Making It Mine: Part Two

With a Pine Tree quilt block for a border cornerstone, next up was The North Carolina Beauty (page 183 of Judy Hopkins' 501 Rotary-cut Quilt Blocks).  I did resist this choice at first because of all the flying geese.... the itty-bitty flying geese... this block finishes at six inches.   But, I persevered!

The second cornerstone represents the beauty of my home state... from the mountains...

...to the sea!

Making It Mine: Part One

For the border design on her CW quilt, Bettina Meier made four different Ohio Star blocks as cornerstones.   I wanted to do something a little different and chose four blocks that had meaning to me.

Pat of 501 Quilt Blocks is using Judy Hopkins' book 501 Rotary-cut Quilt Blocks as a challenge and is making each and every one of the 501 blocks in the book!  Go, Pat!   

Pat's blocks looked interesting and, my interest in piecing traditional blocks sparked by the Civil War BOW project, I ordered the book.  Wow!  What a great resource book...  not only are there 501 different traditional quilt blocks, the book provides measurements for 6 different sizes of each block!  The blocks range from 4" to 14" and are clearly laid out to make things easy, with options for fabric selection. 

I decided that one of the corner blocks had to be Black Spruce (page 49)... except that I am going to call it Pine Tree....

....because North Carolina is "The Land of the Long-leaf Pine"... and the State toast is:

Here's to the Land of the Long-leaf Pine!

Here's to the Land where the sun doth shine!

Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,

Here's to Down Home, the Old North State!

The long-leaf pines out front of my house, 

the corner of which you can see in the lower right corner of the photo.

Civil War Quilt Top: Finished!

I so enjoyed the friendships I made in the Flickr group:  Civil War Quilts 2011.  One of the best things was seeing how others... much ahead of me in the BOW assembly... finished their quilts.  I particularly liked the border design on Bettina Meier's CW quilt.  

So, I copied it!

Nothing like late afternoon sun to bleach out the colors, huh?

Civil War Quilt: Border

Almost done...

...should finish this flimsy today!

Spring Break Kitchen Adventure

Old double wall ovens seen in background from dining room on Easter...

Double ovens removed...

New door in old double oven space...

New door open....

...drawer fully extend!

What?  No oven???   Nope... just moved to new location...

Drawers removed...

New oven...

Now, just waiting The Return of the Ice Maker Repairman to fix what he didn't fix on Tuesday....  *grrr*

Back to sewing....  prep work on new wood work will begin tomorrow.  Hopefully, I'll have everything painted by Sunday afternoon.

 

Civil War Quilt Top Progress

While various worker bees did stuff in the kitchen yesterday, I stayed out of their way and sewed.

Half of the columns are sewn together.  The remaining columns have the vertical sashing sewn on...  almost done with the block assembly!

Today, a friend and I are taking a road trip...  fabric will be involved....

CW Progress

There weren't too many worker bees here yesterday but  a friend stopped by for lunch and a visit... and another stopped by with her 5 month old daughter.  I was able to get horizontal sashing units on the Civil War blocks...

...and altered a bridesmaid's dress for Renee while Deborah entertained her baby.

The dress looks much better on Renee than lying on the bed!

 

Not sure what worker bees will show up this morning... but I have plenty of sewing to do!

I really didn't want to sleep in...

...after all, it's spring break and I was cooking all weekend.  

I'm doing a little remodeling in the kitchen, the first step of which is the removal of the double wall oven that is bordering on antique status...  estimated age: 40 yrs old.

Mr. Gillespie and crew called about 8am to announce their imminent arrival and went to work.  The double ovens were removed in no time.

No going back to sleep for me.... I am now waiting on the arrival of the electrician.

The Easter Parade

First Time

Even though it's spring...

...and almost Easter...

...we had a cold snap last night!

Temps were supposed to drop to near freezing.... but I had already taken the blankets off the bed.    So....  I spread my Jacob's Ladder quilt over the bed.... 

...and slept under a quilt for the first time in my life...

...I think I can get used to this!

Is There a Computer Guru in the House?

I did something to my computer and I'm not sure what.

I got a new wireless mouse (long story) and got it set up.  Works great.... so I go to my blog, do something (not sure what) but I rolled the wheel and the layout, font, photos, everything... even the Blogger stuff on the page... got smaller.

I checked my blog at work today and everything is "normal" size.  When I visit other blogs OR go to Blogger pages....  New Post, Stats, etc.....   everything is the right size.

I tried searching for info on Windows 7 (OS), Firefox Mozilla (browser), and generic computer terms....  I've right-clicked/left-clicked and rolled the wheel thing to no avail.  For $38, I can get an online expert to tell me how to fix it.... but I just filled up my car.....

I know it's not the end of the world but I would like to have the font & photos to be normal size.

Anyone have any ideas?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Y'all are just THE BEST!  Not only is my blog page back to normal size.... I learned a bunch of new computer tricks!

Time Off

Tomorrow is the first day of.....

I am not going to the beach...

... because there will be seven zillion kids all over the place...

I am going to stay home and watch cute service techs, carpenters, electricians, and appliance dudes repair the ice maker and remodel the kitchen a bit... 

...and while I'm waiting for the aforesaid individuals to show up and  to do their thing, I'm going to need something to work on.

Yes!  It's time to finish up the Civil War BOW....  I like crossing UFOs off my list!

Another Quick Project

I have a serger from my dressmaking days that comes in handy for various projects...

You'd think after more than 20 years, I would have a cover for the serger, wouldn't you?

I do now...

Grandma...

....can you fix my favorite pants?

Can you make them into shorts?

Yes, I can CoCo-Puff!

A New Project

Sometimes, when you've finished a long-running project, you need to work on a project that will be completed quickly...

...to boost your spirits...

...and help you remember that sewing projects don't have to last MONTHS and MONTHS...

 ...not to mention YEARS!

A project that lasts an hour or so...

...with bright, colorful fabrics...

...can even make a rainy Saturday morning cheerful and fun!