A day of remembrance.......

Today be sure to set aside a few moments of quiet time to remember the real reason we have this holiday. Many have given life and limb so that we may be free to have our holiday barbecues with our friends and family. Let us always be grateful for what they have done for us and also realize that right at the very second you are reading this, there are others risking their lives for us. I pray they will
all return home safely.

An appeal for some help.......

Before I get to my appeal for help, here is another block I made from the Red/White/Blue No-Sew block swap I joined awhile back. This one is called Glory in Scraps (and can be found on the Quilter's Cache webpage.) This is the 4th block I've done from this swap.


Okay....now here is how I need your help. I have had trouble tolerating the oral meds for osteoporosis, so my doctor is recommending the once-a-year 15-minute Reclast IV infusion. I am not worried about the IV being run....but I went online and read some awful stories of the side effects people have suffered (and some of them for weeks and months). I do understand not everyone has side effects...and not everyone has them to the same extent, BUT...I find I cannot make a decision about this unless I can get to talk directly to some people who have had Reclast treatments. SO...I am pleading with all of you to ask around and try to find people who would be willing to be in touch with me via email about their experiences with that medication. If you have had it and would talk to me about it, that would be great. But if you haven't, I'd really appreciate it if you would ask around and try to put me in touch with someone who has had it. Usually these are post-menopausal women...and I think we all know at least a few of them by now!!! LOL I am supposed to make my decision by Friday, June 4, but I will delay my decision beyond that, if necessary. I am hoping through the blogging world that I can gain further knowledge about this treatment option. (I have also posted on my Facebook page trying to find people who know of it....maybe even some nurses who read my blog or Facebook page could tell me about patients they know who have had Reclast.) I'm crossing my fingers some of you can help me with this. Sorry this isn't about quilting....but I really need some input in order to make a serious decision here.

Congratulations to Gene!!!

Congratulations to my lucky-ducky good blogging pal, Gene. (Click HERE for his blog.) He is a very talented quilter, jewelry-maker, artist, AND limerick writer....and his last talent enabled him to win an AccuQuilt GO Cutter from the manufacturer yesterday! Way to go, Gene.....and.....ummmmmm......if I send you some fabric after the cutter arrives at your house, will you use the cutter and cut all my fabric for me??? :)

Jelly Roll Block #7.....

You can see on my sidebar that I have been participating in a Jelly Roll quilt-along. This is my block #7. Please excuse the fact that the block hasn't yet had a proper pressing! I am still not crazy about my blocks....and think it's because I should have added several more fabrics to the jelly roll I'm using, but...I'm also still hoping that my sashing and borders can pull it all together.


For anyone who might want to join this quilt-along, you can click on the button on my sidebar and get the details and catch up with the previous blocks. It's fun to look at the Flicker group that is set up for people to post their block photos....as they look so different made with all the different fabrics.

Some winnings......

I have been lucky enough to win a few giveaways in the past month or so and will post them all here today. First I won a nice charm pack (and you know I love charm packs!) as well as some nice fabric in the brown color palette from KELLY in California. She showed some cute layouts she developed by starting with a basic 4-patch and then cutting it and rearranging it. Two bloggers gave her cute names for her results and I was the first one to comment, so the three of us were gifted by her with nice prizes! Here is a photo of mine:
Next, ANNETTE was sorting through some of her surplus fabrics and also some already-made flying geese. She chose several of us to share in her goodies. I told her I love greens, so this is what I got.......very nice!

And then...this past week, GENE picked the winners of his giveaway. The main prize was a really cute little golfing man carved very expertly (and hand-painted) by a friend of Gene's....who is extremely talented. Gene also included some great fabric (a very nice batik and two FUN fabrics showing quilters in action) as well as several of his notecards and picture cards that are printed from paintings Gene has done!!! They are just beautiful! Am I lucky or what??? (If you want to see more of Gene's art, click on his name above and go to his blog and ask him where you can have a look! Gene can also tell you where to look at the carvings done by his friend.) Here are the pictures of the items I won from Gene....
I want you to know that I broke into one of my many UFO's and used the fabric for something else this weekend. AND I finished two other UFO's, so I decreased my UFO number by 3 in 3 days....YAY for me!!! I can't show these projects to you right now, though, because my friend and I are working on a project that we can't reveal yet....but as soon as I can show you, I will....I promise!

Amy's Quilt Festival....

Once again, we have a chance to enter a quilt in a show....a fun, online show with no judging and no "quilt police"...just a chance to have fun by showing a favorite of our own and seeing the favorites of other bloggers. Click HERE to find out how to enter and maybe win some great prizes for participating! Thanks, Amy, for doing this for us again!

Here is my entry. This quilt was a "mystery quilt" done with a small group of neighborhood gals. The surprising twist to this one was....after a few months of us preparing all the various parts of the quilt (9 patches, HST's, etc.), we were then told there was NO set patttern for our quilt layout for us to follow! We had to take what we had sewn together over the months and turn it into whatever pattern we wanted! We were all fairly new quilters and that was a daunting task for us!!! This was what I came up with and I do like it a lot. It was then long-armed by a gal in our quilt guild, Sharon, and she did a very good job with it. (This was the first quilt I sent out to be long-armed.)

Jelly Roll Block # 6....

Here is my block # 6 for the Jelly Roll Quilt-along. I like this one better than most of the first five blocks I made for this quilt-along.

I am getting tired of working with this same jelly roll now.......hope that doesn't mean THIS project will become part of my UFO count....UGH....as we all know, I already have WAY too many of them. I do think I will have to look closely at them over the summer and give some of them away.

YIKES......I discovered I am over-run with UFO's

Many of you know that Kelly at IHAN is having another giveaway for an Accu-Go Cutter. (Click on her name to go to the post that tells about the giveaway). Now...most of you know I tried to win last month when she was having a giveaway for that cutter AND I'm trying to win one that Barb at Bejeweld Quilts by Barb is giving away. I swear to you that I really, REALLY need one of those cutters. I'll show you the photos of my UFO's and then explain why I'm the one who really needs that cutter!!!


On these shelves, there is a total of 33 UFO's. I do have a listing of them, so at least they are organized and I can easily find any one of them if I wish to work on them.This shelf has another 15 UFO's....also logged onto a nice list and easy to find.Next we get to a basket that contains 11 more UFO's...and these are NOT logged nicely onto any kind of list. (Can you see things are going downhill here???)And then yet another basket containing "just" 5 more UFO's....also not listed nicely anywhere!
Continue reading below this photo....
Okay...so now the UGLY truth is out there (and even I was shocked and horrified when I did a tally for this post). I have 64 UFO's....WIP's...but whatever you want to call them....they are 64 projects that have not gone too far into the sewing stage (and some have had NO sewing, just cutting, done to them). THAT is my problem, you see. I get SO tired after the cutting that I put them aside and I'm also SO sick of looking at that particular group of fabrics by the time I finish the cutting, that I don't WANT to look at that project again...for a long while. I just know that if I had the Accu-Go Cutter, I'd zip through the cutting quickly and easily with a smile on my face and would then joyfully proceed to the sewing and would FINISH the project. So...I hope I win the cutter. Otherwise, I am going to have to go buy MORE baskets, as I fear there will be many more UFO's in my future. *sigh* Now...do you understand why I need that cutter? Oh, please...may the quilting gods smile on me and let a cutter appear in my mailbox soon!!!

Okay...because you asked......

Because some of you asked, I am going to do a post to show you what came home in my Amish shopping bag last week. Those who have been followers here for awhile know about this bag.....here is what it looks like.... and it can hold LOTS of stuff (as some of you already know). :)

Last week (as I already posted), I didn't buy as much fabric as I usually do, but I will show you anyway.

Two holiday prints....gingerbread people and peppermint candies.....
Blue fabric with white dots to use as sashing on my not-anywhere-near-finished red/white/blue quilt...Two prints that caught my eye and will become part of a seashell/beach-themed small wall-hanging for the guest bedroom......A cute owl print for which I don't yet have any plans, but I just thought it was cute!Fabric I want to use for a border on a disappearing 9-patch quilt I am making.A cute fall print to be part of a fun fall wall-hanging...Small quilt hanger for closet door in guest room (the seashell-themed wall-hanging will go on there eventually). Yes...I chipped some paint off when removing the plastic wrapping BUT that part will be covered by the quilt....so it won't really matter (or I will touch it up with black paint....you know how "creative" we quilters get!!!)A wooden quilt rack (54 inches wide) that I've been wanting so I could hang quilts in my hallway. Below is a photo of this rack already in use.I just LOVE it!!! I am going to make some bigger quilts to put in the hanger...hopefully, one for each season, but I wanted to see how it would look, so I popped this quilt in the hanger until I have others completed for this space.Now....are you once again impressed with my Amish shopping bag? LOL

The train museum in Strasburg, PA......

When we were in PA earlier this week, Kathy (click on her name for her blog) and I went to fabric and quilt shops on Wednesday. Our hubbies went to a very nice train museum in Strasburg where they have older train cars you can inspect and lots of other fun things to do. Here are a couple of pictures of that place. The hubbies told us it was huge and they really enjoyed themselves (and I guess it was a much better alternative to them than going to quilt shops with Kathy and me!!!) We all had a good day and then had a terrific smorgasbord dinner at Miller's. If you ever get the chance to eat there, I'm sure you would enjoy it, too.Kathy's husband, Bill, checking things out in one of the locomotives.You can see the building that houses these old trains is HUGE! (Notice the man standing in front of the blue train car....that will give you an idea of the size of the place.)

I'm back.......Did you even know I was gone?

Hubby and I went for a few days with another couple to the Amish area of PA...rented a really cute and cozy house in the village of Intercourse, PA. (Do not comment to ME about the name of the village...look it up online if you want the explanation for the name...it is NOT what you think!!!) The weather was less than ideal for the first two days....chilly and heavy clouds with some pretty steady drizzles. This morning was very nice, though, so hubby and I took a buggy ride and also strolled around the village for a bit. I just love shopping in the midst of the Amish (did our tiny bit of grocery shopping in an honest-to-goodness, gas-lit Amish grocery store). I also love seeing the Amish children. Today was a religious holiday for them....Ascension Day....and it was fun watching the Amish families this morning (one was next door to us) prepare to go out and have a big celebration at a farm with several other families! Below are a few photos you might enjoy seeing. NOTE: I am very far behind on blog-reading due to the trip and don't expect I will catch up on the posts I missed. ALSO...I hardly bought any fabric this trip (but I"ll be going back in November for 5 days...if not before!!!) We did have a nice time....fun to get away for a few days and especially amongst such beautiful, rolling hills covered with beautiful farms! (You can probably enlarge any photo you wish to see in greater detail by clicking on it.)


This is the cute little house we rented.......3 bedrooms...large backyard and right next door to one Amish family with a few others just steps away. This home was, supposedly, in the movie The Witness...I need to find that film and look at it.Me on the porch of a cute shop in the town of Bird-in-Hand. (LOVE the names of their towns!)Following one buggy in the rain Tuesday evening on a farm road with an Amish wagon carrying hay coming towards us in the other lane. Just look at the farmland (the little you can see here) and imagine how spectacular it is under sunny, blue skies!A cute "shoe garden" at an Amish home where the lady had a quilt shop. She was very pleasant and so pleased when we commented on her garden and wanted to take pictures of it.The next photo is the sign out front of her shop. These girls were walking home from working at another shop. (They are okay with people taking photos from a distance as long as you don't ask them to pose....which they won't do....and as long as you really aren't taking pictures of their faces.) I am thinking these gals might be Mennonite and not Amish as they are wearing clothing that is more brightly colored than the Amish girls seem to wear....and the Mennonites wear more colorful things (even prints).This is the home of the lady with the shoe garden...hard to see it in the photo, but the home is actually in 3 sections.....3 generations living there. That is the Amish way....to take care of their elderly and have them live right there. All the homes are beautifully maintained. They are very hard workers.
A small mom-and-pop grocery store within walking distance of the home we rented. I was at a distance so I could get this photo without offending the Amish in the buggy....used my "zoom".If you click on this photo, you will see children in the back of both of the buggies. They are so cute and quite often will give a tiny, self-conscious wave to "the English" (as anyone outside the Amish faith is called).And this was today when we got behind a family with adorable kids....5 of them...in the back of the buggy. We were told that the average Amish family has 7 children. We missed getting a photo of a family walking to town....the mom and dad....with 3 adorable little ones in a red wagon with wooden sides on it. They were very friendly and spoke to us before we got a chance to say hello to them. I really do enjoy going there and we will go back as often as we can for a few days here and there. I hope you enjoyed your tiny tour and got a small taste of what it's like there.

Mother's Day photo....

Here is a photo of me with my daughter and granddaughter. They were with me on Mother's Day weekend. Usually we don't get to see each other on that weekend since we live nearly 3 hours apart, so it was a nice treat to have them here and we took advantage of it to get a new photo of us together.


I have been doing some handwork on a project that I can't show for awhile yet. I don't want you to think I am being a slug!!! LOL

After today, I may or may not be online for a couple of days.....so if I'm not commenting on your blogs, you will know it's because I'm not getting to see them. I'll catch up, though, eventually!

Fun gifts.....

I have gotten a few fun gifts lately and am going to show them to you. One is from Steph (click on her name for her blog). She was going to the AQS show in Paducah. She'd not been to a big quilt show and I made a few suggestions to her that she found helpful. Because of that, she was nice enough to get me this Paducah shirt! Wasn't that nice of her? I love it and now can pretend I was at that show, too. LOL The card you see in the picture is a design done by quilt artist, Lyric Kinard. Stephanie was lucky enough to take an art quilt class with Lyric and enjoyed it very much. (Sorry I didn't do such a great job with the lighting when taking this photo.)

Next you can see two very nice books. They were given to me by a gal in my handbell choir (not a quilter and no blog). She is the gal for whom I did a favor last year by piecing together some old family-made blocks into a quilt top. I blogged about those blocks HERE and her completed top HERE. She gave me a gift at that time, but she was at a museum shop book sale recently and got me the book called Making Antique Quilts, which is a lovely book. Then...a few days later, she was at a used book sale and picked up the other book for me. She is a sweetheart to think of me like that and I will certainly enjoy these books.

This fabric has turned into........

Do you remember those fabrics? It's the 4 fat quarters I got (randomly) in the guild's "brown bag" challenge. The challenge was for me to make something for the lady who put these 4 fat quarters in a brown bag. (We are permitted to add other fabric but must use at least some of what is provided.) They are not due until the end of July, but I don't really know this lady and wanted to get a jump on the project. She put a note in the bag that her house is decorated "country". She said she would like anything I made. Photos are below.I used a pattern from a book I have which I believe is called "Patriotic Little Quilts" and made her this wall-hanging. I added the gold fabric. While it is machine-pieced, it is all hand-quilted and if you could see it in person, you'd know the quilting really gives it a great texture! If I can get some decent close-ups that show the quilting details outside one day, I'll post them on the blog.I even made her an "interesting" backing AND sleeve using her fabrics (and one other that I added since I didn't have enough of hers to do the whole back and sleeve). I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and I hope she likes it, too.

Okay...so I didn't win.....yet!!! LOL

I didn't win when EQ drew 10 bloggers to win copies of EQ7, but now I can enter at the blogs of all those who DID win. You can go find their blog links on the EQ blog (although some don't have their giveaways set up yet). BUT....one who DOES have hers set up is "Mequilter" from Arizona, so you can go visit her now and enter, although I would really prefer you don't do that as it will narrow MY chances of winning!!! LOL Maybe if you go there and enter, though, she will see I sent her lots of new followers and will give me at least one extra point for sending you, so please tell her I sent you, okay??

The news is spreading FAST......EQ7 is nearly here!

Yes....you might have already heard that EQ7 is nearly here. So...being a blogger, I read the following and decided I will enter, too!

Are you a blogger? Would you like to give-a-way one of the first EQ7 programs on your blog AND win a copy for yourself in the process? That’s right! We want to give you the opportunity to give one away on your blog! 10 bloggers will be randomly selected to hold a contest on their blogs and give one EQ7 as the prize. And as a thank you for helping us announce EQ7 we’re going to send one for you as well!

Here’s how to enter:
* Post an announcement about the coming of EQ7 on your blog.
* Send an email to sarahshriver@electricquilt.com that contains:
- Your name
- Your email
- A link to your blog post about EQ7

10 winners will be randomly chosen on May 3rd. If you are chosen, you then determine a contest and submit your contest winner’s contact information to sarahshriver@electricquilt.com. We will ship your EQ7 prize directly to your winner. OKAY...I'm entered and maybe just in time!!! Let's hope!!! I am determined to get EQ7 AND to learn it and show you lots of great things here on my blog!!!

Update on the postage due giveaway....

I told you I'd update here if I heard anything from Alice about this. I got a note from her today that said she was sorry about the postage due on her recent package to me and she included $6 to reimburse me. I understand from Tango that she got the same note and also $6. I wanted all of you to know about this right away.

Not much sewing time....

HAPPY MAY 1st to all of you! April certainly flew, didn't it? No sewing-related photos here today. Between my part-time typing job and also getting ready for a big music weekend at church, no sewing took place yesterday. Today I am in a handbell concert at church and right after that, I have a practice for tomorrow's folk group music at church....then have to come home and knock out some of the typing for the doctor. Tomorrow after church, I have to finish that typing, so....very little sewing either day, I suspect. I've posted here an assortment of flower photos that I've taken recently...some in our yard and others in downtown Lewes. Hope you enjoy them (I think they will all enlarge if you wish to see them close up). I hope I'll be back with some quilting-related photos early in the week. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Some of our azaleas about a week ago.....more of them are in bloom now...I should take more photos this weekend.Our chives have gone WILD!!!Orange azaleas (a deciduous azalea that looks dead in the winter!)Some of the tulips that were at the entrance to our housing development recently.Remaining photos are of flowers in Lewes, Delaware, two weeks ago. I love living near this old, historic town!Yes...this next one shows a cannon. Lewes was a town with a fort that played an important part in the protection of the coast in years past.