Photo finished

Here is the one project I did manage to finish for the Charming Girls Quilt Club this month. Please don't look too closely. This is definitely not one of my favorite pieces, but I do love the pattern......the disappearing 9-patch. I will probably use this pattern again when I can sit longer. I hope to finish the rest of my projects next month. For those of you who expressed condolences on my injury, thank you. See you next month at the club.

Have you ever had an injury

that almost completely incapacitated you? One where you can't walk or sit, or even lie down comfortably? LOL, that is where I am now. A week or so ago, I was minding my own business, walking through the house and slipped. I landed flat on my back side and after all was said and done, I had a broken tail bone. "Sorry, Mrs. R. there is nothing we can do to fix a broken tailbone, you'll just have to live with it while it heals on it's own." Those were not the words I wanted to hear. But deal with it, I must. Needless to say, unless it takes less than 15 minutes to do, no task is completed in a short time. Fifteen minutes is about all the tolerance I have for sitting, walking or laying down at one time. So, please forgive me if I take a short break from blogging for another week or two. I'll try to pop in as I can.

Only two days left

on SewMeow's giveaway. Better Hurry!

I've been Tagged

By Kelly at Charming Chatter. It's part of the Charming Girls' Quilt Club activities for the month of July and we get an extra entry in the giveaway at the end of the month for playing along. I don't normally do "tags." But since I voluntarily joined this club, and all members are being tagged, I am responding.

1. My favorite fabric is:

My favorite fabric is always the last piece I purchased. Call me fickle, but I love all of them when I buy them, until another one catches my fancy and I buy it.

2. The pattern I'm most looking forward to sewing is:

The dress for my son's wedding next month. I have narrowed my choices down to two patterns. The wedding is scheduled for the end of August, and is an outdoor wedding, so it will be hot, hot, hot. I just have to figure out which of the two patterns will be the coolest temperature wise.

3. The food that is my weakness:

Is ice cream. Plain old vanilla ice cream. Yeah, that may seem boring to some of you Ben & Jerry fans, but it's plain old vanilla for me. That way, whatever my mood, I can dress it up with toppings. My favorite topping? Ever tried vanilla ice cream smothered in Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes? YUM!!!!!!!

4. If I knew I couldn't fail, I'd:

Move to Kansas to be closer to my sister, so we could start a quilt shop in the small college town where she lives. Then we could design our own fabric lines and make our own patterns.

5. The Best "Life" Advice I know is:

Watch what words come out of your mouth; you never know when you'll have to eat them. And some words are easier to swallow than others.

Thanks to Kelly at Charming Chatter for hosting this quilt club. She is making it fun for all of us.

Don't forget

to run by Sew Meow's blog and enter her birthday giveaway. So far she has 8 lovely cat fat quarters, beeswax, seam ripper, cat buttons, thread, and more already added. She has 4 more days that she will be adding things. The winner will be announced on her birthday, the 19th, so even if you don't want these lovely things for yourself, do stop by and wish her a happy birthday. This is one heck of a chance to add to your stash!

WOOOOT! Finished!

I have finished the table runner I posted over the weekend. Whew! one down 4 projects to go. I will post a picture of the finished runner as soon as it comes out of the dryer........may take a while, because I use the air-fluff setting to dry my quilts (basically no heat, only air). Nice feature to have on a dryer, and works beautifully on a wet rainy day. Off for now to work on the other projects. :) happy quilting!

Indecision

I am plagued with indecision. I start a project, don't like the way it is turning out, and go off in a totally different direction. For instance, as a part of my participation in the Charming Girls Quilt club this month, I committed to finishing a quilt from the odds and ends of nine patch blocks that I had sitting in the closet. I got the blocks out, and cut them in quarters for making a Disappearing 9 patch block. But the colors just do not go together. The most number of blocks of one fabric combination that I had was 6, but most of the blocks there were only one or two. You have to know, these were blocks made from scraps of past projects. I love scrappy quilts, but this one is just not coming together. There is not enough variety to make it flow, and not enough of each block to do much with otherwise.

So, in mid-stream, I have changed my plan. I am taking the blocks that are made from the same fabrics and making table runners out of them. There will be two table runners (4 blocks each), and one table topper (that one I had 6 blocks that matched). They look great as table runners. Here's a little preview of one of them.

It's not finished, I still have to put on the binding. I did stitch in the ditch for the quilting, and plan to use a red binding on it.

What do you think of it so far?

Check this out!

Sew Fun Quilts is having a Birthday giveaway! She is adding one item each day for the first 18 days of July. The drawing will be held on her birthday, July 19th. Go on over and sign up. There are already some fantastic items in the giveaway. If you love cats, you have got to check out this one.

Which one are you?

I have a few questions for all you serious quilters and sewing enthusiasts out there. Do you sew for vanity or for love, or both?

Do you crave the attention that a perfectly sewn item gets you? Does every stitch have to be perfect? Do you repeatedly tear out a seam that just isn't quite right to your way of thinking? Do you enjoy what you do, and I mean do you really, really, really love every aspect of it? Are there times you would rather just put the item in the trash and start something new because the pattern is so frustrating but you chug along and finish it perfectly anyway?

Or do you sew and think of the recipient, which in turn takes your mind to a loving memory of that person? Do you let the small mistakes slide because you know that the recipient won't mind a few mistakes because you made it for them? Do you truly love sewing, just for the sake of sewing?

I fall in the last category. I don't have to have perfect seams with all corners matching perfectly. To me, a few mindless mistakes made while thinking of someone I love when making an item make a piece more interesting and brings me closer to that person. It makes no sense to me to redo a piece a gazillion times just to get the perfectly matched corner. Then sewing becomes a chore and is no longer fun for me. I sew because I love the act of sewing. I have heard sewing referred to as therapy. I have to agree with that. When I am concentrating on a project, I lose track of time, my body relaxes and I thoroughly become engrossed in the process. Stress is wiped away.

Don't get me wrong, I do try to be as precise as possible when sewing. But, if it doesn't turn out exactly perfect, I don't sweat it. I have found that there are very few people in this world that will look at every stitch in an item to see if it is perfectly lined up with the next one and the one before it.

Let me leave you with one thought:

Don't sweat the small stuff.

Have You Heard?

There's a new giveaway going on over at C&T Publishing. They are giving away, not one, not two but 16 grab bags filled with all kinds of goodies. The contents will be a surprise, but you can rest assured that if you win one of the grab bags, you won't be disappointed. There are three ways you can gain an entry to the giveaway... make a comment on the post, sign up for their newsletter and blog about the giveaway. So, yes, this is my third entry into the giveaway. It promises to be a great one and is open until July 12, 2009.

Holiday Fun, and I Won a Giveaway!

Happy July 4th America! I hope everyone has had a perfect day! I know I did. I went to a cookout with family and friends. We spent a leisurely afternoon chatting, eating and reminiscing about other holidays we have spent together.

I was notified by Robin of A Straight Seam this morning that I had won a giveaway on her blog. I get one pattern of my choice (I chose her Rose Parquet pattern) and a copy of her beautiful Carolina Rose quilt pattern! Yippeeee! If you haven't visited Robin's blog, please do so, she has a wonderful bunch of eye candy on her blog.

July Projects for Charming Girl's Quilt Club

Time to post my projects for this month's Quilt Club: First up, some 9 patch blocks that have been sitting waiting patiently on me to return to them for over 6 years. I decided to try the Disappearing 9-patch design and have already cut the blocks in quarters. Haven't decided yet exactly how I want to put them back together. Any suggestions?

Next up, a friend of mine has an autistic son. She is a proud mom and has asked me to make a "rock" bag for her using this Autisim Awareness fabric to make it. This will be the 6th different project I have made for her using this fabric, and they have all turned out nicely. For those of you that don't know what a "rock" bag looks like, it is a simple pouch, with a flap, and a strap long enough to be worn cross-shoulder. I had made one for her son using scraps from the project shown in the post below this one. She wants hers to be similar but made with this fabric and adding a zipper. She takes her son to the park downtown to play almost every afternoon and she wants something to keep her wallet in as she walks when he plays.

So, that is the two projects I plan for this month's quilt club. Wish me luck! Oh, and if you are of a mind to join us, hop over to Charming Chatter and sign up.

TTFN

Recent Project

This is a bag I recently finished. It was made from a repurposed men's size extra large shirt. The shirt was made out of a very soft suede-like polyester fabric. Sorry for the colors in the photos, I borrowed my brother's camera and it is an older model. The color is more of a dark greenish tan than what is shown. The flap is actually the top of the sleeve, and was designed to utilize the shape of the sleeve cap. I did a crazy quilt cover on the flap. The bag is fully lined and I used fleece as the interfacing to maintain the softness of the bag. The over all size of the closed bag is 13" wide X 15" high.

With the flap open, you can see the two front pockets of the shirt which have button closures, handy for things you don't want to lose in the bottom of the bag like sunglasses, keys, etc.

The lining:

Close up of the stitching detail on the flap and strap. The strap is long enough to wear across your chest to facilitate hands free carriage. I hope you enjoyed looking at my little project. I have a couple more of these shirts in different colors, a rich burgundy/wine color and an olive green.

I did not use all of the shirt in this bag, only one sleeve and part of the front and half of the back. I don't have pictures of the other items I made from it. They included a wallet, a cross body "rock" pouch for a friend's son (he wanted an "Indiana Jones" bag), one bracelet and one chapstick carrier/key fob out of the cuffs and a couple of eyeglass cases. I kind of made it a quest to see exactly how much of the shirt I could use and how many items I could make from it. By the time I was finished, I had only a couple very tiny scraps left.

There's A New Club in Town!

And I joined! Kelly has just started a new club on her blog. I am "sew" excited about this new club. It is open to any project made from fabric and sewn. Basically, each month we are to post a project that we will then finish by the end of the month. For more details, go to Kelly's blog and check it out. Join in on the fun!

Now to figure out where I want to start for this month. I'll be back later today and post my first project.