This is what I did today. My Thimbleberries BOM for March. It was not an easy one to do. There was a lot of pieces in this one and I find it very hard to piece half square triangles when you have to start sewing with the bulk of the two seams. I'm glad they are done.
I think I will color the center of one of the blocks and leave the other one like it is. Change it up a bit. One is supposed to be for the front and the other is to go on the back but I'm making two quilts instead. I would hate to put those blocks that were so much work on the back.

My son has his two cousins visiting right now. They will be here until Saturday. All the boys are about the same age(15-17). You should see my house. It's a wreck! But they are having fun. Video games and TV and movies. They are good boys. No trouble. They have a little sister that is 2 years old and the cutest thing. I bet she is missing them something awful right now.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

I hope everyone had a good Easter Day yesterday! We had a good day spent with family and friends. My oldest son was working but we were able to bring him a plate of food and visit with him in the evening. I also was able to bring the table into the house! It is finished! (I know you are probably tired of looking at pics of this table but I most show them anyway). My husband put many layers of tung oil and it and it is smooth as a baby's butt.

Here it is in place in the living room. I love it! It has a wonderful color to it with a little sheen.

Here is a close up of the top. My MIL is going to bring over some doilies that were crocheted by my husband's grandmother years ago. I will choose one to put on the top of this table. I want one with a lot of open space because I don't want to cover up that beautiful wood grain. History from both sides of the family. Puts a warm feeling in my heart. Bye for now, I have lots of work to do today.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

And the winner is...

Before I announce the winner I want to show you what I'm sending out...

The quilt came out so cute. It is hard to give it away but I enjoy making things to give away, it is rewarding. The small bag is one that I made last year, the applique is wool and it has a small rusty bell on the pull. There is also some crocheted coasters. I make these out of selvages (I do rugs too). The last item is a finger pin cushion. I made a lot of these a few years ago for some guild members and have several left over. They are made with the lid from a 20 oz. plastic soda pop bottle. I thank every one that checked out my blog and entered the drawing. I have enjoyed having this blog and finding others to inspire me. Now on to the important stuff. The drawing!

I printed out and folded all the little slips of paper and put them in a bowl
(for lack of something prettier).

Mixed them all up (excuse the dryness of the hands and arm, how gross, this is what happens in winter time). It sure was fun mixing all these up. Then....the winner is!

harts4Him. Congratulations, my friend! I will send you an email letting you know you have won and so I can get the prize to you as soon as possible. Thanks again for everyone that participated. This was so much fun, I will have to think of a reason to do another one.

100th Post Give Away

Here is a peek at what the 100th post winner will be receiving. There will be other things to be given away with this but just thought I would give you a look see (check out post below for details).

Last night my daughter was over at my house to visit. It was getting late and we were acting silly. She decided to start coming up with names for Quilt Movies. After a while my son got into the act too. We laughed so hard at some of these. I thought I would share them with you. (I apologize now if these offend anyone but we thought they were funny).

The Ruler of the World
Sewing Machine Smackdown
The Case of the Scissor Snatchers
The Iron Ma'am
The Fabric Hunter
Jackie the Ripper
Eye of the Needle
One Woman's chronicle to no longer be a Fat Quarter
The Texas Rotary Massacre
Thready Kruger...the Comedy...He keeps you in Stitches
Evelyn Scissor Hands
Measuring Tape Strangler
Mortal Kombatting...the day the tension was off
The Needler: needle me this...
Spiderman 4: Fusible Webbing

Would you go see any of these movies? HA! Anyway, that is what you get when it's late and you start acting silly.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Past the 100 mark!

I just noticed that yesterday was my 100th post! How could that have slipped by without me noticing? I never thought I would make it because sometimes it is so hard to figure out what to post about, but it's here and I would like to do something special. Others have done give aways and I think that sounds like a good idea.
Leave me a comment and mention you want to be included in the 100 post give away. On Saturday I will put the names in a basket and pick one winner. At this time I'm not sure what I will be giving away but I will put a package together, maybe some pieced blocks or red work and a bar of felted soap and... I'll figure the rest later. So leave your comments today until Saturday morning. Make sure when you leave a comment that I have an email I can reach you by if you win. Good luck!

Update: Forgot to mention, drawing is limited to the United States.

The table is nearing completion. It needs to have a coating of tung oil and polyurethane for durability. I love it! My honey has done such a great job! The wood grain is so beautiful. He has done a good job at the lathe.

Here is a close-up of the wood grain on top. It looks like feathers to me. It will be even more prominent after the tung oil. The top is more an oval than a circle. That was due to the length of the chunk of branch that he had to work with. (Check out Feb. 21 to see the top and pedastal before it was cut)

This is the whole top. I love the knot holes. This table is so special to me. Made from a tree I used to play under and made by my husband just for me. His own design. Designing as he went along. There were some complications, like the top being bowed and the cracking that occurred because the wood dried out some more after the bark was removed from it, but I love the character the knot holes and cracks give it. The bowing was fixed with some ingenuity by my husband. There is a plate of metal underneath that you cannot see screwed into the top to pull it flat. Just can't say enough about it's beauty and specialness to me. More pics later after it is completely finished and in it's place of honor.

Morning routine. This is where you find me every morning. With my tea and my books. It gives me comfort to know exactly where I'll be each morning and what I will be doing before my day starts. I'm a very routine oriented person. I'm not sure I always like this about myself. Sometimes it is not easy for me when things happen not as planned or spontaneously. I'm learning, but it is a hard lesson.

This is a project for a friend of the family. I was working on it this weekend. It is the second of two quilts I am making for a grandmother to give to her granddaughter for graduation. The first was made in 2003. All the blocks are made from the older clothes of the grandmother, mother and granddaughter as a child. The quilt also has nine photo's in it. The picture below is of the first one I made and when I get further along in this one I will show pictures but they are the same quilt with small differences. Some of the fabrics are different because the girls wore different clothes as children but most are the same because they shared outfits and the mother and grandmother fabrics are the same. The difference is in the backing of the quilts and the pictures. I am still waiting for the graduation picture to come in so I'm trying to get as much work done on it as I can now. They want it for graduation on May 17th!

This is the quilt I quilted on Saturday, by the hardest. My thread kept breaking every other row and my frame was unleveled and caused some problems. I got it done though, and I'm glad. I need to do the binding on it and I have another one to finish. You have seen the other one before. It is the same as this one but in brights. I dyed the backing the other one and I need to square it up and get it ready for quilting. These quilts are for a daughter and step mom. They work together cutting hair in their own shop. They have been cutting our hair for over 12 years and are friends of ours. They will be so surprised to get these. The fabric hanging on the wall behind this quilt is a piece that was dyed on the same day as the other pieces I showed you in a previous post(check out March 10th). It is the one that looks like the backing for the other quilt (you can see a picture on that quilt here , check out Monday Feb. 11th.).

That's it for today. I need to get to work on these unfinished projects.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Here is a small quilt I made this past weekend. The block is called many different names but our guild used it for a Lotto block and called it Square Peg. It was very easy to do. I'm not happy with the border fabric but I was trying to use the stash instead of buying something. I only had 1/3 yard of the dark purple and needed 1/2 yard. I had to substitute another dark purple to finish the blocks and find something else for the border. I would have liked a darker purple but didn't have anything else. It looks like a baby quilt. I don't have any particular plans for it right now.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

These are pictures of fabrics that I dyed when my friend and I got together to dye fabrics a couple of weeks ago. We used the Procion MX dyes. We had taken a class about 3 years ago on dyeing fabric and had did a batch up at home after the class but this was totally different. We didn't follow all the rules. The one above I just squirted the dye onto the fabric and instead of waiting for the 24 hours we rinsed it right away. Most of the blue washed out but a little bit of it is there in the background and kind of looks like a shade of purple.

This one I pinched and swirled before dyeing. It looks like tye-dye. It is knd of fun looking. I thought the colors would be more vibrant but in sat for the 24 hours and some of the dye that it was sitting in the bag kind of muddied together and so the colors are a bit muted.

These two pieces are smaller. The red one is only one color that used very little dye and came out kind of mottled. The one next to it was fan folded and squirted with different colors. I sure was fun! I also dyed a large piece for backing for a quilt I'm needing to quilt. I will take pictures of it maybe when it is finished. It looks like the sunset at dusk. Lots of yellows and some magenta and oranges.

Quilt til your arm falls off...

These are the BOM for March. The two at the top are for the Louisiana BOM and the bottom is for the Seasonal Delights BOM. I decided to get them done while I had everything out already. Now I'm glad I did them. I just have the Thimble berries BOM left to do for March. Don't know when I'll be able to get to those but I will do it before the end of the month. The crawfish was very challenging. It is fused and machine appliquéd. It had a lot of small areas to stitch. I'm happy with how it turned out. The fabrics in this kit are fabulous hand dyes and batiks. It blows me away every time I open up a monthly packet. Today I'm sewing up blocks for a new beginner quilt class I will be teaching in May. My SIL came over last night with her sewing machine she got for Christmas and I was able to show her how to thread it and make bobbins. I taught her a few other things about her machine too, like how to set it for some of the decorative stitches she has. The best part is I talked her into taking my beginner quilt class. It will be so much fun. Two of my SIL's and a friend of one of them. Will we get any work done! I hope so. I want another quilter in the family besides my MIL. We could have our own mini quilt retreats when we get together, without the men of course. That's all for today. Have a great quilty day!

Quilt til your arm falls off...

Here is a lovely yellow tulip in my flower bed. I am so enjoying them. The winds we had the other day kind of messed them up. I have some without petals and some of them broke off at the stem. I was a little upset about it at first but as my husband said "That's nature babe"!

This is a Thimbleberries BOM from 2005 (I think). I have been working on them this year and trying to get them finished. This is January and February. You got two blocks each month because one of the sets of blocks is supposed to be pieced to make the back of the quilt but I'm going to make two quilt tops out of it. They are a little hard to work on (alot of pieces in some of them) and I'm trying to sew my very best and make these the right size. You know how sometimes you finish your block and it doesn't measure what it is supposed to, what! that never happens to you! Well, it sure happens to me! A Lot! Well, on these I'm trying really hard to sew and exact 1/4 inch seam. It is stressful at times but I'll be happy with the finished results.

This is some other BOM's that I'm trying to finish. The two at the top are for the Louisiana BOM I purchased in Shreveport a few years ago, and the bottom one is for the Seasonal Delights BOM I have. These are the February blocks The January blocks are on January 19, 2008 if you want to check them out.

That is what I've been up to. A friend and I also dyed some fabric last weekend and I'm needing to iron them after washing then I will get some pics of them. When I do I'll post them. That's all for now.

Quilt til your arm falls off...