Mills Girls Quilt Along

I have been lurking around the Sylvia's Bridal Site for awhile and noticed that a new quilt-along was to begin on Friday October 15 and YES YES YES I joined. It is called Mills Girls. I do not have the book ordered yet, but  I will later today hopefully I can find it.
I planned on using up my stash, but decided just now (a woman can change her mind fast..ha ha) to do blue & orange only. My mission is to finish this one in time for xmas present for my Grandson, Wesley.
He loves basketball and his school colors are blue and I plan to use novelty fabrics with basketballs on it.
What will you be using???

OMG I have this book(brain fart) it is the same one we used to make our 2011 New Years Reflection Blocks from. YEAH now I can get started.
I REALLY need to straight up and inventory what is in this messy sewing room. LOL

Cool Site I stumbled upon

JUST SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU LAUGH. I saw this as an advertisement on a Tee-shirt at the Cafepress.com site.

Oh Yes ANOTHER NEW BOOK & QUILT

I belong to a group called Civil War Sewing Circle that meets at Helen's Hen House Quilt Shop the 2nd. Saturday of each month. What a fun group of ladies that most of them also belong to Florrisant Valley Quilt Group. One of the groups projects is to make the Pie In The Sky Quilt that is in the Simple Graces Quilt book by Kim Diehl. Since we are called Civil War Sewing Circle we will be making these blocks in Civil war fabrics.

My 1st. block

My 2nd. Block

With the help & encouragement from my friends I am really getting better..LOL my seams match up and no points are cut off!!!! Yeah I'm learning to slow down and make it right. Bye off to another fun afternoon at Helen's Hen House.

My new quilting tool

 I saw these clips for sale at Clotilde's site for $6.98 pkg. of 10. Then I thought, hum, I have something in my workshop/junky garage that would work just as well and they are wonderful.

Check these out priced at Home Depot for $.09 each. Great for using on silky fabrics doesn't harm fabric.

Back in the swing of things

This is the 6 1/2" Christmas Novelty Framed Block through a Yahoo Group-Friendship Block Swap that I will be sending to 12 participants in this year 2011 swap. Angela Ball is our hostess with the mostest this year. Thank You Angela for all your hard work and making this fun. My 5 grandchildren will sure enjoy fighting over who gets to snuggle under it on the couch. May the best one win! Ha Ha pretty sure that the 9yr. old grand-daughter Brooke will.

The EVER changing world around ME

I haven't posted in quite along time due to the fact I sort of got confused about blogging and by visiting everyone's great looking blog's I got inspired to start again. So many fun & wonderful things to show & talk about so bear with me as I give this another try.
I am very excited about a new quilt book and making the quilt and want to show you my journey along the way and if you haven't began the Farmer's Wife Pony Quilt yet, please do. The group just started Monday October 3 and it will be a block of the week and short stories to go with each block. Fun Fun!
I finished 2 blocks so far.

                                                                          A DANDY

and

A BEAUTY

RECEIVED GREAT MAIL TODAY

Hello
Today was a cold and sort of depressing day since it's suppose to be SPRING here in Missouri. Well Mother Nature surprised us with another crappy snow storm. Thunder snow at that! 6-7inches so far and it's 9 pm and still just a snowin'.
Then something happen to make the day a brighter world for me. WOW the mailman had a big soft package for me and it was the blocks from the Friendship New Years Resolution Block Swap. The rules were to use the pattern from New Year's Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini in red, yellow,light green & blue, with white background.
Join me in giving these great quilters a big pat on the back for a job well done. Thanks especially to Cindy DeWulf for being the swap hostess.

Take a look at how beautiful the blocks are:

                                                             Cindy DeWulf-Block1

Cindy DeWulf- Block 2 

                                                                 Mary Crowther

Patricia Stefanowicz-Block 1 

Patricia Stefanowicz-Block 2 

Sue Kerrawn- Block 1 

Sue Kerrawn-Block 2 

Nancy Huggins-Block 1 (MINE) 

Nancy Huggins-Block 2 (Mine too) 

The quilt is suppose to be 12 blocks so guessing I will make 3 more to finish it or another UFO added to the huge list....ha ha

Super Great Meeting with Debra Henninger

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 was a night to remember. I attended the Bits & Pieces quilt quild in Ballwin, Missouri. Debra Henninger was the guest speaker and before she started I was able to speak with her and have some pictures taken. She is so sweet and kind. The stories she told were very interesting. Wish you all that are making the Hobo Quilt could have been there.

She signed my 1st. weeks block Be Afraid pg.33, how cool is that. I also was able to see & touch, oh yeah you always need to touch the mother quilt. ha ha

Here are some of the photos from that night. I had my first row finished and sashed to show her.

Her label from the Original quilt.

THE HOBO QUILT

Here are some other photos of her quilts she was showing from the book.

Photos are not so good, but here they are.

Hope you enjoyed them as much as I have.

Happy quilting

Bye Nancy

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

When you raise a pint on St. Patrick's Day, here are a few Irish Toasts:

SLAINTE  Gaelic for Cheers, a Toast or to Health

May God bring good health to your enemies' enemies,

May you live to be a hundred years, with one extra year to repent.

May you be in heaven one half hour before the devil knows your're dead.

May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.

Health, and Long life to you
Land without rent to you
The partner of your heart to you and when you die, may your bones rest in Ireland.

May your neighbors respect you,
Troubles neglect you,
The angels protect you,
And Heaven accept you.

An old Irish receipe for longevity:
Leave the table hungry.
Leave the bed sleepy.
Leave the bar thirsty.

May you never forget what is worth remembering,
Or remember what is best forgotten.

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been,
The insight to know where you are,
and the foresight to know when you've gone too far.

NICE SURPRISE

Good Morning,
Here in St. Louis it is sunny & warm already. I opened an email from Rosa Robichaud and the surprise is that a fellow quilter, Susan in Texas, is celebrating her 3rd. year of blogging and is giving away 3 wonderful prizes. Go see for yourself at http://susanintexas.blogspot.com/ the fabrics are so yummy!
I entered and got 10 chances. YEAH!
*******************************************************************************

One of my current projects is the Hobo Quilt by Debra G. Henninger.
I've been working on some HOBO Quilt blocks which are good fun and pretty easy. Here are some of the blocks I have finished so far.

                                                          Sit-Down Feed Pg.#127

                                                                        Gentlemen Pg.# 81

At the Crossroads, Go this way Pg.# 19

 (My 1st. attempt at machine applique.) Love it!

Anything Goes Pg.#17

A Beating Awaits You Here  Pg.# 15

Here is the Place  Pg.# 93

Chain Gang  Pg.# 47

Don't Give Up  Pg.# 65

Bread  Pg.#39

Well-Guarded House  Pg.# 143

Be Afraid  Pg.# 33

When it is not right, it's just not right!

About my 1st. HOBO block:
Well after reading an email from another member and yes read the directions more carefully I made some changes.
First I wasn't happy with the muslin I use so I changed it to Kona Cotton-Cream and I love that look much better. It gives a more richness to the block.
I switched to a light grey thinner thread and a new needle (boy that should have been my first clue) and moved the needle postion over so I was using a scant 1/4 inch seam.
Groups like this sure do give a great deal of helpful information all you need do is ask.
The end result has brightened my day.

Here is the picture of the new block:

Hobo Quilt Adventure Begins Here today

Starting on a new adventure and I am so excited. Something about this book and quilt has me really drawn to it. Therefore I am going to do my best to blog, journal and enjoy the ride.

For those of you that have not heard about Hobo Quilts by Debra G. Henninger, then read on and follow along with me. I know you'll want to join in on the fun. Even if you don't plan on making this quilt it is very interesting reading and learning how the Hobo's lived and survived. We are a new Yahoo group run by Stephanie Gallegos. Thank you Stephanie for organizing this for everyone to enjoy.

Here is a picture of one of many layouts from the book that shows the finished quilt- designed by Debra Henninger  and  Pieced and appliqued by Debra Henninger and Sharon Janzen and quilted by Jeri Rennie are they some talented people or what?

For my 1St. Block -BE AFRAID these are the fabrics I chose. I want to stay as close to the book picture as I possibly can.

My cutting layout:

My finished block:

I have also been going through my stash and pulling out fabrics that I thought would work, and have made myself a shopping list so I don't repeat buying the same fabrics...ha ha admit it you do it too!

So now off to give some attention to my many other UFO's and WIP
For now, thanks for reading and come back to check on the progress of the HOBO QUILT and my other projects.
Bye Nancy in Sunny St. Louis, MO.

Getting alot of help from NEW FRIENDS

Oh does the learning ever stop and you feel really like you know what you are doing? I'll never give up, but some things are so hard!
I want to send out a BIG thank you to Phillipa P. for helping me to learn to post a link, hope it works.
 Pip let me know about a give away and I wanted to enter and also let you all know about it too.
Check it out you won't believe how awesome the fabric is. Lila Tueller Designs is giving as a Grand Prize- A fat quarter bundle of the new Isabella fabric by Riley Blake.
Well folks that is about all that one old gal can learn for one evening. Now off to work on some quilt blocks.
SEW by for Now
Nancy

Out with the year 2010 and IN with 2011

I WANT TO WISH EVERYONE A Happy New Year
OUT WITH YEAR 2010--a GOOD ONE SOMEWHAT ON QUITE SIDE FOR ME
IN WITH NEW YEAR 2011--PLANNING ON A GREAT ONE!!

My MOTTO for 2011 **Sewing FOREVER Housework WHENEVER**

I am going to try to stick to some resolutions this year, how about you?
1. Pull out a UFO ( Un-Finished Object ) every month and work on or finish it completely.
2. Learn more about how to use my computer programs to my advantage.
3. Get my photos old & new in my computer in the correct folders. Mostly photos of my quilting & sewing.
4. Do more Genealogy and fill in missing blanks and breaking down brick walls.
5. Quit watching the pros on TV do remodeling and get my BATHROOM DONE.
I have had the supplies and new fixtures and tiles for over 6 mos.
Yeah I’m not a rush rush kind of gal..ha ha
Ambitious or just dreaming, time will tell.
Have a great day