Sunday, August 28, 2011

What a Gift!

I received the most amazing gift/prize that I won from Handmade by Alissa's Blog.  Alissa held her 2nd annual Action for Kivu Fundraiser this year.  If you have not heard of it check out her blog.  What a great cause she supports.  Anyway, I sent in a contribution and won this fabulous prize.....................
Some of you may ask why this prize is so wonderful???   I love this Erin Michael's count by number fabric.  I have been hoarding Lush for some time much like my Neptune hoarding! I have been able to get my hands on a small piece of the deer fabric but not enough for the quilt I wanted to make and now I have it...an entire yard!  This fabric is OOP and so hard to come by.  I am truly the lucky one and I got to give to a great cause in the process.  The bird fabric is fabulous too.  Not sure where that will go but it will find a home too!!       

Other activities around the sewing cave is this little jewel, Swoon by Camille Roskelly.  Love this pattern and love the Art Gallery fabrics I pulled from the stash to make the quilt.  This is one of the classes I will be teaching at Harper's this session.    I'll tell you about the others next post.  Still working on my class samples and just got my machine out of the hospital yesterday. It was a traumatic time for both of us!!

Keep on stitching!                                                                      

Sunday, August 14, 2011

WIP

You thought this was going to be about a quilty WIP?  This is the beginning of my new sewing cabinet.  My most talented husband is making this cabinet just for my machine.

About a year ago I somehow got roped, forced, dragged, talked, cajoled into buying a new sewing machine.  Oh yes it is the most fabulous thing but really I didn't want need a new machine! I had dropped my machine off at Bernina to get her cleaned and oiled.  When I went to bring her home I was given a demo of this new, fabulous, does everything but cook dinner machine and....I fell in love all over again!  I was indecisive for 15 minutes or so but I knew I was weak and was going to breakdown and take my new girl home!

Of course my new girl did not near fit into my current sewing cabinet my sister bought for me thirty years ago. My machine now sits on top and I sew up high!  It is going to be wonderful to be able to have my machine at table height again.

He has a ways to go but how wonderful of him to feed into my passion for sewing.  I love my cabinet but I love him for making it for me even more!!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Soooo Many Projects

It was a busy weekend, my attention span is a nanosecond!  I finished up my quilt for DQS 11,

A little spiderweb quilt.  Fun to make and I am pleased with the look.  Those bulky seems were special!  I would change a few things to improve upon that problem.....next time.  I added a few spiders just for a little color and fun.  I need to add a label and then ready for mailing around mid month.

I have a couple of Seeing Squares small quilts in progress.  One will go to a little boy in Germany for Christmas, one is just for fun.

I have another small quilt I need to get busy on which is a gift.  I am part of the For the Love of Solids swap.  I have the fabrics selected and the pattern too so need to get busy.


I tried this block as an experiment.  There is a bit of waste with this one, but how good is this going to be made out of Neptune?  I think I will love it so much.


Last but not least I am quilting along with McIntyre Girl in a Garden Fence QAL on Flickr.  This one will be a Christmas gift for a little red headed boy who I love so much.
It is good to have my sewing energy back.  I don't know where it went for awhile!

Monday, August 1, 2011

It's Monday Again!

Where did my weekend go???  Seems like Friday finally comes and then I blink and it is Monday again.  It was a great weekend.  Went shopping with my niece for Back-To-School for my girl "Greats".  One 5 and it will be her first year in "Big Girl" school, and then one who is 4 and it is her first year in Pre-School.  So much fun.  What beautiful little girls they are.  While shopping we ran in to the boy "Greats".  All such great kids, I am truly blessed by them.

I got a little sewing done.  These blocks are work intensive
but I love how it turned out.

I learned a few things, as I always do.  The number of layers of fabric in the center of these blocks is
 far, far too many.  Think I will leave the last strip off the last 1/4 inch of the foundation and save that layer.  I love the way it turned out.  Really cute I think.  It is ready to quilt so I had best get to it.  It is for my partner in the DQS 11 swap.  Has to go into the mail mid August.  I have plenty of time.
I will then get busy on my "For the Love of Solids" swap.  Then I am swap done for this year,  I have several plans for gifts so I need to focus!

Speaking of swaps, if you ever join one please be involved.  It is so much more fun if you are.  I have had notoriously quiet partners in most of my swaps so far.  Everyone is busy, I understand, but really, don't join unless you plan to participate.  It is so much more rewarding for both of you if you do!

Happy Monday everyone!  Hope your week goes well.