Needles and Pens

Just when I felt like I was really getting things accomplished... life threw me a curve ball. I've been laid up for the past 3-4 weeks with a combination of back problems and never ending bronchitis/sinus/inner-ear crud. Suddenly I'm not only behind in all of my sewing projects, but completely bewildered by everything else that needs to be done in the coming weeks. In the midst of all my health problems, I decided to give up my job at the fabric store, which has relieved a lot of stress and may be the key to finally feeling a little better now. I'm not fully recovered yet. Still on antibiotics, still waiting for my ears to unplug, still visiting my chiropractor almost daily and hoping for a breakthrough that will relieve the shooting pain in my shoulder and arm. But there are signs of improvement. Here I am, sitting at the computer after all. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. One thing I have managed to get done this week was a trip to the post office. I...

Hard to believe a whole week has passed since my last post, and it's time again for Sew & Tell Friday . I did have a few days off this week, and though I evidently didn't have any time for blogging, Facebook, or anything else online, I did manage to accomplish a few other things... One of the quilting charities I've enjoyed sewing for over the past few years is Quilts with Love , an organization that sends quilts to our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. To date, QWL has supplied almost 2,000 homemade quilts to U.S. service men and women -- an incredible number for a small group of volunteers! If you'd like information on submitting a soldier's name, or helping out with donations, just click on the link above to visit the Quilts with Love web site. I've written here before about QWL, and have shared some of the quilts and quilt tops I've donated in the past... ... and here is a picture of my brother-in-law, taken back in May, when he returned from a...

I've been feeling so overwhelmed lately with too many projects up in the air, but today I actually finished something -- another quilt top from some of my gazillion squares cut from fabric samples. Nothing fancy, but it does look nice, and was made entirely from hand-me-down fabrics. And all ready to mail off to Quilts with Love !

I didn't quite accomplish as much at yesterday's sew-in as I had hoped, but I did get one project completed, my scrappy quilt top for Quilts with Love . Here's the top, before borders were added: And here is the border, in progress: Finally, the finished quilt top: Isn't it amazing what a border can do? This pattern, Tammy Tadd's Paislies on Parade , is one of many available as a free download from Camelot Cottons . I changed things up a bit, enlarging it to 84" x 54," to meet the requirements for Quilts with Love, and by making mine super scrappy. But I can see this pattern working well with all kinds of fabrics and color combinations. Now if my grandson will allow it (I'm babysitting today), I have another border I'd like to work on. Wish me luck!

Step five of The Great Summer Mystery is to assemble all of the units into rows. Since my focus fabric is directional, I had to lay out my rows in order, and make sure nothing was upside down. So... I do have a pretty good idea what the finished top will look like -- but I'll keep it a secret for now. Here are my rows... And, good news! I finished the 84 scrappy blocks for my next QWL quilt top... Now I just have to restrain myself from sewing them all together until the sew-in next weekend!

Stayed up way too late last night, but I did make progress on my two latest projects. Finished Step Three of the Great Summer Mystery , adding yellow corners to my strip sets. We're getting closer... Next I worked on my other new project, making lots and lots of super-scrappy six-inch blocks to go into a top for Quilts with Love . I plan to have 84 blocks ready to set together on February first, our next sew-in day at Country Quilters USA . I'm making them all from scraps, and my scrap box seems to be bottomless no matter how many I cut up! Here's a little sneak peek: So that's the update from the sewing room. I may get some more scraps cut up today, but probably not much else. And I just realized this is my 199th post! Maybe I can come up with something special to celebrate my 200th. Hmm... Stay tuned...

Some quilts and quilt tops that I've donated to QWL For the past few years, I've been a member of Quilts with Love, a charity project that makes quilts for our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Quilts with Love has grown in five years from a few volunteers to hundreds across the country. To date, the group has sent over 1,600 quilts to our service men and women, and that number includes some of my own family members. I write this today to share the news about the brand new Quilts with Love web site, created to inform the public about the project, how it began, and how it supports our troops. If you're interested in helping out with a donation of quilt blocks, quilts or cash (or even if you're just curious how the whole thing got started) please take a look at the new site. Thank you!

A: My latest quilt for Quilts with Love ! "Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Taking a little break from the basement this week to finish up a quilting project. Yesterday I did the last of the quilting on my black and white " Quilts with Love " quilt, and today I hope to get the binding sewn on. That might be a stretch, however, because I'm going with my daughter this morning for her ultrasound appointment! Hopefully by lunchtime, we'll know if we're having a boy or a girl. I'm very excited, and not at all sure I'll be able to concentrate on sewing. On the other hand, if we do find out, I'm going to be itching to work on a quilt for the little one, so I'll have a little extra motivation to get this one finished up: I guess we'll just see how it goes... Well, I was right. I was much too excited to feel like sewing this afternoon -- but -- I did it anyway. Gotta love Tackle it Tuesday! Since I definitely wasn't up for hours of handstitching, I decided to attach the binding to the back of the quilt and then experiment...

Got the borders on my quilt top yesterday, pieced the backing, AND got the whole thing layered, pinned and marked for quilting. So far, so good: Meanwhile, my house was transformed today into "baby central." On a hot garage sale tip, my daughter and I were out bright and early this morning and scored a really nice Medela breast pump, complete with leatherette carrying case -- very professional -- for only twenty bucks. Perfect for when she goes back to work. This inspired us to start pulling out all the great baby things that people have been passing along to her lately, and get everything washed and ready for baby. I can't believe there are only six weeks to go! I adore the bassinet (here, with the vibrating infant seat, car seat bases, a Boppy pillow and Diaper Genie): Baby swing, stroller and two car seats (one attaches to the stroller): And there's more in the basement yet. She still needs a highchair, though there's plenty of time for that, and is determined ...

Believe it or not, I think I've had enough quilt journaling for awhile. All the little bits of paper are cleaned up for the time being, and here's the page I finished last night for my daughter's graduation quilt (Think I went a little overboard with the flower stickers?): I dutifully put in some time today mowing the lawn and sorting through about half of the clothes in my 10-year-old's room, so I think I deserve a little time in my sewing room. I'd like to start setting together the quilt blocks for my grandbaby-to-be, but first I need to finish up another project I've left hanging. It's to be a Quilts with Love quilt for the troops, made from some of those bazillion 4" squares I cut out of fabric samples. Here's a photo I took awhile back, of the top in progress: As of today, the rows are sewn together and I just need to add a border and get ready for quilting. Border strips are cut, a path is cleared to the sewing machine, nothing can stop me no...

Last night I started working on a brand new quilt journal/scrapbook, since my last one holds three years worth of quilts and is, well, stuffed to the gills. I've been collecting all kinds of little stickers and other goodies to start journaling my latest quilts, but somehow it's been difficult getting started on that first blank page. And yet, despite my apprehension and rudimentary scrapping skills, I have finished page one, "A Box of Chocolates." "Chocolates" was my first finished quilt of 2008, donated to Quilts with Love for the troops serving in Iraq. I've made several quilts and tops for Quilts with Love, journaling each one, and so I've run out of new ideas to include on these pages. The new addition this time, a miniature copy of the Certificate of Appreciation that was awarded to the group last year. I love to fill my pages with pictures and pretties, so I often forget to include the details of the quilt, the size, the fabrics, how the idea ...

Finally, my first finished quilt for 2008! "A Box of Chocolates" is a mostly-monochromatic brown/cream, nine-patch quilt, made from fabric samples that have been in storage for over 20 years now. I think its about time they were put to good use, don't you? I have plans -- and more than enough samples -- to make several more of these, in various colors. This photo doesn't really do justice to the rich colors and prints in the quilt. Here's a closeup for a slightly better view, also showing the border, backing and binding fabrics I chose: Of course, there's a story behind all these fabric samples. Back in the mid-to-late '80's, my parents owned and operated the local Ethan Allen furniture gallery. Unfortunately, recession slowly forced them out of business and the gallery was closed in 1987. My mom -- who has the same affinity for fabric as I have -- couldn't bear to throw away the thousands of beautiful samples in the inventory. In fact, she saved b...