Waste not...want more????

the old adage doesn't always work huh? One of the things in quilting that I don't like is to make corner triangles and then cut off the edge triangle and ACK! throw it away...I usually don't throw them away but keep them for a bit till I remind myself that I am not going to sew them so why am I saving them???? Guess it is the...hum...Polish in me? I don't like waste when I quilt.
In comes this tutorial...nope I am not going to do it........why reinvent the flying gooses :) Here is the link...Sophie did a great job explaining so I won't even try...will just show you my progression
Start with a bunch of squares....4 of the smaller ones and one of the larger ones... (the tutorial tells who the size to cut them)

After you cut them they will look like this...........hum....

then you sew another square on

cut them and press and this is what you get........a flying goose ;) And the major thing...beside being easy is no waste...well just a bit..but will show that later

put all together you get 4 flying geese blocks out of the 4 small squares and the one big one...how cool is that?

here is my pile of flying geese

and here is the waste :) totally a no waste flying geese

so cool to just cut off the tips of the block and not have to cut the corner and ...sob...throw it away..........or sew it and have a bunch of teeny tiny triangles that you don't know what to do with cuz they won't even fit under the presserfoot well :)

Happy Birthday to our country..and my son :)

Today is our country's 236th birthday ...and my youngest son's birthday too...but won't tell you how old he is. He might read this :)
He did think that the fireworks were for him when he was younger :) But has grown out of that now............
Well he asked me for a quilt one day....so tried to figure out what would work for him...he has a very formal house..........lots of very nice stuff...but not quiltish....well not what I could figure...so I settled on colors that would work with what he has......whew...it is done....will be put in the mail tomorrow but he got the picture preview and like it :) So figured I could share it now on my blog cuz he has already seen it ;)

went with a pinwheel...mostly cuz I saw one with this embroidery on it done not on the pinwheel but on the opposite fabric and on parts of the wheels....

here is the almost full picture of the quilt...also the bar that I just had hung to hang quilts...doesn't work well for ones with all the batting but it will work great for keeping the quilt tops from needing to be ironed before they are sandwiched :)

Happy Birthday Jason...I love you!

Something new

I had never even heard about this thing......wow.......would be wonderful for applique...it is the Slice Fabrique and someone is giving one away.....can you believe that...Natasha of Joy of Quilting is generously having a give away of this little machine.....wow...go check it out...there is a video of it...but don't enter...only cuz I really want to win this one ;) and the fewer people entering the better my chances will be ;)

Grown up doo...

Izzy Bella....she is 5 months old now and looking kinda scruffy...this picture is from out impromptu trip to the Olympic Peninsula in May....but her baby fine hair finally cried out to me to be off so she got a new doo today..........

through all that hair you couldn't see what she would end up like....she has lots of red coloring to her now that the scruffy chocolate tips are off :)

funny angled picture but sometimes hard to take pics of a moving target so you take what you can get :)

Seeing Double?

I have been trying to find contacts that would work for me...My distance is really still pretty good...a bit blurry out there but not bad...my computer and up close are the same but trying to find a contact that would do distance and computer isn't as easy as you would think...Have been through multiple trials and so far a monovision type works the best...but today I switched them..on purpose that is ;) to see what would happen and I can actually see better....altho for close I am still needing the cheaters to really see...wondering if it is worth going with contacts or just keep the cheaters or get glasses that do a trifocal instead of a bifocal...not progressives as they don't seem to work in the mid range for me......geez...getting old sucks!!! :)
I am a bit disappointed in these pics but not gonna take new ones...they are really washed out and I don't have a picture fixer on this computer yet...maybe I should do that instead of sewing????
Anyway....the hospital that I make quilts for has asked for "twin" quilts...so I sat down and did a couple for them
Here is a set for boys :)

and a set for girls

I don't make them exactly alike...I usually make something different with them.....these had different embroideries on them

the other one

and then these butterfly ones...again the embroidery was different but the backing is really busy so it wouldn't show the stitching...........darn :(


anyway...there are a couple more doubles but they aren't totally done so no pictures yet.

What did you do today???

Why do I get that proverbial "bee in my bonnet?" and have to do something about it???? Is it like Monk where you are compulsive/obsessive......not with germs that is...at least not me with germs :)
I have been thinking about organizing...yep Dey...I am following once again in your footsteps :) I hit the jackpot with my daughter the other day and got two bins and a box...not small ones mind you...but rather large ones...of what you ask????


One had large pieces ...or bolts of fabric :)

the other bin had fat quarters....now Paulette....wipe the drool off your keyboard and screen :)

the other was a box of some scraps and flannel

but the major problem is...there is no room in the inn....can't fit another scrap in the room...so something had to change...been going through Creative Keepsakes new book on people's rooms...it is scrapbooking mostly but I got it cuz I have a cyber-friend who is in the book....well magazine really................about half way through it just looking at how others organize and keep their place looking neat and tidy....HA! the difference between paper scrap and fabric is that fabric takes more room up ;) and don't even start on accessories taking more room cuz that isn't true either :)
Well I thot I needed a quick trip to Ikea tomorrow to get some boxes...we are going to be without water for most of the day while they clean our wells holding tank so thot that would be a fun day...however I found what I needed at WalMart to day so no need to trip tomorrow....
I found these bigger boxes that will hold more but actually take less space so I got three....quickly filled them and thot...oh....9 will fit on the shelf....but alas they only had 4 more...but creative genius that I am....I got one big one which was also cheaper than 2 smaller ones and put my ribbon in it...well most of the ribbon I have :)
And if you notice below...I actually now have a shelf and half for more schtuff :) Maybe some of those fat quarters will be visiting my room on a more permanent basis tomorrow.

here are the bins that I emptied to make room for the newer ones to take their place...thinking I might fill them with fat quarters that would be easy to see off the shelf???? Not sure what to do...

Maybe I will just cut and sew fabric tomorrow into more tops...have 2 to finish just the borders being quilted and one to quilt...oh yeah...and another 3 that are done waiting quilting...hum...maybe need to finish those first......
have to see what tomorrow brings while I have no water :)

Hello, my name is....

and I am a Fabri-holic...I have this urge to buy these wonderful fabrics and turn them into quilts for little ones.........now....it isn't like I know what I am going to do with all these gorgeous fabrics I got from 1 Choice 4 Quilting.....but that doesn't stop me from buying more...and more...did I mention that she is having a sale...and another giveaway (check it out here) ??? Man...I think this girl takes all her profit and gives it to people who follow her or buy from her...or maybe even think about buying from her....because I give away what I make I LOVE perusing her sale fabrics......makes my addiction go further :)
Well let us begin seeing the latest purchase ;)
Robyn Pandolf.....oh I so love her colors and fabrics!!!! Here is a pile of fat quarters to peruse in my spare time :)

More Robyn Pandolf yardage...again some compliments of the wonderful Shawna!

OH...so can't wait to do something with these "opposite" fabrics...thinking 3D pinwheels??? Any other suggestions?


Basic whites

this will finish the binding on my Jelly Roll Race quilts

Some basic yellow and a bit of pattern pink :)

these are the amazing things that Shawna sent along with my order....did I mention how generous she is???

Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose

I am by no means a "green" lover....not what green has come to mean but the color green...at least for a main color....but I had couch covers that had gotten a bit.......worn? Well they got replaced with white covers.......YIKES...white with my dogs? well there are scat mats so they don't get on them but they are washable and really not too bad......honestly...the navy showed way more than the white does :)
Anyway..I digress.......I had navy couch covers that were a bit chewed on the ends...oh did I just say that? Long story but I learn my lesson in feeding my dogs and gradually decreasing their food after a litter of pups........fabric isn't a good filler :)
Yesterday was the day to take the love seat covers and redo them into chair covers..........and fix the corners that were taken out by my mistakes......first they had to be made smaller...had just had one thrown over the chair cuz as you can see my dogs use those chairs........but always wanted to make them 'fit' instead of just thrown over............
the back pillows on these chairs aren't on them cuz they get sat upon and squished...not that it would really matter cuz these are really dog chairs not people chairs...........
So here are the finished products........I basically just cut the love seat cover and sewed a seam down the middle....and then redid the corners

this one got a ruffle

and this one got fixed box corners......

altho not perfect it will do for the dogs...and look better when people come over to the house.......altho...anyone reading my blog and thinking about pups might think twice about my fabric eating dogs..........
But hopefully that is a fixed 'trait' as I now know why it was getting chomped on as a filler snack :)

A break from the recent posts

Lately there have been lots of quilts posted...altho I have more that I need to picture and put here I figured it was time for a "cute break"....so today's posts are all about my other favorite thing...........PUPPIES!!
So hang on to your hats cuz there are a bunch of pictures of pups in this post

kissie kissie

now that's a tongue :)

one of the tubes for a sort of obstacle course for the pups

mama and an opportunist trying to siddle up to the dry bar

another of the playtoys

playing with Izzy

another one of the pipes

just a darn cute picture...but then I am prejudiced :)

caught in action of moving...hard to take pics of moving targets

hum...wonder what she was thinking???

saying Hi to Bailey who was tired and just wanted to rest :)

jungle gym Reese

the water bowl is almost as big as the pup drinking

another cute pic :)

hope you enjoyed the view from my side of the country for a bit

practice makes perfect?

My blogger friend Paulette, was talking about a hint she got to practice machine quilting on paper towel...well I am too stingy to waste a roll of paper towel so I thot of going to the local thrift store and finding placemats...same consistency as a quilt almost and perfect to play with...so when my machine told me that I only had a little bit of thread left in the bobbin, I started playing...man do I suck...but the idea of practice which has not sounded appealing at all before is starting to take shape.
This placemat has lots of practice on it....I didn't care if I was perfect or if I went over what I had already done...just wanted to get a rhythm going...so over and over I played

here is the other side...........one of the nice things I found with this placemat was that there were quilted lines which gave a grid to play with...........ha...my mama didn't raise no fool :)

close up of the hearts I was playing with today

then I needed borders on this...the really cool feather is done by my machine...and the gap is where I needed to bite my nails and fill it in......

here is the second try of putting the machine one together....still a gap but a much smaller gap

altho there are threads everywhere cuz of the way I added the feathers to the program, there was only a little gap which I filled in free hand.......easy peasy...at least on this little gap

not as good on this one where there was a larger area to fill in....and the original machine one was triple stitched so I had to go over the area several times to get the heavier threads........

well...now that my nails are chewed down to the quick I need to trim this quilt and bind it...along with its almost matching one