Over at BasicGrey, there is a pattern for the Moda friendship quilt.  There is a great give away for some charm packs and layer cakes . . . I hope I win.  My New Year's goal was to find some sewing time in the midst of my busy schedule.  I want to work on UFOs and use up some of my stash.  So, I do plan to complete all of the blocks in the friendship quilt to reduce my stash!  Now to decide which fabrics to use first!

http://modafabrics.blogspot.com/p/moda-friendship-quilt-along.html

Look at this give-away!

Check out this giveaway on Katie's blog. I love this pattern. I can picture myself listening to the sounds of the birds on a cool morning while wrapped up in this quilt on my front porch! I hope I win--I feel my double rocker calling me!

Little Dress Clothespin Bag

Little Dress Clothespin Bag

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Free Handbag Patterns

Here are some ideas for handbags that can be made with free patterns:

http://www.lazygirldesigns.com/blog/?p=913

http://www.studiokatdesigns.com/freepatterns.htm

http://sewing.about.com/od/bagstotespurseproject/ss/totewithcenter.htm

http://www.free-quilting.com/list.html?cat_id=427&source=037FQP

ERRORS AND TYPOS

I have played with the headings in my previous post--they are not consistent! Believe it or not, They look correct in draft form, however. This really does bug me . . . when I have time later, I'll re-key the whole post if I need to do so to get it right--I don't like messy headlines!

Summer Stash Goals

Goal #1

I want to use some of my floral fabrics and 30's repros to finish a Dresden plate. I have 9 blocks done, but need 16 blocks total. I already have the white background fabric. My progress here is that I spent this past Thursday and Friday cutting up the floral fabrics for all of the blocks. I need to sew the "spokes" together, cut the background blocks out of the 6 yard piece of white Kona cotton that I have had for six years now, and applique these plates to the blocks. This is doable by the end of August because I sit and wait for hours on my son who plays football and has weight-lifting/practice three days a week. While I wait for him, I belive I can accomplish quite a bit towards these goals.

Goal #2

I had ordered 16 1/4-yard cuts from KeepSake Quilting for a Thimbleberries-themed row by row robin I need to complete with another on-line quilting group. They arrived Friday, and I've washed and ironed them. I only need five blocks for the row robin, but the rest of these fabrics are PERFECT for my log cabin/fan block quilt. Still working on my loading pictures of this to show you--mine are too large and I have to re-size them all, but I wanted to update this blog anyway.

The quilt is rather large--I already have 70+ log cabin blocks made plus I have 26 fan blocks, but I need 36 of those. The outer border still needs to be sewn--it is made up of 1.25" x 5.75 " rectangles with cranberry squares in the corners of the outer border. I also need to cut all of the setting squares--there are quite a few of those to cut and sew. This challenge is going to force me to complete this top--I've only been working on it about 5 years now--it's been a project to use up leftovers from other projects.



Goal #3
While I was on vacation in May, I bought about 3 yards of fabric for a tote bag. I will edit this and insert a picture sometime this week. The fabric line was Gypsy Song by Benartex--it was my first machine quilted tote bag--it turned out beautiful! This one is done!!!!!


Goal #4

Use some of the French Country prints to make a quilted table runner, place mats, and possibly a serged edge table cloth for my newly tiled kitchen! I have about 10 yards of French country fabrics just waiting on the shelf.

Goal #5

Complete my curtains/Roman Shades for the following places:

1. master bath (2 windows, and 2 closet windows)
2. master bedroom (2 adjoining windows)
3. French doors (1sets of doors in Foyer, 1 set in living room)
4. Game Room Curtains (2 windows)
5. Office (2 windows)

This goal alone should take me through the end of August. I bought all of the fabrics two years ago, but the windows still have the cheap lacy curtains that were in place when we bought the house 7 years ago. I'm ready for some changes!

My Sewing Machine is Broke!

I finally have time off and my machine is broke! I took it to the sewing center yesterday to get it fixed--the last time it took three weeks, but I only have four weeks off before school begins. They assured me it would be ready this weekend--I surely hope so! I'm going to begin my lists of UFOs today. I need to set some goals and try to get some projects completed.

I bought a Little Gracie frame and attempted to use my Janome Memory Craft 3000 on it. My needle kept breaking and/or coming completely out, so I took it off the frame and attempted to sew. My feed dogs would not raise up again. I must look for a long arm machine--something I've never used before. If anyone has any information about a Janome or Juke longarm, I would appreciate hearing about it.

I would love anyone's input on the longarms.

For now, I'm off to organize and list my UFO's . . . .!