Mail Call Monday - Ravelry to the Rescue

Welcome to another edition of Mail Call Monday!! I know, know... It's Tuesday.  Sorry!!  I was working on finishing up a quilt on the longarm last night.

Anyway...

I got a package in mail from a Ravelry friend up in Pennsylvania!!  I thought you might like to see:

What's inside, Joyful???

TWENTY-THREE green heart blocks from the York Quilters Guild:

AND...

... A generous contribution toward the international shipping expense:

Blocks for Angels in Gumboots will be winging their way to New Zealand tomorrow.  Thank you to Siberspinner for jumping in with her quilt guild friends!

Check back next week for a review of the Hearts for Christchurch collection.

Until next time...
Ravelry to the Rescue!!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC19 - Week 17

Welcome to Week 17 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  All sewing, all the time.  That's what I really WISH my days and weeks were filled with.  Alas, the children like to eat... EVERY day!  Sigh...

SUNDAY - Hoppy Bunny Day!!!  My MIL was here for dinner.  It's my first holiday hosting in quite some time (and everything turned out really well.)  For all my RSC Quilter friends, I didn't forget YOU and dressed with hints of the Color of the Month:

MONDAY - With another B9P loaded on the frame, I got to work one getting it quilted.  Please notice, even though the maker isn't involved in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, there is AQUA in the center of her quilt:

TUESDAY - Outdoor adventures with a little friend, followed by some time at the library and more time out in the yard:

WEDNESDAY - My bestie was out of town, so I met with a quilting friend to discuss quilting her next quilt.  Here is a sneak peek with the orange for the back and purple on the front:

I **almost** got the quilt on the frame DONE!! Almost, but not quite.  That's OK... Tomorrow is another day.  (And half way is probably not as close to done as I had hoped. LOL)

THURSDAY - I went to my Weekly Quilt Group this morning. I came home with these beauties for the Hearts for Christchurch project run by Angels in Gumboots:

About that sideways photo??  Just try to ignore that.  I have NO IDEA what went wrong there!

Candy is smiling because I also brought home that bag of scraps sitting on the arm of her chair:

FRIDAY - Whew!! We made it through another week and I (nearly) made it through this quilt.  This is the point I started on this afternoon:

Unfortunately...

I had to stop for a thunderstorm to pass through, but was able to gather and sort fabrics for another project while waiting it out.  And LOOK!!  Shades of AQUA were involved in the selection:

I even risked a bit of sewing:

More about that in the NEW edition of Design Floor Friday.

SATURDAY - It's my favorite day of the week! LINK PARTY day over at Angela's So Scrappy blog.  This recent finish is currently hanging in my kitchen to brighten the time spent there:

Oops!

It's off center, possibly off-kilter, and suffering from the shadows of evening light

(which is when I took the photo last night.)

At least, AQUA features prominently in the design.

Until next time...
Get SCRAPPY!!!

Meanwhile, DH and I are headed out to the Rainbow of Heroes Walk for the Duke PBMT Family Support program:

Design Floor Friday - Cowboy (Thread) Catcher

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  Yes, I know it's been a while.  It seems that my Fridays are often taken up with other activities.  This afternoon, I was forced to step away from the longarm.

Why, Joyful???

A thunderstorm was coming through and I can't afford to fry my machine by working during a storm!

My Spring 2019 (Ravelry) UFO Club list includes finishing a Quilted Thread Catcher for Denise.

The inspiration...

... And the quilt parts that I have to work with:

Leftovers from her Pecking Order quilt.

My instructions for colors were as follows:

Cowboy colors, duh!

When I asked my friend to elaborate, the response was:

Browns, turquoise, tans, reds, hot colors, textures, ...

I'm using leftovers from THIS quilt that she made:

Denise chose some of my turquoise scraps (shown in the photo below) during our last Sew/Craft Friends-zy and I pulled additional coordinating fabrics from my stash, but checked in to see if I was headed in the right direction with these:

Obviously, I have taken a bit of a left turn from her original thoughts on the matter...

You know?  Those browns, turquoise, tans, reds, hot colors, textures, ...  Ugh!  SEW not my thing.

After dinner, I went back up the studio to align my fabric selections more closely with Denise's hopes for her forthcoming "Joy Original" Quilted Thread Catcher.  Even though she SAID, "Have fun with it, You know I'm gonna love anything!"

We'll see about that...

Here is where I went with her statement, noticeably less green:

I also added more turquoise and an another red to create a basket panel that should be pleasing to its recipient:

If nothing else, it's got texture!  I'm hoping to be able to transform it into Denise's Quilted Thread Catcher before next weekend's Sew/Craft Friends-zy for the month of May.

Until next time...
Happy Trails!!!

Wonderful Wednesday - 3 Musketeers Sew Again

Otherwise known as Pecking Order to the Third Power

(but... I don't know how to type that.)

Welcome to another edition of Wonderful Wednesday!!  This week, I'm here to tell you about last week's ride... er ... SEW of the Three Musketeers.

That's my name for three friends (myself included) who get together to sew (as often as we are able.)

We met last Sunday for the first time in what feels like FOREVER!!!

Here's what we did...

I started in on my Pecking Order quilt:

Helena had cutting to do for her own Pecking Order quilt from stash paired with background purchased on a (fairly) recent Pineapple Fabrics shopping trip:

Britt worked on making some additional blocks for her quilt:

After finishing a few extra blocks for my expanded design...

Ta da!!  It's starting to look like a quilt:

 Time to SEW pairs of blocks together:

Hmm... What is Britt up to???  Cutting some Bonus HSTs...

... For this little beauty...

... You can tell by her smile that she is delighted with her design:

Helena finished some of her blocks, but was concerned that her fabric choices wouldn't stand out enough.  I think she's wrong.  After all, not EVERY quilt needs to be BOLD and in your face BRIGHT:

Look how darling Britt's block turned out, but it's NOT destined to be a pin cushion, as hoped:

Time passes.  And then, there were TWO:

Oops!  Helena is jumping on the Bonus HST bandwagon, too:

What a fun filled day.  Thanks for having us over, B!! It was SEW wonderful for the three of us to spend time together.  Let's hope we don't have to wait as long for next time.

Until next time...
Piece to PEACE!!!

Mail Call Monday - MORE Hearts for Christchurch, NZ

Welcome to another edition of Mail Call Monday!!  I'm here to tell you about the package that I received in the mail last week (AFTER the release of last week's MCM post.)

Yay!!!

It was another squishy package:

It came with a note from the author of In Stitches with Bonnie blog:

Additional funds to help cover the international shipping once all the blocks arrive:

And... Four blocks to be sent to Angels in Gumboots:

Thank you to Bonnie in Virginia for the lovely blocks!  I will inquire about the blue and purple blocks, but the green ones will definitely be headed to New Zealand.

I'm waiting on two more sets of blocks to arrive and then, it will be off to the Post Office with them all.

Until next time...
Sew for a Cause!!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC19 - Week 16

Welcome to Week 16 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  I am pleased to report that I sewed this week.  More than once!  :o))

Take a look...

SUNDAY - I spent the day with my two best quilting buds.  It was SEW wonderful to see them, again.  It's been AGES since we've been able to get together!  Special thanks to B for inviting us over.

I laid out the blocks for my Pecking Order quilt...

... And paired up columns and sewed blocks together, then grabbed them all up when it was time to go home:

Why, Joyful???

Well, Column 5 gave me a bit of trouble.  Block stack 10 apparently got turned and I noticed, but didn't pay attention to it.  Now, I get to enjoy the inevitable fact of quilting...

If you SEW, so shall you RIP!!!

MONDAY - Thanks to Dee Dee from Quilt Bee, I was able to start an H2H quilt this evening.  She handed TWO bags of blocks over on Saturday.  Inspirations struck after dinner tonight, so I put together a few more of her 4-Patch parts - in AQUA for the RSC, of course:

I'm going to add muslin pieces to fill in each of the larger sections between the 4-Patch blocks to create a quilt:

This should make a nice quilt to contribute to Jack's Basket.

TUESDAY - I received a squishy in today's mail.  I'll post about it in NEXT week's Mail Call Monday.

I also made my 1st two Tiny Tuesday blocks.  First, cutting scraps:

Then sewing the rounds of the Courthouse Steps block:

I'm happy to have done some AQUA sewing:

WEDNESDAY - This morning was Knit Group.  Funny thing...  I never ever took out my yarn!  It was my first time there in a month and there was just too much catching up to do.

Hilary shared her rainbow ADVENTurous Wrap:

(Before and) After lunch we did a bit of shopping, of course, I just had to check out the AQUA rack:

After shopping, I decided that I needed to prepare my hoofies for summer.  Hey!  What else would you do on the first day of the year that it hit the 80* mark on the thermometer?!

What color did you choose, Joyful?!?!

(As if there was any doubt) I chose a lovely shade of deep teal:

Inspired by the fun I had last night, I decided to quilt a bit on my Commission Basket:

If you look closely at the next photo, you MIGHT see the problem:

Removed from the sewing machine, you can see that there are more layers than a quilted item normally requires (or desires) and they are not in the proper order.

Shown below is the quilt top, followed by the batting.  So far, so good!  Next, you see the lining (face up) beneath the batting.  Yep!  That's where things begin to go wrong.  I flipped that piece so you could glimpse the Decor Bond fusible interfacing peeking out of the very bottom of the stack:

Therefore, my trusty seam ripper is at the ready:

The lining of the basket wasn't even supposed to be quilted!!!  Ugh!

THURSDAY - My Weekly Quilt Group (now visited only on occasion) met this morning.  I actually made it there and caught some AQUA in action just around the corner from the meeting:

Jean's current "Kitchen Quilt" offered a selection of AQUA:

As did Cheryl's binding project for the day:

Jean's most recently quilted project was loaded with AQUA...

And, just look what I brought home:

The scrap from Jean's quilt AND this little beauty:

It's an Artist Trading Card made of "starter/stoppers" (my word for the technique I taught my friend when she complained about triangle points being "eaten" by her machine.) Dee Dee found these under her sewing table while cleaning up:

Thank you, Dee Dee, for the super cute ATC!!

It was a happy spot in a sad day for quilters.

Sad day, Joyful???

I found out that the incomparable, Liberated Quiltmaker Extraordinaire, Gwen Marston passed away yesterday.  What a loss for the quilting community at large.  :o((

FRIDAY - It's Friday and I took some time to trim up the last of my Bonus HSTs from my Pecking Order quilt.  Pictured below, one of the closest to our AQUA Color of the Month for the RSC:

I wanted to attend Friday Night Sew-In!!  Well, that was the plan...

SEW... Then, I agreed to sit at my next door neighbor's house.  They are moving back to England soon and had tickets to DPAC, but no one to watch the offspring.  Good neighbor to the rescue.  

That's all fine and good, BUT...

Here is what happened instead:

WEATHER ALERT! Track Severe Weather in Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Click Here to get The Weather Center!

The SEVERE WEATHER turned out to be a TORNADO that went through approximately ONE MILE from our house.  YIKES!!!  That was a LITTLE too close for comfort.

SATURDAY - I'm really surprised by how fast 7 days can pass.  It has somehow rolled around to LINK PARTY day, again.  Please join Angela and the other RSC Quilters for our weekly showcase of the Color of the Month.

Until next time...
Get SCRAPPY!!!