Calgon.....

I know I've slacked off on posting. I've slacked off on sewing too. I went to the guild meeting last night though and showed off the "Hole in the Barn Door" and 1 of the shooflies. Got lots of compliments and got lots of inspiration to get going again.

There's a game going on at QATW where we chose 3 UFO's to work on for the month. They'll draw a number every night and the next day we're supposed to work at least 20 minutes on that project.

The UFO's had to be at least 3 months old, so I chose....

1. Rocky Road to Kansas- need to make tons of block parts.
2. 30's shooflies- already sewn into rows now
3. Black & Bright Windmills. I have 8 blocks, want to make at least 4 more

So she'll draw a number between 1 and 3. Or if she draws the Joker, then we get to pick any of the projects to do.

This weekend I'm going to have my own mini-sewing marathon and see what other stuff I can get done. I have Christmas presents I'd better get to working on too.

Thimbles? and blocks

They still did not have the power restored. After calling all the parents to let them know I went to JoAnn's. I picked up a bulb and a spare. I looked at thimbles....hhhmmm...I don't know anything about thimbles. I had no clue what kind to get...do you have a favorite? Ideas? Your suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated.

I did buy a little bit of fabric. I have realized in making these blocks that a lot of my fabrics are Tone on Tones. I needed something white with pink and red in it. I found 2 fabrics that were perfect and bought just 1/2 yards of each.

Here are the blocks I made last night and so far today. I am probably going to make all the 12 inch blocks first because they are the easiest. I have 7 made so far, just 20 to go.


I won't post pictures every time I make a few, I just seem to be on a roll. These are so addictive that when I get this top made I'm thinking of doing one in brights to use up some scraps and stash.

Pinks and Red Random Blocks

After writing earlier this morning I got a call from work NOT to come in. They had some guys come in to tear up part of our parking lot and re-do it and somehow they managed to CUT the power lines to the school. They had to call all the parents to come get their kids NOW and then they called me. Hopefully they'll be able to get it fixed tonight.

So since I was home I got a few things done around the house and started working on these.

Only 33 more 6 inch blocks, 25 more 12 inch blocks and 9 18 inch blocks to go. But they are going together really fast. I'm going to keep working on them the rest of the day so we'll see how many I can show y'all tomorrow.

I tried to do some binding work but I kept sticking myself. I need to get a thimble. I also need a bulb for my machine cause it went out. I'll be going to JoAnn's tomorrow for sure. Just going to stay away from the fabric area because I DON'T need any.

Charity Quilts

I have been going through my UFO's and picking out blocks and fabrics that I really don't care for and making those into tops for Charity quilts. I finished another top last night. 5th finish in about 2 months. Granted, all I've done is sew blocks together and add borders but that's more progress than I've made in a long, long time. I have other projects calling my name, so the charity ones may slow down a little but I'm going to keep them out and work on them when I feel the urge. Typically that happens when I hear something on TV or elsewhere that tugs at my heart strings. Then I feel like I need to be doing my part to help. I have my share of problems and things going on in my life but I know that there are people far worse off than I am.

I stayed up till midnight last night and finished this baby quilt. I know that some little girl is just going to love it.

I wish I'd done a little better on centering the squares of the fabric but it still turned out OK.

Today I'm gonna take a quilt with me to work and try to do some binding. Then tonight I'm gonna see how many of the "Random Squares" blocks I can make. Here is my good friend tirane's. She LOVES Black. I'm doing mine in pinks and reds simply because that is what I currently have a LOT of in my stash. Beth is doing hers in a set of teal and brown fabrics. It will be interesting to see how these all turn out. I'm way behind but with the rate I've been sewing it may not take me long to catch up. LOL. Swooze, are you still doing one too?

My 150th post will be coming up soon. I'm going to have a small giveaway or 2. Keep watching!

August Goals

I'm keeping it simple again. I have lots to do at work getting the summer over with and ready for the school year to start. I'm really excited about the class of kids I will bet getting.

My Quilty goals for August are

• 1 DJ block a week
• Finish the Pink/Brown/Cream Baby quilt
• Get most of my Pink & Red "Random Squares" quilt done
• Finish project for Medina
• start Christmas presents not already done

2 Finishes and a Start

Well I didn't quite make it by July 31, but I did finish these 2 Shoofly tops this weekend.

I had other intentions for the borders of the first one. I had designed something in EQ6 using some slanted strips. I printed off the patterns and made the blocks. Dumb me forgot to REVERSE 1/2 of the blocks and so all my strips face the same way. So now I have 28 of these


I don't have too much more of the black dots left. It's a standard fabric from JoAnn's, but I realized in making the Shooflies that sometimes the shade of black and quality are different from bolt to bolt. I think what I'm going to do is make as many of the reverse blocks with the fabric as I can and have a cool zig-zag quilt.

I got a few other things done this weekend too. In the QATW swap I did for the pink/brown/cream Rail Fence blocks I received 20 blocks from a swapper that were too small. I cut those down to 6 inches and made 5 of these blocksI had played around with placement for a standard Rail fence but just didn't like the way it looked. I am going to use these 5 blocks in a large 9 patch design. I haven't decided what to put in the other 4 squares. I think this will be a charity quilt so I don't want to do anything too complicated and it's only going to be large enough for a crib quilt.

Hole in the Barn Door

I finished it last night. The border fabrics both came from old stash- fabrics I bought several years ago when the Hancocks 5 minutes from me closed down. Here is a closeup of them as I think it's hard to tell in the other picture. I soooo want a design wall or I need to clear off a better place to take pictures.


I have enough of the jigsaw puzzle fabric left to use as the focus fabric for a quick quilt.
Just need to find an easy pattern.

I also got rows sewn together for the Black & Bright Shooflies. I decided rather than making 1 large quilt I'm making 2 small. 1 will have the pieced borders I designed and I found a great black with colored Musical notes on it in my stash for the other one. I think this Hole in the Barn Door is the first time I used a print and not a TOT to border something! So I am learning!