Happy Mother's Day

Happy Boy's Day

I received this beautiful card from Tanya in honor of Boy's Day. It is three dimensional. It was lovely getting something in the mail that wasn't bills, and to get one all the way from Japan was an especially wonderful treat. Thank you for thinking of me Tanya.

I'm sorry the picture is blurry. I think I changed some setting on my camera that is making a lot of my closeup shots blurry, and I don't have time to figure out it right now. You should see my flower pictures. I'll try to remember to replace the picture later.









Another Wildflower block is done. I really like the way this block looks. My eyes seem to fill in that green square. I am almost all out of the BOM kit, so the remaining blocks will take a little more time, because making decisions about what fabric to use seems to take an agonizing long time some days, and the following day, the same decision seems very clear and simple.

BOM

There is a quilter at work, and she asked me what I was up to. I was explaining to her what I was doing. I told her I was trying to do a little sewing everyday, in order to finish one block a week. I explained to her that it was originally a block of the month program at the LQS, and I had received some kit remnants, etc. All this stuff you know. You know what she said to me? She said,

"You do understand the concept of block of the month, right?"

I tried my best not to corrupt her like you have corrupted me.

I have recently become acquainted with BOM Quilter. She enjoys making BOMs, and she will generally show you the 5-7 blocks she has made each day. I make one every 5-7 days. I think we average out somehow. You can see hers and be inspired. You can see mine, and not feel so far behind. The exciting thing is that she is also making this Wildflower Sampler. I hadn't seen anyone else make it in Blog World. Anyway, I have two blocks made that I hadn't shown you. I was thinking I should maybe save them up and show them all to you at the same time, and maybe make you think that it was possible I made them all in one day. But that would take three more weeks, and you would all have forgotten me by then! Then you would come back the next week, or even, gasp!, the next day, expecting to see another 5-7 blocks.

Shopping, yes again

My mother is finished piecing my quilt and needed to go to the fabric store, to buy fabric for my sister's quilt. She has fabric, but it isn't what she needs. Therefore, I had to make the sacrifice and take her to Joanne's. Her hobby is getting expensive for me. Read on and find out just how much.

I took advantage of the last day of the twilight sale and our too many coupons and bought some beautiful pieces for the Wildflower quilt. And a few other things. A couple of books, a few trims. We went up to the register, and the cashier rung it up. It all fit neatly in one bag. She said that will be $326 something and I was about to hand her my credit card. Then my brain slowly clicked into gear from its fabric shopping contentment state. "Excuse me, can you repeat the amount again?" I knew I was buying more than I should have, but really, I wasn't expecting three digits, let alone three times three digits. Did I mention that it all fit in a regular grocery bag size bag? And that it was all 40-50% off? That we had coupons leftover that we couldn't use? Luckily I was still in the fabric zombie state, and my mother had just backed into this guy and she was so embarrassed that I found it rather funny. I had confidence in the cashier's ability to handle the situation.

Turns out, one of the quarter yard pieces I bought was rung up as 25 yards. A simple matter of a decimal point gone haywire. The fabric cutter had told me she wasn't a quilter. I guess she proved it.

Phew! Just think of the money I saved. I should be able to spend the difference the next time I go shopping, right?

Fabric Found

As I was working on the Wildfower Sampler block, I decided to look for the fabric I thought would go well with it. I had to look for it before I made up all the kitted blocks, because the fabric that is already kitted up is one quarter inch too small for the project. Aargh! So close. I found it, and it turns out to be both good and bad. It is good because the fabric is not a part of a kit for a specific project. It is a bag of batiks that is available to do with as I please. What this means is that I do not have to set aside Wildflower to make something else, in order to know what is available as leftovers for Wildflower. The bad news is that the fabric is in small pieces. There is a 5" charm pack, and I believe that every charm is different from the other. I thought that was good at the beginning, but now I wonder. I needed two pieces that were almost three inches. I am forced to make it scrappier than I originally planned. I think it will be okay. There is also a Bali roll, which is even smaller - 2 1/2" strips.

I think it is good that I realized the challenges this fabric is going to have for me early. I am going to have to save the kitted fabric for the bigger pieces and use the Bali roll for the smaller pieces, if there are pieces that small in this quilt. Don't worry, I also have bigger pieces that I used on the Beth Ferrier quilts that I can steal from if I need them.

As for the picture, no the flowers are gone now, but I haven't gotten a chance to photograph the flowers that are in the yard. I went to sweep the driveway and it started raining, which gave me reprieve, but not before reminding me that the lilacs were in bloom. I wouldn't have thought of it any other year, but this year, it smells like laundry to me!

Reading

I hope you don't think my house is so messy that I've been cleaning all this time. Well I have, sort of. Did I tell that I am allergic to cleaning? I am. I'm allergic to dust, so I have to drug up before I clean, which lowers my productivity level. That, and the 50 book limit that the library gives us. Have to return some books, so I can check out all the new ones that bloggers keep talking about.

I've been reading about the Mayflower. I'm distantly related to someone on the Mayflower - except he must not have been very interesting, because except for his name on the list of passengers, he doesn't get a mention in the rest of the book.

I am also catching up on old posts on my bloglines. I have them set up by day. Yesterday I finished reading up all the Tuesday people, so I moved on to the Wednesday people. Um yeah, Happy New Year to you too.

Wildflower Block Eight

Here's another wildflower block. Doesn't Block Eight sound so much better than second block I've made? I've had some spare time this week - a big change of pace from the rest of the year. I've been catching up on the cleaning that has been put off all year. I've been anxious to start another quilt project, but I have been trying to limit myself to what I can do between cleaning breaks. Hopefully, though, it means you will see several of these blocks done this week. At least until I run out of the kitted fabric. After that, I have another kit that has fabric I could use for this one. I'll have to make that second kitted project, to see if I have extra fabric to use on this one.