What Have I Done!

If anyone were reading my blog you'd have noticed a new badge in the right margin.  It's indicative of a challenge I signed up to do everyday of May!  Yikes, I hope I can pull it off as May is such a busy month in my usual placid life.  I fly up to St. Louis on Thursday morning, load up my daughter's apartment, and drive back to Florida.  Then we both fly back about a week later for the graduation from Washington University in St. Louis!  Where have the last four years gone?  Anyway, the challenge is open to anyone with any type of blog even beginners.  If anyone is interested go here and sign up before 11:00 pm Eastern DST, 150 others have, why don't you?  Oh, and there's a raffle for prizes at the end for those who have managed the full 31 days.

Laugh Out Loud

My daughter, Natalie, sent this to me yesterday and I found it so funny!  It's so very true.  I've poked around looking for the author but could not find one.  Whoever it is, you're brilliant!
I've been doing a bit of Spring Cleaning in the sewing room refolding, rearranging, and purging fabric.  Got to keep things neat in my 10 by 10 foot room if I hope to find what I need when it's time to sew.  Ugh.   I've developed a box of scraps and can't decide what to do with them.  What do you do with yours?  Cut them down to strips, or squares to be used in future projects?  Leave them as is? 
~Talk to you later~

Lazy Kind of Day

It's been gray and rainy all day here I am happy to say!  I cannot remember the last time it rained and with that Florida sun things dry out quickly.  It was a good morning to spend at my LQS getting acquainted with all the new fabric and picking up this luscious little fat eighths bundle of California Girl.  If you have not seen this line I recommend that you seek it out!  It's for a quilt in this book.

The quilt shop chooses one quilt a month and reveals the fabrics but not the project until Strip Saturday which was today.  After a quick trip (with more rain) to another LQS to search for some Civil War repro fabric, it was home to read.

The book is a fascinating account of a woman who pretended to be a survivor of 9/11 for four years!  She became somewhat of a celebrity in the 9?11 community and  had everyone fooled until The New York Times did a story on her and discovered that accepted facts were just not really facts at all.  There's also a documentary of the same name which is also very good.
Talk to you later~

Recycle

Here's what I came up with using the red/aqua D9P blocks.  The majority were in pretty bad shape, cut crookedly, tiny seam allowances, so much so, that I ended up taking the blocks apart and resewing into 4-patches and an assortment of 4-inch sized squares.  I made 64 Arkansas Crossroads blocks and then turned every other row to get that zigzag effect. 

I had a fun time revisiting the variety of fabrics used.

I like the way the aqua ranged from very light to very dark with a bit of teal and seafoam green thrown in.

It's not a combo of colors I ever work with and it's certainly not a favorite of mine, but I am glad it is out of plastic bag and off the shelf.  I might even quilt this one myself. 

Remember This?

I did a disappearing 9-patch swap a while back using red and aqua fabrics.  The participants made 100 blocks, sent them in to the organizer, and received 99 (plus one of your own) back.  I was clueless what to do with the blocks, I just knew I did not want to put them all together as a D9P quilt.  And the cutting and sewing of the blocks, well, let's just say they were a bit wonky!  Yikes!  They languished on a shelf for months until an idea was formed, I'm working on the border now and hope to show the finished top this afternoon.  here's a sneak peak.

 And look at this guy, lounging in the sun poolside! 

iPhone Pics

I forgot I had these on my iPhone.  I made this a few weeks ago as a wedding gift for my nephew who is marrying the end of June.  He and his fiancee are very outdoorsy and active (they are going to track gorillas in Rwanda for their honeymoon!) so I thought a picnic quilt would be in order. 

It measures about 80 inches square and I desperately need to get it quilted soon!  I call it R.O.K.  I used Denyse Schmidt fabrics from Joann's but only the ones manufactured in Korea or Thailand, sort of my private boycott of things Chinese-made.  I did notice that the ones from there was rougher feeling and not as nice a hand as the Korean and Thai ones.

I'll leave you with a pic of my cat, Cinabella.  She turned 18 in February and has all her teeth!  She keeps me company when I'm sewing.  My sewing room is her favorite room in the house.  Funny how animals pick up on their owner's passions.
Talk to you later!

Missing in Action

It has been so long since I blogged but I have a good excuse, several in fact.  But first a pic for my daughter.  She asked for this ages ago and I thought I'd share it now as I don't have much of anything else to share.  Natalie, this was Penny's!
Last October 25 I casually bent down in my hallway to pick up a piece of paper and felt something pull in my back.  The next day I could hardly move.  Even after taking four Advil every six hours for days on end.  We had no Christmas tree and a minimum of decorations.  I had written up a project for Moda Bake Shop using Jovial and it was out being quilted when all this happened.  I did not sew for three months.  My camera was giving error messages again so I do not have much to share other than a pic from a table runner I made with leftovers from a prior quilt project.

And not a very good pic at that!  I just wanted to let my readers know I'm still here and still have a passion for quilting!  I am off to look at my camera.  More later.