Hold on to Your Hat, I Sewed Again!

 Last weekend I whipped up two pillowcases for Coleman.  He took his with him and when he returned a week ago (he left his wife--long story but for the best) he brought almost nothing back with him.  I had some twin sheets and we got him a new twin bed, but the pillowcases mysteriously disappeared so made him some fun ones. 

 I had kitted up a few cats a long time ago for Christmas gifts for my daughter and my son Mac's fiance.  Pattern is from Lori Holt.  So I finally worked on them last weekend and then finished them up today.

 Kathy finally finished up Grand Illusion which was Coleman's wedding quilt...it never was sent to Wisconsin since it was not done.  Kathy put the last of the binding on it right after Coleman got back here so now he has a new divorce quilt.

 Last weekend I spent a few hours tracing out and attaching the scalloped binding for Allietare.  I had to do quite a bit of easing since I neglected to do the binding out of the bias.  Oops.  It may be the last scalloped binding I attempt!  Today I tried to machine bind the top half but had to rip out the two short sections I tried.  I then decided to hand bind it though on the front.  I did one long side today and have made a goal of doing one side per week so this will be done long before the next mystery starts!

Bonnie announced the next leader/ender challenge--Hourglasses.  I was not sure that I really wanted to jump onboard with a new project because I have plenty of wips to work on, however I saw these cute placemats and thought I should at least make a set of four or six.  So I will be prepping for the leaders and enders soon!
Packers won today (and so did the Patriots) so we are happy here. 

Making Tracks to Guild and Talkin' Turkey and More!

 I am keeping up with the Temecula Quilt Company's "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"  I love sneaking in sewing during the week!  My job this morning ended two hours early and I had that time free to come home and sew before heading to my regular gig.

At work I finished hand binding my President's Challenge quilt for Nimble Thimbles.  Our current president is Suzy and she gave us the solid red fabric (Kona cotton Lipstick) and two little thimbles (one for front and one for the label) and said it was to be a mini about "what Nimble Thimbles means to me" and to bind it in black.  We will share our quilts tomorrow night at the Holiday Party and then we can enter them in the show together.  I have not ever tried to do any of this before and with the hectic past few months I have had, I am impressed that I have it done!  My friend Fran offered to quit it for me because I was afraid I would ruin it.  She did a great job and I owe her one!

 Tonight after doing my elliptical (still eating right and exercising--just not really going anywhere lately but not giving up!) I snuck in more sewing time while watching "The Wiz" and here are all my sashings and bindings for Talkin' Turkey.  Bit by bit this one is getting closer to a top.

Kathy is SEW happy she is finally done with Grand illusion so we can get this quilted for Coleman and Chelsea's wedding quilt.  She is now happily sewing away on clue one of Allietare!

Last night I prepped up a new hand project--Bonnie's "A Little Bit Hexie" looked like so much fun and I just decided to do it!

I am looking forward to stitching this up when I have time away from home!

In My Happy Place!

Last weekend I didn't get to blog about Sunday's sewing.  My new tiny laptop/tablet would not post pictures to Blogger.  Today I decided to try downloading Chrome and see if that worked.  It did!

 There is lots of ORANGE going on in this post.  I finished up the binding on Orange Crush which I am keeping for myself, Ros did a fab job on the quilting and the embroidered label.  LOVE IT!.

Finally got the rows together on Colton's Eye Spy quilt.  I may add some borders and get this done so I can pass it on to him.

 Last Tuesday was our Nimble Thimbles guild meeting.  Here are all of the batik blocks everyone did for our last block party for this year.  I really enjoyed that program and am happy I won once!

 We also played Quilto.  I brought in buttons and won three times!

 Not the best picture, but here are my winnings!  Really tickled with the book!

 Today I did the Quiltmaker Bitty Blocks in orange for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge,

 Here are all the blocks so far.  Really fun to make these tiny ones.

 Kathy is making progress on her Grand Illusion too.

 I made another orange Talkin' Turkey blok (and accidentally put peach flying geese on it.  I have two peach blocks to make and a bunch of orange points  UGH!  Looks fine on this block as far as I am concerned.  I may just cut more peach.

 Here are all of the blocks so far.  Half way done since the goal is 24.  This one is the UFO challenge my guild gave me so I have to make some progress on it each month.  I want to do Bonnie's cool border and have not figured out how I will do that with the rainbow yet so I need to get going on it!

 And since I was on a roll, I made two Betty's Choice blocks in orange.  One for me and one for Amy!  Didn't take a picture with all of them this month though.  Linking up with SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

In other news today we ran all over...Pilates, pedi, haircut, shopping, etc.  I am at 101 pounds down now and we are getting up early tomorrow to go hiking because the temp is supposed to be lower than usual for this time of year.  After that up to my brother's place for a pool party.  Glad I got some sewing in today!

Mother's Day Weekend!

 Yesterday after Pilates we ran over to a fabric estate sale that my former student (now friend) Kim told me about.  I really didn't need to go nuts, so I kept my eye out for some reds for my Lil' Crumbler quilt I am cutting out.  I also could not resist the cute nuetrals and a few of the other fat quarters.  They were only a buck apiece!  I was OVER THE MOON when I found four inch squares of various fabrics in several plastic bags (four sets) for eye spy quilts.  What a find.  Of course the ones I had cut out were either smaller or bigger than that, but I was getting low and decided to just do some that size and cut up extras that I had to fit, etc.

 My stack of red fabric is growing!  We also stopped at Schnepf farms to hand pick peaches since we were way out that way.  It was a gorgeous day to walk out into the orchard and the peaches are organic.  We didn't hang out for the peach fest or whatever was going on because we had tons of cleaning and prepping for Mother's Day with the family at our place.

 Kathy was so happy this weekend to finish up clue five and get started on clue six of Grand Illusion.  Hers are the same colors as Bonnie's and it looks fantastic!

 Here is the eye spy with all of her fabrics and a bunch of mine too.  I am still working on the hexie one...did a few more rows, but I couldn't lay it out to decide the order to sew the rows because the dogs were all comfy in here..so I moved on to this for the night last night.

 Here I am with my mom and (step) dad.  Mom got her hair cut short because she liked how mine looked.  How fun is that?

 Kathy got me a new Lemon tree to replace the one that froze.  The leaves are turning yellow..the guy said it could be from the shock of transplanting it, or it could mean it needs iron.  So we are watching it a few more days then adding iron.  Gonna read up on lemon trees--I want this one to live!  Our other trees are getting huge.

 This year, mom and dad brought me this cool plant.  I have never seen one spray painted like this...really makes it cool.  Hope the plant doesn't mind it.  I may plant it out with the gnomes.  My windowsill is full of plants now!

 Mackenzie and Liz sent Kathy and I this Rose of Jericho.  Apparently it will open up when there is moisture present and close up when there isn't.  Interesting, learned something new and it is so Mac!

This is the third year I have bought a plant for the mom's in our family and this year I just went with a pretty purple flower.  

I didn't have the best eating day (egg brunch, ice cream cake for Dad's bday and Indian for dinner...oy!) but I did work out for 30 minutes on the elliptical.  Lost 1.4 this past week so I am at 90.8 down!

Traditions, Illusions, Eye Spys and More!

 Ros quilted up the Traditions (35th Ave. BOM) quilts for my great aunts.  One for Sally and one for Jean Ann.  They are my beloved Grandma Char's sisters who are still living.  I cannot wait to get these bound and sent off to them in Wisconsin!

 Ros quilted them differently, so here you can see the backs.  Beautiful!

 I finally did another panel on the herringbone and put them all togehter.  I didn't quite get the pattern right--there was wine involved!  Oh well, it is together and will wind up on the couch and the dogs will spend the most time with it!  It was fun to do but not sure I would do another.  The panels stretch and it just was more frustrating than I like!

 I also finally tied this Eye Spy which has been waiting patiently forever!  I got it all bound in leftover dog bone binding (with a titch of polka dots to make it fit) and Rosey and Joe like it!

 Kathy finished her Grand Illusion Clue two tonight!  YAY!  She is really happy to have that in the rear window!

 I met Jill and we went for a hike today.  My knee still not up to snuff, but I NEEDED to get out there.  I brought my stick with me and we did two miles!  Kathy (who has shingles as of Tues. night) stayed home sick.

I managed to lose a pound this week (after a gain of .8 last week) despite barely working out or even walking.  I am at 81.4 I think it is...Kathy lost 6.5 because she was sick this week and her total is about 71. something now.  She will soon get her new bike.  

Oh Such Grand Illusions...

I had some Grand Illusions that I would finish this flimsy this weekend, but um...no not quite!  Lots of other things taking my time!

 My friend Barb alerted me to an EARLY Saturday morning estate fabric sale...so since Kathy had a long work day (and I had a short one to make up for all the vacation I had when the kids were here) I got up and went and spent 69 bucks and got all this!  Lots of books, Thangles, tons of awesome quilt shop quality fabric.  I then spent several hours putting it all away...happily it all found a home!  I got an entire stack of Halloween fabric which is great because I am making Happy Scrappy Houses in Halloween fabrics.  I also got dimples in tons of colors!

 Late that night Kathy and I cut twenty houses so we are prepped for this Thurday's workshop.  Time does fly!  I also finally got the sashings on a Grand Illusion block!

 I worked steadily on Grand Illusion every chance I got this weekend.  We did take a break to hike South Mountain this afternoon.

 I also dropped by Barb's and got to see my Floribunda on the longarm.  It is done now and she is moving on to the Scrappy Bargello quilt and then Lozenges.

 First row!

 Growing...

 Got a little too confident on the borders...there was some ripping on the set on the right!  I put the greys together and thought I could do no wrong, HA!

 Got the first border on.  One of the second borders is on (lopped off the part that didn't fit, I am over it!) and the other borders are made but I cannot add them tonight...I am D-U-N done!

Looking forward to getting this top done before Thursday when I can show it to Bonnie!!!  I also got some crazy news that I got into the Saturday workshop too.  (So now I have to prep for Pineapple Blossom, eek!)  And best of all my sewing friend Laura is going that day so we will ride together (two hours) and have a sew day!  I am working like mad Monday-Wednesday since I am off until next Monday.  Tomorrow is gonna be a long one!  I will be linking up with Bonnie at Quiltville tomorrow!  Go see what everyone's Grand Illusion looks like!

Kathy did get some sewing in too..she is working on clue two and seems to really be enjoying the process!  Also linking up with Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday!