Ready Set Sew

Let's see:  I finished the blue and yellow bento box blocks and now need to sew that together, I just love the way it turned out.  I did not run out of the fabrics just got sick of making blocks and I think it's large enough.

I have this thing where I usually sneak in some fabric with a cat on it in whatever quilt I make and it took some serious looking to come up with some that went, I don't like it to be obvious.  Sometimes I do Christmas fabric instead.

Then it was onto Blue Nickel Studios for Block-a-palooza number nine.  I had my fingers crossed it didn't involve applique.  I love what Scott came up with!  {And I also love the way he numbers his posts, wish I'd thought of that!  Sometimes I waste so much time trying to come up with a title}  He says the middle are flying geese but they are really flying goslings! so small, 

 Can you tell I loved every step?!  First time using the light green.  This Romanza line I am using is very odd.  The pinks are such different shades if it weren't for the salvedge I'd swear they were unrelated.

  Here are all the blocks, I think that purple one might need some un-sewing and re-doing at some time.  I started using a Value Finder tool.  It's a red-tinted clear window that you look through just to see the value of the fabric.  It was included in a Block-of-the-month that I bought from Joann's (!) when I was a beginning quilter.  They used to give a little notion something along with the precut fabric in the kit {whatever was I thinking?}  Anyway, it works,  I need to get a blue one that is used when looking at pinks, reds.

Thanks for looking, now it's back to the bento box. 

I Had To Share

Have you ever received one of those emails that you just had to share? I apologize if this is old material that you've already seen,  I got it from a friend recently{thanks, Emily!} and had to pass it along to you my audience my online girlfriends.  I poked around a little and the best I can determine is that National Girlfriend's Day is August 1.    Regardless, I post this for its sheer LOL quality and appreciation for all the people who read my blog.  Plus the fact I have a mighty big birthday coming up this year and am starting to feel like the woman in the picture!

National  Girlfriends Day 
I am  only as strong as the coffee I drink, the  hairspray I use, and  the friends I have. 
To the cool women who  have touched my life.    Here's to you!

It is good to be a woman:  
  
  1.  We got off the Titanic first.  
  2.  We can  scare male bosses with mysterious  gynecological disorder excuses.  
  3.  Taxis  stop for us.  
  4.  We don't look like a frog in  a blender when dancing.  
  5.  No fashion faux pas we make could ever rival the Speedo.  
  6.   We don 't have to pass gas to amuse ourselves.   
  7.  If we forget to shave, no one has to know.
  8.  We can congratulate our teammate  without ever touching her rear end.  
  9.  We  never have to reach down every so often to make  sure our privates are still there. 
10.  We  have the ability to dress ourselves. 
11.  We can talk to the opposite sex without  having to picture them naked. 
12.   If  we marry someone 20 years younger, we are aware  that we will look like an idiot. 
13.   We will  never regret piercing our ears. 
14.  There  are times when chocolate really can solve all  your problems. 
15.  We can make comments about how silly men are in their presence  because they aren't listening 
        anyway.
  
I am off to sew, talk to you later! 

Never A Bride

Happy Saturday afternoon!  I do believe spring has arrived here in Florida!  We have so few days where the weather is mild and the humidity is low.  Today is one of them.

All you people in still cold and snowy climes, don't hate me!  Come June, it isn't so great living here.  Ugh. I should fill you in on my jury duty and then we can never mention it again.  I was 1 of 326 potential jurors on Valentine's Day.  Every hour or so, they'd put our names into a random number generator and choose 30.   The non-chosen got to stay in the jury assembly room and listen to a local T.V. station drone on and on loudly.  Double ugh.  [Side note:  I do not watch T.V., don't even own one]  I brought plenty to read, as was suggested beforehand, but could never concentrate over the noise!  Nine hours I and 11 others waited to be called.  Finally at 5:00 we were dismissed.  Onto much more pleasant things, here's my Block 7 of the Block-a-palooza designed by House of a la Mode,

I changed the original arrangement of the four patches more to my liking.  I didn't get to Block 8 until yesterday, and it was the dreaded "a" word!  Applique!  Isn't that against the rules of the quilt along?  haha.  It is against  my rules, I rarely do applique, machine or by hand, so here's my renegade block.  I tried to keep with the gist of flying geese and nine-patches that the other blocks have so far,

And this did not look so much like a swastika before I sewed it together.  I am hoping once it gets sewn into the quilt you will hardly notice!!  You can see the original at Moda Home Mom.
I'll end with a picture of my amaryllis that bloomed on Valentine's Day.  This is the first time I've saved a bulb and got it to re-bloom.  Good timing wouldn't you say?

Talk to you later, giveaway scheduled in the near future!

On The Design Wall

A little behind here!  I have been keeping up with the Block-A-Palooza Quilt Along just been too preoccupied with another project, more about that later, but first, Block 5 designed by Miss Print.  I love the block and the way it turned out!

The green is from my stash, the others from the Romanza line.

And this is Block 6 from Happy Zombie, love this design too!  Used all Romanza fabric, which I am getting worried about running out before the end.  I have the most of the pale yellow background so I am doing my best to use that wherever possible.  I will not be playing along tomorrow with Block 7 as I was summoned for the dreaded jury duty!  I shouldn't complain:  this is the very first time I have been called and no matter where I have lived I have always registered to vote.  If you can believe this, my daughter was called about one week before she left for college her freshman year!  The judge very kindly excused her, but what a start.
One of my quilting New Year's resolutions besides making a dent in getting my growing pile of quilt tops quilted (resolution #1) was to start making some of the quilt kits (resolution #2) I have collected over the years.  And I have a lot.  I have a history of being a real sucker for those Objects of Desire!   ~ I've started with a kit that somehow became separated from its instructions, here's the fabric along with some from my stash (resolution No. 3:  use stash rather than buy).

So sans any guidance, I started on a Bento Box design, the pictures really don't do it justice,

When I did a doll quilt swap a few years ago, my partner sent several blue/yellow charm squares that I've been able to put in the quilt.  Each Bento Box block (try saying that three times fast!) measures 8 inches finished.  I've been somewhat obsessed with working on it for the past few days, here's my progress so far,

It really reads more blendy in person, exactly what I was trying to achieve.  I hope to get another couple rows done before running out of fabric.
Talk to you later ~

Gingham Pinwheels Block

Checking in with the latest Block-a-palooza, Block four, this one designed by Cherry House Quilts.  As I mentioned earlier I'm using the Romanza line, and feeling ambivalent about it!  I'm spending way too much time agonizing over what fabrics to choose for each block.  I have to work on that. 
Be sure to check out the other blocks in the quilt-along on Flickr. 
Talk to you later.

Hello!

It's been a while so I'll attempt to update on what I've been up to which doesn't involve sewing :(. Right before my daughter arrived from England for the holidays I developed problems with my right elbow so I spent all of December and 2 weeks of last month going to physical therapy.  Diagnosis was Tennis Elbow not that I've played tennis any nor done anything repetitive to deserve the ailment. This quilt top was left stranded on my design wall since the end of November.  I finally finished it up a few days ago.  I made it from the leftovers from a Moda Scrap Bag (and charm pack) I worked on earlier.

Here's the fabric I am using for the Blockapalooza.  Oh, it took me quite a while to decide what to use.  I was just dying to buy the Sunkissed line that the designers of the blocks are using.  Most of the fat quarters are from the Romanza  line from In The Beginning (2004).  I guess my tastes have changed as for the life of me I cannot fathom why I bought them!

 

Here's the first block from Quilt Dad,

The second block was designed by Oh,Fransson!.  I wasn't nuts about it so I decided to re-vamp things and came up with another design.  That whole trimming -the-blocks-to-make-it-fit just didn't work for me.  I think what I came up with goes with the others so far,

And finishing up with Block 3,

You can see other participants' pictures at Flickr.  Talk to you not too much later!