Our Lazy Bee

Our Lazy Bee really was lazy this week. We all sat around, showed what we'd been working on, shared new quilt books or magazines we had acquired, laughed and had a good time.....but no sewing!

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When I got home I decided to start on a Pinwheel quilt using some of the fabrics I had ordered from Connecting Threads. Here is a little pile of trimmings from the HST.

Here are the HST for the first 24 blocks of the quilt ready to sew together. I love the fabrics. I had never ordered from Connecting Threads before so I was a little nervous about the quality of the fabrics since they were so economically priced. Boy, did I have nothing to worry about. The fabric is top notch! The only thing that bummed me out for a minute is that one of the Charm packs had a lot of plain fabrics. But after looking through some patterns to get ideas I think I may just like the idea of the plain fabrics being used as the center of stars or tips of the stars with coordinating fabrics in the opposite position. But I've got to finish this one first. (No I don't! I purchased a few plastic bins to keep UFO's in so I could put this away, start another project, and come back anytime.)

Aren't these just great! And I only had to pick out 2 sets of HST because, even after sewing all these years, I somehow placed wrong sides together on a couple of blocks.

I know I'm going to love this quilt. 24 blocks down.....72 to go! I've asked my boss if he'd mind if I brought my sewing machine to work and sewed if I could still keep up with the patients. He laughed! Did he think I was kidding???

I'm sure tonight I will be working on these fabrics.

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Happy Quilting! Lynda

A few more Tag Alongs completed and ready for the next boutique. I made an order from Connecting Threads last week and it arrived! Little sweet charms spilling out of the box just for me.

I picked out ones called Oasis, 1930's, Princess, and Sweet Pea. Had to have 4 packs of each just in case....and they are priced so inexpensively too.

Aren't they just to drool over? What shall I make?

Ordered this book on using them. Of course I had to read quickly through the first time to see what I wanted to make. I can slowly devour it later.

This is it for sure. Can't you just see a cute little baby cuddled up with this?

But this book by Ricky Tims called Kool Kaleidescope is what I couldn't believe. Every one of the quilts in this book is amazing!! And the process Ricky describes seems almost easy. You just sew strips together, cut out with templates, sew them together in wedges and you end up with a materpiece. He even says it is no use trying to plan the placement of fabrics because the finished quilt will surprise you every time. I can hardly wait to start gathering fabrics for this one.

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We spent the day in Logan with Baby Ellie and our daughter, Nicky and her husband, Patrick. What a fun day. Ellie might just be the cutest baby ever! She always has a smile for everyone and even came right to us this time. Maybe it was the soft pink bear or musical lion we brought as bribes. Sure was fun.

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Happy Quilting! Lynda

Giveaway!

Linda at Stray Stitches is having an awesome giveaway of Vintage Florals by Beth Ann Bruske. Hurry on over to her blog and check it out!
Happy Quilting
Lynda

Yippeee!!!

A big Thank you to you fellow bloggers who tried to help me figure out setting corners. The sides didn't give me as much trouble as the 4 corners! However, while foraging through my stack of quilting books I came across this wonderful book I must have purchased years ago but forgot about. Right here towards the back of the book is a page on setting triangles and corners. It gives great instructions and I whizzed through the completion of the quilt top.

Now doesn't it look cute??? I'm not going to put a border on it but will bind it in white to frame it. Now onto my purple, blue and yellow strips.

I also finished putting together the Star Buggy Barn quilt top. It goes together quite easily since it is done in rows and all the filler pieces are cut from the instructions. This is for a 6 foot 2 inch kid so I will probably put a plain border on it before having it quilted.

Then I made a couple more Tag Alongs. I love the ribbons on this one. The ribbon on the center of each side is paw prints.

So much fun in my sewing room the last couple of days. What shall I do next? Got to get busy on those other strips I've already cut.....and a few more Tag Alongs.....and what about those 4 other Christmas quilts I need to start soon.

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Happy Quilting! Lynda

It's a good thing I don't write quilt patterns!

Yes it sure is!!! Just trying to do simple stuff keeps me quite confused when I'm not following a pattern. Several weeks ago I cut up pinks and greens into 1 1/2 inches strips and have been trying to use them up. These Log Cabin blocks seemed pretty undisciplined when set next to each other. I added some white sashing, put them on point and did a bunch of figuring for the set in triangles. I wanted it to look like the blocks were continuing out which worked out pretty well. I just had to make those blocks a little bigger so when they were cut in half they would fit. However, you can see the 4 corners are not in yet. I've cut a couple of blocks and not come out with the right cut. You'd think I could figure it out but my brain wouldn't wrap around it tonight. So I put it away until I can think clearly. I've also made all the star blocks for my Star Crazy quilt. Here they are on my design wall without the fill in pieces.

Tonight I put the first row together. I love these fabrics. So rich and warm. I'm sure my grandson, Taylor, will like it too since it has lots of baseball fabric in it just for him.

You can see as I get to the bottom of the quilt I kind of run out of wall so they get a little squished together. I'll probably get it all put together this week.

Happy Quilting! Lynda

I LOVE my day off from work!

I do love a day off from work when nothing is planned and there is nothing that I have to do. Today was one of those days. I could have gone grocery shopping or cleaned the house or some other chore that always needs doing...but I decided I would just sew.


Those of you who have made Buggy Barn quilts know how much fun they are to make. I am making another "My Three Stars" quilt using much of the same fabrics I used on the last one. I guess I over purchased fabric (is that possible?) Above is how the 12 inch star looks before being squared up. I really enjoy putting these together and seeing how different the stars look with different fabrics.

Here is a pile of the trimmings of the 14 blocks. I know some of you out there are thinking of things you could do with those scraps........but I just threw them out!

Here are the 14 completed 12" blocks. Aren't those fabrics yummy? Now I need 14 8 inch blocks and 16 4 inch blocks plus a bunch of fill in rectangles. Once I get started I just want to keep working on them. Maybe tomorrow night after work . . . .

Happy Sewing! Lynda

WOWSER DOWSER!!!

The Puzzle that drove me nuts until help came along.

Baby Ellie putting in the last piece.

I may never take it apart!

We really have some generous quilters here in blogland. I was just visiting Linda over at Stray Stitches (see my sidebar of blogs I follow) and she is being oh so generous. She is giving away a fantastic pattern called Flying Colors by Georgette Del'Orco. Not only that...but she's giving away some amazingly wonderful, scruptious fabric to make it. You'll win 5/8 yard of black fabric and then 25 (yes I said 25) fat quarters in the most lucious colors of the rainbow. Hurry on over and enter since it closes Sunday night.
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I have been busy these past couple of weeks, just not sewing. A couple of our children and their families came home over the holidays and we got to spend some fun times with them. One thing we did do was put together a 1000 piece puzzle. I worked on it alone for a few days and got very little done. Then when there was more people to work on it, we whipped it out in a couple of days. So much more fun when there is more than 1 digging through all those pieces trying to figure out where each piece fits.

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This week I'll be back down in the sewing room working on another Buggy Barn quilt using a star pattern and even many of the same fabrics that I've used before. This one is for a grandson who lives in California. Oh it will feel good to get back to my Viking.
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Happy Quilting!! Lynda