A very HAPPY mail delivery......

Look what came in yesterday's mail.....the applique block Julie made for me for my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt. I am nearly done with hers. I just LOVE this block Julie made.....and it never ever would have looked this good if I'd made it!!! THANKS, Julie!!! You did a super job! (Be sure you click on the photo to see it in greater detail because it really is wonderful.)

Back to Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.....

I am behind in my house decorations for Christmas by a few days, but I needed to do at least one block of the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt just to get back into a bit of sewing. This is the one I did. It's called Friendship Quilt. I like this block more than some of my others...not sure if it's the design of the block or the fabric/colors. Hopefully, I can get several more blocks done soon. I was on a roll for awhile, but then got sidetracked by other things in life, as often happens!



This next photo shows 3 different "reds" that I have under consideration for the Bear Paws block that I will make for someone else. Julie, a blogging pal from Texas, isn't really fond of paper-piecing and I really enjoy it. She, on the other hand, enjoys needle-turn applique and that is not, as you may recall, my strong point. We decided to do each other a favor.....I would make one of her paper-pieced blocks and she would make one of my needle-turn applique blocks. She chose for me to make the Bear Paws block and I asked her to make Indiana Rose. I have seen the one she is making me and it is wonderful...way better than I'd have been able to do. She sent me her neutral fabric for the Bear Paws block and asked me to do a red as the second fabric for the block....so I hope I choose the right one and she is happy with it. Julie...if you see this post and have a preference for one of these reds, let me know!

What a day!

Now...here's a story with an unexpected twist. How many of you have ordered some large item for your home....furniture....a major appliance......and sat around waiting for the delivery? Usually they tell you it will be there during a particular time frame and they always seem to come near the END of that specified time. Well...yesterday we were expecting the delivery of two refrigerators...one for our kitchen and a compact one for our family room. Monday evening we were called and told to expect delivery between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m....that was our delivery "window".

We borrowed an extra couple of coolers and planned to empty the fridge about 10:00...figuring they'd probably not show up until closer to 3. (There was nothing wrong with our other fridge but the design of it wasn't right for us and our lifestyle.) ANYWAY.......much to my total shock, the truck arrived at 9 a.m.....a full TWO hours before the start of our delivery "window". I never had that happen in all my years.....an EARLY delivery of something!!! (Have any of you ever had that happen???) Well.....we scrambled to empty the old fridge while the men unboxed the two new appliances. They discovered they had to remove the handles on the new fridge AND take the storm door off the house to get it inside. I then held my breath that hubby had measured correctly. The fridge just fit.....barely! I love it, though. I finally got the fridge I'd been wanting and this will probably be the last one I buy....so I'm happy I got what I wanted.

The rest of the day was spent setting it up (as well as the compact one in the family room). I had intended to do some sewing while waiting for the delivery, but that never happened. I did do some cutting early in the evening......below are the photos to prove it. The first photo shows the pieces for another block in the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt......and the second one is just half a basket of 1 1/2 inch strips that I'll need for a pineapple quilt a group of us will be making online starting in January. I probably need a full basket of strips, so I better get moving. With the kids/grandkids coming for Thanksgiving, I'm sure there won't be much sewing here for the next few days....but that's okay....we'll have a fun time with them visiting us!

This is SO much easier now.....

Someone gave me a good idea (or at least I think it's a good idea and she did, too)..........

Remember my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler book (from which I am making some / all of the 140 blocks)??? Here is how it looked when I got it.Here is how the book looks now......can you see the difference? Yup...it now has a spiral binding. My well-used book took a little trip with me to the local Staples' store. I had them cut off the binding and punch holes and do it as a spiral-bound book. The whole process, including a plastic front and back cover, cost $5.49. (We have no sales tax here in Delaware.....gotta love it!)
And now.........when I need to photocopy pages to make several copies of each paper-pieced block to sew them, it is easy to get the pages to lay right in my printer..nice and flat....and they don't distort. I LOVE this idea!!! Since I know this book will need to have pages copied many times for me, it is worth the little bit it cost to get it done.........rather than to keep wasting pages when the copies get distorted (as they did with the original binding). And, no...I don't work for Staples.....but I just wanted to pass this hint along to any of you who might wish to do that with a book from which you copy pattern pages/templates a lot.

Woo-hoo......20 blocks done.....

I know...I know...having 20 blocks done is only a small "dent" in the entire quilt. (There are 140 blocks in the whole Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt, for any who didn't realize that.) I am not yet 100% positive I'll do all 140....at some point, I may decide there are some blocks that won't be made. I think if I made all of them, it would be too big for any purpose here in my house, actually. Anyway....I got off-track. This photo is of the latest completed block...the block named Lancaster Rose. It's an appliqued block...and we all know I do not excel at applique, but it turned out fine enough. After I trimmed it, I ended up "close" on seam allowance and don't want to remove and re-do the leaves, so I will have to do a smaller seam around this one block...no big deal, right? Below that block is a photo of the 20 blocks that are completed to date. I am doing it ALL scrappy and so far haven't bought any fabric, but I will need to buy more neutrals soon for background. I'm please with it so far...not sure what color sashing I'll use....I will decide that at the end of the "block-making" fun! UPDATE on granddaughter: Jessi was back at the doctor AGAIN yesterday....bronchitis a bit worse so not going back to school today...now she will not go back until Monday. She'll miss the Halloween fun, but...it's better that she get well, of course.

SBS progress........

This is called the Chinese Coin block from the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler book. It is so similar to both the Churn Dash and the Shoo Fly block (also in the book) that I thought I had already MADE this one when I had it partway completed. But...it's a tiny bit different. I am finishing up the Lancaster Rose appliqued block and should be able to show that to you soon.

As a way of updates, some of you have asked about baby Maddy and she is doing better. I believe today is the day they will take her out of the "cool" state and start to do neurological testing on her, so she could use a lot of prayers for this....and so could her family! This has been a very rocky start for her and her family has been very worried, as you can imagine. I have seen photos of her and she is a very pretty baby and had a very nice birth weight, too. As for my granddaughter, she has been fever-free now long enough to go back to school today. Her mother, though, is now down with one flu or the other. She was put on Tamiflu to ease the symptoms and if she is fever free for long enough, she will go back to work tomorrow. Both will probably have that horrible, dry lingering cough for a few weeks, but at least the body aches and fevers will be gone!

A simple SBS block.....

This block from the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler book is called "Bow Tie". It is a very simple one. The directions, though, showed it being made with templates and needing Y seams. I decided to do it with 4 large squares and then put small squares on the two corners in such a way as to make the tiny triangle part of the bow. NO Y seams with my way of doing it!!! So....you see....VERY simple block!!! I guess soon I'll put all the blocks I've made together in one picture so you can see my progess so far. (Still a long way to go, but...making steady progress.)

Ta.....Dah.......

Yay.....I'm happy because the Posies 'Round the Square block is done (unless I do decide to embroider something in the middle). It's not perfect, but......I once had a teacher in a quilt class say that "Done is better than perfect"...and I think she was right! So....this is how it looks.......AND...hold onto your seats, but I actually cut out and prepped all the pieces for another applique block in the book...one called Lancaster Rose. I've not yet sewn the pieces in place but I laid them in place to take a picture to show you. I'm sure you might be surprised about this considering how mightily I struggled with the applique block above. BUT...for this one, I decided to use the template plastic that is heatproof to see if I could get a good result without driving myself bonkers! I cut my pieces bigger than the plastic template for each piece.....did a hand stitch around the edge of each fabric piece and then pulled the thread to draw the piece up snugly around the template plastic, gave it a good press with the iron and removed the plastic template. It worked and I was very pleased with my success. When I sew the pieces to the background, I will be able to get the points just right and not be frustrated by it as I was with the leaves in the block shown above. Anyway........here is the picture of the new block with the pieces just laid in place. I'm proud that I stuck with it!!! I doubt that I'll ever be a real applique lover, but...at least I can do passable work. I have a big grin on my face now!

Applique block for SBS in progress.....

This is a photo of the applique block I've told you is driving me crazy. It still needs more applique on the remaining two corners. It's probably the easiest of all the applique blocks that are in the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler book.....but I've been driven bonkers by it. There were to be tiny circles in the center of each flower but I didn't like how they looked, so I did some little embroidery in each center with a French knot in the middle and like that better. The block is called "Posies 'Round the Square" and the floral motif is in all 4 corners when it's done. To me, it looks like something should also be in the middle of the block BUT with the name saying the posies are 'round the square, I guess that's why the center doesn't have a flower. (I should be glad, huh? If there was one in the middle, I'd have to applique 5 of these buggers on there and several more leaves.....YIKES!!! No, thanks!!!) I tried to do regular needle turn and threw THAT leaf away. I did freezer paper and glued the edges under (as shown in an applique book) for a couple of the leaves and it was messy working with the glue like that. For the other 2 leaves, I used the freezer paper as a guide but then needle-turned the edges under and that seemed a bit easier. I'm not crazy about any of them, though, and may try to use plastic template material for the rest and iron the edges under (since the template material is heat-proof)...and see if those are easier to do. I WILL finish the block (for those of you who told me not to give up), but I am not 100% decided yet if I'll do the rest of the applique blocks in the book....may just do doubles of some of the other blocks (in different fabrics) or might just make the quilt smaller. I cannot imagine me doing several applique blocks!!! Oh...and for those of you who are applique experts....I know the points on my leaves are NOT good and not even pointing in the right direction in some cases.....but I checked the points on some of my real leaves on my plants outside here and they aren't so great, either!!!!! I figure if the real thing can have wonky, crazy points, then MY leaves can have those kind of points, too! LOL

Another SBS block.....

Here's another block from my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler book......this one is called Bright Hopes and it's a simple, plain block. I have another block in progress that is giving me a problem.though. It's one with applique...not even a particularly hard applique, but I'm having a lot of trouble with the leaves. I am not good at applique and with as discouraged as I'm getting on this first block with applique I've attempted from the SBS book, I am thinking I might not do ANY applique blocks from the book. I will struggle to finish this current block and then make a decision about that. I can handle paper-piecing and even the Y seam blocks....but the applique might be my "undoing" with this particular quilt. I know they say practice makes perfect but I don't want to take time to "study" applique while in the middle of making the blocks in this book. I know some of you LOVE applique and do it well....wish I could say the same for myself.....but I can't! LOL

Two more Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks....

Here are two more SBS blocks.....the first is called Contrary Wife and, of course, then I have to show Contrary Husband. (Actually, Contrary Wife was shown when I showed the photo of the new Janome machine on a previous post, but I'm not sure I told you the name of it, so I'm showing it again.)The "name the machine" results aren't in yet as I'm waiting for Rachel to submit her idea (since it was her suggestion to name this new Janome in hopes that he/she will behave nicely for me...unlike the last model Janome I had!!!) I should be able to report the name by the end of the weekend. There are so many good names that I cannot choose....so I will be putting them into a hat and drawing out one or two. It occurred to me that maybe the machine will behave better with a first name AND a middle name??? LOL

Name that machine..........

Okay....yesterday Rachel suggested to me that I name my Janome 5200 sewing machine (the one that was mentioned in yesterday's post). I have never been good at giving names to things I own. I have friends who name their cars....their sewing machines....their vacuums.......their crockpots.....you get the picture.....they name EVERYTHING. I'm not one of them...had enough trouble thinking of names for my kids, BUT......I was thinking maybe my sewing machine would be HAPPIER (and behave nicely???) if it had a name. I need help with this, though. So......I'd like for some of you to come up with some suggestions....but don't just say something like "Sally"......tell me WHY you're saying "Sally" (or Jill or Pretty Girl...or whatever name you think the machine should be called). I'm thinking this could be fun (or maybe FUNNY). So...help me....okay? I'll look at the ideas and decide on a name within the next few days. I'll put two photos below....one is of the sewing machine so you can look at her (him??) and be inspired to come up with a good name. Click to enlarge and see her (him???) a bit better. The other photo is of another block I made with the new machine for the SBS (Sylvia's Bridal Sampler) quilt top. This block is called Children's Delight.

A fun giveaway by Brooke and Greg.....AND.....

Click HERE to go to Brooke's blog and the explanation of a great giveaway she and Greg are having to celebrate their upcoming anniversary. (They will make you work for this one, though......LOL)

And....here is another block from the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler book.....this one is called Card Trick. I've always liked the look of the Card Trick block but never made one until now. If you click to enlarge it, you will see this is not perfect, but I have deemed it to be "good enough". I do a lot of "good enough" things. Do you also do "good enough" things or are you one of those perfectionist types who keeps ripping things out until they are perfect? (I made this block the other day and I don't think I showed it here yet...if I did, sorry for the duplication.....I'll blame it on "old age/poor memory"!!!)