One night during vacation I couldn't sleep.  Rich had been working on our landscaping and drinking beer.  Working, drinking, working, drinking.  When it came time for bed the snoring was loud enough to scare the neighbors.  At the same time, I had 18 bug bites burning my legs so bad that I was ready to tear my flesh off.  So, I got up and cut a bunch of green thimbles.  150 to be exact.  Incidentally, no 2 are the same.  I even managed #151 on the back that had too much purple in it to make the front.  I know.  You're impressed.  I can't say that I blame you, I love it too.  Thimble blocks are amazingly easy to piece.  The seams just butt right up against each other.  Hehehe, butt.  And, they press out straight as can be.  I thought the edge was interesting so I didn't use any borders.

I finally finished Quilty Stitches!  Yippee!  I almost said "Hip Hip Horray" but watching the history channel this week told me that phrase was originally used when white people would "round up" the black people during some conflict.  Or, just being assholes.  It was  hep, hep back then, like they were cattle.  So, I'll not be using Hip Hip Horray any longer.  Let's just take a moment and reflect on how many mother lovin' stitches that went into this bad boy.  Okay, now guess what happened.  I went to start on the last block when I noticed pink splotches in several spots!  Apparently, my hot pink bag got wet and bled on my project!  You're right, I WAS super pissed!  My head exploded.  It doesn't really show in the photo, and some of it will be cut out when I frame it, but still.

Now that Quilty Stitches is done, I needed another hand work project.  I started back on my Vintage Christmas quilt.  I'm so close to being done on this one as well.  I have a church, a sheep and the borders left.  Favorite Christmas Balls isn't my favorite but it does look cute with everything else around it.  Also, it has the word balls in it and I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy.  So, that gets awkward when I start mentioning my favorite Christmas Balls...

Seems Like It's Been Awhile

It has been such a crazy few weeks!  I'm not used to so much activity!  The second weekend of August, I took the girls up to Chicago to meet my cousin Denise.  My kids don't really know my family at all.  My dad and I weren't close and he died 11 or 12 years ago already.  Sadly, when I came to Illinois, I didn't insist on going to Wisconsin to visit any of the Purdy side of my family.  Could never convince them that Wisconsin was a fabulous vacation destination.

Anyway, Denise and I were the best of buddies during the summer when I was growing up and it was SO great to spend some time with her!  The girls and I loved hanging out with her!  Now to make sure I don't wait another 10 years to visit again!  My August gift from Rich was a super posh hotel room that we all shared.  It was amazing!  If you have the chance to stay at the Monaco, I highly recommend it.

We also spent time with my nephew Gib and his lovely family!  They had just had an new baby boy so I got to cuddle and love on him.  He was the recipient of the Puppy & Kitty quilt done recently.  They really seemed to like it.  You know how that goes, do they really like it or are the being nice?  I thought it was great, so I'm going with that!

Before our trip, I did that retreat in Mascoutah, which was also fun.  I started this bag there but finished it the day after getting back from Chicago.  We walked 5 miles the first day and another 7 on the second.  You know me, not exactly a fitness freak.  Needless to say, Monday I could barely move and it was wonderful to sit at my machine all day.

Lots more happened on vacation.  I posted everything on Facebook, if you want to take a look.

Slow Progress

I'm falling behind on my Quilty Stitches.  This one is from several weeks ago.  I have one that I haven't started and then I think the newest gets posted tomorrow.  And, I believe there is only one left after that.  It's been fun but I'm always bored with a project by the end and I think I've hit that point with this one.  It may be because I chose to do the white filler, that's been fairly tedious.  Not to mention, I'm tired of doing half stitches.

 Pretty cute so far.

I was finally able to present Hunter with his graduation gift and only 2 years late.  He loved it.  I put a faux piping on the binding and then sewed it by machine.  I told him it was totally bad-assed and he pretended to be properly impressed.

Last weekend I went to a quilting retreat with some more friends.  I quilted this medallion quilt.  I meant to take a better picture of the actual quilting.  I did an all over orange peel pattern using my walking foot.  It turned out pretty well.  It was interesting enough that our guild president asked me to teach the technique at our Quilt Club meeting in October.

 I completely broke retreat protocol by tring to be productive.  I'm new to retreats and didn't realize that no one goes to get things done.  They go to socialize.  If you happen to get something done, then good for you.  But, it's nobody's focus.  Now I know.  Come October, I'll be ready.  Looks like that'll be a busy month.

I worked on the 2 round robins that I had this month.  I'm so done with this, as well.  I don't like anything I've done.  It's really, really hard to work on things this far out in the process.  The one above was okay but not very interesting.  It's the square in a square round but I decided to do pinwheels in a square.  

 

The yellow and blue one was three strips.  It was supposed to be basket weave but I think I would have had to make a second row to make it successful and I wasn't prepared to work on it any longer or buy any more fabric for it.

I also started a bag and worked on the applique baby quilt.  I didn't make much progress but I had a great time visiting with the ladies.  I'll post pictures of those later.

I'm so excited to find this fabric.  I've been looking for it for 10 years or so.  I've made pin-up quilts for Rich and his grandfather with cars.  Then Hunter got his with the Woody Wagons.  Now Rich's dad is going to get his with cowgirls.  Now to think of an interesting pattern to put them in before Christmas!