It's all good!

I have nothing to complain about today!  My beautiful first-born son is celebrating his 10th birthday today:

My zig zag quilt is on its way back from Marcia, from whom I won free quilting in a giveaway on her blog.  (by the way, you might want to go visit her - she's having another giveaway...)

C'mon, somebody have a baby - I'm READY with a fun quilt to give!  I love how she added all the circles to my dots!

I had a FANTASTIC time at my booth at the Community Festival on Saturday.  The sun didn't shine, but it didn't pour down rain, either.  Instead, there were intermittent light showers that didn't really scare away the crowds.  Remember this quilt from my quilting bee at my house years ago? 

Funny thing - the woman in the striped shirt holding her hands up was in my booth this Saturday!

It still isn't done, so I set it up in my Ulmer frame in my booth and taught anybody who wanted to learn how to put in a few stitches.  About a dozen people sat down and learned how to prick their own fingers.  :)

As quilts are wont to do, the ones I had hanging from the sides of my booth drew people in and they stayed and shared stories of quilts and quilters from their past, both men and women alike.  I wasn't alone once the entire day.  What a wonderful way to spend the day, stitching and chatting with old friends and making new ones.  PLUS, some kind souls even BOUGHT stuff from me!  I had 14 paying customers total, and made back my reservation fee, lunch for me and the boys, and took home a tidy profit to boot!  All in all, a great day!  Unfortunately, I don't have photos, but many people took photos of my booth or items in my booth, so maybe I'll see some here and there that I can share.

And, as if that weren't enough wonderfulness in my life, a good friend is coming to stay with me over the Labor Day weekend!  Ain't life GRAND!

Linking up with the Zig Zag Quilt Challenge

Marcia over at Marcia's Crafty Sewing and Quilting shared how to make a zig zag block and challenged us to make a small quilt using it.  It's easy, she says, and you could make a quilt in just a couple of hours!  And if you link up with her by June 18, you can be entered to win free quilting on your zig zag quilt.  What's not to love about this deal, right? 

So I picked out some polka dot fabric that has been languishing in my stash for YEARS, and added some primary solids of which I had only a fat quarter or less of each.  Gotta use up the stash to make room for more, right?

She shared two ways of making the blocks on her blog - I chose to sew strips together and subcut.  My polka dot strips are 4" wide and my solid strips are 2" wide.  I cut:

sewed, and then sub-cut into 4" wide sections.

Then I pinned those to another strip of solid and sewed.

After cutting apart, I used my ruler to make wonky 4.5" squares.  Definitely easy!  The only thing I don't like about this method is the waste.  The fabric I cut off really wasn't big enough to make anything with, but when you add all the cut off fabric together it adds up.  The frugal scrap quilter in me balks at that.  But my scraps are currently helping to fill up an old pillowcase which will then be sewn shut into a "free" doggie pillow.  So in truth, my "waste" isn't wasted.

My initial layout had alternate polka dot squares, but I worried that I would run out of fabric.

I decided to forgo the alternate squares.

I didn't want just a wide border, so I split it with a 1/4 " flange - is that the right word?  It is sewn into the seam and is like a little flap.  The finished quilt is about 33" x 37".

And while the quilt didn't take me "just a couple of hours", it WAS quick and easy and I'm excited to gift it to a baby when it is quilted.  Here's hoping I win the free quilting!  At the rate that I hand quilt, and with the number of other quilts I have in line before this one, I might not get to gift it to a baby until it is my own grandchild if I have to rely on quilting it myself!

There's still time to make a zig zag quilt - are you taking the challenge, too?

Uncharted waters

I get to add a new title to my ever-growing list of roles:  Swim Mom.  My boys joined a summer swim league, and are thrilled, but I gotta tell ya, I'm out of my league.  At the first practice yesterday, my boys were the only ones wearing swim trunks instead of Jammers.  I'd never even heard of Jammers before.  Someone explained to me that swimming with the surfer dude trunks that my boys wear is like swimming attached to a parachute.  We can't have that now, can we?  My boys were also the only ones not wearing goggles.  Oops!  Or swim caps.  Let's just say I did some online shopping today, and it wasn't for quilt fabric.

I took some time today to retreat back to my comfort zone - quilting.  I received my first blocks back from the Let's Bee Together Bee from Shannon in Idaho.  Here are the 2 she sent along with the 6 I've made so far.  I love how quickly a quilt grows when you use big blocks!  These are each about 11" square.

My first two Bee blocks along with 6 blocks of my own making

I have also been working on my Zig Zag Quilt Challenge quilt.  I have all the blocks, now I just need to sew them together and add something for borders.

Zig Zag Challenge Quilt

And Jason, ever the entrepreneur, has been busy, too.  Our hens are now laying 3 eggs per day, much more than we can eat, so he created order forms and got 3 weekly customers signed up for half a dozen eggs per week (my co-workers are such good sports!).  They mentioned how the eggs were not only yummy, but also so CLEAN.  Here's why:

Jason takes his egg cleaning duties very seriously!

Now if I could just surreptitiously slip some dishes into the sink while he is scrubbing away...

Keeping the postman busy

I gotta tell ya, there are some gadgets out there that just THRILL me!  Two came in the mail yesterday:

a double dog leash so I can walk my 176 pounds of dog flesh (apparently, together my pups are about 20 pounds overweight - I'm not saying how overweight I am, but if walking them helps me shed some pounds too, then BONUS!)

These aren't my dogs, but the lab looks quite a bit like my Biscuit

a Beam N Read hands free 3 LED light.  I foresee much more hand quilting this summer.  See, here's the problem:  I like to hand quilt while watching something.  And I long to use my home movie theater more.  But the movie theater has a projector and screen, so you need to have the lights off for it to really work.  If the lights are off, then I can't see to hand quilt.  Enter the Beam N Read!  I've been wanting one for a while, but hadn't gotten around to getting one (I'm pretty cheap, guys; I talk myself out of lots of purchases because I don't NEED them).  I finally decided to treat myself, and I LOVE IT!  I used it while reading to the boys at bedtime last night.  I used it while closing up the chicken coop last night.  And I pretended to use it in the movie theater last night, but didn't actually quilt because the other thing that came in the mail was...

the first disk of Cranford.  Who was it on here who recommended that?  I watched the first episode and loved it!  I look forward to having time to go down there and watch the next episode - maybe tonight?  But anyway, I didn't hand quilt because with a new series, I need to pay attention, get used to the accents and figure out the characters, otherwise I'll be lost.  Perhaps on episode 2 or 3 I can multitask.  Certainly with McLeod's Daughters or Glee (my current watches).

I'm also sending something OUT in the mail today.  Yesterday I finally made my star block for Beth at LoveLaughQuilt.

For Beth's Starry Quilt project

I also started my Zig Zag Quilt Challenge quilt - I want to make another baby quilt, so I'm using a multicolored polka dot and some solid primary colors.

Fabrics for Zig Zag Quilt Challenge

The beginnings of my Zig Zag Quilt

And for my leader and ender project, I made a couple more blocks for my Summer Breeze quilt. I think I am only going to make 3 more for now, and make this into a baby quilt, too. I have enough bed-sized quilts waiting to be quilted - I think my new projects should be smaller.

Lots of other things going on on the deisgn wall - ignore those

So yesterday was a GOOD day - great mail, progress on projects, some time to relax in the home theater.  Here's hoping today will be a winner, too!

Staying awake

I don't know what is wrong with me these days - all I want to do is SLEEP!  I read a book, and my eyes are closed after only a few pages.  I try to watch a movie or a basketball game with my husband, and somehow I always miss the ending.  It seems that the only thing that keeps me awake these days is quilting.  Go figure.

I finished my May Bee Block for Ann, and plan to put that in the mail today.

June is my month, so I need to decide what I'd like people to help me make.  My first thought is this:

I copied this photo off the internet onto my computer quite a while ago and I have no idea from where - if this is yours, please let me know so I can give you credit.

It is simple, and I've been wanting to make one of these for years now - just haven't gotten around to it.  Besides, just by virtue of how the block is constructed, everyone who makes a block for me would actually end up making two blocks - is that cheating, do you think?

I've also decided to join the Zig Zag Quilt challenge.  It seems simple, and I'd like to make another baby quilt because it seems that quite a few of the people I know are discovering their fertility.  And if I win and get the quilt quilted for free - even better!

Busy weekend ahead with a brithday party for twin 8 year old girls on Saturday and a going away party for some colleagues/friends on Sunday - gotta make some little gifts for both.  And then, of course, there's the drive-in movies tonight.  It appears that my mother-in-law (who taught me to quilt in the first place!) might actually come for a visit, too!  No sleep for me this weekend!