Sunday Sewing

Thought I'd show a grouping of my Sugar Block Club blocks prior to making the one I made today.  To any new readers, this was another project I joined at the beginning of the year.  It's a paid subscription to a mystery Block of the Month.  Amy of Stitchery Dickory Dock also sends a recipe along with the block directions.  I haven't attempted any of those but they do sound and look enticing.

So far this is my fav block only because of the crane fabric.  I love birds and I am especially fond of cranes.  Ours are of the Sandhill variety here, but still excellent, as all cranes are!  Here's a closeup…

They seem to have done a semi-good job of co-existing with people here in Florida.  Unfortunately they like to eat by grazing long distances and will step in front of vehicles to cross the road.  But I digress.

November's block, was a paper-pieced one.  I like the precision of it and that Amy suggests precut sizes for the various fabrics, certainly makes for less fabric waste and guessing.

That's it for today, anyone else doing the SBC?  I'd love to hear about it!

As A Bee

It's been awhile, the year has flown by, hasn't it?  I've been busy here trying to squeeze in sewing in-between helping by daughter move to Alabama in July and visiting her every six weeks or so.

Here's what's on my foyer floor now.  It's a BOM from GenX Quilters that I joined in January.  It's all pin-basted but I'm stuck on how to quilt it.  I'm really not nuts about how it turned out and hence my procrastination I am guessing.  Not liking it kept me from not wanting to have a long arm quilter go at it.  Why invest more money in a quilt I don't like? was my reasoning.  If you look carefully each block is done twice, in inverse the second time.

More tomorrow as I signed up to post everyday this month.  My daughter's suggestion.

So with this brief foray into re-wetting my feet, see you tomorrow!

Checking In

   Back from apartment hunting in Alabama!  The hilly terrain of Birmingham was quite a surprise after living in flat Florida.  Also made the observation that there is a dearth of quilt shops in Alabama.  We drove to one north of the city only to find it out-of-business.  Don't you hate that?  My daughter found one (in Ozark, Alabama) on the way back, Front Porch Quilt  Shoppe, that we stopped at.  I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area.  It was a Quilt Sampler (magazine) shop just last year. And wow! A few iPhone pictures I snapped but they really don't do it justice.

I loved this quilt.  Seems like it would be great with a layer cake or two...

I think the jack-o-lanterns quilt was my favorite.  There's just something about purple and orange paired with those happy faces!  I really had to control myself with purchases.  The shop had so many layer cakes, charm packs, and mini charm packs all matching along with yardage!

I narrowed it down to a couple of half yards of low volume fabrics, two fat quarters, and a charm pack in Daydream.
And just because...

Have a nice weekend~

Vice Versa

I did just a little bit of sewing today.  These two blocks (for June) are part of the third BOM I joined at the beginning of the year.  Another paid subscription: instructions come out the first Friday of the month to make two quilt blocks which are opposites of each other.  Details can be found at Gen X Quilters.  The finished quilt will have a Modern tilt to it with the solids and large amount of negative space planned. 
I'm thinking of joining the Nested Churn Dash going on at QuiltJane. I certainly don't need another project but we'll see.
I'm off to Birmingham, Alabama tomorrow to look at apartments for the daughter.
Send good vibes!
Talk to you later~

Bunny Tales

I had a most unique and unusual experience the beginning of this week while out walking in the morning.  First off, this photo is not zoomed in or cropped to make this rabbit appear closer than he is!  He (or she?) really was that close.  Here I am walking and I spot a wild rabbit picking the clover out of the grass and eating it.  I walked closer and closer and then bent down and he stayed put and continued eating!  Then he decided he wanted to smell me.  Meanwhile I'm trying to remember my microbiology from college, rabbits aren't known carriers of rabies, are they?  I stayed snapping iPhone pictures for a good ten minutes.  The rabbit never left and no one else was around at 7:30.  I left to walk to the end of the block and when I got back, he was still there. As if this wasn't exciting enough (dull life, I know), he started following me!  I walked to the end of the block and he followed.  I jogged, he ran! I'd cross the street, he'd cross the street.  This went on for a good fifteen minutes!  I finally had to jog behind a huge hedge on someone's front lawn and run out the other side to "loose" the rabbit!  I have no idea why this guy was so interested in me.  He appeared quite normal and healthy other than his distinct lack of fear of me! I went back two days later, and found him again.  He was not as friendly but then again he was not as fearful as the normal rabbits I've always encountered.  All in all, a very exciting once-in-a-lifetime event for me.  I am thrilled to no end.  I love the Easter bunny pose above.

A few more because he's so cute!

Other than close encounters with rabbits, I've been keeping up with the BOMs I joined.  Can't remember if I've mentioned those.  I'm doing the Aurifil Threads one using totally scraps.

I had quite a bit of reds, greens, and purples so that's been my color theme.  It's a designer Block-of-the-Month.  It's not too late to join if anyone is interested.

I'm also doing the Sugar Block Club BOM over at Stitchery Dickory Dock.  I'm really loving this one! I dug out a line of Asian fabric I bought back in 2005 and using them.  The blocks are pieced or paper pieced and I've actually learned a few new things since starting.  This one is a paid subscription but so much fun.

 And lastly, a sneak peak of a little quilt I'm making to be given away.  I just have to decide how to quilt it.

Thanks for stopping by~

Business As Usual

I got my sewing room all put back together and after so many days off my sewing machine I just had to sew something.  I decided to sew some blocks from Nancy Martin's 365 Quilt Blocks calendar I've had for ages.  I realized I'd never made a block from it.  I decided on 10" sizes as I rarely make that size block.  And to use strictly fabric from my scrap basket AND to not fret over every fabric choice, to just do it!  This Rambler was a bit challenging to press.  Can't say I'd want to make a whole quilt using this block.

Both these blocks were easy and fun.  I didn't really need a new project (Ha!) but I ended up dropping a Block of the Month I had originally planned on doing.  This was after I realized that all the blocks were going to be just HSTs.  Struck me as rather boring.

I finally got my King sized quilt back from the long arm quilter so binding that is next on the list.  Anyone know a really good method for doing that using the sewing machine?

Later~