Moondance recipient smiled :0) and....needle threader!!!

The picture says it all. She said she loved it {{and I believe her}}
I shared the story of the Too Good to Cut Challenge, so that tickled her fancy even MORE, knowing that she was receiving fabric that was "too pretty for me to cut into." I truly truly truly LOVE giving quilts away when the recipients are as appreciative as Dolly!!!



Do you have a threader on your machine?
Do you LIKE your threader??

{{pout-pout}}
I LIKE MINE TOO!

but you see that piece of metal???

And now the question becomes: Just HOW important is this threader to me? Enough to give up my machine for a few days for it to be fixed??? Or can it wait until my annual servicing???

{{shrug}}

I'm fine without it {{I GUESS}} if it means I can sew, sew, sew!!!

Alycia's quilter's accountability post today guilted me, challenged me into pulling out my Carolina Christmas partial top to git 'r done! I am in the process of borders; I can't exactly remember. So, that's my goal tomorrow!

A detoured evening -- but Moondance still gets finished.

Okay---so much for getting Moondance finished last night! Once I went outside at 3:00, I didn't get back in until 9:30!!! Mowing took a couple of hours, and then I decided to spend an hour in the garden. HA! An hour turned into FOUR! But....parts of the garden realllllllllly needed my attention....

I can't believe how one week will do THIS to a previously weeded hill of watermelon...

Can you hear them gasping for sun and water? Those poor things!

And, the weeds??? Junk 'em, right? Psht! No way!
The weeds are a lovely delicious treat for the pork chops, bbq ribs, bacon, pork sausage, hams, pork roast, PIGS, PIGS I mean...[[giggle]]...


So...any guess as to what is here???? {{besides weeds, that is!}}

Ahhh.....'allo little carrots! [[did you hear the french accent???}} ;0)

Ugh! And then there's THIS!!!! HOW did we ever let this go for so long????
Any wagers as to what is TRYING to survive in this patch????

Yeah---that would be a yummy, red, JUICY strawberry! I can't believe any of them could even sprout in this disaster area!

I spent a good 1-1.5 hours working on them. Still not completely done {{and of course I had to sample at least a small few after finishing up each plant!}}. And you can't really see in the pic, but the "spreading fingers" {can't think of the technical name} are growing like crazy! I really needed to be careful not to pull any of them off the plant and to place them just right so the next plant to sprout will find itself in a "safe" area and not in any walking area.

Naturally, I shared the loot!!!

And I EVEN had enough of them left to make a single batch of strawberry jam! YUMMMMM! Yeah, I whipped this up at 10:00 after cleaning up.

I had a little helper Candace raking away weeds between the corn rows at one point of the evening.

Oh! And at least not ALL of our weeds are eye-sores! We have LOADS of wild daisy plants all over our non-mowed areas.

By the time I got cleaned up, I wasn't up to quilting anymore last night. I DID pull out some muslin to make up the label, though.
And put the binding and label on this morning. Actually, I just finished up about an hour ago, and I'm heading off to the party in 30 minutes. Nothing like a last-minute finish :0)

So, my plans for the rest of the day:
Enjoy the party and then play the rest of the day by ear. I have a babysitter lined up and she's AMAZING! The girls ADORE HER!!! A couple of the ladies that will be at the party and myself have plans to see "Eclipse" tonight at 6:45. We were smart and already got the tickets!!!! ;0) So, my afternoon is very flexible. I don't know if I'll just hang out with my lady-friends, or if I'll come back home after the party and do some sewing. I haven't had a chance to even look at Judy's Step #5 of the June mystery. I suppose I COULD spend some more time in the strawberry patch, but I really don't want to have to get dirty and cleaned up all over again....

Happy Wednesday!

Wanna meet me? - UPDATE

I had some "fun" this morning; I even got all dressed up for y'all! ;0)
Summer definition of "dressed up" = out of jammies ;0)

There's a shout-out to Angela (soscrappy) and Carol (cornfield quilter). Of course, I'm saying hello to everyone who is always kind enough to visit and spend some time reading about my quilting, country, summer life :0)

**{{wave}}**

Okay...now off to finish this quilting from the video---I'm about half done and have been at it for a couple of hours.

2:30 update
I didn't keep excellent track of the quilting time, but it was around 5-6 hours...


one of the blocks...

the other block...

Oh, and we finally have BEAUTIFUL weather outside today! Sunny, but not hot; mid 70's the last time I checked. In fact, taking these outdoor pictures has me itching to do some mowing.



And a shot of the back.

Quilting time: ~ 5-6 hours
Pantograph name: 6" Feather Me by Meredith England. (look about halfway down the page, alphabetical).
Bobbins used: 12

So, yeah...I'm heading outside. I'll finish up the binding and labeling later this afternoon/evening.

The Chicken count...

For those of you not blessed with a life of late nights and early mornings, you may not have read up on my "interesting" evening last night.....


I just stepped outside with some old hotdog buns and called the chickens over. {{Yes, CALLED them over. My DH has most of our animals trained by call! A little kissy-kissy sound brings the chickens a-runnin' and a smackey-smacky-lip sound sends our pigs into a riot!}} The animals know---when they hear the sounds, FOODs-a-comin'!

Anyway
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
missing at least 1; and I truly can't remember if we had 11 or 13. I'll have to touch-base with DH today (he's been out of town since Friday night) to find out. I guess I'm feeling a bit better, and will look around the property today to see if I can find any "sign" that Shadow was a naughty-naughty doggy!

A Book Giveaway

JillQuilts is having a book giveaway. Head over if you'd like a chance to get a free book :0)

July BOM ready & an "interesting" evening.

July 4th - July BOM #1 (PDF Link)


Star & Pinwhee l- July BOM #2. NOTE-NOTE---if you jumped the gun and printed out the PDF file prior to this posting, there was a slight boo-boo! Andee noticed it and dropped me an email! In the cutting directions, (12) red 3.5" HST's were requested, but you actually need to cut (16). PDF file has been updated! {{don't forget to refresh}}

Two Star - July BOM #3. (PDF Link)



On a final note: had to do a quick Walmart run before the softball game tonight. GUESS who begggggged to go to the fabric section?????

Okay....do I have to count Cassie's fabric purchases against my stash report??????? She was allowed to buy two yards tonight; 1 yard each of some coordinating fabrics. I'm thinking of a disappearing 9-patch for her??? I'll see if I can find a 3rd fabric from my stash that'll match the other two....

Alright----so REALLY on a final note.....
It was a crazy late night here at the Skattebo-Ranch! When we arrived home from the ball game (10:35) with all three girls in tow, our dog Shadow was no where to be found! He had broke loose of his tie-up this afternoon, so I put him in one of the side-chicken-run-areas we created two years ago and have been unused since! I didn't think too much of it.....well......that dog! He dug his way out. And the SAD SAD SAD news-----I only counted 6 of our egg-layers (chickens) when we normally have 11 (or is it 13?) Ohhh......DH is NOT NOT NOT going to be happy!!!!! I'm only hoping they are roosting out in the woods???? {crossing fingers and toes!!!!}. Anyway---I wasn't really in the mood to do this, but I did a quick drive around the neighborhood (with girls in tow). No luck. Then.....driving back into the yard at 11:05....THERE that turkey was!!! Tongue-a-pantin'; tail-a-wagin; happy as all can be. Ohhhhh......he better just wait!!!! If those chickens don't show up tomorrow, he has some explaining to do!!!!!
At least the girls are happy that Shadow made his way back home. Bought a good 250lb-heavy-duty 20-foot tie-out for him tonight. He's a runner, so we also have him double-leashed. I don't really like that we need to keep him tied up, but.....well.....he's a RUNNER! Seriously! Even when we let him loose to play.......OFF he'll run! S'pose we could get him "snipped" to see if THAT would help! {old wives tale, or do some of you have some actual experiences based on your own dogs???}

Okay---midnight, and WIDE AWAKE!!!!!!!
I'll see if anyone else posted tonight.....

Design Wall, Two tops & Cassie's bag

Ooooo....RESISTING TEMPTATION TODAY!!!!!! I'm getting better! Judy L's Freeze Frame was reallllly enticing me this AM while out reading up on everyone's weekend. The house hadn't awakened yet, so I headed downstairs JUST to see what I had in my stash that could work out with the pattern. Hmmm......possibly! I'm not sold on the light purple as the "darker background." I have time to play with them! The LAST thing I need is to start yet another project!!!!!

Speaking of another new project....
Since my design wall had been emptied of the Paintbox blocks, I spent 15 minutes hanging my A Scrappy Picnic blocks. I have to do some moving around; and this actually isn't the dimensions of the top; it'll be more square than rectangle, but I wanted to get an idea of how the colors played together. BUT----I resisted the temptation (AGAIN) of piecing these blocks because I wanted to tackle the Paintbox.

Goal Accomplished!!! Moda Paintbox: 68" x 84" TOP DONE.
The Oh Fransson pattern didn't call for borders, but I'll admit! Even though there are times when I realllllly don't like adding borders, I'm a border gal! To me, borders just "finish" the quilt.

Yeah...and HOW long have I been sewing and quilting now? I think my brain was taking a nap when I started piecing the border. I can't believe I put the top & bottom on first!!!!! DUH! Maybe I SHOULDN'T have added borders because now my sides were too short!! At least I had some excess strips from the boo-boo'd sides. 8-)

And here's another lil' surprise :0)
For those of you following my BOM by Amy, I posted July's blocks a smidge early. All of them with a dedication to the month of July and America's Independence. I couldn't RESIST actually putting one of my designs to use from my 4:00 AM post a couple of weeks ago. Choosing 13 of the blocks that fit uniformly (mostly the 3x3 and 4x4 blocks), I pieced together my 13-block layout, with a few design changes along the way. I haven't come up with a name yet; Final dimensions ~ 58.5" x 84.5". Just to give you followers a heads-up: The remaining months will most likely be 6x6 or 8x8 layouts since most of my other blocks (not used in 13-layout) are 6x6 or 8x8; this way when I piece the 17-block layout, most of the blocks will be uniform in design. ;0)

After Cassie's appointment this AM, she was gung-ho to finish up her bag. With more assistance from me that we orginially planned, her bag is finished! I took over sewing the side seams and the lining to the outer bag.


And that lil' stinker! While I was putting her final bag together, suddenly I look over and she's cut some more squares AND pieced a front AND back for a small pillow (~10x10)!!! Shoot! I forgot to get a picture of her pillow.... Later then....we need to go shopping for some stuffing! I JUST donated all of my stuffing because I NEVER used it.

So, once I was done with the bag and she was done with the pillow-form, AND after reading Bonnie's TIMELY post today about Jen's daughter, I set Cassie off on making up some R/W/B string blocks. She plugged away for about 15 minutes and then left me :0( LOL....guess she had her bag and wanted to just admire it for the time being.

Boy, the day went by fast! 4:15 already. I have softball tonight, but it's too early to completely close up shop downstairs. Off to putz....

Hmmm...TWO tops finished today....would it REALLLLLY be that bad for me to cut into that fabric for Freeze Frame????

**(({{wink}}))**

A Sunday in review & Stash Report June 21 - 27

I began my morning by cutting up a few 2.5" and 4.5" strips to make up 6 (actually 8) more sets. Two of the sets will stay with me. So, in the end, I will be swapping 18 total Buckeye Beauty sets. We are being requested to just piece the 4-patches and HST's so that each swapper can choose how to piece the final blocks. My blocks will be pieced just as they are laid out; they'll be made up with the same layout at Bonnie's Blue Ridge Beauty, which is also a L/E project of mine that has been set aside so I can work on my Star Struck swap blocks. DARN! I don't have the Blue-Ridge L/E listed in my WIP! Grrrrrr....now that's 12!

This brought me up to lunch time. After which...
we took some time enjoying the sun that finally decided to show up.

After about an hour, we were all back in, ready to start some afternoon projects...

Paintbox was the next project I wanted to spend time with today. I needed to finish piecing the 6 other rows that weren't finished last night. Then---sashing across the width of all the rows. OMGoodness! Pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning, pinning. {{that'd be 11 times in case you didn't count}}. PUTZY and enough to drive any ADHD quilter insane with the monotonous steps!!!!

Cassie asked if there was some way to set her up downstairs by me. With a few adjustments and some hunting for another extension cord, I had a new neighbor ;0)

I helped Cassie with the cutting and sandwiching of her back/top/batting/lining, and then set up the Brother with the FMQ foot. Oooo...Cassie was nervous! The first few attempts were tough, so I had her put on my quilting gloves, which seemed to help a little bit, but she was still strugging with the coordination between foot and hands ;0)

This is where she needed to leave it for the evening because it was time for a bath and then bed by 9:00! She has another dentist appointment at 8:30 tomorrow, so I needed to be sure all the girls got to bed at a SOMEWHAT decent time.

I asked Cassie if it was alright if I quilted up the back of her bag. Naturally, she appreciated the assistance. It was fun to work with a small patch to quilt on with the BSR. I haven't used it in quite awhile. This is also a good shot of her piecing. QUITE a bit wonky and I needed to square up the top and back before sandwiching. Still fun though!

Boy! I had had enough of those Paintbox sashings though! It was like putting on borders and we ALL know how some of us feel about those things!!! So, the final piecing of the top will be a goal for tomorrow. In the meantime, I grabbed my Jared Takes a Wife blocks and finished sewing on the gold and light 2" squares to make the "arrow units." I'll finish trimming off those corners when I'm done posting. And...**GASP**....no double sewing on these! They really are too small for even ME to deal with. They'll just be thrown into the crumb box.

And don't you dare laugh at this! I have FINALLY mastered BOILING EGGS! Yeah, yeah....sounds simple enough, right? But I can't STAND IT when you attempt to peel an eggs and the *&@(*! shell sticks to the egg-white, and you LOSE most of your egg! Oh, and BTW---I HATE yolks! The only time I eat the yolk is if I make up a quick lil' deviled-egg treat! Yummmmmm.... Or if I whip up a quick egg salad. Basically, the yolk only gets eaten if it gets mixed up with Miracle Whip (NOT real mayo. YUCK!)

Anyway---my mistake was always putting the eggs in when I first put the water on the stove. I only did it that way because it seemed when I waited for the water to boil and THEN put the eggs in, too many of them cracked due to the instant expansion due to the boiling water. Well---the last batch I boiled, I tried to boil the water first again. Then put the eggs in for 15 minutes. THEN (and I think this is important too!!!), run them under cold water the instant you finish boiling. I even let them soak in cold water for a while (one time it was even over night because I forgot about them).

You'll get one lovely peeled egg just about everytime :0)

Okay, the nervous moment I've been waiting for all week due to all of my NAUGHTY purchases!!!!!

Stash Report: June 21 - 27
Used/week: 10.319 yards
Purchased/week: 10.25 yards WHEW! At least I used more than I bought!!!!

Used/year: 159.15 yards
Purchased/year: 168 yards

Net used: -8.85 yards

Okay...NO MORE FABRIC BUYING! Sure, 159 USED yards looks great....but 168 BOUGHT this year! Oh golly! Time to start using it!!!!!!l


Here is Judy's Stash Report post for the week to look around at how everyone else is doing with their stashes.

11 WIP's---time to get going!

I just updated my WIP list with my latest "spur-of-the-moment" starts. Time to get some finishes!!!!!!
Another dismally cloudy day outside; my machine will see some miles today, I think!

Let's see----you think I can pull off finishing the top for Paintbox AND A Scrappy Picnic???

Obviously Dizzy and Judy's mystery can't see any new action...

Oh yeah---Buckeye Beauty needs to see some time today because I want to piece together another 6 sets using my new fabrics. I want them to hit the mail tomorrow and be out of my hands :0)

My Star Struck swap has been my leader-ender project awaiting the return of the swapped blocks. I sent out a set and the due date is July 7th, so I have some time to keep plugging away on them as a L/E until the blocks return.

Jared Takes a Wife....eh...not today

Pineapple Blossoms---I could maybe pull those out and do another 10 blocks. I THINK I have 20 so far???? I don't even remember!

Carolina Christmas and Jade's Heart. Oh boy---I think both of these could be added to my UFO list! Neither have seen much work over the past couple of months. And SURELY not today, either.

Scrappy Logs kinda seems to be an ongoing project too. Maybe this could be moved in as my next L/E project since I already have a bin of cut logs.

Okay---gosh! Late start today! 9:00 already!
A quick refill of the coffee, and time to head downstairs.
HAPPY SUNDAY TO YOU!

Too many things to say 'em all in the title :0)

I began my day downstairs after lunch catching up on my QOV-Mysery: Dizzy. Step # 4....

and Step #5 - DONE :0)

I also wanted to work on the A Scrappy Picnic blocks some more today.

The "S" block took about 45 minutes...

and after 1.5 total hours today, both the 32-"S" and 32-"Z" blocks are ready to be pieced together. At this point, grand total = 5 hours.

My design wall was still covered with the Paintbox blocks, and I didn't want to just take 'em down without actually piecing them to make room for the A Scrappy Picnic blocks. And since the "random" choice seemed to be bringing in the most votes...off I went. I needed to cut up 2 yards of white to get the ball rolling (WHEW!!! I needed to burn some stash numbers this week---see why later in the post...)

...OOhhH! This was fun too! This is the "patch" that shows up on the back. Here I decided to use more of a chromatic layout. I need to give a HUGE thank you out to Carol - cornfield quilter because these fabrics were from a jelly roll she gifted me as part of the PIF of 2009. She sent them along with my Perkiomen Daydreams that she quilted. As IF that wasn't enough!!!!!

Cassie spent some time ironing today.

...AND some ripping. Yup, yup---there were two seams that were QUITE a bit off! (more like a 3/4" seam rather than a 1/4"). Even she agreed it needed to be resewn! :0)


Cassie has made it a bit further than just these 4-patches pictured. She is already sewing some rows together. She decided to make a book-bag to start. I think that's a GREAT idea! We hope to finish it up together tomorrow!!!!! In the end, I think she put in right around 5 hours on-n-off today. Very pleasing ;0)

Cailtyn and Candace grabbed the camera again while I was piecing away....
Caitlyn with Candace as photographer...

Candace with Caitlyn as photogragpher.


Yeah, Okay.....cute pose of Cailtyn, reaalllllly showing off the MESS that my make-shift sewing area is {{until my room gets finished}}. Mind you, this is also where the girls "hang-out" quite a lot while I'm sewing, hence, the puzzle pieces and other toys in the frontal part of the photo.

Today, my purchase from Thousandsofbolts.com arrived. THE ONLY reason I placed an order was because of my $10.00 gift certificate won by Lori's "Name her Machine" post. I didn't go TOO overboard, but definitely spent more than just the $10.00. ;0) I'll tell ya, though.....GREAT PRICES!!!!!!!! If you haven't been to this site, YOU REALLY NEED TO!!!!! Really!!!!!! These FQ's actually DO have a project already in mind. I wanted to make up some more of the Buckeye-Beauty blocks for a swap I'm involved in, and to build my own quilt a bit larger. The theme is "fall colors"---these fit nicely :0)

And remember the other day when I needed some red thread to finish quilting up the Olivia Quilts 4 Kids?...
I DID try to resist the "sale table," but these two were just chanting out to me! Seriously! And at $2.00/yard SALE PRICE, it didn't take much twisting of my arm. Oh...and get this. I finished off each bolt. They BOTH came to exactly 2 3/8 yards. So...does a "Fate of Fabrics" exist out there? Maybe these two were destined to be together! They look nice next to each other....yeah...maybe I'll need to keep my eye out for a two-fabric design. Or maybe a third....a nice soft yellow? cream?....

And so, here I end my evening, updating and enjoying a drink. I haven't had an Amaretto-Sour in quite awhile, but it sure is tasting yummy!

And I couldn't resist, {{even though the girls are in their skimpies! Don't report me, okay???}}. This image doesn't happen all that often. It's almost 10:51, and they are still watching the movie right in front of my ottoman. ..... Actually, I just glanced down and Candace has finally given up the fight. She's out. Cassie is still going strong and Cailtyn was just sharing a biiiiggg yawn.

So, I'm off to see how everyone else spent their day :0)

OH!! I almost forgot! I EVEN got into the garden tonight for a couple of hours before the rain came (AGAIN!) One nice thing about this consistent rain over the past 3 weeks----I don't need to WATER the garden!