Scraps

 Such lovely photos here of my hoarded leftover scraps from too many projects and years to remember.  I have dug through these piles and pulled out pieces but most of it is not that useful especially when I can't find what I'm looking for. I have admired Bonnie Hunter's quilts from Quiltville for so long and I finally decided to finally organize them like she suggests. Marianne is kindly helping me.

 And Bonnie is helping me too!  I was the lucky winner of her brand new book when I commented on Bonnie's post over at Stash Manicure.  I love the patterns in Bonnie's book and am feeling inspired to put my scraps to use. Until my stash is cleaned up, I am not likely to go shopping for shirts like she does but I will sure enjoy making these quilts.
Thank you, Bonnie!

Tuesday

It is a beautiful day here on the coast. You can see the blue water in the horizon... and a new picture of the almost completed roof across the street. It's a nice roof :-)

The neighborhood is peaceful even inside. This is a rare picture of Marianne and Elinor in sleeping coexistence.

For quilting projects, I have a couple of blocks to show you. This is a Lone Star made following directions in the book Stars By Magic.  I must say...it was fairly magical!  Pretty easy to follow and easy to get good results. Thank you to Mary at Quilt Hollow for inspiring me to take another look at this book. Where this block is headed is still kind of a secret so I will save the rest of the story for later.

This next block is the 20th Psalm block I've made. It is called Snowflake and is for Psalm 51. "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow."

We are headed out to walk the dogs along the bluff. I hope it is a beautiful, peaceful day in your neighborhood too.

Giveaway Winners

Well, the Spiced Pears seem to be the most popular of these cute little pin cushions. Though I am still partial to the pumpkins.

Here are my first attempts.  I need more pumpkins and haven't started the tomatoes yet.  They are quick to sew up though so my garden will be growing soon.

 It was really fun to read about where each of you live. I hope to see more of the country someday and take in the beautiful sights.
I used the random generator for the 14 entries and it selected 14 the first time around.  So the Spiced Pears kit goes to Linda of Flourishing Palms.  The second "spin" chose #4 and so Big Delores,the pumpkin (my fav :-) goes to Yankee Quilter of Scraps and Threadtales. And since it is thought that the rg never picks #1...I was happy to see it show up this time for Elaine of Faithful Quilter who will receive the Heirloom Tomatoe. Please email me with your addresses and I will pop these in the mail right away.
I really wish I could send all three to everyone! Thank you all for joining in to help me celebrate blogging.

I was 'celebrated' in another fashion too.  I won a cool giveaway hosted by Kelly at I Have a Notion. This is fabric by Laura Ashley and it is beautiful. I love it! Thank you, Kelly.

Check out Kelly's blog today for an adorable pin cushion kit from Just Another Button company.  I love their cute pins....check out the IHAN website for crows and quilt blocks.

101st Post Giveaway

A big Thank you to all of you that have made blogging fun, inspiring and a community. To celebrate, I'm hosting a giveaway (and doing some shameless promotion) of cute pin cushion patterns. These are not just any pin cushions...they are tomatoes, pumpkins and spiced pears designed by a friend that I met through Melanie of Crazy About Quilts.  Rana of Pieces of Rana's Life has a fairly new pattern company offering designs for quilts, totes and these sweet little notions. Check out more of her patterns at Sewn into the Fabric

For the giveaway, I'm offering one kit (pattern,walnut filler, and some fabric to use) for each of 3 winners.  So join me in celebrating blogging by leaving a comment on this post and mention which one you would like.  If you care to make the replies extra fun to read, please let me know something you like about where you live. Next Monday I will pick three names (prolly using the handy random number generator) and announce those who will win a pattern and kit.

neighbors

This is my 100th post and I've been planning a giveaway...but I haven't completed the little projects involved and so it will have be delayed for possibly a 101st giveaway. Stay tuned. It involves fruit and vegetables and fun :-)

Now to the neighbors...on Christmas Day we walked the dogs by our friends house to deliver a gift. We found that their frig had up and died that morning and offered space in ours till they could get another one working for them.  When they were up and running again with a new one, they came for their food and brought this beautiful wall hanging that Darlene (no blog) made.  She uses her Bernina for amazing embroidery work and makes wonderful quilts showing the designs. I enjoyed it for an extended Christmas and will find a place to hang it next Christmas.



The neighborhood excitement today is across the street where a new house is being built. We thought the roof was going to be the curved spanish looking tiles (?) but a huge truck just pulled up with what looks like slate (flat) tiles. We like this look so we are eager to see what goes on :-)

The girls are interested too.

So I'm off to stitch for a bit. Hope you are enjoying your day!

quilt for mom

I purchased a kit of fabrics at our local quilt show a couple of years ago and finally was able to complete it over the past months. It will look good on my mom's bed. Marianne was kind enough to bless it for me after quilting while I prepared the binding.

The fabric is predominantly Robyn Pandolph from her Sumptuous Living line.  They are beautiful florals but they raveled so much during sewing that I was afraid I was going to lose my seam allowance!  I also had some 'pattern' issues.  Since I was making the quilt bigger than the pattern I was using, I wanted to check out how many blocks I should make for it. I have some early EQ software that came with my Bernina embroidery software. So I entered the measurements and calculated how many blocks I needed.  Unfortunately, the calculations were way off and I made the quilt body way too big.  I had to subtract one planned inner border and cut the main border size in half just to keep this quilt at a reasonable size for the queen size bed that my mom has.  I had my friend, Rana, enter the numbers on her EQ7 and came out with the correct calculations.  I was not happy with the error but I know now not to trust my current software and well, Mom still loves the quilt, so all is good.

Quilting pattern is called Feathered Curls.

I had purchased extra fabric and have quite enough left over to make some smaller quilts for more spring to share in other homes.

Psalms block #19

The block for Psalm 32 is called "Hiding Place".  Not the most thrilling block but I love this verse from the scripture. "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance" Ps. 32:7
It is a beautiful day here in Cambria, with skies clearing from storm clouds and the sun shining brightly. Today is my mom's 89th birthday ...and though her new bed quilt is still on the quilt frame!   ...we are celebrating with a little lunch at her house with her 2 neighbor friends that meet with her every day for prayer and devotion. The wonderful friends that love her reflect the blessed richness of her own soul. Happy Birthday, Mom!