more swapping going on around here

Following my annual tradition of joining in on swaps,
I decided I'd do another block swap this Winter,
when Barb, of Fun with Barb blog fame, 
offered her (what has become) annual block swap. 
She offered the swap in Modern or Reproduction fabrics,
and the block she chose for us to make was 
the Churn dash - six inch finished; 
44 of one color way, and 22 of a second colorway.  
We'd make and send 66 blocks and get 66 in return!

I chose the Reproduction group and used two of my favorite fabrics:

and made forty-four of the blue, twenty-two of the cheddar. 

It doesn't look like a stack of 66 blocks, I know, but Whew!!
Yes, it was a lot of blocks to make.
Made and mailed the end of February, 
so we'll be getting our swap blocks back soon!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!!   
☘☘☘☘☘
Hope you enjoy your weekend!!

surprise, surprise...

more quilt pictures!

I can now share the wedding quilt
that I was commissioned to make
as a surprise from parents
to their son and new daughter-in-law
for their wedding:

 Larger than queen-size, with pillow shams,

in navy and coral, their wedding colors.

The Crazy 9-patch pattern was chosen, and I used 36 different fabrics in the blocks, plus the border and backing fabrics. 
It was fun to make, and they loved it!
So nice to make people happy,
and doing what makes me happy!!! lol.

Now getting ready for the annual family reunion,
so back to work for me!
Hope your week is wonderful!!!

Blazing heat, computer crashes, secret stitching,

and did I mention blazing hot? LOL
With the temps in the high nineties, 
and the heat index to be well above 100 degrees each day this week,
THAT is a little much.
It does probably mean a little more stitching time indoors 
in the air conditioned coolness, though, and that is good.

My computer has been in the shop.  Again... Which really is a blessing in disguise; being able to have it repaired means I didn't have to purchase a new one.   I'll try to take a few minutes at lunchtime each day this week and visit all my blog friends and try to get caught up on all the fun.

Secret stitching:
Sweetie's nephew asked me to create a quilt gift for his wife, in honor of their 12th anniversary.  They are such a sweet couple and family, and I'm proud to claim them! lol
He told me the some of her favorite colors, I chose the fabrics, sent secret messages and pictures back and forth, and got to work. Delivered ahead of schedule, so just had to wait out the gifting before I could share with you all.
Their anniversary date has passed, so I won't ruin his surprise if I share now.
Queen sized, teals and corals, Crazy 9 Patch pattern:

Hard to make out, I know, but he asked for his/hers initials with wedding date, enclosed within a heart:

 I also made a couple of large pillowcase/shams with leftover fabrics:

 And probably my favorite picture - the trimmings from squaring up the blocks:

 Binding time:

I'm off to have some lunch and do some MORE secret stitching! 
Hope your week is wonderful!!!
 

more quilting and meandering fun

Have I ever mentioned that I love my job? 
Earning a living, 
being creative and 
doing something I love, all at the same time!
The job that isn't really a job 
is that I get to quilt over the most adorable fabric creations, ever!
This past week I did a couple more 'jobs'...
fun times with fabric and threads!!! 
The first one to share is an adorable quilt for a baby arriving soon,
from her Great-grandma Louise!

 
With the sweetest hand embroidered roses throughout:

Next, I got to meander over this one:

Almost king-sized, for a son from his momma, Jackie!

It was made of flannels and oh, so soft.

I also worked on some of my own creations, and I'll share those at a later date.
The sun is shining and the humidity is relatively low, so I'm heading to the pool with the grand-kiddos!

Hope your weekend is wonderful!

 

Labor Day!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!
Here in the U.S. of A., today, Monday, is Labor Day.
The Labor Day holiday is traditionally the end of our Summer.
I've been laboring, but the fun kind of labor -
keeping the grand kiddos whilst their parents move into their new home.
Also, I've been having fun, doing some of the cooking and hauling meals over to them while they concentrate on the actual labor. :)

Just yesterday, I was able to deliver my gift quilt
to Poppy and meet her as she came to visit at just a week old!
She's such a sweetie, and I'm sure she loves her quilt as much as I loved making it for her!

Last week, I also stitched up some more of my Farm Girl Vintage blocks...
I'm loving making these six inch blocks!

 

 And, I don't think I showed the ones I had done the week before,

so here they are:

 

Back to Labor Day plans,
the grand kiddos are coming over again today (while SonnyBoy continues his unpacking), so we have great plans - swimming and enjoying the 90+ degree weather; also we'll have a hot dog roast as we have some downed branches to make a little bonfire.
Later tonight, THE Ohio State Buckeyes have their season-opener football game, so there will be some home-gating/football watching going on around here.  

Hope your weekend is grand, also!

a full body workout

In anticipation of my paternal family reunion,
I washed all of the house windows, inside and out.
Does anyone besides me think that 
window washing should qualify as a full-body workout?
Really - 38 windows inside and out, 
and 6 of them are sliding glass doors.
(I was so achy the next day that I thought I might just need to take a day off!)

But here's the rub (teehee - rub :)
I had purchased a new product about a month or so ago -
a product that the sales gal said she just loves to use on her windows, including her car windshield.

So, after my 38 windows were all squeaky-clean,
I went to the cleaning cupboard and grabbed 
(what I thought was) the new Waxy-cleaning-stuff.
Read the directions, and squirted wax on the inside of 
my first sliding patio door and rubbed away.  
Looked pretty good!
Did the other three sliding patio doors (inside).
Then did them on the outside, too.
Called it a day.
I went and showered and had a sit-down/relaxing stitching time 
in my lazy-girl chair before bedtime.
The next morning, as the sun rose on my house
(and windows),
I realized that my squeaky-clean windows were a
waxy, smeary mess!!
And me so tired and achy that I just had to laugh!

Fast forward to the end of this week,
and I'm still cleaning in anticipation of the reunion...
and what do I find in the food pantry???
(I don't know why the food pantry, but that's where it was.)
The Glass Wax product that I had purchased!
Me, oh my.
So, today, I rewashed all of the waxed windows and sliders.

And then I waxed ONE of the sliders so see what happened
if I used the right product.

SO much better! and the see what happens with the right product?

Bad window washing job

a very good wax - NOT for windows!

I crack myself up.
So, now my windows look so much better.
AND, I've had two full body workouts this week!

 

flower fun and another meandering

I recently saw this great display at a local nursery, 
and had to share the smile:

Makes me want to go round up all the old wagons I have stashed in the barn, and find a place to hang them! :)

Also, I got to meander over another baby quilt,
this time for Bev:
 
I think she chose great colors and prints along with a whole bunch of white-on-white fabrics.

I really liked the fabrics and colors and will have to remember this color scheme for a later date!

Thanks for visiting!
Hope your day is great!

more Farm Girl Vintage blocks

I'm continuing stitching and trying to finish up some
long awaited UnFinished Quilts/Projects...
which I shared about previously, here.
But, I also worked on my NEW project last week,
as I sewed together six more blocks for my
Farm Girl Vintage quilt!

I'm really enjoying making these blocks.
The book (by Lori Holt) 
has patterns for both 12 and 6 inch finished blocks,
and I'm making the six-inch square blocks,
so there are some really tiny cuts of fabric.

On the canning jars block (above, top-right),
the bottom of the jar corner-pieces are only cut at 3/4ths of an inch!
In my excitement of making these blocks,
I did have a little problem with the block called Corn and Tomatoes:

Yep, see the pieces to the left?  
I stitched the red polka-dot onto the background fabric
at the wrong angle.
Oops! had to make some new units.
Maybe, hopefully, these wrongly-made pieces 
will go into another block at a later date.

In regards to the UFQ/Progress:
I'm binding the next to last of the baby quilts that I need for this Summer gifting, and I've finished quilting the wedding-quilt gift, so it's ready to trim and bind.

Feels good to have progress -
progress on new and old projects!

Hope you are having a wonderful, happy day!

Oops!

I did it again...
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Sorry to put the lyrics to the Britney Spears song 
into your head for the day,
but, I did it...
I've started another quilt project.

I think it's a problem condition that I have...
this start-another-project-thing.
(: By the way, I don't think I'm the only quilter that has the same condition. :)

I promised myself that 
I WOULD NOT START ANOTHER QUILT PROJECT until 
I had finished up some works-in-progress (WIP).

Please note the word 'until'.
 
It was a difficult few weeks, 
but because I am aware of my condition  and I'd promised myself,
I DID quilt some commission quilts;
I also started the PROMISED working-through-the WIP-stacks
on my sewing table and ironing board.

As an example of a WIP, 
I had cut out a stack of red, white, and blue tumblers last Summer.
I don't know why they were never sewn together. 
But that's the first WIP that I attacked:

After I finished piecing the quilt top, I readied the backing.

Then, I finished piecing two baby quilts  -

the one on the left for a little boy (already a month old) - it just needed the rows sewn together, and the one on the right for a little girly (that will be here in August) - (it needed it's borders):

I went ahead and prepped the backings for them.
Lastly, I finished piecing the wedding quilt
that I've had in progress for at least two years

 and made the backing for this one, too.


That is four, yes I said four!! 
quilts ready to quilt!
The tumbler flag quilt will be layered, pillow-case-turned and then quilted.
The two baby quilts and the large blue/brown star quilt will all go into my queue for BigDD, the long-arm machine. 

Which brings me to this: 

Farm Girl Vintage and my chosen fabrics
[the bundle is Sprinkles by Red Rooster Fabrics, 
across the top is mostly Swiss Dots/Riley Blake for backgrounds, 
and other fabrics (from various lines) that will be my piecing fabrics]

Like I said, :)

Oops, I did it again,  
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Hope you are getting some of your projects tackled also,
and Happy Thursday!

A great party link! Doll-quilt swap party that is

As promised, here's the link to the Doll Quilt Swap
that Lori (Humble Quilts) hosted last month:
DOLL QUILT SWAP PARTY .


It was such fun to participate!
I think that the only requirements in this swap were that
each quilt had to be under 24 inches square and be made entirely of
Civil War era reproduction fabrics.
Oh, and to be mailed by the beginning of June.

Last time I checked there were over 40 different little quilts/links,
each with the swap quilt pictured as the link.
Sooo much inspiration from quilters
from around the whole world!
If you have a few minutes (: or even an hour :) to go blog visiting,
it will be worth your time, promise!

This is the little quilt I sent off to JoAnne in Indiana:

Four-patch scraps, 17 inches square. With a  vintage salt-cellar pin cushion I made.

 and what I received from Jill:

Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!!

Summer busyness already,

and it's not even officially Summer! 

Not just the busyness is here already, but
the four H's are here, too...
Hot,
Hazy,
Humid,
Having Summer-time fun.
The humidity, for me, makes it a little hard to breathe, so that means that little is happening outdoors around here, so it's a good excuse to have some indoor fun!

I found a yummy sounding cake mix...
I've heard that there were limited edition, seasonal, flavored cake or cookie mixes, but I've never seen them in the grocery before.  
Until last night!

Since I love mango-flavored anything,
this one will be made for Sunday family dinner.
(: Oops, didn't realize that my salad dressing photo-bombed until I inserted the pic! :)

More fun:  I meandered on one quilt for a friend - 
the pretty purple one on the left is done:

and in the right background, 
a little girly quilt I'm making that is awaiting borders and then off to the long-arm (this is the third [I believe] of five baby quilts that I need for this Summer of coming babies). 

Also fun in the past week:

I finally got these stars & nine-patches pieced 
for a wedding quilt gift,
and am now auditioning borders (2); backing is off to the right.
I've been working on this one for a while.  
More correctly:  I've not been working on this for a while,
as I cut all the pieces and sewed about half of the star blocks 
last November and then put it away.
When I got all it all back out recently, 
I didn't have enough of the light, solid corner squares 
cut for the star blocks...
but I did have extra dark squares.
(insert 'things that make you go hummmm?' here)
Reviewing what I'd sewn with the pattern instructions, 
I'd mistakenly put in light fabrics on both opposite corners of every star block I'd made.
So I had a little time spent doing some un-sewing, re-sewing, and re-pressing.
But it's finally coming together, and I'll be able to gift it, only a few years after the wedding.   Better late than never, right??  :)

Hope you are having a wonderful start to almost Summer, too!

making memories

For the last nine days,
I've not been doing much of this:

Or much of anything else, for that matter.
I apologize if you are my Swap Partner 
in Lori's Humble Quilts doll quilt swap, 
I promise, it's coming.  Soon.

I HAVE been doing a whole lot of this:

one year old orneriness

and this:

three year old orneriness

We've had help doing this

opening the pool

and this:

making strawberry-rhubarb pie

planting tomatoes in the backdoor garden bed

 And I'd forgotten about the middle-of-the-night awake times.

I now know why the good Lord gives babies to the younger folks. lol
I'm not complaining, it's been fun making memories.
But I think I need a nap.  Then another one.
And I just may be counting down the remaining two nights. 

Sweet rewards?
When the three year old randomly says unprompted things like:
"It's SO fun to have sleep overs."

Happy Thursday!
Here's hoping you are have as much fun as I am. :)

Happy igloo conditions/St. Valentine's weekend, and the steaks

Just a few things happening here this past week...
There's a horrendous sinus/virus thing going around.
Down and out for a good week+ is not fun.
I decided it was time to visit the doc...

I did a little stitching while awaiting my doctor visit;

I stitched the three green leaves in the hoop:

Gardener's Alphabet block, pattern by Crabapple Hill

Pretty pathetic week of stitching accomplishments, huh?

Now that I'm on the mend, 
last night I cooked a nice Valentine's dinner for Sweetie and me.
Steaks, loaded baked potatoes, broccoli, green salad.

It was a wonderful dinner!, 

but, there's a story behind the steaks:

After the doc appointment, I stopped to pick up my prescription and just a few groceries...

It was busy in the store,
as the weathermen were again predicting more igloo/ice conditions.
There were frenzied shoppers everywhere
and stock-carts/workers everywhere to fill the shelves.
Half of the time, I just left my cart at the end of an isle and went and grabbed what I wanted, heading back to the cart with my few items.
I had a small cart, just partially filled, 
including the $4 prescription for the sinusitis.
Because it was so crazy busy,
I hurried through the 
check out/scanning/bagging/swiping my card process.
On the drive home I thought my total for the groceries was high.
Higher than it should have been.
I made it back home, safely, before the igloos attacked.
I'm un-bagging my groceries,
and find a $25.00 package of two, REALLY nice steaks...
steaks that I did not put into my shopping cart!

Yes, I had just scanned and double-plastic-bagged 
the not-my-steak package
at the self-checkout in the grocery.
I was in a hurry, my head was getting that pressurized/barometric/going-to-explode feeling again,
and evidently I didn't pay attention to what I was scanning/bagging.

So as I stand in the middle of my kitchen,
holding the $25 steaks that are not mine,
I think, sadly, that:
'Oh, someone accidentally put their steaks into my cart.
They are going to be so disappointed when they get home and
they don't have their dinner.'
Then, my head pounds and I think:
'Wait!'
'Stop feeling sorry for the person who's out their dinner!!'
'I just paid $25.00!!! for steaks I didn't choose/want!

They did look like good steaks, so I decided to be positive -
I had antibiotics, AND
I now had my meal plan for Valentine's dinner -
four days early!!  Even with an about to explode head.

So after putting away the remaining groceries
(without finding any more surprises),
I take the first of the horse-pill-sized antibiotics, 
and check my social media stuff...

Guess what a friend has on facebook?
(btw - said friend lives a good hour and a half away in good weather)
She has posted this cute little saying that reads:

You're never too old

to throw random stuff

into people's shopping carts

when they aren't looking.

I. Am. NOT. Joking.

Isn't that hilarious?  So coincidental!!
She is exactly that ornery, and if she didn't live so far away, I'd blame her.  She swears she was not anywhere close to my area, and roads were bad enough that I'm sure she wasn't near.
It still makes me laugh.

So, the end of today's story is that

1. It is igloo cold here, but only a handful of inches of new snow for Valentine's day.
2. The antibiotics are starting to work
3. The steaks were excellent.
4. I hope your Valentine's weekend is wonderful.

the 'little' snow giveaway winner

Thanks to all who visited me on my day of the
Blog Hop!
It was great to play along and see all of the other finishes!!
If you missed it, you can visit HERE to see the others
who also participated!

After my finish of the Winter block of the month
with Quilt Doodle Doodles, 
I had a few extra blocks leftover...
so I put them into a 'little' wall hanging:

It only measures  about 4 inches by 13 inches.

I did the random number thing
and drew a name from all of the comments left on my last post,
and the winner is....
DI, of Quilting is Blissful!

Di said:

What a pretty quilt--

somehow I missed doing this one!!
and as for a row of snowmen--well--

it would go right along fine here today 

as it is snowing outside!!
smiles, di and miss gracie

Congratulations, Di, I've sent you an email.

(Di has a cute blog that you can visit HERE.)

Though I think I'm finished with Winter-y quilt projects inside, 

we did get some more snow outside.

I love snow!

And this storm, though not the blizzard like our friends of the East coast area received,

started here as CHUNKS of snow:

Those large flakes were about palm-sized!,

and were the start of about 6 inches of accumulation.

The three-year-old grandson said they were "tongue catching flakes",

and I agree!

Later that day,  my father-in-law,

who also likes to play in the snow, came to call:

:)

Isn't it beautiful?

I'll be back tomorrow to share a peek of the start of my latest quilt project that's going to a friend in Georgia for Spring.

little pieces from a block of the month

I've put together the top from last year's 
Sew-Along with Quilt Doodle Doodles Block Of the month!
It's a cutie, for sure!

My sincere thanks to Cindy for the free pattern each month.
It was such a fun project!

My finish is a little different 
than the QDD2014 sew-along though, as
I made my blocks smaller than half-sized...
[Cindy's original pattern (quilt finishing 70 by 84 inches) 
had each fabric square cut at 2 1/2 inches, finishing at 2 inches.]
I cut my squares at 1 1/4 inches, 
which then finished at 3/4 of an inch,
and my little quilt finished at 22 by 26 inches.

I'm a little goofy, though.
I have the quilt top pin-basted from the back for hand quilting.
And as I was pin-basting, I'm thinking:
hand-quilting is really NOT a good idea for this little piece...

with each square only being 3/4 of an inch, 

that means that the seam allowances 

cover most of the back of each little block.

So, on to the new quilting plan.

Which I've not really decided on yet. :)

I'll start by removing the basting pins from the back.

Oh, and MORE GOOFY me - 
that bottom row of little 3/4 inch pinwheel blocks 

were not part of the original pattern.

Those are waste corners 
from the snowball Snowmen blocks from the top row.
Also, I opted not to add Cindy's row of really cute Christmas bulbs... (which I made and I'll share later; they will be turned into a little wall hanging banner).
By the way - Cindy of Quilt Doodle Doodles has a new  
Block Of the Month for 2015 -
and the first block is available right now and FREE! 
I've added links, above, in pink, 
if you'd like to jump over and visit Cindy or to join in her next fun BOM! 
(Tell her Debra said HI! :)

Hopefully I'll have the quilting done and ready to share in about a week, with the other BOM participants.