Two Years and Twenty Thousand Excuses

March 2, 2008 I wrote this blog post.... about some great purple fabric that I got a great deal on.
And in June, 2009 I wrote this blog post... showing a peek at the first of two twin bags that I made out of the great purple fabric.

And today...
After many months/years of procrastination, moving the project from box to box, transporting it to Ohio and back again, sewing machine issues, lack of necessary materials, and too many other excuses to list here... it is FINISHED!!!

Now to move it one more time - to Massachusetts - so the Sibling Shipping Service can transport it south for delivery.

The rest of the bits of this wonderful purple fabric will find their way into a couple of scrappy projects currently in progress - so I will always remember the Two Year Totes.

But I won't promise that it won't happen again.

Back to Bags

I've had a few bags cut out and waiting in zip-top bags for assembly for quite some time now. All from Lazy Girl Designs, these are by no means difficult bags to make - and I have made each of them at least once before...

...so you got me why I have been letting these wonderful fabrics languish ... all cut up with no place else to go.

I got back in the bag groove last weekend - and was determined to finish up at least 2 of these - possibly three - by the end of March. So I pulled out the first one - determined it needed free-motion-quilting, and my machine that does that was in the shop for a tune up. That one got set aside. Pulled out the 2nd one, and while starting it realized the tension on my old machine was off... and in cleaning it and adjusting it I totally mucked it all up and put it out of commission.

By Tuesday I had my good machine back in place, my old one was sent in for repairs, and I was back in business.

Then I got to step 2 - or perhaps 3 - of the bag and made a BIG mistake. HUGE. Nearly put the whole project in the scrap bin.

However, thanks to the Lazy Girl Yahoo group and some great input from the gals there, I was able to regroup, and over the weekend finished up one of the bags. This is Claire - in a fresh garden green - all dressed up and ready for spring.

So now in-between trimming blocks, assembling bigger blocks, doing some hand applique and working on some other things, I will be "bagging-it" - working on Claire's friends Miranda, Mini-Miranda and that great little gal the Runaround.

Will they all put in an appearance by month's end? I doubt it - but at least they are peeking out of their bags and on the worktable, and getting excited at the now real possibility of a Spring 2010 debut.

Quilting Wednesdays

Wednesday has become quilting night with Shellie. We've managed 2 now - not in a row - but still more than one - and we have one planned again for this week. Between the time I get home from work, get changed and grab my stuff and food, we can aim to get in about 3 hours before I need to scoot home and get some sleep before work on Thursday.

But in 3 hours we can get lots done!

Our first week was spent working on our four patches -with some trimming and pressing homework in the interim.

Here's the result (mine on the left - Shellie's on the right):

She has more to do because she is making the full size (30 blocks) while I am making the twin (20 blocks). Each block has 8 four patches in it... so you can do the math!! :-)

After four patch show and tell, we each got to work on our half-square-triangles. We had chosen to draw our diagonal middle lines as "prep-work" before we got there, so once I got my machine set up we just fed them through and chatted and fed and chatted... and before you knew it I had all of mine fed through and cut apart. (Shellie's kids interrupted her a few times - plus she had more to do - so she did not quite finish).

We did get enough done to do a rough layout of a block. Here's mine:

And here is Shellie's:


And this is a good example of why it is sometimes good to lay out your blocks and then take a picture - sometimes the camera "eye" sees things differently and mistakes jump out at you.

Can you see it?? I did not notice it while setting the blocks in place, but as soon as I snapped the shutter I could see it. It also helps me see spots where the colors start forming a secondary pattern - one that perhaps I don't want (like the distinct 9 patch with the red corners).

This week's homework was pressing and trimming all those HST's. I am pressed, and about 1/3 trimmed -with two nights until Wednesday. So what am I doing blogging?!??! :-)

The Missing Cake

The custom deluxe Cakes by Daddy began on the Munchkin's 2nd birthday, and to date I have been bragging on cakes for years 3, 4 and 5.

I realized I never posted Cake 2.

Here it is: And yes -those are chocolate covered donuts for the tires - this also entailed some waffles.

Beady Giveaway

I dabble in beading - it's fun and I like it - but I don't spend a lot of time on it. My sisters Terri and Cindy on the other hand - wow!!! They do some gorgeous work. I just grabbed this photo from Musings from The Mercantile, and I wish I had more to show. It's breathtaking and so detailed. Wonderful stuff!!

So when Cindy posted about this great giveaway, I decided to up her odds of winning by posting about it myself.

Good luck Cindy!