Terrific Tuesday :)

 I attempted to figure out how to sew up drawstring bags for our charity challenge...the first one was a bit small and then I decided to just make a bag for my nephew for Christmas by adapting the pattern.  Umm, gotta get back to the bags soon!

 I spent several hours tonight working on Picnic from Scrap Basket Sensations.  When it is done it will be 8 by 10 blockwise, so I am over half way there now!  The blocks aren't sewn yet because I am arranging them and rearranging them as I get more made.  I wanted to sew some modern because I mostly have been working on Bonnie stuff (and have several in progress) and wanted to get to something different.  This one has been cut for about nine months...patiently waiting for me to get to it!  I finally have a system down for sewing the blocks but no matter what I do they are a bit wonky and I just trim them down til they look good (supposed to be 6.5 inches, but mine are 6.25 and look fine to me).

Kathy has a killer cold and hasn't been feeling well since she was in Mass.  However, she managed to sew up clue four of Easy Street and now just needs to cut the squares to add to her tote.  

I am looking forward to getting the rest of these blocks done for Picnic tomorrow...then it is either back to Tobacco Road windmills or drawstring bags...or maybe a pillowcase or two?  Hope you too had a terrific Tuesday!

A Christmas Win!!!

I was just cleaning out my inbox and just ran across an email from Darlene at http://quiltingdaze.blogspot.com/2012/10/3-in-row-done.html telling me that I won this awesome tablerunner.  I love this fabric, I love the houses, I am so excited and can't believe I won it.  Hopefully in the past ten days it wasn't offered up to anyone else while I was snoozing...doing the happy dance here!

This prize is from Christmas Through the Year...I am really enjoying making gifts all year long and know when I dig it all out (soon) I will see half of my list is done!  

In other news...I worked a few hours today, ran some errands, cleaned house, wrote a test and an answer key, and made a double batch of pumpkin bread and did a ton of dishes too.  Now cleaning the inbox (got sidetracked into blogging) and then I may get to sewing...or I may go wrap some birthday gifts...two nephews have a birthday party on Sunday.

Becky is coming to sew tomorrow...maybe Lauren too if she will brave the traffic!

Terrific Mail Day!

 Guess what came in the mail today?  This fabulous ghastlies bag and a few other goodies from Sandy over at http://sandysshowtellquilts.blogspot.com/ !!!  Thank you Sandy I love it and am already schlepping it around!  It made my day--which needed some making.  Thank you!

 And I added another wine gift bag to my Christmas Through the Year stuff for this month.  This one is in leftover Christmas fabric that matches my Mom and Dad's quilt and tablerunner.  So I have to pick something out to put in the bag for them.

 Pictures of both sides of the bag.

Now I am off to my terp job's work meeting.  Then no more meetings, school/work just starts!  Here's to Friday!

Christmas Through the Year Sewn Up with Bonnie!

 Since Bonnie was on the webcam again (and even answered my question and commented on my comment) sewing I thought I better get up and sew a bit too.  So for Christmas Through the Year I filled 5 pounds of rice in this little sleeve type thing and now someone will have a nice hot pack.  I made two more smaller ones, but was out of rice, lol!

 Bonnie mentioned the possibility that this Spoolin' Around block will be her next Leader Ender project--she is SO on the same page as me, I have been collecting spool patterns and really want to do a project with them.  There are some really cool patterns out there, these little ones would make a good wall hanging for my sewing room though!

Next up I sewed two wine bags out of leftover fabric "Wildflower" from the last Schnibbles, Dimestore.  I found the pattern on Moda Bake Shop here.

 http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/02/charming-wine-gift-bags.html

So a few more gifts made, and I will be making more of both of these items.  Really easy!

I also updated my UFO's so that I could marvel at the progress I have made this past year with Judy's challenge!  http://moderndiary.blogspot.com/p/ufos.html if you want to see how it is coming along!

Saturday in the Sewing Room!

 I sewed A LOT today.  I have been watching "Downton Abbey" on Hulu and just sewing away.  First I put together the Anita's Arrowhead blocks I already had done...thought this would help motivate me to complete the remaining blocks.  Then I made two surgical caps for my brother Sam.  These are my Christmas Through the Year project for July.  The first one is Diamondbacks fabric.

 The second one is Packer fabric.  He already has a Packer one, but one can never have too many Packer caps!

 I also sewed another row of blocks (plus two) and added the row.  Two rows to go, but I think I am short a few blocks so may be one more row on this one.  We shall see.

 Randy came home from work and we took a quick break and went out (after a major downpour yay!) and hit the thrift stores.  For fifty cents I got this fabric and I already cut them for bow ties and made another block with most of them.  I also got lots of yarn for Megan since she is a knitting fool, like me!

Sunday Sewing :)

 For my Christmas all year long challenge I sewed a set of Christmas Tree napkins today.  Not sure who will wind up with them, but glad to have one more gift made and stashed away.  I also made more cheddar bow ties.

 Then just for fun I whipped up a few blocks of Anita's Arrowhead.  I have to say I am absolutely smitten with the ease of making this block...love things that look more complicated than they are.

 This is going to be a gorgeous Christmas quilt and not sure I am going to be able to part with it, lol!

 Still have more pinned and ready to go, but the sewn and waiting to be cut stack is growing.  I am listening to this audiobook Randy gave me.

 Also made it outside to take pictures of Leap Year.  I have extra blocks and am not sure that I will add them to this top or make their own little top.

Doc Schnibbles Flimsy and Christmas Through the Year for May

Doc Schnibbles for Rachel Clark's baby in Norway

I finished up the borders and got them on Doc Schnibbles!  I also made a backing so it is all set for quilting next time I see Ros.  Randy took one look at this one and told me this one should go to his daughter in Norway who is pregnant with her first baby.  She is my honorary daughter so this baby will be my honorary grandbaby right?  I know Rachel will love it, this Schnibbles is a bit bigger than most of the ones I have done and will be perfect for a little one.  I love, love, love how it turned out!

I decided for Christmas Through the Year I would show you the stack of dishrags (and one Tribble) that I have been working on.  I am almost always working on one and they make great gifts so I will continue to add to my stack all year but this is May's project since May has almost gotten away from me and I need to get some work in on my sister's Crown quilt this weekend! 

Today would have been a year and half for DJ and I.  Seriously have good days and bad days but mostly I miss her.  She is someone I don't know now and really isn't even texting to me much less signing to me, breaks my heart and I don't understand.  Best I can figure she is mad I got back with Kathy.  How do people leave their partners and then blame it all on that same partner?  I have let the past go and am ready to focus on the future, but I am used to being friends with my exes and am taking losing her one hundred percent really hard.  It has been almost two months and while I am doing better than I was I still am heartbroken.  Life should not be so hard.  Sigh.

Tomorrow Kathy and I will be going to June's apartment again and will work on organizing her sewing room some more.  She is settling in but likes the company and enjoys me lighting a fire under her butt, I think anyway!  

Burp Cloths for Christmas Through the Year

I finally did my Christmas Through the Year project today!  I made six burp cloths following KJ's tutorial over at http://buttercreamsewingmachine.blogspot.com/2012/03/tutorial-quick-easy-burp-cloths.html !  They whipped up quickly and look great.  Now I have a few gifts for little ones on hand for Christmas!  

Here is my new t-shirt, it says Bonnie's #1 fan on the back! Can't wait to wear it. I sewed another bag today...so that is four for Christmas Through the Year and I have two more done already. Love it!

Decided to add a border to the Lil' Twister...so I took the leftover bits and added a border to it, cut out the squares and sewed it together. I should have added the border in the first place, I don't recommend this method, lol!

I still love how each of these turns out. Just so cute! I am sure this one will be a Christmas gift for someone, I will add it to be to be quilted list.
I had a relaxing weekend and feel like I didn't really do much of anything, but I suspect I needed that. Christine and I presented our workshop last Friday "Math: Factoring Out the Confusion" and we got great written and verbal feedback! We are happy with how it went and planning to do it again.

Christmas Throughout the Year for March

Hunted through my stuff to come up with an idea of what to make for Christmas Through the Year and decided to go with the "Simple Bag" from one of my books. I have made lots of these bags and always get hung up on how to do the last step. I confuse it with a bag that gets turned out through the lining. This time I made a note on my pattern to help me remember this one isn't like that and to stop overthinking it! Randy and DJ and I each had a bag and were trying every possible combination to flip it out when there was nowhere to flip it through...eventually the brain kicked in and I remembered how to do it. I read the directions eight times aloud and in sign and STILL!! LOL, but three bags are made and if I am in the mood I may try to do a few more. These work well for gifts stuffed with color books, crayons, or whatever we pick up. DJ's nieces and nephews don't have them and there are nine of them so I may be making six more!
So I still need to tie the Eye Spy Two quilt...I did get the backing (put corduroy on it and no batting) on it and the edge stitching done a few days ago, but that is all the progress on that UFO. Other than that the only other thing I *have to* sew this month is Civil War Baskets Quilt for my doll quilt group. I think that one will be fun so I saved it for last.

Christmas Throughout the Year and More

I made a bunch of simple Kleenex holders for Christmas gifts today. Loving Christmas throughout the year. I am a planner anyway but it is nice to just take a few hours each month to make something and build my stockpile!

Here is our new addition. Lucy kitty. She came with her name and not sure we will change it. So far she has met all five of our dogs (and she wasn't thrilled) and then has spent the day chilling upstairs with us and Bug the chihuahua. In another hour or two we will try letting the boxers up (as they are usually with us) and see how it goes. Really four of the dogs aren't too interested, but the number of them is daunting for any cat. This cat was a rescue cat and was being catsitted by Kathy's nephew Buck. The owners never came to get him and refused to answer their phone. So Buck let them know he was relocating her. I have really been missing not having a cat. Our Jade learned how to use the dog door and stopped coming in the house. We haven't seen her in months. She was a really good cat but we just couldn't keep her in the house. I am hoping she is still around but she prefers the great outdoors to being in the house with the dogs! This cat doesn't like the outdoors and hopefully will not learn how to use the dog door.
I sewed up the other red Jack in the Box block since I decided I need two each month.
Here are the first three blocks together. I also finally put borders on Auntie's Anvil. I have lots of little quilts to get quilted!
I also spent some time piecing a backing for Orca Bay today but didn't take a picture. It is huge. It has two hunks of fabric that I was glad to get rid of and all of the fat quarters that were of a larger print that would not work too well in my quilts. Not sure it all looks great together but once it is quilted I suspect it will be fine! It is all loaded up to go to Ros' hopefully next Saturday for the Huggy Bunch!

A Little of This...A Little of That!

Randy gave me this audiobook for Christmas so I have been listening to it while I sew (un

less DJ is hanging with me and then we were watching Firefly). The story is alright but not great. Good thing Randy doesn't read my blog, lol.

I started out by finishing up the Mourning Crosses quilts. I wanted to get three made for sure and I accomplished that! They all need the last outer border which I ordered from Thousands of Bolts last night. Can't wait to see how it looks on these! For the second and third quilts I put my Dad's shirts in a cross pattern...second block in the tow and bottom row and the first and third block in the middle row.

So that is what three of them look like so far. I can't wait to finish them up and send them out.

Made and attached a border to Lil' Twister Valentine too. And I cut and made my bow tie blocks with my Dad's shirt fabric too! The golf block and the plaid next to it are really from the quilt I made him...the leftovers pieces of fabric I had from that. But all of it reminds me of Dad.

While digging around in the flannel bin I again came across a bunch of these blocks sewn into long rows by the kids (about ten years ago) and decided to pull some apart and turn it into a doggy size quilt. No sense in it sitting in the bin any longer.

And decided to jump on one more bandwagon...Christmas Through the Year. This is the first thing I made for it. Two dolly buntings (I made about four or five of these and gifted them last year, so here are two more for this year!) are ready for Christmas. Feels good to get a jump on it! I just hope I can keep it up each month!
Back to work tomorrow, but a little bit of this and a little bit of that meant A LOT got done today!