Gray day GIVEAWAY!

It was a gray day here.  Or grey.  How do YOU spell that color?  Does it matter?

Gray days aren't necessarily bad days.  They are good days to stay inside and sew.  So that's just what I did when I finally got home from work today.  I made my October Bee Blocks.

The blocks are Whirligig Blocks from a Quilt In A Day pattern

Yeah, I know it is still September, but the materials arrived and I LOVE making Bee blocks, so I always make them right away.  It is a chance to do something new and different without committing to a whole quilt.

I also made this little Gift Card Key Ring.

I used a ribbon instead of fabric to hold the ring in place.  Much easier, but I like the look of fabric better.  Live and learn.

Can you guess what is inside?

$5 Starbucks Gift Card

OK, that was easy.  But on a gray day, a steaming mug of coffee makes me smile!  You know what also makes me smile?  Comments from readers!  So, leave a comment, and this $5 Starbucks gift card and Gift Card holder could be yours.

To further brighten your day, I'm adding these 4 balls of bright #8 perle cotton to the mix.

The colors are off - after all, it is a gray day, and hard to photograph accurately indoors - pink, red, orange and purple

And, if your stash is anything like mine, you probably have little to no gray fabric.  When I made that discovery earlier this week, I set off to rectify that with some gray fabric purchases.  Little did I know that gray fabric isn't all that common.  I have only found two so far that I liked.  I bought a yard and a half of each - a yard for me, and half a yard for a reader.

half yard cuts of a DS gray dot and I don't know much about the other fabric except I thought it was pretty.

I head out on another work trip tomorrow morning - Little Rock, Arkansas this time - and I'll be back on Tuesday.  Leave a comment before I wake up on Tuesday morning, and we'll see who Mr. Random Number Generator chooses to win the coffee card and holder, the 4 balls of perle cotton and the 2 half yard cuts of gray fabric.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Nooooo!

Tomorrow (well, today, since I am up after midnight) is the last day of my last summer vacation week. How is this possible? I don't want the fun to end!

I spent my sewing hours the last few days stocking up on some quick gifts. I had planned to make 10 gift card keyrings, but accidentally cut one fabric twice, so I have 11.

My favorite is this green - I may have to keep it for myself.

I also made two crayon rolls, but I have more fabric picked out to make some more. These were a hit last Christmas. Don't you just love the snake fabric?

Both of these are great projects to use up that last little bit of a fabric that isn't really big enough to feature in any other project. I was diligent about cutting any leftover scraps from these fabrics into my scrap squares. Slowly but surely, I am whittling away at my scrap piles.

Those 1.5" squares continue to be fun to work with. Today, I finished GREEN. I would make the G a little differently if I were to do it again, but this works for me, too.

And since I was using black thread, I whipped up another pair of wonky stars.

Tomorrow, I want to do some handwork (sew down the binding of my mini quilt that I machine quilted so I can show you all my maiden efforts) and sew a few more blocks on my Great Grandmother's quilt and visit my mom and watch some TV and read on the porch and nap and whip up another color word (I really want to do YELLOW) and go to the pool with the kids and the list goes on. There's no way I can do everything I want to do on my last day of vacation. What I really need to do is one last load of laundry so I start the week laundry-free and mop my nasty floors. Today, I bought a new mop head, thinking that would motivate me to mop. Nope, didn't work.

Since there is so much I want to do tomorrow, I should go to bed so I can get up early and get started. Make the most of your day, too!

Cats and dogs...but still no water

Not to belabor the issue, but I am so sick of melting snow for water! We have a new water pump in the well now, and new wiring, but the pressure valve on the holding tank needed replacing, too, and the repairman didn't have the right size on his truck. First thing in the morning, he promised me. Keep your fingers crossed that I can shower tomorrow.

I spent my day alternately chipping ice off the driveway and sewing while periodically checking out the progress with the well project. I can cross a few more presents off my list, and none too soon - Santa will be cruising by in just over 24 hours, I believe.

For my 3 year old niece, a patchwork puppy.
I saw a photo online last spring and thought this would be fun and easy to make. Unfortunately, the link to the actual pattern was broken - it was a pattern from Hancock Fabrics, I believe. Perhaps it is easy for someone with more experience sewing set-in seams than me. I muddled through without a pattern, and I love it, but I did about as much un-sewing as sewing. I made it with 2" squares, so he is approximately 10.5" tall and 9" wide.

Then, inspired by the bags that Steph at A Ditchin' Time Quilts made, I made a bag for my 9-year-old niece along with a keyring cardholder.

I was sure to make the bag big enough to fit a standard youth paperback book - I'm going to pick one out tomorrow (hmmm. what did I like when I was nine?), and I'm putting a Barnes and Noble Gift Card in the card holder. Her favorite color is green, and I think (I hope) she likes cats. I hope she is as whimsical as I am, and not at that "I'm too cool" stage. Aren't these kitties adorable?

Again, no pattern. My brain is pretty taxed right now, as are my hands/arms/shoulders from those hours of shoveling and chipping. Off to bed with a book...