Saturday, April 30, 2011

Slow News Week

It has been a really slow news week around here...I've been sewing, but really don't have a thing to show for it...a little of this and a little of that...not much of anything big...one of these days it will all come together and I'll have something to show. So I thought I'd share a picture of the boys today. This is their huge bed that's in the family room...now remember these boys are 85 pounds each so you get the idea how big this bed is. Zack, with the blue collar got in first...Andy always says "Zack takes his half out of the middle"...Howie decided he wanted to joing him...he stood over Zack and cried and cried, Zack wouldn't budge...Howie circled around and plopped on that little piece of the bed...of course he was lying on both of Zack's back legs...no one seemed to mind. They were very content until they heard the camera go off.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I'll have something quilty to talk about soon...promise!
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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Cutting for the Baby Quilt

Several people asked me for cutting instructions for the baby quilt from yesterday's post...so here you go...

Cut 322- 5" X 2-1/2" 30's rectangles
Cut 322- 5" X 1-1/2" white rectangles

There are 14 rows in mine...23 white and 23 30's prints in each row.

When you sew the rows together make sure that you flip the rows each time so that the first one starts with a white, the next a 30's, the next a white and so on...this was you get the offsetting.  That's it..have tons of fun!
Just figure out how big you want it.  ENJOY!

Hope everyone had a Very HAPPY EASTER!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Ready for the Baby...

No, No, No...not anyone in our family...this one is for the new grandbaby of my dear, dear friend Mary. Mary and I taught together for 10 years before I retired from teaching and opened the shop. We started together at Edgewater High School the same year her daughter Ashley was a sophomore there...well here we are all these years later...almost 22...but whose counting...we don't get to see each other as often as we used to but when we are able to get together we pick right up where we left off...we never miss a beat. Mary's on baby watch, waiting for the phone call to jump in the car and head for South Carolina to watch the other children and stay for a few weeks when Ashley and the new little boy come home. I got the binding done last night and now just have to wait for him to arrive so I can get the label done. I did this one all off my shelf...30's and Bella white...I love the swirls that my quilter did...so many angles in this one that the swirls just make it sing!

Better go get some cleaning done so I can head upstairs...ENJOY your weekend everyone!
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Sunday, April 17, 2011

It's All a Challenge to Me

I tried something different today...I uploaded my pictures through Picasa...let's see if this works...I wanted to share a little notion with you...I've seen these on several blogs, then I checked them out and realized that they were kind of pricey...35 fork pins for $9.99...I guess I was trying to be frugal and I kept telling myself that I can do the very same thing with 2 pins...well, I had a 50% off coupon at Joann's and I was in there for rotary blades and machine needles that were already 50% off...I spotted these and thought, this is the time to try them. Well I'm here to tell you...they work, they really, really work. They held those seams together so that my half square triangle units went right together......the points are all there...YIPPEE! I'm not a notion or gadget girl, I think I've probably told you before I'm a pretty simple sewer...nothing fancy, so this was really extravagant for me...I'm very pleased  with the result.

Here is section 1 of Civil War Chronicles......month 1-3...I'm thrilled with how this one is going together, and I really like it that they're having us put it together as we are going along. It doesn't look like it in this picture but this section is big...the blocks are 16 inches finished... this section is 48 inches. This is a quarter of the quilt...it's going to be huge.

Here's Month 11 of the Designer BOM from The Fat Quarter Shop...
...this sure was a fun one...I can't believe there's only one more block and this BOM will be done.  I'll have from May until December to get it put together, quilted and the binding on...I think I may have a new quilt for Christmas...thank you Fat Quarter Shop!

And last for today...the finished top from the blocks my friend Beth gave me...
...Mr. Quilt Holder was having a time with this one today, the wind kept blowing, he apologizes for this not being his best holding job...LOL!  Thank you Beth again and again...I just love it!

OK, I think this worked...I only had one challenge and that was when I saved the draft to go do something and it switched from a Picasa screen to the Blogger screen...but Lori from Humble Quilts reminded me that I could always go back to the HTML tab and move the pics around with that...I only had this last one to move and it worked...thanks everyone for all your help.  I will try the Blogger Editor again when I have some time to play with it.  It truly does take a village!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

I Think I Lost a Week

How does this keep happening?  I just don't know...we got home late Sunday afternoon...the boys greeted us full of excitement for about 2 minutes and then went back to their beds and went back to sleep.  At first I thought maybe they were giving us the cold shoulder for leaving them, and then after talking with our neighbors discovered that they had a wonderful time with the pet sitters, I think Zack even took a swim in the pool...he hasn't done that yet this year.  It really made me happy that they were so content.  We unpacked, started a load of laundry, had a quick dinner and both realized we were pooped.  Monday  
was my day with mom, and she had lots of errands to do...got home Monday late afternoon...I was pooped.  Tuesday back to the gym, a week off and the stairmaster really got the best of me....and then somewhere I lost Wednesday. Thursday and Friday...here we are at Saturday afternoon.  I did get a little sewing done...this month's blocks from Civil War Chronicles and my plan is that tomorrow I'll get Months 1-3 put together...I'll have a picture of that section tomorrow. I have absolutely no idea how to move this picture where I want it to be...sorry...I switched to the new editor and I'm not quite getting it yet.   I also finished the top from the blocks that my friend gave me at our retreat in February...she had all the blocks done and all the alternate squares cut, I just had to cut the setting triangles and sew the rows together...I'll have a picture of that tomorrow too...promise.


Our trip was wonderful...we had the best time...The only thing we didn't get to do was our tour of the White House...it was supposed to be Thursday evening at 7:30...that just happened to be the night that they worked all night on the budget to keep the government open.  No visitors in the White House...the President was meeting with Mr. Reid and Mr. Boehner at 7...our friend's daughter that had arranged the tour for us just felt so badly...we were disappointed but it was far more important that they get that taken care of.  We saw everything we wanted to see and enjoyed every minute of it.  I think we walked a hundred miles...LOL!  The cherry blossoms were gorgeous and the daffodils, tulips and hyacinths were all beyond belief.
     
I'll be back tomorrow with some quilty pictures...If anyone can tell me what to do with these pictures I'll be forever in your debt...these pictures have been all over this post and I can't figure out a thing...HELP!

Sunday, April 03, 2011

It's Going to be a GREAT Week!

It really, really will be a great week...Tomorrow is mom's 89th Birthday...Happy Birthday Mom!  You're amazing!  Andy will be joining me tomorrow for my regular Monday with Mom and we'll be going to lunch to celebrate.

Then Tuesday morning, bright and early Andy and I will be getting on a plane and heading to Washington D.C.  We planned our trip around the cherry blossoms, can't wait to see them in the Tidal Basin.  We'll be meeting friends, they're picking us up in Baltimore on Tuesday and then we'll be driving down to Washington.  We've got a tour of the White House booked, we'll be seeing the monuments, memorials, museums, Monticello, Mount Vernon and seeing a play in the Ford Theatre...all we can cram in 5 days...we'll be back Sunday...I hope to have lots of pictures.  The boys will be staying here at the house with their favorite sitters.  A young couple that just love the boys, they do lots of fun things...then when we get back home they're pooped and act like they didn't even miss us.  That really is a very good thing...must keep my boys happy.

I'll try to get back here this week, but if I don't I'll see you next week!  Have a great week my friends!  ENJOY!