Quilt of Valor

I started this on Friday during our sewcial and finished the top this afternoon. It was really easy! It was 2 yards of a focus fabric and 7 FQs. The pattern is called "A Path Less Traveled" by M'liss Rae Hawley. The binding will be dark or navy blue.

Next up, my Round Robin and doing my taxes!!! Have a great week!

March Madness

And it is maddening of late!! I know it's been two weeks since my last post but I have been working feverishly on the Fairy quilt. I showed a block in my last post. At our last Friday "sew"cial, I put on the borders, pieced the back and made the binding. Here is a photo of Bridie's quilt prior to the quilting. We try to get together every Friday morning and we alternate houses. It's amazing how quickly the time goes! I find I get lots done.



Isn't Diane's Storm at Sea gorgeous?? It is all paper pieced and she has been working on it bit by bit since our retreat in January.

This is Linda's mystery quilt which our guild did on drop in Mondays this winter.

Since that Friday, I have quilted the fairies, sewn down the binding. Now all I have to do is add the label tonight while watching TV and it will go into the mail tomorrow. Bridie's birthday is today so this will be late but I'm hoping that she won't be too hard on Auntie once she receives it.

Just a side note, I have been looking for something to use for marking other than chalk and several people had suggested Crayola WASHABLE markers. I tested them on several pieces of fabric and found that it does work well. I used it on Bridie's quilt ( I know, I'm brave or insane, one or the other) but thankfully it did come out, though it required two washings.

A couple of people had asked about my St. Patrick's Day. It was quieter than usual. Though a good friend (and an Irishman) that I had not heard from in a looonng time stopped by the house with a little pot of shamrocks! What a sweetie! Sure made this Irish colleen's day brighter.

If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I am not only a quilt fanatic but a women's college basketball fanatic. We are now in the midst of March Madness. My DH and I have been watching lots of games. Our Lady Huskies are predicted to go all the way this year! As a surprise and a fantastic finish to my sewing room makeover, DH got me a hi-def flat screen which will be going on the wall so I can sew and watch at the same time. It also eliminates the big tv and cart from the corner. Yeah!! more room for fabric!

In other non-quilty news, my DS, Alex, has decided to stay in Colorado after the season at Vail is over and will be starting a new job as a foreman for a garden center. He hopes to be back at Vail next year. Oh, and he got the cast off his wrist and is back to snowboarding again. He called to tell us they had another 12 inches of snow overnight. He is planning to come home for a week or so between the end of Vail's season in April and the start of his new job in May. It has been six months since we've seen him. I can't wait to have him home again!

My sister called from Florida to tell me that my nephew will be in CT training for a new job next week. Pilot Pen is closing shop in CT and moving to Jacksonville and he got a job with them so he is coming up here to corporate offices to get acclimated. This is great news as he has been laid off for about 5 months. So we will try to get together and have dinner with him. And my sis had good news of her own, she passed her CPA exam. Yeah!

I'm also back to 4 days a week at work since we had someone leave and the new person doesn't start til May 11th. So I am working more hours which is ok. The extra money will pay for a few things we want to do around the house.

Seww, as you can see, I am very very busy right now. When Debra put out the call for QOVs, I promised her I would make one. I have the fabric and pattern picked for that. I hope to start it this Friday at our next "sew"cial. I'll post pics of that top when it is finished. Til then,

Quilt til you wilt!!!!

Sewing Room makeover

As I mentioned last weekend, I was in the midst of a sewing room makeover. I have moved from the smaller bedroom to the larger one and everything is now pretty much in place. My DH repainted the room and reconfigured the closet. The carpet was cleaned and everything was moved in.


I was hoping to do this makeover in two steps. First, the actual furniture and whatnot one weekend and then the fabric stash and other things from the closet on another weekend. However, while I was out to the grocery store, my DH did me a "favor" and pulled everything out of the closet. Needless to say, he did it in quite a different way than I would have! But it forced me to go through and weed out a tiny bit as well as reorganize everything.


Here's the pictures of my old empty closet and pictures of me and a portion of my stash:

And here are the after pictures of my new and improved sewing room. This is my cutting corner with design wall and bookcase.

Here is my quilting table, sewing machine table which has an extension on the back for machine quilting and my tv. I'm hoping to get rid of my old tv and stand and put a flat screen mounted onto the wall in the next couple of weeks. That will free up some more space. All of those storage bins under the frame are my stash management bins ala Bonnie of Quiltville fame, and a portion of my fat quarters in photo boxes by color.

Here is one side of the closet. I added a set of cubbies for my yarn stash.

And this is the other side. It has sliding doors on it which I have thought about using as a design wall but I'm still pondering that. The stuff on the right is one of those hanging shoe holders. I am using it to hold glue, glue guns, starch, 505 spray, and other stuff.

I have to say it is all a girl could ask for. I'm truly blessed to have the space and an understanding DH that encourages me to do what I love. It was quite a project but well worth the work.

The guest room is still a disaster but the closet has been painted and reconfigured and my DH will be painting that room this weekend so I can get it back together before my mom comes through on her way back from Florida in April.

In other quilting news, I am now working on Bridie's fairy quilt. The blocks are almost all together. Here's a sneak peek at one of the blocks. I hope to have the top finished by the weekend. Her birthday is March 26th. Hopefully, I can get it done and mailed to her on time.

I have decided to go to the MQX show in Manchester, NH in April. My friend who owned the LQS is going with me. Anyone out in blogland planning to attend???? I would love to meet up with a fellow blogger !

Oh, and lastly, I am now able to reduce my pigs by one with no work on my part at all! How did I do it?? Well, it was thanks to Debra . I sent her two or three quilt tops for her homeless teen project and she has transformed the yellow and blue quilt top. Take a look here! Thanks to Debra my poke is roomier and a quilt will be finding a new home.

Cold weather projects- A flurry of February Finishes

I know I have been gone for a couple of weeks but my computer was sick and had to go to the computer doctor for a checkup. Thanks to Dr. Mike we are back up and running faster than ever!

The pictures I have today are the final February finishes that I worked on last weekend. Neither is a pig but sometimes you have to do something new and fun!

For Valentine's Day, my hubby bought me a teapot. I have found a wonderful teashop near my office and have been buying loose tea. Now that I have a teapot, I needed a tea cozy to keep my tea warm as it steeps. I found this fabric in my stash and made a little cozy. I am quite pleased with it and it gave me a chance to practice my FM quilting too.

My other project has been on the back burner since I went to Houston. I found this little project in a magazine I got as a giveaway. It is a purse made from a felted sweater! This sweater was one of my favorites that I bought at The Gap many years ago. I felted it after I got a hole in the elbow and it has been in my wool stash for some time. The wool plaid lining (which was not 100% wool and didn't felt well) was part of my goodies that I won at our guild's teacup auction last month. I absolutely LOVE IT! I even took the GAP label from the sweater and put it on the inside!

It is a fabulous little bag that matches my red wool coat.

This past weekend I moved my sewing room from the smaller guest room to my son's old bedroom. Now that he is in Colorado I figured it would be ok to TAKE OVER the bigger room and the BIGGER closet for my stash. Stop by later in the week pictures of the transformation!