Busy beginning of the 2012 year...

It's been a busy year so far... which is the reason I haven't posted at all.

The biggest news (drum roll):  I GOT ENGAGED!!!

On Valentine's evening... Jim proposed, and I accepted. :)

No we have not set a date.  It will most likely be in the next year or two.  We're both very happy.
_________________________________________________________________________

Now for sewing/quilting related material:

For the most part my work life has been keeping me out of my sewing room far more than I'd like.  But... I have been able to do some stitching.

Here's a purse I made a few weeks ago.  It's called The Brentwood Bag, pattern #106 by Pink Sand Beach Designs... I love it!

And do you remember that I was a winner in a blog hunt?  Well, here are the fat quarters that I won.  They are so pretty!

There was another contest (I'll have to go back through my emails to find the name of it), and I also won 2 yards of fabric from that one as well.  These are the ones I chose.

Now, do you remember me telling you that I had given my old sewing machine to Jim's mom and taught her how to use it by starting on crumb blocks?

Check this out!!

I don't remember how many blocks she said were in it, but she went nuts making crumb blocks!  LOL  Isn't it gorgeous?  Now I'm going to put borders on it and sandwich and quilt it for her.

And guess what?  A couple of weeks ago I got her started on 6" string blocks.  Within a couple days she emailed me to say she already had 22 done (Feb 21st).  Holy!!  Then, Feb 29th I received another email, she has 62 string blocks done!!  I'll post pictures once I have some. 

I'm still working on RRCB, Orca Bay and my New Year's Eve Mystery quilt - when I have time.  I want to spend more time on my Jamestown Landing too.  Bit by bit I'll get there.

I've also made a dresden plate table runner for my glass coffee table, made a few fabric boxes (with the snaps in the corners), some other odds and ends as well.  Sorry, I didn't take pictures of everything.

This past Saturday I spent a good portion trying to clean up and reorganize my sewing room, it's getting there.

Then on Sunday I visited my girlfriend Dianne in Embrun to help get her started on the black and white quilt she's wanted to do, and has had the pattern and materials for over a year now.  I showed her how to read the pattern, cut the bricks and squares she needed for each block, test and sew a 1/4" seam, and put the block together.  It's a trip around the world pattern that is going to look really cool.  We were able to get 8 blocks done.  They go together in 4's so you end up with an 18" block.  In total she's going to need to make 120 blocks for queensize and then add the borders.  It's going to be fabulous!

That's it for now.

Thank you to some of my quilty friends for emailing me in the meantime to make sure I was still alive :) 

HUGS to you all.

PS.  Dianne and I have registered to go to the Ricky Tim's Super Seminar with Alex Anderson and Libby Lehman in Rochester, NY July 12-14th.  One of our quilt stores, The Running Stitch is organizing a bus tour to and from it.  That will be a blast!!

Pineapple blocks

I guess I should really blog about once a week instead of 3 or 4 posts in one day!  Unfortunately, I never seem to find the time during the week.

I'm taking a couple of courses through Quilt University, just because I thought it would be neat to do so and I wanted to learn some new skills, and it gives me another excuse to sew!

The first one was on celtic design.. the concept and blocks are amazingly simple and I've come up with a few patterns in EQ7 that I just love and can't wait to do.... and while I haven't made any blocks of it yet, they are on my "to do" list.

The second course is on pineapple blocks.  I've never made any before, and they've always intriqued me, the design is so stunning.

The first lesson explains the basic concept, provides you with a paper pattern for a 6" block, and demonstrates how to construct it.  Granted, one block looks really cool, but you don't actually see the pattern emerge until you do at least 4 blocks and put them together.

I made one block... turned out pretty well... then decided to make the other 3.. all at the same time.. piecing the same piece on each one... to cut down on ironing and trimming time between steps.  Then sewed all 4 together.  

WoW!  They look so cool!  

It took one fat quarter of the dark and about 1/2 of a fat quarter of the light fabric.

Unfortunately, I only had a fat quarter of each of these fabrics.  I want to continue to make more, in order to do a full sized quilt.  Guess I'll be heading to The Running Stitch sometime this week to see if they still have bolts of these fabrics.

If not, I can always make a pillow top out of this one. :)

It took me all day to make these four blocks, it's quite time consuming.. but the result is stunning!