I Won! I Won!

And there's a reason I said it twice! First, let me say I NEVER WIN ANYTHING. It's the story of my life. Seriously. So on Mother's Day, when I came home and started reading my blogs, I got to Charming Chatter and Kelly had posted the results of her give-away. I saw my name, and thought gee, that's odd, there must be another Allie in MI. Then I read my comment that she posted, and it dawned on me that HEY, that's me! It was a good thing I was sitting down. The prize was any fat quarter bundle from her shop, Cotton Charm Quilts! I picked the Snippets line, which I adore....being the only girl in the house here, I love retro girly stuff. I'm going to use some on my Wonky House blocks!

But that's not all.

I got offline and watched a movie. Before I shut down, I thought I would check my email one last time. And lo and behold, Jenny from Elefantz had emailed me - I had won HER give-away! The sweetest Wonky House block wallhanging stitched by the incredibly talented Jenny! My cup runneth over!

I told her that it was so special to get something made by someone else, because as you know, we quilters and stitchers tend to give folks a lot of ourselves, but rarely recieve anything made by someone else. I will treasure this forever! This was surely a Mother's Day to remember!

Beyond Frustrated

Today was a very bad no good terrible horrible quilting day. I did finish off two quilt tops, almost with my sanity intact...but it was a close one. First, I finished up this one:



My friend Kathy had picked out these fabrics for a charm quilt, and I cut everything 4 inches. Blocks, sashing, everything. I quilted everything on the same machine with the same 1/4" foot. So tell me - WHY didn't those border blocks line up? WHY were they a half inch off on either end? I used to be able to piece! Maybe it's time to hang up the rotary cutter! I fudged it best I could and hacked off the excess.

Then, since I was on a finishing roll, I decided to square up the quilt for Italy. Has to be 48x60. No problem, I knew it was way long enough. Until I went to square it up, and it was two inches short. So I hollered at the boys to make dinner and added another row.

They're both done now, and I just have to get backing and batting. Since the boys did dinner, I went ahead and cut all the binding for the quilts. I am so done with biggish quilts - I lost count of how many I've made since last October. Maybe not a lot for some of you, but a lot for me!

On a happier note, my son Sam is playing with photography. He went out in the yard yesterday and took some pics of the yard. All the pink you see is the petals coming off the tree. Petals everywhere!





Happy Mother's Day to all of you!

Wonky House Give-Away!

My block finished for the Wonky House Give-Away from Jenny!



To enter, you must have completed at least one block, post it on your blog, and link back to hers. The sweetest little wall-hanging of a wonky house block, stitched by the talented Jenny, is the prize. I'm very excited that block number 4 is coming out on May 9th, I can't wait!

Progress

Here's a picture of my blocks for the rail fence:



Not sure if you can tell from the pic, but there's a difference in size between horizontal and vertical. Enough of a difference that I'm not comfortable trying to fudge it. So, I'm doing this:



One of my favorite patterns, Chinese Coins. They'll be sashed with white and I think this will be colorful enough for any child. Well, a girl child - apparently I have no boy fabrics at ALL. Which is good, it keeps my boys out of my stash.

I finished coloring my Wonky Houses and I don't like the crayoning.



Or rather, I do like it, but you really have to color it before embroidering. The crayon got all over the floss and I couldn't get a nice edge close to the floss. Markers may have worked a lot better. So, I'm starting over! I have a nice new stack of Murder She Wrote to watch while I work. My toe is still swelling so I HAVE to sit, right? *G*

Uh-Oh

I have irrefutable proof that housework is hazardous to your health. I was in the kitchen, doing the wifely, momly chore of dishes and cleaning off the counter, when an ALMOST EMPTY bottle of Hershey's syrup fell off the counter onto my pinky toe. My pinky toe that was encased in memory foam slippers. My pinky toe that has a pin in it from surgery, and now tries to cross over my foot to buddy up with my big toe. And now my poor, mishapen pinky toe is broken. At least I think it is - it sure hurts and I'm using crutches and my sewing chair to get around.

Now, we all know that chocolate is not hazardous to your health, in fact it's a vital part of any diet, so I therefore conclude it was the housework. And I should have stayed in the sewing room. Along with this lump



who has taken charge of my ironing table and WILL NOT MOVE for any sewing crisis. Those specks you see are catnip. She ain't leaving, my friends.



The girl's got mouse.



This table is right under the window which is right by a tree that has interesting critters in it. It's one of her favorite spots. The fact that mom has to use it to iron on is just icing on the cake.

I sewed strips together today, using the rail fence pattern. The cutting instructions were to cut strips, 2 1/2" x 6 1/2". They should match, right? When you turn them to make a rail fence? Well, suprise, they don't. I'm not sure what to do next. I'm going to think about it for, oh, maybe a week. Maybe I'll just put a thin white sashing in between them all and forget about things like matching up seams and shaving blocks. I just love thin white sashing. It's so forgiving.

Yay - Secret Project is Done!

Well, almost - just need to add a hanging sleeve. Can't show you yet, not til it's recieved, but here's a sneak peek:



This is the first time I've ever quilted something so much, and I'm really disappointed. It got very distorted. I had added the borders before quilting, and spray-basted it together as it's small, and also used a few pins. Crooked as all get-out but I hope she likes it anyway. I'll let you know.

Today I started cutting squares for a quilt for a friend - started at 12:30pm. Got that finished pretty quick, picked out all my bright colors for the quilt for Italy [see post below] and ironed them all. IRONED THEM ALL. [Wipes brow].






And then I did this.



And I did not stop until midnight, and every single one was cut into a 2 1/2" strip. This wee little pile? Got 10 times bigger. And turned into TWO piles. I have to find a safe place to put them so the cat doesn't try to nest in them.

And now, I'm going to go finish my last Wonky House



while watching these.