Storm at Sea UFO

At the retreat this weekend, besides making four little baskets, I worked on my storm at sea top. The blocks are from a swap I hostessed on Sew Many Swaps, a Yahoo group. These aren't my colors so I was thinking I would give this to my oldest daughter, Kelley, for her bedroom but she advised me today that she's changing her colors from blues and greens to cream and red. Back to the drawing board for her! :o)


After talking it over with Kelley, we thought my youngest daughter, Ashley, would like it. She and her boyfriend love the beach, surfing and water. I think this will end up being about 40 x 40, so it should be a nice size for a wall hanging. I love the blocks now that they are sewn together. That wavy motion is making me sick though. LOL

Fabric Baskets

Thank you Connie W. for giving me the link to the tutorial for the fabric baskets. The blog is called Pink Penguin and she has several cute projects she's done tutorials for. Check it out. :o) The baskets are super easy, great for using up scraps and pretty quick to make.


Boy, I am still dragging from the retreat. I guess it's just the sitting around the airports and then sitting and sewing, late nights, early mornings. Today I look like this.



I came into work this morning and my boss came in shortly after. She is usually at least a half hour or more behind me coming in so it's kind of nice to have a cup of coffee an "wake up" before she gets here. Well today, she had a couple of appointments and needed me to do some quote sheets for her. She was giving me details and I'm sure I had that glazed look in my eyes. As she walked away I said, "I suppose when someone comes to work, they're supposed to be ready to work, huh?" I'm sure it was no shock to her that the lights were on but nobody was home "yet".

Home Again, Jiggity Jig

I got home from Indiana yesterday and I've got laundry to do and some unpacking to do in my sewing room. It's nice to go, go, go but it's nice to come home too.
One of the ladies at the retreat shared the pattern dimensions to make some little baskets. It's on somebody's blog but I can't remember whose. I had seen them before and thought it would be fun to make one or two but never took the time to do it. So, at the retreat, I went through a bunch of scraps a few of the girls brought and made up four of these. I'll see if I can get the link to the blog where the basket tutorial is located.

There were several swaps at the retreat, all optional - a pincushion swap, a brown bag swap, a mini quilt swap, a mini churn dash swap and lots of prizes. I only did the mini quilt and churn dash blocks. I love my mini quilt. I am the one on the far right. The person next to me, Conni, made my little quilt. Isn't it cute!

This is the group that attended this year. Most of us have retreated together for the last six years. There are some new girls but that makes it fun too.

And when we were flying home, I thought the fields we were flying over looked like some sort of pieced quilt. Kind of a cross between bullseye blocks and patchwork. :o)

The Great Outdoors

We're taking a break from quilting and crafting updates for a trip outside. Let's pretend we're having a recess! :o)))

But first, let me tell you how my day started. I woke up at 7:42 a.m. this morning. I'm supposed to be at work at 8:00!!!! Big whoppin' OOPS!!! Too much late night workin' and not enough zzzzzzzzzz's. lol That and I guess my earplugs worked better than I thought because I never heard the alarm clock until 7:42. Thank goodness the boss in out of town this week! And I hope she doesn't read my blog! LOL
So after running around like a headless chicken, I got in the car to leave and as I was driving away from my house, I noticed how pretty everything in the front yard was blooming. Gotta take time to smell the flowers........and blog! hehe

All the Lily of the Nile plants are blooming so pretty. And there "used" to be a full row of pansies down but they are looking a little scarce because all the little creatures in the dirt thought I planted them a salad bar!! We do have some survivors though. I don't play much in the garden. I have a gardener to do the dirty work, but I had to try and save what I could so I bought some stuff you mix with water and pour over the plants that kills earwigs, cutworms, and other horrible creatures!!! Everything is doing better now but I still see some "things" helping themselves to my plants. Grrrr!

And I thought since I was pretending to be a "Gardener Extraordinaire", I would show you a picture of my tomato plants. I took this picture yesterday.

The tomato plants are in the backyard in a pot. I was afraid our untamed pooches would dig them up. After all, they think they own the backyard! But planting them in a pot (without a drip system) requires "remembering" to water them! My hubby has been doing a pretty good job of giving the plants a drink when he fills the water bucket for the pooches. I had the plants on the kitchen counter for a few weeks and finally got them planted in a mix of potting soil and compost. The must love the combination (and probably the pooches too) because they are going to town. I can see a few sprouts trying to open up. I planted a jalapeno plant in the front with the pansies. So far, the bugs have left it alone. If they start bothering it, I might transplant it with the tomatoes. Hmmm, maybe I should find some cilantro and onion plants and I could have a salsa garden.....and an avocado tree.....and a tortilla bush!!! LOL

Okay, recess is over. Back to work.

Gettin' ready for retreat

I don't know what's going on with me but I sure haven't been very enthusiastic or productive in the sewing room. Last weekend hubby and I did some shopping at Ikea for wall units for the spare bedroom so I can move all of my card making/scrapbooking stuff in there. I've run out of room for my fabric. Eeegads!!! lol I guess I've got redecorating on my mind so it's sort of had me distracted. I suppose it could be the nice Spring weather we're having too. Spring Fever??? :o)

Last night I didn't have a choice. I HAD to bite the bullet and get some sewing done. Two months ago I posted about having some little hst units leftover from some QST's I was sewing together. On the Triangulations pages I used, it was a bonus piece. I had sewed them together to make a little mini quilt but that's as far as I got. I needed the mini for an exchange we're doing at the retreat I'm leaving for on Thursday. I've known about all the things I need but you know, so many projects, so little time. So here's the finished little quilt. I think it measures 9 1/2" x 9 1/2".

I just stitched in the ditch and then did a feather border in the black border fabric. I wasn't brave enough to do it in a contrasting thread. Just used black. It doesn't show but it's probably better that way. Here's the back.

And here's the mini I won two years ago from Michelle. It hangs very nicley in my sewing room.

Okay, off to finish the baby quilt I was supposed to finish in October!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I've got no pictures to post so I had to borrow one from the internet. Pitiful, eh? I got my camera out today but forgot to use it. DOH!
It's been a while since I posted so I wanted to make sure to stop by and say that I hope all you moms and grandmas out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. :o)

We went over to my oldest daughter's apartment for a bar-b-que. All three girls were there, some signifigant others, the food was delicious and it was a gorgeous day. Kelley made pasta and macaroni salads, we had hot dogs, hamburgers and hot links. There were veggies and chips and even a banana cake for dessert. It was so nice to be the guest and not do all the work (for a change). I hope you had a great day too.

Chip, chip away

I'm trying to put a dent in my mini churn dash blocks that I need to make for an upcoming retreat. With the nice weather we've been having in So. Cal, I've been weeding and shipping for short sleeved tops, etc. Just too much time outside and not getting enough sewing time in.

The swap is for scrappy 4 1/2" blocks with cream background. I've got a few done with the freezer paper piecing method. If you've never done paper piecing with freezer paper, you should give it a try. It's great to pull off the entire piece of paper at the end and not have to pull those itty bitty pieces of paper from the back. A few years ago I tried to do a tutorial with pictures, before I knew anything about youtube. Maybe youtube wasn't even around yet! Anyway, if you want to see how I do it, go here for pictures and some instructions.
My oldest daughter Kelley, turns 30 on Monday so Sunday we'll have a bar-b-que for her. I hope in between cleaning and cooking, I get a little time to make a few more blocks this weekend. Hope you get some sewing time too.