Yes, I do finish a quilt every once in a while!

I managed to get the baby quilt quilted and bound last week in time for the shower on Sunday. The mommy-to-be loved it - along with everyone else in the room. Several future moms said that they wanted a quilt just like it when their time comes! I wanted to keep it for myself! I love the blue and brown together. Very rich looking!

Tonight is meet the teacher night at the kid's school. We already know both of their teachers. Ian has Maddie's first grade teacher - so I am very happy! And Maddie has a girl from church for her third grade teacher. Maddie LOVES Miss Nicole - so it should be a good year. Classes start on Thursday - at which time I am hoping to retrieve my house from it current state of filth! I have not managed to keep ahead of the mess this summer. Maybe with the kids gone for 7 hours each day I can get something productive done. Or maybe not!

Check this out!

My mom is selling treasures from my grandparents' house on ebay for my grandfather. My grandfather worked for an auction house for over 30 years and before that he owned his own antique store. Anything they saw that they thought might someday be collectible, they bought and stored it away. My grandfather has finally decided to let us help him clean out some of these treasures. On my trip to Tennessee, I brought home several popcorn tins and boxes full of vintage buttons. I will be listing these on ebay later this fall.

Right now my mom has a quilter's diary listed. It is from 1877. I looked through it and it was so cool! You can check it out here!

Do you believe in UFOs?

I am just knocking them out around here! This afternoon I pulled out another zip-lock bag with a in-progress project in it and went to work. I had a huge pile of left-over 2 inch blue squares left over from various projects and thought I would make another quilt like this. I had the four patches already made so I put it together with the solid blocks and got six rows put together. I guess it will have to go back into the bag for a while to age some more I gather some more blue scraps for more four-patches. I may have to raid my mom's box of nickel squares while I am at her house next week.
Before we went to the beach last week, I had dug another well-aged project out to work on. These nine-patches are made from fabrics that Maddie had dresses made from when she was little. I made most of the dresses (with lots of help from Nina) - my mom made her a few - and Nina even made her several (with matching ones for Eva!). I am going to use them in a pattern from "The Joy of Quilting". The alternate blocks are a rail fence block (navy and white) and a solid white block. The problem is that I no longer have that book and can't remember the layout! Nina is going to get her mom to send me a picture of the quilt from her copy of the book.
Hhhmmmm.....what else can I find to work on around here? I am running out of UFOs but the pile of "To Be Quilted" tops is growing!

Finishing up some UFO's

I have been in the mood to finish up some unfinished projects. Tonight I dragged out the box that had all my orphan blocks in it. Not as many as I had thought. Surprisingly (haha) most of the blocks contained blue and yellow! Right now this piece is about 50 inches square. I am going to put a wide border around it to make it into a lap size throw. I have got plenty more of the blue and white floral fabric that I used in the large vertical block in the center.

This is another UFO I finished this week. I had pieced nine patches out of the leftovers from the quilt I made for my sister for Christmas. I was bored with the nine patches so I cut them in half in both directions and came up with this. A little bit busy, no? But I still like it. It is about 35 inches square.


We are headed to Tennessee on Monday for another quick visit with my family before school starts back on August 9th. Where did the summer go?

Staying up waaaaayyyyyyy to late!

Sunday afternoon a couple of friends had their new house burn down...to the ground. They were supposed to move in today. They had crews out there refinishing the floor and most of the workers were smokers. They are thinking that maybe one of the workers threw a cigarette butt into the grass and the dry brush caught fire. As dry as it has been here it quickly spread. When it hit the house, it burned quickly because of all the fresh polyurethane on the floors. The fire department was supposed to come out to investigate yesterday. Thankfully no one was hurt and their personal belongings were not yet at the house. But it is still a huge loss for them.

So I was laying in bed at around midnight on Sunday night thinking about all of this and how horrible I felt for Sheryl. What to do, what to do. In my head, I went through all of the quilts I have sitting around here and of course couldn't part with any of them. So then I started thinking about what quilt tops I had sitting here waiting to be quilted. I remembered this green yellow brick road quilt - made with the leftovers from this quilt. I got up and went to the sewing room. Found some backing fabric. Got everything pinned on and started quilting. It is amazing how few interruptions there are from midnight to 3:30 in the morning! I got the quilt quilted and got the binding made before collapsing. The next morning I got up and put the binding and the label on. I think it turned out really cute. I quilted it doing big loopy-loops and leaves. Most of the fabrics had leaves on them so I thought it was appropriate.

I delivered it to Sheryl yesterday morning. She was so surprised and loved it. Her 3 year old immediately climbed up on the chair where we had it spread out and wanted to be wrapped up in it!

I am so glad that I was able to give a friend lots of quilty hugs!

I'm in love.....again!

I knew when I bought these fabrics that I would love the resulting quilt - and I do. And so does Maddie. She has already asked if she can have this quilt. I was hoping that there would be enough leftovers to make me a wall hanging but there isn't. I used up almost all of the brown fabrics. Oh, well! I think the mommy-to-be is going to love this. She has very classy taste. We teased her because when they built their new house, she had a crystal chandelier installed in their guest powder room! Only Holly would do this!

Now to get it quilted and bound - but I've got a whole month before the baby shower. Can't believe I am this far ahead of the game.

We have a lot (around 100) college students that go to church with us. Every year a new batch comes in and other ones graduate. We hate to see them leave, but it is the normal cycle of life in a college town. This year several girls graduated that I was close to. One girl, Lacey, had taught bible classes with me several times. And she loves my kids and they loved her. She baby sat for me a couple of times. Anyway, after she left I felt like I wanted to send her a graduation present. This green quilt had been hanging over my sewing table but was replaced at Christmas by the quilt my mom made me. I am kind of over the lime green now. So I decided that it was time to send it on to Lacey. She called Monday night, right after she got the quilt. She loved it. She said she wanted to carry it around with her everywhere - like a three year old and her security blanket. I have got one more girl I want to do something for - but she's not leaving town until August. What to do, what to do?

More Pictures from my trip north

I took all these pictures a few days ago, but am just now sitting down to get it all together. Since Nina took time out of her busy packing schedule to show you her shopping finds from our time together, I thought I would share my finds too. I got this quilt at the same antique store that Nina got her grandmother's flower garden top. The quilt is twin size and I got it for $55. The back is pieced from several different fabrics - probably a slightly later date than the top.

I have been lusting after old library card file cabinets for several years. They are a very hot commodity. Since I haven't found any full sized ones that are available and that I can afford, I went for a smaller version. I have it sitting on top of my small book shelf in my sewing room.

This is Maddie's new bed. It is an old iron bedstead! I love it! I found it at an antique mall near my parent's house in Tennessee. Got it for $75! Yeah - that is my new "old" quilt on the bed - just so I can photograph it.

My mom has an iron bed that is very similar to this in her guest bedroom. It was my great grandmother's bed. Funny story about that bed. When I was a tiny baby, Mom and Dad took me to Mamie's house so she could meet me. Mom was changing my diaper on the bed and of course I took the opportunity to tinkle on the bed! My mom was so embarrassed. She went to Mamie and told her what had happened. She told my mom, "Don't worry - you did the same thing!"

This cute little jar came home with me from a antique mall in Muncie. I just loved the odd round shape and the handle. I filled it with buttons from my grandmother's button collection.

And saving the best for last! Here is the fabric that me and Nina dyed. We had so much fun!!! When Nina makes her millions from all her business endeavors, we are going to start our own fabric dyeing business and all the fabric colors will have food names. Like Pomegranate and Passion Fruit. Once again, I ended up with very few blues. Probably because I was trying to keep the anti-blue person happy! But we had fun anyway.

Well, it is time for bed! Today I finished up the Auburn baby quilt - just in time for the shower tomorrow! Just have to slap a label on it in the morning. I have got most of the blocks made for the brown/blue baby quilt. It is looking really good. I was hoping to have enough left over fabric to make me a wall hanging but I think it is going to take every scrap I have. More pictures to come!

The case of the missing quilt

I have made it home from the summer's big trip. I had so much fun! We ate too much, talked a lot, laughed a lot, and shopped a lot! I will share more pictures later but I wanted to show you some pictures from the mystery that happened before I even left Tennessee.

First - here is a picture of me and Nines. Notice that somehow we have the same color of hair. More on that in another post!

Here is Nina's birthday quilt. She picked out the red fabric last summer when we were together. Her rules for this year's challenge quilt were simple - only two fabrics! I put the red together with a medium tan. I really like how it turned out. Kind of calmer than last year's quilt, no?
Wednesday morning before I headed off to Indiana, I asked my dad to help me get a picture of Nina's quilt. After he held it up for me, I laid it across a chair in the living room. About half and hour later, I started packing up the car. When I went looking for Nina's quilt, it is missing. It is no where to be found. My mother had already mentioned that if Nina hated the quilt for some reason, she would be glad to take it. So I went to Mom's bedroom - just in case the quilt had walked in there by itself!

First - I came across this bear claw quilt (in reds and creams) that I made for my sister about 6 years ago. Mom is keeping it "safe" for her!


Then, laying across the foot of Mom's bed, is the anniversary quilt (in red and tans) that I made Mom and Dad three years ago for their 40th anniversary. Hmm... what is that that I spy laying across her foot board? Could it be?

Yes, my mother, in her frenzy of straightening up the living room, had accidentally put Nina's quilt in her bedroom. Amazing, isn't it? She tried to act shocked when I told her where I found the quilt, but I don't believe her!

More pictures of my Indiana fun coming soon!

The day is almost here!!

Tomorrow morning we head for Tennessee and then Wednesday me and DD will go on to Indiana to see Nines and her family. We are all very excited!!

Today instead of staying home and doing something useful like packing, I decided to run over to Montgomery and go to the big mall there. I was looking for a pair of sandals that our Sears store here didn't have in my size. Got there and tried them on and didn't like them as much as I thought I would. The strap on the back was as tight as it would go but still kept slipping. Ended up finding some other at Parisians that I liked just as well. Also found a couple of shirts and a cute tan denim jacket - all on clearance!

Also hit Kudzu Blossom Quilt Store. Fun, fun, fun. I went there to by my mom a birthday present. I can't tell you what it is on the off chance that she might read this before I give it to her. I will make sure to take pictures to share with you.
When I came home I sat down and sewed the binding on Nina's quilt - at least on the front. I will do the other side tomorrow night when I get to Mom's house because I don't have any red thread to do the other side. Nothing like putting something off until the last second!

We started packing my CRV for the trip - starting with one of these.

A friend gave us her kid's old one right after Christmas. My kids are really too big for it so we are hauling it up to my parents house for my niece and nephews. DH had to remove all the wheels and the back cargo piece. Now the problem is I don't have much room for everything else! The kids will have to sit with their feet on their suitcases but I think we should make it. The big question is will Papa be able to reassemble the Gator before my nephew Joey has a meltdown over it!

I will try to post some pictures from Nina and mine fun adventures. Have a great week!

Almost there!

Unfortunately, I am not almost there (Indiana) - physically. But I am gradually getting my act together so that I can head that way on Tuesday.


I spent all day Friday working on the quilt for the lady at the sewing center. This quilt held several firsts for me. First time to try free hand spirals - love them!!! Boy can they use up a lot of thread! Also tried echo quilting for the first time. The main body of the quilt was made up of blocks that had chenille shapes in the middle of them - hearts, daisies, stars, and spirals. I echo quilted around each of the shapes. I had to call Nina for some encouragement that I wasn't going to ruin this quilt! The alternate blocks were just a solid fabric - blue with little red stars. So in those blocks I did little loopy loops with some free hand stars thrown in. About a quarter of the way into quilting this, I realized that running out of thread might be a possibility. I hadn't counted on those spirals using up so much thread. The spool on the machine was brand new - about 1100 yards. The one I was winding bobbins off of had been used a little bit for something. I figured that as long as I had thread on the bobbin spool I was ok. Eventually I used the whole bobbin spool and another yellow that had maybe three bobbins worth of thread on it. Used all those bobbins. I was down to the last bobbin of thread. I think there was maybe one bobbins' worth of thread on the spool on the machine. That last hour of quilting yesterday morning I kept saying "Please, please,please - don't let me run out of thread!!" I had half a bobbin left when I finished! Way too close for comfort! I did a big happy dance! Got it off of the machine and delivered it. They LOVED it! I was so relieved. She even gave me a good sized tip on top of the price of the quilting! Here is a picture of some of the free hand spirals.

Yesterday afternoon I got the sewing room cleaned up - especially my sewing table. It was about a foot deep in stuff. Had to have it cleaned off so that I can sew the binding on Nina's quilt. I even found the binding strips that I had already cut!

Got a pile of bills paid and reloaded the dishwasher. Put a load of laundry into wash. I may eventually get everything ready to go.

Oh - one more question for you. A week from Thursday is my mom's birthday - the big 60. Me and my sister can't think of what to get her as a present. Anyone have any great ideas? Thanks for your help!

Have a great Sunday!

Can I get it all done?

School ended last Thursday. For some reason I thought I had several weeks before I went on my trip. Wrong! Now I have five days to get a whole lot of stuff done! I have Nina's birthday quilt all quilted- it just needs to be bound.

I also quickly pieced a baby quilt. The shower is June 23rd - just a week after I get back from our trip. They are doing their nursery in Auburn Tigers theme. Well....... All of the Auburn fabric is pretty obnoxious. I was able to find some blue and orange ginghams. Both are tiny little checks. It really helped to soften the Auburn fabric.

These are the fabrics for the other baby quilt I have to make this summer. I think this is way too many fabrics for the pattern I am going to use - but I would rather have too many choices than not enough.

Last night, DD wanted to have a friend sleep over so I stayed up late supervising the chaos. I got the queen size quilt pinned on the machine. This is the quilt I am quilting for the owners of the local sewing center. She already had it pin basted and had sewn a few basting lines. I dissected the whole thing yesterday morning. She was out of Warm & Natural batting at her store so she had bought a batting at Walmart. It was yucky. Do you like that excellent description? Yesterday I went in and got some W&N from her to use instead. I am hoping to get started quilting on it today. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Here's to a productive day!

Would Nina peek?

I got the top to Nina's birthday challenge quilt put together yesterday. Once I got the chance to sit down and sew for longer than five minutes at a time, the blocks went together pretty fast. I momentarily considered posting a progress picture - since I know Nina is on a mini-vacation by herself to Oregon. But I don't know if her friend in Oregon has a laptop they might be toting around with them. You will just have to wait a couple more weeks until I give it to her.

I am planning on going to Tennessee on June 5 and then leaving Ian there with my parents. Me and Maddie will go on up to Indiana on the 6th. We will come home on the following Tuesday. Me and Nines already have several places we have to eat - a Chinese buffet and the Cabbage Rose (for their yummy cashew chicken salad croissants!). And of course there will be lots of shopping thrown in for good measure. The same little town where the Cabbage Rose is located also has two quilt stores and lots of antique stores. Nina's DH suggested we go to this little town 6 years ago, when we were having a girls' day out. I was 9 months pregnant and we were trying to walk the baby out. He hung on for another two weeks! We have been going back to this town ever since.

I got the two graduation quilts down on Tuesday night. I gave them to the boys' grandma Wednesday night at bible class. She was so excited to have them done. And from what I hear - the boys both loved them.

I have one more quilt that I would love to get quilted before I go to Indiana - so I can have some more spending money! This one has already been pin basted and so I will have to dissect it before I can load it on the machine. She wants echo quilting done around the applique shapes in the quilt blocks. I am a little nervous about this!

I also need to measure a quilt that is sitting here waiting to be quilted. My friend Christie made it for her daughter's bed. It started off as a queen size quilt, but when they moved recently, they gave their daughter their old king size bed. So Christie enlarged the quilt by adding a border. Now I am worried that it will be too big for my quilt frame. I may have to haul it to Indiana with me and talking Nina into helping me get it done on her big 14 foot frame! I am just gonna do a big meander so it shouldn't take too long. Her quilting room is located out by her "Guest Suite" - so I could always sneak in there and do it at night!

I guess I should go do something useful! The house looks like a tornado hit. I'm not sure there were any survivors!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Quick update!

Tuesday -

There were no sub positions today so I have had another day to get the twins' quilts done. I finished quilting the first quilt yesterday morning and then got the second one loaded on the machine yesterday afternoon. I got it about half quilted last night and finished it up this morning. While waiting for some cupcakes to bake (for tonight's soccer party), I got the edges trimmed. The fabric she sent for the bindings turned out to be extra wide - made for a backing. Really cuts down on how many strips I had to cut and piece together! The binding for the first quilt is all pieced and ironed and draped over the quilting machine. I am avoiding it. My least favorite task is always putting on the binding. Just ask Nines - I usually try to avoid it like the plague.

The lady I quilted these two quilts for is coming to town tomorrow night and graduation is on Thursday night. I really want to get these done and give them to her tomorrow night at church.

So which one of my lovely blogging friends wants to come help me?

Where did everybody go?

Where has the past month gone?

Sorry - but this post will have to be picture-less - I can't find my camera at the the moment - let alone the cord to hook it up to my laptop!

This past month has been busy. I have hosted a double bridal shower, gone on a trip with DH to San Antonio, and been a sub lots of times at both kids' schools. Here in Auburn, it is the last week of school and everyone is a little bit hyper. Every night when I tuck Ian into bed, he gives me a count down on the days of school that are left. I'm just ready to be able to sleep in a little!

While in San Antonio, I took a cab to the closest quilt store. It is called Las Colchas - which is Spanish for The Quilts. It is located just north of downtown in a cute little cottage style house. I found some beautiful fabrics for one of the baby quilts I need to make this summer. The mama-to-be is doing the room in browns and blues. I will post a picture of the fabrics when I find my camera! The funniest part of the trip to the quilt store was the trip back to the hotel. The cab ride there cost $6. Trying to save myself another $6 (plus the fact that I would have had to phone the cab company to get a cab) - I decided I could take a public trolley back downtown. The store owner told me where I could catch the trolley (she was wrong!). I walked the 5 blocks to the BUS stop and waited there for 20 minutes - with no sign of a trolley or a bus. Finally, I gave up. I could see downtown from where I was. It started only a few blocks away - really! Being a girl that used to live in NYC, I decided I could hoof it. How far could it really be? It turned out to be several miles to our hotel. But I got a nice walking tour of San Antonio while I was roaming around. Plus all that extra exercise let me indulge in more chips and salsa at dinner!

This week I am feverishly trying to finish quilting two graduation quilts for a set of twins we go to church with. Their grandmother made the quilt tops and is hiring me to finish them for her. Craig's quilt is on the machine and is about one third quilted. Clint's quilt is waiting. Their grandmother is mathematically challenged. When I emailed her how to figure out how much the quilting would cost (cents per square inch) she emailed her daughter and said "It is either going to be twelve cents or nine thousand dollars!" Unfortunately, when I got the piles of stuff from her - the tops are both slightly bigger than the backings! UGH! I am also supposed to be binding them both for her. Graduation is on Thursday but I don't know if I will get them done by them. The boys have already seen the tops so it is no big deal.

I also have another quilt waiting to be quilted. I was in our local sewing center last week to buy fabric to make a baby quilt. The quilt owner's wife asked me if I would please take a quilt she had made for her daughter and quilt it. It has been sitting there for over a year, waiting for her husband to do it on a regular sewing machine. Now the daughter is getting married and wants the quilt done! So the quilt came home with me. At least I should have a lot of spending money when I go visit Nines in a few weeks. Yes, I am already planning on falling off the "No Buy" wagon!

Time to get busy! What have you been up to?

I really wanted too.....

I really wanted to quilt for a while today. I even got psyched up last night and bought the fabric I needed to work on Nina's birthday challenge quilt. I hope she likes red and lime green together! Just kidding. This year's challenge is a two color quilt. She chose this lovely deep red fabric with a delicate rose pattern. I got to pick the coordinating fabric. Does she trust me? Will she still love me when she sees this quilt?

Anyway, I was all set to quilt this afternoon and then the whole day got away from me. This morning was filled with Ian's soccer game (where he scored all but one of his team's goals - but they don't "keep score" - so everyone wins!) and then we went to the Vet school's open house. We saw some beautiful horses and lots of different breeds of cows. We even saw a sheep herding dog demonstration. The man directed the dog what to do by whistling - just his mouth - not a whistle. The sheep just looked bored and tired of the whole thing. Then I went and picked us up chinese for lunch. After lunch everyone was so crabby, I made us all take a nap while DH got some work done in the peace and quiet. After naps, we went looking for a new TV for the bedroom but ended up deciding to wait. By the time the kids came in from playing outside, it was time for baths, dinner, and bed.

How much sewing did I get done amongst all this? Exactly TWO four patches! Oh well....it was a wonderful day anyway...beautiful 70 degree weather...fun with the family...got to watch a couple episodes of 24, season 2.

But that leaves me with a lot of quilt to get done in the next six weeks! Wonder how my birthday quilt is coming.

Anyone out there know of a cute line of chocolate brown and light blue fabrics? I need to make a baby quilt in those colors. Let me know!

Words that start with "B" (a.k.a. my new excuses)

After my little fall off of the "no-buy" wagon over spring break, I got to thinking about the self-imposed rules. Most of us will agree that there are several B words that are allowable purchases - backing, borders, batting, bindings.

I came up with several other B words that I might have to allow:

1 - Babies - I have several baby quilts in my near future and I don't have a lot baby friendly colors in my stash. Both are going to be boy quilts. One mama-to-be is considering chocolate brown and light blue. That would so cute!

2 - Blues - just to depress Nines!

3 - things for Best Buddies! Surely, Nina will approve of this one!

4 - Bribery - I needed to buy some fat quarters for my mom - to bribe her into ever wanting to be left alone with 4 or 5 grandchildren again! It worked!

5 - just B-cause!


I got the blue and yellow hearts quilt quilted today. Now all that is left is my favorite part - the binding. In case you can't tell, that was me being sarcastic! I am subbing on Wednesday and then again next Monday and Tuesday, so I would really like to get this quilt out of the way.

Got to go make some chocolate chip cookies for the family!

How did it get to be April 6th?

I am sorry I have disappeared for so long. The last time I posted was the weekend before the week before spring break. Did that make any sense? Anyway...the week before spring break was also the Scholastic book fair at my daughter's school and yours truly was in charge of it. Fun, fun, fun. And to top it off, I subbed at the kindergarten on Thursday and at DD's school on Friday. We had a lovely spring break in Tennessee at my parent's house. The kids "helped" Papa build a tree house. It might have been quicker without their help! Me and my sister even got to have a day out together with only one of the five kids tagging along. Have you ever tried shopping for bras with an unhappy 22 month old? Exciting!

Yesterday I got to sew for about three hours straight! It was so peaceful! I managed to get these hearts machine appliqued onto the backgrounds while at my mom's house. Came home and found the perfect material for the sashing and borders. I like how it turned out. Plus it used up 2 yards from the stash and another 3 yards for the backing! I am hoping to get it onto the quilting machine today and maybe even finish it up this weekend.

I am a little surprised that Nine's hasn't tattled on me already! On my day out with my sister, we stopped by one of my favorite quilt stores in Goodlettsville, Tennessee and of course they were having a Shop Hop. They had a whole row of beautiful fabrics on clearance - most for about $3.99 a yard. I found a backing for my hand-dyed curves quilt. That purchase was legal! Then I found another blue that I fell in love with. OK, I fell slightly off the wagon. Just a little bit. But I climbed back on. I also grabbed a couple of fat quarters for Nines and for my mom (for watching the kids while me and sis went out!). When I got to the counter, the cashier told me that the fat quarters would be regular price unless I bought 20, in which case they would be a dollar a piece. I told her thanks, but I don't need 20 fat quarters. Later, I happen to look at my hand-written receipt and notice that I had bought 8 fat quarters for $2.50 each. 8 times 2.50 equals $20. Did she bother to tell me that I had already spent $20 and I should go pick out some more FREE fat quarters? NO! So I went back to the store on Friday on my way home and showed the manager my receipt. She very kindly told me I could go pick out my 12 free fat quarters. It would have been nice if the cashier could have told me this the first time around.

The thread in the picture is from Joann's. It is 40 wt. cotton quilting thread from Signature. Going to try it on the quilting machine. It is all variegated. Started off at $35. Marked down to $14.99. Rang up at $7.50! Good deal!

The white fabric is to make hand print quilts for the kids teachers. I am subbing in DS's class for two days in a couple of weeks. I plan on doing their hand prints then.

And this is my daughter, the artist. Last fall, she had a piece of artwork chosen to be in the Superintendent's Art contest. Each art teacher and principal picked one piece from each grade to represent their school. Then the district's super picked the pieces to go onto the state. Maddie was one of her school's representatives. Now she has had another piece (the cows behind her) chosen to be in an art show for the school district. They had a opening reception on Tuesday night. I think Maddie was more interested in the free chips and cookies!

What's new with you?

Where has this week gone? Here it is Friday already. My kids have the day off from school for a teacher work day. We are taking it easy. DD spent the night at a friend's house and will be home in a little while.

I ordered some new quilting thread last week. Donita Reeve's Love to Quilt store is no longer going to carry Aurifil thread so they have been having an amazing sale on their remaining stock. They are down to just a very few colors. The red spool is a little more orangey than I would have liked but I am sure it will get used!

These 4 heart blocks are part of a UFO that a friend wants me to finish for her (for pay). It was supposed to be a 12 block baby quilt. Ginger and one of her friends were going to learn how to quilt together. Anyway, her friend started to make Ginger this baby quilt about 4 years ago and never got it finished. The hearts all need to appliqued down. I told her I could add some sashing and a good sized border and make it into a lap sized quilt. She loved the idea. I am going to machine applique the hearts.

My parents were supposed to come visit us a couple of weeks ago but my dad threw out his back and they had to stay home. My mom went ahead and mailed Maddie's birthday gifts. My sister sent along this little present for me! There was no candy in the tin - just fabric! My middle name is Reeser - my great grandma's maiden name and my grandfather's middle name. So Reese's peanut butter cups have always been a favorite. They are DH and DS's favorite candy. Abby, my four and a half year old niece, helped my sister pick out the fabrics. Abby seems to have inherited Nina's amazing sense of color!

Have they lost their memory?

I sat down this morning to check my email and my daily blog reads and decided to turn on "Simply Quilts" to see what Alex Anderson was doing today. During her little intro she said that today's guest was Ann Fahl and she was going to show free-form patchwork.

Guess what this lady's new technique is! String quilts! At no time during the entire show does Alex or Ann say the word "STRING". Ann claims to have come up with this new idea about 15 years ago. Hhhmmmm....what about all those antique string quilts like the ones Bonnie talked about over on Quiltville ?

Ann Fahl even offers a one-day class on how to make her free-form patchwork. How could you need an entire day to learn how to make a string block?

Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but this seemed a little ridiculous to me!

WOW! Twice in one day!

DH just called and his flight has been delayed - so that means my delayed house cleaning is OK! I finished up Ian's train pillow case. It is such a quick project! Instant gratification!

Isn't this train fabric great? It is perfect for an older boy that still loves trains. Very realistic.


The french seams made this whole project so nice and neat. Here is my quick little tutorial on french seams. First off, you lines the raw edges up - RIGHT SIDES OUT - WRONG SIDES TOGETHER !!! This goes against our training as quilters, but you can do it! Sew a seam, about 1/8 of an inch from the raw edges. Press the seam just like you sewed it. Then press the seam allowance to one side. Then flip the fabrics so the right sides are together and the raw edges of the seam are hidden inside. Press.


Now you can sew another seam (right sides together) about a quarter inch away from the edge.

Open the fabric and you will have a beautiful seam with all the raw edges enclosed. After I pressed this finished seam to one side (the striped fabric) , I did some top stitching to hold the seam allowance in that direction.

Finished seam, all nice and neat!


Now that the pillowcase is done, it must mean that it is time for a nap!