Wednesday, April 30, 2014

12 more blocks

I got twelve more blocks done, but somehow I deleted the picture of what the top currently looks like. Oh, well. I have 12 more blocks to make for this top. I have the next six blocks laid out and ready for sewing.

I was walking around the front yard last evening and noticed another group of white daffodils. I really like these white ones.

I picked up a few more half yards pieces of Halloween fabric for the two quilts I need to make. Got them for $1.80 each! This is first quality fabric too!

Here is the new Halloween fabric with the previously purchased fabric. I needed to see what I need to look for a Miller's Dry Goods when I go to Charm this weekend. For this first group for the orange and green quilt, I need to find a couple more greens. I think I will have to take those two more yellow/orange fabrics out of the group. I have one green piece on backorder from Hancock's, but I will still need to find a couple more greens.

The other Halloween quilt needs to use purple and pink in it. So far I have not found pink Halloween fabric so I will use purple and maybe some gray. I only have two purple fabrics, but I have three on back order from Hancock's.

These pictures will be helpful as I shop at Miller's and hopefully pick up a couple more fabrics.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Progress on Homespun #4 and my Ricky

I sewed together a dozen more blocks and then got all twenty trimmed. I am trimming these to 9 1/2" so this top will end up a bit bigger than the other homespun tops. I am still playing around with the arrangement.

I have the next group of five blue blocks laid out and ready for sewing together.

I don't watch DWTS anymore. It has gotten to be more about personality, the scanty outfits for the women, and the men not wearing shirts rather than dancing. I want to see dancing! I can't stand all the emotion they try to bring into the show. Too much crying! There is no crying in dancing! BUT I happen to see Ricky Martin was a guest judge. I love my Ricky! I hadn't seen him on TV for so long I thought he fell off the face of the earth! I saw him in concert in Columbus, Ohio in July 2000. I had row 13 floor seats and it was wonderful! I am not sure I am digging all the facial hair, but it was good to see him. I only watched a bit of the show just to see him and then I had to turn it off. I just can't stand the show anymore.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Quilts tops Homespun 2, 3 and 4 and 5!

Here is Homespun 2 done. It is 48 1/2" x 57"

Homespun #3 which is 48" x 60 1/2"

So remember how I said on Friday that I was going to put away this leftover pile of homespun and move on to another project?

Well, I didn't not move on. I went thru the leftover pile and cut enough to make Homespun 4. Here are the eight I have sewn, but not trimmed. The other blocks are in sets on the sewing table ready for sewing and some still need to be sliced. I had almost no blue fabric left and did some careful cutting in order to make 8 blocks. I was going to mail tops 1, 2, and 3 with the binding to Vicki today, but I think I will wait until I get top 4 done.

After that I went thru what I still had left and made some 4" squares and 3 1/2" squares. Homepsun #5! The fabric to the left are the pieces I have left. There are a lot of long strips that are on the narrow side and some that are wider that can be used for binding. I still have two decent sized pieces that I could use for binding or making squares to go with the 4" and 3 1/2" squares. I didn't want to cut this fabric up until I see what I need.

I did get started on another project which is a baby quilt I need to have done by the first of June. I found this cute cow fabric and went into the stash to find fabrics to go with it. I am making one of those multi layer quilts I make. Here are the blocks on the design wall ready for sewing.

The shop delivered my car to me on Friday. It is running so good! What a difference! The tech house caught on fire due to a ceiling radiant heater. There was a lot of smoke damage so the family moved to a hotel.




Friday, April 25, 2014

Progress on Homespun #2

I sewed and trimmed 8 of the blue blocks. Four more to go.


I ran out of lighter blue homespuns so I substituted and tan background cotton with little blue stars. I think it fits with the overall look.

So this weekend it is all about finishing Homespun #2 and #3.

I didn't get my car back yesterday. The technician who was working on my car had to leave work because his house was on FIRE! The shop called me to tell me what had happened and offered me a free loaner for the inconvenience. I am waiting to hear from them today whether they will be able to get the car done today or if I need to pick up the loaner. I would rather be in my position than the technician's place!

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

MQG meeting

Since my car is in the shop one of the ladies volunteered to pick me up so I could attend last night's meeting. We had eight ladies show up and we had a lively discussion about all kinds of things. There was show and tell also. Of course I was half stupid because I was tired and forgot to take my camera! I got home at 8:45 and my head hit the pillow at 9. I was pretty tired from the trip to Pittsburgh the night before.

This morning I noticed how tall my canna was getting.

The weather is still cold here for this time of year although the cool weather is nice to walk to work in so I don't get overheated.

I am suppose to get my car back today. It needed the valve gaskets and seals replaced, degreased (oil was everywhere!), a tune up which includes new ignition wires, spark plugs, air filter, and I had to have the distributor cap replace due to the oil splattering. Baby will feel like a new car!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Pittsburgh to see Bruce

My brother Mike and I went to Pittsburgh last evening to see my brother Bob and Bruce Springsteen in concert. It took about 2 hours and 20 minutes to get to Pittsburgh. We had a great time!

My head hit the pillow at 1:15 this morning so I got about six hours of sleep. I feel ok now, but if I have to walk home from work tonight - I dropped my car off at the shop before I came to work this morning - it might be a slow walk home. The shop will have to diagnose the problem first and will let me know later this morning what they need to do to fix the oil leak.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

More fabric

Becky at St. Theresa Textile Trove is trying to reduce her inventory so she is having a bodacious mystery box sale. Becky has always been very generous to me so I thought I would help her out and buy a box.

I received a lot of fabric in this little box - 18 yards and some of it was very unusual! Some I like; some I don't think I will ever use. I would be willing to trade to anyone interested so let me know if anything mark "willing to trade" catches your eye.

Willing to trade this 1 1/2 yards of this green monoprint


Willing to trade this panel that is almost a yard piece.

I am keeping this piece! The background is black even though it looks dark blue in the picture.

I am on the fence with this piece. I think it is very cool, but I rarely use this shade of green.


willing to trade this strange piece of about a yard. It is a panel with hands, feet, and playing cards.


Willing to trade this tie dye. It is 2 1/2 yards if I remember correctly. I left my cheat sheet at home. There are three full tie dyed circles.


Another tie dye piece 1 1/2 or 2 yards. I think it is pretty cool and I think I will keep this one.


This was a group of FQs. I will keep these.


Becky also threw in a bag of beads and shells. There are shells mounted in little pieces of leather with a string running thru the top. I have no idea of what I would ever do with these, but with the way they are made you could pull out the leather string and sew then on to something. I thought the drum buttons were kind of cool. I don't know if I would ever use them, but I am leaning toward keeping them unless some could convince me that they have the perfect project for these.

willing to trade this cloth. It is hand woven strips that were then sewn together. It is about 2 1/2 yards.

Lastly is this group of 1 yard pieces. I love the fish print and the yellow pieces. The other three pieces I had in my stash so I would be willing to trade those.

With finally warmer weather the daffodils are blooming like crazy. Goodness, I am going to miss all the color once they fade. I also have more white daffodils this year. Last year there was only one flower, this year there are three.


I went for a walk last evening and look what I found in the gutter. It is a tool for your bicycle. It retails for around $25.00. Somebody is going to be upset that they lost this.


Monday, April 21, 2014

How many quilts does it take ...

to call it a series? I feel like I have a series going on with these lap sized quilts made out of homespun. I worked on the second and third quilts this weekend. For the second one I have twelve more blocks to make. I have the pieces all cut and I had just enough different blues that were the right sized pieces to make these twelve blocks. Here is where the quilt is right now. I have the three long rows sewed together and the three little rows are sew into rows, but not together. These blocks are 8 1/2" so they finish at 8".

For the third quilt I have all the rows sewn together as much as I could, but I need to make 8 more of the 6 1/2" striped blocks.

The bindings are made and labeled for all three.

Here are the pieces for the blocks I need to make to finish both quilts.

Now what do you think the pile of leftover fabric looks like? I think I have enough to make another quilt!

My brother drove in from Pittsburgh for Easter and look what I got! A used guitar pic! I will add this to my framed backstage passes, wrist bands, and ticket subs from the other Springsteen concerts I have been lucky enough to go to because of my brother.

Today I have to try and get my car fixed. Apparently I need to have my head gasket replaced according to the diagnoses my nephew gave me yesterday when I showed up for Easter brunch. He said the same thing happened to him and that is how he knew what was going on. Let's hope the garage can get me in today.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner!

No I didn't win a chicken dinner, but I did win a gift card from Red Pepper Quilts and Southern Fabric! It was hard to decide what to buy because Southern Fabrics have so may beautiful fabrics! They shipped the fabric quick too! I bought the sock monkey fabric for baby quilts. The whale piece will be dyed to make the background teal so that it and the teal piece will fit into a project I have in the works. Thank you Red Pepper Quilts and Southern Fabric!

I also got a packaged from Fabric.com. Yes, I am bad, but they were all on sale. The Moda Boo Crew fabric is earmarked for a quilt for a birthday present. I paid $4.60 a yard! You can't beat that! Remember the white spider web fabric I bought not too long ago? That will be for the sister of the girl getting the Boo Crew quilt. The Boo Crew fabric is so cute! I wasn't sure about it at first, but it turned out that it will be perfect! There are hints of orange and green in the characters and for the girl this quilt is for, orange and green are her favorite colors!

The other fabric I bought to go with pieces I already had in my stash. See? Don't they go together great?

I did get started on making binding last night. The strips are sewn together, but I didn't have time to press it.

Why didn't I have time? Because I made cookies for the guys for Easter.

I have lots of plans for the weekend, projects I want to work on, maybe some yard work.

Have a happy Easter.