Let the Commenting Commence!

Oh Happy Day - Blogger has fixed the commenting problem!  If you haven't read about it yet, you can go here for full instructions.  Shez also has the instructions if you're a follower of her blog. 

I have been so busy stitching while I wasn't responding to comments.  I've made 10 more name badges for retreat friends to put on their machines.  This has become a never-ending project.  Every time I say it's the last batch, someone else asks, or we get a new person at retreat. 

A couple of years ago, I made these 16-patches as part of a larger project.  Which never happened.  I can't just discard all this hard work of course, so I made a doll quilt.  This will go to A Doll Like Me, and they have a need for quilts for boys as well as girls.

Naturally, the remaining patches became part of a place mat for Meals on Wheels.  More place mats were made with the trimmings from the backing of a quilt.  Said quilt will be making an appearance here soon, as it is near the top of the to-be-quilted pile. 

I have been quilting like crazy this past week, and here is another one of my finishes.  This is the result of our block exchange at another retreat.  This was the first time I participated in this exchange, and I love the result!!  They always choose a scrappy Civil War style quilt.

Last and least, here is my Challenge Quilt for guild.  We had to draw our inspiration from a magazine page.   I had a lot of fun with it, but didn't win any prizes this year.  Already looking forward to the next challenge!

I've also quilted 5 other small quilts, and will be binding like crazy in the days to come. but first, I have to go on a little  weekend retreat.  I've been cutting and prepping and packing, and hope to accomplish a lot while I'm away.  I don't really know most of the people, so I plan to choose a nice quiet corner and just sew away like crazy.

Keep on stitching......Sunny

May highlights and OPAM

I am not too happy with the changes to blogger, and hope there is a fix in the works. 

May was a busy month.There were two quilt finishes.  First was a nine patch that I made from a friend's scraps.  I actually got two from her scrap bag, and showed the other one last month.  I really love this one, and may decide to keep it.

I was so worried that the backing might fade, so I washed them with color catchers, and everything was fine! 

This next quilt used up the last of a pile off pink hexies that I've had for several years.  I made one larger quilt about 2 years ago, then a doll quilt in March, and now a baby quilt.  I think I had to add two hexies to the pile to finish this.

I'm not sure why my pictures are all coming out to dark lately.  Maybe because it's so cloudy and gloomy all the time?

I also put the finishing touches on two baby afghans that will be donated to our local hospital.  Crocheting is my craft of choice for car trips.

I signed up for a project in May to make one heart block each day, and I accomplished that, plus a couple of extras to have an even 36.  I'll be looking for some sashing fabric on discount day at the LQS this week, and have another donation quilt for the pile.  These were all made from a charm pack that has been collecting dust for awhile.

I've been keeping up with this small mystery BOM on Kathleen Tracy's FB group.  The June border was added yesterday, and I believe there's one more border to come.

My June blocks for RSC18 are also finished! 

There are a couple of larger pieces of aqua fabric somewhere in my stash, and I'm hoping to find time to make at least one baby quilt from them before the month is over.

DH had a birthday at the end of May, and he wanted to go to North Carolina to eat at a restaurant that is featured on a TV program that he watches.  He loved every minute of the visit.  I didn't love the restaurant, but the rest of the trip was fun.  A few highlights follow.

These fields were like being in a water color painting!  So incredible.

Cape Lookout National Seashore

Southern Magnolia

The birthplace of Pepsi Cola

We rode ferries, toured a fort, spent time on the beach, and ate lots of good seafood.  It was a beautiful area of North Carolina, and we will return some day!

Keep on stitching....................Sunny

April OPAM

What a busy month!  It's past my bedtime, but I have to post a few projects for OPAM.

 A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a bag of scraps, and I managed to make 81 nine-patch blocks from them.  I thought that would make a nice size quilt, but I actually ended up with two quilts!  This was the second one that I put together, but it is the only one quilted so far.  It's hard to see the actual nine-patches in this photo!

The color for RSC18 was yellow/gold in April.  After I made my very simple regular blocks, I wanted to make a doll quilt to use up some more scraps.  I've had 4 of these hexies leftover from a quilt several years ago.  It was finally time to put them to use.  I made 5 more, and a doll quilt was born.

I made another version of this quilt last year, and gifted it. Then I decided I liked it so much, I should make another.  It's from Gail Pan's Christmas book.

And shortly after I began stitching this, another Gail Pan pattern was published in the Primitive Quilts magazine.  I was instantly in love with it.

And last but not least, an altered version of a Pam Buda Prairie Women pattern.  We had 8 people in our Prairie Women group, and most of us decided to make this smaller version of the original quilt.  In my sewing room, the sashing was gold, but outside in the daylight this morning, it somehow turned green!

We escaped to the Smoky mountains for a few days, and as usual, were just in awe of the natural beauty.  Here are a few of the highlights.

Okay, off to bed so I can get up early and get back to stitching!                 Sunny

March OPAM

Easter Sunday is winding down at our house, following a very lazy day and a delicious dinner prepared by my personal chef.  I hope all that celebrate had a blessed day.

I started seeing OPAM posts early on the 30th, and after looking around, realized that once again, I did not have a finish for the month.  At least this month, I was close, and didn't have to start a new project.  I spent the better part of two days quilting this little guy.  It's very dark out, and the quilt holder has gone to bed, so I'll try for better pictures tomorrow.  Unless it's snowing. 

It's wool applique on cotton, and after I started quilting, I realized that I had never added the outer border!  I went this far, added the applique, put it aside for a couple of weeks, and forgot that it needed another border.  Maybe next time.

Most of what I"m working on are blocks for BOM's and mysteries, so I don't have a lot to show.  But I am making progress!  Now that retreat season is over, I hope to get a ton of quilting finished, and finish some small quilts.  I don't quilt or bind at retreat, so I get a backlog.

There is snow in our forecast for tomorrow, but since it's 11 pm and 49 degrees, I don't think the roads will be a problem tomorrow.  We had our first major snow of the season about 10 days ago, amounting to about 12 inches.  Lucky me - I got to shovel it!

The snow is all gone and yesterday was a beautiful day, so we went for our first wildflower hike.  We actually spent much of our time driving down dead end roads trying to get close to a very elusive flower that's found in only one area in the state.  The nearest parking we could find was a 4 mile walk one way, so we didn't tackle it.  Yet.  Maybe Sunday, armed with a new plan.  We did find a few flowers though, and were just happy to be outdoors with our cameras.  More flowers should be blooming soon.

Lesser periwinkle

common grape hyacinth

speedwell

bloodroot

I was especially happy to find the bloodroot, since it's usually finished blooming by the time we start hiking and looking.

Off to bed now.  Another very busy week on tap, and I need my beauty sleep.

Stitch on.............Sunny

more bloodroot

So this happened over the weekend...

Well, it's happened again.  My personal odometer rolled over another year with little fanfare over the weekend.  I have an eye infection and may or may not be highly contagious (but I probably am)  so I didn't leave the house all weekend.  But that gave me plenty of time for this!

There are ELEVEN small quilts in this pile to be quilted.    Two are charity quilts for a friend, two more are for another charity that I do some quilting for, and the rest are mine!  Actually three of mine are charity quilts from scraps, and I'll share them in a few days.  Sandwiching and basting are my      absolute least favorite part of quilting.  And HORRORS!!  I ran out of batting, and needed to piece the last one.  I think this calls for a shopping trip!  Tonight and tomorrow are all about the quilting.

Sadly, I'm supposed to be leaving for retreat early Wednesday morning, and I'm probably not going to be able to go.  I have a doctor appointment at 9am, and I'll have to see what he says.  I've already accepted the fact that I probably won't be going, but there isn't anything I can do about it, so I'll just stay home and sew all day!  I have my projects all prepped, so I should be able to get a lot done.  And I'll try not to whine too much.   :-)  I should have a ton of finished for OPAM this month.

Happy Stitching!   . . . . .   Sunny

Feb OPAM

I have been sewing like crazy since I returned from vacation, but I'm making blocks, not quilts.  I'm progressing on two old BOM's, two new BOM's, a BOW, RSC18, and a few other projects.  When I got out of bed early on the 28th, I knew there was nothing I could finish in time to have a finish for OPAM.  So I did what any sensible OPAMer would do - I started a new project.  Before I went to bed, I had a completed doll quilt. 

Now I have to confess, I already had a stack of pink hexies, from an exchange group that I belonged to a few years ago.  I had some sweet pink and white striped fabric that was gifted to me, just waiting to become backing and binding.  And I have 23 hexies left, so I'm going to add  two more to the pile, and make a larger baby quilt.  There's plenty of backing and binding fabric left, so it won't take long.  I probably would have made it today, but I was prepping and packing for a scrapbook retreat that starts tomorrow..  Retreat Season is in full swing!

At my quilt retreat a couple of weeks ago, I appliqued Dresden plates onto background squares, but I was one short for some reason, so I couldn't put it all together and add the borders.  DH and I took a road trip last Saturday to the store where I had purchased the background fabric in September, and they still had some left!!!  I was a very happy quilter. Of course, some other fabric joined it on the trip home.

I also pieced the top of my RSC17 quilt, worked on some machine applique, and started a project using a Cake Mix.  I should have some results to share soon. I have another quilt retreat in a couple of weeks, and maybe I should take these same projects back with me instead of starting more.  But I probably won't do the sensible thing, will I?

Stitch on............Sunny

Mid month

Time passes so quickly.  The month is now half over, but the time passed while we were vacationing in Florida. Ahhh..... two weeks of warm and sunny weather visiting friends and family in different places.  We spent time on the beach and on nature walks.  And I finally got my air boat ride in the Everglades!!  DH and I both love photography, so you know we each took hundreds of pictures. 

Not much sewing has happened, but since I got home, I made some purple blocks for RSC18,

and added a border for an online Mystery Quilt that I'm making.

Today was Club day at the LQS, and I picked up a couple of fat quarters for a future step, as we've been given a hint of what we'll need for Step 4. 

Early tomorrow morning, I leave for RETREAT!!  So I'll be off the grid for a few days.  The poor kitties were not happy when I pulled out a suitcase today, so they'll be relieved when they realize DH is staying home with them.

Happy Stitching!      Sunny