Wednesday Night Quuilting

You are NOT going to believe how much I have to tell you today. Remember I said that LTW got the Curious George quilt all quilted? Well she did. It is adorably quilted with monkeys and bananas all over it. Then I handed it off to PTM and guess what? She handed it back to me all bound last night. I just need to make a label and sew it on tonight and it will be ready to gift to Mason tomorrow (I hope).

I don't know how well you can see the quilting but trust me it is too cute!

Yesterday at work LTW handed me back the JRQAL quilt ALL FINISHED!!! I squared it up last night at home and then brought it along with the binding to quilting and handed it over to PTM. She really does do the most wonderful job with those bindings. You should see her perfect little mitered corners!! Maybe I will go over to her house in the near future and have her make a binding tutorial. I know I learned a few new things from this perfectionist!! She's the BEST!! I thought you might like to see it quilted, front and back so here ya go.

See that strip through the middle? I really needed some more length and thought, now how will I do that? So I measured the top to see how much I needed and cut the green in half. I had already made the binding so I used all the left over bits from the JR to make the strips that you see on either side of the Kona Snow strip. I love the fact that I used all but about 8" from that jelly roll to make this quilt! LOVE IT!!

Now I have a question for you all. I need some advice. I am going to give this quilt to Matt (the young Marine that was injured in the war that you all helped me make a quilt for) as he is getting married. Here comes the part I need advice for. He has been married before, so this is the second marriage. Good so far. The engagement party is this Sat, they are actually getting married in Dec in Vegas. When possible I like to label my quilts by writing directly on the quilt somewhere on the back but...what if this is called off before the wedding or they split up and the label is permanently written on the back? Would you make a label and sew it on instead? I was really excited to be able to write it in a line on the Kona just above the second strip of the Verna. What would you do? I like the look of the writing directly on the quilt over a label, but I sure would hate for the quilt to not be used if something happens. YIKES!!! I guess I should add that I am planning on giving it to them on Sat since I doubt I will be able to attend the wedding. So I need to figure it out soon. Let me know what you all think.

In addition to all this, PTM and I worked on our Fall into Fall giveaway stuff. Let me tell you that you will not be disappointed!! We have an added twist for you to win along with the "stuff", so I hope you will all check back tomorrow when all will be revealed!! Tease, I know. You are not the first ones to call me that!! Until tomorrow...XOP

Quickly

I just have a minute to blog so I have a few things to tell you all. PTM and I have decided on our giveaways. You will be amazed at what we are going to give away for the Fall into Fall Quilt Blogger's Giveaway so make sure you stop back on October 1st for a chance to win!!


(Aiden is telling me to hurry up already)

I have decided to go to NYC with my DH. We leave on Oct 17th and will be there that night. I have all week alone in the city (he has to go to flight school) so if there are any NYC bloggers (or someone wanting to venture into the city) that might want to meet up for lunch or quilt shopping or whatever, let me know as I am open to it all. I am meeting a friend that I used to work with either Tues or Wed but she is flexible and I think it is just for lunch. Anyway,I sure would love to meet some fellow bloggers so let me know!!!

I'll just be pining away waiting to hear from you guys (just like my dog Laxy) so hurry up already and put a wag in my tail, let's meet up in NYC!!!

The Rest of the Weekend

Now we will go on to the things I managed to get finished this weekend. I sewed together the back for the JRQAL top using the green I showed you previously. It needed to be slightly longer so I cut it in half and took ~ a 10" strip of Kona Snow and bordered it with left over pieces from the Verna JR. Then I sewed that in the middle of the green and voila, my back was finished. No photo, I forgot to take one and I am handing it off today. I also got the binding made for this quilt. YEAH, one down!

Then the MSU football game was on so I felt like I needed to do some hand work while watching the game. I tried embroidering on the IKEA towel, but the weave is so loose I didn't like the results, although I did get one finished. So I picked up my Rabbits Prefer Embroidery and finished one of those blocks. (Sorry about the bad photo, but at least there was one!)

Another finish!!

Next up I had pinned a Texas fleece panel to some black fleece and I needed to sew around it to actually finish it. I sewed, turned and top stitched and now this one is finished and waiting for Christmas to be a gift for my DS!

Yeah, another finish!! Don't you just love it when you get stuff done??

Next up? I had the body of the crazy rail quilt done and it just needed the borders, so I got those put on, seamed and back and again, another finish!

I just love this quilt, so easy to make and so forgiving! Off to LTW's house now! I cut the binding but did not sew it together yet.

I kid you not, I literally had this quilt folded up on my sewing table, I turned around to pick up something and when I turned back this is what I saw.

Autumn was already playing quilt inspector! I think it passed, LOL.

So my Sat and Sunday were pretty productive. I feel pretty good about that. I have decided to go to NYC with my DH for the week. As my BFF PTM said, since I am driving I could take it with me to work on. We will see how far I am by the time we go.

Now I have a question for you all. Remember Matt? The soldier friend of mine that we made a quilt for after he was injured in Afghanistan? Well he is getting married in December in Vegas. There will be an engagement party this weekend. I want to give them a quilt. What about the JRQAL quilt? Do you think this would be appropriate? It turned out to be a little smaller than a twin, more like a throw. They will live in Hawaii where Matt is stationed so I thought it would fit in well there. OK or too girly? Thoughts?

Belleville Quilt Show 2010

I was a busy gal this weekend and it all started with the Belleville quilt show. PTM and I decided to go early to see all our quilts. I entered 12 and she entered 11. I gathered up quilts I had given away and put them into the show. If you recall I also made 2 blocks for the block contest and a mini quilt for the silent auction. The show was kind of small and the lighting was terrible! I would have arranged the quilts differently but it is what it is, right?
If you want to see the quilts I took photos of you can go to my Flickr account and look, since I took mostly my own I won't bore you with those again!! Here are all the blocks for the block contest though.


You can see PTM's crow on the skeleton block and my owl block too. I had the Canton Quilters make different stars in pinks and brown (the fabric we were given). One of our ladies won! Her star is in the first photo, second row up from the bottom third one in. I voted for that one too but did not remember who had made it. She ended up getting all the pink and brown blocks back along with some additional blocks. That was the deal. The top 3 vote getters split the blocks.

I have to say I was very disappointed in the silent auction. Let's just say I bought back my Mermaid quilt for $5. I think that says it all.

All in all this was not a particularly great show and I am not sure I would go to so much trouble next year.

After the show, PTM and I went to the Sewing Expo in Novi. Smaller than last year and they charged $14 just to get in! I did buy a few things and will take some pictures when my camera batteries are re-charged. I miss my little camera, SOB!! I *need* to replace it. DH offered his for my use but I want my own. Soon, very soon. I told him I wanted to re-buy mine but he wants me to get a new one. I loved my camera. They don't make it anymore though, so would have to buy off eBay. I'm good with that though. I did some looking and I think mine is better than some of the newer ones. I know there are some good things but not sure if they are good enough yet. We'll have to see how that all turns out!

I was so productive this weekend, quilt wise but I have no pictures to show you as I am waiting for those darn batteries to charge. You will have to wait until tomorrow to see all the wonderfullness I have to show!! LOL.

Have a wonderful evening!! I'm now off to pay bills. YIPPEE!! I know, I lead an incredibly exciting life and you all wish you could be me, right?? Right??

Wednesday and Thursday

I know, I'm behind, so I will post now and probably later today too. First things first. I took Wed off from work to go to bring my quilts to Belleville for the quilt show. PTM and I went out together thinking that we would help set up too. We got there and they didn't need/want our help so we dropped our things off and left. We decided to go to our friend, Cori's house and see what new Moda goodies she had that we might need. That was a mistake, LOL. She has an online quilt shop so always has lots of good stuff at her house! She has all 40 bolts of Bliss and only $3.75 for half a yard!!! Well, PTM and I put some things aside and went back to her house. I had cut a million pillowcases out one time when I was at her house but we never finished them. We went down "the basement" and finished the cutting so we could work on them at quilting on Wed night.

On Wed night at quilting PTM and I worked on pillowcases for charity. We managed to finish 8. Six for charity and 2 for DD2 (MSU ones which she took yesterday).

We will work on some more next week. This meant I didn't get my Crazy Rail finished but I am hoping to get to that this weekend.

I had asked Cori about a backing for my JRQAL quilt but needed to measure it to know how much I needed. I did this and called her to see if I could come over and pick it up after quilting on Wed. It was almost 10pm but she has trouble sleeping, like I do so I went over. I ended up with this for the backing, and picked up a layer cake of Dream On too.

I am thinking that I will use this for the next QAL that Moose on the Porch is hosting in November. Are you going to participate?? If you are interested all the info is here.
I ended up staying at Cori's visiting until around 11:30!! We shared a glass of wine and it was so good to see her and talk with her. We need to do this more often! I'll pencil you in more Cori!! She has a great shop you should go and check her out.
Well, Thursday came early, I have to say! I worked late and then headed to the gym. Then I needed to bring some stuff over to PTM's house. We were talking about what we want to give away for the Fall into Tall Giveaway and she showed me some tea towels she got at IKEA. She just got a new book that had the cutest Redwork birds in it so you never know what I will do, I will have to see if I can get it done, LOL. I ended up at IKEA (about 2 blocks away from my house, jealous??) I found these there.

On top of that I found this quirky fabric too.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it but I loved it. The birds are quite large, maybe a back?

Now I have a dilemma and need some help. My DH just asked me to go to NYC for a week with him. He is going for flight school so I will be on my own again, but the hotel and the way out there is paid for (we will drive). The dilemma? The trip is on Oct 11 for a week. If I make it to the next challenge in the McCall's Design Star contest, the challenge begins Oct 8 and I would only have a month to do it. Do I stay or do I go now??

Fall-O-Ween Blog Hop

Ten amazing designers are lined up for a fun "Fall-O-Ween" themed hop. Each day they will bring you a great project and 10 themed blog posts starting September 27 and ending 10 days later on October 6.

Listed below are the designer and their designated day to feature a FREE project.

Sept. 27 Gudrun from GE Designs: http://www.gudrun.typepad.com/
Sept. 28 Sandy from Pieces from my Heart : http://www.piecesfrommyheart-sgervais.blogspot.com/
Sept. 29 Roseann from Rosebud's Cottage. http://www.rosebudscottage.typepad.com/
Sept. 30 Kari from New Leaf Stitches : www.newleafstitches.com/blog
Oct. 1 Terry from Atkinson Designs : http://www.terryatkinson.typepad.com/
Oct. 2 Heather from Anka's Treasures : http://www.ankastreasures.wordpress.com/
Oct. 3 Terri from Whimsicals : http://www.whimsicals.typepad.com/
Oct. 4 Carrie from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co: http://www.lavieenrosie.typepad.com/
Oct. 5 Linda from Linda Lum DeBono: http://www.lindalumdebono.blogspot.com/
Oct. 6 Pat from Pat Sloan & Co.: http://www.patsloan.typepad.com/

Topics
Day 1: color
Day 2: scents
Day 3: taste
Day 4: texture
Day 5: clothes
Day 6: decorations
Day 7: gatherings
Day 8: traditions
Day 9: haunts
Day 10: quilts

Busy, Busy Monday!

I was on kind of a roll last night. I finally got some pics of my 12 Days of Christmas block 3 so here they are.



I went to my September/October list of things I wanted to do and thought, OUCH, I better get cracking or I will not be able to finish this list! I doubt I will be able to finish the entire list but I am making headway! The McCall's challenge is over Oct 4th and if I make the next one I will be scrambling to get that designed and done.

So I decided that I needed to get the Curious Geroge quilt top out and try to finish that one so I can hand it over to LTW. I needed to get the coordinating fabric out to make the borders and I decided not to use the additional CG fabric I had for any additional sashing. This one if going to Mason, my friend's grandson. I used the CG flannel for the back and this is what the front and back looked like.

Tonight is the first meeting of the "Biggest Loser" at the gym, then I have my one on one meeting with the personal trainer and get measured, then off to Body Vive class. I should be home around 8:30 when all of that is done.

Today I came into work alone. DD1 is in Las Vegas visiting her BF. They have not been able to see each other in person for a year. I am glad she is getting time to see him before she begins her new job. It feels weird not having her sitting right next to me, helping me. I am sad that this time had come to an end. She needed to get a real job though so that's a good thing. Time moves on!

What an Awesome Weekend!

MSU won in overtime against Notre Dame with a fake field goal!! So SWEET!!


Then our poor coach had a heart attack and had to be rushed to surgery for a stint. I understand he is doing well though. Hopefully we will see him back on the field soon.

In other weekend news, I met my friend, Shelby, for lunch. It was a nice time and we don't get to see each other too often. When I got home DD1 and a friend wanted to use my sewing machine to make a cover for her arm so it won't get all scratched up by the peacock landing on it. There went my sewing time!

Sunday was the best though. I finished my Jelly Roll Quilt Along top!!!

Don't you just love when the sun shines from behind your top? It almost looks like stained glass!!

In addition I finished block 4 from the FQS BOM and did the second block of the third month (I had one finished but gave the first 3 to LTW for her birthday). It was too dark for photos so I will take some today and post them later.

I am slowly working my way though some UFO's and it feels good! Now I need to make a back and the binding for the JRQAL top and send it off to LTW!! How was your weekend?

Fall into Fall Giveaway

Have you heard the BIG news? There is going to be a massive giveaway by many blogs on October first. Did you notice the scarecrow on my side bar? Well that's the link to join in the fun. I have signed up to join in. You set the parameters and decide what you want to giveaway. No peeks until you get to post on October first. I see the Fat Quarter Shop blog and EQ company are joining in. How about you? You know you want to. Click on the scarecrow and go and sign up. Then grab the scarecrow for your own blog! Let me know when you do so I can come to your blog and enter your giveaway on Oct 1st!!

Cute Hexie Caddie Tutorial

I just stumbled upon a tutorial at Penny's Hands blog for a darling hexie caddy tutorial. If you are all caught up with the latest hexie craze you may want to check it out! It is adorable!!

Weighed in this morning at WW and was up another 0.4. Plateauing really SUCKS!! Maybe this weight loss challenge is just what I need to get back on track. I made some yummy bran muffins this am from a recipe I got from PTM. You make up this gigantic amount of batter that you refrigerate. Then when you want muffins you scoop some out and bake them. It will make 5 dozen muffins! At first I wasn't too sure I liked them but I made a few changes and now I love them and they are WW friendly with the changes too. If you are interested let me know and I can post the recipe.

TTFN

Pea-weep!

As promised here is a photo of Osirus and Blue. They are sitting on DD1 and Osirus, the female is on the left while Blue, the male is on the right. They have gotten so BIG.

Yesterday I had the brilliant idea of having her hold Osirus and take a video as she flies to me. So here you go.

The crazy thing about this is that she is a fool for yellow squash! Oh and the Pea-weep is the noise they make along with just weep,weep weep, when they are crying for our attention.

Please note that this is my living room/sewing room. What a nice mess huh? Well, you can all see where I sew now, LOL.

Tomorrow is the weigh in for the challenge at the gym. I ate what I wanted so I know I will be up a little but that's good for the first weigh in. WW will be ending and I am not going to pay to continue but will do it on my own so the challenge comes at a good time. I am meeting my friend, Shelby, for lunch tomorrow and then I hope to be able to do some sewing. I feel so far behind and have so much to do!! Hope you all have a fun and productive weekend!!

Lots to talk about.

That's right, I really do have quite a bit to share. I will start by saying that I laid out my JEQAL blocks and realized that I needed to re-make one of the blocks. I had three that were mostly white and it looked weird, so I changed one, the easiest one, of course, did you even have to ask. Here is the new one.

I really like how this one came out too. It looks soooo much better with the rest of the blocks. Next I began putting my crazy rail quilt together. You can see all the rows here
I managed to get the entire center sewn on Wed night at quilting. Now on to the borders!
I ordered some Holiday Happy from Sharon's shop and it came this week too. Isn't it pretty??

She had a wonderful sale but I missed out on the Santa gnomes. Maybe I will pick some up at another time, we,ll see. Stop in and see Miss Sharon and tell her I sent you.

As you know I entered the McCall's Design Star contest and I am a finalist. I thought, since my top is posted I would show you a photo of the top (and one of me too).

I am so happy with how it came out. If you have a minute use the link on my side bar to go and vote for me. If you wanted to leave a comment I sure would appreciate that too. One quilt has 42 comments already! I think I have 8. (ohhh all my insecurities are coming out again...)
This morning I opened the front door to let Jack out and I looked down and saw this

Well, hello there Mr. Toad, I said, and he just looked at me. He was literally knocking on the door, too funny.

OK, enough chit chat for now, got to go, eat and get ready to go out to a quilting meeting. I did finally take some photos of our peachicks, even a video of one of them flying to me to land on my arm but that will have to wait until tomorrow. They are so cute and getting so BIG. Maybe I will have my DD1 take a photo of my awesome scar face from fighting off the Ninja warriors to share with you tomorrow too. Wow won't you all be surprised at that!? Until tomorrow then.

Voting Begins Today

Voting begins today. You can now click on the button on the left side bar to go directly to my quilt and vote for it.

If you get a minute please go and vote for me. I appreciate your time and effort!

I won two Giveaways!

Yep, I sure did. I won this wonderful book from one of the giveaways.


The other one is in a Halloween Arts Giveaway here. This is the item I won. It's called "Guess Who Gourd. Cool huh? Made by Deborah Adams and you can find her blog here.


I have been busy with life but promise I will be back soon. Voting begins tomorrow on the first challenge quilt in the McCall's Design Star contest. I don't have the link yet but it will be available at midnight tonight. I will post it on my blog tomorrow. You can vote once a day on each computer you have. I sure would appreciate it if you would take a minute over the next few weeks to go and vote for me!

Now off to the gym for Body Vive!

New Moda Designer

Oh man oh man am I ever excited to tell you what I just found out. Do any of you follow Aneela at Comfortstitching? She will be launching a new fabric line for Moda at fall market. She gives a sneak peek on her blog too. Go over, take a peek and tell her congrats!! Her work is adorable. Way to go Aneela!!

Time Keeps On Slippin Into the Future

Now I understand that phrase! Every time I think I have a plan time slips by and the plan is changed.I went to quilting last night and thought about all the things I *need* to do and what did I end up doing? None of what I had planned, LOL. Well, maybe just a little before I went there. I did manage to get the sashing and outer borders cut for the JRQAL quilt. I still need to cut the corner stones, and the inner sashing. I have a plan for the quilt that will use some more of the JR up but don't want to make the cuts until I have the inside together and can measure it, since my outer border will involve some...MATH. Hopefully not that much!

You may be wondering what I did bring to work on right? Well, I had some rectangles cut to make a Crazy Rail quilt. I brought those. I did the additional slicing and dicing and sewed them back together and voila ended up with this stack of flannel goodness.

I have made this pattern in the past. It is so easy to make and yields a twin sized quilt. I got all the blocks done in less than 3 hours, even all pressed. Now I need to cut the flannel borders and then I will lay it out and begin sewing next Wed at the next quilt meeting. I should have it done quite quickly. It's set 7 x 10. You make more blocks than that but you cut the rest in half, sew end to end and use in the border. You will see shortly! I am trying to get some of my projects done in the small amount of time I have before I potentially have to make another challenge quilt (or at least I hope I get to do that).

I went to the gym in the am yesterday and 5 fire trucks showed up to the coney island a few stores down. Apparently there was a pretty significant fire. One of the other ladies went out and asked the fireman if we needed to evacuate but he said we didn't so I finished up, showered and left before we might have had to. PHEW, the gym was still there today, so I met PTM there and we worked out together. The next weight loss challenge begins on Sat. That should help me kick start my weight loss (I hope). I followed PTM home to borrow her table top light (just like the one I own). My bulb finally burned out of my flip Ott light but Joann doesn't sell the right bulb so I had to order it, and it is back ordered. I really need that light if I want to sew when it gets dark outside as the room I sew in doesn't have the best lighting.

Oh I almost forgot, DD1 got a permanent job today!!!!! A real, live, big girl job with benefits and everything!! She will be working at the same place as I do (University of Michigan) but for a different department so she will not be working in the lab with me anymore. We will still ride in together though. Isn't that great??!!

Ahhh, Labor Day Weekend

How was your Labor Day weekend? It is nice to have some time off from work. For some reason that extra day off really helps doesn't it? Any everyone's kiddos should be back to school today here in beautiful Michigan. I only have one kiddo still in school and I am not sure college counts, although, it sure hurts the old pocket book when they register and get books, OUCH!

My weekend fun began while driving home from work with my DD1. I like to look for hawks as I drive along. Now here is a weird fact for you about me, I find that whenever I am worrying or really trying to puzzle something out and I see a hawk it means a solution is near. If I see a crow it will not be a positive end to whatever I am thinking about. Weird but true for me. Do any of you have talisman? Anyway, I digress, so we were driving home and she shouts out hawk and then just stares at me until I finally ask, "What?" To which she replies, "It was a dead hawk on the side of the road". Now I know you are all asking why does this matter? Because I have a history of picking up raptor road kill and taking it to have it preserved. It is illegal to keep even a feather of a protected bird, but the DNR doesn't want them (Told me to throw a Great Horned Owl in the trash, but not to keep it!) I found out that I can donate them to a school though so this is what I do. I don't think it had been dead long either. Of course it was on the highway and I had to go a really long way around to circle back to it but I did and DD1 jumped out and picked it up and put it into a box I was going to use for mailing a package to someone. Once we got it home I put it into a plastic bag and put it into my freezer. Funny story with that too. DH went out to the freezer to get something for dinner and came into the house and asked, "Why is there a dead hawk in our freezer?" Not surprised or upset just wondering, LOL!! He's a keeper!! The hawk will be going to Grand Valley to a professor there that teaches taxidermy at the college but here is what it looked like before we put it into the freezer.

Most of the rest of my weekend was uneventful. I did a lot of work around the house, cleaning and laundry etc. I did some reading which took up a lot of my time. then yesterday I decided I needed to do some quilting. Here are the last two Jelly Roll Quilt Along blocks finished.

Whew I can cross those off the to do list now. I am waiting for some inner border fabric so I can finish this off.

I started a new "to do" list. It included setting my Sept and Oct goals, so here they are:
1-Cut sashing and borders for JRQAL blocks CHECK
2-Assemble JRQAL quilt CHECK and give to the quilter CHECK (DONE AND GIFTED)
3-Cut sashing and borders for Between Friends quilt and put with the ever growing blocks until I can assemble them (I am using the blocks as leaders and enders and have half of the blocks I need for this top already done!)
4-Make the Curious George quilt for Mason CHECK (DONE AND GIFTED)
5-Trim all the t-shirts that I have fused for the t-shirt quilt
6-Finish mermaid quilt and turn in for auction CHECK
7-Take out the Halloween quilt from Ellen and begin it.
8-Time permitting make another quilt for MHC with the "man" fabric
9-Cut fabric for Hocuspocusville for LTW's dad to trace for me CHECK
10-Work on finishing the redwork for Rabbits Prefer Embroidery

Since I will have some time before I get another challenge (if I make it through) I thought I should try to finish some of the other quilts up that are sitting around. I think I should be able to get this all finished, time will tell!

The next thing I did was to work on the mermaid quilt. I got the "waves" done and sewn to the top, put the white on top of that and then made a back. I decided to try to quilt this myself as it is small. I love how it looks all pinned up don't you?
Thanks Allie for the basting tutorial, it worked for this one!

Then I gave the quilting a try. I don't quilt my own quilts very often but this was small so I went for it. It took me about 3 hours! Now I remember why I hand them off to LTW! Although there is something satisfying about doing your own quilting too. What do you think of her? The quilting is far from perfect but I am happy with it. It just needs the binding which PTM will do for me and I can donate it to the auction. I need to set a minimum bid, what do you think??


I got a back sewn together (from stash) for the manly quilt I made at the Margaret's Hope Chest Quilt weekend. I will be bringing that one to LTW to do though, too big for me! I'm sure this catches you all up with what's new at my house!

Gifts and Give Aways

I haven't had time to blog about the wonderful gifts Elaine sent to me. The story? A little while ago I posted about a flamingo quilt I made for my DD2. Elaine loved the fabric I used. As it happens I had a ton of that fabric (bought all they had when it was clearanced out). To make a long story short, I sent it to her. I knew I would not ever use it again since I had used it once so she is now the proud owner of some awesome flamingo fabrics. So just before I left for vacation, a package arrived for me from Texas. I do get packages from TX from time to time from my wonderful friend Suzanne. (She and my DS are BIG UT fans!!) Surprise to me, it was from Elaine and here is what I got.

It was some flamingo fabric, a huge flamingo apron (to be repurposed into something else), a set of serving utensils and the cutest little "lawn ornament" display for my table top! Thank you so much, Elaine, I love all the gifts!! I ended up giving DD the serving pieces and the display. I will keep the other to make some things from in the future.

On top of that I entered a give away with MANY different prizes. I sent some blocks for a cancer quilt to Lucia. They were plus/cross blocks. She had several wonderful prizes for the people that contributed and I won! Three Heather Ross FQ's!!!!

Aren't they fabulous?? I was so excited!! Now if I can just win one of those GO cutters that are out there!! LOL.

I am super busy at work at the moment and at home too so not much quilty is going on. I finished the last 2 jelly roll quilt along blocks and will try to get pics soon. I have a plan for how I want to put it together but I need to order some of the coordinating fabric for that, sigh. I can only get it just so far and then I will have to wait for the fabric to arrive in the mail. I am almost done with the second set of waves for the mermaid quilt for the auction too. I need to finish that soon so I can begin quilting it since it is due on Sept 13th! (Just like my challenge quilt).

More when I have some pics to share!

More of the Ohio Trip

I know I promised more from the trip so here I go. We got up and left the Inn to go downtown, Berlin and do some more shopping.
First stop was the local cheese shop where we got to watch them making the cheese. I know the pics aren't the best but they were shot from behind the glass. all my pics of the big vats of liquid separating were blurry but here you can see the cheese curds being shot into the cart with boxes on it. Then you see all the curds in the boxes. They put lids on those boxes and press additional liquid out to form the cheese bricks.

We stayed until the in town shops were open and then drove into the actual town.
I went back to some of the quilt shops and found these goodies at the Helping Hands Quilt shop. Love the Lynette Anderson fabric!



We went to a place called Zinck's fabric outlet and I found some more LA fabric an additional 25% off if you finished the bolt (DH helpfully pointed this out to me!) I didn't want to disappoint him so I bought all they had, about 6 yards.

We went to several antique malls too where I found some "treasures" including these bags of feed sack fabric.

I love the little Japanese figurines out there and when I found this adorable basket of kitties I could not resist them. I know you can't see it very well but I have them perched on top of a vintage spool I also bought.

It was getting on dinner time and we had not decided where to stay. We ended up at the Berlin Hotel. I have to say this was a fabulous place to stay! The rooms were amazing and the 2 person Jacuzzi tub was heavenly. I told DH not to use any bubble bath or anything at the last place we had stayed but he wasn't thinking about that and called me in to a tub filled with bubbles, so proud that he had the tub ready for me. Only he hadn't counted on them "over foaming" when the water jets were turned on. Picture the dishwasher run with dish washing soap rather than soap formulated for the dishwasher!! Needless to say there were bubbles everywhere. It was pretty funny. I thought about taking a bubble bath pic but decided against it (there should be laws against that right??)

We got up the next day and visited a few shops and headed out of town. We passed by this scene of a boy helping his dad on the farm. We also went by this cool old church and graveyard.

We were going to visit the Longaberger basket place. We found it with this HUGE basket. The HQ is in Dresden and the HQ building is a giant basket too.
Here is DH inside the factory outlet store and me in a basket outside the big complex

Passed by this one on the way out, notice the street light height and then you will know how tall that apple basket really was

This is actually the HQ building, amazing huh?

Last stop on the way home was a quilt shop in Mt Vernon, OH. It was called the Paw Patch Quilt Shop and they had lots of cool stuff and the owner was so very nice! This is what I picked up.

Alright, it is really busy at work at the moment so I need to go and take care of some of that so I will talk with you all later. Quilting tonight with the Canton ladies.