May Catch Up!

Way behind on my blogging!  I did finish the green May blocks (Straits of Mackinac) for the Rainbow Block of the Month!  Looking forward to the next color.  I skipped the "rainbow" choice for last month so I need to pick a color Angela is not going to pick to replace it.  One of these days!

Barb quilted this beauty for me!  This is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge from 2014!  I did not include the sashings as Angela did, but I am super happy with it.  This will be for my cousin Linc and his new wife Christin's wedding gift in June.  

I also finally managed to get the center and the first border on my Betty's Choice and Amy exchange blocks!  I am working on a piano key border in all the colors for this one.  

I completed the 35th Ave. BOM for May.  Here they all are.

This is the All People Quilt UFO choice from my list this month.  I got these blocks somewhere (guild maybe) and they were mostly done.  I am not an applique person (love it but not to do myself!) so I am super happy with my quilting around all the leaf parts so hold it all down.  I think this will be for my mom for her birthday in August.

Barb gave me these cool embroidered frogs playing baseball.  Linc's older brother Luke and his wife Ashley are having their first little one, a boy and Luke LOVES baseball so I made this one to send back for him.

I am also sending  back Danny's braid for Luke and Ashley's wedding quilt (I never sent one!).  Luke and Linc's sister Crystal had a little girl so am sending London the pastel paisley quilt  made awhile back.  Not to be outdone, my other cousin Ashley had baby number three (another boy) named Knoxton a few days ago so I am sending him the nine patch and snowballs quilt.  I think that catches me up on all the gifts!

I won a blog drawing over at Stash Bandit!  This is all the loot I got!  Diane sent me two magazines with her own patterns in them.  I love the windmills in different sizes and may have to make at least one!  Thanks!

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!

Still Crushin on the Orange!

 This week I sewed red and black hst's every chance I got so that I would get clue four done on Orange Crush.  It worked out well because part way through the week I was working on the blocks!

 Jill and I went for our hike on Thursday at South Mountain.  We are posing at the stone house.  Kathy went with but hiked on her own and did about half as long.  She found out she doesn't have shingles but still is having a lot of pain in back and down her arm.

 A few weeks ago Lori over at Humble Quilts had a giveway for some stencils (this is her picture with the winnings since mine didn't turn out so you could see them) from Cindy over at The Stencil Company and I won!  I found out about this just as I was coming home from the hospital which made my day better at a time I really needed it!  Thanks Lori and Cindy!  I am really looking forward to trying these out.  Most likely I will be trying them on a small quilt or two that I will machine quilt.  Normally I hate machine quilting, but I am kind of excited to try it with a template that should make things look better!  I will be sharing when I am done.

Today I worked an early job and my regular gig, then I went to Pilates before heading home and hitting Orange Crush hard again.  I completed the blocks and got them all pressed.  

 I also started clue five by cutting all the orange squares.  Blue to go and then the next block starts coming together...though as I type this I think I realize I skipped making half blocks (or I need to do half blocks this clue?  I think that is it) I will be double checking that this weekend!  Sometimes my cart gets ahead of my horse!

Tomorrow is a typical crazy day and there won't be much sewing.  Jump Pilates in the morning, hiking with Suli in the afternoon and then Colton's 2nd birthday party.  Gonna be a fun, crazy day! Hopefully I can sew in the evening.  Hope there is sewing time in your weekend.

Oh for news on the weight--I think I mentioned that after my surgery I had gained 5.2 pounds (due to IV, etc.) which freaked me out.  Why is it so hard to lose and so easy to gain?  Anyway this week I lose 11 (yes ELEVEN) pounds since all the water weight flushed out and I lost.  Such a relief, I gotta tell ya!  So my total now is 88.2 pounds and I got my third ten percent of total body weight loss too.  I still have plenty to go, but I am more sure everyday that I am gonna get there!  :)

A Prize, A QOV for Papa and Other Goodies!

Sassafras Lane Designs has sent me Quiltmaker's 100 blocks Volume 10!  I am a winner!  I am so excited to get this magazine, I really like the Sassafras Lane block "Glee" it is so modern and of course I also love Bonnie Hunter's block, "Something Blue" and several of the others I saw while hopping around the blogs!

 Picture From Quiltville.com

 I decided to take a picture of my magnets from Zazzle.com (ForestJane) and realized when I put them in order that I am missing #3 Tobacco Road!  I have all of them in pins, but somehow missed getting that magnet.  It will be on my next order.  I love this stuff, time to order a new T-shirt with Bonnie's #1 fan on the back too--I need to go down a size! :)

 I put my mother's father (Papa DeLos Walker) in for a Quilt of Valor.  He is a world war two vet--was in the Navy.  He is in a nursing home now and this past weekend Karen delivered this fabulous QOV to him.  He loves it and I am so happy he got it!  I am so glad for this organization and am pleased to make a quilt or two each year to donate to this worthy cause.

  I am astonished at how some folks make lots of quilts for this or really intricate patterns that are time consuming--for instance Kevin the Quilter is making Grand Illusion as a QOV. My hat is off to him! If you are so inclined you can check out how Kevin changed up the fabrics to QOV colors and see his finished clue one! He and I are considering doing a second Grand Illusion half sized--I know, I am missing my mind somewhere! I want to do one in Packer Colors for my brother, I think!

Kathy let me open up an early Christmas gift...she got some of the fabric from my wish list!  It was from Green Fairy Quilts on Etsy.  I love their shop! 

1. So should I start making more hst's for a second half size Grand Illusion?  Or just sit tight til Friday when clue two comes out?

Relaxing Day Off--Sewing, Dinner Out and a Fab Mail Day!

 I did a little sewing today--I decided to make my Home Sweet Home block into a pillow.  It is all sewn up (front above, back below) and is waiting for me to stuff it and sew it closed.

 Kathy and I went out for our annual birthday dinner at Benihana's.  We get a coupon for free food but they changed the rules and you must order a paid entree with the coupon (for the past two years we have had a free dinner since we have a birthday in the same week) so we had to order extra food (which could not be to go) and then box it up to take home to Coleman!  I did not overeat, I tasted it all and ate til I was full!  I did eat the ice cream for dessert though--we did not do cakes for our birthdays this year and we couldn't very well take ice cream home here in Arizona!  It was good and worth it!  I did come home and worked out for an hour and then went for a walk with the dogs (and Kathy) so I am fine with all that!  We weigh tomorrow but it will be a new week after that!

I also had a great mail day today!  I was a winner over at Taffy Talk's blog!  I won a charm pack of Elementary by Moda.  It is really a cute line and I cannot wait to figure out what to make with it!

 If you are not a regular shopper of Quilt Taffy's Etsy Shop you should check it out or at least stop over at the blog every Thursday for the generous giveaways Corrie has!  Thanks Corrie, you made my day!

Everything but Sewing!

My Mom and Dad moved again (I know, right)!  They bought a gorgeous house about a mile from the last one. This one still needs a pool, but otherwise it is perfect for them.

Mom has already unpacked and moved in, doesn't take us long...pictures are hung and most boxes are already unpacked!

I love the kitchen, especially their fridge!  Kathy put in a new icemaker for them (thanks Youtube) and they were overjoyed.  Whenever we go visit (they are about an hour from us) they have a list of things for Kathy to fix! 

This house will be great for our next Christmas--much more space than the previous house which was large, but the living room set up wasn't great and had actual seating for about four. 

Even the front door is gorgeous.  Papa DeLos' boat is hanging--this boat used to live above my grandparents' fireplace in Eau Claire and now it is happily at home here. 

The living room and kitchen are on the other side of the doorway and wall.  There are bedrooms off a hallway off the kitchen and the master is on the other side of this room, the other way with TWO huge walk in closets.  Dad is happy he finally has a closet in his bedroom! 

I didn't take pictures of the bedrooms and offices yet since they aren't all situated yet.  They took us out to dinner at Olive Garden (soup, salad and sangria for me!) as a thank you for all we did to help them move. 

Kathy won me a few t shirts from Just My Size...yay, I have a few old ones I can toss and replace with these! 

Not the best picture, but we stopped off at SAS for a few good fabric finds!  Only spent 20 bucks and got all this!  Really fun stuff!

Purple Passion Saturday!

 I spent much of yesterday and today's sewing time cut PURPLE bricks for my lozenge leader/ender challenge and then sewing some of them.  I am about caught up to the point where I can go back to doing them as leaders and enders!  I now have 167 I believe.

 Many--if not most of these purples are from the fabulous fabric thrift sale I went to a few weeks ago.  A few were mine, but lots and lots of the fabrics in this quilt are going to be from those findings.  Kathy and I watched "Fruitvale Station" last night and some Titanic themed things today.  If you have not seen Fruitvale, it was an excellent movie.  Sadly it is based on a true story but really has a message for us.

 We have also decided we are going to plant a herb garden this year....we ordered the stuff and are still waiting on part of the kit to arrive before we can do the actual planting.  Meanwhile, I have been reading this book and have marked off the pages for the herbs we are going to grow.  I am doing better with remembering to water my succulents too...when summer really gets going here in Arizona, all these things are coming in the house!  I may wind up putting them in the window of the Packer room until I get my dream window in the kitchen...so I will have room for herbs there.

My sewing friend Stella (who was in the PHXMQG but moved away) thought of me when she found this gnome fabric--so she sent it to me.  How sweet is that, it made my day...random acts of kindness rock!
My parents are moving again---hopefully buying a house in Cave Creek (they have a counteroffer to the counteroffer in right now) so tomorrow we are heading up to help them pack again.  Are you counting how often them move?  I went to nineteen schools before graduating high school and then since I was married to a military man I moved tons after that too...the longest I have ever lived anywhere is about five years...this house is about to break the record on the last house I lived in on Lake Wissota which was about five years.  Anyway, since we have been here (five years in June) my parents have moved six times--or is this move seven?  My siblings and I are SO over it but my mom loves to decorate and I swear she thinks it is easier to move than to Spring clean--especially when we help her!
Oh, lost 1.6 pounds this week--so I am just over 20.  Kathy lost 6.2!  Her total is around 19...whoot whoot!  Still getting in my exercise daily!