It's almost the weekend!!

I told you I would take some photos last night and I did. Here is what one of the burp cloths looks like that I made for our craft show. I think it turned out rather well.



So here you can see the nine patches I have received from the swap. I am missing one because the spider ones we re-did didn't have enough to make one for me or Pauline. We are planning on supplementing them anyway. As for the themed ones...aren't they too adorable?? I love them all. I have 2 crow blocks, from PTM. She is making me a third one too. I only have one of my owls finished but plan on making the other 2 to put in this as well. I think the themed ones may be the front and the 9 patches the back, but we will see.

I still need to stitch around the spider block too. I have found a couple of other things I think I want to add to the quilt so will be making a few more of those too, but you will have to wait for that = ) And I am planning on doing individual swaps for a few more blocks too. It will all be on temporary hold for now until I finish the LTW projects though. I began the cutting on it last night, there is a lot of cutting. I am going to get to use Thangles again too. I have not used those for a long time, since one of my first quilts. Should make it go quickly, no marking and no thinking eh?

I handed the bindings over to PTM last night too so that is great. She is such a peach!

On top of all that my blogging friend, Allie, called me last night and we are going to meet IRL at the Sewing Expo this Sat. I am very excited about that. I have never been to the Expo and I'm even more excited that I get to meet Allie. If you haven't done so already, stop by her blog and say I sent you! She is a sweetie!!

Packages in the Mail

You may remember that I was talking about this amazing fabric by Ariel awhile back. Isn't is adorable? It is a little expensive but she has it printed and so it is one of a kind and amazingly adorable. You should go and check her out.



Then, as you know, I was involved in a Halloween swap with Jane over at Jane's Fabrics. I fell in love with this witch made by one of the other swappers, Mary. I sent her an email asking if she would like to swap one on one with me and so here is my witch! She also sent along another 9 patch too. I guess this means I need to make another 9 patch to send to her along with an owl. thanks, Mary, she is so creepy!

Then Cheryl, over at Polka Dots and Rick Rack sent me a template and directions to make burp cloths for our Christmas craft show this December. I have managed to make up a few and cut out quite a lot. I will show you those another time. I need to take some pictures too.

I have also become a stunt sewer for LTW. She is much too busy to get her quilts finished so I offered to help. I am working on a quilt for her mom and I will be sure to take some photos tonight so I can tell you all about it tomorrow.

And I almost forgot, I have the Space baby quilt back and will need to bind and label. In addition that teeny, tiny cat wall hanging, I got that back from LTW too. Now I will need to see if PTM will work on the binding for me, hee hee.

I guess I should say that I have received all the Spooktacular Swap blocks in the mail too. I love how this will turn out. I am swapping with a few individual folks outside the regular swap too. I guess you will all want to see the blocks too huh? OK, I will take those pictures tonight too, *sigh*. thanks, Faith for tagging the aqua cat for me. I love her!!

Creepy, Crawly Spiders

I went over to my friend, Pauline's to help her work on the spiders for the Spooktacular swap. Sharon was a little behind so Pauline offered to help her out. I knew how much work it would be so I offered to help her help Sharon. It took us a little over 4 and a half hours but all the spider blocks are fused. Yep, not stitched around, just fused. That's how they will go to their new homes. We did not have enough time to stitch them down. I had designed these spiders but Pauline and I both traced, and cut and fused until they were all finished. They look pretty awesome as a group don't you think?


Since we took all this time to do them we decided we would just keep the 2 we wanted out. Pauline chose the green one and I chose the aqua one (shocker,yes, I know).



The 3 spiders are adorable too so I may just have to make tow more of these for myself, and Pauline too of course. I thought the purple one was cute too and the only purple one of that type. It was difficult to decide which one to keep.


I hope the ladies in the swap love them too. If any of the swappers want to trade a spider for something, let me know. The background may be different, but it will be some kind of a web.

I know that it is fun to be a part of a swap. I really like doing it, but it is a big time commitment too. As much as we all like to be a part, please consider the amount of time it takes to produce a quality product for others before you sign up for a swap. You would not want to send something you would not want to receive. This means you need to follow the rules of the swap as far as design and size of the blocks or whatever the rules for your swap are. This makes for a positive experience for everyone.

Pauline's Crow Blocks

If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know that I am in the Spooktacular Swap over at Jane's blog. So is my friend Pauline. These are 2 of her blocks that she is sending for her crow block. I love these 2 a lot. She made some other ones too but these are the 2 I liked the best and, ready for this? If you are in the swap and in a different group from us if you want to swap one of your theme blocks with her she is willing to do one of these 2 designs to swap with you too! So if you are interested, please email me and I will give you her email address.



I know that several blogs have addressed the issue of copyrights too but I feel compelled to talk about it here. There are many free patterns available on the web. You can feel free to share them with your friends and they can share them with their friends. Now if you purchase a pattern you can share with a friend too but you are breaking the copyright of that pattern. I do share patterns occasionally with friends, but they are usually originals and they give them back when they are finished. I don't expect that when I share a pattern that I have purchased that the person I have shared with will make copies and share with multiple friends. Remember that the designer loses their share of the money you and your friends would have spent on that pattern, the quilt shop loses revenue from the sale of the pattern also. How sad would it be the next time you want to go to your favorite local quilt shop only to find the doors closed because everyone was sharing patterns and they weren't making enough money to stay open? Very sad indeed. By copying copyrighted patterns you are stealing from the designer, the shop owner and the person you "borrowed" the pattern from. Everyone is in the same pinch with the economy these days and the reality is that both designers and shops are in business to make money.

OK, now I am stepping off my soap box = )

Tuesday Night

I arrived home from work early as DD needed to go to a job interview. I decided to take a nap. I never take naps. I fell asleep with Jack laying right next to me purring away. When I woke up (2 hours later) I came downstairs to find Aiden laying on the couch on top of my fabric piles, while Mosen found his way to the top of my book basket. I love cats!


I had to finish my purple on the owl eyes so I got that done and loaded up the car with 4, count them 4 IKEA bags to deliver for LTW to the church. Amazing how productive she is. In addition, I thought I would show you one of her new quilting patterns. This quilt was done with different wine fabrics on the front and so she put these grapes all over for the quilting. I love how they looked!

I brought my flock of owls to show the CL's last night too. OK Jane, these bad babies are going to be packed and sent (along with Pauline's Crows) to you leaving on Thursday. We will be keeping one each of our own and I am going to let Pauline choose the one she wants and will put a note on that one so Jane can send it to her. I really like how they came out. Everyone was inspecting the backs. Why is that? Then they can see any of my mistakes, boo.

I haven't forgotten about the give away for me 400th post. I am gathering "stuff and things" to put into it and will be posting about it soon.

I did post the 2 newest house blocks in the My Neighborhood BOM on my website. So if you are ready for the next installment go and take a look. The link is also on my sidebar

I'M A WINNER TOO!!

Ok, OK, there is so much excitement over here at Mama Spark's life I can barely stand it! I just won a giveaway too over at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure!! It is a new to me, book!!! So you win and I win it's a win-win kinda day.

Speaking of which this is my 26th wedding anniversary today!! My DH won't be home until after midnight tonight so we will celebrate either tomorrow or this weekend. I don't know what we will do but something fun, I hope!

In addition, this is my 400th post!!!! Who knew I had so much to say in my life?? Hope I haven't bored you all up to this point! I want to do a give away to celebrate that too so I will think on it and see what I can come up with. I'll have to get back to you on this one.

Now I wanted to post about the flock that is growing at my house. Flock of owls I mean. I have them all fused down, all 12 of them, and I can't decide which one I like the best.

Here is my Happy flock:


Here is my Sleepy flock:


Here is my Grumpy flock:

I just need to stitch around them all and then send them to Jane for the swap (yep that's *all* I have to do). No problem, should be done in a couple of weeks days, since they are due SEPTEMBER 1st, no problem!

I made a table runner awhile back and decided to give it to my SIL that turned 50 and she immediately put it on her table! Looks good. It matches the anniversary quilt I made them. I know their colors! I have a small wall hanging done with those fabrics that could go there too but it has cats on it and they are dog people so i'll probably keep it.

I also worked on getting my Fresh Squeezed quilt done. My GF Pauline did all the hand stitching of the binding and gave it back to me recently. It has been so rainy here I couldn't take a proper photo to show it to you but here you go

The last thing is that I wanted to share some of my beautiful garden with you. Here is my fabulous Moon flower plant. The flowers open up at night. You can see them closed up during the day. This is the front of my house.

Yesterday I went to a baby shower for my niece that just had the most beautiful baby (I'll post about that tomorrow). I saw this beautiful Monarch on the way out of my front door. It was so beautiful! Have a wonderful day!!

Meet Sleepy

I know I just posted but I am working on the owls and finally got a photo of the elusive Sleepy Owl. (and Yes, Diane I am considering making the "Dwarf Owls", what do you think??)

I give you...Sleepy Owl



I will have to use several different backgrounds as I only had one piece of this but I am planning on making them all dark.

Welcome Sleep Owl into the flock!

Meet Happy

I had Quilt-Till-You-Wilt today at the church so I brought, what else? The owls. I managed to get all 4 happy owls cut out and I actually got 2 fused to the background. Unfortunately the color of the background didn't show up very well, it is kind of washed out but it is a spooktacular green!


There are 2 versions of Happy. I will be making 4 of him 2 each way. Which way do you like best??

I got all the stitching done around the centers of the Big Ten blocks except for Northwestern as LTW needs to embroider the cat and then I will put the "N" around it and do the stitching that way. The most difficult is always the Nittany Lion of Penn State. I really hate going around that one, but they are done! YEAH!!

At 7:47 tomorrow morning my sweet baby girl (DD2) turns 21!! I always thought it fitting that she was born at that time with her daddy being a pilot and all.

Hopefully I will be able to get all the rest of the owls fused tomorrow before we go to take said DD out for dinner to celebrate her big day!