Another Sewy Sunday

The Spring Sewing Party was such fun.  I got a lot of sewing done, but had to quit for awhile to get some Saturday errands done.  I spent all of my sewing time working on the green No Sew Swap and finally finished them today.  The ladies in this swap did such a good job of choosing fabrics and cutting the blocks.  Special thanks to Pat for coordinating this swap.  It was a lot of fun.  These are the last two blocks from the swap. 

I think I'm going to make another one of each pattern using my green fabrics.  That will give me 24 blocks, and then I'll see where we go from there.  I made the Square in Square with my greens today, and I like the way it turned out. 

I haven't made a DJ block in several days, so I got one more made this afternoon. 

I also had to make a swap block for February!  I couldn't believe it!  I almost forgot about it, so it will go out tomorrow.  A little late, but at least it's done.  I hope my partner likes it.

Then my last project for today was to make 2 small squares for a care quilt. 

Spring Sewing Party 2

Today was Kelly's Spring Sewing Party, and I was able to spend many hours cutting, sewing and trying not to make too many mistakes.  I made a lot of progress on my green and cream blocks from Pat's (A Little of This and a Little of Pat) No Sew Block  Swap.  I have 2 left that I didn't have time to finish, but this is my progress for today. 

Aren't they pretty?  All these yummy fabrics were selected by the swap participants, with the actual block construction left to the recipient.  I don't think I made any real mistakes on them today, so I have 5 beautiful blocks to add to the project, for a total of 9.  They all look so good together, so I'm definitely going to make the time tomorrow to finish up the last two.

Spring Sewing Party

Tomorrow's a Spring Sewing Party hosted by  Kelly at Charming Chatter.  I always have plenty to work on, so finding a project certainly isn't a problem.  I've started making the blocks for Pat's No Sew Block Swap, and hopefully will finish them tomorrow.  Here's a peek at what I've finished so far. 

Now let me tell you about the mistakes I made.  The first one I made was Pat's in the upper right hand corner.  All I had to do was the final cut for the pieces - the strips were already done.  Of course, I cut one of the corners wrong, making it 3 3/4" instead of 3 1/2" leaving me with one piece that was only 3 1/4".  I can fudge a little bit, but not a whole seam width.  So I substituted some green from my stash to make the block.  Then on the Friendship Star, the fabric I had for the light part of the star point was exactly the right length, but included the selvedge in the length, and again I substituted another green to finish the block.  I think they're all really pretty, and I'm anxious to see them all together when they're complete.

And, finally, I have a finish for February!  My Quilts For Kids quilt.  I signed up for OPAM this year, and I really think it might be a mistake for me.  I don't do many small projects - mainly bedsize quilts, and I'm primarily a hand quilter.  Things don't get done very quickly.  We'll see...if nothing else, I can always make more for Quilts for Kids.  They're a small, simple pattern and finish up so fast.

Quilt for Kids

I didn't realize it had been so many days since I last posted, but what the heck...
I've been really pushing to get all the blocks done for my Dear Jane quilt.  I have 28 left to do, and I'm almost ready to set a deadline to have them done.  Of course, that just means that I'll have to start on the triangles.  I finally got my ruler for them. Now I just have to screw up my courage to attempt one.

This was the view out over our back yard this afternoon.  I know you can't tell it, but the flakes were big and fluffy, and though I'm sick to death of winter, it really was beautiful.  When is this just going to go away and let us get on to spring?

I finally got the batting and finished putting my 'Quilt for Kids' put together and quilted today.  I'm finishing the binding tonight while we watch still more Olympics, and will get it washed and ready to mail tomorrow.  I've checked my stash, and I don't have anything that would make a colorful kid quilt, so I'm going to buy some to make a girlie quilt to send them.  If you haven't seen this project yet, go here to check it out.  Sorry the picture is fuzzy and the colors so washed out.  It is such a colorful little quilt!

Lotsa Sewing Going On

I never did get out to get some batting, so my little Downey quilt isn't finished yet.  Maybe tomorrow...

I spent my sewing room time on my Dear Jane blocks, and I was able to finish 3 Friday, 3 yesterday, and 3 today.  Don't worry, I'm not going to show them all to you - too many pictures.  Some were really difficult, and you can tell from the result that I had a lot of trouble.  One thing I've learned from the Dear Jane listserv is that finished is better than perfect!  Thank goodness - I'd have to give up on this craft if it required perfection!  But these little 4  1/2 inch sweeties are so addictive.  I love making them.  The blocks will be finished soon, and then I have to start on the triangles.  I'm not sure I'm going to love them.

I've really cut back on joining swaps, but I still do one each month, and keep track of what's available on  SwapBot.  I have one that needs to be to its new home by the 26th, so I got it ready today.  I hope she likes it. 

And then, just so it doesn't feel lonely, I made one more block for SBS.  I like the way it turned out.

There's a wonderful giveaway over on Gigi's Thimble.  Just click on the button in the sidebar.  She has such beautiful items.

Downy Quilts for Kids

The mailman brought me another goodie yessterday.  It was my kit for the Downy Quilts for Kids program.  Look at these beautiful colors!  What kid wouldn't love a guitar quilt in these great, bright colors.  I got the top pieced today, but I won't show it to you until I finish it.  The pattern is simple and only took about an hour to put together, so hopefully I can complete it tomorrow. 

A little more of the Egypt trip....

On our last night in Cairo, we went to the laser light and sound show at the Sphinx and Pyramids.  It was a beautiful progrm, but unfortunately, it's not really possible to get decent pictures. 

On to Luxor.  This is the first sight we had as we came into the city.  They are excavating an avenue of sphinxes.  We saw many more sphinxes  at the Temple of Luxor.

According to our guide, Sam, the Temple of Luxor is the largest complex in the country, and he had a lot to say about it.  I wish I could have recorded it.  So since he was such a big part of our trip, here he is telling us about some of the damage that was done to the complex by the soldiers of Napoleon.  Those gouges in the stone are where they sharpened their knives.  He was very knowledgeable and kept it all very interesting.  There were actually names and dates carved into the stone, but they were about 30 feet high.  Sam said that the temple was covered by silt from the Nile, and that was ground level at the time the soldiers where there.

This temple has a few spots that still show some of the color that decorated it.  It's all on the ceiling and tops of the columns since that was the most protected area.

And one last picture for tonight, back in Cairo.  Here I am in a very small pyramid next to the pyramid of Cheops.  According to the guide who showed me through it, it was the tomb of the daughter of Cheops.  Don't I look just like the quintessential little old lady tourist?

Happy Valentines Day

♥ Happy Valentines Day♥ 
I hope everyone had a wonderful day.  We celebrated my birthday today with dinner out, and my hubby gave me chocolates as a valentine.  Yum.

I had time to sew today and thought I'd first make a Sylvia's Bridal Quilt block.  They're usually not too difficult, so I thought half an hour and I'd be done.  Well, I spent more than 2 hours working on this block, spending most of that time ripping out.  It was very frustrating.  So, I got the whole block put together, was admiring my work and realized something wasn't right.  It took a minute, but I finally realized that I had used the wrong color on one of the pieces.  There should be 8 pink inward points around, not just 4.  I had made them with the purple print.  I doubt that I'll redo the block - done is better than perfect.

Then I went on to the blocks I really wanted to do, the DJs.  I finished these 2 today, and doing both of them didn't take me nearly as long as to do the 1 SBQ block!  The blue one really isn't as wonky as this picture looks.  I should have taken a better picture.