Sewing Buddy? Amy's BOM 2010 and RRCB Progress

On Quiltvillechat they talk about the snails of which I am a snail extraordinaire.  I now have 22 of my 60 string blocks prepared for my RRCB.   The other day a lady DH and I knew from work came over to sew with me.   We had run into her different times over the past few years, we don't live in a really big town.  The last time about 2 weeks ago it came out that she's working on her first quilt, a baby quilt for her new great-grandbaby, and I invited her to come over and sew with me.   We had a nice time, I helped her a little, and got these two blocks made, and we went and had BBQ, one of my favorite parts, lol.   There is a Shop Hop coming up, she's never been and she and DH and I might go together, also I think that we may sew together again.   I haven't had anyone to sew with before, except for making the tote bags with my daughter, so it was nice.  She is new at quilting, but not at sewing.  She amazed me by having made her daughter's wedding dress years ago.

I was going to go for a setting of 4x6 blocks on Amy's 2010 BOM, but when I got to figuring, I decided that that would be a little bigger than I would want.  I figured it again and with a 3x5 setting and borders I should end up with about 58" x 86" which is just about the size I like for adult lap quilts.  I'm trying to use my stash as much as possible and I had this batik with mostly the same colors so I decided to use it for sashing and I have a purple and yellow print to use for a small border and a Kaffe Fassett fabric with blues, yellows, greens  and  pinky lavenders to use for the wide border.   The color combos may be a little strange, but most of mine are, lol.   I still want to do more of Amy's blocks, but I think that I'll switch over to red, white, and blue.   That will be after I finish my paintbox quilts and hopefully Iowa (Carolina) Christmas.   Meanwhile, I have about 2 weeks to finish this one and I'll keep up with my goal for at least one finish a month, Yippee.

Amy's BOM a Lot Late - Giveaway Win

Better late than never.  These are last years May blocks from Amy's BOM.  I am not going to do all the blocks at this time, but I am doing enough to make my version of Linda from Living4Quiltings pretty flimsy.

Block #2 "Follow the Leader"

Block #3 "Ohio Star"

Block #1 "Road to the White House"

My DGS moved into a new apartment, works at Publix, so he needs ironed dress shirts daily and he didn't have an iron.   I gave him mine which was pretty new, but I had never been really pleased with it because it didn't seem to be hot enough even when set to linen.  I got this non steam iron from Vermont Country Store and boy does it get hot.  I had to set it back to cotton.  I've only used it a few times, but I think I'm really going to like it.

And best of all, I won Anita from BedofRosesMQ's giveaway.   Bonnie's book is just as good as I expected with lots of information and gorgeous quilts.  Now I have all three, yea!  Thank you so much Anita for your generous gift.

Giveaway!

If you haven't gotten your copy yet (I haven't and hope to win this one) and would like to enter a fun giveaway form BedofRosesMq, Anita has an extra one to give away to a lucky winner.   You can enter until next Friday the 25th, so there's still plenty of time.   Good luck, if I don't win I hope you do. 

Organizing

My sewing room won't win any awards, but it sure does look better.  This bookcase has three shelves and I donated two shelves worth of books to the library to make room for fabric.   It was painful as they were mostly quilting and cook books.   I have more fabric than I thought, some that I didn't remember at all.   There really isn't any special organization, just about a yard and over pieces here.   This is folded over a 6.5 by 24 ruler. 

These shelves are pieces bigger than a fat quarter but around a half yard or so.  These were folded over a ruler 4.5 inches wide.  Also, there are two boxes about 8 x 13 size, one filled with fat quarters, and the other with long quarters.

This is scraps that I had organized previously by colors there are quite a few.

And even more scraps.   There are going to be quite a few more when I get back to my RRCB and all those string blocks.   I'm thinking that for Valentine's and my birthday maybe I'll get an accuquilt go and make some scrappy quilts.   I know some people love to have scraps, but these have multiplied and are stressing me out, lol.   I also have a box of scraps about 11 x 10 x 17, the kind for reams of paper, and it is almost full.   I am still not completely organized, but it is so much better.   I think that I figured out my problem.   About a year ago I got a new canister vacuum cleaner and the only place I could think of to keep it was in my sewing room closet.  I could no longer get to things and it became more and more out of control.   I cleaned my bedroom closet and made room for the vac and I hope that it won't get in that state again.   I have confidence, lol.   Also, when cleaning my bedroom closet I found a purse that looks quite nice and I don't even remember buying it.   Cleaning, it's a good thing.

Fourth Finish Landon's Quilt

Landon's quilt is finished and we saw their family at church Sunday, so he is out of the hospital.

Cecilia Marie's Quilt Done

Cecilia's is ready in time for the shower tomorrow.  She isn't due until March, but I don't get to see that branch of the family very often so it will be nice to delver it in person.

The back isn't super girly, but I was with Marcy my DGDIL and she assured me that she thought the plaid was cozy.  I added the panel down the center with pink angel bears to make it more girly, and as Marcy said, I think it is cozy.   It is from another flannel sheet set that was on sale at Target.  The twin top sheet was enough for this quilt and baby Landon's too.  His is basted and ready to quilt so it will be done soon.   His father had told Marcy that they expected to be home from the hospital yesterday, but now they are hoping for today.  Poor little guy.  I'm sure his parents must be stressed and exhausted.

It's a little hard to put everything that I would like to on the label with the embroidery machine, but hopefully this will suffice.

I Tried But I Couldn't Do It

Maybe someone can add just one, but not me.   Blogger wanted this picture at the top of my previous post and I wanted it at the bottom so we compromised, I am doing two in one day, lol.   I wanted to add this as my grandson Caleb has a girlfriend named Gabby who seems to be quite an artist.   I don't know if she made this like a quilt on purpose, but I think that if she were a quilter she would be a darn good one.   Can't you just see this in fabric.  I can too, but since I am scared of applique I'll just have to continue to imagine it.     P.S.   Sorry about the gigantic magnetized pencil holder thingy holding it to my refrigerator.

Chinese New Year And Funny but Cute

We have made friends with the owner of the Chinese Restaurant in town and a couple of weeks ago were given an invitation for lunch on Feb. 3rd, Chinese New Year.  I read up a little bit on the internet and it said that it was customary to bring oranges and a gift, also red was a good color.   We put on our red shirts, and had a nice dinner there with my daughter, her son David, and my granddaughter-in-law, Marcy and the baby.   I ordered an embroidery pattern from Embroidery Library and I thought it came out very well.  I stitched it on a fancy felt and Emily seemed very happy with it.  Marcy also made Emily and her daughters flower clips for their hair.   Marcy is starting a small home business making the clips and they are really cute.   Her website is:  http://kenziesclippies.blogspot.com/   We also brought a bowl of oranges of course.  Hopefully, we didn't commit any serious cultural errors.   We got to sample several new Chinese treats including a soup with long life noodles, chicken neck bones and boiled eggs.   We really enjoy our friendship with Emily, but haven't really met her husband.   He stays in the kitchen and cooks, she says that he doesn't speak English.  

Speaking of staying in the kitchen cooking.  This is my 17 year old grandson Caleb, another of my daughter's sons, she has five.   He has a job cooking and I stole this picture off of one of his friend's facebook.   I thought it was cute and funny.       HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

 

Landon's Quilt

We found out yesterday that Baby Landon has been in the hospital for two weeks.  His simple hernia operation had complications, and he will hopefully be home tomorrow.   These two little quilts, this one and the one for my new great-grandbaby are 40" x 50".  Hope Landon's parents like cars.

None of the Above?

In my last post I had wondered what I would work on next, but none of my guesses were correct.   I found out that an acquaintances new baby was having surgery, not serious but he's only a month old, and my granddaughter is having a baby shower this Saturday.   Seemed like maybe I needed two baby quilts quickly.  I have one top cut out, and the other top I finished this morning.  The one above is for my granddaughter's new baby to be born in March, a baby girl, and I took the picture upside down, sorry.   She doesn't live very close to us, so unfortunately I won't get to see this great grandbaby as often as I see Mackenzie, but I'm happy to be able to go to her shower.   We are going to go in my daughter's van, probably her, me, her daughter Tabitha, and my granddaughter-in-law, Marcy.   Mackenzie, the baby too, of course.   It should be a nice day.   The shower is at my son's x-wifes house that they shared before the divorce, so hopefully no one will be uncomfortable including me.   I know I'll get this quilt done by Friday evening, and I'm hoping to finish the other little boy quilt  too, it is also a quick and easy one, much like the one above.  I may do all of one color around each block instead of half blue and half green, just to make them a bit different.