Way Behind on the Blogging

Sideways, but quilt camp nametag for this year.

I have attempted to blog at least three times since quilt camp and just can never seem to find the time. I finally decided to just get started because I hate feeling like I am behind and I am behind, lol! Quilt camp was lots of fun. I did a lot of puttering and playing and a lot less type A personality speed sewing and it was fun!
The first thing I did was pull out this huge bag of leftover half square triangles I had from various things where I had sewn up the corners and cut them off but hadn't ironed them. I spent alot of time ironing and squareing sorting...and made a commitment to myself that if I decide to take the time to sew and cut these parts off in the future (as bonus half square triangles) that I will also take the time to iron them and square them up right then too! I still have tons left in the bag but I then used a free "Broken Crockery" pattern I found on the web via Barbara Brackman's blog Broken Crockery. Jerrye VanLeer made the mini-quilt on that page which inspired me though she used 19th century fabrics which I love, I used what I had on hand to help me design a small wall hanging from the leftovers. It took a long time to make this little top, but I am over the moon with it and will finish it and put it in my quilting studio. It makes me smile for a few reasons--it was basically free because it was made with bonus leftovers, many people at camp really liked it (they didn't like the last quilt auction quilt I did and I decided never to do another one, lol..hurt my feelings!) and because it is rainbow colors!

After that on Friday night I decided to get to a little more serious sewing and completed Kathy's quilt top that she had to have. I wasn't that nuts for the pattern or for the fabric but she really wanted it so I worked on that til the wee early hours of the morning and then went to bed. The pattern is called Block Express.

Made this little Schnibbles pincushion too! Large for a pincushion, but not pillow size!

On Saturday I really don't remember doing much in the morning. I got up early (for me) and did some putzing and learned how to make the cool coasters with the folded triangles from my new friend Laura. She is very good at making lots of stuff to sell and I learned a lot from her over the weekend. I had met her at camp a year earlier and seen her at the Nimble Thimble meetings but I actually got to know her better this time and expect I will be seeing more of her!

I also went nuts and made more than a dozen tissue covers for purse size tissure holders. They were super easy and I found the tutorial here. http://www.skiptomylou.org/2008/09/02/3383/

Laura made a ton of potato bags for heating up baked potatoes in the mircowave (with potato fabric) to sell and I thought that was a good gift idea for later on! I have never used one but they were cute.

I used the fabric Carrie from Miss Rosie's quilt company sent me from one of my Schnibbles wins called "Lollipop" which is a little modern looking and I am very pleased with how they came out! Thanks again Carrie. I feel like I have free gifts to give to a dozen people thanks to you! Whoot, whoot!

I made a little wallet which didn't go so well the first time around but I think i get what to do for the next one if I want to make more. It was simple, but lots of layers and sometimes I just don't quite keep them from shifting..so I missed a seam and didn't know it til I had sewn my opening closed. It was a pain. Becky made a bunch of them and they were really nice! In fact everything Becky sews turns out really nice. We were roommates again and sat next to each other. She is such a good listener and I have to remind myself not to talk her ear off all the time though she may not realize I am holding back LOL!

Somwhere in there I made myself another Pineapple Blossom block...I had brought the stuff and thought I would complete a top of these, but forgot the half a dozen blocks I had done at home! So I only made the one just for the heck of it. Becky worked for a bit on her borders for her second one too. It is looking good in red, white and blue.

I told the gals who go for a walk that I would join them (and I stayed away from all of the food that everyone brought! YAY!) and went on a 53 minute hike up a mountain and back. It was one heck of a workout for me. Only four of us went: Kathy C., Kathy and Terri I think it was. It was a lot of fun and the gals are so supportive of me trying to get in shape. It was nice to bond with some different people too. I think I actually underate at camp because I was so paranoid I would overeat. I weighed in a day early before camp and had lost 2.2 pounds. After camp week I came home and did Pilates the same week and lost 6.2!!!!! That is the best week since the first week. My total is at 34.2 pounds now. We shall see how Thanksgiving went though. That is another post, haha.

I hand sewed a quilt sleeve on the Flock of Triangles quilt that is going to the quilt show. I just met with the gal this morning to give her the quilts and she told me it might not be hung in the show due to room. I am dissapointed about that since it was stressful getting all that done and apparently she didn't really want that one or something. I don't know. So that one isn't even in the catalog. Also, I found out the show includes traditional quilts and let me tell you they should have hung my Double Delight because that is my most amazing quilt so far. But no interest in that. I guess I prefer just quilting because I enjoy it and not worrying about the rest! Sheesh!

Last year one of the gals made a few of these trees and this year another gal was making them. Somehow it caught on and the next thing you know everyone was making them. Finally with a whole lot of help from Margarite (and Laura and Laura) I managed to make a tree..it was the last thing I did on Saturday night...done about 2:30 AM!

Sunday I did about half the binding on the Puddle Jump Mystery quilt. I felt like doing some hand sewing and sitting on the couch and not in my hard chair...by then the two cushions I brought were not feeling thicker than paper!

I have also won two prizes since I blogged last! I got really luck in the same week and they both arrived this past week which made a rough week better. (My oldest son is high functioning autistic and diabetic and he went into DKA last Saturday and we didn't realize until Sunday how sick he was. He had no insurance--trying to get his disability back--and he wound up in the ER and then in the ICU for two days and step down ICU for another day. It was a wild and crazy week, I am telling you but he is much improved and we are all the wiser now.)

Dawn at Spring Water Designs blog had an awesome giveaway from Houston Quilt Market goodies that I won. I got a pink oversized tote from the Go Baby Schoolhouse that Dawn went to, a really cute little gift box that has a special Go Baby key chain along with a bubble gum cigar to annouce the birth of the Go Baby, a fabric tote bag from Andover made with their Dimples line that I really like because I love Dimples!, the current issue of Quiltmaker Magazine, a card making kit from eStudio fabrics and Christine Adolph, and a cloth quilt label...and she threw in some cool pins that I will have to take photos of. I am not sure if Dawn knew it, but I collect pins and quilting pins so that was really cool and was my favorite part of the whole thing! I have borrowed Dawn pic here and you can see one of the pins, but I will try to get close ups later this weekend. Thanks Dawn. You made a crazy week better.

Stacey from "Driving Miss Stacey's" blog made a Thanksgiving Place Card Tutorial
and I won her giveaway. I borrowed a few of her photos since I am blogging from work (slow call day and we can play on computers between calls, lol) and don't have pics with me. Hope she doesn't mind. They are so adorable and I would most likely never make them myself so it was double nice to get them gifted to me! Thank you Stacey!

So at least I got some of my blogging done. Took hours since I am at work, but seriously just could not work it in with the way the last two weeks have gone. Lots of working, hopsital, etc. I haven't sewn on my machine since camp and Carolina Crossroads is so close to done it calls me daily. Not to mention Bonnie's new mystery Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll has two clues out and I haven't started it....I did order some cool fabri with cotton bolls on it yesterday. I borrowed their pics, but isn't it cute. Can't wait to put it in the quilt!

I also need to work on my Designer Mystery BOM block....I really need some time in the sewing room. Well, my shift at work is over and I have Deaf party to get to so off I go!