Happy Valentine's Day!

I made this little challenge quilt last year, I don't think I showed it after I finished it 

... 2-1/2" squares and HST's.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Another one done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) mid-afternoon postings
(2) the value of the little moment
(3) a facial and aromatherapy

Hi everybody, it's mid-afternoon and I'm posting, yaaay!  Normally I like it to be done first thing in the morning, but that's not a rule... is it?

I finished the border on my little basket quilt but I don't want to show it to you right now, I promise you'll see it later! 

About Wegman's - it's a pretty kewl grocery store that has fresh veggies (lots of organic ones!) a bakery to die for, and a hot foods section that would make you drool!  I especially like their oven-fried lemon fish, yummy!  The bread pudding isn't bad either, if you catch them on a good day - they do go a bit overboard on the fresh fruit they toss on the top!  See their website here. 

I finished the 15x15 solids challenge quilt that I'm swapping with Yetunde...

It's "Gravitation" by Kandinsky - you've seen the original art in a previous post. 

When I did this one, I was inspired by the way his design seemed to sweep from the bottom right to the upper left corner.  I didn't want to try and make the small blocks of color he used, so I opted for a log cabin style.  I think it turned out pretty good!  I'll give it to Yetunde next weekend.

So I get to choose the next one we'll work on, I have a couple in mind that look pretty interesting. 

Sew forth and sew on til later...

Linda

Border decisions revisited

I made the border decision for my little baskets - flying geese!

Is that a large pile or what?!  Thanks everyone, for your input. 

The intriguing thing about geese is that they can be scrappy or color-controlled... in this case I managed to do both.  I won't make an inner border to separate them from the main quilt, I don't think the cornerstones will make them stumble.  I have to make a few more and pair them up, then I can call it a UFO ready for quilting.  Also, these are not "ordinary" geese - more about that, with a tutorial, later!

I did make another wonky house, this time I actually like how it turned out...

There are cave men living inside and they seem happy with their home!  My next house will definitely have a chimney on the roof... you know how it is when a bunch of cave men get together! 

Well, today is car wash day, the birds won't leave me alone - they either like me a lot or hate me, I can't figure out which one it is.  The results seem to be the same so it probably doesn't matter anyway.  Nadine at  The Fabric Peddler is having an open house today - good food, door prizes, a mini-quilt show - I'm looking forward to that, it will be a lot of fun!  

And after that, because I'll be so close, I'll probably make a stop at Costco and you-know-where...

... you gotta like that store!

Sew forth and sew on til later

Border decisions

I decided on a scrappy border for my little red baskets quilt, and I thought these blocks would be fun to use...

hmmm... that's not quite the look I like for this little quilt. 

I like the idea of that block design because the thin inserted strips echo the shape of the basket handles.  For some reason, though, I'm not too fond of that white background.  I think I must have limited myself too much when I used those medium-blue cornerstones in there; but I'm not taking them out, the quilt's not worth the time. 

Now I'm wondering should I go with a darker blue background with the inserted strips, or maybe green?  Or maybe some scrappy flying geese.

I'll have another go at it and see what it looks like with a different design. 

Today seems to be perking along okay - the garbage man actually put my can back in front of my fence; my neighbor shot some water over onto my drooping porch plants; it's not too-too hot and I've turned off the window air and I'm using ceiling fans.  Truth be told, I'm not crazy about window AC, never have been a big fan of it, so to speak.

So now I have to fix a salad for lunch then make a yogurt run because the prices change tomorrow - I try to buy the Light n Fit when it goes on special, although they raised the price a few weeks ago.  They even increased the price on the STORE brand, can you imagine?  I like the Giant brand; it's been 50 cents a carton since I can remember, and it used to go on sale for something like 40 cents.  Now they have the nerve to charge the same price as for the Light n Fit! 

What can ya do?   Sew forth and sew on til later

Sooner or later...

... you run smack into a virus!  And sadly it happened to me last week and added misery to an already miserable few days.

It has been so HOT I didn't feel like doing anything but lying on the floor in a puddle.  I have two window AC units, one of which works okay but no way can it cool two floors and a basement.  Well, the basement isn't that important because I don't do anything but laundry down there, but my sewing room is on the top floor and it was TOO HOT to stay up there and sew.  Or sleep. 

But the good news is the temperature has dropped a few degrees and I got my PC back yesterday.  All the garbage is gone, I couldn't believe how much stuff they found on there!  I didn't lose any files or have to reload software, thank God. 

And the other good news is I was able to set up a sewing area in my living room where the AC is, and I did get a negligible amount of sewing done just to keep my hand in.

I sewed together these basket blocks that had been UFO-ing around for who knows how long...

now I have to make a border decision. 

Right now it's a smallish wall hanging, approximately 26", but when I'm done it might be a lap size, who knows.  I want it to have a scrappy border, something to add a little interest; it just looks too plain and boring as it is.  

And I also finished the solid fabric quilt top that I'm swapping with Yetunde, I have to decide how I want to quilt it ...

the top edge looks crooked, but it's straight! 

Go here to see the original Kandinsky this was inspired by.

I think Yetunde will like it 'cuz she's nice like that!  *wink*

That's it for now, still trying to get re-inspired after this awful heat wave.

Linda

And the winner is...

First I want to thank everyone who commented and joined in on my second giveaway; then I want to say I learned a little something about how giveaways work from the other end!!  whew!  Try as I might, I just couldn't get my comments to show numbers, even after Madame Samm so generously sent me the code she uses.  Stubborn little thing.  Not Madame Samm - the numbers, the numbers!!  Madame is too generous to be stubborn   :o). 

Anyway, I had to use the random generator and then count down the list to see who it was; I about laughed my head off when I hit lucky number 27!!   Had to do that one over, you bet. 

So, the lucky winner is   #53 - Char M 

Char M, please contact me to let me know your preference!

Thanks again everybody for participating, I know there will be other giveaways down the road. 

Edit added 5/2/11:  Someone was kind enough to point out that I should have given Bonnie Hunter credit for the expression "crumbs."  I meant no disrespect to Bonnie, I first saw the phrase "crumb piecing" on her blog!  I tried using crumbs and small scraps to make a background for my Brown Bag quilt, and it turned out so well I thought it would be great for smaller pieces... well, that turned out so well I wanted to share it with you all through the Stash Manicure blog - thanks again! 

 Sew forth and sew on til later

More little pieces

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a semblance of order
(2) dropping off junk at the town dump
(3) mental notes you remember

Hello everybody, and new followers!  I've discovered who our 50th follower is -- CrochetnQuilt, yaaay!  She didn't show up on the list because ...  she's a "shadow person"  

I still haven't "completely" finished the little piece I was working on, I was just too uninspired to do it Monday night.  I have to do just a bit of button embellishments:

she needs eyes and a tail, do you agree...

This is the picture that inspired me:

I already cut out pieces for another small quilt but I want to try something else.

I need to decide if I want to use the large, medium, or small image...

decisions, decisions...

Whichever one I decide to use, it will be fairly simple because I'll cut her off just below the waist - 5 or 6 applique pieces, tops.

Well, I seem to be on another one of those crazy cycles... I was tired Monday night so I went to bed early... awoke around 1:30 and couldn't fall back to sleep until somewhere around 3:30... alarm went off at 4:15.  sheesh!  I blame it entirely on the weather this time - the weatherman says it was 70 degrees Monday night!  All I know for sure is that my nose was really stuffy and that's probably why I couldn't sleep.  (Is somebody playing the little violin?)   And we had tornado warnings yesterday morning, very hard wind and rain around 4:45, for about 5 minutes.  Crazy weather.

That's all for now, enjoy your day everybody... sew forth and sew on til later!