Just One Star Challenge

You may already know about this challenge,

from Moda/United Notions.

The goal is to piece, quilt & bind

100 quilts in 100 days.

The quilts will be donated through

the Semper Fi Fund.

They are asking for just ONE star block,

but I made two.

I just need to find a brown pigma pen

so I can sign them & get them in the mail.

For more information

and the pattern for the stars,

go to

Just One Star.

Happy Quilting!

sue

Foto Finish - Pink

OK, I'm not too much of a "PINK" kinda gal.

When I saw that this week's theme for Foto Finish was 'Pink',

I thought, "Well, I could show my photo of pink geraniums that I took at Ruth's house....no, I think I want to do something different."

So I thought, and I thought, and couldn't think of anything else.

THEN>>>>>>

I walked into my Fabric Shoppe room.

A few years ago, my sisters gifted me with this room,

buying lovely Billy cabinets from IKEA.

Building the cabinets, going through all the bags of fabric

that were piled up on the floor & organizing it all.

So....here it is, direct from the Fabric Shoppe...

PINK!!!

I don't have much pink fabric, but I do like the way it looks here!

As an aside, there are THREE cabinets in the room,

and all the fabric I had didn't fit into them!

Even after we had to throw away a bunch that was ruined by the water leak.

Here's another picture of this cabinet, still not the whole thing,

but it will give you a better perspective of how much pink is there:

I only straightened up the pink pile a little bit.

I promise!

If you would like to see more PINK photos,

click on over to Cat Patches Foto Finish -

and maybe even add some PINK of your own!!

Hope you're having a fabulous day!

sue



Foto Finish - Spring

This week, the theme for Foto Finish is SPRING!

This is from my "Tortured Flower Garden"...
so named because I rarely water or feed -
I let Nature take care of it!

If you want to see some terrific photos of Spring,
or if you have one to share,
click over to Cat Patches for Foto Finish.


~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
GIVEAWAYS!
*
Check out the Spring Giveaway at "The Other Side of Me" -
she's giving away 6 luscious fat quarters and the book
"Quilting - 20 Fresh & Fabulous Projects", by Karol Kavaya and Vicki Skemp.
Just click on her button over here on the side ---->
*
There's a chance to win a beautiful Quiltbox hand-crafted by Dave Grunenwald
over at Pig Tales & Quilts.
Check it out & let her know I sent you!
* ~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~


Have a great week!

sue

The Ides of March

Beware the Ides of March!

The 15th of May, July & October are also the ides,

as well as the 13th day of the rest of the months. 

Well, this day did not start off very auspiciously for me.  Yesterday I cut out the fabric for the center of the fund-raising quilt we're making.

I finally had sewn together the D9P blocks,

then measured them so I would know the correct size to cut the center.

Laid the fabric on the big cutting mat,

and realized I would have to piece it. 

That's OK, the guitar applique will cover it.

Cut out the 2 sections & then put them in my bag to sew together at home.

Fast forward to this morning.

I got up early.

Not so easy the first week of Daylight Stealing Time.

(Why can't they just pick a time and stick with it?  Sheesh!)

Sewed the center together.  Pressed it.

Back to the machine, and sewed the D9P blocks to each vertical side.  Go to press again, and now realize that the center is at least an INCH too narrow!

<sigh>

I'm blaming it on the cutting mat...

and the ruler...

AND DAYLIGHT STEALING TIME!!!!

Oh well, off to Ginger's Quilt Shoppe on my lunch break.

Wish me luck.

It IS still the Ides, after all.

Have a great day!

sue

Foto Finish - Weather

The theme for this week's Foto Finish is WEATHER.

This picture was taken in April of 2007,

when I was visiting my friend in Missouri.

Not long before my visit, there was a terrible ice storm,

you can see some of the results here.

To see more WEATHER photos,

pop on over to Cat Patches Foto Finish --

you won't be disappointed!

Cheers!

sue

African Folklore Embroidery Pillow

I finished something this week!!  WoOOOooOoHOOoooOO!!!

I've actually had the African Folklore Embroidery finished for....well, a few years now.

I have been enjoying looking at it hanging up inside the glass door of my UFO cabinet all this time.

But....since Leora Raikin was going to be our speaker at my guild this month (TLC Quilters in Covina, CA) and I got a new couch & chair recently & they've been asking for some new pillows,

I decided to finally do something with the birdie.

To begin, I have to tell you that I'm a 'bag lady'.  That is, I tend to put things into bags, then the bags end up in a pile ~ well, you can guess the rest.  So anyway, on Monday I decided to go through a couple of the bags from the pile.  In one bag I found a bunch of pamphets & flyers from a Relay for Life from years ago.  In the next, junk papers & old receipts.  Out of the 2 bags, I kept one thing:  a Disneyland ticket from 1999!  Had to keep that, it only cost $39 to get in!!! 

 In the last bag I found 2 poly-cotton housecoats, that had snaps all down the front.  They were practically brand-new!  But, since I remembered that I had only worn them maybe one time, now they became....FABRIC!  I thought about the pillows I was planning to make & decided those snaps would work great for the back of the pillows, and be different & fun.  :^)

the back

the snaps (sideways, oops!)

Tuesday night I took the birdie off of the door & into "the Fabric Shoppe" (where my stash lives) & pulled fabrics for the borders. 

On Wednesday, I took the fabric to work with me to cut my border strips & the housecoat for the back.

Boy, did I have a heck of a time with that! 

For some reason, it just took me forever to figure out what size to cut my strips.

But, eventually I got them cut out. 

Then I started on the housecoat.  Oy!  I unsnapped it, so I could cut just one layer at a time.

No problem, except that I cut the first side at 17" and I really wanted 17.5".   Oh well.  I could sew a piece of the leftovers onto that side, busy pattern, so it shouldn't show.

Next, cut the 2nd piece.  Perfect!  17.5"!  Yay!!!

Until I went to snap the two sides back together & realized that I had flipped it the wrong way, so when the snaps were snapped, each half had about 2" sticking out.  What the heck, if I was already going to be adding one strip back on, why not just add a few more?  With that plan in mind, I cut them off even.

As soon as I got home from work, I started sewing.  Got all the borders on the embroidery and am very happy with the way it's looking.  I decided to use my red border fabric on the back, and sewed that on.

Take both pieces to the ironing board & press.

Then I go to layer them for the final seams around the outside, and they DO NOT MATCH!

I have no idea what I did, but I sewed some more strips to the back, then trimmed it to the correct SQUARE size, and, after about 2 hours of sewing, pressing & trimming....

WHOOP-WHOOP!  I'm DONE!!!

On the new couch!

On the new chair!

So I was finished in time to take it for Show & Tell at the Guild meeting tonight &

I got to show it to Leora too.  That was cool!

She did a terrific lecture & there will be a workshop on Saturday too.

You can see more of her kits & beautiful, hand-dyed threads at her website:

http://www.aflembroidery.com/

Now I'm going to join in the linky party at Confessions of a Fabric Addict !

C'mon over & join in on all the fun!!

Have a lovely weekend!

sue

The Pink Parlour Festival

And now for something completely different!

Coming up at the end of March is the fabulous

Pink Parlour Festival!

This festival is all about crafty women.

All of the vendors are women,

with 1000s of one-of-a-kind handmade items.

They have live female bands,

a kid's crafty corner,

variety show, fashion show & much more.

Two of my friends,

Mallory, of Made by Malcakes and

Emily of Concrete Minerals will be there.  Mallory makes beautiful, whimsical, vintage style jewelry and paper goods. 

Emily makes fabulous mineral makeup & has been getting rave reviews in blogland!

The Festival is on Sunday, March 27, 2011

at the historic Santa Anita Racetrack.

Tickets are only $5.00!

Click here for more information!

A Sunkissed Giveaway!

In celebration of their Grand Opening,

1 Choice 4 Quilting is giving away

FOUR YARDS

of Moda Sunkissed by Sweetwater!

So hop on over to their blog here:

1 Choice 4 Quilting

 if you win, maybe you could share with me!

Happy Quilting!

sue