Not Much Sewing Happening Here...

...I did bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  yum. The jar was full to the top but some *cookie* gremlins have been helping themselves!  :)

...I did make 15 skate lace bracelets. 

Note to self: I used black waxed laces, cut at 6.5 inches.  3/8 inch black elastic cut at 2.0 inches.


Not too thrilling...maybe some sewing tomorrow!

Happy US Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating!

Happy Birthday to my friend Norma!  Hope you have a FABulous Day!


birthday banner from Google image search here.

WIP Wednesday

I finished up a few *things* so far this week:

First:  I finished my pal, Norma's birthday giftie!  woohoo!  Next step is to find a box for shipping!

Second:  I made labels and sewed them onto the two QOV's that were here.  Yes! were!  FedEx was open until 9:00 pm last night so after supper, off we went to drop the QOV's.  They are on their journey to their forever homes!  I decided to try stamping on the fabric for a label.  Something a little different~not real sure that I like it.  Always fun to have lots of options for the labeling task.  :)

Third:  I machine sewed the bindings onto my Holiday Jars place mats.  That leaves the hand work that can travel.   woohoo!

Holiday Jar pattern found here.

Stash Update Week #47

I had a finish! but I also added some backing fabric.

fabric added this week:  +4 yards
fabric added this year: +233.5 yards

fabric used this week: -12.5 yards
fabric used this year:  -260.5 yards

net fabric for the year: -27 yards (used)

What I accomplished this week:

quilted and bound Bricks quilt
pieced Holiday Jars
worked on FAB Norma's birthday gift

Goals for this week:

label QOV quilts and send to Alycia
bind Holiday Jars
continue with FAB Norma's birthday gift

Holiday Jar Progress

I am making progress on my next set of placemats.

 A set of Holiday Jars filled with wonderful Holiday *things*!

Tall jar block pattern found here.

A Finish

Hot off the needle~well...this morning I took the final stitches in the binding.  Next it needs a label then will make it's way to Alycia's QOV pantry.
The front of the bricks quilt.

The pieced back. Now I only have the scraps left. 

woo-hoo!

WIP Wednesday

The Back of the Quilt~I thought this would be so much more interesting!  I dug all the strips back out and cut more 6 1/2 inch bricks.  Starting piecing to build the back to width.  Unfortunately, some same fabric landed next to each other.  :(

The popcorn quilting on the back.  This homespun was also in the Land O'Lakes bin so it is only fitting that it is the backing for this Land O'Lakes Bricks quilt.

I still need to hand sew back the binding and label...tomorrow, I hope.


This morning I was sewing on a FAB Birthday giftie.  :)

A Fun Give Away

Connecting Threads is giving away $50 gift certificates.  Hop on over to this page to find out how to enter.

I had fun dropping items in my wish list~they have some yummy fabric but I like to shop for blenders in the clearance section.  Here is my wish list.  :)

Good Luck if you enter!  and I have way more than 50 bucks on my wish list and only visited books and clearance fabric!  :)

Stash Update Week #46

I was dreading this report, put it off but here it is!  I had one finish and I won a Kate Spain 12 Days of Christmas fat quarter tower.  wowza!

fabric added this week:  +12 yards
fabric added this year:  +229.5 yards

fabric used this week:  -8 yards
fabric used this year:  -248 yards

net fabric for the year:  -10.5 yards

What I accomplished this week:

quilt and bound Minnesota Hot Dish~QOV

Goals for next week

quilt and bind Bricks~QOV
work on *secret projects*
work on next step of the Lake Country Quilt Guild mystery

Never Say Never

I was so excited when I found this bag! 

I peeked inside and there was a piece of homespun on the top...I knew I had found the leftovers from this quilt I made with the Land O'Lakes Quilt Guild fabric.  When I moved from Texas to Wisconsin about 5 years ago~I tried to return the fabric but alas, it moved with me.  I thought it would be fun to try and make something with the homespuns that I could send it off to Alycia for her QOV pantry.  Yes, crazy me, I made a rag quilt as a donation~hey it was 2005, I was still a newbie and I thought only rag quilts were made from homespuns!

I'm currently digging in the sewing room to find UFO's to finish and send to Alycia.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered the leftovers from this strippy quilt! pattern here. Teals, browns and leaves, oh my!

(DD is my quilt holder...circa 2005)

I removed the leaves, added a few of my *beauties* and made a Bricks quilt.  Most of the strips were already cut at 3.5 inches so I just further chopped them to 6.5 inch bricks.  I tried to alternate between a teal and brown/or navy.  My mind must have wondered as the zig zags are not lining up...but I do kinda like it even though I would not have chosen this color pallet.






I said that I would NEVER make a Bricks Quilt.  Well, my fiends, I learned NEVER SAY NEVER!

Let's save the story of the back for another post...my only hint is that I had to *dig out* the leaves, oh my!  :)

Happy Veteran's Day

11-11-11   Happy Veteran's Day!

THANKS to all who have served our country!   You ROCK!

 a special THANKS to all the current servicemen and women who are serving!  You ROCK!

another THANKS for all who will join the military in the future!  You ROCK!

My post recent finish~ a Quilt of Valor.  This one will be sent to Alycia to help fill her QOV pantry.  :)  I'm still digging into my UFO's for projects to finish and send along to Alycia.

pattern:  Minnesota Hot Dish by Atkinson Designs

panto: popcorn from Willow Leaf Studio

I Am Lucky!

In October, I had linked up with Kate at Swim, Bike Quilt for her 100 Quilts for Kids campaign.  I had sent 5 quilts to Margaret's Hope Chest this past fall.

I was one of the lucky winners!  A FQ bundle from Kate Spain~12 Days of Christmas.  Very Cool.  It's like 100 yards of fabric into the stash this week, right?!  lol.  Seriously, thanks to Kate and her 100 Quilts for Kids campaign and thanks to Kate Spain for such a wonderful gift!

Actually, I feel the kids that receive a quilt are the winners! :)

WIP Wednesday~Late Edition

Well~the snow arrived at Bell Creek Quilts this afternoon.  No accumulation but enough to *know* winter will be here soon!

I started sewing back the binding on the next quilt.  I'm about halfway done...then it was dinner and laundry time.  :)

Design Wall Monday

Well, after looking at my Minnesota Hot Dish on the design wall for two weeks~I decided it really wasn't working for a quilt for me.  So I sewed up a few more blocks, added an inner and outer border and ta-da!

A Quilt of Valor ready to be quilted and bound!  I am much happier with this top now. :)

Did you hear that Alycia's QOV cupboard is bare?  Both JudyL and Vicky are offering prizes for completed quilts sent to Alycia between now and the end of the year!  Judy's prizes here and Vicky's prizes here.  It was just the incentive to turn this quilt I wasn't to crazy about for me into a QOV.




Visit JudyL's Patchwork Times for more inspiration from Design Wall Monday.

Minnesota Hot Dish pattern by Atkinson Designs.

Stash Report Week #45

I did sew this week! fun!  I also added to the stash and had a few small finishes.

fabric added this week: +1.5 yards
fabric added this year: +217.5 yards

fabric used this week:  -1 yard
fabric used this year:  -241 yards

net fabric for the year:  -23.5 yards

What I accomplished this week:

*SS* binder cover
hockey binder cover
Holiday jar blocks

Goals for next week:

work on Minnesota Host Dish  pattern by Atkinson Designs
work on *Super Secret Birthday* project

Hop over to JudyL's Patchwork Times to see other bloggers' stash reports.

The Holidays are Just Around the Corner!

I wanted to make a few place mats for the upcoming Holiday season.

So I purchased +1.5 yards of Holiday fabric.

And it turned into Tall Jar quilt blocks.  Each place mat will have two jars on it.  I'm still thinking about an outer border/sashing fabric.  The choice might be as simple as *what* is in the cupboard! I'm leaning towards beige, I think.  :)  It turned out that I actually had a little Holiday stash that I also used in my jars.


Tall Jar quilt block found here.

Hockey Photo Album

I decided to separate out my quilt guilds from the Milwaukee Admirals in my binder.  So~I purchased another binder...on clearance...and made a cover.

Here it is.  No matter how many times I make these covers and *think* I have the construction down, well, something runs amok!  This one is just a tad short~top to bottom.  It's for me so I can live with it. I was very happy when the Social Studies binder cover fit better.  :)

I used the string heart tutorial from Sophie Junction, found here.  My heart is a little wonkier than Sophie's.  The *I* was free pieced a la Toni Ricucci.

WIP Wednesday

DD's friend asked if I would make her a cover for her Social Studies notebook. Her only requirement was that I use bright fabric! 

The 'SS' looks a little like '55', if you ask me.  When free piecing, I never *know* exactly *what* the letters will turn out exactly.

I used a few of the extra strips to piece the backside of the notebook.  I used black poodles on teal background for the inside...