To Border or Not?

Happy Hump Day! I’ve been working all week trying to assemble my Christmas Sampler Quilt. It was done this weekend but was so wonky that I had to take off the whole last row and rework it until it straightened out. There are a few wonky blocks still, but I can live with them!

Last night I started to add the borders. My first idea was to do a red and white checkerboard border. But now I think that would be too busy. So I decided to do plain red. I sewed the two long sides on and now I don’t know if I love it.

What do you think? Border or no border?

There's a new podcaster in town! Check out The Quilting Pot. AJ is a new podcaster and I’m really digging her voice. Check her out, give her a listen, and then give her some comment love! You can do a search on iTunes, or check out her blog.

FNSI results and Giveaway Winner

Did you have a productive FNSI? Follow the link to see what other quilters were doing last night, I usually find some great blogs to follow!

Since it's the second half of the month, I worked on my current BOMs. I made a boot for Boot Bash BOM. I like this boot a lot but wish I would have used more blue. Blue outline stitching on the boot would have looked really nice. But I'm not about to change it!

Look at them all together!

I really love this quilt!

Next I cut the pieces and stitched this guy from Jewel in the Crown BOM:

This little bugger did not want to go together correctly. I had to rip stitches and starch the crap out it. Some of the squares have their points cut off, but otherwise, I'm happy!

And this Civil War block came together as a Leader and Ender:

I'm happy with my FNSI!

And now to choose a winner for my 100 followers Giveaway:

Margaret!

From

Check out Margaret's blog. She is having a Giveaway for her followers, too! She's giving away a darling Dresden block Clock. Congrats Margaret!

Thanks for Folllowing and Have a Quilty Weekend!

It's FNSI!

Happy Friday! Tonight is FNSI, I hope you're ready! Follow the link to sign up if you haven't already!

Here's a quick catch-up of my UFO progress:

Oh snap! It's a quilt top! I call this my HI quilt. This UFO is so old I've never even blogged about it. Until last weekend it was just a pile of blocks from a swap 3 years ago. A swap that went entirely wrong. My plan was to add more blocks to complement the H-blocks, but then I got confused and made O-blocks instead. Don't ask me how I did that! Everything turned out fine though. I put the O-blocks on the outside and filled in the middle with H-blocks. And turned some to be I-blocks. I was two short, so I threw in some random blocks that I had laying around. I put the sewing pedal to the metal when I made this top!

I found the perfect border at Joann's. I was thinking this would make a good baby quilt. Then I took the fabric home and imagined a baby laying on this quilt and realized it wouldn't work! Babies don't like sparkly, glittery butterflies! Oh well, maybe a little girl then.

I even pieced a quick back. I grabbed an old pink butterfly blanket that was perfect and made it a little bit bigger to fit the quilt. I am hoping to have 3 of my quilts ready to be basted by November. Wish me luck!

Hop over to Susan's blog to see more UFO projects!

Quilty Weekend

I had such a quilty weekend! I hope you did too. My husband and I stayed home and played hermits for the weekend. I spent most of that time in my sewing room. On Saturday I spent the whole day working on UFO’s and made so much progress. I had to go to my LQS AND Joann's. Lucky me! I’ll share those details on Friday for my UFO update though.

You might remember that I am splitting this month in half. Well, this weekend was the halfway point. So Saturday was the last day to work on UFO’s (and I squeezed every minute out of that day, not stopping until midnight!). Sunday was the first day of Current WIP day.

On Sunday I dragged all my sewing toys to the living room and set myself up on the couch. I spent the day watching TV and cutting blocks for the Civil War Quilt Along. I hate cutting fabric. But I love having all the pieces pre-cut, packaged, and labeled. That way, I can just grab a Ziploc baggie and start sewing right away. Makes life so much easier!

Thank you, awesome followers, for all the wonderful comments! You guys are totally rocking my week! If you haven’t entered my Follower Appreciation giveaway, you can do so here.

Yesterday I spent $54 on quilting books. From my work desk. I wasn’t even on my break. Geez, I am so bad! Martingale was having a $6 sale on certain books and I couldn’t pass up that deal! I barely snuck in before the sale ended, otherwise I would have let you know too! I bought 9 books. It’s going to be like Christmas when those books get here!

Giveaway!

I have passed 100 followers on my little ol' blog! Yay! I don't know what my life would be like without my quilting blogs. Very lonely indeed. But also a lot more productive :P

As a Thank You to all my followers, I am giving away this book Layer Cake, Jelly Roll, and Charm Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott. This giveaway is only open to my followers (as a Thank You). Leave a comment that you are a follower and I'll choose a winner next Saturday, October 22.

Have a quilty weekend!

I'm still here!

Ack! It's been 2 weeks since I've posted. I'm okay! A bit busy, a bit overwhelmed by this whole gluten-free lifestyle. I've been catching up on homework, reading and researching gluten-free living, and grocery shopping and cooking. Doesn't leave much time for sewing!

This month I thought I'd try something new. I split the month into 2 parts: the first half is reserved for UFO work and the second half for current BOMs. There is one quilt that is a UFO, but since I work on it so much, I also consider it a WIP (work in progress). That's my Xmas quilt and it gets worked on the whole month! I am determined to get it done in time for Xmas!

This month I got my 50 feathers quilted on my Rehab quilt.

I like to leave all the paper on until I reach my 50 goal. They've already been removed.

Do you ever have one of those nights where everything quilty just comes together perfect and you get so much progress done? I had that happen Monday night! It was awesome. I got a whole row of my Xmas quilt pieced together and several blocks finished. Everything just went together perfectly.

Here's a snapshot of my design wall. I need a few more blocks to finish the other two rows. This quilt is from the VERY first quilt book I ever bought. I can't wait to finish it!

For more UFO updates, check out Blackberry Creek Home Arts. And come back tomorrow, because I'll be having a Giveaway to celebrate hitting 100 followers!

Winners!! And This blog is now Gluten-Free!

We have Two winners!

The Traveling Stash is headed to

Mama Spark!

The Thimbleberries book is going to

Sunny!

Congrats you lucky ladies!

I meant to mail them out today but who knew that post offices in small towns are closed on Saturdays?!!! I will drop you a message when these babies finally get in the post.

Oh yeah, remember in my last post I mentioned that I wasn't feeling well and went to the doctor's office? Well, turns out that I have Celiac Disease. Celiac disease is a "lifelong inherited autoimmune condition" that basically means I can't eat anything containing gluten anymore. Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats. It's also found in Doritos, whiskey, bread, pasta, white flour, beer, couscous, breadcrumbs, mac n cheese, cupcakes, and candies.

My head is reeling and I feel intimidated at the strict diet restrictions and rules I now have to live with. But I'm glad that I was diagnosed and know the way to a healthier me. I'm thankful for the recent gluten-free products that make this condition easier. Every time I find something gluten free I smile! This won't be bad, it will just be different.

Luckily, wine and quilting are gluten-free!