Where did May go?????

I am amazed how fast the month flew by. I guess I missed another weekend post so I will make up for it now. I put together both Insane-ish tops. I still need to square them up and add borders. I am waiting to hear how many and how big Colleen wants her borders to be. I am going to do a zig-zag border on mine so I need to get going on paper piecing those. Here is February's WONKY handled "Tisket Tasket block. What would a basket of mine be without the wonky handle? LOL!
Here are March and April's blocks. Handles are a little better.
This is the last "Polka Dot Girls" block.................
Here is the Polka Dot girls put together. All that is missing are the borders.
Last but not least, my "life Is Beautiful" stitcheries. 8 of 32 done.
I have a new addition to my brood. Her name is Linda. Daisy and Mindy LOVE her and she loves them back. I need help on training a kitty. Of course she is potty trained, that was easy. I am talking about jumping on furniture I don't want her on and clawing things. I bought her a post and tree, the one in the picture was a loaner. So far she hasn't destroyed anything and the vet did clip her nails. Any help is appreciated. Also, if you are a kitty owner, did you declaw?
Back to work tomorrow. I hope everyone has a safe, happy, quilty and healthy week.

Slight Progress

I am making slow progress in putting together the 2 Nearly Insane-ish quilts. I have 1/2 done on each. If I were going to make another, (no, I'm not that crazy) I would put the rows together as I made them. I am hoping to get the two tops together next weekend and then square them up. Then the final decision on the borders has to be made. The block below is May's calendar redwork BOM from my local quilt shop.
The next block is a UFO I pulled from the bin. It is January's Tisket a Tasket BOM. I re-did it in wool. Complete with wonky handle. It wouldn't be a block made by me without a little wonkiness. :)
The next 2 blocks are the final blocks for the "Polka Dot Girls". All I need is time to put the block together and add it to the rest. Can someone spare time????

Last but not least is April's Catalicious BOM. It is the same as block #7 on Polka Dot Girls so there was a little deja vu working on it.
I hope everyone has a safe, happy, healthy week. I also hope everyone has time to work on things. If anyone can spare some please send it my way.

5 down, 10 to go

I spent 5 hours in my sewing room today. I made all the sashing strips for both Nearly Insane-ish quilts. I also put 5 rows together. I can't believe this is as far I as got in all that time. I thought for sure I would get these tops put together today. It looks like it may take a few more marathon sessions just to get all the rows put together. I will then have to square it up and start thinking about borders. I think Colleen wants me to put a small 2" white strip around hers first and then her wide white with red border that she chose. I haven't decided whether or not I am going to do the same or go ahead and make that paper pieced zig-zag border that Ranette made. Decision, decisions.
I finished my "Gardeners Journal" BOM for May on Friday night. I had to make this block twice. It just gave me fits! I think this one has the ladybug going the wrong way too but it is staying just like it is.
I was sorting through UFO's yesterday. I started 2 quilts a while back, I was going to do a white version and a black version. I made 7 of 12 blocks for each quilt and quit. They are about 18" square and have a few hundred pieces each. I lost interest and don't want to finish them. They are called "A New Beginning" and "Out of the Darkness" and are Pam Bono designs. Joy and I decided to use them to make 2 twin size quilts to donate to her father's charity. I am going to take them to our get together next Saturday so we can figure out how to lay them out and finish them. I don't have it in me to make that 8th block to make them even. Maybe we can use 6 blocks per quilt and use the 8th block for a pillow. Daisy decided that they were the perfect spot to sit on. LOL!
I wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, creative week.

Another April Finish

I just don't have the camera or the photography skills to be able to capture the quilting Margaret did on my "Affairs of the Heart". She is a wizard on the Longarm. She quilted down the appliques and stippled around each block.

She did these amazing feathers on the borders and beautiful hearts in the center of each border.

I finished the block 7 stitcheries on "Polka Dot Girls" last night. I was able to put it together today. I only had 2 hrs to visit my sewing closet all weekend. :( Hopefully next weekend will be different.
Have a Happy, Healthy, Quilty week!

A Gardener's Journal

I just don't know where my weekend went. I was able to get my "Gardener's Journal" block done for the month. I am going to try to keep up with the group and get one block done a month. I found a pile of fat quarters I had bought a while back and decided to use those. I am trying to be as frugal as possible until the Long Beach International Quilt show. I am 7 days clean. (haven't bought anything quilt related) Can I make it till the end of July??? LOL!I was also able to put together block 6 of "The Polka Dot Girls". Now I have to get busy and stitch the last 2 blocks so I can finish this one.
I had to make one more Insane-ish block. I miscounted how many I needed and came up short. I had to pick an easy one because my head is so not into red and white blocks right now. I am hoping to get started on putting them together next weekend.
I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, quilty week!

A Finish!

On Monday I received two quilts I had sent to Margaret. I was able to get the binding on this one to show you. I just LOVE it. It is called "An Angel's Story". I used all the scraps I had to make some string blocks for the back, I think it turned out great. It looks like I need some photography lessons.




I was also able to piece the rest of the blocks I had ready from my Polka Dot Girls. I have 5 blocks completely done and am working on the stitchery for block #6.



This last block is from the April Calendar Quilt Redwork BOM I am doing with a LQS in my area. I love these because they are so simple, yet cute.
I spent a lot of time prepping a bunch of stitchery projects to work on the next few weeks. I am going to try to get block G of "A Gardener's Journal" done by next weekend so I can put it together. I really want to keep up with the group on this one.

End of a Long Weekend.

I have been bitten by the Schnibble bug. Thanks to Cindy, I finally decided to start a Schnibble project. I have been collecting the patterns and charm squares but just haven't had the time since I was a mission to finish my Nearly Insane blocks. Well, I finished my Insane blocks and decided to put them away and Schnibble. This was so quick and fun to make. The best part is that there is hardly any waste at all. I used every single charm square. I hope to get it pinned so I can practice my quilting skills on this soon.
After my Schnibble fest I decided to work on a UFO on my list. I put together block #1 of my Polka Dot Girls. I am using my 30's stash since I am on a fabric diet.
I also finished up another stitchery from this quilt, I think it is from block 6. I still have a few to go but they are all prepped and ready.
The next two are quick little BOM stitcheries from a local quilt shop. It is a Calendar BOM. These are Feb. & March. I started April and should finish this week. It is so nice to be caught up on something.

The next block is the Catalicious BOM. This is as close to having a cat as I can get. LOL

The next 5 blocks are the final blocks for my Nearly Insane-ish quilts. Now the chore of putting them together begins. I need to cut a bazillion sashing strips and sashing squares. Colleen and I have to decide how we want to lay out our blocks. I don't think we can do this for a few weeks so I will take a break from this and work on other UFO's.




Back to work tomorrow. We were able to take a nice long 5 day weekend. We used to get a week off at Easter but since the economy is in the toilet we need to work and try to get in all the patients that are on vacation.

I started a new blog, it will detail on how I plan on losing the 20 pounds I gained since I started sewing 4yrs ago. UGH!! Looks like less sewing and more workouts are in the horizon.