Checking In

It's been a while since I last posted so I figured I'd better check in. Things continue to be busy at work and home and I'm mostly staying off the computer at home so I haven't been around to see all of you in a while. I do read thru bloglines but that's just not the same as coming to visit and commenting. I guess I'll just have to carve out a bit of time each night to visit with a few of you at a time. I had planned to at least go around the rings tonight but it's late and I have to get up early in the A.M. I will catch up one day!

As you can see I've been doing a little sewing. Making friends with my new machine. :-)
I belong to a small online group called the Material Girls and we're starting a row robin swap. With a twist. You don't send your rows around. Just make them and send them straight to the owner. After you post a picture so the rest of the participants can see what you've done on each quilt. I've chosen to make Square-in-a-square blocks for my rows. The blocks above are the ones I did for my quilt. I chose a color scheme I've wanted to try for a while just never got around to. Pink, purple and grey. And I really like the way these blocks came out. 8 of them will get sewn into the row. The other 4 will go in the corners of my final border which will be a piano key border using a whole bunch of pink/purple/gray fabrics.

Remember the fabrics that followed me home last month? Well I've finally started my blocks using them. I pulled a purple from my stash for the 4th color and am making a Card Tricks quilt. This is one of my favorite patterns and I've never made one. Not even a single block! So it's about time. All blocks will be the same and I'll probably sash with the pink background print so the cards will float in the background. Not sure what I'll do for borders. I'll worry about them when I get the blocks made. I cut them all out last week and made the one sample block. I'm thinking about making one block each morning when I first get up. That way I know I'll get at least a little sewing in each day. :-)

I've also got my red heartstrings blocks that were sent to me for my birthday sitting beside the machine and will start assembling that top this week. A few more people have said they have blocks ready to mail but I have more than enough red and blue blocks to go ahead a make a quilt of each and any more blocks that come in can go in subsequent quilts. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have a picture of at least a finished top.

What do you do with a new $800 sewing machine? Well if you're a cat you use it as a pillow. LOL! George seems to have made friends with my new machine. Doesn't look all that comfy to me but then cat's have been know to sleep in some really strange places.

It's late and I have to go in early tommorw so I'd better get to bed. Sweet dreams, ladies. :-)