Beth is Having a Give-Away!

My friend, Beth, is having a give-away on her blog of a beautiful quilt kit! Wait a minute! Why am I telling everyone about it?!!! LOL

http://bethknits.blogspot.com/

Beth and I live VERY near one another but have not yet met in person. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up at the local quilt shop really soon!! Hear that, Beth? :)

Thanks for having a super give-away!! Good luck to everyone! (But not too much luck, okay?)

I See the Light!

The light at the end of the tunnel, that is! How does the saying go, "There's the tunnel, the light at the end of the tunnel, and another tunnel"? Well, the binding on this big puppy is all that's left to get it out of my life forever! One more tunnel, and the light is getting brighter!

Get your dancing shoes ready, because there's going to be a happy dancing fais-do-do when this thing is done!

The Boo Banner

This is the gorgeous Halloween Boo banner I won at http://the-latebloomer.blogspot.com/ Pardon all the nicknacks on the mantle. I'm planning to do a fall mantle, but just haven't done it yet. Look closely and you'll see a beautiful star ornament that Elizabeth also included in the package, as well as a Late Bloomer bookmark!

Thank you so much, Elizabeth! The banner is beautiful! And thank you again to Jack!!

Today was just one of those days. I'll blog about it in a couple of days. I'm just trying to erase that memory tonight. Ewww....... Besides, this blog is about quilting!!

Also today a box came from Judy. And in that box is the GOTITDONE formerly known as the giterdun! I haven't opened the box yet. I'm going to take it upstairs and lay it out on the bed, and have plenty of Kleenex handy when I open it. Almost exactly one year ago is when I decided on the pattern and started digging in the stash for fabric. The quilt that I hated so much will now be the quilt that I love the most - and won't want to give away. I'm going to be making miles of binding. This thing is 120" square, so I'll be binding it for the next few weekends.

Judy, you came to my rescue and finished this thing up for me, and for that I will be forever grateful. I'll post a picture of it tomorrow when I'm not so tired. Tonight I just want to cry a bit over it. I don't even know what to say except thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Also, I was able to bust five yards out of my stash tonight for the backing on a group quilt. That won't make a dent, but I'm happy that I was able to help out! Gee, I wonder how they knew I could probably find something that would work up in my stash room!

Gratudes:

~ Elizabeth Scott and Jack! Thank you!

~ Judy Laquidara! Thank you!

~ The police department in the town where I work! Thank you!

New BOM and New Car!

It's been an interesting couple of days. I've been car shopping. My seven year-old BMW has been a wonderful car, but there comes a point where you wonder if it's worth it to keep spending a couple of grand on it a year. I really wanted to get something that would last me a long time. My CEO has been pushing the Toyota Highlander for a while, so I decided to go look at them on Sunday. His final argument was how much room I'd have in it for my quilting stuff. LOL. Kimberly at The Fat Quarter Shop made a bet with me - and I was sure I'd win. I was just going to look. She said one would follow me home. One did. I owe her a dollar!

Anyway, this huge SUV is parked in my garage. I didn't get home with it until late on Sunday, so my first real driving test was Monday morning freeway traffic. Jane's husband told me to be careful until I learned where the four corners were on it. I was scared to change lanes on the freeway. LOL. Coming home Monday was better, and I was an old pro at driving this hunking thing today.

Yesterday the long-awaited Piece and Plenty BOM finally arrived. I'll probably make it next weekend. If the first block is any indication, it's going to be a beauty! This one I'm really excited about!

I started the quarter-end stuff today. Not a fun task, but someone has to do it. I guess I've been annointed the lucky one! LOL.

And last but not least, I was the winner of the drawing at http://the-latebloomer.blogspot.com/. I absolutely adore that Halloween banner! Thank you, Elizabeth - and Jack! If you've never looked at Elizabeth's patterns and fabric, you must check them out! Gorgeous stuff! I buy a ton of her patterns every year at Thimblecreek and In Between Stitches when we go up for Alex's retreat in November. I can't wait to see all the new ones that will be out then!

Gratitudes:

~ New car smell

~ Fun packages

~ My new assistant is working out nicely

~ Remembering to stop at the market last night

~ Daisy hugs

Fat Sixteenths

I'm a skeptic. I'll admit it. I didn't think a fat sixteenth of fabric was very usable. Now, sixteen yards would be usable, but a fat sixteenth?

I've been seeing the Jolly Patches at The Fat Quarter Shop (link in my sidebar) for a long time now, but I don't think I've ever ordered one. Charm squares I understand. Fat quarters I understand. But fat sixteenths?

Well, I've got to say that now I'm a believer! Yesterday I started cutting the Peach Cobbler kit I mentioned back a few blogs. In the kit was this Jolly Patches roll.

http://tinyurl.com/2y6oxw

A fat sixteenth is a totally usable piece of fabric. It's 9 x 11. I can't tell you how many fat quarters I have floating around here that I only used half. And all those fat quarters that have missing hunks in them because I just needed one flower or six leaves for applique.

I don't know of a single quilt shop that will cut a fat sixteenth, or even an eighth yard, at least none around here. And most online shops have a minimum half-yard cut on fabrics. I've got a Jane Stickle quilt in the works (a really old UFO), and also am working on the applique blocks of another quilt. My friend is making the pieced blocks, and we're going to put them together into a quilt for her first granddaughter. In both of those quilts a fat quarter is way too much fabric, w-a-y too much! Fat sixteenths would have been perfect!

I needed 35 fat sixteenths for the Peach Cobbler pattern. There were 40 in the Jolly Patches roll. So I pulled five out that I know will be used in an applique project. Yep, I'm happy!

Something else ... those who know me well know that I hate cutting. Well, maybe that's a dramatic statement. I've been quilting for six years. The first four of them I had a shoulder that didn't work at all. So cutting was painful for me, so much so that I sort of learned to use the rotary cutter in my left hand. Although my shoulder is fine since the replacement, I haven't gotten over the cutting phobia. Yesterday I was faced with cutting six pieces from each of the 35 fat sixteenths. Yikes!

Having just worked on a Thimbleberries quilt, I remembered Lynette's suggestion about pressing two pieces of fabric together and cutting them at the same time. The pressing will make the fabrics stay together without slipping and sliding while you're cutting. So I did that yesterday and it works. This morning I wanted to finish cutting this pattern. I decided to try pressing three fat sixteenths together, and that worked great! I don't think I would try more than three, though. So I was on a cutting roll, and finished that job in short order!

I see a lot more fat sixteenths in my future! Gosh, if that light bulb had gone off in my feeble brain a long time ago, I might actually be able to fit all my stash in my stash room! Fat sixteenths - bring them on!!

As for the comments about the milking stool, I'm looking for a really small, condo friendly, house broken cow! ROFLOL. Oh, and excuse the darkish picture. It was late last night when I took it.

Gratitudes:

~ Fat sixteenths!!
~ Another project on its way to being completed
~ Looking forward to my new applique project starting tomorrow
~ Barbecued dinner last night
~ Emails!

Edit: I deleted a comment I made about a fat sixteenth being half of a fat quarter - because Jane corrected me when I got out to her house last night. A fat sixteenth is 9x11. A fat eighth is 9x22. So a fat sixteenth is half of a fat eighth. Confused? I was! This is, after all, higher math!! Thanks Jane!!

Why, You Ask?

And I answer, "Just because."

Jane and I went antiqueing again, as you can probably tell. I found two textile bobbins, we each found a darner, and I also found a neat metal hammered heart. But the ultimate find was the milking stool! ROFLOL. I have no idea where it'll go, but it will be somewhere in the living room. I think it will make a great conversation piece, don't you?

We had such a good time today. We stopped by a quilt shop, and then headed over to this huge antique store. They chased us out of there at closing time before we could even explore the whole place. We're already planning to go back maybe next weekend! I think there are a couple of big wooden hand-hewn bowls which might follow me home next time. Oh, and we had to stop at Bert & Rocky's ice cream joint on the way home! It's a good thing we didn't have a certain someone's address - or we would have crashed her slumber/sewing party!

This teeny cut on my finger is awfully sore. It's right up against my nail. I must have cut into a vein judging by the way it bled. My lip is still hurting a bit, but the ice cream helped that a lot!

I started cutting out Peach Cobbler quilt kit from the Fat Quarter Shop before Jane got here. It's going to sew together really fast. The fabric is yummy, just like peach cobbler. That reminds me - I need to eat some real food tonight. Guess I need to go through some drive-thru or other where they won't understand a word that comes out of this Cajun mouth!

Gratitudes:

~ The joy of spending the day with a good friend!
~ Laughing a lot at things we saw today!
~ Seeing more old sewing buddies at that quilt shop.
~ Wonderful candles
~ Absolutely gorgeous fall weather!

Not Worth the Bullet

Another of my dad's famous saying, "I'm not worth the bullet it'd take to shoot me."

The quilty blog will have to wait until tomorrow because:

~ I sliced the bejeebers out of my finger right before I left the office. One of those metal file clasps. Just took the Band-Aid off to check it and bled all over my shirt.

~ Eating my usual nutrious dinner of whatever I could find in the house. Tonight cashews and grits. Don't ask. Bit the inside of my bottom lip, and bled all over my shirt - again.

I'm going to bed. Just needed to whine and get some sympathy. Did it work? LOL