Whew.  I got the last two rows attached after dinner tonight.  Discovered one "error" in placement that I couldn't live with and swapped two blocks for my picky self. 

Now I need to put the four or five inch wide borders (a bright navy wallpaper print pattern) on.... and I will CONQUER the mitered corner(s) in the process.

But for tonight, I stood on the stairway and gazed down at my Civil War Block of the Week quilt top (http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/).

Me likee! 

Except that now that I can see it as a picture, I see one more block to correct.  Middle of bottom row...block four from the left....

...my  Apple Tree block is upside down.  Sigh.  I will fix that tomorrow!  Here is how that block should look!  http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/11/46-apple-tree.html

This was a truly fun quilt to make.  The blocks are 8 inches in size, which was of course, a tad easier to work with than the Farmer's Wife blocks and the Sylvia's Bridal Quilt blocks.  It was interesting reading the history that inspired the blocks. 

After this has borders, it is going to visit Cotie and her long arm quilting machine.  It's just too big for my little quilting frame.  Cotie is planning to use an all-over meander in a "sandstone" color thread and then it will come back to live at Chez Bury! This one is staying right here!  :)

Next up, the next row of Farmer's Wife, Sylvia, some string blocks, and a date with a Diva!!

Feeble mind....

Two posts in one day....

Can't remember if I've posted these, but I finally (after a year of having one hanger holding nothing at all!) have three months of "Home Is Where the Heart Is" blocks displayed....

Here is one of the ones I just completed (February).

And here are the three over my sofa.....

I am loving these.... but I need to get going on the next three!  Six or seven weeks until I need to put the next quarter's blocks up - April, May and June!  One of my goals is to have these blocks completed and check this off my UFO list for 2012. 

Sew many projects, sew little time!

Time's flying....

Time's flying way too fast!  Christmas started early for me when Yvette gave me a special gift that I just LOVE!!!  She made a sweet mini-tumbler quilt and then framed it into a wooden serving tray! 

I kept my little GingerBread Boys in it for the Christmas season, and now it holds three pretty candles and Karen and I light them when we watch TV downstairs.  I don't know how Yvette did it, but the tray is so cute and I love the mini quilt in it.  :)

Christmas came and went and it was a special blessing for us, a really precious memory maker.  One of the funnier moments was my first gift which began ringing as I looked at it.  Michael gifted me with a SmartPhone....  I love it!  I'm not any smarter, but I am really enjoying this phone!

One of Karen's gifts was Rock Band....  And though we've not had playing sessions as often as she would like, we did have one Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and even Michael got in on the action.

Jason brought me a special surprise after Christmas!  He had a tiling job in Los Angeles, and the homeowner mentioned he could have anything left in the soon-to-be-sold house that might be helpful to him...  He snagged a great sofa, and look at what he brought me....

And inside?

I am so excited, both that he thought of me when he saw it (he knows what makes my heart go pitter-patter!) and for the opportunity to restore the cabinet and stool.... and maybe someday, the machine!  Laurie has requested leopard print for the upholstered portion of the stool.... and I just might do that, because the idea makes me smile, and because when I contacted Singer, Co. with the serial number, I got the machines birthplace (Elizabeth, NJ) and birthday, September 25 (Laurie's birthday!), 1947!!  I will refinish the cabinet/stool first..... the machine will have to wait until I can find someone who restores old Singers!

January found our living room converted into Laurie's Storage Unit.  As she prepared to move to her new apartment, she stored things in boxes/piles....  We had a fridge by the front door and a queen mattress/box springs in the dining room....
 

And then February 1st rolled around, and all the boyz with pickup trucks descended on the house and cleared it out in no time.

Once we recovered from all the excitement of the Big Move....I promptly got a cold.  Sigh.  I haven't been good for much except

I did start to put together my Civil War BOW (by Barbara Brackman)..... I'm getting excited about getting this quilt completed.... I think I will be seriously considering sending it out to be quilted.  I don't know that I could get the finished size on my little frame upstairs and I really want to to be quilted beautifully.  There was a lot of work in it, and it's going to be mine, all mine! heehee!


I've also done some chili canning, and tried a number of new recipes.  Oh, and one other project I am happy to have completed:  I framed the puzzle Jacque gave us LAST Christmas and it hangs in my dining room area now!  We all four worked on that puzzle and it is another one of those special memories I treasure!

Thank you Jacque!

On this week's list?  Painting a bathroom, and hopefully more quilting!  I hope to get together with quilting buddies soon, and this is the year of Finishing UFOs for me.  That's the plan, man!

Settling in....

I'm enjoying getting back to the Farmer's Wife blocks.  I've done a couple more....

I did take a break and quilt Karen's baby quilt on my frame.... Love her mitered border! She bought a panel, cut it up, made squares of coordinating solids, arranged it to her liking, and called it done. I think it's Sew Cute!

And she pieced a binding with left over fabric and bound it.  This was her first machine bound binding - very durable for frequent washings and baby chewing, etc! 

Way to strike a project off the UFO list!

I caught this cute pic of Laurie wrapping her present for Jason (a humongous score at Target on Black Friday!)...

She eventually yelled for assistance/moral support from Karen.... 

And the job is done.  That thing is in front of the tree now.  It hides half of it! Mr. Jason will be thrilled!

Next up, another FW block tomorrow night, and the baking of our cookie tree for Mr. B.

This is the picture from the Wilton site showing how the tree should look.  Ours never end up quite like that, but Mr. B. doesn't seem to mind!

Sigh!

That big sigh was my reaction when I realized today that I had finished every single Christmas present, right down to the barbeque apron for my brother in law!  (who does not read the blog, so I can show it!)

I love that one!

I finished a quilt today also that I can't show until after Christmas... heh heh!

All done!  So I cleaned up the sewing room a bit, vac'd the floor real fast, and dragged out a project to work on.  Back to my regularly scheduled projects!

Yvette had "assigned" us the next row of Farmers Wife back a couple months ago!  I tackled my file of paper piecing sheets for the row and managed to get three blocks done today! It was fun to get back in the swing of this one!  Once again, I used OleFrogEyes to pick colors and keep track of what blocks I'm doing!

After that, Karen had gotten all industrious and made a List of projects for 2012.... and her momentum carried her right through piecing the backing for the first project on her list.  So once she was done, we set up the frame again and loaded this baby quilt. 

I should be able to meander this one tomorrow afternoon and then she can bind it and mark one item off her 2012 List!  And then it will be back to Farmers Wife blocks for me!

I'm contemplating making a project list for 2012 myself.....  but I'm overwhelmed with the mere list making! Maybe I will tackle that this week.....

Black and white and red! It's all over!

Black and white and red seems to be a very popular color combination these days.  I've found myself drawn to red in my kitchen (all the fault of Mr. B who fell in love with and purchased a nice new deep red colored Kitchen Aid mixer!)  Laurie likes the red/white/black combo....

And a young lady we've known since my girls were in high school recently married and she picked that combination for her new apartment.  I did a quick search online for black/white/red fat quarter bundles, and scored some nice ones on a couple of ebay auctions.  So far I've made two easy quilts from that pile of fats, and I have another one to go!

Here is some of what I used for Dani's quilt that I made as a wedding present.

Dani and my girls wore (and still wear) converse tennis shoes - I HAD to incorporate that fabric!  I found some fabric with music notes on it also, to add for her new husband Steve, who is a musician!

Here I'm auditioning layouts on the floor.....

And here it is finished and ready to wrap!

When Dani saw the tennis shoe blocks, she pointed to the shoes she had on that very minute!

She can't wait to curl up with it and her new puppy Coda (Koda?), who by the way is adorable! And speaking of adorable?  Here's our 'Studio Kitty', Tiger, doing her duty as Quality Assurance tester of the batting for the next black/white/red quilt (a piece is peeking out of the batting pile at the top of the frame).  That quilt is now loaded and ready to machine quilt!

I'm slowly getting used to this new blogger method of posting - I think I like it for the most part!

It's been a while, obviously....

Oh, good grief.  It's been so long since I posted that now there is a new interface to use.  Okay, this should be interesting.

First up, I've been making Christmas ornaments to give as gifts.  These are way too much fun! 

They take me about two hours apiece to make, but that's perfect to blow through a couple episodes of some old TV shows I've missed in the last decade or so.  Netflix streaming is definitely a fun addition to the sewing room!  Right now, I'm working my way through Dead Zone.  I saw the first season and then somehow, never watched any more. 

Here's a couple more....

Oh, now do tell.  If loading pix is this easy, I am a fan of this new interface.  Hitting "publish" will be the deciding factor, I guess!

Anyway, I also made a few kitchen appliance covers for my Mom for Christmas.  She never reads the blog, so I can show them here.....  She has collected owls for many years, and Dad says they've crossed the 500 mark for sure, so here's probably #537, #538 and #539 for her! 

These will cover his mixer (a Kitchen Aid), her mixer (a smaller older model), and their toaster oven.

And just in case they get tired of the Owl Trio, I put other designs on the backs!

Now I want to make some for myself!  With quilt related embroideries, of course! 

Tomorrow is another day! I have a quilt on the frame to finish quilting, and our dear friend Dani is coming by to pick up our wedding present for her (a quilt, of course!).  Then, I'm making a list, and checking it twice..... and it's a list of the UFOs in my sewing room!  2012 is going to be my year of FINISHES! 

Okay, hitting 'publish'!! G'nite!

Regarding block 22

Dear Yvette,

Please ignore the pattern I drew up for block 22. That is, if you would like to avoid four of the dreaded Y-seam occurrences.

What was I thinking?!?
















I got through it, and done is good enough..... but it's a tad wonky and there is a much better way to construct it....

namely, the way the author intended. Imagine that.

Signed,

Chagrinned, Bemused and Relieved (a.k.a. Me, Myself and I)

The Margo Bag, and more

Some pictures from the Margo bag I conquered! I had a ball figuring this one out, and now I can't wait to make another one. But, since it zips, I may try making a... gasp... single shoulder strap, and maybe on my third one, I'll add an inch or two to the overall size?

This one didn't look like a purse until the very end!

Also, some most of my pictures are sideways. Blogger hates me tonight. Oh well!

The weekend also included one of the Barbara Brachman Civil War blocks - I'm slowly catching up!

This mess actually became a block...

This is likely what I get for not having posted in over two months. Blogger has completely changed and I have no idea what works now. I shall post this, see what I get, and go to bed! G'nite!

P.S. I sure enjoyed seeing everyone at Orange Quilt Bee today! Must. Do. Again!