Quiltathon - Pineapple Blossoms, Scrappy Log Cabins, Paintbox, Carolina Christmas, March BOM... whew!

Not that it's a biggy, but ....
THIS IS MY 350th post! 50 more posts and you can expect a goodie-of-a-giveaway! Four is my favorite number, so 400 SURE should be worth something, huh??....

Anyway....how'd I do on my goals, you wonder????
Take a peek....

Goal #1 - Ten more Pineapple Blossom - CHECK.
(And bonus triangle pinwheels.)

Goal #2 - Ten more Scrappy Log Cabins - CHECK.

Goal #3 - Sew together Paintbox blocks - CHECK.
(I even threw on one small border.)

Goal #5 - Work on March BOM - CHECK.
All three blocks have been sewn together; now just to find time to type up the directions. How d'ya like the size of the one HST??? 1" FINISHED! HA!
As mentioned in the caption, I also took 30 minutes (or so) to press the HST's from Carolina Christmas's part #4. Before leaving the machine, I partially began sewing the Broken Dishes units; those are on the agenda to be finished up for tomorrow.

Goal #4 was the only one I didn't tackle today, but I really should make it my main goal for tomorrow. A finish would be nice. :0)

My mom picked up this collection of (mostly) C'mas fabrics at her local Goodwill for a couple of dollars....

And tonight, Cassie surprised ALL of us with Valentine's bags full of goodies. Caitlyn and Candace each got some candy and a V'day t-shirt, "Dad" got some silly high-flying saucer something-er-others, and **I** got this LOVELY V'day fabric. How thoughtful!!!!! (She went shopping with G'ma yesterday) ;0)

So, one more day of weekend for me tomorrow; looking forward to another day of sewing! :0)
Happy Sunday everyone.

Goal setting Sunday

Okay
No football today
No hubby today (fishing)
No #1 or #2 today (fishing WITH hubby)

Just me, my mom and #3; hanging out.
SO.......

I think I need to actually establish some goals today and broadcast to the world----(ie: therefore MUST meet them!) Since 4 is my favorite number, here are four (manageable) goals for the day:....

#1) Sew another set of 10 blocks for Pineapple Blossom
#2) Sew another set of 10 blocks for Scrappy Log Cabin
#3) Sew the 42 Modified Paintbox blocks from yesterday into a top, minus borders.
#4) Finish quilting Now or Forever (Feb. UFO)
oh...let's keep going shall we???...
#5) Sew up my three BOM's for March and start working on the directions (tonight in front of the Olympics)


Whew!!! Manageable???? Quite possibly if I get my lil' biscuits off the computer and get the day started!!!
Happy Sunday everyone!

Quiltathon - Saturday new project; Cassie in basketball

Wow---I guess I DID only work on one project today. Candace (Wraggedy Patches) has been posting about this Fransson Paintbox quilt-along that has some FUN blocks. Well, I printed out the instructions a few days ago and set them on top of this set of "girly" fabrics that looked FUN as well. It's not a true paintbox, not this version anyway; it was just a cute way to burn up some fabrics for a small girl quilt. I'm not sure what layout to use though---the random or the mono-chromatic. Any thoughts from you????
The rose is from Cassie, BTW.

---

This morning, Cassie had basketball. It's very laid-back for these ages (1st - 3rd grades). Once kids are organized into teams, a running clock is started for 15 minutes and they just play. Then a short break, and then back for another 15 minutes. It's just a fun way for the kids to start learning the fundamentals and to have some fun and exercise. G'ma enjoyed taking some pics and cheering her on.

Watching some Olympics right now, but may head back downstairs for some more quilting before the night is over.

Quiltathon -Friday Jump start

Judy at Patchwork Times is hosting a Quiltathon this weekend, and since I had the day off of school for our Winter Break, naturally I wanted to get a jumpstart at the festivities.



I was able to get downstairs rather early (for this house) this morning, but didn't really have a definite "must-work-on" project in mind. So I did a little tidying, put away some thread spools, trimmed up some scraps from the recent Q4K's projects, a little this, a little that...and then I spied the stack of red/black/white Pineapple Blossom blocks that I worked on during the last Quiltathon as a swap. Since then, the swap has been completed and mail back to participants, so I played with some layouts, and came away with this as the layout (top left). Two more blocks were needed to finish up this layout and sewing up the bonus triangle pinwheels at the same time, that is where they were left for the remainder of the day.

My day was really a day of a-little-of-this/a-little-of-that. I pulled out the fabrics I had cut a few weeks back for Hannah's Rotation [[will that quilt ever have a different name??]] and started planning out how to bring her design to life. In the end, I grabbed a black sharpie and simply cut the design up into 30 12" blocks. Oooooo.....a lightbulb JUST went off when I typed the word cut. Ahhhhhh! I'm gonna grab the scissors tomorrow and actually CUT the 'blocks' out from the paper. I really don't see any other way to accomplish that design; there aren't any repetitions (except for the 180 rotation). Anyway, the bottom-left and small-bottom-inset-right show my work on that project.

Then I was inspired to pull out the fabrics from the other Math 8 quilt design (the runner up - Jade's Heart). I really liked the pattern, and it will be quite simple to make, so.....I'm making it. The first stage is to make 50 4-patches [[shown in the other three-small-inset pictures. ]]

I wasn't able to work non-stop since all three girls are home with me today, and that my parents arrived at 3:00 this afternoon. BUT, sitting with the Olympic Opening Ceremonies on the TV tonight really was a great opportunity for me to start putting some binding stitches onto Perkiomen Daydreams, which arrived unannounced from Carol Cornfield Quilter last week, but I forgave her due to the beautiful quilting that she did!!! :0) Sadly, my blogworld will need to stay in suspense until it is finished and hung on the wall. It will be the first quilt that I will (attempt) to enter into Quilt show(s). Bonnie Hunter's design is absolutely amazing!

Cass has basketball tomorrow morning at 9:00, so I don't anticipate being able to get to any sewing until noonish.
Happy Friday everyone!

4 day weekend--PERFECT timing for a quiltathon

Judy at Patchwork Times is organizing another Quiltathon for this weekend. Has it REALLY been a month already since the last one??? Holy cow.

So---no school today; no school Monday...what can all be accomplished?

(Oh, and G'ma and G'pa are visiting us for the weekend....)
Happy Friday

Quilts for kids (3); Now or Forever; Stash Report

(Left): Prince in Training [[Thanks for the name suggestion Angela!!]]
(Middle): A Cowboy's Life (the kit from Downy)
(Right): Lilly Pad Hop [[Thanks for the name suggestion Laurel!]]

With a few major hiccups yesterday, I ended up being 3 hours delayed (actually closer to four) with the finishes of my Quilts for Kids. I was clippin' along merrily with the quilting, and was ready to start the binding....and then frustration hit! TENSION!!!!! I FMQ'd (free-motion-quilted) in the borders, and didn't even THINK about checking for tension problems because I simply haven't had problems since I got my new machine. So----I spent 1.5 hours with EACH quilt, ripping out the border quilting ((**sigh**)), and then another hour of re-quilting the borders. But...ho-hum...it happens. Today the final touches were put on (label and binding stitches). Hopefully they'll be hitting the mail tomorrow, but more likely Tuesday.


Despite the frustration with the tension, I persevered and kept going last night....until MIDNIGHT! I couldn't believe it when I looked up and saw 11:30! I was in a zone for sure.....

Now-n-Forever saw progress in the form of sashings, borders, and piano-keys! At the moment, it is under the machine with quarter of the quilting done. It will also see a name change----> Now or Forever. LOL. If I were to complete the pattern as given, it would be ABSOLUTELY forever until it would have seen a completion. Those roses just hung me up big time! ((Here's the proposed design in case you've never seen it.))

This afternoon, Caitlyn and I pulled out her "100th day of school" project since tomorrow is the Big Day! She needed to place 100 items on her poster, so I offered her a few suggestions; the typical items like cheerios, maccaroni, buttons, spaghetti.....and I threw in pictures and stickers as well. Those ideas were a hit with her, so...to the computer I went to print out 50 little pictures of the past few months while she sought out some stickers. Now----to just find some clothes for her to wear to look "old". :0)

Stash Report: February 1 - 7
Used this week: 9.132 yards
Purchased this week: 0 yards (Yes, Z-E-R-O!!!)
Used-to-date 2010: 40.132 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 86.25 yards
Net used: -46.12 yards

Happy Sunday

Quilts for Kids information

Morning Ladies----it's SATURDAY!!!!!!!!
For those of you not members of some online quilting chat-groups, perhaps you haven't read or heard about Quilts for Kids. I know some of you have commented back about my previous Quilts for Kids posts, and you are VERY welcome for the link to the kit request website. What a wonderful cause and something so simple for us to do who love quilting so dearly. Here is an informational message/email sent out and shared with us (posted at Quiltvillechat - Yahoo group)

Dear Quilters,

Each year in the United States, children account for more than six million hospital stays and must confront the challenges of overcoming illness while staying in unfamiliar hospital environments. In January 2009, Quilts for Kids, Inc. kicked off a partnership with Downy fabric softener to launch the Downy Touch of Comfort program - bringing a "touch of comfort" to hospitalized children in Children's Miracle Network hospitals nationwide along with "Grey's Anatomy" star and mother of three, Chandra Wilson. Now, Downy has developed a special documentary to raise awareness about the cause and Quilts for Kids' mission. The documentary shows the heartfelt effort that numerous people have put into helping these children feel close to home; from our quilters to the Downy Touch of Comfort spokeswoman, Chandra Wilson, many people have made a difference in the lives of children such as those seen in this film.

We encourage you to view the film and share it with others by sending them the links or by sharing this on your FaceBook page.

Link to Quilts for Kids: www.quiltsforkids.org

Link to Downy.com: www.downy.com/helpingkids

Link to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igraIvlADEs

As mentioned in the film, each purchase of a specially marked bottle of Downy will go back to Quilts for Kids to help us create more quilts for the millions of children that are hospitalized each year. The new specially marked bottle design features a "quilted" label and the Downy Touch of Comfort logo on the front, and five cents from each of these specially marked bottles will help Quilts for Kids, Inc. and Downy reach our goal to deliver 10,000 more quilts to these children this year.

We truly appreciate your interest and continuing support of Quilts for Kids and Downy Touch of Comfort

One stitch, one quilt, one child at a time,

Sally Weber

Chapter Liaison

Quilts, for Kids, inc.


It's Saturday and I'm excited to finish up my three Quilts for Kids so they can hit the mail Monday AM.
Happy Quilting

More quilts for kids; Now-n-Forever returns; new scrappy blocks

Something to show for my past three evenings.....
Sunday night, I started cutting up some of the new loot for a Quilts 4 Kids project...

... and I had enough of this frog fabric to make two. VERY fast piecing....
but now...I'm stumped on names for these two quilts. Do you have a NAME suggestion? Otherwise, I'll be doomed to put "Frog-green" and "Frog-blue" on these labels! LOL

When I went downstairs tonight, I spent the first half hour tidying, cutting up some scraps that have been collecting on the side of my cutting mat (which had been reduced to about 20 "working" inches due to the scraps)..., and I found myself cutting for my Scrappy Log Cabin that I have been stock piling pieces for in a shoebox. So....I whipped out 9 blocks, just to play :0)

Umm...yeah...tonight was a night of "play" and "putz"---because after I finished up those blocks, I looked around my quilting room. I walked over and blew the dust off of my Now -n- Forever blocks, and I figured I might as well start working on them now, or it will be forever until they see a finish. ((yeah, pun COMPLETELY intended)) :0)
I sewed up the two purple blocks and the two orange blocks tonight. All 12 blocks are now complete, but I don't think I'll make the TRUE Now-n-Forever design. Nope--no way! I think I'll just turn it into a cute lil' girl's lap quilt since the fabrics are lively and bright.

Okay: tick-tock, tick=tock.
Night everyone
Happy Wednesday