Fun times with friends

I went today and sewed with some of my buddies. We met at  a friend's house and sewed together. My buddy, Sharon, has a great big craft room and we got together to cut out a new project.  I didn't take my machine.  We met together to cut out a One Block Wonder quilt.  This is my first on this quilt. I've done a stack and whack and it's very similar.  It was alot of fun to get together and learn the tricks and do the project quicker.  There were four of us that came early to work on this project,  the others came later during the day. They decided to work on other things  besides this project so they brought their sewing machines.  Anyway, my friend Martha, has made four of these (OBW quilts) and she was teaching us to do this.  It went very quickly with her telling us what to do.  I love this...I didn't even have to read the pattern, she just walked us through it....

I had been worried about doing this project as I had not been able to find enough fabric for it. I knew we would be doing this project for about two months and I've looked all over.  I found lots of fabric that I liked but there wasn't enough yardage of any of them. I was looking for a blue fabric.   I didn't find any blue but I did find a beautiful black fabric and I am so thrilled with the way my blocks are turning out.  

I got all of my triangles cut  and I'm  able to start playing with the triangles to see how I wanted them to be sewn together.  Martha called it twist and twirl....anyway, I was sitting and pinning my triangles together to sew at home. I told my buddies I felt like I was having withdrawals from not being able to sew.  Sharon had her machine set up already and said, here, sew on mine....ahhh, relief!  Anyway, I twirled the blocks around and put several together while I was there.  I have about 85 more hexagons to put together.  These are so much fun to do. I love seeing how each one is coming together.  This is what I call mindless sewing,  I'll put a tape on tomorrow and just sew these little jewels together quickly.....We will be getting together again in September to sew the quilt top together.  We have to have all of our blocks ready for this and we will play with the arrangements together.

  Did I tell you that we eat at these gatherings too?  Wow, talk about great food!  These ladies can really cook.  Sharon made pickles for this and she's going to teach me how to make her pickles and "can" them too.  I can't wait!  I've wanted to learn how to do this for awhile and she has said she will show me how. 

Judy shared her recipe for Pimento chesse with me today too.  I love her homemade pimento cheese and now I can make my own...It's so nice to have sweet friends like this.  I love getting together with these sweet women. I didn't take any pics today as I had left my camera at home...

Ok, here's the blocks I worked on today.  I have them pinned together.  These will be sewn together in strips and that's why I have not sewn them together all the way. You leave them in this condition and we'll play with the placement, then we sew the strips all together matching your other hexagon side...I'll show you that later when I do that....

I  was also able to put the final border on another quilt today too.  I had put this top together a few months ago and really wanted a border on it.  The problem was I didn't have enough fabric for a border.  I was short about one strip of fabric (I estimated this- I never measured. )I knew one of my buddies had some of this fabric so I begged her for some.  I asked her for a 6 1/2" strip and I thought that would be enough.  She was generous and gave me two strips. Boy, was I glad she did.  It took both strips and I only had a piece of fabric left that was less than 2" wide.  Woo, there for a while I thought I was going to have to beg some more! I am so much happier with this quilt now.  I liked this quilt but I really wanted a border. I had been thinking about this quilt or maybe I should say fretting about it.  I had gone online trying to find more fabric and it was no where to be found. It had really been bothering me not to have the border on that I wanted. I'm so glad I have friends that have the same taste in fabric.  Thanks, Judy, I really owe you big time!!!  Here's my Crazy 8 quilt with the border on it...Now, I can get it quilted and it will be just like I wanted it.

  Ok, don't forget about the Pick 4 Blog Hop.  Kim over at Magnolia Bay Quilts is the book reviewer today.  Go check out her post about the book and leave her a comment to be entered for the book drawing.  This has been alot of fun to see reviews of a new book coming out.  What a great way to bring out a book.  Click on the link above to go to her blog....Hurry up! Go now and enter and see what Kim is working on!

 I hope everyone is taking care of themselves and the people in the path of Hurricane Irene stay safe, our thoughts and prayers are with you!

til next time, happy sewing!