plastic damage & the bluebird of happiness

A visit to the Good Wives Company,

 just a 40 minute jaunt up the road.

It was a good jaunt...

I did just a little retail therapy...that's my small bag on the right.  Some people did "plastic damage".  There were three more bags not pictured to protect the not-so-innocent...

Plastic damage is not hard to do in this shop!

Anyway,

I found this little project:

I had to make one right away...my own little Bluebird of Happiness...

But I can't leave well enough alone, can I?

I had to go out later and pick these up:  you are seeing this correctly...a whole 12 pack of shakers!!!

Now I will have to make my own FLOCK of Happiness, won't I? 

I don't know why I do this to myself. 

It's not like I needed a new project, let alone 13 new projects. 

But the fabric called for is just scraps. 

And I have scraps. 

And they will make nice gifts, won't they?

The Pattern is "Little Bird Pinkeeps" by Renee Plains. 

The pattern includes this little make-do on a salt shaker, and a chatelaine.  The little wing flips up to reveal a wool scrap to keep your needles.  Just so cute.

Yep, a whole flock!!!  What was I thinking? Spring???  Well, you can never have enough pincushions around, anyway.

I also picked up this kit; I loved the woven stripe and the bold reds in this one.  I don't usually do kits, 'cause for me that's part of the excitement of a project, choosing the fabrics.  Anyway, I started on it right away.  It's adorable, isn't it? 

It is by Blackbird Designs, 

in the book:  "Small Favorites for all Seasons".  I chose to do the "catch"  and flag in wool, not needle-turn as the pattern did.  O.K., I have problems following directions.  Needle-turn, wool, what's the difference?  Not much in my mind.  Still putting fabric on fabric.  And I had this great camp blanket that had this great stripe of blue with just a little stripe of red along side of it that was just calling out to be a "small catch" belly!!!

More on that later.  I also worked on my ongoing retreat project.  I started this a year ago at the guild retreat.  I cut, re-arranged, sewed, cut, and re-arranged fabric all weekend.  At the end of the retreat, everyone held up their accomplishments for the weekend. 

Everyone else was holding up these gi-normous finished tops and completely finished humungo quilts completely quilted.  I held up this: 

Yep, over a 48 hour plus weekend, I had completed this ONE BLOCK.

It is from the book "Certifiably Crazy" by Buggy Barn.

SOOO, back to this past weekend.  I worked and worked on this ongoing project.  I now can say I have this much done:

Twelve whole blocks!!!  and the pineapple tops for another twelve blocks.  The last twelve pineapple bottoms need little green corners.  What an accomplishment.  Wooo Hooo!

What I didn't realize when I started this quilt was that each block is 7 by 20.  I was making it to have a "small quilt" to hang in the front entryway.  Emphasis on the word SMALL!!  I'm not sure I would have done it if I knew that each flippin' pineapple was at least twice life-size!   I guess that's me again, not paying attention to the instructions.

And, I would've/could've probably had them all done, but I had to make a Bluebird!

You know how it is.