Sewin' Day with Reenie

I arrive at Reenie's with all of my cargo and she blurts out, " Would you like to hit a quilt shop?"

Like there is any reason to ask me twice though I say " Are you kidding me?"  ha ha ha ha....  (did I hear her right? what about the no shopping..... I wonder to myself)

"I thought we could take a drive to Ivy Thimble. I love that shop." she says.  "ok"......

"When?" I ask....."NOW! that way we get it done and then sew." she says.  "Boy, you've thought this out."

So.... we head on down to Ivy Thimble with stops along the way.  First we stop at Craft Bits n Pieces.

I bought this for $22

Then we are off to Good Will cuz we hear on the radio that the Bee was there and we thought we would try a spin on the wheel.  Well, wrong one I guess so we just wonder around and Reenie finds a 4yd cut of fabric for $2. Deal of the day! Onto to Ivy Thimble.

I bought a few quarter cuts of 30's prints and a fat quarter for my flannel Yellow Brick Road I'm about to sew. I needed one more light. 

I was wondering around and picked up a batik jellyroll in lights. I said wow, this would be perfect for my quilt with the retreat strips I collected to make the Monkey Business quilt. (but I already have a tone on tone that is fine. I tell myself and Reenie. I talk myself out of it.)  So around and around we go looking and loving all the fabric. They have such a great collection and assortment.

Yep, it ended up in my bag as we walked out the door. Here you go she says. Happy Birthday!!!
Too much missy...... too much.  (but I love it. Mind you all day she speaks nothing of my birthday being Monday nor do I. I was super just out and about sewing day.....sneak!!!)

So, it will go in this..... Monkey Business

and use the strips from the retreat.

Then we were off to get pizza to bring home. Yay.... hungry.

Little bit of Pepsi.  Glasses of wine.

And then cut the fabric for the table runner "Star Crossed Love" from Marie's book A Thread so Thin.

Here are the two sets I finished (8). Two more sets to go.

I was so pooped when I left that I made a wrong turn onto Rt 283. I was heading east. I must have wanted to be RETREAT bound...  so I turned around about 10ish minutes down the road (the wrong way) and head home. So I talked to Patrice, got a shower and watched a little tv then went to bed.

Good day. Good day.

Baby Gator Fan to Be....

Tonight I finished my baby quilt for my neighbor.  It turned out really nice. I fmq footballs across the blue/orange gator fabric and meandered the orange dot and orange gator fabric. I embroidered his name in the corner.

As you can see the backing fabric is not the same as in the initial idea of the quilt.  It is now a colbalt blue. Funny story. Carol, my neighbor calls me at 7:30 am....  Shellie,  you're going to think I'm crazy.  I thought about it all night. I think the backing fabric should be blue. They have a dark haired dog and white will get dirty..... you think I'm crazy; don't you.  Oh NO NO Carol. It is no big deal, I say. We can do that.

embroidered baby boy's name

quilted footballs across the main panel

I'm wondering if I should meander in between the footballs?  I will have to think on that tonight.

Well, off to pack up and clean up for I'm off to Reenie's to sew.....ALL DAY!!!  (brace yourself bucco)  

What have I been up to?

I have been fmq on the heart block quilt. Just one more row to go.

And I have been planning a baby quilt for my wonderful neighbor. The baby boy is due in February and I have been searching for Yankee baseball fabric. When the other day she said the parents to be were also Florida Gators fans. Yay! I can find that one.

so this is what I came up with.....

Today I received the fabric in the mail. That was fast. Love Fabric Shack and Stitch n Frame shop....

This is the backing...



I also bought fabric to go with a panel I had bought last year when I had bought the Material Girl fabric for the quilt a long and then did not like it at all. I have all this fabric to use from that too. Score. Now I this is fun, shopping in my stash.... new.  lots. hmmmm.... two more projects. And, fabric buying bug GONE.....  for now.

I would love to get this finished for Valentine's Day!!

This just hopped into my cart.....  pretty! 

    Now that I look at it.  It is way too pretty to be backing to the panel.  Another project.  Yay.

           Well, the cabinet must be a bottomless pit because I found other projects on the want to do list           someday....  ugh.  So many projects, so little time.

This is what I ended up making tonight; a Pocket Zip. I bought this pattern during a shop hop down in Mt.Pleasant Quilting Company in York NY. I love this shop. It is one of my favorites. The pattern demonstrates a new way (to me) to do a zipper. I love it. I have never been great at doing zippers. I usually dread zippers. When I made a Christmas dress for Madi it required a zipper so the dress ended up practically ruined due to my poor installation. Hah... notta any more. I beat the zipper dread.

so fast and fun. I did this after 1/3 of fmq my Heart block quilt.

Tippy is here. Just after a day. The shell is plastic and the turtle inside grows. HEE...

I wonder if he gets bigger?

Cobble Court Heart Quilt

Here is my heart block swap quilt pinned and ready for machine quilting. I hope to get midway today. My thought is to bind it in the center tan and add a white lace around the red center heart.

I added each person's name to their block.

The center block has the swap and date.

And here is day one of Tippy the turtle Regina gave me.

We will see how long it take for him to appear.

Whew done! Lingering Little projects

Ok I took on these little projects thinking that they would take no time at all.  Ummmm... No! I had to do this step and that step and figure how to do this again.....  grrr.  Now they are complete and I am so happy.
On to the thorns in my side: fall quilt and heart block quilt. Borders will be put on.

                                           Paper piecing project with Reenie

two blocks I did with Reenie at her house.

This is Mia's new pillow since I took away her scrap basket. I had to get it finished.

Flannel and warm.

All you do is fill up this with unusable scraps and threads and stuff it in an old pillowcase

and you have a dog bed. (Regina gave me this for Christmas. I was using a plastic bowl.

Much better.

Borders.................. 

01~01~11 Wow!!

I am so excited about this 2011!!  My resolution is to lose weight.... maybe if I write it it will happen!!!
I have a "To Do List" of UFO's to finish and new quilts to do....

• paper piecing tree table topper  UFO
• square to embroider  UFO
• Fall quilt - just need to do borders  UFO
• Heart Swap quilt - borders  UFO
• mystery - finish clues 10-13 (sew blocks) borders  UFO
• fmq Sunny Lanes and bind  UFO
• Yellow Brick Road in flannel
• table runner with Reenie
• old old fall quilt from way back when....   UFO
• red/white quilt want to do
• toille quilt
• new 30's with Reenie and Kathy
• winter block swap with CCQ
• graduation quilt for Adina
• yoyo wallhanging gingerbread house

Seven UFO's. Not bad. Quite a few were to be finished.  I hope to get them finished quickly so I can begin new things.  Cleaning out the scrap baskets are up on the top of the list too. Mia is not happy with me. She sleeps in the baskets.  I am filling a pillow case of unusuable scraps and threads. I tied it tonight for her to lay on and gave her a piece of flannel to snuggle her nose in.  She found that very rewarding and she is quite content. Well, was earlier. It's way past nite nite time.

Here is my block to the New Year's Eve 2010 Mystery from Fabricaholics Anonymous group.
My focus does not pop but I love my dragonflies.

I will sew all these together in the morning after my workout. I guess the positive thinking is in order for good food and a good workout.  Bacon and eggs ...  sounds good.

Happy New Year all !  May we have another great year in quilting!!!