august showers . . .

Bring September BABIES!

Well, not really. Or at least, not necessarily! 

Jocelyn's baby shower for Ezra was Sunday.  It was so sweet! The hostesses did a lovely job decorating and making everything so special.

       

Joc's best friend co-hosted.  ♥

A cookie cake, from The Moon Bakeshop.  YUM!

It really was all so pretty! I gifted Joc with Ezra's pinwheel quilt.  She was thrilled!

A very sweet afternoon, anticipating Ezra.  

:)

tried and true . . .

Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy binding?  I really do.  I love the rhythmic stitching motion.  It's soothing and settling. So I often volunteer to do the binding on group quilts.  (I dislike giving blocks for group quilts ... not because I don't want to give or participate, but because of comments someone once made about my blocks in a swap.  It hurt my feelings and I'm just afraid to stitch up bad blocks for a quilt someone else is having to piece. So I bind.)

I volunteered to do so for a quilt we were doing for a gal in our group that had breast cancer.  This is the third of these quilts I've bound in the last year for our Stitcher's group . . .

Binding is a great activity for the boat in the spring time, when the days can still be a little cool!

What I wasn't thinking about when I also volunteered to bind the guild's President's Quilt for this year, was the possibility that they might end up in my lap at the same time (figuratively speaking, of course)!

Whoops! But I made it work.  It really did provide some good boat projects this month.  Hahaha—win/win!

I got those two quilts finished and had the urge to do some things for me (or at least for my own) . . .

With a baby boy on the way, I needed something in blues!  I love this pretty pinwheel design (I reworked it up in EQ).

After getting Joc's approval, I pulled fabrics for it.  It was a super easy thing to do, now that most of my stash is in the storage room!  Whoop whoop!

I also pulled one of the UFOs I'd purchased last year from an estate sale, and got busy putting it together.

She had the individual 8" Flower Girl blocks pieced, and I put them together, stitched the sashing, and added borders.  I LOVE IT!  It finishes out at about 56" square.

There are enough leftover blocks to do a table mat, and maybe a smaller (single block) table mat.  Which would make this ensemble just perfect for our screened room . . . 

Right?!  The summer colors are just perfect!  I love it when a plans comes together all by itself!

I also pulled out this big boy . . . 

Now that I've got room to work, I went about adding borders.  I wanted it to be at least 72" square for the girls to use as a picnic blanket.  I think this will do it!

Then ... I did another thing.  April's been a really quilty month.  I took a longarm class, along with my friend, Gail!

One of our LQSs offers longarm rentals, but you've got to take an introduction class first.  It was a lot of fun!  I've got time scheduled soon to work on a quilt.  I need a LOT of practice!!  About the only thing I showed any promise with was quilting my name.  Baahaahaa!  So if I want a quilt quilted with my name in cursive, I'm in good shape. *insert eyeroll here*

I wrapped up the month with an evening with the girls.  I love our Thursdays together!  This night, mommy and daddy were the meeting hosts, so we all went upstairs for dinner.  The girls set a lovely table complete with a quilted table runner and a vase of flowers.  They called it a "peaceful and quiet" dinner!

How I love these sweet girls.  They are so precious ... I love spending as much time with them as possible.  I know how fast they grow up!  Memories. ♥

catching up -- again . . .

Working forty hours in four days (not to mention the getting ready and commute times of a combined twelve hours) is pretty much kicking my tail!  Don't get me wrong . . . I do love my job.  I love the people that I'm working with and *especially* the association of churches I'm working for!  But it's a very . . . social . . . job and that means for this introvert (not extreme, but definitely more intro- than extro-, it's pretty much exhausting!!

It also makes the balance of my week . . . forty-five hours, give or take, pretty precious. Know what I mean?  With a husband I adore, children and grandchildren who I adore, and chores and church and quilting (those last three are not necessarily in order), I've got a LOT to pack in those three days I'm off!

You may or may not have noticed that blogging doesn't make it high on the list. Wink, wink.

BUT . . . I have had some good grandkid time . . .

And some good quilting time . . .

Finished putting the insides of Lil' Charmer together.  Went to put the 6" black borders on and realized I had no more black. I used it all of my yardage for the pineapple quilt!  Ugh.  I hate the thought of purchasing fabric (really?  has it come to that??!), but I hate *more* the thought of leaving it unfinished.  So . . . on my list for the coming week, purchase a half yard of black! I do know how I'm going to back it . . . 

At first I thought I was being silly, using this flannel pastel piece for the back of the brights.  But I really like that the colors are so similar.  It's a good pairing!

I got a pattern for a Valentine card . . . it was a fabric appliqued tea cup on card stock. I modified it for a mug rug . . .

Isn't that fun?  I wish I could tell you where to go to get the pattern for yourself. It's from © Quilter's Connection Magazine 2015, but I couldn't find it on their webpage or facebook page anywhere. The template is straightforward enough, though.  Or holler at me.

And finally, quilting-wise, I saw this darling little quilt from Karen's Quilts, Cardinals and Crows (with a full tutorial over on the Moda site) that I just absolutely love.  There are several 'twists' on the patterns, but this is the one of Karen's that just catches my eye every time:

And you know me . . . I had to put my own 'twist' on it.  So I made it smaller.  I had to mock it up in EQ to get my proportions correct, but then that's half the fun, for me!

Her HST's are 6.5" . . . mine are 1.875".  Teehee!  And I used solids . . . Fairy Frosts!

Now I'm working on the applique. Which will make for some Slow Sunday Stitching!

All in all, my stash report hasn't changed all that much, just enough for the little tea mug rug . . .

And know that there *will* be black yardage added next week!

Linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts.  Y'all have a grand Sunday!

:)

the basket doth overfloweth . . .

And I do mean *literally*!

We finished up with VBS on Friday night (well, except for the VBS commencement service on Sunday morning and the VBS visitation and decorating take-down on Sunday evening) and so you'd think that Saturday would be the day I'd do absolutely NOTHING, right?

Wrong.

Saturday was our guild's big Quilt-In!  And since I not only paid to participate, but I was a working member of the committee, you'd better believe I was there, bright and early on Saturday morning!  Unfortunately, I wasn't very prepared to do much quilting during the Quilt-In (I didn't even bring my sewing machine) but I did have some handwork to work on . . .

Yes, I do think I'll have this finished up for a November debut in my mini quilt stand. I wish there was some emoticon I could insert here for *wry grin*.

Hearts--cut from a charm pack of Moda's Chantilly that I purchased--for Miss Olivia's baby quilt . . . 

Which I hope to have finished before she's one.  *grin*

And I also had the presence of mind to bring a couple of notions for the Notions Drawing we had, as well as six fat quarters for the Fat Quarter Drawing (I thought 1.5 yards used would look good on today's stash report).  For each fat quarter brought, you got a chance to win *all* the fat quarters brought.  Same with the notions. And that's where I worked . . . taking peoples notions, fat quarters, and blocks (we also had a block drawing).

And once that slacked off, I sat in front of my laptop and created and produced VBS certificates to hand out on Sunday!  LOL!  Once I finished that up, I put in a movie (a version of Wuthering Heights I'd never seen) and cut and embroidered to my heart's content.  Then it was snack time . . .

Oh yeah, we were treated well in the Quilt-In!  And not just with tasty treats (not to mention breakfast and dinner), but we also came away with some very fun goodies . . .

A treat bag filled with chocolates and some other door prizes (a $5 LQS gift certificate and a seam ripper), a seam marker, and a thank you from the organizer - a pretty luggage tag!

After dinner we got down to the business of drawing names for the notions, blocks and fat quarters. I had our guild president pick the four winning names.  I think we had the most participation in the fat quarter drawing . . .

That basket was full!

The basket went home with ME -- my name was the one drawn!! I was so shocked . . . and so much for depleting my stash a little and making my stash report look good!! Baaahahaha!!!!

There were SEVENTY-THREE fat quarters in the basket, for a total yardage of 18.25 yards.  A return of 12 to 1 on the fat quarters I put in.  Aye yi yi!!

Our evening class was a guild nametag class.  I'd signed up for that and was prepared to go up and listen. My old nametag was looking a little dated . . .

My darling affirmation sister, Sarah, taught the class and gifted me with one of her sample nametags . . . I finished it up this morning by stitching down the binding, adding the ribbon, and stitching my name:

And then transferred all my fun pins to it!

Now it's ready to wear!

We had a blast Saturday, and a blast Sunday, finishing up with VBS.  And today I'm spent!  So one last thing here . . .

The used/donated number reflects the two little projects I had made earlier this month and the six fat quarters I'd turned in . . . which actually netted me quite the intake!  Aaaah well, we'll find some uses for the pretties! Gonna go ahead and link this up to the Stash Report at Patchwork Times!

:)

design wall dilemma . . .

I'm not sure what to put on my design wall.  I've got a lot of finished tops that need to be turned into finished whole projects.  And I've got the mug rug that lacks just a few embellishments before it's ready to be finished . . . 

Haha!  Don't study the back too closely -- I *definitely* did not do a great job of making my back look as neat as my front.  I guess since I knew it would be covered with batting and backing, I didn't sweat it too much.  LOL!

I had a run of new things in February (it always pleasantly surprises me to see what new things I tried during the past month):

My little heart spool quilt for my stand.

The mug rug, of course.

My Celtic Garden Hexie piece (which should be finished this week).

And the wedding quilt scraps topper I whipped up over retreat.

So . . . design wall . . . maybe back to Grandmother's Choice blocks this week?  I also have a baby quilt (Olivia Mae's!!!) I need to be thinking about.  Whoa!  

Photo Credit:  Moda Bake Shop

Kim loved this heart quilt "Candy Hearts" by Gigi's Thimble, found over at Moda Bake Shop.  Isn't that a sweet one?  We were both intrigued by the ruffle around the edge. The hearts are made from a charm pack of Plume.  I adore it!  :)

All right then . . . maybe I just needed to write it out to determine where I needed to go from here.  A sounding board, so to speak!  What are y'all working on this week??!

Linking up with the Design Wall Monday on Patchwork Times and the NewFO challenge linky party at Cat Patches!

:)