Please stay tuned. I will be posting this weekend and catch you all up on my going's on. My life is a little upside down right now and have been trying to decide if I tell more or not.....

The Bagsket

Why Did That Baby Irish Chain Become a UFO? I intend to share this info with each UFO I finish but forgot to do so this time around. I actually bought this top off ebay from a gal I know in Maine. She had hand quilted it about half way. I didn't want to finish it by hand so picked all those stitches out and machine quilted it. In fact this is the first quilt I quilted on my new Janome 6500. She quite working on it because she felt it took too long to do and wanted to work on faster things. What a shame. It was so close and her quilting was great!

I will be posting another pic with the recipient of the quilt as soon as I meet him!

We Have a Finish!! I was 4th in line for the Queen of UFOs on Stashbuster. But I had a finish to prevent my reign!

Weekend Accomplishment. Here is my first paper piecing experience. This is for a round robin I am in and belongs to Jane in Kansas. I really enjoyed doing paper piecing and look forward to trying more.

What I did for summer vacation. I went to visit my folks for 8 days. DD went with me. While I was there I made a "Scrappysak", a "Grace Smartbag" with cover, finished a squiggly hotpad and made two helmet hats. To me it was heaven to sit and craft and visit.

Here is my other part of a great vacation. My mother hosted a picnic at her house and invited all my aunts and uncles over. This is her side of the family. There were several cousins and my aunt from my Dad's side as well.

Sorry I am So Quiet. I will be back before too long....

Happy 49th Birthday To My Dear Hubby Mark!! Watch out Salley O'Malley! He is gonna have you next year. Don't think he likes to Kick! Stretch! and Kick! though.

Wow! Where Have I Been? To be honest I am overwhelmed with a lot of things. Last Sunday I had to take hubby to the ER with hiccups. He had them for almost a week and was so weakened by them that he started having breathing troubles. Too add to this poor sleep and almost not eating anything. In addition he had aggravated his knee the week before and it was just becoming worse and worse. They got rid of the hiccups in the ER only to have them come back a few minutes after we left there. The "fix" was Haldol in the ER and Thorazine at home. These are both "psych" drugs. They knocked him for a loop and made him extremely low functioning. He was so bad that I asked permission to either work from home or take leave of absence last week. Boss allowed me to work. It is really hard to be a caretaker. I admire all those that do this full time. To add to all this my son, who is a type 1 diabetic, had a touch of the flu. When it rains it pours.

On the work front it is mid year and that means appraisal writing time. I tried to do that from home last week buit with conference calls and caring for others it just was not possible to complete. Plus I had an overdue proposal to complete. I stayed up until after 11:00 p.m. and got that one done last night. I will have to concentrate and get these appraisals done this week since I have to get them all administered this week.

Then on the crafty front, I have many things I owe. Let me just call them overdue. I spent all weekend working to get a round robin done and to get the prep work done on a second round robin. Here are the fruits of my labor. Scroll through the pictures to see more detail. The picture in this post is the completed RR. Lot's of hand work on this one. The second one is paper piecing. I haven't done this before but have found lot's of great tutorials. Now to get the RR off in the mail.

On a fun note. I joined up for a White Elephant exchange on the Stashbuster yahoo group. I had a moment of regret at first since I felt it was a waste of money from the perspective of the shipping and return of contents in the box. I got the box over the weekend and boy was I pleasantly surprised. There was lots of nice things in there. I chose 6 items that I really liked. Now I have to find at least 6 things to place in the box and send it on to the next person. Assume that a pattern costs $9. I got more than my money's worth. Fun, fun, fun! PLUS! I tracked down Sharon-UK in Oregon and we had a nice chat! She is such a sweetie! Love that gal!

Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty Spelled Pronunciation[ser-uhn-dip-i-tee]

• –noun
  an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

Four or five years ago I "worked" with a gal at quiltchat.com. We were both OP's in the room. Her nickname was nimblethimble. I loved this gal. We exchanged gifts, did swaps together and chatted our heads off! What a great gal. Then one day she disappeared. I tried her e-mail address and it was no longer active. Just lost touch.

The other day I was surfing the QuiltStudio webring and came upon a gals post about her friend suddenly dying. I posted my condolences. Not long after this I had a comment on my blog from someone who's blog name I didn't recognize. By now you have probably guessed it was from my long lost friend. I am floating on air! She has come to chat with me a few times and we are catching up on lost time. She has an awesome blog and I am in awe of her talents!

Faith, I am glad we happened across one another again! I am so happy to have you back in my life!

PAY IT FORWARD. OK I signed up to do this on Sarah's blog and Kim's blog. Let's see how it goes. The first three people that leave a comment and pledge to pay it forward to three (make that six) others on their blog will receive a handmade gift from me within one year of this posting.

Please help out and give your favorite colors and an email address.

Happy 48th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad! I am the luckiest gal in the world to have you as my parents! I love you!

Reflecting on May and June.... It doesn't seem that I have accomplished a lot these two months. I can't really recall what I spent my time doing but it wasn't major quilting accomplishments.

• Round Robin center completed and mailed off
• Three tote bags
• Row on my first round robin that I received almost completed. Have to sew on a few buttons and do a bit of embroidery on it.
• Quilted the peach and blue Ninepatch.
• Quilted the baby Irish Chain
• Pulled up all the durn carpet! Now I remember!

All in all not too bad.

Stashbuster Topic of the Week: What get's in the way of my quilty progress? Well I can look around and blame all sorts of things. I work, a LOT. I have the family to attend to and on and on. But, I am also a big proponent of squeeking in 15 minutes here and there to accomplish things.

I made a good deal of progress a couple weeks ago when I turned out three tote bags. Then after that not too much. I continued to sketch and plan my Round Robin row. I have been doing this for weeks! Then it hit me. I worried that it wouldn't be perfect so I was afraid to start until I knew it would be "right". Well now this is my design so who is to say what is right?

This realization was a slap in the face. I immediately got up and went into my sewing room and completed the first two sides of my round. I proudly showed my friends in #quiltchat. They all gave me design "suggestions" after asking about my plans. Some of their thinking was similar to mine and actually meant a better product I think. My initial reaction was to re-draw it. I said no, I am going to just sew it. I went into work on the last two sides. The top was easy, a plain strip. The bottom I had originally planned a full row of pickets across the front. This changed to leave an opening in the fence to lead to the front of the house. I marked my sewing lines and cut my rails shorter and sewed it on. I then sewed pickets on to find that the rails were too long. No big deal, I unpicked the end from the back, trimmed it and sewed the last picket down. Repeat for the other side. See the pics below. I think it turned out great! Just a few more items to add and it is done done.

So what gets in your way?

More Round Robin. I am done with the fence. I plan to add a bunny in a corner from the FQs pictured. Probably the pink. Will add a flower on the opposite corner. Might add a bird at top center with a small ribbon in it's beak. Stay tuned!

Sneak Peek My first round robin. Here is what I have done so far.....

Mesquite Quilt Show Loot I didn'y buy fabric as I am on No Buy. But let me tell you I actually felt a little down thinking of all the things I had at home that I really needed to get done. Curbed my appetite! So here is what I did buy. Some templates, pins, bobbins, a batt and a "tool box". I did buy one tote pattern. This will help me use up some of the pre-quilted fabric I accumulated one year.

Yes there is a DVD there too. I bought these patterns several years ago. I could never remember all the tips given to make the item. I broke down and bought the DVD. No more excuses!

High Five! Here is my first post on the new computer! So much better! Check this out... He is 7 months old and we taught him this trick in just 2 days.

New Toys. Hubby bought me a new computer last Sunday. I spent most evenings on conference calls and did not feel like setting it up and managing those calls as well. Saturday a.m. I planned to get up and get to it but we had a service repairman that came to work on the equipment that supports our internet. I didn't want to be working on the computer in the middle of that. As soon as he left I set the new machine up and started loading the software. I got the internet connectivity going and downloaded several pieces of software. It went pretty well. Now I have to download data from the old machine that I want to save and move it over. Less urgency to get that done.

The other new toy is a floor model Ott lamp. I have the table top model. I bought another using my 40% off coupon as there was not much to choose from. I went to a bigger store and they had the floor lamp for $100. That was better than using the 40% coupon. I set it up pretty easily and think it will be great. I found some reviews from people that complain it is too short. I just need it to shine light over my shoulder while I am seated. I am sure it will be great for that!

And yes, I promised to take more pictures. Haven't tried that out yet with the new computer.....I know I know. Cut me some slack. Another weekend of conference calls. I want my evenings and weekends back!

Tree of life. This tree is in my front yard. When dh and I bought the house in 1986 his mother would come to visit quite often. She bought us three trees. They all looked like sticks in the ground. I can't remember if she paid $5 or $15 for each of them. One of them died but the other two just flourished. The other is a Bradford Pear and is in the back yard. This is a red oak.

His mother died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1989. It was a shock but I must tell you that through this tree I feel she is still with us. It has grown big and strong. It produces a lot of acorns and we are always pulling up saplings from the yard. I should share these with the neighborhood as many people have scrub trees that have begun to die off.

We talk about moving all the time and one thing that dh and I always agree on. We will take acorns and saplings with us so that his mom can continue to be with us.