This weekend...

...I spent some quality time with Granny's Flower Garden, which I haven't touched since September (thanks for the inspiration Jodi!)

and the June A Tisket A Tasket block, which clearly will not be completed by the end of June.

This week the painters are coming to paint the outside of our house. I'll have to stay in and sew, I suppose. Darn.

Two more

The SewConnected 3 blocks are done.

For Dallas:

For Sarah:

Those little circles were such fun to make!

One down

Thanks for all your encouraging words yesterday. I feel a lot better today.
I have a list and if I can get the things on that list checked off today, I'll be hunky-dory.

One item was checked off this morning: the June blocks for the three by three swap.

Yay me!

Out of control - again

Things are feeling like they're a little out of control over here again. My mom is visiting for five weeks and everything else has be to squeezed in inbetween. I love having her here since I only see her every 18 months or so but, boy, is the routine messed up.

June three by three blocks "almost" done.


June Sew Connected 3 blocks not even started (they're on the list for today)


A runner for my mom that is giving me a load of trouble. I don't normally sew silky slippery fabric.


The above has all lead to this on the kitchen table:

I try to clean it up every night so I can start fresh in the morning.

Did I mention we're having the house painted and I'm cutting all my shrubs away from the walls, which looks AWFUL!?


Maybe this has something to do with my mood. Where's the sun???


At least the hummingbirds seem to be enjoying their food.


Thanks for listening. I feel SO much better now.
(It really isn't all that bad. I just have to breathe deeply.)

My Olfas

I love my Olfa Ergonomic Rotary Cutters. Yes, I have two. One upstairs in my studio and one downstairs in "the store".

My favorite feature is the fact that I don't have to remember to retract the blade. I'm bad with that kind of thing. I also have an iron that switches off automatically and a tea kettle with a non-removable whistle. What can I say? I'm easily distracted.

I'm getting ready to order a whole bunch of new tools for the store. To make room for the new stock, I'm trying to get the shelves cleaned out a little, so I marked down the existing cutters big time - to $13.95.

I wanted you to know first because I only have three two one left and I think they're going to go quickly at this price.

The First Sixteen

I couldn't help it. I had to start sewing the nine patches together.

Aren't they pretty?
I can hardly wait for the June blocks.
Oh, and there WILL be a July swap too. I think 48 blocks will make a really nice quilt.

Swap Craziness

Firstly, the city I visited was Portland, OR. Wonderful city. I think I want to move there.
We took the train from Seattle and public transportation all over Portland.

Last night was crazy nine patch organizing night. 880 nine patches to be exact.
They're all safely ensconced in their envelopes and mostly ready for their trip to the post office this morning.

Snapshots from my weekend

Can you guess where I was?

Even not so pretty fabric...

...can sometimes turn into something cute.

I've had this fabric for years and years and my tastes have changed ever so slightly.
My mom mentioned that she needed some new aprons and asked if I had any fabric I wasn't planning on using.

It was a fabric panel and some matching floral fabric.
I just traced one of my other aprons for the pattern.
The fabric was a little thin for an apron, so I lined it with Bella. This was actually much easier than trying to seam all the way around. I think I may line all future aprons.
I thought making the "strings" out of floral fabric may be a little much, so I chose Bella for those too. In orange.
And there you have it. Pretty out of not so pretty!

And the winner is...

Mary, who said:
"I talk to myself, especially when I am frustrated or confused. I think saying it out loud helps me process. Pretty fabrics!"
Send me your address, Mary. That little charm pack will be on its way to you in a jiffy.

In other exciting news I just received the most beautiful April Cornell fabric for the store!

Because I got the fabric at a really good price, I'm passing it on.
Yardage is only $6.49 and a fat quarter pack (12 fat quarters) is $18 (that's $6 a yard!).

I only received a couple of yards of each of these so I thought I'd let my blog readers know first.

Mini Quilt

One of my friends' daughter's 18th birthday and high school graduation are coming up.
I decided to make her a quilt but she'll get to choose the fabric and pattern.
Now how do you give someone a non-existent quilt for their birthday?
After thinking about it for a couple of weeks I came up with this:

It's 4" x 4".
I put a label on the back:

What do you think?

Catching up

SewConnected 3 - Jennifer's block for May.

Just because

A teenie little giveaway.

1. Just leave a comment here and answer a burning question:
Do you talk to yourself?
I was in the grocery store talking to myself about different pasta options and wondered if anyone heard me and thought I was cuckoo. I talk to myself all the time when I'm at home sewing but public "self-conversation" may be a little more rare.
2. If you mention my teenie giveaway on your blog, leave another comment telling me and I'll enter you a second time.

I'll do the drawing at 7:00am PST on Tuesday.

Wednesday Morning

You mean you didn't clean your fridge at 6am this morning?

And your wine doesn't co-exist with your chicken broth?

This is going to be my day, I'm afraid.
Clean the fridge, wash the dog, mow the lawn...

Goin' Dotty!

I accordance with how I feel this week, I announce the Goin' Dotty Sale!

Have a wonderful, dotty day!

Geese in the Forest Month 5

Wow! It's that time again.

Block 5: Saplings

We're making 28 of these!

Find the pattern here. (It's a PDF file, so you'll need Adobe Reader to open it.)
The .PDF file for Block 4's pattern is now available in the store for $1.

You can find all the details regarding this Block of the Month (and all the other block patterns) over here and a tutorial for freezer paper foundation piecing over here.

Back to work I go...