My...my...isn't THIS stylish?

Quite a "necklace", don't you agree?  What a way to be in style!!!

 Well......it is a necklace of sorts.  It's a BINDING necklace.  I got the idea from a blogging friend, GARI.  It is not only stylish, but it's quite functional, too.  It is a piece of PVC pipe with  some cord strung through it (long enough to hang around my neck and be at a level that works for me).  After I make my binding, I tape it with masking tape onto the PVC pipe....wind it all up on there....and then, when I'm putting the binding on my quilt, it unrolls easily and doesn't leave me juggling all that binding (and usually dropping it in the process).  It makes binding a lot easier!   So......maybe you'd like to make yourself one of these stylish necklaces too!  The nice part is that my necklace frequently has a different look....a new color....each time I bind another quilt.  

Something was in my mailbox.....

I had nearly forgotten that Julie had been "cleaning house" (or at least her sewing room) and I had been lucky enough to win something from her.  This is a picture of it....a mini Halloween runner complete with the wool felt with which to make it.  It is really cute! I will enjoy doing this, I'm sure. Thanks, Julie!  

Also....please go back to THIS post of mine and re-read it as Johna'Lee really needs more blocks. She has now extended her finish date to the end of November, so if you hadn't yet read about this, please go there and tell her I sent you and please consider helping her with this very worthwhile project.  I know I have a lot of followers here....nearly 300 of them....and if even 1/4 of you would go and read that post and each make just one block, she would have 75 more blocks toward the rest of the quilts she is making for the family of that young man who gave his life for us in Afghanistan. This is a way we can really touch some hearts and help them heal.

Secret Santa time....

If you look on my sidebar, you will see Santa peeking out from behind a Christmas tree.  I am joining a Secret Santa event that sounded like fun.  If you want to know more about it, just go over to that little picture and click on Santa and you will be taken to a blog that has all the information!  Thanks for all the kind comments on my sock dilemma in my last post.  I am trying to find someone locally to help me, but if not, Margi has kindly stepped forward to offer her help...and I'm very grateful to her!  (Gotta love bloggers!!!)

Discouraged........

See this photo?  Let me tell you a story about it......   

I am not a knitter...I've tried and just cannot get comfortable with it.  I do know how to crochet, though, and while I am not an expert, I am certainly at least an intermediate level crocheter.  I LOVE knitted socks.  I researched online and found that this book is supposed to be a good one...yielding nice crocheted socks that are comparable to knitted ones.  I made a special trip to get it in Dover (40+ miles from here) and also bought some sock yarn, a hook in the suggested size and split-ring markers (all pictured here, too).  When I came home, I eagerly wound one of the skeins of yarn into a nice ball.  Then....I did a gauge swatch...had trouble as the crochet hook seems to want to split that sock yarn.  :(    After I was sure the gauge was right, I tried to start one of the sock patterns and struggled and struggled and came to realize I couldn't do it.....the yarn kept splitting with that darn hook.  I tried one other pattern with the same results. SO.....now I have come to the conclusion that my socks need to be knitted, but I am unable to do it.  I am hoping I might find a kind knitter in this area who will do them for me.  If I do...and if she (or he) also crochets, I'll be happy to give that person the sock crochet book...as it's obvious I'll never use it and maybe someone who is an advanced crocheter would have better luck with it.  I'm discouraged as I LOVE this particular sock yarn...the colors and the feel of it...and I'm still hoping to end up with a pair of socks from it...somehow!!!   Wish me luck, okay?

Update on memorial quilt project.....

Some of you might recall a recent post in which I asked some of you to send blocks to a woman whose soon-to-be-son-in-law was killed in Afghanistan a week before coming home....and a few weeks before his planned wedding.  She is making some memorial quilts for her daughter, who was to be the bride, and for his family and she was wanting quilt blocks to be sent to her.  Some of you said you'd send blocks...and maybe some of you didn't see that post but would LIKE to send blocks.  If so, please look back a few posts on my blog and all the info is there. This photo is just a few of the blocks she has gotten.  If you wish to see more of what she has received, click HERE to see a post in which she shows several photos. (She has talked of this project in other posts on that blog, too, if you wish to check out more posts by her.)  I hope she gets enough blocks to make all the quilts she wants to make.  I think it will be a help to all those who are mourning this brave young man. 

Gotta love long-armers!!!

I did an AccuQuilt demo today in my favorite local quilt shop with my quilting partner, Kathy. While there, I got TWO quilts back from two really great long-armer friends....Woo-Hoo!!!  (No...for you who are uninformed, they are not friends with long arms....they are friends who have long-arm quilting machines and each quilted a quilt top for me recently.)  I will show them both here.  Not knowing which order blogger will decide to post them, I will describe them both and you will know which I'm discussing. You should be able to click on the photos twice to enlarge them and see the quilting in a little bit better detail.

One is my "pineapple chunk" quilt made using my GO cutter to cut all the pieces and Gyleen Fitzgerald's Pineapple Ruler to trim the blocks after each round of sewing.   I used only my stash of Christmas fabrics for that and love how it turned out...and it is for ME....Yay for keeping a quilt sometimes instead of giving it away!!!  LOL   Michelle did a great job of using a really nice swirly pantograph on it and it really "fits" the quilt well....although my photography doesn't really do it justice because you can't see the quilting in the blocks.  (Look at the top itself a couple of posts back on my blog.)

The second one is a "girlie-fabric" quilt.  This is a lap quilt that is going to be a Christmas gift for my daughter's landlady.  She likes these colors......would never be my choice, BUT...I have to say after seeing the custom quilting job, I find myself wishing it was staying here with me.  I cut all the pieces for this quilt with my GO! cutter, also....and most of it was made as using the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern (along with several girlie-colored borders).   Jackie quilted this one and did her usual terrific job!  (For some reason, blogger rotated this and I can't get it back the way I wanted it......Darn you, Blogger!!!)

Anyway...believe me that both of these tops are beautiful and I say thanks to my long-arming friends....I love you both!!!

A fun fall giveaway.....

My blogging friend, Denise, is undergoing foot surgery today, so maybe you would like to go over there and wish her well AND while you are there, you can enter her fun, fall-themed giveaway. She is having it because she has reached 600 posts on her blog.  Click HERE to find out about this fun and to wish Denise well....and you might tell her I sent you, okay?