I wanted to begin working on something for Christmas, and so this is what I got to start myself off. The panel is Tidings by Nancy Halvorsen for Benartex. I'm hoping inspiration will hit soon on just how to use it to best advantage. I love it.

The other item is a charm pack of Adoring by Sandy Gervais for Moda. I don't know what I'm going to do with that either, but I think the wreath quilt I saw on the Moda blog is a good candidate.

I joined Benartex Preview Club. It sounds like a good deal, and it will be something different from Joann's offerings.

I'm still working on the pinwheel quilt. I have some of the quilting done and the binding is all set to be sewn on. But I think the backing needs color (note to self: don't use white as a backing, at least not for a long time.) So I have been making hearts to applique to the back. I will handsew them on. I wish I could remember on whose blog I learned this tip, but I can't. But the tip was to sew a dryer sheet to the right side of the applique piece, cut a small hole in the dryer sheet for turning, press well after turning, and you're all set to sew it on. I'm not sure how many I will make, but this is what I've done so far.

The binding will add some color. I think if I make enough hearts I can do a kind of tumbling heart effect on the back. We'll see. (I fixed this. I originally typed stars, but meant hearts.)


I watch the DIYdish episodes and enter their giveaways. And yesterday it paid off. I received an email telling me I won some crochet patterns. I can't wait to see them.

God Bless You.

A Tarnished Old Penny and Other Good Things

Guess what. Today while I was gardening in one part of the yard I found a one hundred year old penny. I wasn't even sure it was a coin when I picked it up, just that it was round and flat. I needed to use salt and vinegar to clean it up well enough to see the date, and it is clearly from 1910. I love it when I find little things in the yard, usually marbles from our growing up years. So I'm taking this as a lucky penny, something I really needed today.

Here are pictures of the pinwheel quilt which is in the sandwich stage.
I wanted to make things easy on myself so yesterday I went to Savers and bought a 100% cotton Ralph Lauren twin size white sheet (costing a steep $3.20) for the quilt back. After fitting it, I have leftover cotton, something else I love. So now I need to quilt the quilt. Magazine and online patterns all have the same instruction at the end of the making of the quilt top, and that instruction is "Quilt as desired." I don't know what I desire, as far as quilting a quilt goes. I've mentioned previously that I refer to Eleanor Burns' book It's "El"ementary for help when I'm stuck. The quilts in her book are wall hanging size for the most part. Her technique is to roll the quilt to the middle and begin outlining blocks from there for machine quilting with a walking foot. So I guess that is how I'll begin and see where it takes me.

I am at step five of the Erik Homemade Scrap Pile Clean Up Quilt, and this is what it looks like so far:

A few weeks ago I was wondering about my decision in making this quilt, and suddenly now I think it looks as if it has lots of potential. I like the dark and light contrast in this quilt. Hope it lives up to my hope for it.

This may sound funny, but I am yearning to shop for Christmas fabric and make something sweet with it. I very much liked the quilt shown recently on the Moda Bakeshop site that used Christmas fabric.

Today was the last day for pinching pierogies. Next week we make golabki. Week after that is the festival.

I learned that one of the local hospitals was requesting volunteers who crochet, knit or sew to make laprobes and shawls for the patients. Today I found out the specifics of what they need, and now I can begin to crochet some lapghans for them. I have done premie caps and blankets, but didn't think they needed adult items. I miss crocheting and will be happy to get back to it. During the recent quilt bloggers festival, it occurred to me that if it were a crochet bloggers festival, I could reach back into my afghan pile and pull out items I made in the 70's.

God Bless You.