The Sewing Storm Before the Mystery

 Here is Limbania's Good Fortune.  Done!

 Actually made sixteen towels for Christmas gifts.  Bought an automatic buttonholder for my Bernina and it is super easy to use compared to the button holes I made several decades ago!

 Started making some Christmas ornaments by hand....doing some in Packer fabric too.

 Quilted and bound this table runner for my mother.   She has a giant table and I think she will love it!

 This one has been waiting for about eight years to be quilted.  I finally did it and actually enjoyed it. 

Kathy and I are both doing a set of these for 35th Ave. BOM.  We will be gifting them to my nephews when they are done.

 I added a border and some feet to this turkey from years back.

 Finally got this UFO border fixed and Barb quilted it for me.  This was the 35th ave BOM from several years ago.

 Quilted and bound this one myself too.  This one was from the Quiltville Cruise!

 Laundry Day Mini is also quilted and bound by me.  I was killing the UFO's!

 Barb gave me her spiderweb blocks from the Bonnie workshop last year.  I decided to make a few more and then used leftover HST's from a prior BOM to make a baby quilt for donation to AZ Blankets for Kidz.  In all, Kathy and I donated eight!

 Made another Betsy Schnibbles, quilted and bound it myself.

 Made another Packer's quilt...quilted and bound it myself too!

 Used up a bunch of leftover parts from Pineapple Blossom to make this quilt and donated it.

This was one of two Shoo Fly tops I made as part of the Quilville Leader and Enders Challenge this year.  Also donated to AZ Blankets for Kidz. 
I am sure there is more I missed but I wanted to share the ones I could still find pictures for!  I am down to about six or so UFO's!  YAY!

Friday was a Sewing Sensation!

 I hiked on Friday morning, then did Pilates...after a salad and a hot bath I sewed and sewed and sewed.  I started out with the 35th Ave. BOM for February.  Got it done just under the wire!  Today I picked up the one for March.

 I am super happy to say  am motivated to finish off a bunch of my UFO's!  So I pulled out these Pineapple Blossom blocks from a 2015 workshop I got to go to with Bonnie.  Such fun blocks, not sure why I waited so long to get them done!  Now I have a baby size quilt ready to quilt!

 I also did the Rainbow BOM for March in red.  This is Straits of Mackinac.  Loving it!

Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC!

I also finally dragged out the Playing with Jacks blocks from the Tuscon workshop about four years ago!  I had decided to do these blocks in modern fabrics....however when I got going I realized I did not really have enough contrast in some of my blocks and he greys really faded in and the design did not show up really well.  So they languished away for a few years.  I finally decided to take the two worst offenders out and to make six more blocks that contrasted better.  And here you have it.  Works for another baby quilt!  

SEW fun to knock two more quilts off my UFO list (well not entirely as they need quilting and binding but forward progress!).  

Today we got our March blocks from 35th Ave and had lunch with BJ.  We ran a bunch of errands and went and celebrated my nephew Colton's 4th birthday!  To top it off we headed to the casino for the first time in forever!  We won!  Kathy lost 40 bucks (plus the free 15 they have her).  I played my free 15 and won about 95...so we netted 55!  Happy campers!

Pineapple Blossoms Workshop in San Manuel!

 Laura picked me up at the crack of dawn and we drove a few hours to San Manuel.  We got to see a glorious sunrise on the way!

 Here is Laura and I in front of Bonnie's sample quilt.  Love all its scrappy goodness.  Most of the gals at this workshop knew each other and were members of the Copper Thimbles guild, but one came from Goodyear and one or two from Sun City!  Bonnie is worth early mornings and travelling for!

 I always learn a thing or two at Bonnie's workshops.  She taught us how to do the Math to get our center to fit our borders.  It actually sort of made sense to me--lol!  I didn't take any picture of lunch but they had bread bowls and three different kinds of soup.  I had a delicious bean soup and avoided the best goodie table I have seen in a long time.  I ate none of it, seriously I should have taken a picture so you could see what kind of iron willpower I had going on!  :)

 Here are some of the blocks people did.  They were beautiful in every colorway and scrappy too!  Most ladies did them with two inch strips, but Laura and I were using two and a half inch strips.

 Here is Laura with her first beautiful batik block!

 Here is me with the blocks I had all done (all others were in various stages of done--total of 17).

 I got a picture with that Bonnie girl!  Cannot wait to see her again in October for the cruise!  (By the way if you are going on that cruise, we have created a facebook group to get to know each other beforehand--please join us--Quiltville Caribbean Cruisers 2015).

Here we all are holding on to our blocks!  It was a lot of fun and the day FLEW by!

Here are 16 of my 17 completed blocks.  May play with the layout more tomorrow.  Haven't decided how I want to do them or who this one is for!  It has been the best week and I feel so blessed.

And finally, the sunset on the way home.  WOW!

Summer Day and Pineapple Blossom oh my :)

 Kathy and I got up early and tended June's estate sale this morning, too hot afternoon so it didn't take us long to close up when the people slowed to a trickle.  June sold lots of fabric to lots of happy quilters!  We came home exhausted but I rarely can nap so before long I had texted Becky and asked her to come sew!  I mostly puttered around and talked Becky's ear off but she did help me decide on some grey for Summer Day's binding so it is done and ready for the next little one.

 The back is as cute as the front, lol.  Love the variegated thread that Ros used to quilt it!

 My SoScrappy Rainbow purple pinwheels are done, but half of them didn't get trimmed before I sewed them together.  So these need trimming now and I accidently sewed one together wrong but hey they are done.

 I whipped up one more Cheddar Challenge block...two more and I can add another row to my quilt top.

 Becky whipped up a cute rendition of A is for Adaminaby that matches her Carolina Crossroads.

 I made a second binding and attached it to this Pineapple Blossom quilt which I am pretty sure will go to DJ for her birthday May 30th.  I hope she likes it.

Pineapple Blossom Blooms!

Ros has made my Pineapple Blossom quilt BLOOM!  I love it.  I am really thinking I am going to bind up this quilt and give it to DJ so she has a rainbow quilt since she doesn't have a quilt from me.  We finally talked for an hour and half yesterday (on the phone through a terp) and I feel a little more settled about things.  This transition has been so hard and I miss her so much but it is what it is and I think it will get easier with time.  Her birthday is the end of this month and she will be out of town then but maybe when she gets back I can gift it to her.  The only problem is she is not telling her new girlfriend she is talking to me so that might be tough.  But I will figure it out if need be.  I made so many quilts for DJ's family members but since she was with me I didn't give her one.  One day she plans to come and sew with me, but that may be years from now so this quilt can keep her warm in the meantime.  We will see. 

Here is a closeup of Ros' quilting.  I am so lucky to have a fantastic (and quick) longarmer!  June has talked me into buying her Megaquilter since she can't keep it...one day I will learn to do something with it, but I don't know that I even want to be able to do what Ros can do!  I plan on storing the thing until I have more space (ie someone moves out of one of the bedrooms) so I can set it up and learn how to use it. 

Sewing at June's Again

Well the plan changed last minute again and June and I wound up sewing at her place instead of heading up to Ros'. I managed to get the borders on my Bonnie Hunter Pineapple Blossom quilt. It is very colorful!

I also decided to just put all my little cheddary challenge bow ties into one quilt like this. I tried laying it out with a different layout around the blocks I had already made but didn't like it afterall.
I still have more bow ties to make and a few made for a block, but this is growing pretty good!
I brought Bug with me and as usual she had to get in the pictures every time!
On Thursday I grabbed a few leftover blocks and whipped this up following the doll quilt group's plan led by Kathy Tracey. Mine is a bit smaller but otherwise it is made. Not sure what to do with it because I think it is too small for a doll quilt. But it was a good diversion to sew it.

Pineapple Blossom and Another Huge Loss

So I went to June's and sewed to keep busy today. She and I took turns crying in between sewing this Pineapple Blossom (me) and her Orca Bay. Why I am crying you may wonder? Well DJ and I broke up on Wednesday night and she pretty much moved out on Thursday and most of her stuff and her dogs are already gone. I have a huge hole in my heart. The odds were against us from the start but she convinced me we could make it. I love her heart and soul and wish the stars would have aligned somehow so that we could have been together forever. It is so hard to lose your best friend and biggest cheerleader. I have lots of friends and will survive this loss too, I know in my head it is the right decision for both of us, but in my heart I want what we had back. Damn my heart.
Both Randy and Kathy invited me to dinner and so June and I met up with them and had Indian food which is my favorite. Really hadn't eaten for two days so it was good. We then rented two movies and came to my place to watch them. It was nice to be distracted..for me and for June...life goes on and somehow we just put one foot in front of the other and get up when we fall. I think there is lots of sewing in my future....

A Little Pink for the Pineapple Blossom :)

Made a pink block to add to the batch of blocks I had (and a red one too) and trying to decide on the layout and sashings and such.

I took this picture before I completed the last two blocks. Am thinking twelve blocks will be enough with the sashing and borders. BJ is working on one of these too so she challenged me to get out my long forgotten blocks and work on the top. Thanks BJ!
Pink Love! :)