Postage Stamp Quilt-a-long

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday season and are enjoying the new year. It is crazy cold all over the US huh? Even here in Florida it has been cold. But again anything lower than 70 is cold to me...lol!


I have SO many projects swirling around in my head, and have the fabric to do them, but when I saw Rachel Griffith's (of P.S. I Quilt) Postage Stamp Quilt-a-long post a couple weeks ago, I thought OMG! I want to do! It uses two jelly rolls, a print and a solid. I didn't have a jelly roll (I know! Im the only one! LOL) so I had to buy them. And as luck would have it, Rachel had a deal with the Fat Quarter Shop which gave a 20% discount if you bought two jelly rolls! Not to mention that the jelly roll I wanted, Awesome by Sandy Gervais for Moda, was on sale too! Sigh, it was meant to be.


Well, the first step this week was to create strip sets. I didn't have time to work on them this week so this weekend I spent most of the time sewing and pressing the sets. And I finished today! Bring on Step Two!


I hope I can keep up with this quilt-a-long. I am so guilty of starting and either losing interest or not having time and getting so behind I just quit. Not this time...I hope.

Anyway, if you are interested in joining, there is no reason not to. I'm sure Rachel will keep this up for a while, if not indefinitely. It looks simple but oh so cute.

Take care!

What have I been up to???

Hey guys, I'm still alive. I've been meaning to blog for a while but time just never presented itself. So I have a few things to show.

I finally finished my "O" quilt a few weeks ago! After a huge hiatus from it due to the biggest disaster in sewing room history (lol just kidding) I got back to work on it and once I got on a roll it only took a few weeks to finish (taking spare moments at night and on weekends). Here's a picture of it basted and ready for quilting:


After it was quilted and the binding attached I spent some hours out on my porch with Dexter stitching the binding to the back (boy that took time) but it was nice to look out at the pond and watch the ducks as I stitched. And of course he had to supervise (don't all cats?)


But after all that work, it was finally done. And I was very happy with it!
It was so late when I finished, but I wanted to take pictures and post on my Facebook. That's why the lighting is so terrible. Sorry bout that!


Also, my boyfriend and I went to Sarasota for the 4th of July weekend, to check out the beaches on the west coast of Florida (I grew up on the east coast in Satellite Beach, near Melbourne, FL). We had a great time, and they had free beach wheelchairs to use! JD pushed me all the way down near the water and set up our little area. The sky was overcast so it never got really hot, although we got sunburned. I am not used to going out in the sun and should have put more sunblock on. Oh well, live and learn. I've finally stopped peeling...yuk! Here's the two of us under our umbrella!


There were adorable terns with black heads everywhere, so I snapped a few pics of them, this one appeared to be posing just for me:


JD had a blast, and has been bugging me ever since to go back to the beach. So this weekend we are planning just a day trip to Daytona Beach, which is just an hour away.

By the way, on the way out of town, I saw this:


So I just HAD to stop in! And I finally got my Margo Pattern and some fabric to make my first Margo bag (Lazy Girl Designs).


I can't wait to get started. These are the fabrics I chose, all from the Cherish Nature line by Deb Strain for Moda Fabrics. I JUST LOVE THE BEES!!


So yeah, I know I've been gone a long time, but I spend more time thinking about quilting, blogging, etc. and less time actually doing them. LOL Hope everyone is having a fun summer, I feel like I need another vacation already... :)

25 Weeks of Christmas

Happy New Year everyone! Hope that 2008 is a safe and happy one for all. As I said in my last post, I didn't make gifts for people this year, mostly because I procrastinated until it was just too late to start. Well this year I hope will be different. I recently signed up for a new Yahoo! group called 25 Weeks of Christmas, which a fellow Lazy Girl group member (Lish) created. It is a group designed to help support and encourage its members to get their gifts made and wrapped by December so that we can enjoy the holidays with less stress! Participation is required as there is a no lurking policy. We have small goals to meet each month (little projects etc), and by July we are ready to get our gifts we plan to give going. I'm excited because it will give me the little nudge I need to get my butt in gear.


I found a box in my sewing room that will hold the projects in it when completed (actually it is temporary because it is rather small, will upsize when the time comes). Dexter decided he would inspect the box to make sure it was appropriate. I guess he approves!


Well, wish me luck, as I have big plans to give lots of Lazy Girl bags this year! I spent five hours Friday night in my sewing room cleaning up and trying to organize, and found FOUR packages of Warm and White cotton batting (craft and baby size)...and I almost bought some last week! Just goes to show you "out of sight, out of mind" really is true. I also found lots of fabric I bought over the last year that I completely forgot about...sigh. It still looks pretty awful in there, I need CLEAN SWEEP to come in...oh wait, they make you throw out half of everything...never mind (lol)

I'm off today from work, and am getting ready to go back in the sewing room to attack the mess again. Again, Happy New Year!

My First Miranda Bag!

Well it took me a while only because I haven't felt like going in the sewing room for some time, but I finally finished my first Miranda bag!! It is much more involved than the Gracie bag (also by Lazy Girl Designs) but is still a simple to make bag. I used fabric from Moda's Fall Back in Time line by Sandy Gervais. I love how the striped fabric I used for the inside of the bag forms the faux binding at the top. I used the dark green vinyl handles by Exclusively You by Leisure Arts, which are a bit darker than I would like, but I think it still looks good.


Don't you just love all these cool pockets? So much organization in such a small package, although this bag turned out way larger than I expected. That is fine with me, the more room the better! This bag is super sturdy, because it uses heavy interfacing (I used Decor Bond) on both the bag and the lining. It made for some difficult turning of the bag, but once that was done, it was cake.

I love this design and will surely make another. But who knows when? I just have to find the time and pick out some new fabrics! There are so many new lines out now, and I am drooling over some of them!! Thanks for looking!

OMG! Guess who subscribed??

Wow was I surprised this weekend when I got notification that none other than Joan Hawley, the designer and owner of Lazy Girl Designs (the best bag patterns on the planet!!!), signed up to subscribe to my blog!! And I don't have hardly any sewing posts on it yet!! So Joan, this post is for YOU!!

I have made three of the Gracie Bag pattern (a total favorite of mine), and this is a picture of the first. It was made from the Seneca Falls fabric line by Moda. This pattern is so easy to do. I suggest it as one that a beginner purse maker could make, no problem.


I didn't get a picture of the second Gracie I made, as I sent it off as a Christmas present for my best friend near Atlanta, GA. I just snapped this picture of the third Gracie I made, which I've had for some time. It was supposed to be a present, but I decided I liked it too much to give away!! It was made from the cream colorway of the Wuthering Heights fabric line by Moda.


The Katy Bag pattern is also a great one. I have made two of them, and here is the pink one I made last year. It was made from the rose colorway of the Wuthering Heights fabric line (yes I love MODA!) I do have some difficulty with the lining laying flat inside, but I'm sure there is something I can do about that. I made one in a chocolate brown fabric as well, but it has fabric handles. I like the sparkly jewel type handle on this pink Katy.


Joan, I CANNOT wait for the Miranda Bag to come out this month. I've already pre-ordered the pattern and all the associated parts. I'm going to make it out of the Fall Back in Time fabric line by Sandy Gervais for Moda. I will take pictures of the fabric and post later this week.

All quilters and sewers should definitely check out Joan's Lazy Girl Designs. I'm so glad I found her patterns. Her Lazy Girl Yahoo! Group is great as well. I love reading about other Lazies and what they are making.

Four Patch Frenzy

Sigh, I am so behind on the mystery. I haven't even finished Step #2 and they are already on #13! There are a few that are behind like me, but it seems as though most are up to speed. The last clues will be posted tomorrow. No way will I be caught up. It's time for bed. Oh well.

Quilting again!

Yesterday was National Quilting Day, however I never made it into the sewing room. Oh well, today I spent about three hours in there working on my Cinnamon O's quilt. I've got both the brown and the red sets of 3.5 inch squares done, which means the 2 inch background squares have been added to opposing corners of each colored square. I still have the aqua, golden tan and light green ones to finish, then I will create each O. Each O takes 4 of the 3.5 inch squares. I thought about making the O's as I finished each colorway, but I get in a zone and chain piecing is so fast, I think I'd rather get all the individual pieces done, then make the O's. But I could change my mind. We'll see.

I bought fabric for a new mystery called Four Patch Frenzy, and two clues have been posted for it, but I haven't cut into the fabric yet! I hope I have a chance to do that this week, because this weekend all the clues will be posted, and I don't want to fall way behind and not finish with the other quilters. Here's hoping.

Quilty stuff

It has been a really long time since I've been in my sewing room. I've been so tired after work and then get sucked into the internet and before I know it bedtime is here. Well I decided this week I would get back in there.

I joined the Stashbuster Yahoo! group last week and have been inspired to work on some UFO's. I wanted to get going on a quilt I started cutting fabrics for months ago, the Cinnamon O's pattern. I bought the fabrics for the quilt in a kit from the Fat Quarter Shop, a webstore I love to go to. Kimberly, the owner, has all kinds of fat quarter bundles of Moda and other manufacturers. It's a bit dangerous for me! I decided to make the quilt a bit smaller than the pattern calls for, since I prefer not to piece my backing, and like smaller quilts because they are easier to handle when quilting.

The kit included one fat quarter from each design of each colorway. There are five colorways in the Cinnamon Stars fabric line: red, aqua, light green, tan, and brown. I needed two 3.5 inch strips from each fat quarter, then cut into 3.5 inch squares. I finally finished cutting all my 3.5 inch squares tonight. I'm exhausted! Next I have to cut the 2 inch squares from the background fabric, which I got tons of. Looks like I will have a bunch left over. My wrist hurts from rotary cutting.

Hopefully I can cut the strips I need over the next week and get to piecing, which is ultimately more fun than cutting. Its a beautiful pattern and I can't wait to finish it to see how it comes out.

Christmas is coming

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I went home to Mom's house on Thursday. I waited until then because I had to stay a bit late at work Wednesday and was rather tired to make the trip, plus had to wash my hair and all that. So got up around 10am on Turkey day and drove the 70 miles to Satellite Beach. Mom went to pickup Grandma and brought her back to the house, where we had a very simple dinner. Reno was able to get a 10 lb turkey for six bucks since he knows the meat guy at Publix. It pays to know people!

After dinner Mom and Reno cleaned up the kitchen while I had a nice long conversation with Grandma. I don't see her too often, since she lives in Melbourne and isn't usually able to make the trip with Mom when she comes to see me on weekends. And since Dad died I don't go home very much anymore. We talked about lots of different things, and it was really nice. Mom told me later that Grandma really enjoyed our talk and even cried. I feel guilty now for not calling more.

On Friday we went to see the movie Borat, which I will tell you honestly was funny in parts, but extremely shocking. There were scenes I wish I hadn't witnessed, those of you who have seen it know which one in particular I'm talking about! Reno couldn't stop talking about how awful it was, and I wouldn't say that, but it was definitely not for everyone. Definitely not for the easily offended.

Mom and I came back to Orlando on Saturday, and hung around the house the next couple of days. Tomorrow is my birthday, and Mom let me open a present a bit early on Sunday. She bought me an IHome alarm clock for my Ipod. It's pretty cool! I can wake up to the radio or my Ipod, and it charges the Ipod. Mom has ordered me a remote so I can work it from across the room.

After Mom went home Sunday night I went into the sewing room, which I hadn't been in in quite a while. I wanted to start a project I got from a lady on Ebay. It was a pattern and fat quarter kit which I had intended to buy from Connecting Threads, but by the time I got around to order it, had sold out. I was so upset. Luckily, someone had bought it and was cleaning out her sewing room and decided to sell it on Ebay. I wanted it so bad that I bid 10 dollars more than it sold for in the catalog. I watched the countdown closely, and someone tried to outbid me 30 seconds before the auction ended, but I was able to enter a final bid and win the kit. I was so happy. It is a Christmas table topper with fabrics from the Thimbleberries December Day collection. I have got a lot of it done, in fact, was just in there tonight and made some more progress. Hopefully if I am diligent this week I can get the top done and make the quilt sandwich for this weekend, and finish it by next week, so I can at least have it for a couple weeks before Christmas. Here's hoping!

Tomorrow Mom and Reno are coming over to take me to Olive Garden for dinner for my birthday. Betty, our secretary and office manager, promised me cake at work, which she does for everyone every year. She's quite the baker! I plan on taking the afternoon off, besides, my air conditioner is on the fritz again and the tech is coming at 1 pm. Hopefully he can figure out what is wrong! We shall see!