As my sewing came to a screeching halt....

I am still alive! Yep.... just no sewing at all to share. I have mentioned before I am big into couponing. It helps me stay at home and not work, and still have money to buy fabric. Well this week our grocery store, Harris Teeter, is having triple coupons. So my week has been spent rounding up, clipping, printing, organizing and getting up early to go get the freebies. It has been a fantastic week for the bargains! So far I am up to $380 dollars of groceries for $6.54! I still have enough coupons for one more run tomorrow. It also was a fantastic week for the freebies at Walgreen's and CVS. I have gotten over $100 dollars worth of stuff for about $6.00.

I doubt I will get much sewing done next week also. I need to make a trip to Florida to take my mom some of the goodies I have been accumulating from couponing. Not only does couponing help me, but it helps my mom who lives on a very tiny fixed income. In truth I don't know how she does it; living on such a pittance that the social security sends her.

Just wanted to post an update!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

block eight

Spent all day working on these two blocks. I chose the "All Hallowed Variation" block from p.s. i quilt's list. I love, LOVE how this block looks and I may revisit this block down the road and do an entire quilt out of it. If I do I will use thangles to do all the half square triangles. I have to admit it was very nit nerdy to do and was a pain to get all the lines and points right, but it is such a gorgeous block.

I only plan on doing one more block in each colorway. I should be able to complete the 9th block this weekend. I am making two lapsize quilts out of the 9 sampler blocks.

Sunshine had to hop up for a photo op! Such a ham!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Block 7 done!

Finished these two last night before supper. I have to say I love these two blocks! They went together so easily and I love the way it looks. p.s. i quilt's measurements were spot on. Now to pick a block to do for block 8 today.

I forgot to post about these finds yesterday. While at JoAnn's I fell in love with the striped fabric and bought the two coordinating browns to go with. The brown on the left is for the fabric I posted yesterday to make a tote with. I may also attempt a tote made out of the stiped and other brown if the first one turns out okay.

Ok off to sew on block 8!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Catching up

Finished Pinwheel block six from p.s. i quilt's pinwheel quilt-along. I am now 3 blocks behind plus the one's I want to make that are different. Hopefully I can catch up this week.

Isn't this fabric yummy!?!? I found it at Loving Stitches for $1.50 a fat quarter! It is a bit more teal blue than shows in this picture. I have been wanting to try a tote bag pattern and I think this will be perfect to use to make one. Now to find a easy tote bag pattern.....

I stopped by JoAnn's because I needed a couple things and I had some 50% off coupons that I wanted to use up. I found this cute sewing basket in the clearance section. Guess how much it was!?!?

Yup! It was .97 cents!!! It is a pretty good size too! I was doing a "happy dance" when I checked out!

Ok! I am off to work on block seven!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

I'm back!

Well technically we have been back since last Thursday, but I was recovering from a nasty, nasty, (seriously nasty!) cold that my dear sweet hubby decided to share with me. This picture is of my handsome son! He is now a pilot in the Air Force! (and a jet jock to boot!)

He seemed to really like the quilts I made him! I also made him a small photo album with pictures of the quilts throughout the creative process. I included small swatches of the fabrics I used and where each piece came from. He sat and spent a lot of time looking at each photo and swatches and laughed as he remembered each item of clothing that the pieces came from. He seemed especially touched that I had included pieces of cloth that his Momma Soon Ohk had used to make her doll clothes with. He would look at each swatch and then find the piece in the quilt. I was so happy he liked the quilts.

I have done hardly any sewing since our return. Mostly just slept and rested. I did go and pick my "Baby" up from the doctor. I had my Bernina serviced whilst we were away and the serviceman gave her a clean bill of health! So hopefully now that I am starting to feel better I can get back into the flow of sewing!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Two finishes! (last post for a few weeks)

The gentleman I used to do my longarm quilting really let me down by taking forever to get these two quilts back to me. I told him I had a deadline, but for some reason my quilts kept getting pushed back on his list. I am not happy.... on top of that he changed the pattern in the border of my son's shaded 9-patch without talking to me. I am not crazy about it, but I didn't have any options considering I am leaving Saturday for Texas and he only gave them to me Tuesday night...... not happy at all.

So, for the last two days I have been working hard trying to get them finished and also trying to get ready for our trip. I have a bad hand so it is hard for me to do non stop hand sewing. So now I can hardly close my fist, and I am popping Motrin like crazy. Sigh...

On a positive note, I am so excited about our trip and getting to see our son! I hope he likes these two quilts!

I will not be posting for a while as our internet access will be spotty.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Wow what a day! (Quilt Show pics)

Yesterday was a wonderful day! All I did was shop and look at quilts! Can't get any better than that!

The day started with this score from my church's yard sale. The bottom row are all pillowcases and the top are sheets. It is all very high quality cotton! The sheets were brand new! I got the whole kit and kaboodle for $1.00! The pillowcases I want to use to make quilt storage/gift bags with and the sheets for future "Quilts for Kids". The polka dotted sheets are some of the thickest cotton sheets I have ever seen!

Then I stopped by Loving Stitches to pick out some fabric to finish the Shaded 9 patch for my brother and the Schnibbles "Madeline". I also picked up a set of bias bars so when I get back from our trip I can start on the applique for "Garden Lattice".

Then it was off to the quilt show!! Every two years my guild, Tarheel Quilters, has a show. It was really good this time around. Here are a few of my favorites! They were all so beautiful, but I had to pick just a few to post.

Another wonderful thing I got to do was to test drive the HQ Avante longarm quilting machine! The dealer really spent a lot of time showing me all the bells and whistles. I was impressed with how quiet the machine was, and the stitches were so even! I want to eventually buy a long arm because machine quilting on my Bernina 440 is really hard on my hand. I still want to test drive a Gammill and a APQS before I decide.

Then it was a quick stop at JoAnn's for some thread to hand quilt "Madeline".

Phew what a great day!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Bear with me...

because this has nothing to do with quilting and everything to do with a proud Momma! Our son found out last night that he will be flying F-16 jets after he graduates flight school!! He was the only one in his flight to be selected to fly them. So we are very proud!

Cindy

"Madeline" top complete!

Finished piecing the Schnibble pattern "Madeline" today. I was tired of her screaming at me from her plastic container! I had stashed her away after cutting the pieces a few weeks ago. I kept getting side tracked on other projects. I made a mistake piecing her..... can you figure out where? I only noticed it after I took the pictures and was editing them. (hint: lower right corner) Oh well... I'm not going to take her apart. It will just have to stay there! Adds character!

Not to much time for sewing this week. Have had appointments, errands and other time consuming things eat into my crafting time. I was able to hand piece a smidge on my "Grandmother's Flower Garden". Next week will be even more hectic as we ready for our trip to Witchita Falls, Texas to see our son graduate from Air Force flight school. We are driving our RV out so it takes us 3 or 4 days to get it set to travel.

I hope to get the "Garden Lattice" mostly finished tomorrow (except for the border, I want to applique that). Will post pics if I do manage to get it together.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Productive day!

Spent most of the morning adding two more rows to my Garden Lattice quilt. It is made with the "Eden" fabric line from Moda. I decided that I wanted to make it a smidge bigger, so I had to order one more charm pack. I could have finished it with the 4 packs, but I saved out a bunch of the darker pieces to do some applique flowers on the border. The extra pack should arrive in a couple days, then I can finish it!

After ordering my extra pack I dug into the p.s. i quilt's pinwheel blocks for this week. I was really happy with the blue color way, but not so crazy about the red. I am seriously considering remaking the red with a different color to replace the light blue.

My sweetie had choir practice tonight, so after dinner and he had left I dug out the wee Schnibbles "Madeline" and started piecing it. I was able to get 4 of the tiny blocks done before I was tuckered out. No pictures yet as I hadn't ironed the blocks yet.

So got alot done today!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

How did you celebrate...

National Quilting Day? Me? I went on a mini shop hop in my town. My first stop was Loving Stitches. They were having a sale on their fat quarters and I picked up all the above for $1.50 each! I have slowly been building a stash of rose fabric to make a cottage rose type quilt. The blue is for my blue pinwheel quilt-along I am doing.

I bought these two (also for $1.50 each) and when I got home and opened them up, this is what I found!

I wish I could have found more than two! I might go back and dig some more tomorrow and try to find more. These are just begging to be fussy cut and made into something wonderful!

My next (and final- hey I told you it was mini!) stop was Quilt n tiques. I just recently found this cozy lil shop and it is filled to the brim with bolt after bolt of wonderful fabric. I picked up 1/2 yard of these pretty blues to go in my pinwheel quilt along quilt.

It was such a gorgeous day that I couldn't sit indoors and sew, so I grabbed my Grandmother's flower garden and sat out on the front porch for about 3 hours and stitched away listening to the birds and feeling the breeze.

I hope you all had a similarly wonderful day!

Happy Quilting

Cindy

Friday Night Sew In

Decided to work on my Grandmother's flower garden for last night's friday night sew in. It was a good evening and I was able to get 3 flowers pieced. I am so far behind in my goal of 1 flower a week sewed on. We are going to Texas the first part of April so I am hoping while we travel I can catch up.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Lattice fence is progressing!

Made good progress on my latest obsession. It was such a pretty day today, I quit sewing and got out and picked up some of the bazillion pine cones and broken tree limbs left by our bad winter of wind storms, ice storms, snow storms..... etc! I could probably pick up for two more days and still not make much of a dent in the yard debris, sigh!

I love this fabric line! It makes me cheery and smile with every piece I pick up to sew together. I should have the two diagonals finished and attached tomorrow-ish.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Obsessing....

The last three days have been spent thinking about, and trying to get this out of my head and out in fabric. It has grown from a lap size - 1 charm pack idea, to a 4 charm pack - queen size idea! I just reached the half way mark and wanted to share some pictures.

I really, really like how this is progressing. The pictures are not the best, but I think you can get the idea of what I am heading for. I had this idea of seeing a garden through a lattice fence (well in an abstract way). It is my own design and idea. I have never been one to make up my own quilts. I usually follow patterns or designs I have see else where. This quilt came to me the second I saw the Moda Eden charm pack.

Do you guys have quilts talk to you? I started out thinking that this quilt (the lap size version) would be a gift for my sister in law. But yesterday this quilt "told" me it was for my youngest niece (who just turned 21). So I decided to make it a queen size to fit her bed. I still have an idea to border this, but will see how it progresses.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

This week's pinwheels from p.s. i quilt's quiltalong are complete! I had to stage them in front of my happy daffodils that are in full bloom. For some reason these blocks gave me a huge fit to sew. I like to never got the points to hit right. Me and "Jackie" had to work hard this morning.

The daffodils are a very old variety. I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina on a farm. Most big chunks of land had at least one old "homeplace" on them. It is where once there stood an old cabin or farm house. You could always tell by the chimmney rubble or the daffodils that would just bloom in the middle of no where. Our farm had an old homeplace on it and these are the daffodils from there. Before my mom sold the farm, I dug up a bunch of them and lugged them here to Fayetteville to plant. Every spring I am reminded of home and romping through the pastures and coming upon a bazillion of these happy yellow flowers.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Lookie what I got in the mail on Saturday! It's a charm pack of the Eden pattern by Lila Tueller for Moda line. It is gorgeous! I have this project cooking in my brain.... I want to use the charm pack in a quilt but first I have to see if I can get what I visualize outta my brain and sewn before I share.

I got this charm pack for $2.22 from Missouri Star Quilt Company when I ordered "The Binding Tool". If you have never visited their site I highly recommend it. They have a daily special that is priced so low! I just waited to buy my binding tool until I could combine it with a daily deal that I liked! When I saw this charm pack I just had to have it! I instantly saw this quilt in my head.

Here's hoping what I see can be translated!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

An awesome giveaway!

All Things Crafty is having a 200 post giveaway! What a generous gift grouping! Head over and enter, but here's hoping I win!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

It's done!

Well the piecing is anyway... hehe! Now to pick out a border and the top will be complete! I really like how this turned out. The fabric is all guy type, no flowers, swirlies, no fru fru at all. I think my brother will really like this! My hubby already said if he doesn't he wants it, so thats one guy vote, hehe. Let me just say it was a hecka lot of pinning. my hands look like I have a rash from sticking myself so much.

Now off to the couch to rest and spend some time with my sweetie.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

We interrupt this day.....

It was one of those days. I sit at sewing machine.... phone rings. I sit at sewing machine, dog wants out.....or cat decides it has a hair ball.... or the phone rings again..... on and on and on....I kept losing my place and made so many mistakes and ended up unsewing way to much. But even with all the craziness of yesterday I was able to get another row on my brother's shaded 9 patch.

Because I had to rip out so many mistakes... I got to know my new BFF "Jackie"(I had to name her a female name because of the lavender and purple handle). "Jack" my old tiny seam ripper got relagated to my portable quilt box. I wish I had bought this seam ripper a long time ago! This ripper is made by Dritz and it's handle is rubberized and the ergonomic curves are easy to grip. I highly recommend it to anyone who has trouble holding on to small things like me.

My sweet Greg is back home so it's back to dragging things out and putting them away again. Hopefully today will be more productive and less interruptus.

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

Bzz Bzz Busy!

Sewed this weeks pinwheels from ps i quilt's pinwheel quiltalong last night. They turned out okay. The centers were a tiny bit off but not so much as to bug me too much.

Today was spent mostly running around doing errands so no sewing. I have one day a week to go out and get everything done. It helps us save money on gas. I am a big couponer, so Tuesdays is my day to get all the free stuff from the drugstores. (Today I got 8 toothbrushes and 4 boxes of Raisin bran for $1.00) I also hit JoAnn's today. They are having coupon madness this week! Alot of the sewing notions are 50% off. I have been needing a new rotary cutter blade for a while, but kept making mine stretch. I was able to get a new one today half off. I did buy some more Kona cotton in the two colors for my pinwheels (again 50%) off. I also picked up 4 new stencils for machine quilting, hand sewing needles, a bigger handle seam ripper, (I have bad hands, hard for me to hold small things) marking pens, and some quilt clamps (all 50% off!). I have been making do for awhile waiting on a good sale.

The cat bed has been a huge hit! I just left it on the table next to my machine as I sew and it keeps the kitties off my pieces. Sunshine laid initial claim to it....

But Jake wanted it and after much posturing and hissing, he bulldozed his way on it. He weighs 20 pounds so he just lowers his head and pushes wee Sunshine out of the way. He bears a few scars from her wrath, but not enough to keep him from napping.

As I posted in one of my initial blog posts, I don't have a sewing room yet. So the kitchen table is my place for right now. Greg is still out of town, so it has been very easy this week to just leave everything out. When he is home I have to put everything away and clean/disinfect (I am wierd, I allow my cats free range, but I clean every surface they get on before food hits it) the table for supper. I dream daily of the junk filled room and hope it will one day be emptied and mine to have a sewing room.....

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Kona Cotton Giveaway!

Sew Fantastic is having a great giveaway of Kona solids! If you have never used them, they are a great quality 100 % cotton solid fabric that sew so great! Go check it out! But I hope I win!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

Got sidetracked....

After getting back from my walk with Maggie Mae, I had planned on working on "Madeline". But when I went to get the plastic bin with all the pieces, I saw my two full grocery bags of scraps I had been collecting ever since I read about recycling them by using them to stuff cat beds. Well seeing the bags triggered something, and I "just" had to try to make a bed so I could get all the scraps gone.

Quite a while back I had bought a really pretty flat sheet from a thrift shop to use as a quilt back. It was white with little yellow flowers. I was in a hurry and didn't examine the sheet closely and when I got it home to wash it I found a big red ink stain right in the center of it. Not one to throw much away, I kept it to use to cover furniture, etc. I went and got it out and ironed the wrinkles out.

I have been saving all my strips of batting that I trim off quilts when I square them, so I dug those out. I used my zig zag stitch on my sewing machine and pieced all the scraps into one large piece. (I couldn't get over how good this worked!)

I cut the sheet and used the ink blotch for the inside layer and the good areas for the outside. I made two sandwiches, one for the top and one for the bottom. I pinned it and then practiced some more machine quilting. After I got the two layers done, I sewed them together right sides together, like a pillow. I zigzagged the edges so it wouldn't fray. Then I turned it inside out, and stuffed it with all the pieces of scraps. I just sewed it shut with my machine.

Sunshine immediately hopped up and took possession...

yawned.....

and looked at me as if to say "What?? You made it for me didn't you??"

This was an easy way to keep those scraps out of the landfill.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy