For your Sunday viewing pleasure....

Watch all the way to the end. The last trick is a doozie!!




Thanks for all the votes.... If you haven't yet, see the post immediately below this one...

Nancy

Quilting Gallery....

Have you been to the Quilting Gallery? This is THE place to vote for the "Little Boy Quilts". From now until Sunday you can vote for your favorite....

Wanna know my favorite?? It's TicTacMo...made by ME!! That's right. Owen is my grandson and I made this quilt for him for Christmas a couple of years ago. I loved that we all live in Missouri and TicTacMo, designed by Terry Atkinson, is based on an antique quilt she found in an antique store in Missouri during her travels.




Wanna vote? Go HERE....

Nancy

cross your fingers for us....

We are having our first OPEN HOUSE today. I have spent the week cleaning, decluttering, shining, sweeping, scrubbing and stashing.. I have a sore back and my hips ache....
If no one shows up I am going to scream.

On a good note, I am off to lunch with 2 sisters, my Mom and 2 friends that we have known since I was 2 years old. We grew up on the same neighborhood street and have kept in touch all these years. We see each other at weddings and baby showers, significant birthdays and a couple of times a year we head out to lunch to catch up on the gossip....

We are going here.... Hodaks ..

Nancy

do you paper piece?

I learned to paper piece a couple of years ago when I took a class from Connie Chun of Webster Groves, MO.
She taught a paper pieced miniature flying geese pattern. When I signed up for the class she gave us all the instructions so we could precut our little fabric squares. I of course picked my favorite 30's fabrics. I enjoyed the class although I felt like I was completely out of my element...and I didn't do another paper pieced project until now...

Now I am glad I took the class. I learned an easy way to paper piece using a post card and the add-a-quarter ruler. Miss Nancy has a wonderful post today with some tips on paper piecing using a post card/add-enough ruler and the add-a-quarter ruler.

The one part of paper piecing I find challenging is cutting the fabric pieces to fit. The Add-Enough ruler is a new tool that really helps this problem. You lay it on the pattern and it tells you how big or small to cut the fabric to fit... I find I am wasting less fabric and that is always a good thing...

Three more blocks from the Civil War Love Letters book...



Nancy

Pillow Factory Alphabet Down Filled Pillow GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Pillow Factory Alphabet Down Filled Pillow GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

oh dear..... jane....

DH is buying a $12 book in order to read approximately 3 paragraphs on his family history. whatever.

Then he said... "do you need anything from Amazon so I can get free shipping?"

Um yea....

so I bought this...



Just certify me and send me to the nuthouse.

Nancy

PS know anyone who wants to sell their slightly used CD for Dear Jane? I have EQ5..

a mornings work....

I really like paper piecing.. I love the accuracy... and I have finally figured out how to measure the fabric so I have enough, but not too much...

it just takes forever...

This is what I got done this morning...



It took me longer to do the block on the left, cause I wanted to make sure there was a picture in each corner and the middle.. At this rate it's gonna take me forever to get these done. There are 121 total blocks. No, I don't know how many I have done as I am not gonna count. It will make it worse.

Our meeting was canceled last Tuesday because of snow, so they have rescheduled it for tonight. I am excited to see how everyone did. We are to take all our blocks but pick out a favorite for show-n-tell.

Nancy

raise your hand.....

if you are tired of the snow.... We got another 3 or 4 inches last night. I am so over it. Today I am supposed to be at my monthly quilt guild meeting. I was gonna be the president today...with the gavel and everything...and then a great program learning how to make a clutch bag....with Alice...and lunch...that someone else was gonna cook...

excuse me while i whine...

Right now though I am in the living room, watching my DH stew. oh...he is supposed to be on his way to Indiana...yea...he started the truck...and then locked it..woops. the extra key is in the console..in the truck. uh oh...we are now waiting for the locksmith.. I really want to laugh, but that wouldn't help would it?
and why? is the extra key in the truck? cause he asked the Rock Star to start the car and use the extra key...then he got in the truck and instead of bringing the extra key in the house (like he should have)...he stuck it in the console. After paying who knows what god awful price to get the truck opened up he probably won't do that again... Good News? All the snow has melted off the truck...LOL



I have veggie soup brewing on the stove and I guess I will spend the day in the sewing room. Maybe I will have some more civil war blocks to show tomorrow....

And Miss Nancy is going to have a post on paper piecing this week.. If you ever wanted to try it or just would like some new hints check out her blog this week. I will try and link over there when she gets it posted. Miss Nancy is precise...she pins...everything... Me? I don't pin...anything.. so you need to check out her post. Cause you might see some pins.. you never know.. and she is also snowed in so she doesn't have anything else to do but sew...Right?

Nancy

I won something....

Which doesn't happen very often... The reason? I won't comment on someones blog just to win a prize. I have a list of blogs that I read every time they post. I am faithful to this list. I feel I know these bloggers. I will comment on those blogs if they have a giveaway and I know I will use the prize. If I don't think I will use the prize I won't comment. Simple as that.

Last week, Mel decided to clean her sewing room. When done, she had 4 piles of stuff to giveaway... (neat idea, I should do this). One of the groups included a couple of packets of what she called stitching cards. They were paper pieced patterns along with the card stock cards with the openings and envelopes and everything needed to make some paper pieced cards. The worlds were aligned that morning and Mel picked me to get them.
Today they came in the mail...

This is just the envelope... Isn't it cute? I need to start decorating my envelopes.



and these are the stitchery cards...



But the envelope wasn't empty yet....



(double click this photo to read what the tags say... I don't know if Mel made them herself, or got them somewhere, but there are great..)

buttons and tags and a tissue cover .... oh my
fat quarters too... um...Mel? Did you know those slipped into the envelope? I hope so, cause I aint' sending them back!! LOL

Thanks Mel....I really love everything...


*******************************************************************************

Civil War Blocks Update...

Our group meeting was canceled Tuesday evening because of snow. It won't be rescheduled so I started on the next group of blocks due in March. Here are the first 6..



This one is shown in the book with a photo of Lincoln in the middle. I don't have that fabric, so I got this piece to use instead. It has all the words to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic".



I am really enjoying this paper piecing. I took a paper piece miniature class a couple of years ago and struggled to finish. I guess it just wasn't my time...

Tomorrow is DH birthday. He has decided to work from home, which means I won't get anything done!! I have a drs' appt and then need to run and get his birthday present. He was supposed to be at work and he wouldn't have known I waited until the last minute...

Nancy

lookee what I got....but don't get to keep :- (

Yesterday morning I finally decided to get with the program and decide...

I am the vice-president of my local quilt guild. I don't have a lot of duties (unless the president is not there at which time I get to run the meeting and that happens this month for the first and only time....)

The only job I do have is to coordinate the Presidents quilt. I am responsible for buying the fabric, deciding on the block, cutting the fabric, making 45 or so ziplocks with cut fabric and pattern, handing them out to all the members, getting all the finished blocks back and then packaging them all up and presenting it to her at the May meeting... WHEW!!

So yesterday morning at 7:43am, after having an email discussion with another guild member, I jumped onto Hancocks of Paducah and ordered these....



um...did you notice? That is MY hardwood floor there in the background. Yea. I ordered YESTERDAY, Friday at 7:43am and TODAY, Saturday, FedEx rang my bell at 8:41am. WOW...I am both amazed at Hancocks AND FedEx... This could be trouble. To be able to order something and have it at my house less than 26 hours later? Crazy!!
And they were sneaky too. They sent me a catalog. This could be trouble. I'm just saying...

Each member will be making a disappearing nine-patch block using 5 charms and white. Tonight da man will drive me to Hobby Lobby to get the white Kona. Then tomorrow, I guess I will cut and package...

Wanna come help cut?

Nancy

Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Yesterday was spent getting my hair cut in the morning...I love a new haircut. It always looks so much better when everything is even...although I think it is also because I tend to do the hair dye thing the day before.

My niece came home yesterday with her new baby and I drove down to keep her company. She had a c-section so I thought maybe I could help her by holding the baby, changing the baby...you know, the FUN stuff!! LOL She really didn't need any help. She is getting around great and since she is breastfeeding, I really wasn't much help there either. SO...what did we do? We watched 6 episodes of ELLEN.. back to back. I have watched enough Ellen now for the year. Oh, I did do a load of laundry and started dinner for them, so I wasn't completely useless...

To celebrate the new baby, I decided to drop into the LQS and see if they had any new Civil War Prints. Ok, that's a lie... I KNEW she had gotten in 11 new bolts and I wanted to see if any of them spoke to me. You know I don't like those CW prints and it's hard for me to pick them out, but yesterday as I was walking around I spotted a low shelf that I hadn't noticed before. I asked the gal if those were CW prints...

Now these I got excited about.....



I can't wait to use them in my next blocks...

Nancy