Monday Morning.....

Still catching up on things and unpacking is almost complete!!  Yet, I found time this past weekend to do some sewing in my new studio.

From my guild we are doing a block swap, where the owner of the blocks prepares little fabric kits for us to make up.  I did two of these funky stars for her.  You can see the tutorial of this design here.

I also did another Let's Be Together Block, but will show it off later this week - and I finished my latest class sample for the Braid Table Runner.  I had fun doing this and this pattern is GREAT----completed it entirely in one afternoon, and hand binding in the evening watching tv!  It's a great gift!

I'm off to work and cruising by end of the week!

Happy Monday Morning!

Without further delay, the lucky winner of Friday's Charms is (according to Random.org) is sweet 16, who is Robin!  I'll email you shortly to get your mailing info.  Thanks to everyone who commented--looks like you all were busy this weekend!

I did get a bit of sewing in, time with family, football games (ugh...still not happy with the Ravens), Chinese food, Big Ed's pizza, and lots of hubby loving ....it was a very good weekend indeed!!

I do have some pictures to share.....I received my second towel from Cindy in our Towel Swap II, isn't he adorable:

I got my towels for Februarys's swap.  They will be different, but I'm excited with what I have planned for the towels - that is one of my milestone goals for this week (will post those later in the day):

Then, because of the "Meet The Teachers" Event at the shop, I had to finish up another sample.  I finished making a sample for my Quilting Basics 102 class:

Also, was able to squeeze in one more block for the Goose Tracks:

I think both classes are filling up!  My Pizza Party class is also filling up...the event was a huge success and I got to meet a lot of "regular" customers.  I normally work in the back so I don't get too see alot of faces, that is why I'm so excited to be teaching again!

I also got my BOM from the 12 Days of Christmas this weekend and my Tonga BOM....so I'll have BOMs to work on this week!  Also a lot of work on the computer and more sewing for work.  Glad to be at home today, going to be busy today!!

Weekend overview. . .

A lot to share this wintery Monday morning here in East Tennessee...first can we get a brrrrrrrrrrr.... :)

Had my first class at Gina's Sewing Center this weekend.

As I tried to explain all the options of technique, thread color, layouts and watching bright excited smiles with blank bright eyes.  I think they got the gist of it :)  My class is full with 10 ladies all doing different blocks and techniques for the Rose of Remembrance Block of the Month program!

I think the best part was knowing several of them decided to take the Quilting Basics 101 class with me next week - I must have presented myself as knowing a lot of good useful information, huh??  And a few more joined the Hoopsisters Goose Tracks BOM next month!  So, I have groupies!  You have no idea how wonderful that feels. 

This BOM hosted by the shop is only meeting quarterly and I personally not doing the entire quilt -- the little table runner I did was my extend of this quilt.


And Michele over at the Quilt Gallery is hosting another swap that I'm joining!!  The Mug Rug Swap!  I really do prefer swaps with a finish project - saves me headaches later with trying to find a way to finish up x-number of blocks that aren't done properly.  Go over and check it out---it is a fast turn around swap, but still do-able:

And finally my design wall and this week's projects:

This is going to be my HoopSister's Goose Tracks background, I'm going to start making blocks this week for this monthly class.

I offer a "Pay It Forward" post on my Facebook over the weekend, so I dug into my stash and pulled all sorts of things from it!  It excited me to know I'm using my stash and knowing folks want it :)  I spent most of Sunday cutting up 5" squares and sewing them up making little sets of .....secret stuff to pop into the mail over the next few weeks.  I'll share pictures as they arrive to their new destinations :)

 

And one more picture, here's the block I made for Ms. Linda for our first month of Let's Bee Together Swap, it has arrived safely in her hands:

Whew, what a long post!!  

 

One more thing to say, Happy Birthday to my future Daughter-in-Law, Fallon!  Hope your day is filled with sweetness! 

 

Boy, I sure was wordy today!  Have a great Monday!

Caught by surprise . . .

I was so not expecting SNOW.  The weather man said pack an umbrella we are expect .25" of rain and there might be a chance of a flurry.  2" of snow later and roads now freezing up overnight, looks like the kids will have another missed day of school.  We are suppose to get a few more inches throughout Thursday then something like 4 over the weekend......mmmm, I thought I moved from Maryland.  Apparently I brought the weather with me :)

My neighbor fell on the ice and hurt her back pretty badly.  Our apartments don't like clearing our walks off, I have a feeling things might change now - maybe.  I need my own salt bag and snow shovel.

I spent most of my day off from work doing my volunteer work for MAQ.  We have announced our instructors for this year's retreat and we are very excited to have longarm classes available.  This retreat is going on 24 years old and last year we had 215 students with 21 instructors.  I highly recommend making the trip to Maryland with your friends for this retreat.  Visit our website (that I create and maintain).

Then I found time to get most of my sampler done - I have 4 friendship star blocks to whip out and I think it will be done before I get to work today....of course depending on if my kids have school.

Well looks like January is starting off well with the cold and snow....means LOTS of great sewing days!!

Update: No freezing overnight and kids only have a 2 hour delay....whew...

Memories . . .

So, as I was digging through my small limited stash deseperately looking for fabric to make samples, I came across this and laughed:

Why?  Because I made this about 10 years ago for my older sister.  The blocks were part of a swap and I used my brand new Brother 8200 machine playing with all the stitches and never gave it to my sister - I think more of embarrassment than anything.  Because a few months after I made this my sister sent me this one for my birthday:

I decided to hang it up for January in my living room.  She said it was a mystery quilt and I love it and use it all the time. This is the first time I have hung it up.  Here's the label -  - - 2001!

LOL, I realized taking the picture I hung the quilt upside down! DOH!  Unfortunately, my sister no longer sews or quilt so I'm very blessed to have this piece from her.   Thank you again Lisa!

I did find some fabric for one of my samples:

L-R: My backing, outer border---I LOVE this Kaffe Fasset sea shells and need more for stash, I will only use 1 1/4 yds --I have 3, inner border and the last 3 are for the blocks.

Hope to whip this top and quilt together by this afternoon!

SNOW!

Ok, when I moved to East Tennessee this past summer, I figured I would see at the max, 6" of snow during the winter...well, it's mid-December and already we have 3" on the ground!!!  Not complaining mind you, I do like snow and now being in an apartment, I don't have to shovel - - but wow, so not expecting this.

I spent time yesterday doing a lot of prep work for my new classes I'm teaching at Gina's.  I have my lesson plans and sample designs--now to actually sew up my samples to have at the shop.

 

I'm very excited with both classes!  I'll also be teaching the new Hoop Sisters Block of the Month at the shop! 

Trying hard to catch up on blog posts...YIKES, with 165 to read slowly working from the bottom of the list up and then I "hit" the Mark Read All button...crap!  Oh dear, hoping I didn't miss anything too fun!  At least I have replied too all my comments - THANK YOU, I love comments. 

So, today doing some work at home for the shops, then I'll be sewing!  Though I also might make a big ol' batch of these and more Oatmeal Scotchies. . . .

Perfect snowy day for it!

pooped...

did I mention that? Yah, sorry I'm a broken record.

Excellent workshop today, meet fun new people and used strange and "out of the box" scraps for making houses. I ended up making 7 and I think for my Halloween theme wall hanging I'm going to use 4 and then use the rest in another project. I took a few fun pictures, but here are my favorite:

Bonnie wrapped up in her Scrappy Houses Quilt:


Now look at some of the wonderful houses made by students:



Here are mine:



You can see which 4 I'm using, once I square them up.  This was a very fun, very quick block to do.

Spoke to a fellow guild member and groupie (though she is a wee bit more dedicated than me) whom I begged for assistance to start my own scrap organization project.  Hopefully we can get together in coming weeks and play with my stash and scraps!

Oh, and I did finish ALL 150 4 patches of my Orange Crush and pressed them.  I'm ready for step 2.  I showed Bonnie my fabrics and blocks today and by her response, I'm much MORE excited to get this done.  She was like ooooooo ahhhhhh....good choice in colors!  YAH!!  So, she'll won't have the next clue til towards the end of the week --she is got to unpack and do family/house things :)

It was such a pleasure to meet her and talk to her, pick her brain for ideas and feel like a new direction of creativity in my own quilting being developed.

I have another busy week, but at least it ends with 4 days off of work with visiting friends and pirates in Baltimore next weekend.  Just need one day to catch up on my sleep :)