Yes.. and FINALLY!!

I've been so busy lately, and we went away last weekend, so I have had little time to get into the sewing room. The guys will be watching basketball this weekend, and I don't have to go anywhere, so I will be doing a couple of things in the greenhouse and then working on my Ribbon Star lap quilt. I'm pretty much free all weekend, for a change, so it's going to be great to have some time to sew.

I plan on finishing the Lotto blocks for the month. Not being that experienced, I actually had problems with it. The pattern makes it look like you offset the little squares onto the big square. So I did that and did not get points where I should have. I checked out You Tube and found I should have just matched up the edges like you would expect. I have to go buy more fabric, as I don't have a very big stash and nothing else appropriate. I have my JoAnn's coupons to use today, so I need to get batting for two quilts too. I'll be happy to get that done. I don't know how you ladies get so much done every month. Of course, it doesn't help that I have to check and re-check everything I do. LOL

I just sewed the label on my huge living room quilt so we will hang it this afternoon. Tomorrow we're visiting the parents, so no sewing! I'm planning to start some miniatures for my guild's 2013 show, so that is my plan for the rest of today.

Donna

I finished cutting for my workshop next week and have it all packed up and ready.

I hope to at least get fabric ironed for a baby quilt...need it finished for a trip/baby shower in 2 weeks!! Maybe I'll be able to get it cut tonight/tomorrow.

Have a bunch of Girl Scout stuff this weekend to keep me busy!

I hope to work a little on the Jan Red Lotto blocks I won. I would be happy if I got them all pressed, and squared to the same size and ready for sashing. I 'think' I have a plan for the layout. I am amazed how nice all the different reds seem to flow together.

I really, really need to clean my house and do laundry! Ick!

LOL!!! I just did laundry. The weather is so nice I'm playing in the dirt.
I want to finish the pinwheel and my sis doesn't want a lot of quilting on it so it should be fairly easy.
We have had such a mild winter it looks like we are heading for a hot summer very fast. I've been trying to get the yard work under control because I don't do hot very well.
Rosa

Marsha, I'm so excited to see what you do with the lotto blocks. Are you adding another color for sashing or borders or staying with basically red and white?

I.ve been outdoors unloading sacks of mulch hope to spread them around after we get back this afternoon but it is pretty windy with rain on the way.
After posting this I am going to sew the top layer of my pillow turn quilt.
I am so happy that when I looked out this morning I saw my bluebirds for this year and I hope they stay

Lois~I wanted to use a mottled orangey, red, rust, hints of gold.....but like a dummy, I asked DH & he muttered something very negative. I tried to convince him, but the more I talked, the more I fell out of love with it. I had bought 1/2yd to audition it. My original goal was to learn how to use the Creative Grids special ruler for on point blocks......so there would be alot of this orangey fabric. After looking at many pictures online, I have decided to try and use all the blocks, set straight & use white for the sashing, and the orangey fabric for the corner stones.
That's the plan anyway. I have Kona Prem Bleached muslin,so I am going to use that for the sashing. I'm stuck at home today waiting for something - also a factor in my decision.
But this plan could change :)

I don't think I'm going to get to any quilting this weekend. Too many errands today and too much house cleaning to do tomorrow. I won't be home next weekend (WooHOO, Lancaster!!!) so I really have a bunch of stuff to do this weekend.

The good news is that I bought a new office chair today at IKEA so the comfy office chair gets moved to the sewing room and the old sewing chair goes to Goodwill. (Or maybe the new chair gets moved to the sewing room instead; I haven't decided yet.)

I am going to work on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks and my guilds Presidents Challenge. Next week I have to do a thorough cleaning of my house because we have company coming next weekend for a week.

But of course! I start most mornings with my cuppa up in the sewing room. Then today, between chores, I'd sneak up, work a little, do more chores then sneak back up.

I made a kite yesterday, blew all afternoon tinkering with it, and chasing the kitties away, who were enthralled with it lifting up in the breeze. They'd pounce on the kite's tail just as it was about to fly and pull it down on them. The poor marmalade cat got entangled in the fish line I was using and it scared him silly. (well, sillier than he already is). I had to untangle him and then clean all the hair off the line. After I got everything adjusted just so, I got it up high and then the wind went away.

LOL Calliope, your story reminds me of once when our furbaby Max got to messing around with a plastic grocery bag. He managed to get his head through one of the handle holes, which freaked him out and he took off. I was trying to catch him to help him (and of course laughing my a** off) - by the time I caught him he had one arm through the hole, too. What a doofus.

Donna

Cat/Kitten stories? Kewl! I always like to hear that other people are dealing with the antics of their "owners" so I don't feel like I'm the only one. My little Stella (14 pounds of maine coon & still growing at just 3 years old) has become addicted to her "stars". I bought one of those twilight turtles which is actually a night light which displays various constellations on the ceiling for 45 minutes about a month ago for my roomie's birthday. It turns out that each day when it gets dark, she starts mewing and whining for someone to turn it on so she can have her stars. Somehow she knows it won't work during the day, thankfully, but all night and every 45 minutes??? Sigh... what we won't do for our kids, right?

As for quilting this weekend, I'm not sure which project I'll work on tomorrow, but I do want to spend some time with my sewing machine. We'll see what happens...
Dan

I put my "ugly" lap top together. I will work out what I will do for borders tomorrow with my DD help. This top is the ugliest scrap top I think I have made but maybe it will worm someones soul. And ofcourse I quilted on SBQ. I have 89 of the blocks quilted with 51 more to go. I try and do at least 1 a day sometimes 2 or 3. Those little bits are a real challenge for hand quilting. Too many thick corners.

I'm working on my spider web quilt using those shirting scraps. Even though they are thin, the fabric is beautifully woven. I'm sewing them on muslin foundations to give them a little more weight.

I really, really need to do cleaning and some cooking tomorrow.

This is our new baby, Abbott, with our big, gentle Gus.

Here is a link that might be useful:

What are shirting scraps? Actual cut up shirts, or fabric that you made shirts out of? Thanks for the enlightenment!

Well, I got the binding all assembled and pressed for my stack and whack baby quilt that goes to the LAQ as soon as she calls and tells me that my Simple Log quilt is done.

I took out the fabric and directions for a table runner called Apsen Leaves by Frieda Anderson. I looked at it for quite a while and decided that today was not the day to embark on a totally new technique. Besides, I needed freezer paper which I didn't have, and I have to enlarge the pattern by 500% which I can't do at home.

So... I started cutting a new quilt called View from the Cabin. It combines a focus fabric with log cabin blocks. This is the one that probably will be very pretty, but not at all to my taste. I don't know how it ended up this way, but I learned a good lesson when I bought the fabric. When something doesn't "feel" right, just walk out of the store and try again another day. It was an expensive lesson.

Karpet! Your babies are adorable!!!

My bags of shirting scraps are the left over pieces from a shirt manufacturer from when they cut out the pieces for men's dress shirts.

With our last name being Morris, we like having orange kitties!