Peg's Challenge for July

Peg asked that we post photos of our finishes for the month of July in one post. I had two and am thrilled to have them done. Thanks for the encouragment, Peg.

Finish #2 & Another giveaway

With one day to spare, I have another finish! This pattern is from the first year of Jo Morton's Little Women Club. Most of the piecing was done in Minnesota a few years ago while visiting friends, JoAnn and Debbie, with my sister, Connie. The color is really off. The blue is much prettier and a bit darker that it appears. If you click on the photo, it shows a truer look of the colors. It measures 31" square and is my second finish for Peg's Finish Five Challenge. I knew I had little chance of getting five done before the end of July, but I'm thrilled to have two. That's two more than I probably would have had without it. Thanks, Peg!



May Britt, who encouraged me to start my blog almost 1 1/2 years ago, is celebrating her 2nd year Blogaversary with a wonderful giveaway. Click here to check it out.

Quilt Show, PIF Gift & Scrap Box Swap

Connie and I went to the quilt show Saturday put on by the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild. Lots of pretty quilts, vendors and good food. I knew Pam had two wonderful quilts entered in the show and we were fortunate to see her there. She kindly let me take a photo of her with each of them. Doesn't she look happy?














It was a wonderful mail day. The Pay It Forward gift from Linda arrived today. She made a wonderful notebook cover like the one in the tutorial she had on her blog. I am so thrilled to receive this.













Also in the mail today was a Priority Box bulging with scraps of fabrics from Betsy at Quilting Fiesta The scrap swap was organized by Nancy at Blogging Near Philadelphia. How fun to sort through so many different fabrics. My box for Julie is almost ready to be sent.

Three Giveaways + Two

The give aways just keep on coming!

Click on over here for another great one. There are two prizes - one a beautiful purse and the second is two patterns.

Today's the last day for Penny's giveaway. Click here.
She has a wonderful vintage apron, a cute little catch-all bag, a copy of cook's country and some cute fabric.

And last, but certainly not least click on over to Nicole's blog here. She has a wonderful apron with a cute Annie in the pocket!

Addition: I forgot about the bag giveaway here!

And Debbie has a whole lot of notions to give you here.

Garage Sale Buy, More Flowers & Another Giveaway

Jim and I went to a few garage sales yesterday even though it was steamy out there. I found a book I had wanted to buy, and a couple of baby things for the layettes at church at the first houses. On the next stop, I purchased three grocery bags full of scraps for 25 cents each! I had such a fun time searching through them. After sorting the colors, I almost refilled one of the bags with red, white/tan & blue scraps for soldier blocks. This picture shows the contents of just one of the bags. Annie apparently doesn't want me to empty the one she is guarding. I love finding bargains!

Wednesday, Connie and I went on another Garden Walk nearby. It was 90 degrees outside with high humidity, so we made our stops, snapped a few pics and dashed back to the a/c in the car. One house had a gorgeous row of lavendar that gave the yard such a sweet fragrance. Another yard had such huge flowers. The women said the garden had been double dug. I had never heard of that. If I remember correctly, you dig down two feet and put the topsoil at the bottom. At the last stop, we were treated to fancy cupcakes, brownies and fruit bars.













Juliann's Blog is celebrating her 300th post with a giveaway. You have until the 19th to leave a comment.













Thank you to Sharon for honoring me with this award.

DNP, Giveaway & Award

I finished sewing nine patches for the second charity quilt made using the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern (DNP). There are endless possibilities with this pattern depending on how many different fabrics are used, where they are positioned in the block, and how the segments are sewn back together. I chose to keep the four corners the same and the center square the same for my twelve blocks. I cut the squares at 4 1/2" - 48 of the focus fabric and 12 of each of the other five. The cutting, sewing, pressing and re-cutting goes very quickly. I will wait for another day to sew the blocks together. For now, I'm just happy to have something usable from these fabrics.


















I tried to add this on my sidebar, but it gets cut off. Since I'm not that techno minded to know how to reduce the size of it, I am putting it in my post. This is a very bright and happy looking quilt. It could be yours if you leave a comment on Dana's blog.





Rhonda from Doxies on my quilt gave me this lovely award this morning. Thank you, Rhonda. I am honored.

The rules are as follows:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog/
2. Link to the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated

I read so many wonderful blogs I would find it very difficult to choose only seven so I will break the rules and nominate anyone who reads this.

My Pincushion Arrived

Today the mail carrier brought three packages for me! One was a book I had purchased from another quilter. The second was a guild pin from a gal in California who I swapped pins with because we both belong to Piecemakers Quilt Guilds. The third was my pincushion all the way from Australia! Isn't it just gorgeous? I love the fabrics, buttons and especially the beautiful stitchery around it. This beauty was made by Lynda from here. It's so pretty I hate to stick pins in it; maybe just a few. Lynda also included a cute calendar for 2009 full of koala bears and kangaroos. The page pictured in the last photo is one of my favorites. Linda was a wonderful hostess for this swap. She is currently taken sign-ups for another swap. This time it is for buckets and bags. Check it out on her blog here. I had a fun time and am very pleased.

Sorting & Cutting

I've been lost in my sewing room - it's that bad in there. Yesterday I hauled out armload after armload of fabrics and boxes and bags. I discovered the remaining pieces from the kitty quilt that I made here. I had intended to use the leftovers for a Disappearing Nine Patch top. Today after I finished folding the last of the piles, I cut out the DNP fabrics and sewed the blocks. It was so quick and easy to do that I already have another one cut out and ready to stitch. Here are the blocks randomly placed. I need to rearrange the pieces a bit to more evenly distribute the colors. I think I will use the bright green for a narrow border and then add the cat fabric. The blocks look better than the photos show, but you get the idea.

Judy Laquidara is hosting a Star BOTM on her blog that begins August 1st. I've been trying to find enough yardage to make that quilt. I have lots of fabric, but so much of it is fat quarters since scrappy quilts are my favorites. For this quilt, you need some yardage of colors in light, medium and dark. I haven't given up yet, but definitely will not buy any fabric to do this one.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to everyone who celebrates! I've finished my July BOTM from Bea over at Capricorn Quilts. It's the perfect project to work on while watching a ballgame. (Even if we lost)

Pincushion Swap

My package for the pincushion swap hosted by Linda at All Stitched UP is on its way to the new owner. I hope she will be pleased with it. The apple is made from felted wool. Thanks to Linda for hosting a fun swap.

Added 12:42 p.m.
Peg sent this to me for completing the tablerunner as my first finish in her challenge.

One Down

My first project is finished! You may remember the tablerunner top I made awhile back. It was the perfect thing to get me going for Peg's Finish Five Challenge. It is now quilted, bound and on our kitchen table in time to celebrate the 4th of July. I found a patriotic chicken fabric in my stash for the backing. The runner is a smaller version of a pattern called Pride and Glory. Before I got a chance to start it, Jim came home from one of his garage sales with a bag full of cut fabric squares. There were enough red, white/tan and blue prints to make the runner, just a bit smaller.





My next UFO to tackle is a churn dash wallhanging from Jo Morton's Little Women Club - Year One. It's been sewn and basted and is waiting for me to finish it. I'm working my way from small projects to bigger ones.