More Show and Tell

Cold chilly weather and a night out sewing with Shellie has made for a productive week around the "hive". She and I are making good progress on our Sunny Lanes quilts, and as of tonight I have 6 of my 20 blocks completed. (Shellie - you'll be "happy" to know I discovered a bit of twisting and turning and had to do some unsewing myself). Every day I work on this quilt gives me a greater appreciation for Jill's accomplishment in winning a ribbon with this at a quilt show! There is a lot going on with the "contemporary fabric choice" - even though the blocks are relatively straightforward - and lots of points to keep straight! I don't know that I will enter this one in a quilt show - but I am loving it already!

Before I got to work on that, however, I was lucky to be asked to help test out a new pattern for Lazy Girl Designs. Joan's newest bag, Margo, will make her debut sometime in the next few weeks. I loved working on this bag - although it seems like I am doing EVERYTHING with Moda Wonderland! The Sunny Lanes, Margo, and Jill's Sibling Revelry were all made with this fabric line.

Margo is an AWESOME pattern - she's sleek, swingy, has great outer pockets and a super easy dip-down zipper installation that is awesomely non-daunting!!!

Joan has outdone herself once again! I love how this bag is great for big bold prints - and those pockets are great for the phone, keys and sunglasses while the zipper gives you that security for wallet and other "necessities".

She (Margo) will be available soon ... I will keep you posted!

And since I just can't seem to work on only ONE thing at a time - I have also been plugging away at my hexagon quilt. I figured out that the curtains on my "hive" window make a good makeshift design wall - although I need to watch how many pins go all the way through into the curtains as I nearly took them down with me as I removed the quilt for the next step.

This one is an experiment based on someone else's idea. I am adding some flowers - but not as many as the directions called for. I am adding some words - but not the same ones the directions called for. I trimmed it - but not the same way as was shown. I added more borders. It is bigger.

I have most of the circles and all of the flower petals cut. I need to get a couple spools of thread for the zig zag applique I plan to do, and then I can cruise on to that step of the project. I am still toying with exactly how I want to do the words.

And I will leave you with a picture of exactly WHY I need so many quilts around my house!

Underneath all that quilty-tenty goodness is a little boy with a flashlight telling me to put more quilts on to make it "really really dark" - plus he wants one inside to curl up with!

How could this mommy disappoint her Munchkin!?!

7 Heaven?

I've been "coveting" Electric Quilt for a while now - I've seen what some quilting friends have done with it and have contemplated the possibilities.

And now I learn that EQ7 is coming out soon.

They are upping the ante... I think this will definitely be on my Christmas List this year.

Dribs and Drabs

Lately I think I have QDD - quilters distraction disorder - as it seems I have quite a few projects in various stages - including one that was started late late late Saturday evening and is now in the middle stages of assembly.

Here's a few pics of what's on and off my work table:

Pat Speth's "Sunny Lanes" - working on this one with Shellie.

This one is from the Moda Bake Shop - using the Moda Love U layer cake instead - and it is getting the "turtle treatment" - stay tuned!

This WAS Lisa Boyer's Baby Honu pattern... but it isn't anymore! It's become more of my own 'art quilt' of sorts, with more embellishments coming. Again - stay tuned!

And this one is bits and pieces of "confetti" - or at least that is what the pattern is called - but if you know me you know that the final quilt will have an entirely different name!

There's more - this is just what is in the camera right now.

A Little Latte

My buddy Jill made me a quilt. She has better pictures on her blog, as well as details on the pattern she used. I kind of like this picture of the Munchkin sitting on it -because it lets you get an idea of how large this quilt is. When playing "house" under it on the sofa, the Munchkin slid down onto the floor and was still covered by it. "This quilt house has a basement," he said!

Then he took this picture of me:

Thanks, Jill! I love it!!!

The Box (long and rambling version)

(I know I have some promised posting to catch up on - but I am going to take things out of chronological order a bit - bear with me)

Way back before Christmas, I signed up for a Valentine Swap with some of my Tran-Quilt-ity group members. Coordinated by Gina in Wales, we had packages going all over the world. My little gifties (pictured here) were sent off to Zarina in Malaysia. And once again, we were entrusting our little treasures to the mercies of the world's postal services.

As people's packages started to arrive, they posted pictures on their blogs and you could sense their excitement. And slowly slowly by process of elimination, I came to realize my swap was coming from Gina... and from a post she had made, I knew she had mailed it out at the very very end of January.

I waited - and waited - and waited. Valentine's Day came and went - no package. My birthday came and went - and other packages arrived - but no sign of Gina's package. Then February ended, and March came. Still nothing. April. Still nothing. I did not say much - I knew Gina had mailed it and did not want her feeling bad at something that was out of her control. I just figured it was tied up in customs somewhere. I pretty much gave up at ever seeing it.

On Monday I received a package - this was one I had been expecting from Jill (and one that you will have to wait until tomorrow to read about). And then on Tuesday, we found a "package slip" in our PO box. That meant we had a package that was too big to fit in our box, and the package pick up lockers were either too full, or too small. We were going to have to wait and pick it up over the counter... which would normally have meant waiting until Saturday.

Except I had a brain storm! The kids are off school this week, and my niece has her driver's license! Maybe she would be willing to do a pick up run for me... especially since I was curious as I was not expecting anything. Could it possibly be???

Low and behold... nearly 3 months after being mailed.... it FINALLY arrived. Battered and tattered and torn, but it arrived!!!

I was in shock - the customs forms were still there - the address was intact - but the box looked like an elephant had sat on it. One side was nearly split open, and you could see the contents through the gap.

But once I started opening it - I saw that although having been tossed and turned about, the contents seemed intact. Even a terra cotta flowerpot - it's box crumpled and torn - was uncracked and solid! As were my ceramic Welsh Dragon salt and pepper shakers! And the chocolates - can't forget those!!! Quilting and gardening magazines - Gina really knows my passions! Some wonderful lotions and soaps, a great pattern, and some other goodies! I was in awe that it all made it through - and that nothing had fallen out of the gaping hole in the box!


Gina and her daughter even planned on celebrating the Munchkin's birthday and birth month, and had sent a whole big bag of goodies for him! Luckily for us the package came before he outgrew the wonderful Thomas t-shirt they included. He spent the evening pouring over the magazines they sent, playing with the pretend walkie-talkie's and putting together Lego with Daddy.

Lego that included - of all things - a turtle!!!

Happy Happy belated Valentine's Day!!
Thanks, Gina!

Go Tigers!!

I could fill the entire page if I linked to all the great stories right now about RIT - our Hockey Team - and the NCAA Frozen Four tournament taking place in Detroit.

We're the "Cinderella" team - the unknown - the force to be reckoned with!!!

Puck drops at 5:00 PM against the Wisconsin Badgers.

Go Tigers!

bee-u-tiful

As obsessive as I can be about the turtles in my life, it is sometimes good to simply be reminded that I AM The Queen Bee!

A few little gifties sent my way recently are helping to bring back the Bee in Me... (not to mention the Munchkin learning ALL about bees from Sesame Street on Saturday morning and teaching me this morning on the way to daycare just what beeswax can be used for! Fascinating stuff!)

Last week, Barb sent me this "bee-u-tiful" mug and teabag holder last week - she said it was from an older "pay it forward" - my memory on exactly when is foggy - but I do plan to do another one myself soon, so stay tuned on that.

The mug is wonderful - holds just enough coffee to get me through my morning emails at work (yes -there's that many) and is a bright cheerful spot in my cube. The teabag holder has my name embroidered on it - just in case someone mistakes it for theirs - and she sent it nicely filled with a few assorted flavors! Now if this heat wave (80 in NY in April?!!!) will pass, I will again look forward to a nice cup in the afternoon on the bench outside the office.

Thanks, Barb!!!

The next batch of goodies was courtesy of Lazy Sister Sue - we are doing our third annual swap quilt project (see here and here for prior projects), adding Jill into the mix this time, and I was expecting the shipment of strips from Sue. I had also ordered some fabric from the quilt shop she works at, so I knew that would be in the package as well.

I was not expecting this awesome Bee Bag!!! It's a bit hard to tell in the photo, but it is a good size (the small card to the left of it is a business card) - and contained all the strips (25 5" x22")!!! It's "bee-u-tiful", too!!! (she sent some other goodies as well - thanks Sue!)

And the "r" is awesome - although the Munchkin asked why it was a lower case "r" since he is learning at school that "names ALWAYS start with an upper case letter, Mommy. Doesn't Aunt Sue know that?" YOU try explaining artistic license to a 5 year old!!!

So since Bee seemed to be the insect of the day, I decided to use the last remaining scrap of fabric I had that matches Terri's Spring Claire and make her a key fob, too. I know it is tiny, but can you see the bee on it?? :-) That's why I bought that fabric in the first place - I just had never found the right project for it - and now I have given the entire piece away - except for a few tiny squares that are finding their way into a scrap quilt.

Sorry, Terri... but there was nothing left of any of the fabrics to do any other accessories.

And now I am "bee"t and heading for bed!

Joan and her little ideas....

Here I was all excited about finishing the Purple Miranda II and finally getting it ready to be delivered to sister Cindy. So I posted about it here - and again on Facebook.

Cindy loved the pictures - and was eager to receive it - but glad to hear it was done.

And then Joan pipes up somewhere along the line... "Did you ask for accessories made from the remnants? I suspect you can get a Maggie and a Wonder Wallet for sure! :-)"

Oh the pressure! I had plenty of the dark purple left -especially since I forgot (oops) to make the sleeve for the Bag-E-Bottom. I had been wanting to try a large Miranda with the elastic/button closure, and I was able to piece together an outer cover for the Wonder Wallet (and put on an outside pocket).

And then tonight I got to making key fobs. It started with one out of webbing (sorry - no photo of that one - it was already stashed for delivery tomorrow) and then turned to any scraps I could lay my hands on and fold into 1 1/4" x about 10"-12" strips. Of course I had enough purple left for one of those - so there ya' go.

There was no way I could have finished them up in time to be delivered WITH the bag - but this way I ended up making even more - and if I mail them out this week, these just may beat the bag there.

And YES - the top turtle key fob is MINE!!!!!