. I have QADD (quilter's attention deficit disorder).

The fabric Kathy sent me was just Sew Cute! I chose to fussy cut the dinosaurs and make them the center of star blocks. Here is the middle of the first block.

















Here is the Lucky Stars pattern (definitely a keeper!), and more of the fabrics that will be used.

















My H2H partner Kathy sent me some really colorful coordinating fabrics, and I pulled more from my stash. And then my sewing roommate pulled a few from her stash for me too! Thanks Karen!!

Now that I know my plan will work, I am going to cut all the fats and fussy cut all the dinosaur centers. I'll keep all the pieces in a basket and make several blocks a week (they go together very quickly!) in between my Farmer's Wife and Sylvia blocks. They are a nice change from the teentsy 6 inch blocks and I'm going to enjoy them!

Hovering Birds

Several hours in the garden, despite my plans to only work there an hour and then head up to my sewing room. However, I still managed to get one Farmer's Wife block done.
















Check out the link via OleFrogEyes - my quilt is growing!

I'm going to have to put this one aside though, and head back to my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. Some really ornery blocks are waiting for me. Might as well push on through! I'll finish about five more Farmer's Wife blocks and then make the switch.

:)

One more...

It was Hot today. H.O.T.

I decided to be a wuss and not work in the garden today. Instead I typed like mad all day and went up to my room after I finished. I made the "Strawberry Basket" block for Farmer's Wife tonight. It's a bit wonky because I wasn't paying attention and should have made one adjustment to avoid an inset seam.... ugh. But done, is done! By the time it's quilted, it won't be wonky!
















I'm looking forward to the temps dropping over the next few days, and then I can hopefully get the rest of the garden in! Many more days like today, and my peas will give up before they grow up!

A few things....

Just when Yvette and Ellen probably thought I was never going to get any more blocks done on Farmer's Wife....

And these are for Dad and Mom..... Dad calls me often to let me know that "the color of the day is WHITE" which means they have snow again....

For one brief moment or two, the color of the day here was WHITE-ish. We had hail a week or two ago. Yes, I am slow getting things blogged!

Our seedlings were not damaged by the hail, so all in all, it was just a glass of iced water for the garden plants! (I started some seeds in cups and containers because it has been a slow, laborious process digging and loosening the soil, smoothing compost all over the place, etc, and I didn't want my slowness to mean that Blast Furnace Season would be upon us before the seeds were planted. I'm so tired tonight from shoveling that I can't tell if that made sense.)

My garden has been consuming a huge amount of my time. I am looking forward to when it's down to just a nice walk through it daily, looking for weeds. Or if I'm successful, looking for my dinner!

In our orange tree, we have a nest! I watched one day as some of the rock pigeons flew in and out of this tree.... We have a group of them that return each year. We call them doves even though technically, I think they are not. They are sweet, peaceful birds. I got suspicious since the male was constantly grabbing twigs!

Later in the evening, Karen and I were on the slope working in the garden and she snapped this picture!

And at one point, despite our best efforts, we scared the Mom away and Karen quickly took a picture of the egg! We've not gotten close enough to see if there is more than one - I don't want to spook the Mom!

I will think of a dozen other things I wanted to post, but I am Le Tired. Good night!

Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2011

Just a quickie - I signed up to participate in Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2011! Please take a sec to read about it - There is plenty of time to complete a simple 60x60 quilt (it is to be completed from fabric you will receive from someone else AND your own stash, if I read correctly - and I was reading fast, so don't quote me!). This is a collaborative effort between greenfairyquilts and confessionsofafabricaddict and I'm looking forward to participating!

I found out about it while peeking at the gallery on OleFrogEyes to see if anyone had added new blocks to their design walls....

Success with a few Farmer's Wife blocks

Yay.... This was fun today! I completed three blocks for my Farmers' Wife quilt.
















































I like checking my progress using the OleFrogEyes virtual design wall. I noticed today I need to incorporate some RED in my Farmers' Wife - fast! Such a useful tool to see it all right in front of me, without having Kimi hijack a block off the floor and take it to her bed to snuggle with it! It really helps with my color selections for my Sylvia blocks too!

A gift idea....

I took a break from the tiny Sylvias and Farmers' Wife blocks, and made two nice big 12 inch blocks from stash, and a pattern from http://www.quilterscache.com/. Then I snagged two pillow forms from Joann's with a 25% off coupon.... *Yay!*

The result:










A bit of spring time color for my Mom who has a birthday next week!




















And I think I'm going to make another set for perhaps Mother's Day, that is patriotic red/white/blue in another quilt block pattern.... She can unbutton the springy ones and button on some new ones for Flag Day and Fourth of July. A set in fall colors would be a nice surprise in September. And obviously she could use a set in Christmas fabrics in December. And I think I will double the whole idea, cos I want a set too!


Today, it's back to my regular challenge: Making progress on Farmers' Wife blocks. I'm 75% done with "Birds in the Air".















More pix later!

Oh yes, she did!

Laurie made another quilt! this one is for Courtney (Jason's daughter) for her 16th birthday.





















She designed the layout herself, planned the heart center, added some patches for some of Courtney's favorite bands and some cute sayings, and there are more on order that can be added later.

We couldn't find an L7 patch or a Face to Face patch, so we duplicated them with machine embroidery or applique! She's off to Modesto this weekend to celebrate Courtney's birthday and give her the quilt.

I'm eyeing this weekend, and thinking I will split any free time between garden (making a few raised beds) and sewing room. Come on, Friday!

:)

F9

I have no idea where February went. Seriously.

And I have not a whole lot to show....but click on the OleFrogEyes widget to see my progress on my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler....

I completed F9 tonight.
















This one.... there are no words no printable words. Even with making triangles to avoid the dreaded "Y" seams.... It was confusing. It involved unsewing. It turned out too big.

I have resolved that I will absorb the extra quarter inch of extra size by making skinnier sashes around that block. So there.

I think the next block will be easier - if for no other reason than there are paper piecing options. Yay!

After F10, I'm switching over to Farmer's Wife for about ten blocks..... And I hope to get together with Karene next weekend and tackle a Lovebird Lane block.

The projects are never ending. I have so many things I want to make. My garden is calling me. I seriously must figure out how to get over this "work" thing.


It's taking up way too much of my quilting and gardening time!

Farmer's Wife has begun!

It has been a while since I sat in my sewing room and cranked out blocks. I worked on some Farmer's Wife blocks today. I had done one with Ellen a week or so ago. I think Ellen and I are going to have our work cut out for us, to keep up with Yvette!


The first block we did was an easy snowball.... Here is mine...















The second was not hard - although my mad photography skillz make it look WAY more wonky than it is in reality.
















But this third one.... Well, it totally dispelled the theory I had that perhaps Farmer's Wife was going to be a little easier than Sylvia's Bridal. Wrong!


At one point, I had a complete set of the paper pieces cut out and assembled, and another set with seam allowances that I was using to actually construct the block. In a weird way, it helped me keep track of all 4,592 pieces!

































Okay, it's technically Monday. I'm off to bed!

Road to California, 2011

RoadToCalifornia2011

Click linkie after properly attiring yourself, i.e., get out your bibs. These are the pictures I took, and I will add Karen's pictures later, if they are not duplicates of mine.

The gentleman you will see in two pics, sitting quilting, is John Flynn, who was this year's Featured Artist. I did not see anyone else that I recognized. Eleanor Burns and Bonnie Hunter were teaching and we were unable to do the fan girl thing..... I thought that Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson came to this show, but no such luck. Mr. Flynn was really involved with his hand quilting and I didn't bother him.

Oh, and one thing to pay attention to in particular.... The first couple of pictures (seven, I think), were of a quilt that had everyone's jaw on the floor. The quilter has been quilting for three years. She designed the quilt herself. She pieced the quilt, and QUILTED the quilt, on a 20 year old regular sewing machine. She has three preschoolers and she accomplished this beauty in six months.

There are some close ups of her incredible quilting in the slide show. Again, these are, I hope, the first seven pix that come up for you.

I don't think we've seen the last of this young lady! She is pictured in the sixth picture, in the center, in white outfit. She looks pretty normal, but I am in awe of her ability to make that quilt, in six months, and quilt/embellish it herself. Wow!

I came away from the show inspired to get back in my sewing room and get busy!!

Another block of Safe Haven...

I've been working on Christmas gifts, embroidering a few things, making lists, checking them twice.... you know the drill. :)

While my embroidery machine was working on a tea towel, I was working on a block for Safe Haven.


















I knew something was wrong with this block before I pressed this portion.... duh!

















This is much better.

















And here's the whole block. These blocks are 20 inches square, which seems ginormous after a week's worth of Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks!!



















I have lots of left overs each month. This BOM is several years old. Embarrassingly old.... but boy, I love how much fabric they included. Jacque called dibs on my left-overs from this one, and as you can see, she'll likely have enough to make the exact same set of blocks, with only an occasional dip into her stash for anything she's short on.


















I have no idea what I am trying to do here, but I'm playing with some of Karen and my favorite cartoon characters.... and I'm having a ball trying to figure it all out.














Isn't that what it's all about!?!