FNSI with Heidi and Bobbi and friends!

Last night, I went to the church to "sew" with my friends.  Some of us sew, some knit, crochet, tat, eat and of course, just talk....
Last night, I knitted for awhile, ate, talked and tatted. I am teaching a friend of mine to tat at this little group and she's helping me with my knitting.  She's a knitter, crocheter, sewer and now she wants to tat too. She's doing great.  She's picking it up really quickly. It took me forever to learn to "flip" my thread but she's already got it. She'll be showing me tricks before long!  Anyway, I worked on my knitting project for awhile and here's what I worked on!  It's called Wingspan and is a free pattern off of Ravelry... I am onto the second triangle in the shawl and it's coming along slowly.  I am not a fast knitter but I enjoy the process. Now, I have to get busy and work on my projects for today. I'll post more later.  Have a great day!

A few things I'm working on this weekend

I hope everyone had a great week.  I've had a good week and gotten a few things going.
I have been quilting on a little quilt for charity and having fun with it.  I finished the quilting on it and now just need to bind it.  I'll show you that little quilt when it's bound. 

Tuesday night was tatting night and I'm back to tatting crosses....so relaxing and fun to do!


Wednesday night, I had to watch DALLAS!  I love it.  JR hasn't changed at all except for his eyebrows getting bushier!  I watched this show years ago and couldn't resist watching it again.  I don't live too far from Southfork Ranch and trust me, it's just a little smaller than what they are saying on the show!  Anyway, it's fun to watch with all the scheming and conniving going on on the show. I hope you guys are enjoying it too....

Last night I went and sewed with some friends at the church.  I forgot to sign up for Heidi and Bobbi's Friday night sew in but I thought about it last night!  I hope all of you had fun sewing together!

I visited with my friends and got a few things done too.  I cut strips for some 9 Patches and sewed the strips together.  I also sewed up a red, white and blue round tablerunner. I saw this on Barbara's blog (Bejeweled) and loved it.  I ordered the fabric from her sister's site, Inchworm Fabrics and got the pattern free.  It was easy and quick to do and I have enough fabric left for one more... I still have to quilt it but it will be next in line. I want to have it on my table for the 4th of July!

Today, I put together 40 purple nine patches for my exchange this month. 

Here's a picture of 80 nine patches together in two sets...they are not sewn together.  I have 40 to sew together now and I'll get 40 more this Thursday too.  I think you call this a postage stamp quilt but I'm not sure.

With my left over fabric from the 9 patches, I put together 4 Disappearing 4 patches but...I cut them the wrong size so I can't use them for the project I intended.  :-(

Oh, well, I'll use them for something along the way.

See how much smaller they are compared to the other DP4 patches I'd done?  I started out with 5 inch squares and found some leftover squares in my UFO box that I thought I used for the project. They were 4 1/2" so I cut the purples down to that size without measuring...Well, duh!   I have a little bit left over so maybe I can make some DP4 in the right size.  I wanted to sew more but the kids are coming over and the baby is waking up so I'll have to stop for now.  Hopefully, I can get some more sewing time in tomorrow afternoon.  Til then, happy sewing!

FNSI with Heidi and Bobbi

Yeah!!!! It's Friday and it's also time to sew for FNSI with Heidi and Bobbi. I was going to go sew with my friends but I have to watch my youngest grandbaby so, we will stay home and play and sew. Tonight, Heidi and Bobbi have asked us to make some pillowcases for the organization called Conkerr Cancer. I love their tag line at the top of their website “Giving sick kids a reason
to smile.. one pillowcase at a time." Arrow Sewing Cabinets and Conkerr Cancer are the sponsors this month. So, since I had a normal mammogram today (WOO HOO!), I'm going to celebrate my personal victory by making some pillowcases. So, if you have a chance go over to Heidi's blog and sign up and sew some pillowcases too. Show what you do tomorrow on your blog and send them to the Conkerr Cancer sponsors and your name goes into a great drawing plus you get to help a wonderful cause! Come sew with us! I'll show you what I do tomorrow, gotta get busy for now!

Friday Night Sewing with Heidi and Bobbi

Ok guys, this Friday night is sewing with Heidi and Bobbi, go on over to their site and sign up!

The badge on the right side of my blog that looks like the one above, click on it and it will take you to their site to sign up or you can click on the title to my post and it will take you there too. I'll be sewing with my friends at the church and sewing with my virtual friends too. Won't you join in the fun with us??

Friday night sewing and Happy Scrappy Saturday!

Last night I went to the church and sewed with my friends.  It was so much fun.  I saw two new quick things and I'll be doing those sometime this week. As soon as I get everything worked out,  I'll show them to you.   They are really fun and I know you will like them. So, please check back this week for some quick things to make.
I took my red blocks and my scrap strips and worked on those a little. We visited and ate and sewed too.  What a fun time with friends.  Today, I made some Disappearing 4 patches.  I saw these last week and just had to make them along with some easy hearts.   I am still doing the red heart blocks and I'll be making those into a little wallhanging.  I'll be making more DP4 patches. I want to make the DP4 with other colors too. This might turn into a rainbow quilt too.  Time will tell as I haven't made up my mind.  Right now, I'm just trying to use up some scraps.  I did two more Fun and Done red strip scrap blocks and that made me think about using my strips to make a little scrappy bag. I'll be working on that this afternoon.  Now, I'm going to see about making a red scrappy little bag.  I'm loving happy scrappy Saturday...mindless sewing!  Ahhh, just fun sewing while I watch kid shows with my grandbaby.   I have looked at the crumb tutorials on Quiltville and another Crumb Mile a Minute block tutorial and I'll be doing some of those too, maybe....

Here's some pics.  Now back to sewing on red blocks!  I hope you enjoy your weekend and get some sewing time in.

Little Red Hearts

Fun and Done blocks. These are quilt as you go and are fun and quick to do.

Disappearing 4 Patch Blocks. These are also easy and quick to do.

Friday Night Sew In with Heidi and Bobbi and my friends

This Friday is FNSI with Heidi and Bobbi, if you haven't signed up yet, go on over to Bobbi's site and sign up. Here's a link to go there.  I plan on sewing Friday night with my friends at the church too.  Heidi and Bobbi did this last year and are doing it again this year. Yeahhhh!  I always get more done when I sign up, I don't know why but I do.  I always enjoy seeing what everyone is working on too. 

Friday night sewing with friends and FNSI with Heidi and Bobbi

I went over to the church to sew with some friends. It was alot of fun but I didn't get alot done.  I forgot one bag at home and didn't have all the things I needed to work on.  That's what happens when you get in a rush to go someplace, at least it does for me!  Anyway, I did get a few things done. Two changing pads for the youngest grand baby and  a red, white and blue block for another R/W/B quilt I'm working on. 

Here's the two changing pads:

Here's the block I made. It was easy and fun and will look good in the red, white and blue quilt I'm doing...

Here's the other blocks I've done for this quilt...One or two of these are left over blocks from Amy's BOM from last year.  I've been doing a block here and there to add to it but I really need to get busy on this now.  I want to get it done before the end of the year to give as a gift.I think I'll do 20 different blocks with sashing.

Like I said, I didn't get a lot done but I sure had a great time with my friends.  I got to see a friend I haven't seen in about three years and she'll be here until Thanksgiving, so I might get to see her again.  It was so good to see her and visit with my other buddies too.  I was able to walk around and see what everyone was working on and nibble on snacks too.  It was pretty relaxed and was just what I needed.  I'm looking forward to going back in a few weeks but maybe I'll get more done next time.

Friday Night Sew in with Heidi and Bobby

Friday night sew in....

This Friday is sewing night with Heidi and Bobby.   You have to sign up for this to be eligible for the prizes. Get your jammies on and sew or work on your crafts on Friday night.   Tell us what you did or blog about it and show pictures on Saturday, then  check back on Bobby's blog on Sunday to see if you win a prize.  She and her cousin Heidi host this every month.  Bobby will have some great prize drawings on Sunday. Check her blog and see if you win a prize.  Here's a link to take you over to her blog to sign up..I try to do this every month.  It's fun to sew with friends or work on my projects all the while thinking there are other sewers/crafters out there doing the same thing I am.  I usually get up on Saturday morning and check blogs that signed up to see what everybody worked on.  Of course, I try to set a timer so I don't sit at the computer forever and lose valuable sewing time!!!  I seem to forget myself when I get in front of a keyboard...This is October and Christmas is just right around the corner!  Do you believe this year has just flown by like this?  Anyway, I have a few Christmas projects to work on and I have to get busy....Now, go sign up and join in the fun.   Happy sewing.

Friday night sewing with friends, Pick 4 Giveaway, My Giveaway and weekend sewing coming up!

Last night, I went over to the church and sewed and hung out with my friends. I took along my OBW to work on and got alot farther along on sewing all the blocks.  I think I might have twenty blocks left to sew now.  I'll be ready for next weekend by this afternoon, I hope.... It was fun to see all my friends and see what they were working on.  I try to take something with me that's easy to sew or work on because I just can't concentrate and have fun visiting at the same time.  These OBW blocks were just the trick....I'll lay this out on my design wall later for you to have a sneak peek but I won't be putting these together until next weekend when we all get together and play with the layout of the blocks... 

Yesterday was also the last day of the Pick tour but you still have time to enter the giveaways on some of the blogs participating in this book review/drawing.  Go here (Sue's blog) and you will see a list of all the blogs you can still enter...So far, I haven't won any of the drawings but I've still got my fingers crossed.  Believe me, it's been really hard to do things with them crossed too!   Anyway, hurry over to the other blogs and comment or follow them to win this great book.  Good luck to you....

Before you go though,  comment on my blog a few posts back,( here's a  link to get you there quicker)  I'm having a drawing for my followers. Today is the last day to sign up.  I was going to show you what you would win but everyone seems to like a surprise so I'll just keep that to myself until the drawing.  I'll show you what you win before I package it up and mail it off.  Now, go comment on my blog to win some surprises. Be sure and let me know where you live, I'm just interested to see where everybody is from, no big deal...just curious.

I don't have the grandbaby today but my DH is off today. We are going to go do a little shopping then I'll be back to work on several items this afternoon.  I want to finish my OBW blocks, I have some naked snowmen to dress (very sexy, I'll show you those later too!) and I have a very cute stuffed doll to make for two wonderful granddaughters.  Beth over at Love Laugh Quilt posted a tutorial of a rag doll she made that I just can't resist making. She just keeps calling my name.  I saw her yesterday and dreamed about her last night.  Since little Carmen isn't with me today, I'll have time to go to my sewing room and pick some cute fabrics for her a sweet dolly.  I can't make just one as I have two sweet granddaughters.  Alayna is six , so her dolly will need to be a little bit more sophisticated, I'll have to really work on hers.  And, I love dolls too, so I'll be making a third one for me!  Oh well, I'm just a big kid at heart.  I have big plans for today so I have to get busy, have a good day sewing and being with family. Come back and see what I've done later and I'll be drawing tomorrow morning for my winner so stay tuned for that.   Happy Labor Day!

Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobby

I was supposed to go sew at the church last night but I put my hip out of place and just couldn't walk on it.  It's feeling better but I'll be taking it easy for a few days.  I wasn't doing anything special to do this, I just turned wrong and stepped wrong and out it went.  Talk about pain to the brain, or hip in this case.  It's ok and back in place but still sore.  I did still sew last night and got a little top partially together.  I got up early this morning and finished putting it together and it is so cute...


I picked this little kit up last weekend at the Plano Quilt Show.  It is a kit for Project Linus and it was a combination of crayon blocks, marker blocks, hand embroidery blocks and machine embroidery blocks.  This was so much fun to work on.  All the while I was sewing this together I could just imagine some little child coloring some of these blocks.  Two of the blocks have kids names on them and some of the coloring is so sweet and innocent it just had to be a child that did it.  This was fun to put together and I'll quilt this one quickly to get it finished for this worthy charity. The girl I talked to at the booth said she passed out 125 kits at the show! 

The Plano Quilt Show was great and I took pictures of some of my favorite quilts. If I get time, I'll post those later.  Gotta go for now and work on some other stuff while the grandbaby is still asleep.  More to come later,  happy sewing!

Friday night sewing with friends

I go to this group on Friday nights every other week.  It is for a few hours and sometimes I get some things done and lately I just can't get anything done here.  I visit more than I get done. I think I'm just going to start taking hand sewing with me instead of lugging my machine and my projects with me.  This just made me decide to do this the next Friday I go.
Every thing I tried to work on just didn't work.  The little block I was working on didn't fit together correctly.  There was a mistake in the pattern and it was about 1/4" wrong on the outside edge...I put it aside to finish up later. 

I pulled out another project and didn't have the  right fabric I needed for the next round. I decided it just wasn't meant for me to finish anything so I just put everything up and sat there and visited.  I was getting flustered and that was not how I wanted to feel.

Friday night sewing and Saturday sewing

Well, I didn't do as much as I wanted to Friday night but I enjoyed myself. I went over to the church and visited with my buddies and I worked on binding a quilt.  I finished  a little over half of it before I put it up and just walked around to see what everybody else was working on.  I enjoy seeing what everybody else is doing to see if I want to do it too!  One lady was working on the blocks that the Fabshophop was promoting and they were turning out really cute.  They call it the Fab Shop Celebration Sampler and you can find it here. They have alot of different blocks and hers was turning out really cute.  I pulled out my camera to take some pics and discovered that my battery was dead.  Sorry about that...Anyway, I charged it up Saturday morning and took some pics of what I worked on yesterday too.  Other ladies were crocheting and working on wool.  I guess I'm going to break down and do some wool work too.  I just love the way it looks and you don't have to needle turn it either....

Here's the quilt I finished binding Saturday morning.  This is called Fiddlesticks and I think it is a Bonnie Blue pattern.  A friend of mine quilted it for me and I just love the way she quilted it...if you click on the picture you can see the quilting...

I also worked on putting together my Cupcake quilt.  My group had an exchange (I showed you pics previously) and then last Saturday we got together and sewed on the quilt top. I put together some 16 patches and decided I didn't like them with the blocks so I then put together some big Nine Patches and cut them apart (Disappearing Nine Patch style). The alternating blocks are the D9P blocks.

I found the cutest cupcake fabric to use as setting triangles and the border fabric. I had some left over DP9 blocks and between that cupcake fabric and those, I might have enough to do the backing too.  Here's the flimsy all put together, ready for quilting...

Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobby

Tonight is Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobby. (If you click on my title of this post, it will take you to Bobby's site to sign up for tonight's FNSI or you can scroll down on the right hand side and click on the badge). I'm already sewing and trying to catch up on some things I've been wanting to do.  I'll be joining some of my friends later tonight to sew. I've been missing going to the church to sew for various reasons.  Mostly family related and I have sure missed seeing my buddies.  It will be good to see all of their smiling faces!

  Won't you join in the fun and sew tonight too?  I'll post pics later tonight or tomorrow and hopefully, I'll be getting something done. I have a free weekend for sewing and I can't wait!  til next time, happy sewing!

Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobby

This week has been busy with my quilt meetings. I had two different meetings this week so I did not get to sew those nights.  I haven't done any sewing this week except for last night.  I went up to the church and sewed with some of my friends and worked on the purple baby quilt.  I decided to do the border a little differently than the picture of the pink quilt.  I'm not doing the leaves all going in one direction.  I'm doing them going up both sides and out both sides at the top and bottom with 3 flowers at the top and bottom....Since I didn't have a pattern and had to figure out sizes of leaves and filler, this is how I decided was the best way to do it.  (I had help from my Friday night friends and help from Freda over at http://imperamagna.blogspot.com/. Freda gave me some help with the size of the leaves.  I played around with several different size leaves  and finally decided which size to use and it was the size Freda had originally given me....I'll be finishing this up today and I plan to start quilting on it today  too...Here's a picture of what it looks like right now and I'll take a picture and show you what it looks like later today.

One thing I did get accomplished this week was to finish tatting my flag.  I have not hidden all the threads on it and I haven't blocked it but here it is all tatted up.

I'll hide the threads that need to be hidden, block it and decide how to put stars on it and the next time you see it, it will look a lot different.  I'm still trying to decide if I should use button stars or what.  I want to play around with some polymer clay and see what comes of that.  I haven't been able to find star buttons the size or color that I want. The pattern just says to tat rings and use those but I didn't like those, so now I'm trying to decide what to do about this.  I worked on this off and on since last July. It's just ring and chains but each row took about 13 hours to do. 

Sewing for the week, Friday night sewing and Saturday sewing

This week has just flown by.  I have been so busy and haven't had the time to post a thing.  I have sewn a little bit this week. I haven't finished anything this week except for a few blocks. Block by block, piece by piece, a little at a time, creates a finished project, or at least that's what I tell myself...So, I don't feel too badly when I don't finish something.

 Last night I went to sit and sew with some friends at the church.  I decided I would cut things out before I went and I got nearly everything sewn together that I took.  I felt so good and was so glad I got so much done.  I sewed my D9P together and decided to make a few more blocks to make it bigger.  I sewed three other blocks together for one of my UFO's, I think it's UFO 2 on my list and I sewed all the flower blocks for my border on the purple baby quilt.  Now, I need to make the leaves and vines sections and I'll be able to put the border together.  Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of these but I will and I'll post them later...

  Today, I went and sewed with my sewing guild friends.  We were sewing on our community projects for the year.  I made a turtle. Yes, you heard me right.  A turtle.  It is so cute...I have three more to sew together. My group is one of many of the ASG (American Sewing Guild) and the community service project nationwide is to make turtle pillows for Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Camp.  We got together today and worked on those...Here's a picture of my cute turtle all done and ready for stuffing. We don't have to stuff these ourselves, we make them and send them to our headquarters.  They are gathering them up and a sewing guild in California will stuff these and sew them shut and deliver them to the camp.  These are alot of fun to make...I have two more to sew up.



I haven't measured these but I'm guessing these are about twenty inches long by about fourteen inches wide.  They are pretty big and will take quite a bit of stuffing.  I hope the kids like them...



Friday night sewing

I got home and started sewing together my Shang Ri La quilt...(I'm sorry, I can't remember the name of this pattern. It is a Marti Michell BOM and I never knew it even had a name.)I got it almost complete and realized I had sewn one strip in wrong. I had to rip it out and clean it up from all the stringies and sew the right strip in the right place. I got it together and it is now ready for the borders.  I'll do those Saturday or sometime next week.  I have something more important to do right now....Here's a picture of the middle part all together without the borders.  I have three borders to add before this one is complete.  I love this quilt because I love the fabric.  I have enough fabric to make a Schnibbles quilt too, Woo Hoo, but I digress, I'll talk about that later...



Don't you love this one?  I know I do, this was a BOM and I have 3 borders to put on it.



After I finished this one, I went through my purple fabrics and pulled out some fat quarters for a new baby quilt.  My new grandbaby will be making her appearance the end of April or first of May but there's going to be a shower and I want the quilt ready for that.  I am planning on making the quilt, bumper pads, sheets and diaper stacker.  But, the quilt is the most important right now!  I saw on Freda's blog, a pink quilt that is just the thing so I'll be starting that tomorrow....

Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobbi

I was supposed to go to a sit and sew tonight but I was just too pooped!  I made the mistake of sitting down and then I didn't want to get up.  I stayed home and wasn't even planning on sewing. I thought I would just take a bath, put on my jammies and go to bed early.  Well, that didn't happen.  I took a bath, put on my jammies, ate some dinner and I felt better.  I didn't want to leave the house and load up my car to go anywhere though, so I just went upstairs and sewed in my jammies like everyone else is supposed to be doing.... I got my second wind and sewed up the rest of the pieces for a BOM from 2008.  I finished all the 8 blocks I needed to plus all the other little squares required to put this together...

See the 5 star blocks?  Well, they look like stars to me...these are the ones I finished last night. 

Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobbi...(NOT!) ...Pansy Park

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Here's a correction!  Last night was not Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobbi.  I jumped the gun, Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobbi is next Friday, February 18th! So, if you haven't signed up for it yet...click on the brown button on the side and go sign up now.  You have not missed it yet!  Sorry for the confusion, it was me that was confused, not you!  Have fun sewing, I'm back to it now!
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Last night was the Friday night sew in...I got several things cut out but not sewn...I did get the final borders put on my Pansy Park quilt and it is now a flimsy!!!! Woo hoo, I'm dancing!  I've had this for about six years and I've worked on it off and on over those years.  I finished all the blocks last October at retreat and put it away one more time.  I am really trying hard to finish projects this year. By finish, I mean complete..quilted and all.  I am finishing up the tops first and I'll start quilting these soon.  I have a Little Gracie frame and a Brother Mid Arm machine and I've only quilted two small quilts with it.  I am not procrastinating using it, I just don't have the time to do everything.  These tops are on my mind and I want to get that done and I'll decide how they need to be finished later.  I have several friends that have Longarms and I can keep them in business this year too.  I do want to do alot of my tops myself and I have done several but I want to see these in my lifetime too.  I work full time and only have so much vacation time!  Gosh, I have a family too and other committments...I do manage my time wisely but there's just not enough of me to go around. Anyway, I'm through feeling guilty now that I've put it in writing, so I'll stop there.  Let's just say, I will be quilting these lovely tops soon and you'll see them again on my blog when they are quilts...So, here's my lovely Pansy Park quilt top.  It is a queen sized top and will fit lovely on my front bedroom guest bed.  Now, go sew and have a great Saturday!

Here's a close-up of the quilt...This was a Thimbleberrie's pattern and fabric...

Friday night sewing

Last night, I went and sewed with some friends at the church.  I didn't know what to take to work on.  I didn't have anything cut out and didn't have the time to cut anyway. I grabbed some little blocks, my Featherweight and a small ruler and headed out the door.  I was able to do three little blocks while I visited too.  I had a great time and got a little done too....These are filler blocks to a sampler quilt that I started in 2007. I will be working on the rest of the blocks and I'm going to finish this one this year too!

Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobbi

Ok guys, it's finally Friday!!!!  It's been a long and rough week and I'm ready for some sewing time.  Tonight is Friday night sewing with Heidi and Bobbi, so, if you haven't signed up, go do it now.  You can click on the title of this post or you can click on the side of my blog that has the brown badge that says Friday night Sewing and it will take you to Heidi's blog to sign up...go do it now.  Go to your sewing rooms or pick up those needles and put on some good music or a movie and let's get busy.  Be sure and post your efforts tomorrow and show Heidi and be in the drawing!  This one is the first of the year and I'm ready to sew.  So, I'll leave you to it and I'll show you what I got done later.  Now, get busy!!!!