Happy Hanukkah!

I am blessed not only with many quilting buddies, but buddies of all different walks of life who have strengthened and broadened mine! To those I cherish with Jewish roots and traditions, I want to wish you a blessed Hanukkah!

I admit I have a hard time tracking when Jewish holidays are as they "float" *LOL* But then so does Easter and if it doesn't show up on a calendar, I can't tell you when it is either. So this is coming to you mid-way through the 8 days, but hopefully plenty of time left for me not to be too late!

I am listening to XM radio, and did you know they have a Hanukkah channel!? I am enjoying listening to it so much, even if I can't understand a word sung in Hebrew...it is so fun to listen to. For those with XM, it's channel 108.

Today we are heading out for the house hunting trip in Winston Salem. I feel really headache-y this morning and I didn't sleep well last night. I don't know if it is stress or what? The house has to be in "showing shape" when we leave this afternoon in case it will be shown this weekend.

I spent last night packing up books and extra knick-knacks trying to get realtor approval I guess. But sheesh. I really am not all that cluttered except in the quilting room. And that's to be expected.

It IS helping me go through things and weed out and toss out. This can only be a good thing, right? But still...I woke up today with a headache :c|

I plan on bringing the camera..and thought I could turn this into a feature of "the best and worst of house hunting" by photos! You want to see the absolute ugliest we were shown?? You'll get it! (maybe it won't be that bad) and the best? You'll get it.

The worst part is being married to a very tight wad accountant! If we sell this house close to what the realtor says we should sell it for..we stand to make some money on it. But DH wants to find something cheaper than what we paid for this house....?? I think we should stay around the same price range, same size range...and he is pinching pennies? Sometimes I think if he had his way we'd still be in that single-wide trailer we lived in for 10 years paying $235 a month! I look at property as an investment...he looks at it as an expense. Two different sides of the spectrum.

So hopefully in the middle we can find balance.

Carolina Crossroads, Part 2!

I have uploaded the second step of the Carolina Crossroads Mystery Quilt!

I am flabbergasted and gob-smacked that this mystery has taken off the way that it has! As of this morning there are 785 members on the list doing this quilt along with me! Can you see me going through my life-madness humming "I get by with a little help from my friends" through all this? :cD

Today the moving company is coming to take inventory of our stuff so they know how much they will have to move...I should be able to quilt on people's quilts this morning. No massage clients until 3pm. It feels ALMOST like a day off :c)

If you are doing the mystery, you will need 100 of these little baby "red in the corner" nine patch units! This ought to keep you busy for a while....*snicker*:c)

No time to quilt....whhhhhaaaaaa

I've been collecting boxes from behind stores over the past couple days. I'm boxing up extra stuff that doesn't need to be seen when they show the house. Except for the quilting room. I work here. It has to stay. I can get rid of some nick-nacks and pack up some books, but everything else needs to be accessible.

I have too much crap. I know this. But it's my crap! I am thinning some of it out and getting rid of stuff...dropping extra clothes (that can't be cut up and put into quilts!) to goodwill and throwing things away that I really don't want to move with me.

FOOD. ugh. I am under orders to everyone that we are to eat the freezer empty! *LOL* Canned goods and stuff like that will move fine, but perishables must be consumed. This could lead to some very interesting meal plans....*LOL*

Today I"ve got a house call to do at 10am for a client that can't get out, and then I have clients booked all afternoon. Pretty much a repeat from yesterday with the exception that I should be home by 6:30 instead of 9:00pm!

I had a 6pm client yesterday for a 1.5 hour appt. I was the last one in the clinic, so I had to do all the batching out and shutting down and locking up! Then I had to stop for groceries on the way home...by the time I got home it was after 9pm.....and here I go again.

On Keeping Callouses!

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away,perhaps an hour a day of hand quilting will keep sore fingers at bay!

It's finally cool enough here in SC to want to be under a quilt (and hand quilting) in the evenings! However my callouses have gone all soft, thanks mostly to the fact that my hands are slathered in massage lotion for a good part of the day :c|

I am back to working on the baptist fans on my orphan block quilt. Ive started on the 3rd side in going around the outside edges, and will be working towards the inside in a spiral pattern :c)

I checked out some episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" at the library...perfect for hand quilting by!

The house is officially on the market. Realor suggested that we start to pack things up to minimalize the look of our living areas. HA! Ain't going to happen, at least not in my quilting areas! I'll pare down everything else, but the quilting stuff stays. I've got to go find boxes today and start packing up some other stuff....I'd rather be quilting.

I think I need another piece of M's wonderful chocolate!

Mystery Quilt List

Boy,you sure are hearing from me a lot lately!

I have set up a quiltvillechat@yahoogroups.com list for those working on the mystery so they can talk back and forth about fabric choices, post pictures, post their progress, and fill the list up with all sorts of quilty chatter. Those not participating in the mystery are also welcome to join even if you just want to lurk and learn.

To register, simply click this link

Hope to see you there!
Bonnie

Monday Monday.....

*Singing the Mamas & The Papas* At least it is a more upbeat version than "Rainy Days & Mondays" or perhaps I should think of "Just another manic monday.." Cuz that it what it feels like!

The much painting is still going on. Things are looking pretty good and spruced up! House gets the for sale sign out front today with the realtor coming at 4pm. The Termite inspection is today at 4pm also.

And just when I am feeling overwhelmed....or maybe...plain ole just WHELMED..DHL knocks on my door and lookie what I got! A package! A HERSHEY package!!! The note on the label says:

To Bonnie-Things will get better. Enjoy! From: Hugs M

M?!?? Which M?!? Who is M? It could be anyone! The address is the Hershey Web Store! There is NO invoice inside,no note...just....whooowhoooo!! a pretty pretty package of...CHOCOLATE! :cD

OH M...you made my day! I'm thrilled with the mystery (Maybe M is for MYSTERY!?) pressie! Thank you. Who ever you are!

I was working through some paper work this morning, returning contracts to various guilds for dates I've got booked in the coming year. Marking these dates on my calendar and thinking of how many of you I'm finally going to get to meet in person! Life is crazy right now, yes...but as I look ahead at the calendar, it is going to be an awesome year!

Good going also to so many of you who have completed your 100 little rail fence blocks! AWESOME work! I love hearing about the colors and fabrics you are using. I will be posting the next installment on thursday so you can work on it over the weekend while I'll be in Winston-Salem house hunting.

I did have an email from an Aussie participant who doesn't have access to a companion angle ruler, so if you don't have that, I'll include regular cutting instructions as well, so never fear. However, if you have a chance to come upon this ruler, snatch one up! Ask Santa for one for your Christmas stocking. That one and the easy angle! I use them ALL the time. They work with the sizes of strips I keep on hand and you'll be ready to sew with me on the next mystery :c)

More Questions, More answers

Several people emailed me wanting to know the number of units if they want to make their quilt a different size. If that is what you want to do I suggest you wait until the mystery is over and then figure out what you need to do to make it the size you want. I really don't have the time to plan this out in every size out there. ONE SIZE. If you want it bigger? You can make more blocks when you go to set it together. If you want it smaller? You'll have extra blocks? Or like I said...just wait until the mystery is revealed and you can plan it the way you want it.

If you want to use larger strips? I can't tell you how that will turn out either. I'm just going to post what I am doing for you to follow along with me. If you want to color outside the lines.....that is up to you!

If you have already ironed your rail fences towards the center strip..I made a mistake there. It happens. I am winging this as I sew myself, so my mistakes my sometimes be your mistakes too. I'll try to get a few steps ahead so this won't happen.

If you have pressed your seam allowances towards the center strip on your rail fences, simply take a few minutes and reverse the process by running your iron down the back side of your block unit and pressing those seam allowances AWAY from the center. This is important so the next units (which have more seams) will butt up correctly. It won't take you long. You can grumble at me if you want, but I want to be sewing without having to flip seams all out of the way:c)

Updates, et al...

Some have asked how they will know when the new installments are up. Here are a couple answers and ideas!

I will post new updates here on my blog, as well as on the front page of my website! I also have an "announcement only" Quiltville Mailing List that you can sign up for, and you will be notified of updates via email.

If there is interest, I'm happy to start another mailing list called Quiltville Chat so those working on it can chat back and forth together with questions and ideas. Are you interested?

Now, I have one confession to make already! Be patient with me! I just went to sew the next unit, and found that I had pressed the rail fence units wrong. You need to press towards the outer two strips, AWAY from the center strip. And yes, I'm re-ironing all of mine, but they will fit better this way! This is a learning process for me to figure out all the bumps as I go, instead of waiting until the end of the quilt to post the steps!

Mystery Woman!

I am having so much fun with this idea! I hope everyone loves their quilts and the process as much as I am...just reading your comments and emails about what colors and fabrics you plan to use...This is awesome!

The Quilt has a name! I have Christened it "Carolina Crossroads" Because I am in limbo between North and South Carolina right now!! It just seemed to be perfect, and because *I*know what the finished quilt looks like, the name suits!

When you have completed your 100 rail fence blocks, those with blogs, please post to your blog and let me know you have posted!

I'm already thinking I need to make a second version and sew along with everyone on that one too..I must be nuts! *LOL* I'm going to resist for now...and just persevere with my blue/red/neutral version.

If I give it until thursday....do you think that's enough time for everyone to get their fabrics together and get their 100 rail fence blocks done? They are super easy and fast...just sew sew sew and whack whack whack??

I have also added the 1st step to my website and will put it in the side bar here on my blog when I have a chance. It will make it easier for people to follow so they don't have to scroll backwards all the time to get to the previous steps :)

More thoughts..

Grace wrote:

bonnie, got my mag yesterday too, and was pleased to see your blog listed...about the mystery, since I don't know what the final design looks like, and I prefer a scrappy look, how about a muslin for the middle and scraps for the two sides? will that produce a distinctive design or should I choose 2 colors with the muslin instead? sounds like fun!

cityquilter grace

If you want the design to show up....and not be too muddy, I think 3 colors might be best. OR....you could do multi colors and muslin...but chose ONE SOLID (or tone on tone) color for an accent fabric...so say..if you had all multi colors and muslin...and set aside a piece of BLUE or RED or ORANGE or GREEN (or whatever to add punch)as an "accent" to tie it all together so the design doesn't get lost in the scrappiness..make sense??

Wherever you see the RED in my blocks needs to be where your accent color goes. So if you are doing scrappy....use muslin only for where you see me put "LIGHT" shirt pieces. If you see red...it needs to be that accent color (not light)that you choose.

In sewing the rail fence units, sew scrappy multi colored strips on either side of the center accent strip (red in my case.

Maybe this is a cheater mystery! If you want to ask me design questions so that you don't make a big boo-boo in your choices, I'm happy to answer (without trying to give too much info away in the process!)

Mystery, Anyone??

Look! McCalls magazine came! Lucy and I are included in Holly's article on page 56! This has been so fun for us both! It's been a week for magazines around here!


Carrie wrote in comment to my last post:

This could become a mystery quilt!! My newly cut pile of scraps include a ton of red and blues just hankering to find a new home. I am thinking I just might cut and sew along with you... hehehe... and how wide are these little beauties? As for the twelve days of Christmas a new Quiltville mystery clue gave to me ...

I confess you have me hooked I am just loving this scrapping!

I tried to email Carrie back, but I got that no-replycomment@blogspot.com as her return address! To those of you who don't know it...if you want us to be able to reply to your comments, you need to go into your profile and make that available for us to reply to. It is a huge headache to write a reply to your comment, only to have it bounce back undeliverable because you have not included your email address in your profile.

As a side...now when I am replying...I right click on the person's name in the list of emails at the top section of my outlook express. I click on properties. If it says no-replycomment@blogger.com as the person's address..I don't even start to write a reply. What's the point?

But I digress! Carrie wants to follow along and do my current project as a mystery quilt! Is anyone else game? The units are super easy. You can use scraps for this. But because it is scraps, I'm not going to supply yardage charts. I will tell you that the quilt in my head turns out about 80"X80" which is a full size coverlet...not long enough to go over the pillows, but big enough for a bed topper.

Because my life is crazy right now...I'm not sure how often I'll post each unit, but I will tell you how many of each unit you will need and you can work along on them with me! Do you trust me? :c) Do you have time to work with me? This could be fun, I've never designed a mystery before!

You can make this quilt using any three colors as your guide. I'm doing red/neutral/blue. (You know that already) You could choose green/neutral/purple, or black/white/fuscia or brown/neutral/gold or any three colors you can come up with.

All the pieces for this quilt can be cut from 1.5" strips and 2" strips. I haven't cut for everything yet. I can't even tell you how many strips of whatever you'll need because I am cutting from shirts. I can tell you the number of units you'll need, but your strips may vary depending upon how long your strips are.

Of course the biggest challenge for you is to use STASH. And because this quilt uses 1.5" strips...you can use UGLY stash, it's cut so small, no one can tell just how ugly it is when it gets into it's finished state :c)

Drop me a comment and let me know if you want to play! Post on your blog your progress. If you haven't started a blog, now would be the time to start one! I'll hold off on posting any more parts until everyone can pull their fabrics together. If you are really fast, you can get started by making the 100 rail fence blocks I've already shown.

All I did was sew three 1.5" strips together blue/red/blue. Press AWAY from the center strip (the red one if you are using red here) and then sub-cut them into 3.5" units. Ready? Set? Sew!!

One Down, Many To Go!

I'm headed out the door for an afternoon of massages...I work this out so I am home quilting in the morning, and doing massages in the afternoon so I have concentrated time on each...for those of you wondering how I do it!

I've been working on Susan Cox's beautiful star chain quilt! Feathered to death....it's going to be beautiful on her bed. I hope she likes it as much as I do!



I downloaded a new book on MP3 today. Anyone familiar with the "Mrs Murphy Mysteries" by Rita Mae Brown? I'm listening to "Cat's Eye Witness". Interesting charactors so far, and a very fun lighthearted listen. Love the animal's personalities and how they "talk".

I'd love to listen to the whole series, but they don't have them all available. Guess I might have to actually READ them!

Howling with Holiday Glee!!!

Dawn Evidently has WAY too much time on her hands at work! *heheheheheh*

She sent this Little Ditty this morning of Me, Lucy, Laura, and herself doing the elf dance. HOW HILARIOUS! You have to click the link and wait for it to load, but it is worth it. What a hoot!

Not sure what kind of fashion statement the outfits are, but hey, I sure like the skinny waistlines on all 4 of us!


Are you ready for a quick peek at what the red/blue/neutral strips are becoming?? I'll show you pieces parts and units...but it will be a while before you can see how they all fit together. But for today.....with the 1.5 hours of machine time I gave myself last night (after 9pm!) I ended up with this:

100 blue/red/blue rail fence units! (Maybe this could be my version of 12 days of Christmas? On the first day of Christmas Quiltville gave to me...a pile of rail fence blocks....Nahh, that doesn't sound too great! But you get the idea!

And What Is She Up To Now?! :cD

It's a surprise!I will show you this much....3 bins....1.5" strips. All from recycled clothing! Mind you that not all are plaids or stripes. I also buy prints if they catch my eye, and I throw them in there to spice up the mix. The fun for me is that they are all recycled.


If you are a fabric scavenger like I am, don't forget to check the pajamas! Sleep pants are very popular and often have really interesting fabrics! I found a pair of 3X Old Navy sleep pants with the most wonderful red print. That's ALOT of fabric ;c) I go for the feel of the fabric, and of course reading the label to be sure it is 100% cotton. Another reason why women's shirts aren't always the best....lots of them are MOSTLY cotton, but have spandex in there for stretch..we don't want that.

I've found skirts to be a great source of recycled fabric, as well as jumpers and dresses. Don't forget to check those out!

Last night I got these cut! 3 bins of 1.5" strips in red, neutral, and dark blue. As for what it will become,you'll have to watch for updates, cuz I'm not tellin':cÞ

Yesterday was busy beyond belief. I had two dentist appointments in the morning. Yes, still dealing with the implant thing. I've got the temporary now. My insurance is maxed out for the year, plus we are changing insurances with Dave's new job in a few weeks, so we are going to lay off until after the 1st of the year to do any m ore work on it. At least the temp looks like a real tooth, and it is nice to be able to bite into things without worrying that it is going to come unglued and fall off.

Signed a bunch of papers to get the house listed yesterday too. You know, a gadzillion.. *sign here at the X* and it really really becomes real to you. At least it is to me. After that it was choir practice. I got home after 9pm and that is when I was so "WIRED" that I just kept pressing and cutting shirt parts and separating them into bins.

This morning the fix-it guy is here....and the Orkin man came to do his quarterly pest control to make sure we get a good inspection/appraisal. It's like grand central station over here.

This afternoon I have massage clients booked solid straight through from 1pm til 5...and then I come home and work on a client here for an hour and a half. That will be the extent of my entire day.

I'll just have to dream about these little strip bins and what they will become..when I have time!

On Leaders & Enders..

I had to start a new project with leaders & enders after finishing the Crabapples top last month! (Yes yes, it still needs quilting too! gimme a break!)

I really want to re-make the "Cathedral Stars" quilt that was raffled off at the beginning of the month. I really grew to love that quilt! So I started sewing 2" pairs together,matching a light with a dark. I did these while working on the "Swing Your Partner" quilt (I am liking the name more and more!) I just keep a plastic shoe box of 2" squares by the side of the machine, and grab a light and a dark to shove under the presser foot when ending a line of chain piecing. I have a cute basket at the back corner of my sewing desk where I would toss the finished 4 patches along the way.

This morning as I was cleaning up my area, I looked in the basket and WOW....there was a whole stack in there!

I decided to count them and see how many. How many do YOU think are in there?


I have this little thing I do. I hate counting stuff over and over and over, so I will pin things together in batches of 10. 10 blocks to each pin....and it is easy to figure out that way. Try it, you might like it!

I ended up with 97 four patches!! From making 16 of the milky way blocks, and sewing the triangle sashings and adding the borders. 97!!! Cathedral stars takes 305 4 patches, so I am about 1/3 the way there. How cool is that? This gets me stoked about leaders & enders all over again!

And of course while I'm counting and pinning little 4 patches together I'm not thinking or dwelling on all the stuff that needs to be done around here before I show the house? I also commiserated with myself by devouring the last of the pumpkin pie...for breakfast! And washed it down with a tall diet dr pepper....medicine to my soul!

Square Dancing.....

Thanks so much for all the quilt names! I love each and every one of them! When I look at the block, it looks like 4 people dancing to me. Like Square Dancing. I used to do this as a child.....my mom did too, and I loved to dress up in her square dancing outfits, and all the crinoline full slips that would swish and swirl when I would turn and turn and turn and make myself dizzy.. :c) Fond memories!

At first I was thinking of names of the dance steps the caller would call out. "Allemande Left" was one that came to me,but this quilt has such a farm feel to it that I think I am going to call it "Swing Your Partner".

What do you think?!

Update on the house fix-its....The hole in the ceiling where we had to fix the plumbing is now patched...mud is still drying, so couldn't be sanded today. The door knob holes are patched as well, and were sanded this morning as well as a couple other dents...the one in the stairwell where Jeff punched it, and the one behind the quilt that hung in the upstairs hallway...I guess he punched there too, thinking the quilt would cushion the blow? Needless to say he doesn't punch walls anymore!

We got a call last night from the relocation people. They want the house on the market for 30 days before they do the appraisal to see if it will sell on it's own before buying us out at fair market value. UGH. This time of year....quilt mayhem everywhere....Do I feel like showing a house? Like having strangers walk through this quilt mess that seems to continue into every room of the house? Do I have time to organize it all and scale down so the house looks showable? NO! I have a huge headache. DH says don't stress. HA! He isn't a woman trying to sell a house.

At least the fix its are getting done. Anyone else who sees the house is just going to have to look beyond my creative mess in progress...life has to go on. It can't come to a standstill to show a house.

Bonnie

Big And Flimsy....

It's really difficult to hang a big quilt top on a fence...the weight of it droops, the wind was blowing, trying to get it to lay flat to get a good picture just wasn't happening!

But the borders are ON!

I took my inspiration from a long leftover binding strip from the "Virginia Bound" quilt...it was all shirt strips joined on the diagonal, and you know how it is when you are piecing binding...I pieced about twice as much as I should have! So I only had to piece some more yet, and then inserted the red strip between the two shirting strips. I let the seams fall where they may!

I used the leftover triangle squares and some left over 4 patches to make the cornerstone units. Sometimes I struggle and struggle with a quilt design and other times the muse takes over and BAM it just works! This quilt? Well, I made the first 4 blocks WRONG...then couldn't figure out what was missing in the sashing...I guess I had my moments with it. But all in all, I think it turned out pretty great!

It needs a name...and I have to decide whether I want to hand quilt it (who am I kidding?!?) Or machine quilt it (Like how long will it be on the ever increasing pile until it reaches THAT stage?) I am thinking that big-stitch quilting would be great on this...*sigh*

Born to Quilt....Forced To Work! That's Me!

We've got a handy man here today fixing things on the house to get ready for the appraisal. Having teenage sons mean that they get angry and have occassionally hit the wall..literally! There is also the spot in the laundry room where a slamming door pushed the doorknob through the dry wall, and a few other "fix it" things that need to be done so we can get the best appraisal possible.You know, all those things you wanted to do while you lived there, but you do it before you move so some one ELSE gets to enjoy it? :cÞ

Because I Can......

I tried and I tried and I tried, and I just didn't like any of the other options! I'm sorry guys....it just didn't work because these blocks are so big, plain sashings looked SO plain....lots of things looked washed out. Maybe I just don't follow other people's suggestions very well..or maybe I just march to the beat of a different drummer?

I knew it wasn't the red that was the problem, but it took some tries for me to figure out what it was! It was the brown gingham check. It was too LIGHT to go up against the light parts of the blocks! So I started digging in the stash and came up with a taupe-y grey/brown mushroom color stripe....PERFECT! It reads less intense than the red, but still darker than the lights in the blocks.

I wanted to keep the "mirror image" and "positive/negative" thing going on, and it just seemed to me the best way to do that was to stick with the original half-square triangle sashing. I bit the bullet and framed a couple blocks to see if I liked it better with the seam allowances gone. PRESTO! That was what it needed! I just finished setting everything together and I'm pooped. Do you know how hard it is for me to make 50 gadzillion half square triangle squares with only TWO FABRICS!!! Talk about mind numbing..there is a reason I do scrap quilts, remember? I think it has to do with my attention span! :cÞ


So...it still needs an outer border to frame it all, but I'm bleary eyed and wanting to crawl in and watch some TV before nodding off to sleep. Work week starts back tomorrow.....what a great holiday weekend it's been! I've sure enjoyed the down time and glad that we didn't have to go to Winston-Salem!

is this any better???

Or maybe I'll go back to the drawing board....

I rotated the triangles around a bit to distribute the light/dark effect.

Thinking....

I have 16 blocks done. I think that is sufficient. They are BIG blocks, 15" which is so unlike my usual self, because I tend to be drawn to small blocks! However, with these shirt pieces, I wanted that "FARM" feeling....the look of a quilt made for warmth and utility, not for "fancy", you know?

Besides, I rationalized to myself that if I wanted the blocks to be smaller I'd have to work with strip sizes I wasn't cutting! (GOOD POINT!) And when you REALLY think about it..these blocks ARE four-blocks-in-one, aren't they? It's not the simple one-block milky way block..it's 4 of them put together, 2 positive, 2 negative. So I justified!

I decided not to set them on point as in the inspiration quilt. I wanted a more funky folky look without so much room for fancy quilting. I tried laying them out with sashings. It went BLAH. I tried block to block to block, but the blocks just cry to be separated by SOMETHING.

I thought of making four patches and little alternate 3" squares to make pieced sashings, but that is going to take a lot of four patches and do I really want to do that? I laid some out (thank heaves for a basket of leader/ender four patches I have going on by the machine!) and it just didn't do anything for me because of the way the four patches turn in the blocks. (More of that brain warp feeling going on!)

At this point I am pulling yardage....I know I know....I wanted it to be ALL SHIRTS..but when you get to this point, there isn't a shirt big enough to give me enough of a uniform thing to pull it together...I might need to buy a plaid tent from Ahab the tent maker! (But Tonya left him behind in Egypt, and it's just not convenient!)

I have a piece of brown gingham type yardage. Nice. Has the feeling I want. But putting it with a "light" Made the whole sashing too blah and fadey-outey. So I did what Bonnie does....went RED! I made a bunch of 3" finished 1/2 sq triangles...and laid them as a pieced sashing between the blocks! It gives the blocks almost a lady-of-the-lake feel. I like it! It has motion...it has punch in that RED...and solid reds were used a lot in utility quilts because it was so inexpensive and accessible..

Do you like it? Do you hate it? Is there an alternative I should think about before I take it any further?? Speak now or forever hold your peace! (PIECES?!)

Stuck in Irmo!

We were going to go up to Winston Salem to check out the area and go house hunting but we decided that the holiday weekend was no time to do that.

Dave starts his job there mid-December, so time is getting closer. We'll go in the next week or two.

Left-over pie is the best part of the holidays! I didn't have much on thanksgiving , too full...but a nice big piece of pumpkin last night while watching DVDs and cutting up plaid shirts was great therapy. I'm kind of glad we didn't go anywhere this weekend.

It is my tradition NOT to venture out on Black Friday at all! And we did quite well...only had to go pick up some prescriptions and did that at 6pm when most of the shopping crowd had petered out and departed home to eat their leftover dinners.

I've taken the dogs to the forest the past two days for a good 5 mile hike. They love it, and I love it this time of the year when the leaves are all covering the paths and the smell of the pines is so fragrant! My thighs and buns can sure feel it! Heaven knows, I need to take some time out each day to get THEM (the dogs...not my thighs and buns!!Okay..those do need it too!!)some exercise as well as myself. So I'm going to try to do this at least 3 times a week. I sometimes feel guilty because it cuts into quilting time, but at the same time...I NEED IT.

I'm down to the wire on the last few customer quilts I have for the year. Massage slows down this time of year when people get too busy (and strapped financially?) to think about getting a massage. It works out. When massage is slow, quilting is high...it just works. I'm not sure what I'll do with the massage therapy when I get to Winston-Salem. The thought of starting a new practice all over again is daunting, and I don't want to work for anyone else when they charge 50% to 60% commission. Where I am now I rent my own space, and have built up enough clientele that it is so much more worth it than working on commission. So.....we will see when I get there what happens. I'll keep my license current.....and give it time.



Here's some of the blocks I've been working on! It's helped me to use up some of the plaids as well as getting them cut down into strips for various other projects. While cutting the pieces for each block out of one light and one dark shirt, I set aside the shirt back as if it were a FQ, just in case I need bigger pieces down the road, and cut up the fronts and sleeves and yokes into 2", 2.5" and 3.5" strips. Any small pieces left over are getting cut into squares of the same sizes. After cutting two shirts, I allow myself the pleasure of piecing a block, how kind of me to myself, huh?? *LOL* The drawers are filling with strips, the piles of shirts are going down, and I'm getting a quilt top in the process!

You can see in the trashcan how it is filled with the front buttonhole bands (can't get anything out of that!) and seams, and pieces that had really thick fusible interfacing on them for body. Everything else is useable! I've got a big zipper bag that a comforter came in that holds all the small weird stuff for string/crumb piecing. I can grab it and just start sewing!

Life is Good!

CRAZY!!!

I'm going to make myself late for work, but I couldn't leave until I got this dang block RIGHT...just to prove to myself that I am not a complete idiot..*LOL*

I feel MUCH better now, and I'm off to take care of massage clients. I should call this block "mind bender" instead of Milky way!

Don't Sew Late At Night!!

And here I was so proud of my productivity! I've been taking shirts apart,and as I cut them into strips I thought it would be good motivation to cut block parts for a quilt I want to do as I go....so I have "INCENTIVE" right?..uhhhhhuhhh.......we all know the path to "WHERE" is paved with good intentions?

Obviously,the path to either ripping out, or setting aside if you were sewing like I was last night!

First off, I love OLD quilts. I love old "farm style" quilts, not fussy ones, but the utility ones that were made from the scraps of every day fabrics. Lots of stripes and plaids, pieced frugally and quilted simply to keep families warm.

I fell in LOVE with this antique quilt! I love anything that has a strong "positive/negative" feel to it, and I'd never seen the "Milky Way" pattern done as blocks this way and put on point. Fun, huh?

So okay...Bonnie gets big ideas and begins sewing thinking how hard can this be? It's 4 patches and 1/2 square triangles, right?!?!?!


It took me until this morning when I took pics of my 4 blocks to see that half of my 4 patches are marching in the WRONG DIRECTION!! It must be the optical illusion of this kind of block...but BLLLAHH! I don't want to pick them out! I'd rather just start over! I guess they can go on the BACK of something? I can't believe I got FOUR BLOCKS wrong, all just as wrong as the other!

Good thing there are lots more shirts where these came from!

Oh..one thing I learned. It sometimes isn't worth it to buy women's shirts. Darts and tucks and extra seams to make the shirt "fitted" plus sometimes pieces cut on the bias make using them really difficult. I'll still buy them if I REALLY REALLY think I have to have the fabric in that shirt, but I think I'll stick to mens 3X extra tall! :cD

IT'S HERE!!!!

My copies of Quiltmaker just arrived!! I am so thrilled!

It is very fun to open up a magazine and see your quilt inside. They did such a terrific job with the photography and the writing. How fun it was to work with them on this project! I really hope I can do more with them in the future, this venture was pure pleasure and well worth waiting for!


They have included directions for my Blue Ridge Beauty quilt as well as a little article on "leaders/enders". I hope that scrap quilters everywhere will look at their stashes a bit differently and find a way to be more productive at the same time!

What a great thing to come the week of Thanksgiving. I know I have so much to be thankful for. I'm really overwhelmed when I look at how things have happened in the past year. Next year this time...as I look back...I wonder what I'll see!

We are thinking of heading up to the Winston-Salem area on Friday and spending the long weekend up there getting a feel for the area. I don't know if it will be a good time to try to connect with realtors, but we have printed out some properties we'd like to see and can use the tom-tom to do a few drive-by sightings to see if it is something worth checking back later on or not. I think it will be a good weekend to "get out of dodge" even with all the holiday travelers. I just need to get a feel for where I'll be, you know?

I've spotted a listing for a 1900's farm house on 6 acres, with barn and shed. The house has 2545 sq ft....Might not have a basement for a quilting studio, but with 6 acres I'm sure I could build the studio I want :c)Wouldn't that be something? I can't wait to see inside of it!

It says it is restored, 3 bedroom and 2 bath and has heated tile and many extras.....hmmmmmmm!

A "Crumby" Upload!

I finally got on the stick and pulled all my crumb quilts/projects/blocks into a tutorial page on my website.

I've been intending to do it ALL YEAR since Tonya and I had our crumby week over last New Years..but you know how life goes!

You can check it out here: Crumbs, Crumbs, Crumbs!!

My idea is to have a place where all kinds of crumb projects can be shown, along with how different quilters make use of their crumbs, so if you have any techniques, projects to show...let me know! I'm happy to post them!

In addition to my crumb quilts, I posted some charity crumb quilts that I did...and the book covers projects.

Send me ideas and pics if you have them and want them included!