Sewing with Gomez

It must have been Gomez's turn to be kitty quilt helper today.
Here he is helping me figure out borders for a quilt. What length should they be? I have no idea since someone is covering the display and sitting on the pattern.

The sewing project for this weekend was finishing up my Little Quilts Second Saturday Sampler 2009-2010. I have had the 12 blocks done and the finishing kit since February. Time to get it done. The setting needed 13 blocks and LQ sent a pattern for the optional 13th block. Here is the fabric I chose out of my stash.
I finished sewing all the sashing and rows yesterday. Today was finishing sewing the top together and adding borders.
Measure fast!!

This quilt is set on the diagonal with setting triangles and bias on the outside. Pat taught us at Silver Thimble Quilt Club to #1 respect the bias and don't mess with it too much and #2 measure your quilt in three places then take the average to determine the length of your borders. (See Pat, we do listen sometimes!)
When Gomez is helping, you also need to take the square root of the hypotenuse plus or minus the circumference of Gomez divided by the inverse proportion (it's that "new math" they are always talking about).
And here is the finished top!!!! S. is being a wonderful quilt holder (and yes this is another square quilt which is not his favorite shape for quilts).

I always LOVE LOVE LOVE Little Quilts' Saturday Samplers. They always pick the best fabrics and have well written foolproof directions. I ordered this one through the mail because it was cheaper than driving across metro ATL (plus that extra buying in the shop...). I am reluctantly passing up this year's Sat. Sampler because I have a lot of BOMs going on this year. I have the binding made and I bet there's a perfect backing for this quilt somewhere in the depths of my sewing room. I may actually quilt this myself.

Well this was a good start to August!

Leftovers

Is everyone in America tired of leftovers yet? E. and I were laughing on Friday as we were heating up leftovers because we were picturing people all over the country doing the same thing. Just think about it--all the tupperware, all the foil covered dishes, trying to make gravy go from a gelatinous blob to smooth gravy again. The Thanksgiving ham has been turned leftovers, then into a casserole which lasted for meals and now it's ham and bean soup. I just have one question though, how come there is never any leftover pie by Sunday?
Here is my pecan pie which was gone by Friday and here's the sweet potato pie that was great for breakfast on Saturday.
(It's OK, I didn't have any whipped cream so it still counted as a vegetable).

No shopping for me this year. I didn't leave the house from Thursday afternoon until this morning when I went to Sbux. Loved it!!! I missed going to see Bad Melisa but I need to wait until I get that extra pay from working Thanksgiving at SBux. I got some sewing done but not nearly as much as I thought I would or as I needed to. We all vegged and watched a lot of movies and a seasons worth of "30 Rock" (laughter counts as exercise right?).

Here are the November blocks of the month that I finished just as November is leaving us. November, why are you leaving already; you just got here!!!
Little Quilts Saturday Sampler. I've never seen this block before. Isn't it neat?
And Fat Quarter Shop 2009 Designer Mystery
So tomorrow is Monday, let's all pout about having to go back to work....

Silver Thimbles Report, BOMs, and Henry V

I'm watching Henry V. I love me some Shakespeare. I think if I were stranded on a deserted island and could only have one book, I would choose my copy of The Riverside Shakespeare.

Yesterday was our monthly Silver Thimble club meeting. Here is the super fabulous new pattern by Pat and a kit to make the quilt.
As you can see, mine is still sealed in the bag because I need to finish the projects I'm working on now before I dive into this one.

I forgot to bring my camera and take photos but Pat has some great ones on her blog.

My latest project is these wonderful elongated nine-patches made from Moda's "Wildflower Serenade". The pattern is by Heather Mulder Peterson.


I received both of my BOMs in the mail on Saturday and made them today.
Here is the September block from Little Quilts
and
block #4 from the Fat Quarter Shop's 2009 mystery BOM.

I can't believe the weekend is over with already. How did it go by so fast???!!!?? It will be a short week for me as I have another Furlough Friday....

Not getting out of my pj's or the house today!

Hooray for a sewing day!! Let's sing a little song...
I am not getting out of my pj's and I'm not leaving the house today. Tra la la la la!
I am sewing sewing sewing and doing some laundry but that's about it. Ha ha ha!
OK maybe I've had a bit too much coffee.....

I worked on my two BOMs
Here's the Little Quilts Saturday Sampler block #7
I love this fabric!!! Such a yummy purple with a fab black/purple shirting. Oooo I want oodles of these fabrics but need to settle for this block because going to Little Quilts is tooooo dangerous....

and here's the Fat Quarter Shop mystery quilt block #3
Both of these blocks were challenging and I think I could have made half a jelly roll quilt in the time it took to cut and sew these blocks.

I also finally finished cutting a huge pile of Fig Tree fabric for a quilt pattern that has been hanging around since 2005. The line is called "Cornucopia" and must be at least that old...
All the fabric is cut and in a project bag ready to be sewn at some point. Hopefully it won't age too much longer.

I also sewed some quilt backs together and have three quilts all ready to go to my long-arm quilter. I am calling Peggy when she gets back tomorrow and hopefully that will be three quilts done and out of here soon to their recipients.
OK off to do more sewing!

Laundry--It's the New Fun!

Oh I am so happy to have my new dryer and while we are at it, let's all hope this is the last post about dryers, okay?
Voila, the inaugural load. So instead of spending time at the beach this summer watching the waves, I can sit in the back hall and watch laundry tumble.
Add a paper umbrella to that sweet tea--it's gonna be a wild summer!!!!!

If you can believe it, the mail today was even more exciting than the new dryer! I received two BOMs and of course had to immediately drop everything and start in on them (yes, I even missed the little chime from the dryer telling me the laundry was done).

Here is Block #2 from the Fat Quarter Shop's 2009 Designer Mystery Quilt (which I am now going to refer to as FQS09DMQ)
I love this quilt!
The next block is Block #6 from the Little Quilts Saturday Sampler
A great patriotic block for July--Martha Washington block in red, white & blue. I think I forgot to post the block from June so here it is
OK that's enough excitement for a Tuesday.

PS: In case you are wondering, no I didn't re-wash everything so I could tumble dry it.....

Well except for the bath towels....

But I only have about six so I really didn't waste that much water....

Oh the "green" guilt of it all!!! More treehugging penitence for me.

Anyone have an extra bailout laying around????

OY! Who knew a water heater could be so expensive!!!???!! Especially when you have a old house that doesn't meet the current building code and you need some extra code-compliant plumbing-type stuff. The plumber is coming back tomorrow to install said water heater (which must be made of GOLD!) so no hot water until tomorrow afternoon. Instead of a vacation or new furniture this summer, I am going to hang out in the crawl space and stare at the new water heater. Woo hoo good times!
Good thing the Recession Garden is growing
There are baby plum tomatoes growing and the yellow squash is growing like crazy on the far right side.

I have neglected to post the May block for the Little Quilts Saturday Sampler even though I finished it earlier this month. I am loving this quilt.

I forgot who mentioned it but Gomez Megabux has not appeared on the blog recently. I finished up the latest jelly roll quilt this evening, working around Gomez's nap. I had to wait until kitty dinner time to put the borders on. The quilt is pretty big so I'll need to post a full photo when I have a quilt holder-upper. I have three tops done and one quilt completed from the book Jelly Roll Quilts.
Time to get a new project prepped for sewing. I pulled a couple of kits out of ONE of the UFO boxes and am going to get started cutting out a couple of projects.

Karin and Becky wanted to know what Stella, Edgar and I were reading last night--we are reading The First World War by John Keegan. As you can see from last night's post, the cats are not as much into history as I am.

Make a Block, Eat a Cookie

How's that for a great way to spend a Thursday night?

Here's my Saturday Sampler block for April. This month's block has really sweet shirting designed by Little Quilts.

I made cookies when I got home from my day job "just because". They are Snickerdoodles from Martha Stewart's book Cookies. I haven't made Snickerdoodles in years and they are just as fun to say and just as good to eat as I remember. I had these warm from the oven with a glass of milk. A good thing!

Still Life: Quilt Block and Cat

Well not quite a still life because the camera caught Gomez in mid-"hey what are you doing? Are you taking a picture of me? How about a treat? "

Here is the Little Quilts BOM block #2 (sans Gomez). I love the fabrics--very March-y.

Some Progress and Still Hoping for a Snow Day

Well I finally finished sewing the rows together for my Mardi Gras quilt (aka Orange Crush mystery quilt). This is a quick photo; my quilter-holder-upper was impatient. I really like it! I need to go to Melisa's and get some advise for borders. I'm thinking of a thin inner border (something that "pops" maybe a light, bright green?) and an outer border.

I also finished the February block for the Little Quilts BOM. I can't wait for the next one to show up in the mail! I am really hoping that it gets icy out and they cancel work and the area schools--all the quilters want a snow day!!!!!!