My baby girl is celebrating her 2nd official birthday today. She was born on Leap Day, 8 years ago today. Special from the very beginning, that's for sure! Her birthday presents include a Hello Kitty sewing machine and the promise for me to teach her to sew. She can hardly wait!
Here are my next 2 blocks in the Web Sampler project I am doing along with Perry, Cindy, Carol and Nicole. I'm sure my cohorts are going to leave me in the dust, but until I get my quilts ready for the show in just a couple weeks, this project will have to proceed at a snail's pace. I hope I will be able to step it up after our quilt show is over.
I haven't had a new car of my own since 1994, and my poor Sparky was truly on his last legs. I had taken over new job duties in August 2006 when a coworker retired, but my employer had been slow about coming through with my official promotion. With my union behind me, we got them to agree to paying me retroactively back to August 2006, and I found out this week that I am finally getting the check. The time was right to buy a new car! My dh, being a master negotiator, had 2 dealerships fighting for our business and we finally got the car I wanted for $500 under invoice, a $1,000 rebate and 1.9% financing. It's a brand new 2007 Kia Sportage in Volcanic Red with black interior. 4 wheel drive, even....
I signed all the papers late Sunday night, but left the car at the dealership overnight because I didn't want to drive that far in the dark home from unfamiliar territory. We were back at the dealership the second they opened this morning and I the kids and I got to drive "Fireball" home. I am totally in love with my new car.
Here are the first 2 blocks of the Swell Moda U kit I'm making as a shop sample. I was kind of "meh" about the Urban Chiks' Swell fabrics, but once I started fondling cutting these beauties, I fell in love. What a fresh breath of spring!
The block on the left is all sewn together and the block on the right needs to be seamed. The construction is pretty easy, the planning is a little tricky, but fitting it all together is like a puzzle and I like puzzles.
Oh boy, a three day weekend - more time to sew! Enjoy the rest of YOUR weekend, I'll be working on Swell!
Cindy had this bright idea about another group project, which I was reluctant to dive into after struggling to complete the last one. But Web Sampler Celebration II was just too enticing to resist: Order a 12" block kit from each of these 12 shops, pick your favorite finishing kit (or finish it up on your own) and the fun begins. Cindy, Perry, Carol, Nicole and I are going to work on this together, with a planned finish/reveal date of June 2. Here's my first block, which isn't a lot of progress, but considering the weekend I had, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself!
Please join us and make the sampler yourself, or check our blogs to follow the progress.
One downside to being a fabric junkie with a very large stash, is sometimes I have a hard time deciding what to work on next. I'm at that crossroads right now - getting ready to start a new challenge project, 3 samples to finish for the quilt shop, but also wanting to make something "just for me."
So this weekend, I finished this flimsy - a tablerunner from Red, White & Bold charm squares for the quilt shop. I plan to machine quilt it myself, hopefully sometime in the next week (machine quilting is definitely not my forte).
I also started cutting and planning a project using my Posh fat quarter bundle. Here is a sneak peek at that on my design wall. After sewing one test block this weekend, I was not happy with the look at all, so I am trying to come up with something else that will work. I do love the fabrics, but I hate when an idea just doesn't come together the way you pictured it....
