This is rich...!

So I told Mr.Honey, "honey, you are going to have to fix dinner for the next few days"......he said, "how do you turn the oven on?"

You know, I am going to drag this crap out as long as I can and take my sweet time....muhhhaaa  hhaaaaaa  hhhaaaa!

And thanks ladies, Allie, Lizzie, Michelle (welcome to my little world of weirdness), Jeannette and Vicki, for all the sweet words. Oh, I will be back. Honey had to leave for a few minutes tonight, his dishes are waiting for him! Have a great evening...Elaine

They never learn!

Men, that is. Last night, our neighbor popped over with an impromptu invitation to her wedding....this coming Saturday! My husband asked, right before bed, "what are we going to give them for a gift?"

Like he has to ask? He said I cannot finish it time......any other takers?

                                                          

I miss her...

Amanda Jean...or Crazymomquilts...I am finding myself drawn to your quilts more each day. I want to be just like you when I grow up. (Check here for unlimited inspiration. And if you're fairly new in blogland, you need to go back on her blog and check it out...that girl could put 'em out)

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The ugly quilt....or maybe not?!?

I finished the borders on MY Christmas quilt. I put a 1 1/2" chocolate inner border and 6" outer border on the top and bottom. I wanted it a little wider, not longer, so I put a 10" outer border at the sides. Looking straight on, the side borders are at the top and bottom of this pic. Fits nicely on my queen bed with the outer border flowing down the sides.

Even my clothesline sticks weren't long enough to get it off the ground, lol. I have the perfect backing and will use a thin cotton batt. For the quilting, I want to do a long stitch with Christmasy threads. Maybe a chocolate polka dot binding? I think I'm going to have fun with the whole process.

Have you ever planned a quilt in your head, like forever, and found "the" pattern? It just didn't work, darnit! I collected fabric with roses,  forever,  and used this awesome Moda Bella Dill. The pattern is from Quilts and More, Fall 2008, called High Light. Mary Pepper made the original with the Taxi collection from Timeless Treasures. The original quilt is awesome with blacks and whites and an electric yellow...it really is, 65 1/2" x 84 1/2".

I have already made a black, white and yellow, so another was out of the question!  So, what do you think....does it need borders? What would you do?

I should introduce my biggest fans, Dakota the Paint and Jennifer the Burro. They are very cool.

                                                              

One top nearly done

Quite a while back, I won a fantabulous giveaway from Meredith. I won a Glace layer cake and some groovy yardage, again, yummy glace! I looked at it for a good while, petted it, stroked it and fell in love with it. I finally decided it wasn't going anywhere...except my bed. Meet my new Christmas quilt, just for me! I haven't measured it, but it just fits on my queen mattress top, as is.

If you use a layer cake for the disappearing 9 patch, you need to add 12 extra squares for a bigger top. Mine is 2 squares wide and 3 squares down. I had to fold them in half to cut them, lol, big suckers! Then my friends, the Quilter Sisters, recommended I put a "stop" point on before the border. Great idea! Thanks Sisters!  I had another top in mind for quite a while. It didn't turn out at all what I had hoped for. Fine, it's really ugly! I'm going to have to think about it before I can post a pic of it....like I said, it's really ugly!!                               

I HATE SNOW!!!

It is 2:04 pm, Sunday, and it is still coming down, uuugggghhhh!!! If you look closely, you will see the first of the season blooms, covered in snow, of our Tulip trees. The white spots in the pics are huge snowflakes....

My poor Century plants are dying here! I have to finish my quilt tops, yes I said tops, as in 2 at once!

                                                   

My Butterfly Quilt~~~~~Finally!

I made a new quilt kit from the lucious new line from Basic Grey, the Grunge line...if you haven't seen it, you need to, gorgeous fabrics. I kitted these up for a special group coming out from Dallas tomorrow to attend a retreat and will put some up in my etsy store. My embroidery is a little rusty but I enjoy it, hope you do too. My re-do is the one on the right. Elaine

                                                          

Can I honk my own horn?

I have a baby quilt, a freeform log cabin that I made, that is being featured on handmade picks sewn sunshine ! I am very excited, wahooooo! I guess you can tell. Have a great night...Elaine

oops, I forgot to tell you this is from etsy and it is in my etsy shop, lol!

A few pics of my shop

I love my vintage quilts and quilt tops. I do not put pins or holes in them, just drape them as carefully as possible. They make such great backdrops for my patterns. I was getting the shop in tune for spring and bringing some of my babies down to put away but wanted to share some pics.

I love my babies, so inspiring, eh?

This last quilt is my favorite of all time. It has HST on one block and pink toile on the other. Most of the pink toile has disentergrated but still distingusable in some of the blocks. I'm not sure why I like it, hmm?

I have to go to the post office to mail a couple packages. As a reminder, I have only one Collections for Charity quilt kit left and I am not going to re-order anymore. Thanks for looking, Elaine

(oops, sorry, I do have pins HOLDING PATTERNS IN PLACE, just not to wall. I hate it when I lie!)

My quilting bee blocks finished

Wahoo, I feel like an over achiever, lol! I actually finished Jennys blocks before the end of the month, go figure, I am on time. Life is good. Jenny wrote on each of our envelopes which block to make and mine was the liberated star. I had so much of the fabric left over, added some of mine and made her 2 blocks. How fun, eh? If you don't belong to an online group, I would encourage you to try it.

There are 12 of us in The Bee Balm and each of us got to chose a different block each month. Sometimes we send fabric, sometimes we rely on our fellow crafters to provide their own. I have had a great time. Most of the quilters are much better then I am at sewing a straight line, but it's ok. The most important thing is getting to know each other and the potential to build a quilt with blocks made from all over the world. One of our group is from Austrailia and another from the Yukon.The rest of us are from the US.

So the next time someone asks for "anyone" to join  in and do something like the group I am in...don't be bashful or shy. Just hop right in and have fun.

Now, go quilt something...Elaine

                                                        

Priceless

I received a really nice email from Michele inviting me to her blog. Wow, you need to check out her applique, very nice. She is doing Beyond the Cherry Trees BOM from Sentimental Stitches.

I went to leave her a comment and saw one from any interesting blog name and had to check that one out. It's a blog written by 3 sisters, one of which is a knitter...now the most awesome knitted item ever is here . The best part is...I love it and have thought about doing just this for my goat. Please check it out...and now I off to find something to do...

Not quilt related but good to know

So if you live in the country, like I do, and the weather appears to be getting warmer, you may notice certain little creatures out and about. Ahh, skunks in particular.   They are cute little devils, soft and fluffy and move with the grace and agility of a chubby cat. They also like to do their shopping, prowling and mating during the hours of darkness. They also carry rabies.

I won't go into it but, I know for a fact the best way to remove skunky smell from fully dressed men, their boots and coats and even very hairy Chow-Chows. And it isn't tomato juice. It would be douche. The only thing it's good for, is throwing in the washing machine with clothing and even boots...yes, leather...then grab 2 bottles of the disposable bottles and bathe your dog, or yourself, and top it off with the douche. It really does work. I am sure that other brands would work but I am not about to stray from what really works!

Good times.                                 

                                        

Collections Charity Quilt Kits are here!

The nice UPS driver delivered a huge box from Moda today. In it were 4 quilt kits and one of my nice customers already bought 2...geez, not even out of the box yet! I was very happy to see the kits inside a reusable heavy weight canvas tote with ties at the top and a removable shaper on the bottom. The entire kit weighs over 6 pounds! It has the cutest custom cut fabric rolls, all the fabrics for the top and binding and the free pattern.

I have listed them in my shop...international shipping is available, per usual. Check them out, very cool!

Civil War era reproduction kit designed by Howard Marcus for Moda fabrics.