Happy Valentine's Day & Tuesday Tip

Today was suppose to be a quiet Valentine's Day.  I told my husband I didn't want anything accept to go to an antique store that is having a sale this Friday.  So how does my day start out?  I attend Garden Club at my local quilt shop, Quilter's Garden and they hand out cute valentines.  Sweetheart paper folded around a Kiss of Hershey's chocolate.

Next I received a sweet text from my sewing sister, Cathy!  Then later in the afternoon I received a special mushy card from my husband, he's a keeper. 

The biggest surprise was 3 beautiful red roses with a card from my son.

By the way, he's the best thing I ever made!  So the day was that was suppose to pass-by quietly ended up being precious.

Tuesday's Tip:  Have you been looking for a way to organize your Block of the Month or Block of the Week project?  My friend, Kathy Closen, showed me her method and I am sharing it with you because it really works nicely for me.  First, grab a three ring binder that is 2 to 3" wide at the binding. Second,  grab some plastic sheet protectors and slip the paper pattern into each sheet protector sleeve.

My project is Peace & Healing, from Debbie at Piecing the Past Quilts.  Click on the blue writing for the link to sign up for the Block of the Week.  She will send you an email each Monday with a new block.

Third, I go to my stash drawers and pull out fabrics until I am happy with  the combinations.  Then I slip the fabrics into the plastic page protector until I have time to cut out the pieces.  If I cut out the pieces, then only the pieces go into the page protector and I put the fabric back into the drawers.

If you are working on a large project and will need the fabrics throughout the project,  you might want to put the fabrics in ziplock bags or zipper style (pencil) bags that have three holes punched on the left.  This keeps all the fabrics together with the patterns and easy to handle each month or week.  I have two binders that I am working out of currently.  One for Women of the Bible that I shared yesterday and Peace and Healing from today's Blog.

I hope you enjoyed your day!

Yours in quilting,

Terry

Tuesday Tips-Tutorial for fabric box for fat quarters

I found this tutorial on how to make a fabric box on Mad for Fabric Blog.  Its a great tip on how to store fat quarters.  I keep all my fabric in Sterlite drawers.  Making these fabric boxes would help organize my stash within the drawers.  Right now, my drawers are bulging fabric and in no way is it organized.  http://www.madforfabric.com/2015/04/30/diy-fabric-box-tutorial/
I also have piles of fat quarters laying out while I was trying to pick out Lucy Boston blocks.

 

Every month I post the links for free block of the month ideas. 

http://farmchickquilts.com/news/may-online-block-of-the-month-ufo/

Quilt Doodle Designs:
http://quiltdoodledesigns.blogspot.com/2015/04/mays-block-my-favorites.html?spref=bl

Bitty Blocks:  Bear Paw
http://www.quiltmaker.com/content_downloads/BittyBearPawBlock.pdf

McCall's Freebie Friday:
http://www.mccallsquilting.com/blogs/blog/2015/05/01/friday-free-quilt-patterns-liberty-starshine-table-runner/
Here's a link to all Freebie Friday patterns.
http://www.mccallsquilting.com/blogs/?s=friday+freebie

I had made a commitment that I would quit drinking Diet Coke when I returned from Paducah.  My son has made the commitment to quit smoking.  I am showing my support by giving up my beloved Dt. Coke.  I went cold turkey when I finished my last bottle from the trip.  It has been one week.

 

Our first stop in Paducah was Hancock's of Paducah.  Along the back wall were these fabric stamps used for making batiks. 

Below is our scrumptious lunch at the Patty's booth.  They had a meal deal of pulled pork sandwich, a drink, and side order of new potatoes and onions.  Yummy!

 

 Thursday night we left the quilt show and headed out to Patty's Settlement for another quilt show and dinner.  They are famous for their pork shop dinners.

 

We had some fun taking each other's picture at the quilt show. 

 

I have been wanting to make one of the sinks shown on Pinterest using a treadle.  This table would have been perfect but no way to get it home. 

 

My friend, Cathy K., has been working on her Cathedral Windows quilt for a long time and its lap size.  I can't imagine how long it took to get this quilt King size. 

 

We crossed the street to Patty's Settlement and started to enjoy the gardens and scenery.

We headed inside to be seated for our meal. 

This cute display was at the entrance to the restaurant. 

The pork chops were melt-in-your-mouth good.  Dinner was followed by a choice of pies.  I had the Sawdust pie.  It was delicious.  It was pretty quiet on the bus trip back to the hotel.  With full tummies and tired feet, we were all happy to arrive back at the hotel for a good night's sleep.

 

Today I am linking up with Connie at Freemotion by the River and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

Block of the Month Links

Many of my quilting friends are following along with me on several Block of the Month quilts.

 

Quilt Doodle Designs 2014 BOM:  This month's blocks look like peppermint hard candies.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-UGYD12TSr-WWF5am5wTzhVQTg/edit?usp=sharing

 

Country Threads 2014 BOM (scrappy): This month's block makes a chevron row.

http://www.countrythreads.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/August-BOM2.pdf

 

The third Block of the Month is with Quilter's Garden Quilt Shop in Princeton, IL.  It is a Barn Quilt that they have designed.  I have my July blocks finished and will be getting August's pattern next week.  If you are interested in their barn quilt you may contact them thru their website at www.quiltersgardenonline.com.

 

Late this morning I did some cooking for the week.  I baked bacon for Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches tomorrow night.  Tonight we had BBQ chicken on the grill.  Sorry it disappeared before I could take a picture.  The menu is planned for the rest of the week.  I have to work a few nights at my mall job so I am preparing meals the family can heat-n-eat without me.

 

I also had a large zucchini given to me.  The blog, Chef-in-Training, had posted 50 recipes to use with zucchini.  I made Zucchini Cookies.  Melt in your mouth good and super moist. You are suppose to frost them but they are so good they never got frosted.

 

All in all it was a productive day.  Today I have linked with Connie at Freemotion on the River.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

Country Threads Block of the Month

I am trying to complete all my UFO's and not purchase new kits, etc.  On Country Threads' blog,
www.country-threads-chicken-scratch.com, they started a "free" block of the month on Jan. 1, 2013.  The first of each month, Country Threads will release additional blocks.  For me this is a good way to use up my Thimbleberry fabrics left from my sample making years.  I have a whole drawer full of scraps.  The next block(s) will be released Friday, Feb. 1. Below are my blocks completed in January.

Care to join me?  Oh, come on ..... you must have a box, bag, or draw of fabric scraps that need to be used up.  Notice the background in the large star... I didn't have enough of the same background fabric so added another background fabric.  THINK Scrappy!

Yours in quilting,
Terry

Satisfaction!

Satisfaction.....there is nothing like the feeling of completion of a job well done.  I have quilted these quilts in the last 10 days and it feels good.  These are both customer quilts.  (No quilts were damaged in these pictures.  The quilts have sheets underneath them to protect their backings.)  My wonderful husband assisted in placing the quilts safely in the yard and snapped a few shots. 

The top quilt is a Block of the Month project completed by my customer at the Fulton Retreat and sent home with me for quilting.  Here is a closer picture of it still on the longarm.

 

 

This quilt is also a customer's quilt created from a fabric strip exchange.   With this quilt there was so many possibilities.  The layouts were too numerous.  I will post mine in the near future.  I used back for my background, here the background is the lavender.



 

Have a great weekend.  Hope you can be outside and enjoy the nice weather.  Terry