Happy St. Patrick's Day

Everyday, I get an email in my inbox about the sait of the day. Today of course is St. Patrick.

I won't cut and past the entire thing here but I thought the comment and quote at the end were really good and I wanted to share here with you. The Quote was very familiar to me as those are the words to one of my favorite hyms we sing at church. :c) but I never knew until today where they were from.

Happpy Saint Patrick's Day Everyone!!! ~Bonnie

Comment:
What distinguishes Patrick is the durability of his efforts. When one considers the state of Ireland when he began his mission work, the vast extent of his labors (all of Ireland) and how the seeds he planted continued to grow and flourish, one can only admire the kind of man Patrick must have been. The holiness of a person is known only by the fruits of his or her work.

Quote:
“Christ shield me this day: Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every person who thinks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me” (from “The Breastplate of St. Patrick.”)

(This entry appears in the print edition of Saint of the Day.)

another UFO - actualy the 1st to be completed this year!

Well here is another UFO I suppose... or at least one I DO Plan to work on and finish this year!

I started this last year (Jan 2006) and the blocks are half done! All of the A blocks for two quilts have been made... and all last year I was planning to get the B blcoks made so that I could finishup these two tops! - but something else kept coming up and pushing this project asside! My RR became 1st priority over any of my own projects... another reason I will never do another RR!

I fell in love with the 1930's fabrics in the fall of 2005 when I saw this pattern shown in the December issue of the Better Homes and Garden's Quilting Magazine. At the time I had just signed up to participate in a 1930's noodle swap on the HGTV.com quilter's board. So I thought this would be a perfect pattern to use them on!!!

Also my friend Tracie from GA ws planning a trip to visit me in TX for January '06 - so we both swapped 30's noodles to get a larger variety to make these quilts for our little retreat project ;c)

But in the magazine the pattern called for 2" strips - and I was confortable just adding 1/2" to the sizes so that our 2.5" noodles would work... but halfway thru the cutting of the white fabric we each realized that we were not both doing the same... she was going strictly by the directions in the magazine although we had already talked about changing it to suit our needs... so all the white strips had to be cut to match....

So to make a long story short - we realized we are different when it comes to patterns. I'm the type that tweeks it as I go - and most times skips around and if I know a short cut will use it. Where as my friend is the type that has to follow step by step exactly as they are printed and no other way.

Needless to say the project didn't even get to the sewing stage and she was so frusterated that she refused to take any of the fabrics home with her when she left - "you can have it - if I take it home it will never get done b/c it is so messed up" she said.

So after she left I began making the A blocks and soon got all of them done for both our tops. They don't look so bad all together do they?

The B blocks look the same but have a whtie center and go from there... Oh and all those centers are a little larger in our quilt than in the magazine... but oh well! I think they look nice!

Tracie's birthday is December 23rd and ever since I have known her she has talked about how she hates having a Christmas Birthday - that she never receives anything special... so last eyar I really wanted to get the top done and quitled for her to give to her as her gift! Wouldn't that be special? But like I said, other obligations kept pushing those B blcoks to the back burner adn finally off the stove!

I have never even shared that I have a quilting blog with Tracie for this very reason!!! I wanted to be able to post here photos and prgress on this project as I went along. So I have never told my own best quilting frined about my blog so that I wouldn't spoil the suprise. She still knows nothing about it and over a year later she has never even asked once about the Square Deal quilt or if I ever workedon it again so if I am able to work on those B blocks again this year - it just may get done and given to her this year for her Birthday in December! :)

Right now my current project is finishing up the last 6 blocks to my 1930s BOM from last year's Quilt Club at the LQS. Above is a photo of the 1st 6 months sewn together. My goal is to complete 1 of the 24" blocks each week... and then spend 2 weeks completing the pieced boarder. So far this is the 2nd week and I am on target. :) If all goes well, I will have the top completed by the end of April (plenty of time before the twins arrive) and for my Birthday gift to myself I will use the money I get each year from my Daddy and pay to have it quilted!


Then I will get focused on those B Blocks!!! :c) and get Tracie's quilt set together and have it quilted in time for her Birthday in December!!!

Oldest UFO

I was just visiting Quilting is My Passion's blog and read where she & Suzette are posting about their oldest UFOs.... and thougth I would share a photo of mine. Also Cynthia posted about her oldest UFO today too.

Also Monday Bonnie Hunter posted that the Stashbuster Topic of the week was about UFOs.

While I have 4 UFOs listed in my side bar there are probably more in the closet that would qualify as UFOs by now. I forgot where I heard it said - but someone said that after 9 months of birthing a new project if it is not done, then it is a UFO. eek! Then if this is the rule - all of my current projects are UFOs too!

I don't have photos to share of all the UFOs listed. My 1995 Trip around the world has missing pieces!! and that was when I first stared and cut all the squares out using a cardbaord template and sissors!

I do have a photo of my 2000 16-patch Square in a Square UFO. I don't remember the last time I had it out (sometime last year) but I laid it all out on the guest bed in my sewing room and took a photo of the blocks laid out.
This quilt all started when I was in the bedding department of Wal-Mart several years ago and found this floral on cream bed sheet set on clearance for only $7 for a twin set. After looking some more I also foudn the denium sheet on sale too. I bought a set of the floral and a flat sheet of the denium. Looking back now I wish I had bought more than one set - after all if I get a twin size quilt finished it would have been nice to have matching sheets for the quilt right?!
These hourglass blcoks are made from cutting triangles - which looking at them now, I have no memory of how I went about making them. I do know that they need to finish at 12.5" before setting into the quilt...

The fabrics I am using for the 16-patch are I think 3.5" squares? Yes, that's right to make a 12" finished block. Majority of these fabrics were some of my first purchases all from Wal-Mart's fabric section. I chose greens, blues and tans with a few reds.
I have no idea how many blocks are needed to get this top done. At this point I would be happy with a twin size or possible full/queen if there are enough squares left.

Who knows when I will pull it out again and work on it??? It is not anywhere near the top of my "to-do before the twins arrive" list. but I thought I would share my photos with you ;c)

Fun with Nora on Friday

Well today we didn't get to do all that we usually do - David's car was leaking coolant when he got home from work last night so this morning he drove the van to work... which left Nora and I stranded at home. Well, at least until lunch time ;)

Just before David came home for his lunch break, Nora and I were out side. It is so nice today – around 75. On the way back in from the mail box I decided to pull some weeds. I wish I had taken a before photo b/c I spent about 30 minutes pulling and looking at the flower bed you can’t tell I did a thing! However I do have the “evidence” in the trash can ;)

Well what I wanted to share with you today was… while pulling weeds Nora was picking yellow flowers off some of the weeds that have bloomed and are almost as tall as her shoulders! Eek! She was taking them to our statue of Mary and talking to her. Nora would say, “Here you go Mary” - “Mommy, her loves flowers and her loves me” :c)

Nora had jut brought me the phone that she found on the front porch – I had it out there just in case… and Nora said, “Mommy I want your camera” which I thought she meant phone and so I said “OK, here it is come get it (not wanting to stand up) and she said, “No phone, I want camera”

I asked why do you want the camera and she quickly replied – “I want to take hers picture of hers flowers and hers loving me” meaning Mary :c) That made my heart leap – How cute! I don’t recall Nora ever asking for her photo to be made!!!

Well not thinking I said OK and jumped up to go get the old digital camera… (the good one is still lost! Urgh!) but when entering the garage I remembered it was in my purse which was in my van – which David is driving today… but he would be home soon.. I told Nora we’d have to wait – and wouldn’t you know it she stood right by the statue the rest of the 5 minutes waiting for Daddy to get home with the camera saying “Cheeeeeeeeeese”……. “Cheeeeeeeeeese”…… “Cheeeeeeeeeese”….. “Cheeeeeeeeeese” the whole time until he pulled in the driveway. Here are some photos I was able to get after fooling with the old camera for several minutes to get the darn thing to come on. Urgh…!



He filled his car with water and we drove to the shop to leave it for the day/weekend to be fixed. Wonder how much this is gonna cost us. There goes more of our “tax refund money”… what else?

So far we have spend our tax refund on the following things:

• replaced my cracked windshield
• replaced my broken passengers’ side mirror
• repaired the ceiling in the garage where the A/C condensation line burst after the electric came back on following hurricane Rita
• repaired rotten wood around the back door and windows
• paid off some debt
• bought David new steel toe boots for work (will be reimbursed later)
• paid for an on line course for David to take (will be reimbursed in June)

And the one thing we wanted to splurge and buy ourselves with the money was a small gas grill with side burner after they put out their new spring selection at the Home Depot and Lowe’s…. and depending on cost maybe a small deep freeze to put in the garage. That is IF there is any money left!!! Now with the car coolant system having a hole in it – who knows…?

EDITED to add: We picked up the car today and it was just over $400.... :P but as my husband says at least that paying for that repair now is a lot cheaper than paying car payments every month. We are lucky that his car is paid off!

A sneak peak of what I contributed to the RRs I received

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - don't tell anyone or go linking this post to your blog, but I have decided to share with you here a "Sneak Peak" of what I contributed to the RRs I received in the RR I participated in all last year. It is amazing how each of the quilts took on their own personalities and are so unque. The sky was the limmit on what to do with what you got.


Here is the 1st RR I received from Missmikol. I added the flying geese boarder. I did also add another thin red boarder but forgot to take a photo before mailing.Next in the RR rotation I received this RR from mylifesabeach in Hawaii. I added a pink lattice like boarder because her theme was "flowers in the garden." Before it came time to mail to her - I found out that she was the 1st to receive my RR square and had never done a thing to it and also had antoher RR waiting to be worked on so the cordinator removed her from the swap and I had to hold off sending her hers until mine and the other gals were mailed off to people who helped out and gout ours caught up. (this was a major part of the delay in the RR year)


Then sometime in the summer I recveived this RR quilt that belongs to Sueluvs2quilt. She also had a garden them but much different than the one I had just worked on. To me it said "I need a fence" ;c)
Following that one, came Terri911's RR top - which had a flowers theme - noticing a pattern here - just about all of us did flowers of some sort but each different! ;c) Terri's also listed scrappy so - scrappy is what I did. I posted about my progress when I worked on this one back in 2006.and the last one I received to work on is shown in my previous post. :c)

Hope you enjoyed the sneak peak - when I get photos of these RR's finished I will be sure and share those with you too - and all the other RR quilts in the other quilts too! Happy Weekend ~Bonnie

My 1st & last Round Robin is over!!!

My 1st & last Round Robin is over!!! Thursday, March 1st – I mailed off my last RR to the RR owner in Canada. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders finally! Although I did enjoy this, I didn’t enjoy it either. I know that sounds weird – but I quickly learned that RR’s are not my cup of tea. Too much stress on me. I worry and worry about if or not what I have added the receiver will like or not. Plus the fact that the boarder measurements are in odd sizes and I had to use my brain much more than I would have liked to didn’t help… LOL.

Several of us on the HGTV quilters board started this RR last year in March and it was suppose to end by the end of 2006 – I think the last mail by due date was set for 12/16 but several people in the groups, including myself, fell behind more than once during the year and mail by due dates kept getting pushed back. As of Jan 1st this year the final mail by due date was set for 3/1/07 and I made my deadline!! Yeah for me!!!

But several other’s didn’t and we still don’t know when to expect our RR tops to be mailed to us…??? So, no matter what the RR coordinator says, I WILL OPEN mine IMMEDIATELY when I get it – even if it comes this week or next…wait for everyone else? No way! Of course I won’t announce that to them… I will keep my moth shut and not comment on the board until we are supposed to have opened. :c) I have never been good with keeping surprises! LOL So don’t any of you go telling on me!

Above is a photo of what I added to my last RR. It isn’t much work involved, but I felt that the quilt needed to be “enclosed” so to speak… an ending. In January I had began cutting and cutting and more cutting of all the scraps that were in the fabric bag with the RR top… and was doing a pieced boarder but as luck would have it, there wasn’t enough for all 4 sides and I didn’t’ realize that until I was on side 3… so time to think of plan B.

Last Friday Nora and I headed to the Fabric Store and I found some green batik that I thought would compliment the center (didn’t have it with me) and then when I got home I found out that it was the EXACT same fabric as the fabric used in the center!!! J So Wednesday this week we went back to buy more! ---there is another funny story about Nora at the Fabric Store that I will share in another post---

I think all in all this was the perfect ending to this RR quilt. What I had in the works just looked tacky to me and I wasn’t happy with it. During adding these simple boarders, I had to tell myself – "It is ok Bonnie, not every round has to "out do" the other – after all haven’t you read many times before where people say that “such and such looks nice b/c it gives the eye a place to rest”… well Bonnie that is what you are doing to this quilt so quit beign so hard on yourself for doing an easy boarder!!"

Although I did get it sewn on Wednesday night and in the mail by Thursday…. there was one thing I felt bad about – I lost this RR’s “quilt history sheet” that everyone along the way has been documenting on!!! EEEEK! I have looked and looked! So I posted on the board to everyone hoping that they can recall what they did to IB1RU12’s RR and send it to me so I can type it all up and send to her. However I am still looking around my house for it – maybe it will show up….

The RR coordinator plans to share a website with all the RR quilts during the process so that all the participants can have view them. There were four groups: wall size, lap size (my group) and two bed size groups. Some of the quilts I have seen already (thru sneak peaks from the ones I know participating) and they have each WOW’ed me!!!! I am so anxious to see what it is they did with my center!!!

In case I haven’t shown you – here is what I sent in…

The pattern is called “Texas Treasures” from http://www.quilterscatche.com/ and measures 22” finished. I chose this Moda Blue Bonnets fabric b/c I was new to Texas at the time and that’s the state flower. So my RR has a Texas theme to it I guess you could say.

I am a little concerned about the directional fabric - it is a huge pet peave of mine that they must all go in the same direction - so if I get my RR back and they are every which way I will probably cry!!!

As soon as I get it back in the mail, I will be sure to come here and post a photo of it so you can share in my excitement too!!! :c) but remember – do not tell anyone from HGTV!!! :c) ~Bonnie