Won't you join us?

JulieKQuilts has organized The Great Nine Patch Celebration Exchange.  The exchange is for two different sizes in 6" and 3" finished blocks using 1800's reproduction prints.  You can sign up for both swaps or just one.  The swap is open to the first 50 sign-ups per exchange and blocks are due till late September.

I signed up for both exchanges!  I hope there are one or two of you out there that will join the rest of us. 

Pop over to Julie's blog and sign up now before all the spots are filled.

Friday Night Sew-In

Well here are the results of a Friday evening spent sewing.

Soooooo....here's what I did.  I took a Botany Layer Cake and cut each square into five 2" strips.  Then I put them in pairs.  So far I have almost 100 nine patches sewn.  What shall I do with them you ask?  I plan to do this...

One hundred blocks is enought to do twenty X's.  The next step will be cutting the setting squares (53 - 5" squares) and triangles (8 - 7 5/8" cut twice on the diagonal for sides and 2 - 4" cut once on the diagonal for corners) which will be from my white-on-white scraps.

When it's complete the quilt will measure approximately 51x64.  So if you have a layer cake and a yard and 3/8 laying around, you can make this too.

Tomorrow I'll show you what I'm doing with the leftover 2" squares.

Tonight's the night...

...for the Friday Night Sew-In!  Come join the fun.

Like a cat chasing its tail...

...that's how I feel.  I keep sewing and sewing and never seem to get to the bottom of the fabric pile.  I hope I'm not the only one that has days like this.

The past week or so I've been back to work on the commission quilt for the grandson of my husband's coworker.  I have an August 1st deadline and really want to move on to something else.  Two more blocks to go and then I can put it all together.

Here's what it's going to look like when it's completed.  The final layout of what block goes where is still up in the air but this is pretty close.

I had originally planned to do this other one but decided simpler was easier...I mean better...yeah better! 

Personally I like the second design better but...I don't know.  What do you think?

Anyone ready to find out who won?

First off let me say WOW!  Y'all are awesome...and FUNNY!  I got a good giggle out of some of your comments.  And I was impressed that there were a few of you that actually attempted to answer the questions...and YES they were real questions. 

#1 was a riddle - The wind blows at 9am, the sun rises at 9am. It's now 10am. What color was the wind and sun at 9?  The answer - The sun ROSE and the wind BLUE.  *insert groans*

#2 was - How many dollars are in an exactly critical nuclear reactor?  The answer - $1.00.  Don't ask me to try and explain it.  When DH tried to explain it, it flew over my head at sonic speed.  I thought my head was going to explode. 

So I suppose you'd like me to get down to business now?!  Me too.  I have my trusty assistant Odie here but as you can see he's excited but not very cooperative.

Let's try this another way.  As you can see he's very eager

to pick a winner!

Odie's more interested in playing and making a mess so I guess I'm going to have to go at this alone ladies.  The winner of the 12 Days of Christmas bundle is...drum roll please........

Diane - Lace Lovin' Librarian

But WAIT!  It's not over yet. 

Hidden away I have ANOTHER 12 Days of Christmas bundle.  Originally I thought I would keep it for myself but as I look around my quilting room, I can't find any empty space on my shelves for it....so I guess I'll just have to give it away to........

Becca - QuiltingB29's Quilt Life

Ladies, please send me your mailing addresses and I'll have your goodies off to you ASAP.

I wish I could have given a prize to everyone...if I could only win the lottery!  

*runs off to buy a ticket* 

Reinspired!

Sooooo...yesterday Karen of Log Cabin Quilter posted a mini "How To" for making 8-pointed stars without Y seams from the book Star By Magib by Nancy Johnson-Srebro.  I had started making stars from that very same book 4 YEARS ago but somewhere along the way got distracted by some other project or two...or three.  ADD can be such a pain in the "you know what" sometimes!

The point is, Karen's post inspired me to pull out those blocks again.  While I don't have time right now to work on them, I thought share a picture of what I have so far.

Most of the fabrics used were purchased from Fabric Depot in Portland, OR, during one of their huge sales.  If you've never visited their website, you've been missing out.  They have huge sales often that are worth checking out. 

Anyway...I'm not sure how big the quilt will turn out to be.  I'm just kinda going with the flow.  I have enough pieces cut to make another six or seven blocks.  So stayed tuned and maybe by the end of August I'll have some more blocks to share...yeah right...LOL.

Two milestones in ONE day

How often does that happen?

Today is both the one year anniversary of my blog and my 100th post!  I won't go into some long philosophical discuss about what blogging means to me.  I'll just say this...I've enjoyed the past year of  blogging and am grateful for friendships that I've made.  And I am looking forward to the next!

Enough mooshy stuff!  Let's get to the giveaway.  For you faithful 16 (and any anonymous lurkers), I present 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain for Moda.  The winner will receive the twelve fat quarters and two yards of red you see (plus a few other goodies).

I had agonized over what to give away but as soon as I saw this fabric I knew it was perfect...call it a little Christmas in July.  So what do you have to do win?  Here's how you can earn three chances to win.  For each one you complete, you'll receive one chance.

1.  The wind blows at 9am, the sun rises at 9am. It's now 10am. What color was the wind and sun at 9?

2.  How many dollars are in an exactly critical nuclear reactor?  (DH's contribution...what the heck!)

3.  Email me a map of Uraguay (because I'm thinking about going there)

4.  Find me a web link to the perfect portable iron pad.  (I had to have SOMETHING quilt related)

Ok ok ok...just kidding. 

Really all you have to do is leave a comment.  Although...if you want to follow my blog or are already a follower, I'll give you another chance.  And if you want to blog about my giveaway and you tell me about it, I'll give you a third chance.

On Friday, July 9th, I'll pick a winner.

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

Every quilt needs a label...right?

Ok...I must admit something and I may have already admitted it before.  I'm a LAZY quilter.  And as a result of this affliction I don't like making quilt labels...except for special quilt (aka gifted quilts).  But I when I do make one I go for broke.  If you're going make one, make it special...just like the quilt.

Here's a label I made for a comfort quilt that went to a recent widow.  The quilt was made from the pj's of her recently departed husband's.  He had been ill for a long time and its was his pj's she remembered most.  The penguin had been on a nightshirt so I incorporated into the label.  I like how it's looking down on the photo.  I think it's kinda sweet.

I didn't present the quilt to the widow personally.  But I heard she cried when she saw it and was very happy with it and I also hear she uses the quilt everyday.  Here's the front of the quilt just in case you were wondering.  It's look pretty good for being poly/cotton pj's.

So back to the topic of labels.  So yesterday I was thinking about that baby quilt for Jennifer.  Again, I knew it had to be something special.  And here's what I came up with.  Here is the original inspiration from the book Iron-On Transfers for Quilt Labels by Barbara Baatz.

And here is what I made...

I love it!  Today I'm going to write the words on and embroidery them.  This little label has inspired me to  come up with an original quilt using wreaths and flowers.  *must find time to do some drawing*

Wouldn't you just love to have one of these?

Then you have to go check out this great tutorial from Lori at Bee in My Bonnet. 

She shows you how and is giving away a pincushion with

some extra goodies to one lucky winner!

*hopes it's me*

What do you do...

...when you've got a bunch of leftover charm squares after a project?

You make tablerunners! 

To make the "Good Fortune" Schnibble the way I wanted I had to buy four charm packs to get enough dark blue.  Well when all was said and done I was left with 81 charms leftover.  So with the addition of a little solid white and dark brown, I made two tablerunners yesterday morning.  The plaid behind the runners will become the backing for them.  Both runners come from the book On the Run by Heather Mulder Peterson.  Now I am left with 53 charms left to use and I think I have a table topper  from the same book that I can use them for.

In other news with our local quilt shop owner, I picked out a fantastic new project using...

I love Three Sisters fabrics and can't wait to dive into this newest line which consists of reds, browns, beiges, and blues.  It's absolutely gorgeous!  The patterns are being ordered today so hopefully in a week or two I'll have something to share.