Giveaway Win and Some Quilting

Last week I found out that I won the Lapel Stick giveaway that Sandi at A Legacy of Stitches put together!  Yesterday I received the booty in the mail, I always feel like a little kid again when I get a package in the mail, come on girls I know you do to, LOL!  Of course she didn't only send the Lapel Stick she sent along a bunch of goodies...................

Underneath all the "booty" are two dish towels along with a pattern and all the stuff to applique her tulip pattern onto them!  She also sent a pattern to make a Pincushion, needle case & Scissors case, the patterns are ones that she designed!  Thank you Sandi for your fun little giveaway.

Gotta get to the sewing room......I have a "top finish" planned for today, finally!  My niece is also coming over to quilt her second quilt today, I will share photos of them when she has completed both of them.  The first one just needs a binding and the second one will be quilted today and she will start the binding soon as this is a gift that needs to be completed by early May.  I need to talk to her and see how comfortable she feels about hand stitching the binding.  I always hand stitch the binding, it would take me a few hours to finish a quilt of this size, but hand stitching is brand new to her and it could be overwhelming, she may decide to machine stitch the gift and practice hand stitching on the one she keeps??

Hope you have a blessed day, I know I will :0)

A New Home

Thought I would share photos of the new home for the girls and Rudy.  We were going to build one this spring, but hubby saw this one on craigslist and we went and checked it out decided we would buy it!  We are going to make some upgrades as soon as the weather gets a little warmer, we will also be moving it to it's permanent location and add an enclosed yard.  Over the winter we learned what we need to do better and the coop will be closer to the house and not "downhill", this past winter I fell twice on the ice, not fun!

Here are some outside photos, the camera battery died so I will take inside photos another day. 

We are thinking of adding a window to the door, I would like it to be a working window for ventilation this summer.  We are thinking of "dressing" it up a little on the outside and painting the trim to match the house, I really want this to look nice since it will be visible from the road.  I will share the inside plans when I get those photos taken. 

The girls are doing well with their new roommate Rudy, as a matter of fact I have had two eggs everyday for 9 days straight!  Rudy is learning his place in the yard and has learned to mind his manners when it comes to eating!  We are hoping to get several more girls later this spring when the new coop is ready. 

In the quilting room.......I have about 10 leaves left to stitch and then the center block will be finished on GP and I will be able to finish up the top.  My hope was to finish it up by this weekend but it is going to take a few more days. 

Gotta go do some stitching!

P.S.  I wanted to add that I have been having a difficult time getting into some of the blogs that I follow, I noticed that when I had a "specialty background" I had trouble getting onto my own blog and that is why I went back to the "boring" templates.  I am not sure if others are having the same trouble, I don't want to mention names of those "free templates" but if you notice less comments to your blog that could be the reason.

A Few Finishes, Progress & Snow

I'll start this post with the finishes........

The bunny wall hanging is completely finished!

On Sunday afternoon I decided to FINALLY make one ( I actually made two) of the "20 minute table runners" I already had the fabric waiting on my "ladder".

Before.........

After (I do need attach the button on the Spring runner).........

I have made more progress on GP, I cut the fabric for the pieced border and began sewing them together, I have one side complete and the rest are waiting in line next to the sewing machine "waiting for a turn"!  I am aiming for a completed top by weeks end, wonder if it will get done?? 

I also cut the pieces for this month's Civil War Chronicles, unfortunately I realized that one of the "leftover" fabrics from month one that I need for this month (month three) was not large enough, my fault as I messed up the cutting in month one!  So now I need to get more, I will check the local shop, if they don't have any I will order some.....meanwhile I will sew as much as I can so I will stay on track with this quilt.  I feel really great so far with the progress I have made to "catch up" and by the end of the month I should be "on track". 

On Saturday I took a little time "tidying up" things in my sewing room, I realized that the way I had chosen to fold my large pieces of  "stash" fabric was not working, it was hard to grab one without two or three coming down too so I found an easier way to fold them!  It also freed up more shelving space, so I took a little more time moving things to allow me to keep my WIPs easily accessible!

 

Some "eye candy", be kind, I know I have a lot of fabric, but I usually get it on sale!  The baskets in the lower left corner have fat quarters, the best part is that this shelving unit is the one I found at a garage sale for $5 last summer!

 Here is the shelf where the "overflow" of fabric goes, along with batting, and various other goodies!

 This is where I stack the WIPs.

I will finish up with the SNOW, this is what it looks like out my sewing room window this morning!  Thankfully, it will be in the mid to high 40's today and will melt quickly!

Have a wonderful day.

Setting Myself Up........

Setting myself up for a productive weekend.  I have been busy plugging away at the Green Piece quilt and at the end of the day yesterday when I couldn't find something I realized that I needed to take a moment and regroup!   My plan this weekend is to get the two BOM projects finished up so I will be ready for April, so I made sure they were organized and ready to go.

The Garden Basket quilt, in my defense I started this one late sooooooo I was behind from the start!  I cut all the felt pieces and ironed them on so now they are ready for stitching in the evening when I'm in my chair.

The second one of course is the Civil War Chronicles, month 3, I have to make 4 identical blocks with the yummy fabric in the box.  They should not be that difficult, just time consuming for the cutting, then when they are together I can sew them to the month 1 & 2 blocks for the center of the quilt. 

For those of you that are sick of hearing about Green Piece, then skip this next part, LOL.  I finished stitching the last of the small blocks, then I stitched the blocks and rows together (except for the center), the center is almost complete I just need to stitch around the leaves.  Next I need to make the pieced border, once that is on then I will attach a flange and the second border, then yippie it will be ready to be quilted.

What is done so far......

Here are the border and flange fabrics........

 



Before I get started I will be going through these Green Piece "leftovers", some of the pieces are fat quarter size so they will go with FQs some are smaller and will go with scraps.  Lots and lots of yummy leftovers, I will have fun adding them to some of the project I hope to work on soon.

I can't wait to show you the new BOM I will be starting in April, I also have another project tucked away for when I get a few more things finished.  If you look real close you can see the fabric through the clear plastic container in this photo..........

I love these containers, while I love the look of baskets, these containers snap closed and are very easy to grab and go!  They also stack nicely, when I get the shelves in my closet finished (future project) they will fit perfectly, I will probably get a few more and that should be enough to keep me organized!  

Have a great weekend. 

Trinkets for My Sewing Room

I ventured out today in the rain to run a few errands that couldn't wait.  Since I had to go out on such a terrible day I decided that I would treat myself to a stop at the "What Not Shop", it's a local shop with many different previously owned items some old and some not so old.......The last time I was there I saw an old iron that I thought would be a great decorative addition to my sewing room, the price was $18 and I really didn't know if it was a deal.  Today I decided that I was going to pick it up if it was still there, well when I put it on the counter the lady said she had several others and proceeded to show them to me.......I found another that I liked too and asked her how much it would be, well she made me an offer if I took both of them........$25.00, so of course I took both of them!  Here they are.........

One of them has a smooth iron surface and the other is very "primitive", they will be a nice addition to my decor!

Spring in my Sewing Room

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.  For those of you that observe this season in the Church, may it be a time of awakening, a time to deepen your relationship with the Father through the Son. 

Monday I picked up a copy of McCall's Quick Quilts April/May 2011 magazine and found a cute little wall hanging designed by Diane McGregor.  It has wonderful spring colors and bunnies in the middle, I made one change, I decided to make the bunnies out of wool. 

After dinner last night I took these........

and started cutting and sewing and this is what I go done before I called it quits for the night.

I still have some ears to cut and place, I will play with the placement of the wool and when I like it I will set the pieces in place with the iron.  I will then buttonhole stitch the wool, add some eyes, in the magazine they used some cute buttons for the noses and I am still not sure what I will do.  I still have lots of fabric left and may make one or two more as gifts???

You may be wondering what I got done over the weekend and you are probably wondering WHY is she starting ANOTHER project when she has so many unfinished??!!  This past weekend the weather was great for staying in and sewing, which is what I did on Saturday.  On Sunday hubby and I went off and did some shopping, I was excited because we were going to be near a JoAnn's Fabrics and I had some great coupons.  I have been making a list of the things that I wanted to get the next time I was near JoAnn's and was excited that I could get them with coupons or on sale. 

Here is what I have completed on the Green Peace.......

I have two more blocks to applique and then I need to attach the corners to those blocks and can continue to sew the rows together.  It is really starting to look like I might get this one done sometime in the next few months, I think I will keep it on design wall until the top is finished.  The border looks to be fairly easy to piece, the only other thing that will take a little time is the tree that I need to put in the center and cutting the 55-60 wool leaves and appliquing them to the center. 

As for wondering why I started a new project, sometimes starting and FINISHING a small project helps me to stay excited about larger projects, it's just what works for me!

Time to get moving, have a beautiful day!

Sewing Fun

Today's weather is gloomy, but warm so the precipitation should be rain, actually the whole weekend is expected to be a great for INSIDE activities.  I am planning to continue working on some of my UFOs, I am making great progress on Green Piece and have started sewing some of the blocks into rows! 

These are waiting to be trimmed and squared up...........

 so I can add these to the corners..........

I only have four more left to finish the applique in this basket..........

Here is a photo of what the finished quilt is going to look like.

I am hoping to get the large center block cut, add the two borders and get the grass and tree put on it.......so stay tuned to see if I meet my expectations or wander off to one of the other UFOs. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

So Far So Good

A quick update on the goings on in the coop area.  Rudy found his way to the food and water I left for him on Tuesday afternoon, he eventually made his way back into the coop area and has been there since. 

It has meant a slight change in the feeding routine to try and keep him from getting too excited when I go in and do what I have to do to keep things tidy.  I did notice that when I put out the "treats" that Rudy was not really wanting to share with the girls.....he wanted his first!  This morning I "smartened up" and sprinkled treats in a much larger area so they could all eat the treats and Rudy didn't get all the best of the goodies!  It is my hope that after a these past few days of establishing a new pecking order things are going to quiet down.  So far the girls are still laying eggs, but I have told Rudy that if he interrupts that process his is "outta here"!   

Have a great day!

Sleeping Out

An update on where Rudy decided to spend the night.  As hard as I tried to keep him from flying out he still managed to get out of the pen area when I went for the evening feeding.....so he spent the night out again!  Earlier this morning he was on the ground not far from the coop........... 

......then he found his way back to the coop area but hasn't managed to find an opening yet.  I am beginning to think that he might end up being more of a free range kinda guy, LOL.  If that looks like the case I will have to come up with a plan to make some food available for him without feeding additional wildlife at least until the snow clears!

Hunter doesn't really like the new guy because I haven't let him run free yet today, I was hoping to keep things calm.......as soon as Hunter sees him things won't be calm.  I know that Rudy will fly up into the trees and get away, if only he knew how nice his life would be if he followed the program!! 

This has certainly been a learning process and in the spring we will be building a new coop and yard area, if you remember the girls came in late November and we didn't have much time for planning.  After a winter of going in and out of this area I now know what works, but even that wouldn't necessarily have kept Rudy in the coop without making me scream while he was flapping around, LOL.  I plan to modify this little coop and save it for newcombers like Rudy and make it escape proof while still allowing for me to feed and water.  Who knows when I get done I may have an EGGS for SALE sign out front to pay for my quilting!!!!

On another note, I did manage to get some stitching done yesterday, I worked on some of the wool applique blocks for the Green Piece Quilt. 

The above blocks are the ones I worked on yesterday, now they have to be sized and then I need to add the corner pieces like on the finished block below.  Then they will be ready to be layed out in rows with the pieced blocks until I finish the large center block which is a tree!

Well off to do some tidying around the house and see what mischief I can get into today!