Hello, my quilting/blogging friends.

Once again, it has been a while. I wish I was in a better place and I wish it could be different. 

But I do have a new quilt and we will focus on that, for now. 

With Marcia

It began with Marcia, who is my former boss. She retired after her 81st birthday. Kudos to her, because I am sure I can't make it to my 60th before calling it quits. 

When Marcia learned about my quilting hobby (obsession), she introduced me to her neighbor - Lesley. Lesley is an art quilter. I need ...

 I’ve set my cross stitching aside for a little bit. Instead, I’ve been playing with some English Paper Piecing. I saw the beginnings of a mystery a couple of weeks ago, and decided to hop in on it. I chose the fabrics, as the hostess described, a couple of weeks ago. I have clue one finished. There are a total of 16 of these. 

Clue number 2 is well on its way. I think there are 32 of these, 16 of each colour reverse. 

We’ve also been doing tons of canning in the last couple of days ...

I heard of a restaurant that serves everything on a potato so you know I’m going to give this a try.

Last week I slow cooked a pork butt, simmered it in sauce and used it to top a baked potato. This week I had chicken fajitas on a baked potato.

Baked my potato, added some butter. Topped it with chicken, onions, peppers and cheese. Not gonna lie it was tasty. Next up Philly cheese steak on a sweet potato. I’ll let you know how it is.

All of the goodies of autumn await to be discovered in the September Sew Sampler box! Peek inside for a clue to the oh-sew-delightful contents and to learn about the Vault Patterns and the Spooled Quilt Along.

Don’t miss out on this box! If you aren’t yet subscribed and want to join, do so very SOON, so you don’t miss this month’s cut off date for sign ups!

Celebrating 10 Years of Sew Sampler

Since April 2016, we’ve shipped 120 blue boxes filled with quilting goodness to our amazing members. Your creativity and ...

 Hello There, 

Thank you for stopping in!  This week you'll find a continuation of our study on the Psalms and I'll share progress on some fun projects I'm working on.  

I'm loving the progress I'm making on my 3/4" hexie project, which is featured below.  It's amazing what we can accomplish by setting a goal of sewing for 15 minutes a night on one single project.  

I do hope you enjoy your visit here today!  

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy kitchen day yesterday, but there was still some time for sewing. No actual sewing...just finishing and prepping, but it's all good.

My first stop was to finish the embroidery for Block 1 of the Quilter's Retweet. There was only a little ways to go with this.

Mike helped me with this. I cored most of ...

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy kitchen day yesterday, but there was still some time for sewing. No actual sewing...just finishing and prepping, but it's all good.

My first stop was to finish the embroidery for Block 1 of the Quilter's Retweet. There was only a little ways to go with this.

Mike helped me with this. I cored most of ...

Someone sent me this and I honestly thought it was a spoof or joke. Well I was wrong. They have now rewritten the bible to rewrite 8 sections that refer to same sex relationships. Supposedly its to clear up the homophobic attitude in the church.

If you read stuff like this you can’t help but to hope Jesus will return soon. God says that lifestyle is a sin but He still loves his children that live like that. He will judge all of us for how we lived when the time comes but thinking you can rewrite God’s ...

 It is time for us to release another block drive.  If you get our newsletter, you may have already seen it.  I think it is a fast and fun block to make.  We will have lots of uses for this one.  Some may be made into kid quilts - others will go to adults.  I also think we will try to use these with some of the other blocks we have made in the past.  It just depends on what you send and how it inspires me!

Here are the blocks we will be making.  They are just a low volume ...

If you can't beat the system, try a different way. Seriously? This darn bone density pill and I have a love/hate relationship. To remember to take the darn thing, I left my pillbox on the counter yesterday to remind me all day that I needed to take it this morning. Then I put the pillbox on my phone so I would remember first thing this morning. 

Then I had a bad night, couldn't get to sleep, and woke up several times. As a result, I slept in. Now you think that I would take the pill in ...

No change in the numbers.

This week I worked on Christmas Cottage and the paint chip challenge.  The paint chip challenge is my focus piece.  It’s time to finish it and move on to another project.

Neither piece changed much in the last week.  Instead, it’s back to the haul from the sale last weekend.

Top row:  Sulky variegated embroidery thread (two spools each color), Christmas pattern books (embroidery & cross stitch), and a Heaven and Earth Designs pattern.  That one is so large I doubt I’ll live long enough to finish it.  I may try stitching a ...

This was my August goal list from the beginning of the month . . .

• Ongoing Projects - UFOs & WIPs
• Keep up with Saturday Sampler - DONE
• Garden Stars block #1 (paper pieced) - DONE
• Quilt & bind the Windy Days wall hanging - DONE
• Quilt & bind at least 1 WIP project
• placemats DONE (2 RWB placemats)
• table runners - DONE (1 runner)
• doll quilts - NO
• blue SD lap quilt - NO
• RSC blocks in yellow - DONE
• QOV blocks - DONE
• kit up another QOV for group - NO
• NEW Projects
• online mystery - Meadow Mist - monthly clues - DONE
• autumn mini vertical banner - DONE
• SOMETHING with denim? - DONE (Tilda/denim pillow)

Crochet Snowflake (Medium Aprox 10cm)

Crochet Snowflakes Different Sizes

Size 5.5 Hook     

DK Yarn Two Strands Worked Together 

I Like to start with a Magic Circle 

(or you can use a 4 Chain start slip stitched together to create a circle)

Either Or is Fine

Make First Chain of Magic Circle tight to start off

Round One

Chain four (this represents 1 Half Treble and 2 Chains)

*Into the Circle make one Half Treble then Two Chains*

Next

Repeat from * to * Four more times pull your Magic Circle tight from centre ...

Crochet Snowflake (Large Aprox 13cm)

Size 5.5 Hook     

DK Yarn Two Strands Worked Together 

How I make a Large Crochet Snowflake 

I Like to start with a Magic Circle 

(or you can use a 4 or 5 Chain start slip stitched together to create a circle)

Either Or is Fine

Make First Chain of Magic Circle tight to start off

Round One

Chain five (this represents 1 Treble and 2 Chains)

*Into the Circle make one Treble then Two Chains*

Next

Repeat from * to * Four more times pull your Magic Circle ...

I had another unusually busy week long arming which makes me happy! There was a house quilt, postage stamp squares and a Kaffe Fassett diamonds one. In addition, there was class preparation to do and sewing machine demos plus an interesting phone call where the customer was irritated by me asking what brand of thread she was using – all she could tell me was that it was “cotton”. 

So now for some Big News… I am moving to Norfolk! It all boils down to Big Family Stuff and I want to be around so I can help out. Plus Nella ...

Its still hot and dry here.  At least there were no triple digit temps this week. It's amazing how much cooler 10 degrees lower feels even when the temps are still in the mid to high 90s.  I suppose it's a conditioning thing.  Even with the slightly lower temps, my sewing room is still my preferred hang out spot.  Which means it's not been hard to work in all my stitching time. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Aug = 29/29 days
• 15 minute days/2026 = 237/241 days
• Success rate = 98.34 ...

I spent a couple hours in the kitchen prepping a some meals for the next few days.  If I had stuck with the sewing I could have had this top done but I'll be happy I don't have to prepare any meals for a few days.