Busy week and weekend with the grandkids

Last week was so busy for me I did not get to even sit at the computer let alone post anything.

I went to tatting on Tuesday and one of the girls brought a cross to show us. I borrowed it and am tatting it now and trying to work out the pattern. It's a fairly simple cross and I want to make several, so as soon as I work out the pattern I'll show it.

Wednesday night I made 5 basket blocks for my Civil War block exchange group. I was going to take pictures but I had misplaced my camera.

I finally found my camera...it was by my computer that I didn't have time for all week!

I kept my grandkids all weekend. I stayed at their house and wasn't even near a computer. Well, I was but it wasn't accessible so I didn't even bother. I will be keeping my grandkids again this next weekend too. They'll be with me on Good Friday too. Woo, I love them but they give me a workout. They are 1, 5 and 6 years old and keep very busy. The 1 year old takes a nap but the other two do not and there is no real down time for them until bedtime. They fight that too and it was almost 9:30 before I threatened them to go to sleep...You can tell they are scared of me, right? I was too tired to do any sewing or anything. I did take some hand work with me but I wasn't in the mood for that. I just wanted to sit and vegetate in front of the TV. Of course, there was nothing on that I wanted to watch so I just took a bath and headed to bed.
My son and DIL went to Africa and will be gone for 14 days. My DIL's sister is watching the kids through the week and taking them to school and Mother's Day Out...I have Grammy duty on the weekends. So, I'm going to try to cram alot of sewing in the next 4 days cuz I won't be near s sewing machine the whole 3 days coming up. It will be three different Easter Egg hunts, church and Sunday dinner. Quilting will take second place this weekend....So far, the kids are doing great with Mom and Dad being gone but as the days progress, they'll be missing Mom and Dad more. I hope this coming up weekend goes as well as this past weekend.

I'll take pictures of all the stuff going on and share sometime this week. I have Amy's BOM to do and I still have my UFO to work on. I'm afraid I am behind on that one. I haven't even touched it the last two weeks. I only need 4 more blocks for that one (Dear Blanche-it's on my design wall) then I can put it together. I want to get this one finished soon so I will be working on it. It won't be a UFO much longer. One thing I like about these challenges, they have motivated me to finish my UFO's and not create anymore UFO's.

Gotta go for now, I'll show some pics soon. Stay tuned....

Yeah it's Friday!

This has been a LONG week. I haven't been able to sew but one night this week. I went to tatting on Tueday and Wednesday night I sewed. The rest of the week was either house cleaning or errands. I will have to do some major sewing tonight cuz I'm keeping the grans all weekend. I'll have all three of them this weekend and I'll be watching them at their house. My son and DIL are headed to Africa and they'll be gone for 14 days...

5 Basket Blocks

I made 5 little basket blocks tonight before the storm hit but I couldn't find my camera. I don't know what I did with it...I'll have to take the pictures tomorrow when I find it...OMG, I can't believe I can't find it...I hate losing things especially this, it has so many pictures on it.

Snow Again!

I really didn't believe them earlier in the week when they told me it was going to snow on Saturday and Sunday. I thought, Yeah, right! Well, it was true. It started snowing last night about 9:00PM and stopped about 10:30PM. But, during the early morning hours it started again. It is now officially another SNOW DAY. Church has been delayed and I doubt that there will be very many people there. I live about 13 miles away so I will not be going. I stuck my head out and took a picture. We were supposed to grill out today but that's been put on hold for another sunny day. I guess I'll just have to suffer and go sew some more! Have a happy, productive day.

National Quilting Day and a great giveaway

Go check out Abbey Lane Quilts. They are having a great giveaway to celebrate National Quilting Day. What fun!! They have some great patterns too. Go check them out. Click here to go to their blog and website.


If you didn't know it, the 3rd Saturday of March is designated National Quilting Day. Click here and it will take you to the website for the National Quilting Association and you can read more about it. They usually have a free pattern every year and this year is no exception. This year is in honor of the troops, go check it out....

I hope everyone had a good day and got alot of quilting done today in celebration of National Quilting Day.

Friday night sewing, Jelly Roll Sampler Block 2, Saturday sewing and 4 Patch Exchange

Friday night was sewing with Heidi night. I went to my son's house first and had supper with them and played with the grans for awhile. Then, I came home and sewed up some more Cosmetic Bags for community service...I made 10 bags last night and made block 2 of the Jelly Roll Sampler. I got up this morning and sewed up ten more cosmetic bags...I would have made more but I ran out of zippers again. I have more fabric but will have to get some zippers before I can continue. I'm going to try to make 50 bags. So far, I've made 30. These are quick and easy to make and are so appreciated by the ladies we give them to.




Block 2 of the Jelly Roll Sampler: I'm so loving these colors!




Today, I made one block for our friendship exchange for my small group. We normally only make one block a month but this month we have 2 blocks, so I will make that one later tonight. It's a 12 1/2" star block and I have to decide what star I want to make. I'm still deciding. Here's the one I finished.

This is called Jacob's Ladder Variation.




Do you remember I told you about a 4 patch exchange I was involved in, and showed you the 10 - 5 1/2" blocks I had made..here's the pic of those.



Here are the blocks I exchanged those for and I have sewn them together. I am making at least 10 of these per month to exchange, maybe more...This quilt looks really cute and is a great way to use up scraps. I have a picture somewhere of the quilt. When I find it, I'll post it.



Anyway, so far, that's what I've done. I'll try to sew a little tonight too but wanted to show you what I did today while it was rainy and cold outside. It's supposed to snow. Imagine, this is the first day of spring. I'm ready for some warm weather! Til next time....

Friday night sewing with Heidi

Ok everyone. I'm sorry I haven't posted this week. It's been a little crazy. I have alot to post about but will have to do it tomorrow. I'm headed to my kids house for supper and playtime with the grans then back here for some heavy duty sewing as this is Friday Night sewing night with Heidi....

On your mark, get ready, let's sew!!!!

Sew What's Quilt Group

Thursday night was my small group meeting. It was alot of fun. I haven't posted this week because I was getting all my stuff together for the program. The program I started out with was called Favorite Things, Tips and gadgets...It kind of grew into just tips and gadgets...I tried to show new things as well as older stuff that I love. I think it went ok and no one fell asleep so I didn't feel too badly about it. I did take some pics at the meeting of show and tell. So, here are some quilts and things we are working on...enjoy

This was the first BOM exchange for this year. Of course, she's already got it put together...she's an over achiever! Looks good, Sharon!



Here are the heart blocks we put together for this month....



These two pictures are the blocks for March BOM...
This is just a sample. We can do any 12 1/2" star we want to with Batik fabric and black background.



These 4 blocks are called: Jacob's Ladder variation



This was a Heart Exchange. She received all the hearts for the outside through the exchange. She is making a tablecloth out of this...


This quilt top was given to Jackie. This is one big Lemoyne star. All one piece of fabric. Jackie quilted it on her Long Arm machine. Good job, Jackie.


This is one of the blocks Cathy is working on. Another Christmas card quilt! Lovely. She does this with reverse applique. I can't wait to see the whole quilt put together.


Another one from Nona. This is a Parasol Girl. Her other quilt was little ladies with bustles. This one has a parasol and embroidery work on each little lady. Beautiful work, Nona...


close up of one of the little Parasol ladies


Sharon's first applique. Hand quilted by Sharon, a friend of ours and this will be given to the Mesquite Guild for the auction. I know what I'm bidding on!!!


Nancy made this little donation quilt:

The Dallas Quilt Show

I went to the Dallas Quilt show on Saturday. I didn't take alot of pictures but thought you would like to see some of what I did take....Ah, lovely quilts!

Jelly Roll Sampler Block 1

I sewed a little last night and put my first border on my UFO 2-Dear Blanche. I did sew up three sides of the outer border and as soon as I make the last four blocks I will sew up the last side and attach this final border. I wanted to work on other things today like my Jelly Roll Sampler block. I had a few Jelly Rolls and I decided to use this one because I had some left-over background fabric that I liked with it. I chose Wildflower Serenade II by Moda and I love this first block. I think it turned out great. I love the colors....

Saturday Sewing-Working on UFO #2

I planned on coming home Friday night and sew. I sat down to read my mail and look at the computer to catch up on e-mails and that's all it took. I never went upstairs to sew or do anything. I had the TV on and just couldn't get motivated. I could have gone to a Sit N Sew or I could have gone to sew with a friend. But, no, like a big lump I sat and just watched the TV and didn't do anything. Man, was I disappointed in myself when I went to bed! So, I decided to get up and sew today. I did get quite a bit done so I'm feeling alot better about Friday night. I got the last 4 of my blocks made for the middle part of my UFO and I was able then to put all 99 small 4 1/2" blocks together. Woo hoo, I'm glad that's together and I think it looks great. I'm very pleased with it. I only have 4 more border blocks to make and then I can put the borders on it and call this top done. I'll be doing those later tonight.

Here's the 99 4 1/2" blocks for the middle section. This is my UFO#2 which I call Dear Blanche.



I have an inner border to put on then, I can put on the outer border which are pieced blocks. I still have to make 4 of these before I decide where the blocks will go...I just wanted to throw them up on the design wall to display.




I made 10 cosmetic bags today. My ASG (American Sewing Group) makes these and we put all kinds of personal items in them. Shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, washcloth, deodarant, etc...whatever we can stuff in them or as much as will fit. We give these to the Women's shelter at Christmas. We try to make them during the year and save up as much stuff as we can during the year for these. We have a stuffing party and have alot of fun doing these. We also make backpacks for the kids that go to the shelters and put things in them too but we also try to put colors and coloring books or some little toys in them for the kids too. We enjoy doing these and the shelter really thinks the women and kids that get them enjoy them too. Here's a picture of those. We are making bags for the soldiers too but I have to get some heavier fabric for that and will do some of those soon...



I also did two other blocks today. Both of the blocks are for swaps but one is for me and one for someone else. The pink one is the block I decided to have my group make for me. We have to make up the block and give the directions out when it is our time for the block exchange. Sometimes, we give fabric with the exchange too. It's just up to the individual what they want to do. I'm just giving the directions out and asking people to make the block in white on white fabric, with a dark pink and a light pink. It's a very easy block and I want it to be scrappy so this should do it for me. I will either make this for my granddaughter or give it as a community service quilt....I'll decide on that later.
The other block is a BoM that I am in charge of. This is the 2nd block and it is called Friendship Star. (Oops, I forgot to take a pic of this one. I'll do it later.) Very easy block and sews up fast. I am going to take a break and go eat with my family then come back and sew later...more to come....

Here's my block I want everyone to make:

Friday Night Sew In for March

Ok, girls, go sign up on Heidi's blog (see the button on the right hand side that says: Friday Night Sew in). Click on that and it will take you there. Heidi announced March 19th as the Friday sew in date. Go sign up and sew with us and you could win some prizes plus see all the lovely things others are working on....it's a big motivator!