This Sunday was our SewMod Sew-In and I have to share with you the desserts we snacked on. Pattie is our talented cookie maker. Delish! Beautifully decorated and always tastes sooo yummy. Pattie, if you were missing a couple when you got home, Russell said he snagged 3 of them! I can’t really blame him though:) Vicki brought the cute little Lemon Tarts and the fabulous Valentine Cheesecakes.

We’ve also been working on a commission quilt for one of Paige’s friends. A real outdoorsy, cabin quilt. Lots of greens, browns, blues and reds and some appliqued forest friends. We finished that project up during our Sew-In.

We all made pretty good progress on our projects. This weeks to-do’s are a baby quilt to be kitted with the BackYard Baby line and potholder samples for an upcoming show. So be sure to check back later for those pics. Here’s hoping everyone has a great sewing week!

I can already hear the moans out there:) But if you’re one of the lucky ones who get the day off, it’s the perfect opportunity to get something done. I’m a big believer in any task, small or large, that you can accomplish in the day is rewarding. It makes us feel good. It’s satisfying and always makes me geared up to take on the next task.

Our SewMod group had 1 year to make 7 rows, each of them different, for each member in the group. Each of us provided a fat quarter for focus and we took off from there.  For example, I made stars for Andrea from her fabric, dresdens for Shelley from hers…etc. In the end we will each have a completed quilt. I know, it’s a little confusing. It took me forever to figure it out.

We do our row swap in just 2 short weeks at our monthly meeting.

So, I’m using today’s post to encourage any of the group who haven’t finished to git”r”done!

Here’s a few of the girls’ rows completed so far.

Aren’t they awesome! Their creativity amazes me and I’m ever so honored that I was invited into this group. It’s literally changed my life….but more on that subject at a later date:)…. I know, the suspense will kill you, won’t it?:))

I can’t wait to show you my completed rows in a couple of weeks. My focus fabric is Halloween!

I would really like to get through the Lucy’s Feather Bed fabric. I bought a lot of this because it is soooo darn cute! But I’ve had it a long time. I think I’ll make some baby items up…burp cloths, changing pads, etc.

Now for the list…

1. Of course the Grandmother’s Flower Garden blocks are atop my list.

2. Susan’s Dresdens….I’m halfway through the embroidery and finished with the bitty dresdens. I have all the dresden blades cut out. I want to show this during our SewMod quilt show in July.

3. Welcome to the North Pole

4. Auntie’s Flower Garden…I only have borders left to applique and attach.

5. New York Beauty blocks…I’m going to work on these during our SewMod Sunday Sew-ins and at the end of the year I can decide how to put them into a quilt.

6. Nesting Time embroidery project. I’m pretty excited about this one. Instead of embroidering the pot, nest and eggs, I will be using this wool. Just imagine the nest with different brown strips of wool and maybe some ribbon woven through it…like you’d see in a real nest.

My list is usually a full page but with the Etsy shop and working at the LQS, I’m sure that I’ll be pretty busy. I can’t wait to see if I’ve been able to check these off my list come December 2011.

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When I started my longarm quilting business 4 years ago I ended up putting several projects on hold and boy do I miss them! Now that I’ve pretty much halted machine quilting for clients I’m so looking forward to finishing them up and creating a bunch more!

As I went through my stacks and containers to pull all the unfinished projects I began to hyperventilate when I realized how long some of these projects have been around…so sad,  all these beautiful fabrics and ideas waiting to be made into a special gift or cozy blanket. So, my goal this year is to tackle one at a time starting with some of the ones pictured below and of course use as much of my stash as possible!

1.  This baby pinwheel top has to be more than 5 yrs old my memory isn’t so good I will have to ask my friend Karen V. where we got this she has an amazing memory and we tap into her constantly!

2. This is Amy Butler’s Mid-Mod quilt pattern I’m hoping I have enough of the Midwest Modern border fabric I just love the flower pattern.

3. I picked up this kit at a shop in Saginaw Michigan a couple years ago on a retreat with my longtime sewing group the Pieceful Pals. The pattern is called Flora and fabrics are by Valori Wells. I thought it would be a wonderful spring throw to brighten up my living room.

4. These cute winter batiks are adorable…I just haven’t found the right pattern yet…any ideas????

5. I started these blocks earlier this year in one of our SewMod sewing days. I just love the little black cat so reminds me of my Kitty!

6. I picked up this jelly roll and charm packs at the Rosemont Quilt Show at least 3 years ago. Not my usual style but I was drawn to the combination of the purples, browns and greens. Still haven’t found the right pattern…bought enough of the green for the backing and/or borders.

7. This bunch will eventually be made into 7 giant bags one of my designs we will have on Esty soon! Each pair of fabrics from the top down will be quilted together, bound and straps added -they are really cute and carry a ton of stuff…I fill it up with fabric and projects when I go on retreats. They will hold 3-4 large quilts. I even use it as an  overnight bag it will hold my pillow, change of clothes and all my toiletries and of course some quilt magazines!

8. I have all these wonderful hand-dyed fabrics…they are pushing 15 years old by now. So beautiful and soft! They actually inspired my very first quilt below which I paper-pieced the summer of 1995 using copier paper… never will do that again! Took forever to pick out all the paper. I also sewed it using my mom’s Singer which had two speeds screamin’ fast or off.

I still can’t believe this quilt is rolled up in a bag waiting to be finished. Back in ’95 I had no idea how to machine quilt so there are a billion little stipple stitches throughout all the white areas. A few years ago my mom started picking out the stitches, I took over last year. Very tedious work so I decided to pick out from the backside so if I accidentally ripped the fabric it didn’t matter because it is just plain white fabric…doing it this way is definitely protecting the front from any damage and speeding up the process.

After all the stitching is gone it will be ready for the Gammill…I’m still working on the quilting design -stay tuned if I get this done by the end of the year I will jump for joy – I can’t wait to wrap myself up in it!

Paige