out of the loop...

I feel so out of the loop...  Please know that I have been reading all your blogs... I just haven't been commenting... 

I have been furiously working on my Habitat Challenge due in October for the Modern Quilt Guild.
I'm on my third version right now...

My first thought was habitat...hm,,,houses...and I love houses...  so I made one house block...and it did nothing for me.  Nothing..nada...zip...zilch...

Back to the drawing board...or rather the graph paper.. and colored pencils... I have EQ 5 but have no idea how to use it...

So my second idea was ....was...gee...I have no idea what my second idea was...I do know it was only on paper...OH YEA!!  I thought about a rail fence...using the Habitat fabric and my background...
Nope...can't do that..not enough fabric to make the quilt big enough...

So here is my third attempt...

OH MY GOD!!  You actually thought I was going to show you the quilt???  HA HA HA... You know me... I don't show the finished quilt until the reveal..  I will however tell you it is brilliant (cue singing Angels!)...  just brilliant...I say... and now of course I have jinxed it and it will be a flop... lol

I have all those pieces hanging on my design wall...it looks GOOD, I tell you...  And now it is 6:30am and I am being told to pack the cooler to head out to that other house... to paint...

I hope someone calls the realtor and wants to tour the house...and then wants to buy the house...but please be careful in the sewing room...You see, I have all those little pieces hanging on the design wall and I don't want them moved.  It took me a LONG time to get it right..


see ya next week...
Nancy

I'm still here...

I've been busy...   Doing a bit of this and that... mostly that.. and I need to continue that this weekend...at least the weather will be much nicer.  Highs in the 80's with lower humidity...We shall see...

Today I will be at my monthly meeting of the St Louis Modern Quilt Guild.  We finally have a permanent home and today is the first meeting there.  Can't wait to see what the room looks like and how it works.

I have this to turn in. 

We used this tutorial and made our blocks 12 1/2 inch unfinished.  I volunteered to take these blocks home and finish the quilt.  I found that bright pink and white stripe in my stash.  Love it..and hope some little one will love it too.  Half of all the quilts we finish will go to Project Linus local chapter and the other half will go to Joplin..

And I have been working on this...  This is a free pattern by We Love French Knots...

Not the best of photos... I think I will frame it to hang in the new sewing room.  If you do this...only use one strand of floss for the words..  I started using two strands and it's just too thick.. the words are little.. I am thinking of snipping the thread and redoing the one block..we'll see..  If you are new to embroidery this would be a great pattern to start with.. Each block is a different stitch and there are videos showing how to do all the stitches...  I learned to do bullion roses...you can kind of see them here on the end of the scissor fob...

and now it's time to get some breakfast down and get out of here...

Nancy

my pins ARE sharp....

I have been really busy this past couple of days...

Finished the binding on this quilt while riding to Kansas City Saturday...

Abbie and I made cookies yesterday morning and she "tested" them at 8:30am...   Doesn't everyone have dessert after breakfast?

we took some of the cookies with us to see G.G.... 

For lunch with GG we had ice cream for an appetizer, then a grilled cheese sandwich

And chocolate pudding for dessert... Let's see, so far we have had 3 sweets and no veggies...lol

Abbie found my camera...

Today we took off to the post office and then to Walmart where I found these..  They feel really nice...8 fq's for $9.97 and 2 - 1 yard cuts for $10.97.  I have an idea but it will be weeks before I get the chance to work on it..

And I will leave you with Abbie's random thoughts on driving spoken on the trip to GG's yesterday...

If you honk, that man up there will move...
Are we there yet?
Can you make the car go wiggly?  Like daddy does?
Are we there yet?
Green means GO, Red means STOP, Yellow means....um...yellow means...I don't know what yellow means...
Are we there yet?
Can I move my car seat to the front?  Mommy let's me..
Are we there yet?
Do you even know where you are going?
Are we there yet?

And for you wondering...I got my Pinterest to work.  Seems if you sign up and go to the HELP section there is a "GOODIES" section...  You grab the little widget that looks like a circle with a line at the bottom (I'm guessing it is someones idea of a pin) and it will show up on your task bar..

When you see a photo of something you want to pin just click on the pin, it will capture it on one of your billboards..  If you are capturing a photo off of a blog  or anywhere else you must click on the photo to make it come up on a page of it's own.  Then you can pin it..   So far that's all I can do..

Nancy

I have bum pins...

Would someone please explain in detail how to PINTEREST???   I belong...I joined... I drank the kool-aid... Now what?  I can't get anything to pin on anything.  It seems my pins are defective...

I'm not that old.  really!!  I can start a Yahoo group for my guild... I can convert Word documents to PDF's..  For goodness sakes I can download photos from my camera, upload them to this blog...Why can't I PINTEREST??

Please I need step by step...

TIA,

Nancy

hm...

I seem to be on an "every two weeks I will blog" schedule.  So sorry...not a lot going on here so not much to talk about.  We go out to the other house every weekend and work our butts off and then I am too tired to do anything during the week..


I have done a few quilty things...

I went to the my guild meeting a couple of weeks ago where I won these...

No plans yet...

Moda donated enough of these for the entire guild...and NO CHALLENGE...

Picked up these challenge fabrics, Habitat by Jay McCarroll for Free Spirit... This IS a challenge...we can add solids only.. I have one block done and so far I like it...we shall see.

I played with a tutorial I found at Mary Claires blog...  I have had this finished for a while now..

Doesn't look like much yet..

My stitching lines are 3/4 inch's apart.  1 inch would have been better.. they are kind of pulling up at the edges..

Wal-mart has all their school supplies out and mine was selling the composition notebooks for 40 cents each.  Get them now and stash them away for when you make your gifts.  Normally they are over a dollar each...  Or Dollar General stores have them in their school supplies for $1.00 each,..

This is a gift for a neighbors daughter.  They are having a new baby in September and the baby quilt is in the works ( I will be hand sewing the binding on tomorrow while riding to Kansas City to see Kenny Chesney in concert with my sister and one daughter)  So I will show you that next week.. hopefully...  don't hold your breath...   Mary Claire has a wonderful, easy to follow tutorial on her blog. Just click that link up there..  My granddaughter, who is 9, spotted it on the ironing board and immediately fell in love with it..  Tried to talk me out of it...I guess I will be making some Christmas Presents this year..  She said the boys would like them too, if I didn't use such "girly" fabric.  LOL
Typically when I use online tutorials, I follow them exactly the first time.  Then I might tweak them a bit for me.   I am not a crayon lover for a couple of reasons.  They tend to break and they melt.  I wanted the little girl to be able to use this in the car so I made more stitching lines and added colored pencils..  A little problem...  Did you know you can't buy short colored pencils anymore?  I looked everywhere!!  So I pulled out this little machine...

Well, Ok...I didn't actually "pull it out"..  It's always set up the shop... It's a band saw.  And hubby took the long pencils and shortened them for me.   I kept the short pieces...There must be something I can do with them..

And I have this to work on next...

The blocks were all made by members of the guild and I volunteered to put one top together and get it quilted.  I think it might be due the second Saturday of next month...I'm not sure though...so I better get it done just in case..   Half of the quilts will go to Project Linus and half will be sent to Joplin, Mo for the people that lost everything in a recent tornado..  These are the pink/orange blocks...the other colorway was aqua/green...  I need to get them sewn together and search my stash for a backing...


Let's see....anything else?  Nope...I think that's it..  If you actually read this, thanks for sticking with me... I hope to get better at updating later..but I can't promise anything..


Nancy

Every baby deserves their own....

Remember the challenge quilt?  When my second daughter saw it she thought it was perfect for her friends baby.  He's a year old and cute as a button.  He even has his own FB page.  I told her sure, get me her address and I will send it off.  Then I had second thoughts.  I didn't want to send it anywhere. I wanted to keep it. I wanted to hang it in the sewing room and see it everyday.  I had also written all over the backing in Pigma Pen...which doesn't come out...  So....what to do?  Make him his own quilt.  Somewhere on a blog I saw a quilt made with solid jelly roll strips and white... I loved it...and remembered it...but of course now I can't find it.  So out came the Kona Solid jelly roll and I pulled some blues and purples...10 colored strips and 9 white strips later and this is what we have...

The photo I saw was turned the other way....

And I couldn't stop....I hand embroidered his name...

I think every baby deserves his own quilt...certainly this little boy does...

Nancy

LOVE....

Dear Samsung,

I love you. I was drawn to your beautiful silver skin and clean keyboard and was happy to be told that you possessed all the inner goodies that were necessary.    I was surprised last night to be driven to Best Buy where we met.  I hadn't planned on getting a new computer, but I guess my husband couldn't figure out anything else to get me.  I sent you off this morning with the son and he taught you all kinds of new tricks.  You now know all my bookmarks and you learned to download email and you made room for all my pictures.  That's a lot for one so young.

So far you have done a wonderful job.  Your keys are a bit different so please excuse me while I get used to them and sometimes I might hit the wrong one...but it's nothing personal.  I will learn. Even at my age. You do speak a different language but lucky for you I have a son that speaks it very well, so he will help me.  .I do hope you won't leave a brown spot on my left thigh like your predecessor did.  He was such a hot head. HP's have that reputation you know..

Here's to a long friendship.

Hugs and kisses,
Nancy