A new month and a new pattern!

L-O-N-G before I ever signed up to have a blog of my own, I followed Judy L's blog and have read it everyday for the past two years. If you dont' know who I am talking about - you have to go check out her blog page called "Sunshine Quilts" and I am sure you will soon bookmark it to your favorites. :c)

Last October she started what she calls her "Hour A Day" patterns. Similar to a mystery quilt where you get a specific set of instructions and you follow along together making the quilt - She adds directions to her blog each day starting at the beginning of the month = only different than a mystery quilt she share's PHOTOS of the finished quilt BEFORE you begin! :c) So it is a WIN-WIN! :) and did I mention - she does this for FREE!!! :c)

I have followed along every month and loved wathing the progress of everyone playing along and making her patterns. That is the great thing about blogs - you can take a peak into their sewing rooms and even leave them a comment ;c)

There is one pattern I did try and play along with last year - I started Judy L's "Leaf Season" last October and only got 1/3 of the way thru with making my leaf blocks before having to set it aside. Some stressful stuf was going on in my life at the time = aka trying to make a baby, which isn't easy for my husband and I.... but enough about that ;) (Photo here of my leaves) It is now set aside in it's own project box with all the fabrics and directions waiting to be picked up again - perhaps this coming fall? I am so happy I did buy the perfect backing fabric for that project when I did b/c as of 2 weeks ago - my Hancock's in Groves is going out of business! :(

So, since they have everything at a 2 yard minimum cut right now during their Liquidation Sale - I will drive over either today or tomorrow and scope out what may be the perfect fabric for Judy's April HAD project for the "Good Luck" blocks. She said where she used her red - that we woudl need 3.5 yards. Not sure how much for the white part of that block but never the less - what ever I buy I will have to get 2 yards of it - b/c that is their new rule at Hancocks. Oh well left overs isn't such a bad thing when it comes to fabric right? ;c)

Now, don't worry - I am not going to let this get me off track of completing my 1930's BOM! I am too close to being done with that one! ... but for Judy's April HAD - I am already ahead-of-the-game b/c she is giving everyone until Wednesday to complete their 9-patch blocks and I already have a stack of 40 to choose from that are just the right size (6.5") My goal is to work on this when and if I get my other dialy stuff done for my BOM quilt.

I do not plan to finish Judy's HAD this month...as my real goal is my 30's BOM - but I do want to play along like everyone else. Maybe I should scroll back thru her other HAD patterns and print them off and take those fabric yardages with me shopping... after all once all the fabric at Hancock's is gone - it's GONE! I am so gonna miss that store as they had a much better selection of fabric than the JoAnn's in Beaumont and at better prices!

progress report of Leaf Season

I had hoped to finally be catching up with all of you by now... when it came time for the alternating blocks for "Leaf Season" but b/c of my PINK EYE over the weekend, I lost precious quilting time!! I can't believe how many of you are done with their tops! Boy you ladies are fast!! The tops I have seen are all so B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!

Here is what I have so far. Just 3 colors of leavs so far. :( I really wanted to be done with all of these leaves so I could join everyone for the speed piecing of the other type blocks! ....(((I think we should have started with those first)))....

Last night I was feeling better from my pink eye so I cut up some orange fabrics and these will be my next few leaves. Only 32 leaves total... that means I have only 14 left to go...

Oh and look what I found at 40% off to use as my backing fabric and possibly a boarder. I know I said I was gonna wait and shop for it after the top was done, but dh was with me and he liked it so much he talked me into going ahead and buying it now while the bolt still had enough. :) I just love him!

An Hour A Day Project

The whole reason I started my blog was so I could participate and post along with everyone in Judy L's "an Hour A Day Project." And, I have been doing the sewing each day, just not posting anything yet b/c I didn't think I had made much progress to report. Most days even, I have spent more than an hour!!....although from my photos, it won't look like it.

Every day I check Judy L's blog to find out what our directions are and then read all the comments to see who's reporting progress... not too many responses yet I noticed. I am following: Ausie Quilter, Bonnie, who is way ahead, DubiQuilts, Getting Started, & Quilt Pixie. (Are there any others I have yet to find that are doing Leaf Season??? - If so please comment so I can take a peek :c) )

Today when I checked in, I noticed taht Judy asked How many of us are doing the project - so I guess I better stand up and be counted and give my progress report :c)

Monday I spent the day cutting. It appears to me that everyone else already got a head start before Monday. Several had already made some blocks and at least everyone had their most of or all of their cutting done! So I started off feeling behind. However, trying to stay positive, I reminded myself - this is not a race. :c)

Tuesday I started sewing some, I am more of a - make the whole block as you go type. I got stuck at the stem stage but later on found directions at www.quilterscatche.com for the stem part. I feel that I am such a slow poke at this but I will get my top done, just you wait! When we get to those blocks that are all the same, my needle will be smokin baby!

Because my plan is to use a mixture of red fabricss in my leafs, and a mixture of yellows fabrics.. and each color, I wan't able to just make "X" number of HST's because all my red leafs won't be using the same. Does that make sense? Here are the red blocks I completed. They are each unique and different from each other which I love.


Not knowing on how many of each color leaf blocks to make I stopped at 7 and moved on to my yellow fabrics. Yesterday and Last night I spent my time cutting and did get all the yellow HST's done and 4 blocks are laid out.

I can tell from Judy's pic she used several colors - light green, dark green, light purple, dark purple, golden yellow, orangy red, dark red... I just wonder how many of each color group she used so that I could have a better idea of how many of each leaf color to make. I will post a comment on her board and ask her so that she can advise me and also to let her know that I am one of the participants ;c)

adding photos

ok, well I guess they are not going to appear. That is odd. I hit the photo icon and selected the photos just like I have done before... and waited for them to load - which they did successufly... but never did they show up in my post or preview. Does it matter if I am in Html mode or compose mode? Does one work better than the other? What is the differece?

I even triend going back and editing the post to add them in but it didn't work. So maybe if I start a new post I will have better luck??? We'll see...

Here is the "Opposites Attract" mystery I did last fall. Nora was 17 months old in this photo and really into her blocks at the time. She had them in her hands every waking hour! In the bed, at the table, in the car & in the bathtub. Funny :c)



ok, I can tell this time it is going to work b/c after it loaded and I hit done there was this code appear in my message. :) yeah!

Now here is a photo of my background fabric I bought yesterday with some of the leaf fabric choices for Judy L's Leaf Seasons project. The background is a tone on tone with yellow and even hints of pink and orange in it. I hope it shows up where you can see it good.



I even spent some time tonight cleaning up the sewing area in the dining room to get ready for this new project. This afternoon I finished up my last 3 sets of string squares for the swap (no photo). The due date is today so after I receive the last of the packages that are on the way this coming week, I will get busy swapping them out. I'm also waiting on 2 sets of my monthly noodles before I can begin swapping. I will post photos of that later ;)