End of August Already??

Can you believe it??? Only 125 days left til Christmas! Wow!

The summer is almost over... the kids are back ( or going back) to school.

Soon the leaves will turn colors and fall from the trees and winter will roll in . Time flies!!

I've been busy with stuff.........school has been very busy.... 5500 freshmen came back this past weekend and the remaining 35000 ( give or take) will be back this weekend... next week will be a busy busy stressful week........ but then it will settle and things will go back to sort of normal again.

I've been working on things here and there but haven't been able to focus much on anyone thing. I got some new paperpiecing books and therein lies the problem.... I wanna do new stuff and not the stuff on my list..... lol

I have one larger project to finish and then I can get back to my regular christmas sewing.

One thing I want to mention...
September is National Sewing Month. The Lazy Girl Blog and the 25 Weeks of Christmas groups are extending a challenge to all who sew.

You can share your love of sewing by going to www.lazygirldesigns.com and downloading Joan's free With Love tote pattern. This is a quick, easy and fun self lined tote bag that makes up in less than an hour and takes one yard of fabric.

Make two copies of Joan's pattern and two tote bags. Now.... fold each tote with a copy of the pattern inside and tie with a pretty ribbon.

The Weekers are doing this and then giving one of the tote/pattern combos to a non sewing friend with the promise that if they are interested in learning...they will teach them to make this bag. The other bag goes to a sewing friend who will do the same... Make 2 Give 2.

It's a great way to spread the joy of sewing and giving and use up some of our stash in the process.

You can find more info on Joans Lazy Blog. The link is off to the left.

Have a great rest of August and Celebrate National Sewing Month.

Lish

August already??

It's August......wow! Time flies when you're having fun lol.... Soon fall will be upon us.....the leaves will fall from the trees....flocks of geese will fill the skies with their V formations.....the sounds of combines will fill the air........but for now... it's still heat indexes of 110 and humidity and mosquitos lol.

This week blogspot shut down my blog for 2 days.... seems their automatic spam find thought my dancing santa might be spam......but it's back now. I had visions of everything be gone and having to start from scratch but it came back just fine.

This weekends project is a last minute birthday quilt....due monday... I'm making a simple flannel fringe quilt.... dark blue stripes on one side and light blue stripes on the other.... I cut over a hundred squares of each stripe and the same amount of batting on friday evening..... I got them all sandwiched yesterday and have the X quilting done on 3 rows of blocks......I think I'll sew those three rows together when I get back to the machine.

Have company coming today for a small get together so when I get off here... I'll be cooking and vacumming and get ready to party a bit..... then tomorrow I hope to finish up the quilt. I have a present for this person already......but I thought a nice lap throw would be nice too.... he's very difficult to do things for!

This week I did a Frog Pillow. I used the frog from the baby quilt I did earlier......it came out quite cute!! I have a journal cover request also that I need to do soon... it's for a lady at work who's daughters family is getting an exchange student. We decided on a journal for her to chronicle her visit in the US. I also got several things prepared for sewing so this week will hopefully be a good sewing week. I'll only have one or two pictures for flickr this week... but I promise to make up for it in the next couple weeks........

Have a great week!!

Lish

4th Week of Christmas

It's the 4th Week of Christmas! That means 16 weeks til Thanksgiving and 21 weeks til Christmas!

I got a playmat done for one of the greatnephews this week...... it has a city on one side and an airport on the other. I'll get a few fisherprice or playskool people, cars and planes for it. I have one more of these to make... but I think it will be a city/traindepot rather than an airport........we'll see.

I finished up the 40's table runner but have a dilemma... I'm not sure I like the fabric that's in the center... it's 40ish...but rather busy I think.... I have a second choice but still deciding which one I will finally use.

I also tried a new pattern. It's by Lazy Girl...but it's an apron pattern. Wow!! It has a piano key border, a fun pocket and a quilt block bib. It can be made with or without the border and with or without the bib.. it's very customizable and I'm going to use the left overs to make a couple potholders to add to it for xmas. What a fun project this was!!

It's been a busy week at work! Our new student system is in place and there are lots of questions from students and parents.... only a few more weeks and they'll all be back in person rather than on the phone.

I'll be starting on the next Giant Postage Stamp swap this week. That will give me 4 more blocks so I'll have a total of 8. I think I need like 24 to make a lap quilt from the blocks. I also one the Quilters Block Lottery this month...so I'll have a bunch more of those blocks to put together for another lap quilt.....

Theres not much to report this week.... so I'll stop babbling now and pick up again next time. The flickr site has been updated with a few of the newest pictures.....

Have a great week

Lish

Third Week of July

Can you believe it? July is almost gone!! Christmas will be here before we know it! Just check the countdown counter if you don't believe me.

Those doing the 25 Weeks of Christmas should be doing a gift a week.

I posted a few pictures on Flickr...... a paper pieced Christmas Tree from the Book Hard Times Splendid Quilts.. these are blocks from the 30's that were published complete in the Kansas City Star... The book Quilts for Rosie are blocks from the 40's from the same newspaper. I decided to sash the block and it will become a small wallhanging for the holidays.

I also posted the August Quilters Dozen Block and a few of the blocks I'm doing for a TAble runner for moi!!

There are also some tissue boxes... the crab will go with the potholders for a birthday gift later this month.

One of the trees that came down is now totally done... it's chopped and split and stacked... the branches and small chips have been cleaned up and burned... thats one tree down and two to go!

It was pretty hot here today... very humid too... standing by a roaring fire was not exactly a pleasant thing either lol

Yesterday I got a new phone.....a BlackJack II It does email and internet and music and has my contact list and does power point and excel sheets and word docs and I can even talk on it! lol I'm still learning it.......and longing for the simpler days when all you did was pick it up and say hello! lol

Ok...thats it for this weeks installment........ I have plans this week to finish up the table runner... paper piece another block from one of the books and put two play mats together....... we'll see how that works out........ I also started knitting a baby sweater.... it's slow going for sure... I've never done this type of knitting before so we'll see how it turns out... I'll keep you posted on that too!

Til next week

Lish

Flickr Site's Been Updated

As promised I updated the flickr site with the most recent pics. There are several paper pieced mini wallhangings... a paper pieced crab which is one of a set of two that will become potholders for a friend who is totally hooked on Discovery's Deadliest Catch... there are pictures of the Weekend Quilt... A fold up reusable grocery bag, Indiana's Tallest Waterfall...complete with water....and a few other things.....

Today I spent most of the day helping the Hubster get ready for his meeting next week... this involved stuffing papers into page protectors and putting books together... 9 soybean... 5 corn.... just over 600 page protectors worth.....

I got one of the crabs for the potholder quilted and I got a tissue box cover cut out......that was about the extent of todays stuff......

See ya next week!!

I've been bad!

Yes, I admit it... I've been bad. I haven't posted in several weeks now...and haven't updated my photo site either. I've been reallly busy! Honest!!

I had company from out of town for a week..... during that time we visited a quilt show in Illinois... did some shopping and made a Queen Size log cabin quilt in the barn raising style. It's hand tied and it's totally completed......I'll post pictures on the website later on.

I've been cutting some things and sewing some things.......I have all the samples done for my summer classes......I have some christmas lottery blocks cut out and ready to sew, I have a journal cover and a couple of crab potholders in various stages of completion......I need to go on a UFO fest and get these things completed... photographed and in the box! There's only 166 days left til christmas ya know!!

I won the block lottery this month again so I'll be getting more blocks! I plan to put them with the Indiana Puzzel blocks and make a large throw for when I lounge in my TV chair... this months block is called Next Door Neighbor 2 and I'm using the same color scheme, 30's prints or pastels and Kona Snow..... I can't wait to put these all together.

It's time to start thinking about Christmas.....getting those gifts finished...wrappings made....cards ready for mailing.... etc. I plan to be finished by Thanksgiving with most of mine as that's when I go visit family back east.

I have some fun things planned for the Great Nephews and this year I'll have a new Great Niece! It's been a long time since had a little girl to sew for. My youngest niece is 20 something or other. My new little one is due in August!! I have her quilt almost ready for her!

I think for now that's all there is to report........ tomorrow I need to weed the garden and we have some logs to split. We had one tree come down during a storm a few weeks ago and another one taken down before it came down.......so there's lots and lots of wood that needs to be split and stacked.

I'll get the flickr site updated this weekend (promise) and let you know what that happens. Maybe I can get some productivity going and have lots of new things to report...

Til later

Lish

Dancing Santa

Good Morning!
I've added a dancing santa to the page... isn't he just the cutest lil thing?? lol You can hop on over to Care2 (www.care2.com) and get one for your place too!

Santa you say??? It's only June! Well yes... but there are only 185 days left til christmas and in just 1 1/2 short weeks it will be time to kick the Christmas gifting into gear!!!

Those of you following along with the 25 weeks need to have your box and your list ready. It's time to get busy!

I haven't added any pictures to the flickr site this week yet.... I have a few things in various stages of completion and when they are all finished...they'll go up on the site... it was one of those weeks!! I have 2 table toppers and 2 table runners to quilt........I have 2 paper pieced hangings to quilt.... I have 4 more mini hangings to make... I'm teaching classes at the shop this summer so I need some samples......my saturday class was moved to Wednesday so I'll be teaching wednesday nite. I have to stitch the binding on the train quilt......finish the knitted dishcloth I started....sew up the baby booties.... and finsh the July Quilters Dozen block... I have 5 paper pieced stars to do and then put it together....... I need to get all this stuff done before the weekend.... cuz that's when I gotta get this place whipped into shape! Hubbys' sister is coming out over the July 4th holiday. We're going to Rockhome Gardens to the quilt show....to various quilt shops and we hope to get a bunch of sewing done too!! So next week there will be pictures!

Today is chop up the tree day. The storms that went thru this past week took down a Walnut tree... gotta chop it up into pieces so it dries by winter.... it'll provide some firewood so that's a good thing... it didn't fall on anything when it came down so that's a good thing too!!... I love chain saws too....and that's a very good thing! lol

Well... the coffee's done.....and it's time to sew.

See ya all in a week!
Merry almost Christmas!!!

Lish