Operation Wood Hollow

This is a photo from Julie's blog showing the Seeley Fire to the east of her home.

The other day I was reading on Julie's blog about her effort to collect quilts for families who have lost their homes to the Wood Hollow fire in Utah.  Then I saw a couple of BD#1's pics on Flickr of the ash and smoke in her own back yard and I knew I had to do something to help. 

When I visited Julie's blog this morning, she said had had a wonderful response to her plea for quilts she was going to try to collect  a quilt for each family who has lost a home to the wild fires and forest fires in the Western U.S.  Last I heard on the news that's about 650 homes.  Wow! 

It's kind of ironic that the west is so dry and the south has been experiencing such terrible floods.  Too bad we can't send our rain a few thousand miles west.  Just last weekend some places in Central Florida received as much as 26 inches of rain.  A couple of weeks before that, Pensacola received 15 inches in places.  But as bad as flooding is, it doesn't strike fear into me like a fire does.  Even with hurricanes, while there can be great loss, there is still the chance of miraculously finding some of your belongings.  In a fire, they're just - gone!

Makes me count my blessings.  We received lots of help in our community after Hurricane Ivan.  I know what it means to have someone show they care.

So I know that these two Little Man quilts are in the finished pile and are available to send. 

It wouldn't take much to finish Jelly, so I could maybe do that in the next week or so. 

And my Fairy Tale Friends top is finished as well and just needs quilting.

Julie says it may be a couple of weeks before she can deliver the quilts to those who have been affected.  That should give me time to finish up a couple of these WIPs, and the motivation to get them done, since it is such a worthy cause. 

Hopefully, these quilts will comfort someone and help them to get through this tragedy.

If you want to help by donating quilts or other items these folks may need, please visit Having Fun Quilting!

I'm heading back to the sewing machine to see what I can get done today.

Happy Quilting.

Little Man

Photo by Adorn-It

When I was at Sewing Summit, I was going through a fabric craving and ran across this delightful little bundle, perfect for the Little Man quilt I planned to make.

It's been sitting there all this time, begging to be sewn together into a quilt.  I made the blocks two or three weeks ago.

And if you read last Friday's post, you will know I finally got the tops done, and had them sandwiched and quilted, so they were just waiting for binding.

 Not just one quilt  - two quilts.  And I have enough fat quarters for one more.

Luckily, machine binding is a job that doesn't take much thought.  I actually finished them both on Friday night after I came home from work.  I worked 10 hours Friday.  I didn't have much brain power to use.

I really liked the red with the neutral look of the Buckaroo fabric.  It just gave it a little pizzaz.

 The pattern is, of course, from Camille Roskelly's book, Simplify. 

These should make nice baby gifts.  They're a little small for grown ups.

Another project checked off my list.

Plans? Yes, I have P*L*A*N*S for this weekend!

Do you ever have weekends when all of your plans turn to dust?  That was last weekend.  First, I had a ladies brunch at church on Saturday morning.  The food was delightful, and it was fun to get together with the other ladies and visit.  A morning well spent.  And since it was still early, I was confident that I would come home and get right to work.

I had the blocks for my Little Man quilt made  - another step toward my goal of making every quilt in Camille's book (it was going to be a single quilt top, but when I thought about it, that just didn't really work - hopefully we'll be ready for the reveal THIS weekend sometime)....  And my Pillow Talk Swap pillow to make....  And my Mini QT movie quiltie to make.... And some bee blocks....  And my Little Apples quilt...  I had a lot I wanted to do.  Busy, busy, you know?

I was pumped.

I came home and the yard guy was here.  And nothing would do but that I walk around and show him all the things I wanted done.  Well, yes, I was spending money on having the weeds grass cut and the bushes trimmed, so naturally, I wanted to be cooperative.  And then his helper inquired about buying an old car we have sitting in the driveway.  And of course, since we no longer need a 3rd car, selling it would make me very happy. Clearly, I needed to take time to discuss it.  Finally, after all the distractions, it was 3pm and I finally sat down at the sewing machine to get started....

Which went along just swimmingly until the phone rang and BD#2 desperately needed a copy of her 2009 taxes by Monday.  Suffice it to say that my method of filing for the last few years has been to dump all the paper stuff in a big plastic tub.  And a couple of tote bags.  And a cardboard box.  (No, not a shoebox....  more like a medium-sized moving box.)

So now you know how I spent my weekend.

But my paperwork is (mostly) filed - or shredded - now.

I never did find her 2009 taxes.

My quilt(s), blocks, mini and pillow did not get finished.


THIS weekend I am going to sew.  I am determined.  I need to get these things done.  The PTS pillow is due on the 12th.  For those of us who are calendar challenged (hello, mirror) that is next week.

Wish me luck.

Around the Block

I've been working on bee blocks for the last couple of weekends, and I've made some progress.  This block is for Sarah in the Fall Bee. 

It's funny how sometimes, I sit down to sew and everything goes together beautifully and I breeze right along.  Other times, it doesn't go so well and my seam ripper and I get even better acquainted.  Well, this was one of those projects.  Those teeny weeny 1" squares nearly kicked my fanny.  The points just would not match up.  It frustrates me so when that happens.  It is a pretty straightforward block.  Nothing really tricky here, but struggle I did.  There are two versions of this scrapbuster block, and I'm really glad I didn't make the other one.  It has 16 one-inch pieces in the center block, and then two borders of one-inch pieces.  Um...  no thanks.  At least not today.

These blocks were for Dustin in the Sew Fun Bee.  I've made hundreds of log cabin blocks, but none with logs this small.  I had the worst time getting these to work.  It should have been so easy:  cut 1" strips.  Sew together with 1/4" seams.  End result is 1/2" logs.  Well, let's just say some worked better than others.  I really struggled to get these the right size.  They were either too big or too small.  I ended up making 5 blocks instead of 4.  Hopefully, he'll be able to use them.

These colors were also a challenge.  I don't have much brown in the stash, so I really had to dig.  Luckily, I could slice an inch off some fat quarters without creating too much of a problem.

Maybe I should have just sat down and read a book...  I downloaded a bunch of free books from Amazon for my Kindle ap on my i-phone, and I've been having a blast with that.  So far, I've read Pride and Prejudice (again), The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (for the first time if you believe it - hated the ending/epilogue) and am in the middle of The Three Musketeers (first time for this one too).

Anyway, I also made my blocks for the Craftsy BOM.  Luckily those were easy peasy.  A nice change after fighting with the others all day.

And, I nearly have the blocks done for my Little Man quilt.  One of my "goals" for the  year was to make every quilt in Camille Roskelly's book, and I'm one step closer.  You know, it's rare to find a book where you want to make every project, but Camille's book "Simplify" is that kind of book.  Too often, I purchase a book for one project, but this one is just loaded with lovely projects, and I plan to try them all.  Little Men will be #2 (or #4, if  you count the 3 Sugar Rush quilts individually.)  I ran out of Kona Snow, so it's off to JoAnn's after work tomorrow.

So that's it for today.  Thanks for dropping by.