Catching Up!

 I had a great mail day on Thursday when this book came in the mail.  I am already almost half way through it and really enjoying it!

Found out about an estate sale that included every kind of crafty stuff you can imagine (times ten) where the prices were out of this world and went nuts on Friday after work.  Looks like a mess here...

 Lots of rulers to add to our collection.

 I decided to change the way I was folding the fabric on my shelves because much of the shelf was wasted with it folded into forths.  Now it is folded in half and in rainbow order!

 

 This is the pile of backings I have now amassed.  I was really down to nothing in that department and am so tired of spending so much cash for a backing when I need one.  If it was a big chunk and I liked it, it came home for a backing!

 This morning, Kathy and I met up with my friend and co-worker Christine and her daughter Samantha.  Christines' mom came too.  It was a Arizona Blankets for Kids sewing bee!  My friend Kelli from PHXMQG is on the board and had encouraged me to go and Samantha really wanted to do some charity sewing...she made her first quilt top!

 Here are Samantha and Christine just as she is getting started.

 Here I am with my quilt top.

 Christine and her mom also got into tying and trimming some fleece blankets while we sewed.

 She learned how to web her quilt and she didn't mess it up once!  (I messed mine up before I started webbing it, lol!)

 They had stacks and stacks of quilts..I think all told we made about 200 is what I heard.  There were 72 people there and everyone had some kind of job!

 It was a lot of fun and we all plan to go back!

 Kathy and I decided to go back to the estate sale so I could look for purples and novelty fabrics.  There was two whole rooms I really hadn't even been through yesterday!  Here is the stack of purples I found.  Lots of smaller pieces which is great for scrap quilting, so my purple is replenished!  I even found a purple chunk for a backing!

 Not the best picture, but this is the stack of novelty fabric I found--in a zillion different boxes and bags..quite an upper body workout and my hands are SO dry from touching so much fabric!

 Found this cute fabric and several pieces with words on them too!  I also found a bunch of white on whites so I am set on that for awhile!

 I am happy to say that both yesterday and today after getting home from the sale, I folded, organized, cut and reorganized everything so that almost ever piece of about seven garbage bags of fabric is put away!  The little chunks are under the ironing board by color and the bigger chunks are folded and put away here, with whites in a large tote and backings stacked up!

 

 The only actual sewing I did tonight was in finally quilting and binding this Maverick Stars baby quilt for Shiny's baby Jayden!  He is over a month old and I will be sending this home to Wisconsin for him on Monday!

Another Saturday Sew Day!

 Today I got some outdoor photos of Packer/Celtic Solstice!  I love, LOVE, love it.  Thank you Ms. Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville for all you do for all of us scrappy quilters!  If you are doing this quilt, feel free to add your pictures to the Flickr group too!  There are some real beauties there.  I am trying to get through ALL the linked up blogs on Bonnie's site and comment but I have many more to go!

 So excited to have made every Bonnie mystery, including the ones in Quiltmaker.  Cannot wait to see what next year brings!

 I also took an outdoor picture of Marmalade Squares Two for the Winters' soon to be born baby girl!  Last night I started, and today I finished making Bonnie's "Maverick Stars!"  These stars were so much fun to put together and I loved that the points came out of my scrap bag!

 After I added the white borders I felt it needed more and needed to be a little bit bigger.

I had lots of leftover pinwheels (from Jack in the Box bonus triangles) so I sewed them into borders and auditioned them.  I felt like they fought with the simplicity of the stars.

 Then I auditioned a 1.5 inch scrappy strip and thought about it (for several hours while we ate dinner and watched the Patriots get into the Playoffs) and decided to go for it.

 I rearranged the colors some and added a pink strip.  Then another white border and it is done.  This one is for a Deaf friend of mine back in Wisconsin who is having baby number four (her other three are much older) and I just wanted to make her a quilt.  I need to quilt it though and haven't figured out how I am going to do that!

I should mention that I got out my "new" 99 Martha and sewed this entire baby quilt on her.  I now know what Bonnie is talking about when she tells us how certain machines purr!  This machine has the best sound to her, very relaxing!

In other happy news, it was a great mail day!  An online friend (and fellow Quiltvillian) offered to send me scraps...boy did she ever.  I love them and know they will find their way into both Wild and Goosey and the BOM Pineapple blocks that I need to get started on!  Thanks Sandy!

Free Friday Funday!

Today I got a massage and then sewed the day away.  It was so nice and relaxing!  I got out the Viking machine and quilted my cousin's baby quilt with a serpentine stitch.  It turned out pretty good and Zoey jumped right on it for the picture.

 Here you can see I got it bound.  I put a label on it Bonnie style for the first time and it was super easy to do.  I washed and dried it so after  I write on the label I can get it out to my cousin Ashley and her hubby Ches.

 We got the border fabric in the mail today so that inspired me to get the dark green borders on Packer/Celtic Solstice.  I put a three inch outer border on instead of a two inch.

 I also sewed up the backings for the Packer quilt and for the Mickey Mouse NYE Quilt.  They are now all loaded in the car (along with Jack in the Box) for Ros.  I can't wait for her to get back from vacation...:)

Then since I had so many finishes I decided to start something new!  I have a pregnant Deaf friend back in Wisconsin that I promised a baby girl quilt to.  It hit me the other day that I really wanted to do Bonnie's "Maverick Stars" so I am doing a baby sized one!  My stars are definitely wonky!  I am enjoying making them and the top should get done this weekend.  

Oh I also quilted two more Rock Candy tabletoppers and got them ready for binding.  They didn't get done in time for Christmas, but we didn't really need them so I guess I am ahead for next year! 

Hand Sewing Hexies--and Because Bonnie Said So!

I didn't do much sewing on Sunday...I watched Bonnie on QuiltCam and prepped hexies..some of which were later hand sewn into this growing Hexi quilt.  I am aiming for a lap size quilt at this point...I just looked  back and this one has been in progress since October 2010.  I am not sure why I go gangbusters on it for a bit then put it away and sort of forget about it for a bit.  At the PXHMQG meeting for February Jona gave us some scraps and two of them were Denyse Schmidt fabrics and have worked there way into here since I didn't have those two...they are the heavier fabric not cottons, but I already had a few of those in here anyway and I like them.
Speaking of QuiltCam...Bonnie said that everyone should have a string quilt, a crumb quilt and a hand sewn quilt going.  I have Talkin' Turkey for strings, this hexi quilt for hand sewing...so that leaves me with a need for a crumb quilt.  I asked Bonnie where to start and she recommended Maverick Stars which is a free pattern on Quiltville. So I think I need to start another project--Bonnie says so!  SMILE.  Anyone else lacking a crumb project who needs to join me?

Maverick Stars picture borrowed from Quiltville.com