And the winners are...

Joyce & Freeblady! You are the quiltie gift winners. I asked The Boy to name a number under 10, and after much prompting (you know, a number that is less than 10? But more than 0? Don't you have a favorite number? Just say a number?!) he finally said 2. Then I said, ok, I need one more number less than 10. Well, I wouldn't have accepted 8 since that was my own comment, but anyway he definitely just wanted out of the line of questioning and said, "oonnnnne?" in that tone that says, mommy, I just don't get it--can I go now?

Congratulations to the winners!

In other news, I completed the top of The Boy's quilt. And I am working on the binding of The Girl's quilt. I doubt I will finish that, it generally takes me forever to sew down a binding. But that is at least one goal finished for the year. Shwew!

I neglected to mention last time I posted that I got some cute Christmas exchange gifts at both of my guild meetings. At one I got a yard of varying fabrics in homespun-like colors. I was thinking I might make an applique block to frame. I generally think it is dorky to decorate with quilt patterned things that aren't quilts but I think I can make an exception for something that is appliqued.

At guild two I got three awesome things...a really cute hand-made pin-cushion--which I am already using--a set of triangle rulers, and (my favorite!) a needle threader. I've wanted to get one for awhile but I kept shying away, thinking I'd rather spend my quiltie dollars on fabric or thread rather than a gadget I might not use too much. So I was really excited about it.

Also at guild two we got a packet of fat quarters for a challenge quilt. I really love the colors in it. So far there is no theme to the challenge. It just has to be at least 30x30 and less than 60x60. I am patiently waiting for inspiration to strike.

I am about half-way down with my first hand-pieced block from the rosy fabrics. I neglected to mention that the pattern I am using is from Quilter's Newsletter #394 and is called Sunburst with Holly Leaves. The link has a little picture of it; since I don't want to step on copyright laws I'm not going to repeat the picture here until I have my own blocks to show. Anyway, I am not crazy about the holly leaf blocks so I'll probably do something else there. I do love hand quilting so maybe I will just leave them open as showcase areas for a quilting motif.

And since I mentioned hand-quilting, I joined a hand-quilting blog ring. It is my preferred part of the process, so when I stumbled across it I could barely contain myself.

And just to stick in a photo...Cottage Living is my favorite magazine. Yes, folks, it somehow manages to barely slip by even the quilting magazines I receive. I even have this goofball rule about it. For some reason, decorating the house has been a difficult task for me. It is just so darn overwhelming, and I don't want to waste money on something that turns out looking like the anti-home & garden. So, when I get a Cottage Living in the mail, I am not allowed to read it until I do some decorating tidbit around the house. Since December is already so crazy I allowed the Christmas decorations to service the rule. I still haven't read it, though. I was reading Spindle's End by Robin McKinley. Someone at work recommended it and I liked it, though be warned it is a retelling of sleeping beauty and is considered juvenile fiction (though it read very well, in my opinion.)

I hope everyone is having a terrific holiday season!

Goals: hit or miss?

I happened to look back and see what my quiltie goals for the year were. It seems I need to finish a quilt top for The Boy and bind The Girl's quilt to make any reasonable claim of having reached the goals. Oops. I guess I could maybe finish The Boy's quilt top. It only needs borders, but I can already tell they are going to turn out wavy. I'm a bit miffed, actually. My project that was supposed to help me practice precision and accuracy came out looking like it came out of a bag of Frito Lays. (Err, wavy chips, that is.)

Above is The Boy's quilt before I got the rows sewn together. Quite bright, no?

So it is back to the drawing board on the accuracy/precision practice. Sigh.

Oh, and in spite of my best efforts I could not resist the rosy fabric. I took it to work and started it last week, I think on the 4th. It is hand-pieced and will take forever, I'm sure. But it isn't interfering with either one of the kids' projects, since I am working on those at home.

Peek-a-boo

Well hey, I guess all I had to do to get more comments was to give something away! He. If you don't know what I mean, visit the previous post and leave a comment before 12/15 for a chance at a little quilt gift. I did visit a number of new blogs and left comments, just as part of my effort to get to know the know quilt blog ring that I joined. So maybe that accounts for the increased comment traffic. Or maybe my charm is finally working it's magic. Ha ha.


I went to a new quilt shop the other day. It was a good 45 minutes away and I had a gift certificate that I didn't want to expire. You may remember that I had a block that The Girl practiced a few stitches on, which I mentioned a few posts back. Well, I still really love the pattern, and still want to make it. So I decided I was going to try and do it in a more traditional color scheme, like turkey red and white. But...I wasn't seeing anything in that shade that I liked, so I bought some fabric that was more, um, I guess I would call it Civil War pink? I just know I don't want to call it mauve. I am so excited about it, I couldn't even photograph it for real because then I would want to start work on it right away, and I still have two other projects that need to be done, The Boy's quilt top, and The Girls quilt binding. So this is just a little peek into the bag:

The pink one at the bottom is a paisley, and it is my favorite. I was prepared to do the entire quilt in that fabric when I found it, but alas, the store only had one yard.

This is a shot of the shadow of our Christmas tree, after The Husband showed his mountain-man colors. He chopped it down and dragged it to our car just like Pa Ingall's. Only he used a wagon. And Pa didn't have the farm owner tie it to the top.

This is an artistic interpretation of the tree, post-decoration done by (who else) The Husband.

Happy Second Blogiversary!

Ok, so I'm one day late. I spent the day yesterday at the spa courtesy of birthday gift certificates so I think you can forgive me. Or maybe hate me. Anyways. It is an annual pilgrimage with the mil and sil. We don't always go the same time of year, but we usually go. This year it landed on the blogiversary, and somehow the day slipped by me. The picture is me celebrating. Ok, ok. I was at a wedding. But that's celebratory too, right? This was at Chalicat's sister's wedding a few weeks back, which was very lovely, btw.

To celebrate, I am going to mail two lucky commenters a little goodie. Hopefully I'll send it sometime before the next blogiversary. he. But leave me a little comment if you are interested in a little giftie. I'm not sure what it will be, but something quilty.

We stopped at a shop that had all sorts of signs up saying 'visit the third floor for fabric!' and I was so jazzed. I ventured up on my own since I was the only one interested...and it was just upholstery samples. Lovely but I'm not in the market for that. sigh.

So happy blogiversary! Leave a comment before 12/15 if you want to be in the drawing. Of course it is pretty likely that I'll only have one or two comments anyway, but if there's more I'll do a drawing.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you out in blogland. We haven't had any turkey yet today but we'll be heading over to the mil's shortly to pig out. I love food so I can't wait.

The picture above is The Girl attempting to stitch on a quilt block I made awhile back that I didn't like. (Contrast wasn't high enough.) She tried so hard, and made two stitches, about six inches apart. Please oh please let her like sewing!!

I saw on Quilt Otaku that she suggested listing things you are grateful for. Here are mine:

1. Family - that we are all together safe and sound is the best gift ever


2. The three basics of life for my family - food, shelter, and clothing, and of course the paycheck that makes it possible


3. Friends, online & off


4. Having been born and bred a citizen of the United States of America - there are so many places where things we consider basic here are unreachable dreams. Not to say there aren't other great places, but I am grateful for living in a democracy.


5. last but not least...QUILTING!!!

Just in case you thought I was getting too emotional or something, here is a little tidbit courtesy of The Boy. The Husband asked him, how do you make a turkey? His answer:

"First you buy a wild turkey. Then you put it in the oven and it dies. It turns brown. Take it out of the oven and put a bone in it. Then eat it."

That was quick

I finished the first step of The Boy's quilt. That really was quick, as the title of the book that the pattern came from implies. Of course there are more steps to go. Hopefully they can each be accomplished in about an hour and a half like the first step. Though the initial cutting did take me the better part of an afternoon.

I know Halloween has passed, but this is how The Boy and Girl got decked out for trick or treat. Those are The Husband's feet in the foreground. He wanted me to be sure to point them out. I made both of the costumes, much to the detriment of the Secret Project deadline. However I still got it done so there. The Children are already talking about what they want to be next Halloween.

Next!

I've started the quilt project for The Boy. You may remember that I was making him an Ohio Star quilt. I decided it was turning out too boring for a five year old. And awhile back I decided that I needed to practice my quarter inch seam and precision. So I picked the book above to practice with. Not sure why I picked it in particular, I suppose it's availablity and the word "quick".

I chose a pattern from the book called Moulin Rouge. Here's something that kinda annoys me. Don't get me wrong, the pattern is fine. I think the overall look of it is attractive. I did pick it for The Boy, right? My problem is, the name implies that it is red. But I'm not making it red. It's mine and I want it to look like mine. (Ok, technically not mine if I am making it for The Boy.) What colors, then? you may be asking. Blue, green, and orange. Yeah man, it's gonna be loud.

Don't worry, I haven't left The Girl out. Her quilt is pieced & quilted, but not bound. I'm sort of being lazy about the binding, actually. The edges of the quilt have sort of a picket fence look and I just am not looking forward to the challenges of binding it. So my goal is to get The Boy's going, and one day while I am piecing his and getting bored out of my mind piecing the same two shapes together for the zillionth time, I'll whip out the binding fabric and make a binding.


Funny story: today The Husband asked the kids if they wanted to play Hungry Hippos. You know, the game where your plastic hippos have to out-eat the marbles of all of the other plastic hippos? The Boy pipes up and says, "YEAH! I want to play Humpin' Hippos!" I laughed about it all day. That is even better than him calling Joann Fabrics the "Crap Store". (Instead of craft.)

Be free, and give warmth

Today the Secret Project went home to it's owners. I finished the binding and attached the label The Husband made for it this afternoon and barely got it washed and dried in time. The Husband had to stay home a few extra minutes to wait for it to dry and wrap it. I took the kids off to dinner and only had to answer that he would be along shortly once or twice.



So, here is a photo of it before I finished it:





And here are the proud new owners, and me:





And the new owners admiring a childhood photo of The Husband on the quilt:





It was welcomed with open arms, to many oohs and aahs. I am a bit sad to see it go home. Not because I wanted to keep it, but more because I often feel somewhat abandoned by completed projects. Weird, I know. It was my crafty companion for the better part of a year, and now it's all grown up and leaving the nest. Sigh.

I am super happy with how it turned out. My only regret about it is that I missed two people in the family tree that really should have been on it. And I did learn some things from it:
1) You really ought to iron the top before basting it. I know I should and got lazy and didn't and when I was quilting and found some seams flopped in two different directions I wished I hadn't been so darn lazy
2) Binding isn't so hard if you use a walking foot and do the corners carefully. I had never heard of using a walking foot before. I recently saw it mentioned on a Fons & Porter episode.
3) I enjoyed doing free style hand quilted feathers (only in the center medallion)
4) I like hand piecing too, but when there is a deadline it isn't a good idea
5) Skipped stitches when machine quilting is probably from using the incorrect needle



So be free, little quilt. Don't let the dog pee on you.

Next WIP: a quilt for The Boy. I already have fabric and a pattern picked out. Hmm, when can I start?

Something other than the Secret Project

Today I joined the Quilt Studio blog ring. For awhile there I wasn't posting much, and I feel joining a ring may help me to restart the habit. Plus I'm all geeky about this stuff, you know me. I've seen these little links on people's blogs forever and I never thought, 'hey, I should join one of those' for some reason. But today I did. And the blogiversary is coming up, so maybe I'll be on the list by then.

Also in blog updates, I added a link to Quilt Otaku on my sidebar under cool quilting blogs. I discovered her site from listening to Annie Smith's podcast, which we both happen to be big fans of. Anyways. I've been reading her blog for a month or two now, so I figured it was time to add it. I even went back and read some of her archives (err, I hope that doesn't creep her out if she happens to read this.) Plus, you know how I'm always saying I'm a quilting nerd or that I'm geeked out over some quilting thing...Otaku actually means "nerd"! How funny is that? Her blog (unlike mine) seems to have a photo every post. Maybe it is time to resurrect my photo-every-other post goal, since it is way more interesting to read with pictures.

Yeah. That sounds like I am 8 instead of er, not yet in my mid-thirties-something. I meant that crafty stuff is more interesting with pictures. Show and tell at the guild would be pretty boring if people just stood around describing quilts.

And since I know that you just have to know...I did successfully create my binding and pinned it partially to the quilt. However we were watching 'Mutiny on the Bounty' (with Clark Gable, isn't he dreamy) last night so I didn't get to retreat back to the sewing machine to sew it on.

And the end nears.

I have finished quilting the top of the secret project. I actually did force The Husband to hold it up the other day so that I could take a picture, but of course I haven't downloaded it yet. Also when I post from lunchtime at work I can't upload stuff anyway.

So I started making the binding last night. I prefer bias binding for some reason, and I broke out my faithful Fons & Porter how-to book (I don't recall the title, but it was my very first quilt book and I use it quite often. That is probably why it is falling apart.) and went straight to the make-your-bias-binding pages. I followed the directions--quite accurately and carefully, I felt--and it turned out completely wrong.

Just FYI, this method is where you make two triangles, sew them together to make sort of a diamond and then you mark your strips on it and sew it into a tube. For the life of me I could not get the dang strips to line up on the tube. You are supposed to offset it one, so it doesn't lay flat and that makes it all the more difficult. But anyway. I ended up ripping a seam and cutting it into strips and I'm going to have to sew the strips together one at a time instead of in one fell swoop. Oh the humanity. Doesn't Fons or Porter realize I'm up against a deadline?

Actually I don't blame them at all, I've used the directions successfully before so I don't know what my damage was last night. Tonight hopefully I can get the binding created and begin pinning it to the top. I only have until 4 on Saturday to get it done. Yikes!!!

In other news, I think I failed to state that The Husband, along with my uncle, finished the bathroom tile in our upstairs bath. Now it just needs the beadboard and surround tile done. Hurray for The Husband!

PS - does anyone know how to make a low-flow toilet actually flush?

Countdown to Anniversary-gedon

The in-law's 40th anniversary approaches. It is only 4 days away. Thankfully the sister-in-law is also making a gift and agrees that she won't be ready on the 4th, either. So probably we will make some lame "you should spend the weekend together" excuse and plan a dinner the following weekend with a few more extended family members to celebrate.

Of course we had trick or treat the other night and both the sil and mil were in attendance. This was when the mil decided to remind us all that it was their anniversary and not ours and we should not go on about getting them presents. Um. Yeah. A little late, since I just spent about eight months making you a present.

The Husband says sil is sure that my gift will upstage hers. She is having some type of photo-album book made up. I think they will both have pretty equal weight, personally. I mean, most people have no idea how much effort goes in to making a quilt so I think I'm pretty safe there.

On another note, Chalicat has gotten engaged!!! Congratulations, bestest friend!!!!

Oh nooooo!

Alert: the anniversary is actually November 4th, not November 11th. I have a whole week less to get it done! Argh!

In other news, The Boy will be the Green Arrow (though I am not well-versed in comic book characters, let me say that I mean Green Arrow and not Green Lantern. So many well-meaning people feel the urge to correct me on this issue!) and The Girl will be Wonder Woman for Halloween. What a super-hero family we are!

Fig Tree Quilts

I forgot in my last post to mention that my name made an appearance in Fig Tree Quilt's quarterly publication, "Fresh Vintage". You can see a copy of the cover at Joanna's site. I was so thrilled to be mentioned! I provided her with the recipe. I am totally in love with the Tree of Life pattern she has in it.

Somehow, I'm not sure I have room for another project!!! Can I complete something first, please???

Hiatus check in

Well. Now I'm sure you think I just dropped off of the face of quiltiness, but no. I'm just really busy. I've been trying really hard to run three or four nights a week and that along with quilting and just plain lazyiness cuts into the blog time quite a bit.

Updates: the secret project quilt top is all finished! I am probably safe to post a picture and someday I'll get around to it. It turned out to be about twin size. The fabric I ordered for the border didn't work out so I didn't put it on. But overall I am happy with it. I took it to the last guild meeting and was proper-pleased to hear oohs and aahs over it. Since the deadline for completion is November 11th and somewhere in there I will also have to construct two superhero Halloween costumes, I will be machine quilting it in a cross-hatch pattern. It's my first machine-quilted project, give me a break. I do also plan to do some hand feathers in the center medallion to make it a little more special.

Also: the kitchen is in the process of being repainted. Hurray! It's only been since March that the flood caused damage to the ceiling, walls, and floor. Still no floor but we did order tile to replace the torn up bathroom floor. That was also a victim of the flood.

Our front yard had dead grass yet again. Turns out we have an evil little beetle called chinch bugs and that is why our grass keeps getting all these hideous dead patches (and it only took four or five years to figure this out.) The Husband killed all of the remaining grass and replanted. We are eagerly waiting for some green to peep through, since it basically looks like hillbillies live in the house now. (Also, the reason our neighbors never got dead grass blotches is because they have a different kind of grass, which incidentally the bugs do not like. Argh!)

The guild had their annual quilt show this past weekend. I volunteered with Freeblady to white-glove and also man a raffle ticket station. We had a blast. We saw quilts, talked quilts, shopped quilts...what could be better? I bought a few packs of 5 inch charms with a Christmas theme. What the heck was I thinking? I am not generally a holiday quilt kind of person. But the colors were so fun I couldn't resist. Anyways. The stash is definitely growing, and at a rate that I could never sew up.

Checking in

I just got an email from Annie's quilting stash yahoo group that Amy, who participated in our round robin, got her quilt finished. Take a look! It really turned out nice.

I know it has been awhile since I posted but you'll never guess what. I still have more Columbus photos to show. I have probably about forty left, but I'm just going to post my five remaining favorites and be done with it. Then maybe I can post something about the progress I have been making on the secret project.

I thought this one was really impressive. It really seems to catch the spirit of the culture. Lovely.

Another very impressive work. I don't remember for sure but it looks like pure applique in the photo. It's so intricate, and so well executed!

I believe this is a whole cloth quilt for the most part. The colors and shading are achieved with colored pencils. I loved the idea of coloring it in like a kid instead of piecing or appliqueing in the color.

This one had rickrack on it. The close up below has a better view of it. Each outline of the individual swirls is a contrasting color of rickrack. Very clever.

So Nyah.

Well, it appears that few if any people read my blog, so I don't care if you are bored with Columbus photos. I still think they are great. So there.

You can hardly tell because it is a bit blurry, but the squares above are made up of a log-cabin like structure. The pieces are really tiny and I see why it got a ribbon.
I liked the colors in this one, and that it is a simple design but still complex. You know?
Lovin' the colors!!
I'm not sure how they did this. But I only have one word to say: wow.
This was done with thread painting. I'm pretty sure that I've seen this showcased in Quilter's Newsletter. It's a lovely effect.

Tired of hearing about Columbus yet?

So...I hope you aren't tired of it because I am not tired of rehashing it. Here are some more photos:
This quilt was done by a lady in my quilt guild, Janice Kiser. I remember it from the local quilt guild show. I am pretty sure it got a first place ribbon there.
I thought it was really cool that this one was round.
Lovely colors!
A beautiful old-fashioned log-cabin.

Not out of photos yet...

This one reminded me of sherbert. I liked the soft subtle colors. It was easier to see the design in person.Another exciting use of bold colors!
I really liked the color scheme of this one. Again, I think something is lost in the photograph.
This was a beautiful example of embroidery work and hand quilting. It was obviously very work intensive.
And a close up of the embroidery.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

And...a bit more from Columbus

I liked how this Baltimore Album used such lovely bright colors, and even some batiks. It got a ribbon!
This was a really neat example of fussy cutting. It reminded me of art history class, way back in college. (Yikes! Was it that long ago?) I want to say it seems Persian but I can't rely too heavily of my memory of that class.
You can probably tell that I like tradition with a twist. I loved that this was redwork in black. Also it was really cool that the entire quilt was only two colors.
This one was interesting to me as well because of the two-color scheme. Though it seemed much more subtle in person. I suppose it is true that the camera isn't always kind.
This was created as a celebration for a wedding anniversary. It is such a clever design!

Happy father's day, all you dads out there!

More Columbus basking

I didn't mention yesterday (or maybe I did?) that I tried out 4 different longarm machines at the show. AWESOME. Maybe someday, in my wildly affluent dreams I could buy one. (Err, the cheapest one that I liked was 6k. The one I really wanted was 30k. He. Ya right. The Husband would probably have some kind of coronary event.)




And here are a few more photos! Yeah!


Again, I love the way the colors pop on the black. Though the heart theme gets a little old when you look at it up close. From a distance you can't even tell that every block has hearts in it.



This was the only true redwork quilt I remember seeing. I am not too in to the embroidery thing but I thought it was impressive.

You can hardly even see this one in the picture, but it's embroidered baskets. I liked it because there was a basket themed exhibit and, though I like traditional piecing best, it is one block I just don't really care for. So I liked this one because it was baskets, but different.

Woo-ee is that bright! I like how livley it is.

This one was just an awesome use of brights for me. It has a very traditional overall look with the bang of brighter more modern colors. Though maybe this is what our great-grandmother's quilts looked like before they got loved up.

Enjoy the photos!

Zegi goes to Columbus

Yeeha! I made it to the 2007 NQA Quilt show in Columbus this weekend! I was so jazzed. By Saturday when The Husband and I were getting ready to leave, I was really quiet about it. Turns out, I built it up in my head so much that I was afraid I would be disappointed. But I wasn't! It was awesome.

These are the goodies I bought. I spent all of the birthday money my dad gave me. I also decided it was time to become an official member of NQA, too.


We had hoped to also see LogoAnn while we were there for her graduation, but The Grandparents wanted us to come home for the kiddies. I guess they wore them out. He. Figure that. ;)

I took over a hundred pictures of quilts there. I have to say, though it was really large I rather expected it to be much bigger than it was. Sure it was way bigger than the guild show but it's national, and not juried...so I figured it would be overrun.

Highlights...I saw the 100,000 dollar quilt. It really was awesomely beatiful. It is appropriately named Bella but the 100k quilt exhibit did not allow photos so I have no eye-candy for you there. I also saw the Alzheimer's exhibit, which is intended to raise awareness and funds for research. It was really touching but I had to abandon it after I almost started crying. My great-grandmother and my grandmother both suffered from that awful disease, and now The Husband's grandfather is struggling through it. I just had to move away from all that powerful stuff before I started sobbing. It also did not allow photos, so thankfully I don't have anything to cry over now.

Here are a few photos. At first I was trying to take pictures of the quilt followed by a photo of the label so I could state the name and maker here. But I quickly realized I was taking too many photos for my memory card to accomodate with that scheme and I abandoned it.


The weird clear stripe through the picture is actually the crowd-control rope. I liked the use of the taupe in this one.

Unfortunately this one turned out blurry but it was one of my favorites. I love the way the brights pop on the black.
I'm more of a traditional pattern kinda gal but this one was really impressive, and I loved the use of bright color.

I liked the sunflowers on this one. Plus that it was applique but not in the baltimore album kind of way.

More photos another day! I've got tons, so I should be posting more often. Well, as often as life allows, I guess.

And I've already decided I'll have a quilt in the show next year. Then I could photograph me standing with it! That would be awesome.

Oh, the humanity!

So Monday night I eagerly dragged out the sewing machine to begin my machine quilting adventure. Like many of my other crafty adventures, it was not yet to be. I got out my brand new walking foot and after much eyebrow scrunching and eyeball squinting I figured out how to attach it and got the general gist of how it should work.

But oh no.

The screw that holds the foot on the shank is TOO LONG! What?! How can that be? The extra bit at the end of the screw sticks out so far that it interferes with the up and down motion of the, err, arm thingie on the walking foot. Ugh!

So off to Joann's at lunch, to see if they had any presser-foot screws that might be shorter. Nope. They referred me to a sewing machine shop but I only have time at lunch to shop in one place. So I didn't have time, and since today I got sucked into various crafty blogs I didn't get to go today, either!

Oh, and I had The Husband drop off the secret sister gift since we went to The Boy's t-ball game. He thought the person he gave it to had no idea what he was talking about but accepted it anyway. I wonder if she got it? I guess I can't ask, eh?

Happy May~

Lest you think I dropped off the face of the earth, here is an update. The Boy is playing t-ball this year and we've been attending his games. It is so cute how everyone on the team (and sometimes the other team, too) runs for the ball. I'm glad he is playing but he seems pretty resistant to it, at least until he gets there. I hope he hasn't inherited this trait from The Husband--having to drag and cajole him into things that he later declares fun activities, and sometimes even wonders why he resisted in the first place.

The Girl is also doing fine. Well her current favorite word is "no" (and not said gently, mind you) but otherwise she is going very well.

While I'm waiting for the Round Robin blocks I got out my last hand-piecing class project to finish. I've decided it is a learning piece and it is going to serve the purpose of learning. So even though it is nicely and carefully hand pieced, I am going to try my hand at machine quilting it. I'm even going to try free-motion, which sounds like it will be a big challenge for me. I pinned it up last night so I can start the straight line stitching tonight. I'm so excited!

Oh, and I'm going to miss seeing my secret sister open her gift tomorrow. The Boy has a game and I cannot miss it. Oh, does that mean two gifts for me in June!!!???

Ra-ra-ra!

I finished the blocks! Just in time. I'm not 100% satisfied with how they turned out. I guess I never am, since I'm somewhat of a perfectionist about quilts. I still seem to be struggling with keeping a consistent quarter inch seam. I think it may be time to invest in a quarter inch foot for my machine. But I didn't have time to rip and redo, so out they went. I mailed them today at my lunch break. Here is the Blazed Trail:


And the Snail Trail:


And here is the promised photo of the cute thank you postcard that my secret sister sent me. You know, the one that made me think that my secret sister had identified me, leading me to blurt this out at the meeting?

Isn't it adorable?

Oh, and since it has been so terribly long since I managed to post a photo, here are also some photos from the flood destruction: