WIP WEDNESDAY

It is Wednesday again so time to share what progress I made this week . I finished making the 48 log cabin blocks for Darlene's mystery quilt but do not have them attached to the quilt just yet but here is how they are looking on my design wall, they won't all fit but you will get the idea.

I am really loving this quilt so far :-)
I sent off three quilts to Lynda of Fiddle Stitches to be machine quilted and was pleased to receive those on Tuesday ,so far I have made bindings for this one ,

This has been around for a while and was a BOM that I took part in a while back and I am really pleased with the quilting Lynda did to complete this , now I just need to sew that binding down and it is complete.
Then there is this one ...

This is my country sampler which I will share once that binding is sewn down , I do have it sewn to the quilt .
And finally this one , my nine patch quilt which I will need to buy some fabric for the binding .

I am also want to share my cottage quilt so you can see that I have made some progress there as well .

This is likely my last turn , I think I can reach to complete this border or I will try ,so close :-)
Now to change the subject we finally have some blessed sun , how wonderful it is to step outside to sunshine instead of rain and cold weather . So I just had to grab my camera and take a few photos of the apple trees in bloom  .

This is a flowering crab apple tree , just loaded with blooms , gorgeous , you can see another in the background too . Then there is this little one , also a crab but a different variety  and not quite open yet.

I love forget me knots they are one of my favorite flowers and I am pleased they are growing well in my little flower bed , so pretty .

I am not much of a gardener , love flowers but I am too lazy to weed ,I do try to maintain my gardens but don't do the best job , I'd rather be quilting  ;-)
Now I know these are just weeds but you have to admit they are pretty , how can you not possibly like this magnificent sea of yellow .

Our mower was on the fritz so this did not get mowed yet but I quite like it  .
 I am linking up today to the Needle and Threadnetwork  as well as with Carrie for Just UFO'S , I was successful in completing my messenger bag which was on my list and you can see that post here and I also made lots of progress on my quilt but sadly my other little mini did not see much stitching , better luck next month .
Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy your day .
 hugs Sheila

The mailman has been good to me :-)

Don't you just love it when the mailman brings you something fun , sure you do , I know I do  and it was a lovely surprise to receive this pattern in the mail from my friend Annette  .Annette designed this bag for the pom pom bloghop .

This is a great tote for summer so I am planning on getting busy and making this real soon . Thanks so much Annette !
You all know how much I love fabric postcards , why I belong to two postcard yahoo groups and exchange postcards on a regular basis but this card came to me from my friend Linda ,what a great surprise .

Life is a mystery , how true are those words , Linda used fabric scraps from her mystery quilt she is doing along with Darlene , gorgeous fabrics Linda ! Thanks so much for the great card and this is Linda's first postcard she sure did a fantastic job .
 I will also share one I received from an exchange, remember my little card with the bird with the postcard in its beak , well this is the card I received in exchange for that card from Terri in Ohio .

Yes this is the front of the card , the theme was "you've got mail" so unique I love it !
Another past time I enjoy is looking for treasures at yard sales etc. , the fun of the hunt is really wonderful , well last evening I went to a local large yard sale that took place as a fundraising event at the curling club . My mission was to look for sewing treasures and I was successful ,just look what I found .

A large tin of vintage buttons , there are some wonderful old buttons in the can ,how large is the can you may be wondering , well it is pretty large , it was too heavy to carry around while I looked for other treasures so asked if I could pay for it and leave it with them until I was finished which they were happy to accommodate me .

I think my granddaughters will love the can and guess what ,when you lift the cover a little tune plays . Oh it cost me $2 , pretty good huh :-)

 I found some fabric scraps as well nothing much but a few pieces which I will share once I actually use them, then I went to the dishes table , don't need dishes but you never know what you might find right  . I saw this hint many years ago on Martha Stewart and loved the idea so when I spotted this bottle I quickly snatched it up for a measly $.50 ,how could I go wrong ,right.

Since I am a tea totaler I have no idea what would be stored in this bottle but liquor of some kind for sure , I am now using it for my dish detergent , looks so much prettier than a detergent bottle don't you think . There were some really beautiful wine decanters there for the same price but this one takes up less space on the counter , I am happy .
 I also found a pretty green bottle and a very old green clear glass vase , you can see the little bubbles in the glass , I was hoping to find a glass bowl so I could make a garden mushroom like I seen Fiona do ,however none to be found , maybe the next sale ;-) Oh you want to see them do you , ok here they are .

I think I paid $.25 each for these , happy camper here  . Some of those vintage buttons will find themselves displayed in the green bottle and I might just make a little pincushion for the top ,what do you think ?
 Now I haven't just been treasure hunting I have been sewing up a storm on my mystery quilt which I am also sewing along with Darlene  , yikes that is a lot of log cabins but I love making them so no problem here .

I am not finished by any means but I do have a good start , funny thing is I am not sure if I can't read or can't count but either way I should have 48 of these started and only have 46 ;-) I am using lots of different scraps which I hope will give this a nice look .
 I guess I should let you go I appreciate you stopping by , hope you have a fun day doing something you love and thanks for the visit .
 hugs Sheila

"You Shine Like the Moon "

"You Shine like the Moon " yes that is what my granddaughter Elise thinks anyway . I was a little under the weather on the weekend and my granddaughters decided to make me get well cards and Elise who is four made this card for me.

Do you see it written at the bottom of the card , oh and the whole envelope was filled with colorful sprinkles and she wanted to know if I spilled them all over my bed :-) So sweet . You can't see it here , but along the right hand side she wrote open mine next , I guess she was assuming I would open Nila's card first .

This is Nila's card with the funky little faces as explanation marks , they are both so creative.  It sure made my day when Chad dropped these off to me yesterday on his way to the airport . I asked Chad what Elise meant by here little quote and he said he had no idea , she is unique .
 I want to show you my cottage quilt as it is now , I am on the last row of cottages

This was the first block I made which was for January 2012 , then you can see February next to that one and so on , I will just have the top border to do once I finish with the houses . I have learned a lesson, it is not a good idea to hand quilt anything that has been machine appliqued with steam a seam or such a product , not that easy to quilt through .
I will also share my little tea project , well two actually . First is the project for our tea room at the quilt show on June 15th ,just a little table mat nothing large .

I used the free pattern that Debbie Kravtovil shared for the tea pot , I loved the shape of it , I also used a vintage napkin for the table cloth under the teapot and cup ,  I made a similar project in a mugrug size as a gift for my friend Annette for her birthday and also one for my Mom for Mothers Day so she could have a special mat for her lunch but I neglected to take a photo of that one .

Same teapot pattern just downsized , fun to make .
Time to link up with the Needle and Threadnetwork for WIP Wednesday , be sure to stop by and see what everyone is up to this week and thanks for stopping by .
 hugs Sheila

A UFO finish

I am happy to report that I have finished one of my UFO'S on the list for this month . This project has been hanging around for ??years , maybe 4 but not real sure . I had done a demo at our guild and this was part of the demo but it never got touched since then . Here it is all finished and ready for use :-)

I took this outside for better lighting , it is really cold so I didn't waste anytime out there . We have had a week of dreary rainy cold weather and I thought the sun was going to shine today but that has not happened so far .  I also want to share some of my painting work, can't share the hutch just yet as the doors are not on , a certain someone broke the glass in one of the doors , we won't say who ;-)

So this is my new quilt hanger shelf , I am so pleased with how it looks , the color really goes well with my quilt which by the way was a round robin with a few friends many years ago and is a favorite of mine and I am happy to have the chance to display this properly . 

Thanks for stopping by , hope you enjoy a creative day .

 hugs Sheila 

Postcard sewing

 I have been sort of out of action on my blog lately , just life . I went to visit with my Mom for Mothers Day and found that visit very tough , it was so strange to enter the house and not see my Dad sitting in his favorite chair ,I miss him terribly . Anyway I did a little fun sewing yesterday to brighten my spirits , postcards are such fun to create . Want to see what I made ?

A little touch of spring with some flowers and a cute little butterfly . Still on the spring theme is this next card .

Colorful little flowers with a butterfly and a ladybug in the grass . Then there is the final one which resulted as I had a few more flowers left so what is a gal to do but use them up  right:-)

They were fun to do and the bright colors were great to work with  . 

I am working on my messenger bag today , with any luck I might get it finished soon . Off I go now to the machine since I haven't figured out a way to get it to sew on its own just yet . Enjoy your day and hope you come back soon .

 hugs Sheila 

A challenge completed :-)

Yeah , it is done and I love it , this was really a lot of fun and I will be doing this again .

Isn't it a fun bag , I even lined it to give it more body .Here is a photo of the interior .

Last evening we took a drive to the beach so I will share a couple of photos that I took , this is such a spectacular beach  but before I get to the beach just look at these cute little flowers that were blooming beside one of the cottages .

I had to check to see if they were real , they were so pretty in their pink little clumps , primroses I believe  and then there were these lovely daffodils.

I love that they are growing among the rocks that are covered with moss , and look what else was lurking in this garden .

A little garden gnome , how cute is that .

Such beautiful sand , and not a soul in sight but that will all change as the warmer weather arrives , well actually it was really quite warm the past few days . 

Love the beach grasses in the dunes .

 Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a sun shiny day . 

hugs Sheila

What I have been up to ....

It is Wednesday already , where is this week going ,I wouldn't mind but I have so many things I need to get done that are not getting done , oh well what can I say :-)
 Did I sew all weekend , no , I did not stitch one stitch of any kind , I was busy with paint brush in hand , yes it all started with a shelf I wanted to paint and the next thing I know I am painting a hutch as well as a potato bin . What color you might be asking , well I will show you when I am all finished. The painting is finally done but the doors need to be put back on and the contents need to be put back in place minus a few things I decided to purge. Let me tell you a hutch can hold a lot of STUFF ! I am really pleased with the new look though so hope to share it soon .
 I did mail off two postcards yesterday , one I can't show you the other I will as I am pretty sure this person is not aware I even have a blog ,

I guess I should have edited this photo , I took the picture at night so it is rather dark , the theme for this exchange was "you've got mail" , I think this little bird was the perfect way to send this message. Postcards are such fun to make .
Now today I did a little sewing , you see our guild is having yet another challenge, of course it is entirely up to me if I want to participate ,no one is twisting my arm but I love a challenge,I mean I really do so what is a gal to do  but participate right. The challenge was to go and buy a gift bag that we like , one that inspires us to recreate it in some form . It does not have to be exact just our interpretation of the bag so I went off to find a bag , no easy task to tell you the truth but with some persistence I came across this bag .

 I loved the bold colors and the freshness of the design , simple enough I thought so now to find the fabrics , luck would have it I did have fabrics in small amounts that were perfect for the design so do you want to see what I have done so far ?

Oh this has been such fun ,I am doing raw edge applique for two reasons , speed and also some of the parts are just to small to deal with any other way and since my plan is to make this into a tote I felt it would suffice to hold things in place . If you look closely you will see my little line drawings where I will stitch in the stems ,  I will give you an update later as I get more done .

 I suppose you are wondering if I ever finished the teapot challenge , why yes I did finish it but did not take a photo of it yet so will share that later as well . I must apologize I know I have been a little slack at visiting blogs of late but seriously I have been too busy with the painting to do much else other than sleep which I needed lots of after that ordeal , so I will try to get around to visit real soon . Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to do some fun stitching today it is so good for the soul  :-)  Oh I am linking up to the Needle and Threadnetwork for WIP Wednesday so be sure to hop on over and see what others have been busy with this week.

 hugs Sheila

Looks like I made it :-)

 First off I want to share my mystery quilt update , yeah I completed April round just before Darlene shared the May round . I did make some slight changes , partly due to time and partly because I do love piano keys so I left out the HST'S and I am pleased with how this looks.

This will  likely be  the last time I will be sharing this from the design wall it is pretty much filling it now .
 Next on the agenda is my May goals for UFo's with Carrie ,just making it under the wire to post so here goes . Unfortunately there are some repeats like this quilt.

However if you look closely these houses are different , I am more than half way through the quilt now and my motivation to complete this is really good . Wish me luck as I am really hoping to have this finished in time for our quilt show on June 8th ,yikes that is pressure isn't it ;-)
Another UFO that has been around for quite some time that really should be completed is a messenger bag that I did a demo on at our guild many years ago , I finished one but this one was in pieces to explain the process and I just never got around to sewing it up so this is the month .

Never even took the time to iron this , sad isn't it . Too bad this isn't spring colors I would have a nice new bag to use but hey I will be ready for fall early :-)
 Finally for this month I really want to finish the hand quilting on the little quilt I shared last month , with all that took place in April my goals were sadly not met .

There is not a lot left to do so a few evenings should take care of this if I push myself.  So there you have it my goals for May , hopefully I can make progress and actually finish a few things.

Now to change the subject my hubby and I were at the beach the other evening and I just had to stop and take this photo as the sun was going down , wouldn't this make a great landscape quilt.

I love the look of the fence , the sky was actually prettier than this photo shows , but it is still pretty . Thanks for taking the time to stop by today and hope your day is a great one.
 hugs Sheila