Mail Call

Lots of goodies in the mail the past 7 days.

First up is this wonderful FQ from my friend Susan, who found it while she was row hopping.  =)









Next up was this piano key fabric that  I ordered.  It will be the border on the next commissioned quilt.   I will be fussy cutting it so that I have one row of keys and the black as the border.   Still debating about whether to miter the corners or use cornerstones to make it easier to piece.

 And Craftsy had a great sale two weekends ago and I ordered these two sets of Aurifil thread at great prices.  =)  Top box is solid colors and the bottom one is all variegated colors.


Gratitudes:

1. For a steady flow of commissioned work

2. For the long weekend which is coming up

Giveaway - Just because.... =)

Still working on cleaning up here in my sewing room and I'm in the mood for a giveaway.

The magazine in question are is Volume 14 of Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks.   (nope, this issue does not have one of my quilts in it.)

I will choose two people to win a copy of the magazine.















To enter the giveaway, complete one or both of the options in the Rafflecopter giveaway below.   This giveaway starts on 8/30 at 12 AM and will end at 12 AM on 9/06.   You can enter up to two times by leaving separate comments on the following subjects -
--- when was the last time you did any major cleaning in your sewing room, and
--- do you follow my blog, if so how (by email or?)

And it is open to those outside of the US.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If the link above doesn't work for you, then click here to go to Rafflecopter page.

Gratitudes:
1. for having goodies that I can share with others
2. for no rain today!

Scrappy kittens

Have almost finished the next scrappy quilt.  Just two more rows of background to add to this one (top  and bottom).  With those on it will be 36" by 45".   Am still thinking about adding a final border to bring it up to approximately 45" by 60".    Once quilted this will be listed for sale.    

I've picked out what I'm going to do for the next scrappy critter quilt.  And have started cutting out the 600 2.5" squares that I'll need for it......269 of which need to be whatever color I use for the critter, and the remainder background.   Will be strip-piecing what I can in the larger areas of the background to help the quilt to go together quicker.

Gratitudes:
1. For all of the blessings that are in my life
2. For friends who send surprises in the mail

Fluttering Butterflys

One of the things I worked on this weekend was a few of the blocks for my hankie quilt.  

I stitched down this floral hankie that I've had pinned for several months now.

And I've pressed and pinned the next two hankies.  these both have crocheted embellishments on them.   A southern belle dressed in yellow on the blue hankie, and an umbrella on the pink one.  there are some embroidered flowers underneath the edge of the umbrella so i'll have to be careful about how I tack the crocheted part down.

I'm still debating about how I want to set these blocks (will be 9 blocks) - with or with out sashing........  I do know tho that I plan to send it out to be quilted by someone else.

Gratitudes:

1. that the loss of life has not been higher in Houston

2.  that is has been drier here in N. TX

12 days till the Christmas Carol Row Along!

The Christmas Carol Row Along is just 12 days away from starting and I'm excited to be a part of it this year.  My row will debut on September 14th and the pattern will be free until the end of the row along.  It will be available on Craftsy and when my day comes I'll post a link to it so that it is easily found.

The rules and complete listing of all bloggers who are participating in the Row Along this year can be found in this post on the Seams to be Sew blog.  Marian has done a great job of writing everything up.  And while you are there, be sure to check out her other posts where she talks about the prizes that will be offered in this years hop.

Meanwhile, here is another sneak peek at my row.   What'cha think of it so far?  Any ideas of what it looks like?

Gratitudes:

1. Friends near and far

2. My church family, both of them - here and in Phoenix

Take Two Steps Forward and One Back......

Remember the old-time children's game of Simon Says, where the kid playing "Simon" tells the others what they can do.............well this last weekend was like that for me.

Two big steps forward were accomplished this week -

I finished up the sample for the Christmas Carol Row Along and have all pictures of the process and finished product taken so I can now finish writing up the pattern for it and start the blog posting for it (scheduled to go live on the 14th of September).

And I also finished up the quilting on the swan commissioned quilt.   I've figured out how I'm going to handle the pleats on the backing and have pulled fabric for the binding.   Will iron that tonite after work and get that made and sewn on.  Another couple of evenings should see me getting that sewn down.   My aim is to get that mailed off by the end of the week and that looks to be very doable with things like they are right now.

And then there was the one step back -

I cut up some of my scraps so that I could test a pattern I was considering for using the red/white fabrics that my friend Susan and I have challenged each other to use.   I saw a picture of a quilt somewhere that I'd really liked, but I didn't want to start cutting into the fabrics I've collected until I had figured out the best way to make it.

So I raided some of my novelty scraps and the solids scraps.....and after laying it all out decided that I did not like how it looked.   I also realized it was going to be more work to layout than I had realized at first look.  So this is a bomb to me.  =(   Back to square one in finding a pattern that will look good and be quick to piece.

I was also able to get the next commissioned quilt designed and the border fabric for it ordered from the only online dealer that I could find who still has it (at least I'm hoping they still have it).  

Yeah for progress.......

Gratitudes:

1. Having a job at this point

2. Being able to work with new designs for the commissioned work and my sale quilts.