A very productive evening!

It's been a while since I participated in the Friday Night Sew-In, so I thought I'd better make a valiant effort for last night's event.

I had the center of this quilt done, using a Ruby jelly roll. I found a free online tutorial for a "strip tube" quilt, and thought it would be perfect for these bright cheerful fabric strips. The center has been done for about 5 weeks; I've been waiting for the pink border fabric to arrive so that I could finish the top. Thankfully, the mail carrier dropped a fat package into my mailbox yesterday - and there was my fabric! (It only took 4 weeks to get here from Tennessee...). I quickly got it washed, dried and pressed; cut the strips, sewed them on, and... (big sigh of relief), it's ready to sandwich with the batting and backing. The binding strips are cut, ready to sew together and then to complete the quilt after I get the quilting done. Next up was my Super Zigzag quilt - another freebie on the internet. I had cut and sewn a few of the print/white fabric sections, before realizing that I'd also need to cut fabric triangles to finish off the rows. I had about 40 cm. of the fabric left, and a quick tour of my 5 "local" quilt shops were all in vain. Then a quilting friend mentioned that another friend was closing her online quilt shop, and her prices were really good - and there, amid all the other white tone-on-tone fabrics, was my white fabric!!! I ordered it right away, and 6 days later, my fabric was here from Wyoming (the state, not the s.w. Ontario town). It also got the wash, dry, pressing treatment; last night I finished making all of the blocks, and even got a few of the block strips partially sewn. I laid it out on the living room floor, to get a rough idea of how it will look when the center section is completely assembled. Now I'll get the triangles cut and maybe finish the top tonight yet.

Now I've got to go - have one more quilt top to finish tonight, if possible - and then I have to check for a card for someone having surgery this week - just want her to know that we'll be praying for her...

A card or two...

I decided that I was going to treat myself this past Friday night! Two dear friends (and Stampin' Up consultants) hosted a card-making workshop and I joined them for a few hours. We ended up making 6 cards altogether - some very pretty and time-consuming, others quick and easy. Here are 2 of the cards (I've already given one away, and the others are in my stash box).

The top card is a center-fold card, embossed on the right-hand panel. The left panel has a crimped panel - you then stamp a sentiment on the large scalloped circle; stamp 6 flowers using the Triple Treat Flower stamp (which I later won!), and then, after cutting the centers of the flowers out of 3 of the flowers, you stack and assemble the flowers, which then are attached to the card roughly around the sentiment. The second card looks complicated to make, but was actually quite easy, if you read the instructions! You need two CS panels, 2 pieces of designer paper, a length of baker's twine, a few circles, a template and mini brads. Attach the DP to the appropriate cardstock, wrap the twine around one panel, fasten those panels to the card. Then, stamp the image; using the template, punch holes around the dark circle, insert the brads, affix the sailboat circle, and attach it to the card. Add a sentiment, and you're good to go! It was wonderful to get out for a fun evening - and I now have a few pretty cards to show for it!

Finally have some quilt-y pics!

Well, it's been a long time coming, but I finally have pictures of a quilt! I finished the top late last night, and hubby helped with the holding-up this morning so I could get a decent pic.
This is another quilt for my single-moms pile. I think I have 3 or 4 tops done now, and need 8 (I think). A few others are started - two of them are mystery projects.
What's that? You want to see this quilt? Oh, all right.....
This is one of my favourite patterns - it's called "Warm Wishes" and it goes together fairly quickly IF you keep the colours in the right order. I love these fabrics together! I chose the print fabric first (I fell in love with it at first sight!), and then chose the 3 fabrics for the striped blocks, using colours from the print fabric.
Now I need to go shopping - there's a Shop Hop going on today, and one of my daughters (a quilter too!) is taking me away! to 5 different shops. Last year we both won door prizes, so we did well - we'll see what today brings!

My latest cards...

I really haven't had any time in the last week or so to do any quilting, and it's been almost as difficult to find time to make a card - but I needed a few cards, so that's what I'm sharing today.
It was my dad's 83rd birthday on Friday, and I found a card design on-line that worked with his interests and my stamp sets - and here's my card for him:
The C/S is Old Olive and Chocolate Chip from Stampin' Up, and both of the DPs and stamp set (Lovely as a Tree) are as well.

The second card is for a couple from church - she's fighting cancer, and he's in a rehab facility after having had a stroke. I wanted to remind them that they're in my thoughts and prayers. I CASE'd this design from a friend, and even tried one of her favourite embellishments - Viva Pearls. I'm quite pleased with the end product!
The cardstock, designer paper and ribbon are all River Rock from Stampin' Up, and the butterfly die is as well. I had previously inked the raised side of an embossing folder, and then embossed a piece of white cardstock - that ended up becoming the butterfly!
Thanks for checking in!

Therapy Thursday

My LSS (Scrappin' Great Deals) is having a garage sale today, and I have lots of goodies to get rid of. I find that I'm spending a LOT more time quilting lately, and only manage to make cards when I absolutely need one - sad... Because of this, I find I keep going back to my favourite stamps, and other sets sit untouched. I figured that I might as well sell them - and then I'll have a store credit to buy stuff that I actually NEED!
So, I drove there Thursday to drop off my box of goodies, and I managed to time it perfectly - just in time for Therapy Thursday! Basically, you show up by 1 p.m., with your tools (scissors, tape, pop dots, etc.), and you come home with a great card!
Thursday's card was so cute! I have a quilting friend that's in a rehab facility after breaking her leg for the 2nd time in a year, and I wanted to send her a cheery card - and it couldn't have been better timing! We used a set that is a new concept (for me, at least!) - My Favorite Things now sells sets of stamps with the dies that you need to complete the card - and the card was exactly what I need for my friend! I'm sure you'll agree:

... and this is what I did last night.

So, it was a good thing that I got a head-start on my project, because it definitely took a lot longer to make than I thought it would.
I found a really neat quilt pattern online a week or so ago - this should bring you to the tutorial: http://www.abrightcorner.com/2012/02/tutorial-strip-tube-quilt.html
I bought a Ruby jelly roll a few weeks ago, because I've always loved the colours, and I just wanted a really bright and fun quilt. So far, I'm right on track to accomplish that!
The pic shows the progression from individual blocks (some of them are like the positive/negative images that you get when you cut up the strips), to pairs, and then the start of 2 different rows...... (sorry the pic is so blurry)

Anniversaries and other fun things....

One of my sisters (and her husband!) celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this past week - and it called for a special card. It took 3 tries, but I finally came up with one that was acceptable enough (she's a card-maker too, so there are standards, you know...) I pulled together a few pieces of DP from an SU pack from a few years ago, and chose my pallette from that. A lacey oval from Spellbinders, and their initials and the #30 from a set of dies hubby gave me for Christmas a few years ago finished it all off.



And, seeing that tomorrow is the March edition of Friday Night Sew-In, and I had a little bit of time, I figured that I'd get a head-start on my project. It wasn't too difficult - I've just started 3 new ones... Here's the fabrics in the Ruby jelly roll - I found a great tutorial online, and I'm going to be playing with that. Check back on Sat. to see what I've done.