Almost April and it's doing this outside!

It was snowing all night and still going strong all day yesterday late into the night. Even had the Interstate closed for awhile and then chain law in effect.  Spring always comes late in these parts of the country.  While everyone else is starting to garden, we still have this on our lawn:

I had to laugh the other day when I read Rae Ann's blog post about having no self control when it comes to buying fabric.  I'm afraid I am the same way.  No matter how much I tell myself that I will not buy new fabric...something always comes along that I fall in love with and "have to have".  Here is one of my latest purchases:  it is from Katie Cupcake called Marabella.

I am using the fabric to make another hat and the sunsuit in the pattern below.  Do you remember these patterns?  I use to make alot of little dresses for my girls with these patterns.  So glad I kept them!

More purchases.  I fell in love with this from Blank Textiles also called Maribella  Love the richness of the colors.  I saw this made up into a purse.  Not sure what I will do with it but it was one of those "got to have it" purchases.  I'm sure no one can relate.  

First Quilt for First Time Sewer

A year ago last January, our LQS began their new BOM for 2009. I coerced invited my middle daughter and dil to attend each month with me. Darling dil had never made a quilt before but I told her it would be easy and I had a machine she could use so not to worry. Throughout the year, I'm not sure she was believing me anymore about the "easy" part but she perservered and finished her quilt top this past weekend! It is now at the quilter's waiting for them to do their magic on it. I can hardly wait to see if all finished! Isn't it cute?! Ms. E really has a talent for appliquing and sewing. I am so proud of her! She even had a new baby last year (she's the mom of those 2 lil' boys I show on my blog every now and then) and that didn't keep her from completing each block.
Sad to say, I still haven't finished mine.  Neither has middle child.  More reasons to be proud of Ms. E!  She beat us all!

Jack and Jill

This is what I made today.  It's size is called "teeny tiny".  It is.  I think the flower is bigger than the hat!  The pattern is called Jack and Jill by Izzy & Ivy.

It's for this sweet girl....

Love those grandbabies!

I have a tough time getting this lil' man to smile normal anymore.  But it doesn't matter...being around these two lil guys brings such happiness to me!

The quilt you see is one I made for these guy's daddy many years ago.  Didn't have a sewing machine at the time but I wanted a quilt for the new addition we were having.  Bought some cheap fabric at TG&Y (anyone remember that store?) and came home and tied a baby quilt together.  The back is flannel.  Hand sewed the binding on but after years of being loved, I had to sew the binding back on awhile ago.  The quilt still seems to be going strong though.  I should give it to it's rightful owner but every time I see my grandson's play on it, it brings back so many memories of all our hopes and dreams we had as a new family.  Can't do it yet.  

Valley Fabric BOM

It's been snowing all day--not very Springy at all, so I decided to get out my March BOM and finish it. It is the one from our LQS and will only cost me $6 if I attend each meeting for the rest of the year. We only have to pay for the first month and then if we bring our completed block back the next month, we get the new one free.
January Block

February Block

March Block

Here they are all together.  Still haven't sat down to finish the words on the blocks.  I'm afraid that might be put off until the end of the year.

Cutting Mats

Last week I was reading an email that came my way about the differences in cutting mats.  I had heard about the self-healing vs. the hard surface mat but never paid much attention to them since I just assumed I "needed" the self-healing mat that everyone seems to use.

Well I was in Wal-Mart soon after reading that email and decided to see if they had a hard surface mat.  Yes, they did.  June Tailor makes it.  I decided to buy one (the biggest one they had--23"x23") and see what I thought after reading that your cutting blades will not dull as quickly.  (If you are thinking that my blade is dull right now, you would be correct)  Wow.  It does feel different when you cut.  Much more smooth when you cut and I am not pushing down so hard to cut.  I think I am going to like this new mat.  Will have to look for a bigger one though to fit my table.

Finished Block 2 of my Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt.  Am loving this mystery quilt!

What a week!

Last night that white stuff started falling again. It is always so beautiful to me to see snow fall since I grew up in So. Cal.   It has never gotten old to me to watch out a window to see the snow fall.  This is what it looked like this a.m. outside one of my windows.  Just when I was thinking yesterday how all the snow was about gone from the street and driveway.

On Monday, when we had a nice day, I went for a walk with my new ipod.  Have to say, I am LOVING that thing!  I can listen to music, podcasts and I even found old time radio classics that are free to download.  I love to listen to those old  mysteries.  I listen to one the other day that was recorded over 70 years ago!  

Anyway.  Back to my lovely walk.  

It was lovely until I woke up the next day with a sore throat.  

Then the following day came a full-blown flu.  Oh my.  I haven't been sick in forever so this really put me down for the count.  I laid on the floor as close as I could in front of the fireplace to get myself warm for most of the morning and slept.  Finally I decided I would be more comfortable in bed so I dragged myself there after trying to talk myself into getting up off of the floor for about an hour.  Slept until the Honey came home.  

Felt a bit better yesterday but today I feel pretty much back to my old self so this is what I have been doing this a.m.  Blah.  The house has been neglected this week and needed some loving care.

This is where I really want to be though.....

......finishing the bottom block and then working on another.  These blocks are from the jelly roll sampler and the round robin that I talked about in my earlier post.  

How about one more thing to make.......

On my sidebar you might have noticed I added a couple of quilt-alongs.  I thought that other quilters might want to join and if you are like me and only read blogs through google reader, you probably haven't noticed the additions.  The first one is a jelly roll sew along.  Go here and join in on the fun!  During the next few months, we will be making a jelly roll sampler quilt!  Who doesn't have a few jelly rolls in their possession and are looking for ways to make them into a fun quilt?!  The first block was presented just today so none of us are behind.  A new block will be available every two weeks.

The other fun sew-along is a Round Robin with a twist.  There won't be any sewing and then passing on your portion of the quilt.  We will all make our own Round Robin quilt.  This sew-along has already started (and I am behind) but you can join any time.  I think it will be a fun quilt to use up some of that fabric that I have just laying around and I can't quit buying.  Go here to see the center block.

It's not like I don't have other patterns and books full of ideas of what to make next but these two sew-alongs looked fun and I couldn't resist.  Let me know if you join too!

Semi-annual Ace sale!

Drove over to K-town this a.m. for the "big" sale. See that fabric? It was $1.60 yard. Yup. Michael Miller, Red Rooster, Alexander Henry, Northcott. All good, quilty quality fabric. I will use it for backs on quilts. The books and patterns were either $.80 (yes--under a dollar) or $1.60.
It's always a fun sale to attend----so glad our "local" Ace carries fabric!

Meet Me in the Meadow

I have LOVED this fabric since the first day I saw it last year! It's called Meet Me in the Meadow by Jill Finley for Henry Glass fabrics. When I fall in love with a fabric collection I usually buy a 1/2 yard of each fabric I want. I had just enough to make a crib size quilt but I am thinking that I might buy a bit more so I can make at least 3 more blocks. That way I would have a bigger wall hanging. But why stop there???? Maybe I will just keep going and make more blocks for a lap quilt or even a bed quilt! I'm telling ya...this fabric just makes me smile. The yellow is not from the same line. 1/2 yard was not enough for the stars so I ended up using Regency Rose by Laurie Bird for Windham fabrics. I love the white polka dots on it.
The pattern is Orion's Star by Eleanor Burns. I hadn't really made any quilts by Eleanor before making my Day and Night quilt but I like how she teaches and there is a picture for each step so if you are a beginner or haven't yet tried some new quilting step, she walks you through it quite clearly. It's a quick pattern to make. One of those "Quilt in a Day" pattern that Eleanor is famous for.

Yup. Still Winter.

Been snowing off and on for the past several days around here. I guess we should say that it's about time--we haven't had much snow this year. Just wish it wasn't coming so late in the season.  I am ready to be warm again!

And here are the Aqua/Red blocks.  I have only sewn them into blocks.  Not sure now what to do with them so I have put them away again and have started a new project.  At least I got this far with them!

Red Aqua

In trying to keep up on my desire of getting old projects finished, I pulled out my swapped red/aqua disappearing 9 patch blocks. These are from a swap that Jane hostessed a few months ago. Not sure what I am going to end up with but here are some of the ideas I have had. I am leaning towards #4 but maybe that is just because it is still on the design wall and would be easy to sew together. It has been hard trying to decide what to do since some blocks had the aqua in the middle and others have the red. Some blocks are not even in the colors either they used. It's definitely going to be a bright quilt no matter what I end up with!
I like the blocks having the red on the outside but I don't have enough of these blocks to make the quilt very big.

Red blocks on the outside and aqua on the inside.

Red, then aqua blocks.

A mixture of both colors in each block.