Has anyone seen my motivation?

It's one of those days - I'm up, I'm at work, but I fear I am pretty useless right now.  I have no energy, no motivation, no enthusiasm.  Perhaps I'm overtired?  Or overwhelmed, thinking of the upcoming two weekends that I have to work?  Or maybe I'm just in partial hibernation mode, waiting out my least favorite season?

Whatever the problem, I thought maybe a blog post would help me focus and get me moving in a positive direction.

It's been an exhilarating week for me.  People have called and emailed and stopped me in public places - "Hey, didn't I just see you on the front of the newspaper?"  I never imagined that happening to me!

And the sweet things people have since done!  One woman brought me a dozen eggs fresh from her farm - wanted to do something for me since I was doing so much for others.  Another man called me at work and told me he had a bunch of fabric he's collected from auctions over the years, and wanted to donate it to the cause.  He made his first delivery last Friday:

The Star Quilters Guild in Roanoke asked to help - I sent them 3 sets of blocks to assemble and quilt.

I've gotten two inquiries about commission quilts - one that I'll definitely do, the other, I'm not so sure.

Above all, it's been a feel-good week.

I haven't had a ton of time to sew, though.  I've gotten most of another Sandy quilt top assembled while making a quick little hand project to take to basketball games.  I made this color wheel Dresden thinking I'd make it into a clock, but I accidentally broke the clock trying to take it apart - oops!

This was a hard exercise for me.  I used just scraps, and had a hard time deciding which fabrics worked and went where. I finally just sewed together what I had, but it still doesn't quite match the color wheel I looked up online.

Maybe I'll get another clock, but maybe it will end up being a pillow or a wall hanging.  Who knows?  I just know that January means sitting on the bleachers through 3 basketball games every Saturday, so I need something small and portable to keep my hands busy.

Mostly, I've been doing prep work:

Prepping for an up-cycling workshop I'm going to do with my guild in February - we are going to make "green" shopping bags from pillowcases and drawstring backpacks from t-shirts -

I love using these bags - they are fully lined, super sturdy and machine washable. 

I can't go shopping with these without someone asking where I got my bags. 

The cashiers are always so amazed at how much these can carry! 

This is my absolute favorite - that yellow check is so cheery it almost makes me want to go shopping! 

Very lightweight, and the perfect size for a day hike 

Again, fully lined for durability - although both Jason and I have used ours so much over the last two years that they are starting to come undone! 

Prepping for our last week of the Ready to Quilt program - the kids are mostly finished with their composition book covers now, and are ragging the edges of the denim quilt.

And prepping for our next Cub Scout meeting this weekend - we'll be doing a woodworking project, but I am doing all of the cutting and drilling in advance.

I'll leave you with images from fun times with my friend, Michelle, on New Year's Day.  We went over for lunch, and ended up having a bit of a jam session.  One of these days, I might actually even learn how to play a song on one of the FOUR guitars we have at our house!

For some reason, Donald hates having his photo taken these days, but he was on keyboard. 

Jason is in the background getting some guitar instruction, while Michelle's little cutie was rocking out on his new 4-year-old sized guitar.

And Michelle and I fumbled our way through some John Denver (strum strum - wait while I reposition my fingers! - strum strum - giggle!)

Oh, and how funny, but someone who found my blog through the newspaper article, Lisa U, won my giveaway.  She chose the yellow paisley flowers and the bird print, and should have already received her winnings by now.  Hmmm, what can I give away next?  Stay tuned!

Giveaway - Ring in the new year with new "old" fabric!

I hate to clean.  Perhaps you recall me sharing that once or twice here on the old blog.  But I've got to tidy up my sewing room or the photographer from the newspaper will just be taking photos of my mess and sending it on to some reality TV show about hoarders.  (Aren't ALL quilters hoarders?  Isn't that what our stash is?)

Anyway, I've been taking it slow down there, straightening up, sewing a few seams, folding fabric then pressing seams - you know, the old "mixing business with pleasure."

One pleasurable thing has been putting away my "new" fabric that I just washed.  You see, a few days before Christmas, I visited a friend whose mom had died and who had tubs of fabric she was trying to get rid of.  She warned me in advance that the fabric was old and that her mom had a lot of polyester.  She did, but that isn't all she had.  I came away with 13 different pieces of yardage, 2 pieces of corduroy (I've been wanting to make something with corduroy), and 11 pieces of either cotton or a cotton/poly blend.  And while I can't precisely date the fabric, I'll say it is probably all from either the 80s or the early 90s, based on some of the receipts that were included in the bins.

I can't wait to use some of this new-to-me old fabric (I'm not calling it vintage since I don't have actual dates), and just because I love giving things away, I'm going to give 2 half yards of some of my favorite new-to-me old fabric to one of you.  Just leave a message and let me know which two of the following 4 fabrics you would like to add to your stash.  I'll choose a winner, with the help of Random.org, of course, on Wednesday morning at 6 AM - you know, something to look forward to on my first day back to work.  Here are your choices - comment away!

Pretty multicolored flowers tossed on white - I've already got a quilt design using this fabric percolating in my little ole brain! 

Paisley flowers on yellow - for some reason the background color isn't true in the photo, it is more yellow than it appears here.   I love paisley, so I was tickled to see that the flowers were arranged in a paisley form.

The colors in this bird print scream 70s to me - which is fine because I love the orange/yellow/brown/green combos of the 70s.  The background looks almost tea dyed in person.

Winnie The Pooh and Piglet, too!  I literally squealed  when I saw this adorable little print! 

Distracted

I told myself I was going to get lots of sewing done last night.  Wrong!  I couldn't help myself - once I turned on the election returns, I couldn't pull myself away.  Luckily, before I grabbed the remote, I got some other things done.

I made a stop at Goodwill to pick up materials for my READY TO QUILT workshop with the kids, which starts next week.  On Day 1, we are going to start prepping our materials for the Denim Comfort Quilt that we are going to make and donate, so I needed some denim.  And I was thinking of the backside of the quilt being made from upcycled shirts, but I realized it was going to cost too much at our thrift store to get enough shirts for that, even using the really big ones.  After all, they are $3.50 each.  Instead, I picked up a forest green flat sheet for a dollar and a pair of pretty floral cotton valances for $2.95, so for just a bit more than the cost of one shirt, I have enough fabric (and fabric that won't need as much deconstruction) for the whole back.

Then, before watching the returns, I had Donald pop some popcorn while I melted the butter so we could spend some time catching up with the Huxtables in The Cosby Show.  Funny thing, I put the butter in the microwave to melt, and went into the other room to do something, and came back to find Donald on the floor cleaning up a sea of popcorn.  He forgot to put the bowl under the chute of the air-popper.  I think he thought I'd be mad, but I laughed because that is exactly the kind of thing I would do.  While watching, I grabbed my spring-loaded snips and cut each pair of jeans apart through the middle so that I can give each kid a pant leg to deconstruct while I read The Quiltmaker's Gift to them on Monday.  I meant to take a photo, but I forgot.

I did remember to photograph the scrap of fabric I picked up for myself at Goodwill - isn't it pretty?

So, no new photos of the mini that I was supposed to be working on last night, although my husband's team has a scrimmage tonight, so I will take it and work on it there.

I also didn't get a Sandy Relief quilt top assembled last night.  I received 7 more Sandy blocks yesterday (and a donation check to help with batting - my list of Heroes is growing!),

So pretty - Thanks, Julie and Toni!

but I am undecided about arrangement.  Do I make it completely random?  Do I make stripes or blocks of a particular color run through the top?  Do I try to make dark and light placements rather than color placements?  I tried so many different arrangements.  I think that yesterday, I was just too distracted to make a decision, but today, now that's a different story.  Look for a quilt top photo tomorrow for sure!  I want to have at least 3 done by weekend's end if I receive enough blocks so I can send them out to the ANGELS who have volunteered to quilt them.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Lotto, Love and Lollipops

I finally ran out of solid white fabric, so I am done making Block LOTTO blocks.  I ended up with seven, and I think I'll put 4 into the Block Lotto pot, and keep 3 for myself.  I figure, with 3, I could make a table runner, right?  But ideally, I'll win and have a bunch of blocks to put together into a fun, crisp quilt!  I really like the looks of these.

Hmmm, which to keep, and which to give away?

I received some LOVE in the mail this weekend from "my best friend that I've never actually met", Em.

This photo is from her Facebook page because my photo of it did not come out well. She did bind it, and it is awesomely textured with her creative quilting.

In addition to this quilted L, she included some cool novelty fabric,

and this iron on Cowgirl patch that I ADORE!!!

I've always wanted to be a real cowgirl.  I want to put the patch on something, but what?  I might need to make myself a denim bag just to have something to affix it to that I can use/wear daily.  Thank you, Em!

Saturday night, we went to the final weekend at Hull's Drive-In for a costume contest, Trunk-or-Treating, and to see Hotel Transylvania.  At the last minute, I decided to dress up, revisiting my vampire costume from 4 years ago.  Apparently, I wasn't very scary that time, so this time I added a scraggly wig, and put black make-up around my eyes, and painted my fingernails black, and put some blood dripping down from my blackened lips.  Then, I decorated my trunk as a graveyard, using some Halloween fabric as a backdrop and stringing some cobwebs for the kiddos to reach through to pluck a LOLLIPOP from my black cauldron.  There were a couple little ones who were afraid to approach me.  Hee, hee, hee!

Trunk-or-treating at Hull's Drive-In 2012

Halloween is so much more fun if you just go with the flow and dress up and act WICKED.

Speaking of WICKED, are any of you getting caught up in the Wicked Blog Hop?  Oh my goodness!  I spent several wonderfully wicked hours over the weekend visiting blogs and entering giveaways and bookmarking blogs I want to revisit or blocks I want to make!  Fun, fun, fun!  And they inspired me to make a new Halloween pillow cover for one of my couch pillows, but more on that tomorrow (when it will be done).  Until then, be well, my pretties!  Cackle, cackle, cackle!!!

(and Mobenda, if you are reading this, please email me so I can get your address and fabric preferences to send you your fat quarter for commenting on my last post)

Sidetracked!

I was cruising blogs yesterday morning, and came across a Pine Burr quilt block on the Nifty Quilts blog, Nifty Quilts.  Inspired, I rushed downstairs in my pajamas to start making one right away.

I got down there to discover that I hadn't yet unpacked the car from my booth, and hadn't yet cleaned up from the frenetic activity of preparing for the booth, so I had to put my enthusiasm for that block on the back burner while I unpacked and straightened up.  Honestly, it is nicer working in there when I don't have to move piles of stuff to get to the ironing board or the cutting table.

While cleaning, I came across a package of fabric scraps that I tried giving away earlier this year, but I never heard back from the person who won.

Determined to do SOMETHING with that fabric other than put it back into my stash, I whipped up a little top that used all of the yellow, all of the blue, and nearly all of the green dancing pigs. (I did put the green dot back into my stash.) It measures about 24" square, so now I just want to find a border fabric and finish it off as a baby or doll quilt.

I also realized that the fabric I wanted to use for the Pine Burr block hadn't been washed yet, so I threw that in the machine, and went upstairs to shower, eat and visit more blogs while I waited for my fabric to be ready.  And came across a cute little mini on Joe Tulips Quilts.

Back down to the sewing room I went, not to make a Pine Burr block, but to whip up this little mini.

Right now it measures about 9"x 13" without the outer border. There will be an embroidered vine with leaves around the outside and in the two background columns and hopefully some tiny button flowers.

The outside borders aren't sewn on yet, but I'll do that this evening and start the embroidery.  How cute and easy and fun!  I have a feeling I'll probably make another, too!

But first, this evening, I AM going to make a Pine Burr block.  Hold me to it!  Come back tomorrow to see how I did.

Finally, according to Random Number Generator (I don't know how to do the screen shots so you can see which number is chosen...if you want to let me know how, I'll be forever grateful), the winner of my last giveaway with the fabrics I bought in West Virginia (to which I added a half yard of a neutral from my last shop, making it a total of 1.5 yards of fabric goodness) is commenter #2 - Julie of My Quilt Diary!  I'm very happy to send this fabric to her as she is always helping me out with scouting ideas for my boys.  Send me your address, Julie, and I'll send this to you.  I've never sent anything to Japan before.  Fun times!  Seems like many of my giveaways are won by people outside the US.  My last winner was in Canada.  I guess I have international appeal...  :)

Enjoy your Monday, everyone!  I know I plan to!

Wild and wonderful! (giveaway)

I am on the road...

AGAIN!

But it is my last trip of the fall, and one of my favorites - Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.  The foliage in the mountains this time of year is breathtaking, the people are friendly, the air is crisp and clean - it is a nice trip.  Plus, there are lots of QUILT SHOPS on my driving routes!

I stopped at one today, and there was a sale table with $4/yard fabric.  I snapped up two that caught my eye, as well as a baggie of orange and yellow solid scraps that I thought went well with one of the prints plus a quilting stencil for quilt borders.

I think this fabric will end up being an apron and matching potholders as a Christmas gift.

Not sure what I'm going to do with this fabric yet.

Gotta support the LQS, even if it isn't MY Local Quilt Shop!

And a blog reader bought one of my fabric composition books from my ETSY shop today.  THANK YOU!

To celebrate the ETSY sale and my sale purchases, I'm going to give away half a yard of each of these fabrics, plus some of whatever I pick up from tomorrow's quilt shop stop (yeah, I plan a quilt shop stop every day of my driving trips).

To get your name in the drawing, how about you leave a comment with a suggestion for what I can be for Halloween this year.  In recent years, I have been a nun,

Halloween 2011

a cowgirl bandit,

Halloween 2009

a witch,

Halloween 2008

a basketball player and Pocahontas.  I'm looking for ideas of something easy to throw together on a budget (my disposable income goes towards FABRIC, not costumes!).  I'll draw a winner on Monday morning, October 15.

In the meantime, I have finished putting the binding on my Orange Creamsicle quilt, and now just need to finish quilting the border.

Lousy cell phone photo, so you can't see the quilting, but you can see that there is a pale yellow binding on it.

One good thing about road trips - I get lots of hand sewing done in my hotel rooms in the evening.

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!

Firsts - french seam and Dresden Plate

Yesterday, the kids and I took a road trip to Patchwork Plus, a quilt shop outside Harrisonburg, VA.  My friend, Nancy, gave me her punchcards for the place when she moved to GA, so I had a $20 credit to use.  Now, we all know I spent WAAAAYYY more than $20, right?  First, my boys were with me, so they both got to pick out a yard of fabric for themselves.  They both picked novelty flannel - Jason got the soccer balls and Donald got the robots.

And while I was supposedly there to get batting, I was drawn to the sale fabrics.  I found these adorable piggy banks in orange and green and yellow that reminded me of growing up in the 70s, for some reason, and I had to get them.  I picked up the geometric in similar colors to go along with the piggies.

I also picked up these black and cream dragonflies, and as is my rule when I buy new fabric, a couple yards of a neutral - this time a cream on cream that works well with the dragonflies.

And finally, I picked up another black and white print because I don't think you can ever have too many of those.  Add another thimble and some sewing machine needles, and I called it good.

On the way home, the boys and I stopped at the skatepark and I sat in the car quilting while they did their thing for nearly 2 hours.

Today, the appliance repairman came to check out all my broken down stuff.  The bad news is that I need a new oven - the part that I need to make my oven work again isn't manufactured anymore.  How old does that make my oven???

The good news is that my washing machine WAS fixable, so I'm back in business there!  Going to the laundromat these last few weeks darned near bankrupted me!  And lucky me, it was a clothesline perfect day, so I put a couple loads out there (including my new fabric!) before the sun went down.

Speaking of that new fabric, you know I had to cut into it right away, right?  And although I don't need more "green" shopping bags, I made another one anyway.  For this one, I used a plastic Walmart shopping bag as a template, so it is the same size and shape, just MUCH stronger and prettier, fully lined and machine washable. 

Plus, it has a pocket on the front into which you can fold the bag, nice and neat, for when you aren't using it.  Kinda like a quillow, right?

I used a tutorial that I found online, and I love how "finished" the bag is.  I made my first french seam, something I've never done before.  I will definitely be using that technique again.

Saturday is quilt guild meeting day before I board an airplane for ATL for work.  Gotta get to quilting - I want to finish quilting the Charm quilt and get the binding sewn onto the back so I can not only have something to work on during the meeting, but also something for show and tell.

Oh, and last thing - this weekend's quilt show at the Quilting Gallery is Delightful Dresdens.  How ironic since that is the next quilt I will  be working on!  But those of you who have been with me a while remember my first Dresden Plate, the stack and whack style that I made for my younger sister's college graduation - I think I called it "My Sister, My Friend" because that is what I quilted around the center dresden plate, although I may have called it Hello Yellow! (Unfortunately, I had all this catalogued on my old blog site which crashed, and my memory is crap! Also, I don't seem to have a photo of it with the binding on.)

I entered it in the Delightful Dresdens Quilt Show at the Quilting Gallery this weekend, which goes up Friday morning.  I encourage you to check out all the Dresden Plates that are entered - you are sure to find inspiration there!

Dancing pigs?

I've finally made it into my sewing room!  I completed my January Let's Bee Together Bee block.  I love the block and the fabric, but this stressed me out a little, and here's why.  The original reddish fabric, which serves as the foundation of the block, is 12.5" square.  We were to cut it into fourths diagonally, sew the strips onto the 45 degree angle ends, and then sew the 4 pieces back together.  She wanted the final block to be 12.5" square.  That isn't possible, is it?

I have lots of strips - perhaps I'll make a Spider Web quilt for myself one of these days.

As you probably know, it is basketball season, and now, both my boys and my husband have basketball games.  Can you say "bleacher butt"?  Yup, that's how mine is shaped these days.  Luckily, I have a cushioned stadium seat with a back to take with me, particularly on Saturdays, when I have 3 games to attend.  The upside, besides getting to support my guys, is that I get good chunks of time to do handwork.  Here's what I've accomplished so far this month at basketball.  I'm pretty sure I'll be making a mug rug with this little cutie.  Got any design ideas?

Probably my favorite hot drink of all time.

My leaders and enders project continues to grow.  I have a ton of 4.5" blocks of that black floral, which is the whole purpose of this particular project - use 'em up!  Well, those and all my 1.5" squares.

I started a plaid flannel bear paw quilt for my step-father.  Besides me and my husband, I think he's the only person in the family I haven't yet made a quilt for.

Yesterday, in between basketball games, I made it to my quilt guild meeting.  While there, one of the lovely ladies surprised me with a big bag of scraps.  Now, when you think bag of scraps, you think all crumpled up and thrown together, right?  Not hers!  First there were a ton of strips, mostly 2.5" and 4.5" strips, but some 2", 3", 3.5" and 4" strips, too.  How handy!  There were also some bigger scraps, mostly between a fat eighth and fat quarter in size.  I took a photo, but forgot to upload it.

Whenever I'm the recipient of such generosity, I feel the need to share the wealth.  So I put together two little packets of fabric scraps to share. 

The first is this cute green with dancing pigs, along with some bright polka dot scraps.  The dancing pig scraps are: 1 piece 8.5" X 42", 2 pieces 7" X 21" and 1 WOF piece that is 4.5" wide.  The yellow has 3 pieces, 3" X 56" total, the green is 2 pieces, 15" X 6.5" each, and the blue is 2 pieces, 9.5" X 6.5" and 4 pieces 16.5" X 3.5".

The second is this sea shell fabric with two "neutrals" to go with it.  The photo is a bit washed out, I apologize.  Anyway, the seashells are 1 piece 10.5" 15, 1 piece WOF X 11", and one piece 11" X 26".  For the two coordinating neutrals, there are 2 WOF X 4.5" strips of each, and 3 WOF X 2.5" strips of each.

If you are interested in receiving either packet, leave a comment and let me know which you'd prefer, first come, first served.  Happy Sunday!