Who needs sleep? ... (or "Who put this sand in my eyes?!!"

Okay, so it was almost an all-nighter, but I got it done. And all washed/dried and crinkled! I love it.



This is for Jamie who is embarking on a new adventure, newly wed, moving the whole way across the country to join her soldier-boy husband in Washington, and expecting a first baby. Would "Angels to watch over me" be an appropriate name for this quilt?



And the icing on the cake is that at 12:45 a.m. I was stirring up potato salad to take in for her pot luck luncheon! Man, this is going to be a lllloooonng day!

Westward bound!

My Doll Quilt Swap is finally going in the mail.
The quilt has been done for weeks ...
THIS is the procrastinator in me!
I wanted to mail it as soon as it was done,
but was told I needed to wait.
Then it got put aside and now it's
Crunch time...
So westward ho we go!

Sunday - Funday !!

About six weeks ago my sister-in-law asked me if I'd be interested in joining her at a class given by a local quilt shop called the "Mini bow-tucks" purse and I said sure I would. Then I sort of forgot about it.



A couple of weeks ago she reminded me. I happened to have an afternoon off so I ran over to said quilt shop (about twenty miles from where I work, so forty miles from where I live) and registered for the class and picked up my materials. This is a picture of Peggy focusing on that perfect 1/4 inch seam allowance! ( hmmm ... I didn't notice that lady behind her had a tattoo around her ankle!)



We didn't get the project done there as planned, but most of it. And the instructor quickly walked us through the final stages of construction so we could finish putting it together at home. I knew if I didn't do it right away, who knows when it would get done. So ... here it is !!



Pockets the whole way around inside, fully lined, I'm quite impressed with myself. Vera Bradley, I may just be giving you a rest!

Awesome Yard Sales!

The annual East Berlin community yard sale was held yesterday. The weather was more what you'd expect for July, not late April, so it was a great experience. I found a number of very nice things for Rhonda and Rick's baby (only six more weeks, folks!)



The white with yellow polka dot one piece footed sleeper was brand new w/tags still attached. $1.00 !!! The others are very nice, like new, green seemed to be the trendy color.



This little three piece set with the velour jacket and pants should be perfect for this winter. It's like new as well. And she loves Classic Pooh, so the bib was a must! The little jeans are OshKosh and baby Guess ... a steal for a dollar each.



The two lighter colored sets both have frog designs, another fav of my daughters. More Pooh, overalls this time. These are all 6-9 months, so again, I'm thinking this winter. The dark one piece outfit is kind of a sweatshirt material, very soft and comfy. I loved these for my kids. (Wasn't that just a really short time ago? How can I be buying these for my GRANDSON?!!)



There were tons of baby things there. Sadly enough, 90% of it was stained. Sometimes you had to look twice to see it, depending on if you were standing in the shade. I just won't buy something stained. Chances are it won't come out because it's already been set by the clothes dryer. All the things I bought are in perfect condition.



And the best part is ... it all fit into one flat rate box, so it's on it's way to Washington!!

Victory Dance! ... I did it ... I did it ... uh-huh ... I did it!

All right, not to appear boastful or anything, but I love this quilt! I hope Betsy likes it. It's hard to know how someone who can afford to buy anything or any service that they desire will respond to a handmade gift. This is the largest thing I've free motioned quilted yet and it was a challenge. My kids are wanting quilts for their beds, one would be a twin and one a full, but I'm up for the task!



One of these days I'll make something and actually keep it for myself! What a novel idea ...

Hancock's Rocks!

I recently ordered this fabric from Hancock's of Paducah and I just love it! I'm not sure where I'm going with it; something for Relay, which is only about three weeks away.



Oh, yeah ... and making the purchase was worth it just to get their full sized color catalog. Pages and pages of your favorite lines all in living color! I almost hyperventilated!! I seriously need to find a Fabriholics group. "My name is Donna and I can't stop buying fabric."

dumpr.net

Create your own Rubik's Cube


Now how cute is that?!!

Missing in action...

Common sense says, if you're spending too much time at the computer, you're spending less time at the sewing machine. So I've been absent from the computer for the better part of this week ...



So my boss's wife has a major big birthday next week (6-0) and I knew I wanted to make her something. She loves anything lemon so I thought the stacked coin quilt top I'd put together a couple of months ago would be perfect. It's the biggest thing I've free motioned on my machine. It's way more work than you'd realize. My shoulders would be so fatigued by the end of the evening. So this is my work in progress. Tomorrow I'll get the binding on and then I'll be set to give it to her Wednesday when we do our pot luck luncheon-birthday party-Jamie's going away shin-dig. (Yes, I still have Jamie's baby quilt to finish before she heads off to join her husband in Washington state.) Needless to say, I won't have any problem staying busy this weekend! More later ...

Show and Tell blocks for flickr group

One of the participants in the Doll Quilt Swap I joined has put out an invitation to join a "Show and Tell" group where the blocks will be joined into one quilt and then will be displayed, ... ummmm ... I don't remember where, but it sounded like fun, so I joined.



The person organizing the group put out some thoughts as to what they were looking for, so I made up a sample and posted it, and she liked it! So I guess I got the ball rolling. It was so easy, I went ahead and made a second one. Now I think I'm going to make some and put together a bright, playful quilt for baby Benjamin.



Next Sunday Peg and I have our class at the former Quilt Patch. I'm really looking forward to it. Well, tomorrow is Monday already so I suppose this working girl should call it a night. 'Night!!

Done!

So I've just finished hand stitching the binding (I love the polka dots!) on my new summer table topper ... I'm very pleased with the end result.



Oh, wait ... that was the BACK !!! (I think I'll consider it reversible!) Another quick disappearing nine patch ... yeah, me!

Magic!

So I went downstairs to rummage amongst my stash and came across these cute six inch blocks that I'd bought on eBay at least a year ago.



I absolutely love the simplicity of the disappearing nine patch block that Rachel Griffith of p.s. i quilt introduced me to.

Not sure if this one will stay at my house or go into the office. There are some tables in the bathrooms that could use a splash of color.



And imagine this ... I don't have just the right fabric for the back and binding; so guess what? ... road trip! Actually, I've been wanting to get up to Carlisle to the Target store and there's a JoAnn's there. I think I'm looking for something red ... polka dots or gingham-ish. I'll find it! Have a great day.



Oh, yeah ... somewhere along the way I meant to say "Now you see it ... now you don't!" Thus the title "Magic"... but I got sidetracked. Oooops!

April Bee Inspired block finished!

I've had fun putting together Meredith's blocks for this month's bee inspired virtual quilting bee. I wasn't too sure when I first saw them but they grew on me!



This should be a really fun quilt once it's all put together ...



It sort of occurred to me as an afterthought that maybe she'd have preferred I didn't put the blocks together. Sorry, Meredith!

Berry Delicious

A recent eBay purchase came in the mail yesterday. I had sort of forgotten I'd purchased it so it was a pleasant surprise to come home to. Can you say TABLERUNNER! anyone ?!!!



Third load of laundry is in the washer, so I feel now I can sit down at the sewing machine without guilt!

Marley and Ginger and Me

Guys are away so my daughter and I watched Marley and Me. Well, I watched it in it's entirety, she fell asleep (but has already seen it several times). Her sleeping allowed me to bawl without reservation at the end.



And, I might add, seeing this movie (and I DID read the book first) made me realize that our lab ISN'T all that bad. She went through a stage before she was a year old where she would eat anything and everything in sight, and in fact had to have major surgery to remove some undigestible objects from her stomach (pantyhose among those items. The veterinarian said "It's YOUR job to protect her." And I'm thinking, WHO protects MY STUFF ?!!!



So, she's survived, we've survived, and somehow she's five years old already. And watching this movie reminds me that we won't have her forever, so we'll dang well love her while we do! Ahh, Ginger, what would we do without you?

Bee Inspired April blocks for Meredith

Okay, I finally got a chance to work on this month's Bee Inspired project. Meredith has chosen this quilt as her inspiration. I still have quite a bit of fabric left and I'm trying to decide between sending it back with these blocks ...



Or if to keep going and make more blocks. The other two members who have already posted look like they made as many blocks as the fabric sent them would allow, so I'll probably follow suit. I'm loving this bee .. thanks, Rachel Griffith!

Flavor of the week

I had planned to give this to Rachel for Valentine's Day, but she broke up with Zach (again) so I just put the panel I'd printed the picture on to away. Then they got back together (again) so I decided to put it together and give it to her for Easter.



It's removable, just in case ... well, you know. Would I want to be 16 again? I don't think so!

Crinkled to perfection!

When I hand quilted everything, I never would have dreamed of washing and drying something before I gifted it, but with the machine quilting, you HAVE to! That's what makes it so appealing and vintage-ey feeling.




Steven will come by to pick up Ashleigh's mom's Easter gift, and the baby quilt pictured underneath will go to work with me tomorrow so Betsy can give it to Dr. Rarrick for little Lauren Elizabeth.

Okay, what's next ??!!!

Growing up too fast

My youngest son, Steven, and the love of his life, Ashleigh, have now officially been "going together" for three years (yesterday being their "anniversary"). He gave her a promise ring ... very pretty ... I'll have to get a picture of it on her hand. We'll see where this goes, but if she's THE ONE, I know she'll make a wonderful daughter-in-law. We love her to pieces and her family is so good to Steven.



This picture is from this year's homecoming. Friday night we went to order Steven's tux for the prom. That should prove to be a great photo op!

Quick Easter tablerunner

Steven called me last night about nine o'clock to see if I had
"some quilty thing" he could give his girlfriend's mom for Easter.
I told him I did not and that I was watching Twilight with Rachel
and her BF and wasn't sewing at the moment. (Well, actually I was,
I was hand stitching the binding for the baby quilt I made for Dr.
Rarrick) Anyway, to make a long story short (too late for that?!!)
I decided to quick cut up some cute Debbie Mumm Easter fabric
I'd picked up at JoAnn's and put together something quick.



And this is what I came up with. It's in the washer now, so it'll be
nice and crinkly when he gifts it to her. I need to make a label and
attach it and then I can move on to something else. Happy Easter!

Quilt break

My co-worker Monica asked me if I'd make a nightgown for her daughter Hayley's new birthday doll ... you know I can't say no!



So what I ended up doing was making a nightgown, a birthday party dress, and a matching nightgown for Hayley herself. (Forgot to take a picture of it, but Monica says she'll take one for me of Hayley modeling it!)



And this weekend will take me back to quilting as I have several WIP's that need attention, and a new package of fabric for the next round of the virtual quilting bee I'm participating in. Yeah!!!

Kids stuff

I got these fabrics from www.thousandsofbolts.com as well. I thought I'd make a child sized quilt for use with our pediatric patients ... when they're using nitrous oxide sedation, they seem to need the extra cuddle of something draped over them. Of course, my sixteen year old daughter loved the fabric as well ... go figure!!


Pattern? Something quick and easy. I was wondering if I did the disappearing nine patch starting with bigger squares if it'd come out as nicely. I guess so?

My Bee Inspired fabrics

My package from this site came today!



Ordering fabric online can be a bit tricky since some monitors apparently can display colors that really aren't true to what you'd be receiving, but all in all, I'm pleased with my purchase.



Since I've decided to go with a star theme, I thought blues and golden yellows would be the palette I'd use.



I just need to decide now how to divide them up and how much to send to each person. If someone wants to make two, yippeee ... I have a king sized bed!

Easy peasy labels

So years ago someone said something about ironing fabric onto ??? I thought "waxed" paper to run through your printer to make labels. Tried it, didn't work. Fabric didn't adhere to the paper. So I totally discarded that idea as a bunch of bunk. Recently I've read about people making labels by ironing plain fabric onto FREEZER paper ... and amazingly, it works fabulously! I was so excited when it feed through my inkjet (NOT laser ... it'd melt and probably ruin your printer!) printer perfectly (well, perfectly the second time around because the first time I loaded it fabric side up and in my printer, at least, it needs to be paper side up). So now I have absolutely NO excuse for not labeling something because I have 75 FEET of freezer paper~ Woo-hoo !!!

Cat's out of the bag!

So I've impressed my boss's wife who didn't know I quilted and she's asked me to make a baby quilt for the local orthodontist whose wife just had their first baby this week. It's a little stressful for me not to be sewing along at my own pace for my own enjoyment, but I said I'd do it. So Thursday night saw this progression (pretty good for one evening's work, I think!)



My husband thought we should eat out tonight and I didn't want to be rude and argue with him, so after we got home, Friday night saw the white borders added and the rows put together.



I've hesitated between thinking I need to add one more row of blocks and thinking I can get by with adding some nice borders. I really don't want to dig through my stash for more pink strips!



Tomorrow I think I'll hit JoAnn's again with my 20% off my entire purchase coupon (get it online @ JoAnn.com) and pick up something for the border and backing. And who knows what else I might find! (Didn't someone once say you have to spend money to save money? Or was that me?!!)