I've gotten a few things finished up (or NEARLY finished up) today and there are still hours left in the day!  WOOHOO!  Got the box of Home of the Brave quilts mailed this morning so hopefully they'll arrive safe and sound.  I ALWAYS worry til I hear from Robin that they've arrived.  I put a rag quilt together for the county hospital (this one's NOT for Camp Crucis..it's next) but have not done all the snipping yet.

Then I got busy and polished off the luggage tags that I'd prepped.  We have a nice little batch going with a few more to come.   And last but not least I did the last two quilt tool caddies (thinkk that makes a total of 8 right now).  They're pretty easy to crank out.

Think I'll go cut and press the binding for my neutrals BOM that I just got back from the longarmer last week!!

I've been working on one of my many, MANY UFO's in addition to a rag quilt for Camp Crucis, binding a couple of quilts and putting labels on 7 more HOB quilts that were finished up by my church group.  These ladies have been BUSY!!  These quilts are boxed up and ready to be sent on their way--now I just need to get my butt to the post office.  UGH!  The picture is just all of the quilts together AND a picture of the super-cool label I put on each quilt (it's super-cool cause I actually figured out how to do it on the 'puter and designed it myself!! LOL).

 
Obviously this one's not stitched on yet!



Tonight is our night once again to serve dinner at the Ronald McDonald house here in Ft. Worth so I've also been cooking this morning.  I'm making a chicken and black bean enchilada casserole.  I haven't been for the past couple of months so I'm really looking forward to it!!

This is not the BEST picture but you get the idea..I finally finished sewing all the blocks together.  I'm kinda lookin' and thinkin' this needs a couple of borders.  I don't think Betsy did borders in the book (I can't find mine right now to check) but, to me, it looks like maybe a smaller inner border and a larger (not GIANT) outer border.  What do you think?

A friend of mine at church has been battling cancer and has undergone the dreaded chemo and radiation treatments.  Prior to all this starting, she had been working on a baby quilt for an expected great granddaughter.  When she became ill and with all the treatments & side effects, she just didn't have the get up and go to get the quilt done.  She asked me if I could help--of COURSE I could.  Though all I had to do was find someone to do the longarm quilting.  So I asked my bud, passed off the quilt to her on Mon. and picked it up TODAY.  Is that great customer service or WHAT?!!  LOL

 She actually did the embroideried blocks FIFTY YEARS ago and intended to put them into a quilt for her DAUGHTER.  This very same daughter is the grandmother of the new baby that will get the quilt.  How awesome is THAT?  I included a close-up of a couple of blocks to show you how cute they are.  I bet this little quilt doesn't get used a whole lot as it's so special and has already been around a very long time!!

WHOA, this summer is FLYIN' BY!!  Is it for you, too?  I can't believe next Fri. is JULY FIRST!  We'll be heading up to CO in just a few days and I can't WAIT!!  But in the meantime, I've been making more luggage tags, putting the binding on my Tree Farm quilt (from the Feb. quilt cruise) AND I finished another red & white paper-pieced block from Roaring Through the 20's.  These babies are big-time labor intensive and I'm doing the 10" size.  I cannot even IMAGINE doing them in the 4"--OMG!  LOL

 

 

 

 

 

OK-AYY, we had Quiltsitters today and LOTS and LOTS of gorgeous show and tell.  First is Valerie's BEAUTIFUL Lone Star (or Bethlehem Star or whatever you wanna call it) that she made for her ENTRYWAY!!  She has a BIG entryway! Then Leslie's beautiful row quilt, and a very pretty BOM, Sheri's fantastic starry quilt,  Leslie's pineapple, Sheri's cross block quilt from a block swap and then her Judy Neimeyer that she took to the hospital to keep her cozy, a lovely green and white/cream (can't remember who made it), Mark's pretty beyond beginner quilt and his wife's lovely jelly roll quilt.  Then finally Sherry's VERY bright and beautiful quilt.  WOW, WOW!

I got my neutral BOM back from the longarmer so now have yet ANOTHER that needs it's binding.  I think I'm not the only one with the binding problem.  How many do YOU have waiting for binding? LOL

I just finished putting the labels on a couple of the Home of the Brave quilts I have here at the house, readying them to be sent off.  They're always SO pretty and I love each and every one of them.  I think JoAnne finished up the one at the top and just gave it to me at our retreat.  Think I have four more that need labels as well as a couple of QOV's also needing their labels.  Better keep on 'labeling'! LOL

 I am so bad when I go on retreats and get all distracted and basically get NOTHING done! LOL  Everyone else was focused and busily working away on their projects but me...not so much.  I DID get the red and white block done while there and forgot to photograph and share it.  It's still not trimmed but there it is in all it's glory!  HA

I took my 9 patch and cross blocks on the retreat with me but NEVER got them out.  Since I got home, I've put 5 of the 12 rows together.  I LIKE it.  And I've just about finished up 4 more pillowcases.  Also been busy prepping more luggage tags--all this because I've had no one to distract me.  HAHA  Yeah, right!!

 

Well, SHOOT!  I didn't take as many pix as I thought I did or intended to do.  I didn't get one shot of Maureen or Sheri's projects and they got a LOT done.  I was the big slacker.  I did get a couple of pillowcases made (I'd cut enough for EIGHT!!) and made some of the luggage tags and another quilt caddy like I showed a few days ago.  Also put the binding on a Quilt of Valor and now just need to hand stitch it down.  That JoAnne, the selvege QUEEN, made each of us a bottle koozie (or cozy or whatever you call them) out of selveges.  They are SO cute and she made each of them in our colors.  I LOVE red and she'd previously made a selvege bag for Sheri in orange so her koozie matches her bag.

I think JoAnne will be posting more about our get together on her blog.

I know I just posted about this a few days ago but isn't this a GORGEOUS picture?  You can read more about it here.  Pure AWESOMENESS!!

DANG!!  I tried a couple of times to post our activites while at the lake on retreat and we had minimal internet service so wound up having to wait til I got home.  So NOW we can get on with what we accomplished (me, not so much--HA).

I pressed the other 3 into service making the cute little luggage tags.  These things are SO quick & easy they're really addicting.  We got these whipped out in no time and they all said they were going to make more when they got home. 

Now ole JoAnne was a BUSY bee.  She's been working on her second Dear Jane and is assembling rows and doing a sort of quilt as you go method then going back in each block and doing hand quilting according to that particular block.  ANOTHER beauty there, JoAnne.

I have more but will share in a post tomorrow.  We had a GREAT time!!

                 WOOHOO!!!!!

    DALLAS MAVS---NBA CHAMPIONS!!

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Ya know the other day I said I only had the daylilies and coneflowers...what a SNUB to my other beauties.  They're on the side of the house so often overlooked.  My hardy hibiscus are such prolific bloomers!  Aren't they pretty?  The hydrangea is not lookin' so hot right now--should've taken pix a couple of weeks ago when they were pretty in pink (I, for the life of me, canNOT get them to change to blue even though I've tried all the hints & tips!).

Tomorrow's retreat time..better git cookin' and packin' a few  more projects so I don't run out.  HAHAHA!

OH, I meant to share this with you the other day when I saw----

http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/2011/06/just-one-star-update.html

WOW!!!  Isn't that AWESOME?!!  We did GOOD!!

 

Well, I drove ALL THE WAY over to Tyler and back today for my workshop with Kim Diehl.  Wasn't much to take pictures of in the workshop so there's just one of a group listening to her explanation of her methods and then one of me with Kim (I look AWFUL but it's a good picture of Kim!!).  I picked up some REALLY good hints for making machine applique MUCH easier so am looking forward to doing some more (did very little in class cause I needed to get home early).

Now I need to get busy making a little chow for the retreat at the lake AND getting a few more projects together to work on while there.  Can't WAIT!!

Here's my little quilt caddy..isn't it cute?!!   Will write  more later, gotta run.

I had to run and take my DH for his back injection this am but was up early enough to stitch up one of the little caddys (AND I wanted to be the first to post a picture of my finished product--LOL).  It was quick, simple and (I think) turned out pretty darned cute.  I had several cut and ready to go.  Will take this one to my Kim Diehl workshop tomorrow and show it off.  LOL  And will probably take the rest to our retreat next week to finish them off.  Dawn showed one on her blog and several wanted to know how to make them (including me).  So she graciously put together a nice little supply list and tutorial.  I thought they'd be great for our quilt show 'boutique' so will be making a few for that.  Thanks, Dawn!!

Here's my 3rd BOM--they're all stars and the color scheme is red and cream/tan.  I like it!

And a couple of shots of flowers from my garden.  Don't have too much else other than this right now.  But those daylilies are GORGEOUS and I have a ton of em!

With crow...is that better?  HA

I'm just happy I finished at least ONE donation quilt for our quilt show silent auction.  I have a couple more I WANT to make to help the guild.  We've been struggling financially and really having to watch our nickels and dimes.  So we're really hoping for a GREAT show in 2012 (we've found a BEAUTIFUL new venue) with lots of guests attending.  We're also going to have a little store where members can sell sewn/quilted items they've made and donate a percentage of the sale price to the guild.  Think a couple of us will make some luggage tags and just donate 100% to the guild.

Now I need to start gathering supplies for my Kim Diehl workshop next weekend then the fun lake retreat the following week!!  YIPPEE!!

WOOHOO!!!  I got all the blocks finished for the growing, enlarging quilt I've shown the past few posts.  But I SAID I wouldn't show it again til it's finished so I won't.  I've laid it all out, liked the way it looked so I gathered all the blocks into their respective piles and numbered them.  I'm going on a mini-retreat with 3 other buds in a couple of weeks and that will be one of my projects--to sew that puppy together.  THEN I can show you the finished product.

In the meantime, I saw a cute little project over at Mary's and thought it would be perfect for our guild's silent auction.  The top is done and I'll take that on my retreat also..still pondering whether I should add a cute little crow like Mary did or not.  Will ask the buds.  What do YOU think?