Lots of Stuff

I caught up with Amy's sample blocks (Amy's Creative Side Sample Quilt Along,) and here are mine:

The fabrics are actually a collection even though they don't seem to go together yet. The placement of the blocks in the finished quilt will be different.

I received my first package from the Benartex Preview Club. There are about 30 five inch squares, so there's enough to make an interesting smaller quilt. I'm going to follow the pattern they feature in the newsletter. The collection is called Word Play, and it's something I may not have chosen, but I like it.

This is the lapghan I'm working on now. I actually abandoned one pattern because it was too slow going, but I like this one. The picture doesn't show the ribs and shells in the pattern, but they are there making the lapghan feel very thick and textured. It is from Red Heart, but I'm still using Caron One Pound yarn. I have so much yarn that it would be a sin to buy any more. I really need to use up what I have. Hopefully, I have enough to finish this lapghan. If not, I'll have to get creative with the border.

Browsing in the Savers book section the other day, I picked up two books from 1986 and 1987 that were published by Better Homes and Gardens. When I got home and was looking down the list of designers in one of the books Blue Ribbon Bazaar Crafts, I found Mary Engelbreit listed, and these were her contributions:

The pattern of the little girl in bed is also embroidered on a pillow. Look what else was in the book from 1987:

I was looking at the reusable lunch sacks and the needle holders thinking what good ideas they were twenty years ago. These books are in excellent condition, and the name of the former owner is stamped in the front of each book. I don't know her, but she and I have something in common; books and crafts. And she took care of her books.

Don't tell anyone, but I forgot it was Moxie's birthday yesterday. She was two years old. But, funny thing is I bought a toy and catnip on Friday because I had a coupon, so she got gifts anyway. I'm wishing her twin brother, Onyx, Happy Birthday too. He lives with a former co-worker. Their litter was found on the deck of another co-worker when they were just a few days old. This good person took care of them, about 7 of them I think, and brought them to work when they were six weeks old to see if any of us would adopt them. Of course, it was a sure thing. Supposedly, Moxie was the runt, but she is a feisty little runt.
Yep, the gardener needs to cut that grass!


Happy Birthday to Katrina, too. I didn't forget.

God Bless Everyone, and God Bless America. We sang that in church yesterday. For me it's a tear-jerker.

Strawberry Lady, Dancers, and Birds

Yesterday I completed the June pattern for Sylvia's My Little Heart cross stitch along. It's a cute lady with a strawberry skirt. I love her flip. If you don't know what I'm referring to than you weren't around fifty years ago (it's her hair style.)

I visited my sister last week, and we went to Katrina and Brenna's dance recital. Great job, kids. (They are my sister's granddaughters.) They worked very hard, and it showed in the performances. We're always impressed with the dance recital because it is high caliber dancing and fun to watch. And the outfits are gorgeous. Anyway, while I was there I began to make a lapghan for the hospital, and I'm at this point:

On Friday I received the layer cake that I won from Darlene of Quilting Daze. It is Heritage from Moda's Collection for a Cause, and the fabric is so pretty. There are four pieces that have birds in them which are my favorites:



There are a shades of cherry, colonial blue, and lots of chocolate, tans and browns.




My plan is to make a quilt for my bed with this fabric. Thank you again, Darlene, for the great giveaway.

Also on Friday, I got this book from the library:

What I saw that I liked is the simplicity of the patchwork patterns, most of them anyway. The other thing I liked was that Lise Bergene used decorative machine stitching to quilt some of the items, mostly the smaller ones. I imagine the quilt sandwish would have to be relatively thin for it to work, but I am going to try it. I also liked the crow's feet hand quilting.

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.