Almost done with the Midnight Cactus Flower quilt. I have it labeled and only one more side to bind. For the binding, I used leftover strips from the quilt. I had enough to complete about 2/3 of the binding so I added other green and red pieces I had at home....stashes are wonderful things to have. I will post pics tonight hopefully when I'm finished binding that last side. Happy quilting to all.

I am getting ready to quilt my "Midnight Cactus Flower" quilt. I put the quilt sandwich together this afternoon and plan to start and finish quilting it tonight. It's a very busy quilt like I thought it would be. Not sure how much I like it. I know I like it, but not sure on what scale. Once I get it quilted and binded and can look at it from a far I will be able to make a better "likeable" decision. I will post a picture whether I like it or not. Just don't have the camera right now. Brian took it with him on his annual week-long Florida/Doral golfing trip. (This is why is does not say anything about my fabric shopping).

It's just been me and the doggie at home. It was okay for the first two days.....felt like a free woman...doing what I wanted to do...not worrying about anyone else, but now I think I'm ready for Brian to get back home. I like having another person here. Tomorrow I'm visiting Britt at college and bringing her some (a lot) of items she now feels she can't live without. Of course she has planned the visit for around lunch-time and I'm sure supper-time if we find other things that need to be taken care of....like shopping.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy Quilting!

This Month's Strip Club quilt..

I was reading everyone's blogs and getting so involved....I almost forgot to post! I do so enjoy reading what everyone has going on.



I've completed the 16 flower blocks for the corners of the Cactus Wreath pattern. Here are just a few.


I'm really liking how this is turning out. I thought the star fabric would make the quilt too dark, but I'm thinking differently now. I have four flower blocks with the lighter leaves which I plan to put on each corner..surrounded by two more corner blocks with darker leaves.
Today, my plan is to work on the log cabin blocks that will create the inner circle of the wreath pattern. Hopefully that will not take as long to finish as these blocks did. I'm not a fast sew-person or quilter anyway.

I think I'm naming the quilt "Cactus Flower at Midnight" or maybe "Midnight Cactus Flower". The Strip Club design had a Christmas theme, but I decided to do something a little different.

Our next club meeting is Sept. 5th, so I have about 3 weeks to finish....or just have the quilt top completed. I don't like to have a lot of UFOs laying around, so I plan to have this thing finished and ready to show. Our LQS owner always jokes that they don't have a BOM club, because they have Strip Club which gives you an entire quilt every month instead of just one block!

Have a great Sunday. I hope everyone is doing something today that they enjoy. Happy Quilting.

Finished Baby Gifts

I FINISHED the baby blanket kit that I purchased at my LQS. It was SO easy to do..a no-brainer. It's a wonderful project for a beginner and a really quick project/gift for an experienced sew-person. It took be just a few hours to complete. It took longer for my sewing machine to do the fancy edge stitching then it did for me to complete it.

The kit (I love kits) came with fabric and pattern to make the blanket, bib and burb pad. Of course I had no orange thread (and I did not want to wait until Monday when my LQS opened to get any) so I just used red thread for the fancy stitching. The barn in the fabric is red so I said what the heck.

I plan on mailing out the gifts this week to arrive in time for the baby shower on the 23rd. I do so much better with deadlines. I should put a deadline on all my unfinished projects.

On a none-quilting note....boy has it been HOT here in Georgia! Glad I have inside projects that can keep me busy. My pretty petunias on my front porch has withered away and died and our tomato plants are well on their way to that end also. We can't seem to keep them with enough water. Next year I'm just going to the Farmer's Market and buying a case of tomatoes...much easier and less work than trying to grow my own....Oh well, it has kept my husband busy trying to keep the tomatoes going.

Britt moves back to college today. Her classes will start on Thursday I believe. She seems excited to get back to school after a summer a being employed. Today we haul stuff to her dorm and of course go shopping for dorm food. Her room has a kitchenette so this year we are hauling pots and pans....I don't have a clue why...cooking does not interest her at all. But I have to say...if it's a mix and it includes adding water, she can handle it. So all she should need to bring is a small pot, a large spoon and and 2-cup measuring cup!

Have a great day. Please remember me when I'm hauling stuff in this heat!. Happy quilting!

A project that can go onto my completed list. I just loved making this. It was so easy. It's the travel quilt and toy sac that I'm giving to my nephew's first child. I really like the fabric combinations.

The travel quilt has a nice big divided pocket.

I appliqued the letters onto the toy sac then sewed the rick rack on with one of my machine stitches. Kinda looks like a baseball stitch, but oh well. Better than just a straight stitch across the rick-rack.

I used the inner fabric as binding for around the quilt so it looks as though it wraps around the back side.

It folds out to reveal an attached pillow with the same brown rick-rack around it.

This was a very easy project to construct. Much easier then I though when I bought the pattern. Its a pattern by "Artful Offerings" Their web site is http://www.artful-offerings.com/. Haven't checked it out yet, but it's a site I plan to visit. I bought the pattern from my LQS. Now...to the other flannel baby quilt I plan to also send. Looks to be pretty simple. I hope to finish it tomorrow, then all in the mail next week! Happy quilting!

Went to Strip Club this morning. The strip pieces of fabric is what came in the litte box. Below is the finished quilt that the shop did. This is a very popular design that I've seen before and it's used a lot for Christmas....perfect since the shop has its Christmas fabric. It's a beautiful quilt. I chose not to do the Christmas theme. I wanted something different and unconventional... so... for the background fabric I picked the black and white star fabric with the black on white fabric for the border and the white for the back. The quilt's going to be dark so I thought the black on white border fabric would lighten it up some. Most of the club attendees were going for all the gold colors for background and that was my first color of choice when we where going through the instructions. But then when I saw that was most people's choice...I wanted mine to be different. I'm naming the quilt "Cactus under the Stars" or "Cactus at Midnight". I guess I'll decide when I'm sewing it up. I hope to be finished with the top at least by our next meeting a month from now. I'll post my progress if I decide that I like the color combination...if not, this may very well be the only pics I post.