Bummed...but excited, too!

Today is my last day of work for a few weeks. That in itself is EXCELLENT news!! But I am bummed out because last night while sewing on a blouse, I broke a needle and jammed the bobbin of my Bernina. So will be toting it to the repair guy today after work. He will have several days to work on it as this weekend is Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA and my bee friends and I leave early tomorrow morning for the drive there from northern VA. So, I'll be taking my little 10 pound Brother sewing machine instead. I'm taking a class on machine quilting and a table runner class.
So, I'm VERRRRRRY excited about this trip! It will be my first time there so plan to take lots of photos and will share them with you when I get back!! My friends have been going for years and call it "Quilt Camp".
Have a great weekend everybody! Make sure you do something creative... just for YOU everyday!!

A Day in the Sewing Room

I had today off from work and have been in my sewing room ALL day! Such fun! But I can't share what I'm making yet, because what I'm making are gifts and the recipients read my blog. It's not a quilt or table runner or clothing or a purse or tote. I got this idea surfing the net and saw one. I'm pretty good at looking at things, figuring out how it is made and then making it up.
My three bee friends- Linda, Lorraine and Suzanne, and I are going to Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA next week. We're leaving early Thursday morning so we can be there when it opens at 10:00am. Lorraine and I are driving together and will be coming back to VA Sunday morning, but Linda and Suzanne will stay longer.

We are taking a machine quilting class and a table runner class and will spend the rest of the time shopping!! :-) But this thing I am making is for us to use in the classes. I'm making one for each of us. I made only two today, as it took longer to make the first one and figure it all out. I've got the other two both all cut out and fused and pinned and ready to sew up tomorrow.

I have really enjoyed spending the whole day in my sewing room. I rarely ever get a whole day to myself just for sewing. It is so relaxing to me. I can't wait to retire!!
Take care and do some sewing tomorrow!! :-)

Check Out This Givaway!

Wouldn't you love to wear this gorgeous necklace?

Another great blog givaway from Judith at http://judithbdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/07/judith-bblog-give-way.html

Check it out!! Such beautiful and unique creations!

Bee Day!

Friday my 3 bee friends - Lorraine, Linda and Suzanne, and I went on a day trip to three quilt shops in our area. We drove first to Wilson's in Hagerstown, Maryland. What a nice shop with a great sale going on. Then we drove to Traditions at the White Swan which is also in Hagerstown! No fair one town having two great quilt shops!! We love the folks at Traditions. We've gotten to know them from our local Quilter's Unlimited Quilt Show each June. Their shop is very nice, too. We ate lunch at a quaint little cafe called The Rhubarb House. Verrry yum!

Then on Saturday, we had our monthly bee day at my house. We all made the awesome Big Bag Theory tote from the March/April McCall's magazine. I had made it before out of cute primary colored beach fabrics. This time I made it from Mark Lipinski's Caliphon fabric charm squares.

This fabric line is the same one shown in the magazine. I just fell in love with it. I have always loved the crispness black and white.

Again, like before, I lengthened the straps into shoulder straps which I find more functional for a large tote bag like this. I had an awesome big square black button for it, too.

I quilted it the same way I did the beach one before by using a curved zig zag diagonally through all the squares in both directions. Easy and quick that looked cool, too.

So, you like it? Such an awesome pattern! If you use the pattern and make it up using 3" squares instead of 5" squares, you end up with a perfect size for a daily purse! The possibilities are endless! Sooooo, ready - set - sew!!

OMG!!!!!!! What a Lucky Week!!

This morning, while checking my email, I opened one from QuiltHome.com and found out my blog was the weekly winner!! I won $20.00 to spend on their gorgeous fabric!! Cool, huh?



My goodness! What a lucky week I've had! On Monday I received a wonderful surprise "Thank You" package from my mini quilt swap partner Gloria in Argentina, now this! WoooHooo!


I've just finished finding all the bunnies in the July Fabshophop online. At one of the shops, I saw a cute little snowman kit using charm squares, so I ordered it on Saturday and I got it on Monday, too.




I am sooooo pleased with it! It only took an hour Monday night to cut and sew it up!! Then Tuesday night I quilted it and tonight I finished binding it and sewing on the button embellishments.





It will look great over my mantle come next January when I put out all my snowfolk! I love the splashes of aqua in the collection, so I free-motion quilted holly leaves and berries around the snowman with variegated aqua and blue thread. I used beige thread for the snowman.



It only took one charm pack and some fabric for the backing and binding. The fabric line used was "Crazy Eight" by Moda. The pattern didn't show a nose, but I had a tiny plastic carrot, so I used that in addition to the red and black buttons. He is quite a "charm"ing fellow!! :-)

I also went to see the new Harry Potter movie today. Loved it! There were more adults in the theater than kids... interesting, huh?? Toodleloo for now!! :-)

A Surprise Gift!!

When I got home from work today, there was a surprise package in my mailbox! It was from my new friend Gloria, in Argentina. She was my Spring Blooms Mini Quilt Swap partner. You can check out her blog http://quiltingenargentina.blogspot.com/
I sent her an appliqued flower mini quilt and some fabric and thread last month. And it took the mail service 2 weeks to deliver it and for a while there I was worried that it was lost. But it finally arrived, WHEW!!




Can you believe how sweet of Gloria to send me such a wonderful gift package??? I was soooooooo surprised to see her name on the return address!!



I can't believe Gloria sent me this awesome witch! I am crazy about Halloween and I can't wait for October now so I can hang this up!! She even hand quilted around it, too.





I have always loved the old upright shaped coffee pots. How many of you remember the sound of the old percolator coffee pots?? Isn't this a wonderfully paper pieced block?





I don't know why this photo changed to portrait instead of landscape!! But isn't this tissue case cute? This is the back of it...the other side has a center slot to pull the tissues from!


I just looovvveee days when the mail brings more things than just bills!! Don't you???

What a groovey GiGi Girl !!

I finished the Gi Gi Girl quilt top made from the Moda Za Za line jelly roll. The pattern was from the first Anka's Treasures jelly roll book called "On A Roll". It is so fresh and fun and I just love the way it turned out. What do you think?



The pattern was very easy to cut and sew up. And a single jelly roll makes a good sized lap quilt with enough scraps leftover to make a coordinating table runner. This is the fabric I have for the backing from the same line.



This is the fabric I have for the binding, also from the Za Za line. I feel so lucky that I was still able to find a jelly roll of this collection so long after the book was published! Thank goodness for the Internet and eBay!! :-)



Now, I need your help. How would you quilt this top????
Leave me a comment with your suggestions, OK?

God Bless America!

Have a safe and happy

Fourth of July!!

Another UFO Done! Yessssss!!

I finally got my act together and just decided to quilt the darn thing!! I'd been ruminating over how to do it for over a year! How bad is that?! I tried just stitching around the edges of the black gate... but didn't like it, so ripped it out.

So, then, I just free-motion quilted heart shaped leaves and vines all over the floral and gate parts with variegated green thread. I quilted swirls with light blue thread on the sky part.

I wanted some up close photos so you could maybe see the quilting... I'm not real good at getting up close photos in focus...

I'm looking for an old antique skeleton type key to add to the quilt.

At the bottom of the gate, I quilted grass blades. Can you see the bunny peeking out of the grass there?

My favorite part is the little fairy resting on the top right side of the gate. Maybe I'll let him hold the key when I find it!