My Followers

Ok, here's the deal...I am new to this blogging scene but i LOVE IT. Now I think it is wonderful to have followers but I don't know how to get to my followers' blogs and I want to. So could someone give my learning curve an upward boost and tell me how I figure out how to get to your blogs? When I click on your names it doesn't bring up your blog but some other info. Otherwise, each one of you can leave me a comment with your blog url in it so I can be your follower. And along the same curve, how do I put a counter on here? There was something else I was wondering about but the micro just dinged and I gotta go. Help, dear friends!!!!

INSPIRATION

I've been reading blogs this morning and what an inspiration that is. Not only does their beautiful work inspire but the gorgeous new fabrics set my heart racing. I have not store-bought new fabric for years. I have a lot of vintage 70's, 80's and 90's fabric. I'm a yard sale and thrift store frequenter and love to find whole boxes of fabric for a couple $$s. Plus folks that know I sew and teach a class often donate fabric to me. I don't have a bankload of money invested but still something about knowing I have all that fabric waiting at home puts the brakes on when I go into a fabric store. (I even have a $25 Mother's Day fabric store giftcard untouched as yet) HOWEVER.......perusing these blogs and seeing all these crisp dynamic geometric fabrics sort of makes my stash seam a tad drab! So I am inspired to get this stash all sewn up or flung away so I can buy some of these new prints with a clear heart.

Got all the plum jelly done. YAY!!! Two cases of pints and five cases of quarts. And a bit of syrup just for fun. Talk about jewel tone color! That plum color is sparkling gorgeous!

Census work has come to an end unless they call me in to do follow up work which they said might be a possibility. I am planning to visit my grandchildren in August. Only the heat is giving me a quick thought of maybe I should wait till fall but I feel a bit of heart tug urgency to see them. Homebody Hubby does not want to go and is doing well now so think I might just drive. I like the quickness of flying but love the solitude of driving. Have a little talk with Jesus time! Truly refreshing.

Have not been sewing but rather doing prep work...sorting, folding and a bit of cutting. And of course a good amount of researching blogs and quilt sites to find the patterns for my next projects. (Big toothy grin here--very necessary research.) Got all my flimsies in one area and as soon as I get the things I'm sorting off the table will put the flimsies together with their bats & backings and start quilting. The rest of the house needs a real going over too. A yard sale of gigantic porportions probably wouldn't hurt! Sometimes I think I should open the doors tell everyone "take what you want" and then make do with whatever is left! I think the decision of what to part with is the hardest part for me. I see possibilities in everything.
Best quit talking and start doing! Blessed Saturday everyone.

WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING

So far this has been a very busy summer. I have been working with the Census Bureau as needed...very interesting work! I've really enjoyed it. They keep telling us we are done and then calling us back for another go round. It has really been very satisfying. I have taken a leave from the radio program as the hours conflicted as we had to promise the Bureau to be available....kind of beck and call stuff. I have been able to be at our Mobile Food Pantry giveaways except for one and I've only missed one day of my sewing class which worked out well as we were in a transitioning from the adult gals to the out of school younger girls and I think it made a more natural switch and not so painful for me.

Plum Jelly is yummy. Our missionary has a very small plum tree in his back yard. He also has a huge faith in God's increase. He asked me to take care of the plums again this year. He gives away the jelly I make . So far I have done five cases. Most of those are quart jars. He is one of 10 children and thinks more is better when around the breakfast table. I still have 2 buckets to work up and 2 gallons of prepared juice ready to make into jelly and the tree is still loaded. Today when hubby goes to mow his yard I will take two or three of my neighbor kids over to hold the sheet and will shake some more fruit into it. Easier than reaching and picking. Some of this is going into the freezer as juice to make up at a later date. Hmmm! Might be a winter jelly making class. BTW Did you know 1/2 teaspoon of butter or margarine in the juice helps the jelly not to foam to skim? It works!

My quick attempt at an asterick block. Winged it, did not look up any instructions and am not addicted...not today anyway.

When you have just a dab of pretty fabric it definitely becomes a candidate for a D9P. Should have flattened out that fold above the seam line but you get the idea.

PIGGY GOES TO MARKET

In Stashbusters, a yahoo group I frequent, we have a multi talented gal who has taken on the task of recieving PIGS (Projects In Grocery Sacks) to put together and finish into donation quilts for her local charities. What a wonderful thing to do but definitely not something I would take on! She posted the states that she had not recieved one from as yet and Kansas was one. Of course, I volunteered to send one, not quite sure what I would send as I am perservering enough (Why does the word stubborn keep coming to mind?) that when I start something even if it frustrates me, I want to finish it myself. Hence the pile in the corner but that is another post...eremmmch. Then providence moved and I had a donation come in to my sewing group that I just could not give my girls, four of the sweetest most attentive darlings ages 8 to 14. They have never sewn before and this project would be a bit much for them. So off to market these go. I just can't wait to see what Gladys does with them. I think there is 14 of one and 13 of the other and then one loner that is combination of both prints. It's a type of barkcloth I think...maybe vintage.
Stay tuned...
Cheri

My Little Block--PAVERS

This is a continuation of what I started in my last blog....When you have four of the 2" made
lay the light strip over the seam of the other pair with the dark at the top and stitch. Repeat with the other and you get two like this:


Place it with the light all toward the center as shown in the first picture above and flip one over the other, lock your seams and stitch. (I showed it off set in the second picture so you can see how it goes.) The finished block squares up the same as 2" 4 patches so could be used anywhere you would use the 4 patch. For instance in the Bricks and Stones pattern. I call these Pavers because the look like the pattern made by the pavers on our patio. The might also make a nice border...maybe for a Bricks and Stones quilt.

Someone may have already thought this all up but hey I had fun playing with it. I'm a self taught stitcher nearly from the beginning. I did hang around my mother's sewing room till I was about 11 and then had one year of home ec my freshman year but the rest has all been trial and error. I love the learning effort.

BRICKS AND STONES FLIMSY

This was another quilt top that built itself. While sewing other things I used the 2" black and white squares as leaders and enders. And while cutting up a huge orange merchandiser's crate of scraps into squares and strips for my Bargello quilt I cut the bricks. As I was trimming the 2" squares I noticed I had lots of scrappies less than 2" on one side to I started leader-ending those into light/darks and then laying the one inch mark on my ruler exactly on the seam I trimmed it to two inch like this:

The pic below is first & then the one right is the second step. I told you be patient with my learning curve on this blogging stuff! This will be continued in my next post.

Design Wall Flaw

Well, well, well, it seems there is a flaw in the design wall. The hall is not wide enough to get a picture of a full quilt. Durn it, had to move that trunk and vacuum the floor so I could take the pic. But glory, glory glory!!! I got the flimsy done of this Blue Ridge Beauty from Quiltville.com. I am in love with the whole idea Bonnie Hunter has come up with. This quilt is made up of 1120 2" squares made into 4 patches and 280 HST. It doesn't seem like that many, though because you do them as leaders and enders as you are making other things. I can't wait to border, sandwich, and quilt this. I think I am keeping it. My hubby really likes it. Every time he would go down the hall he would stop and say "I just don't see how that happens." I started with enough rows to make the first two diamond patterns and kept building from there. Once he said "You could just keep adding forever, couldn't you?" This is totally scrappy and all from stash. Gonna border it is dark blue marbled fabric. So far I am really pleased with this. There is one place where I have 2 of the same fabric together...can you find it?

Staying Busy!

I added some photos of some things I've been working on. The Trinity Stars Table Runner
 was adapted from a quilt pattern from a book by Kim Brackett called SCRAP-BASKET SURPRISES. Her pattern is called Scrap-Basket Blues & was made from all dark blues and beige background. I wanted to brighten it up a bit so I made the background gold and the center star a lighter blue. I have this young couple who have adopted me as an aunt to their son. I wanted to honor them for their first year as parents so I gave them this. And yes, I gave the now one-year-old baby some gifts, too! The mother's brother was my right hand man in a transportation ministry I did for several years. He had asked me for years to pray for his little sister, who in his words was "playing with the devil" I'm sad to say my friend a couple years ago had a stroke at a very young age and died. It wasn't till just a few monthes ago I met this sister and found she has married a good Christian man and has turned her life around. Willie would be blessed to know this.

I had put this French Board together awhile back but had never finished it so I went ahead and put the buttons on it. It really is hard to call this oviously Red White & Blue All American picture board a French one. Not sure what I will do with this one.

This Bow Tie has been sewed together now and ready to be backed and quilted.  Or I could border it and make it bed size. It is bigger than a baby quilt so will probably be for a boy somewhere a long. I like to keep a few for emergency gifts and givings.

I'm slowly getting my scrap stash down to a more manageable amount. This weekend I have committed to an on-line retreat. We get to stay in our jammies all week end and work on whatever we want. I'm going to be finishing up the last 5 batches of 25 batches of plum jelly for our missionary and then organizing, cutting and sewing in the sewing room. I might try dying a piece of fabric with some of the juice from the plums...sure is a pretty color...I can see a big splotch of it on the floor from here. LOL

It's My House, Right?

I, ok we, have a long hallway in our house that goes from the living room down to the bathroom and has the three bedrooms on the north side. The bedroom at the far end is my sewing room. The south wall is really a nice long, blank wall. The other day I needed to arrange the Hidden Spools blocks I've finished into a flimsy and to tell the truth didn't want to move the coffee table and vacuum the carpet to lay it out on the living floor. That is my usual mode of operation. The table which is really a foot locker type trunk full of vhs tapes that need to be sorted and donated is very heavy. As I was coming out of the sewing room, it hit me!!! HERE IS THIS WONDERFUL BLANK WALL CRYING OUT..."Design on me!!" So I did. The flimsy went together so wonderfully. Then so did a bow tie flimsy and then a pink 9P baby quilt. Then I ran across some bonus blocks so hung them all down a little ways so that I could get an inspiration for making them into a quilt. Everytime I go down the hall I get a little thrill seeing these things I am creating. But I also have a little twinge of guilt that my hall is my design wall. But hey, it's my house, isn't it?