Tetris Quilt Along Week 1

If you haven't succumbed to the infectious fun known as the Tetris Quilt Along, visit Melissa at Happy Quilting. She has designed a quilt based on the colors and shapes of the Tetris game  The shapes for the first week have been released and it is an enjoyable challenge  putting these blocks together.  Melissa is using 5 inch squares for her blocks, but I prefer using 2.5 inch squares.  I am planning to make 2 blocks each week from the shapes using a different placement.  It's so much fun I may decide to make 4 blocks per week so that my quilt will be closer in size to the original project.   I used white squares to represent the empty spaces where I wasn't able to fit a block.  There are no restrictions as to size or even color.  I plan on saving the extra squares from the parts of the shapes that did not fit and plan to use them  to make a block for the back of the quilt.

I'm going to link my blocks with the rest of the Tetris quilters at Happy Quilting and also with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for "Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?"

Sharon of Vrooman's Quilts is hosting a Crafter's Campfire today.  Put on some sunscreen and bug spray and stop at her place to see the fun craft she has posted.

Red/White/Blue Blog Hop Giveaway Winner

Thanks to the 124 hoppers  who stopped by during the Red, White, and Blue blog hop and left a comment.  The winner of the Tried and True charm pack by  Nancy Halvorsen is number 108, Sharon of Camp Gramma   She said,  "Both blocks are beautiful! and that is a great little charm pack...hope it finds my house :) 

My handsome assistant Retired Guy chose the lucky number.

It's been miserably hot here for the last week.  I can't bring myself to iron the fabrics I need for my  projects.  I did manage to sew some blocks with strips that were already cut..  The quilt requires 110 blocks.  I only need to make 13 more.

I was also able to make some HST to use for the Round Robin I am in.  I'm not sure if I like them with the block, but I'll make my decision once they are all made.

It's raining now, so hopefully that will help to cool it down a bit and I can cut my charms. for Melissa's  Tetris Quilt Along at Happy Quilting

Taking Inventory

In April, I was inspired by Rhonda over at Quilter in the Gap to pick some unfinished  projects and bring them to completion during the second quarter of the year.  It's July, the three months are up and I have to admit, I did not finish even one of the projects.  I don't feel guilty or embarrassed.  For the most part, I just found myself busy with other projects.

I'm going to give it another try this quarter and have found a few projects to target.

 Most of these blocks were leftover from a quilt top I made earlier in the year.  Hopefully, when I finish this top, I will quilt the both of them and send them on their way.

 I finished the center for the Faded Charms quilt from Wedding Dress Blue.  These are the rest of the charm strips that I pieced as leaders and enders.  It's a great quilt so I'm eager to put it together.

This block is part of a Round Robin from the Sunshine Quilter's blog.  Kathy Thompson sent it to me.  I'm struggling with the math for the border I planned to use.  The block is 17.5 inches square.  It has a deadline, so I hope to put my border on and get it in the mail next week.

More leftover blocks from a quilt I made for Sarah's Hands 2 Help Challenge last year.  I have the strips already cut for the rest of the blocks and plan to finish it to send to Sarah's NOLA project for children affected by Hurricane Katrina.  It's hard to believe there are still people suffering from the aftermath of that terrible tragedy.

 I love this quilt and placed it on my list last quarter.  I did add 3 more rows and the top is finished (this picture was taken when it was in progress).  This is also slated for the NOLA project so it needs to be quilted and sent on its way.

I'm going to link up over at Quilter In The Gap's Third Quarter Challenge.  Hopefully, these 5 projects will be finished before the summer is over.

Welcome Red, White and Blue Blog Hoppers

Happy 4th of July and welcome to all Red, White  and Blue Blog Hoppers.  My apologies to everyone for posting so late.  My plans to post last night after dinner went awry when we found out our phone service was out and of course our internet was out with it.  Our good friends at Verizon informed us that we will have our service back by July 11th.  Ugh!!!  I've eagerly visited all of the participating blogs this week and am really excited about hosting the hop here on my blog.  I didn't want to miss my big day so I drove 35 minutes to use the WiFi at Panera Breads in Brookfield, CT.

I have two 12.5 inch blocks that I designed to share as well as  a giveaway.  The first block is a stylized flag using twenty seven 2.5 inch HST (finishing at 2 inches) and a 6.5 inch blue square with   rough edge machine applique wonky stars.

The second block is hand appliqued and was made using Darlene Zimmerman's Easy Dresden ruler.  I used a 4 inch strip for the blue blades, the red is made with 2.5 inch strips and the white blades are cut from 1.5 inch strips.  The center star is also hand appliqued.  I plan on making 3 more blocks varying the color placement to turn it into a table runner.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment to be entered into the giveaway for a Tried and True charm pack by  Nancy Halvorsen for  Benartex.  It's a great pack and contains 55 charms.

Don't forget to visit the other bloggers featuring special posts today.  Please click the blog hop button on my sidebar for links to bloggers who posted earlier this week.

Quilter in the Closet
The Recipe Bunny
A Reformed Heath'n
Jane's Fabrics
Kris Loves Fabric

Thanks to Madame Samm and Jane for organizing a fun blog hop and to Panera Breads who bailed me out with their free WiFi (even if it is so slow it took over 2 hours just to load this post.

Happy 4th  of July!!

Sneak Preview

Tomorrow begins the very special Red, White, and Blue Blog Hop.  Over 100 bloggers will be participating.  Each blogger will feature either a 12.5  or 10.5 inch red, white, and blue block.  Some will provide tutorials and many will be offering giveaways.  This is the first time that I will be participating in this type of blog hop.  My blog's day to host is Wednesday, July 4th.  In addition to the red, white, and blue block that I designed my very own self, I will have a giveaway.
This is a sneak peak of the fabrics I used for my block which features my nemesis, the dreaded half square triangle.

I'm sorry I can't figure out how to make the Blog Hop button operational within the text of this post but you can visit Jane's Fabrics and Quilts or use the button on my sidebar for the blog hop schedule.







I have been very negligent about showing the lovely items that I have won in recent blog giveaways.

This fabulous book arrived yesterday from Vanessa at The Crafty Gemini.  She has a lovely blog and offers lots of video tutorials.

A Year of Making Life Beautiful, by Melissa Stramel is a beautiful spiral bound book that features, projects, quilt patterns, crafts, and gardening for each  month of the year.  It's a delight just to turn the pages and look at the gorgeous pictures.

A few months ago, I won an incredible giveaway on Australian designer Val Laird's blog.

Val is currently offering a free BOM called Thoughts in Thread that combines pieced blocks with applique and hand embroidery.  Although the BOM started in January, all 6 of the blocks are still available.  Feast your eyes on these goodies and try not to drool on your computer  screen.

The color of the etui is much prettier in person.  You can see better pictures of the giveaway items on Val's blog.  Val's handwork is beautiful.  Her stitches are tiny and even.

The Herb Garden wall hanging has the names of 19 herbs embroidered in the outer borders and features appliqued pots of mint, rosemary, and cloves.  It's hanging near our kitchen table and it makes me happy to look at it at every meal.  She also sent a charm pack of Grace by Three Sisters and a pack with charms suitable for embellishments.

Last month, I won 2 patterns from Amber at A Little Bit Biased.  You are probably familiar with her fabulous tutorial Scrap Jar Stars.  The patterns are really well written and I have a charm pack that will be perfect to use.

Don't forget to check out the Red, White, and Blue Blog hop tomorrow and come back to visit for my blog hop day on July 4th to see my block and enter the giveaway.

A Glimpse of Giverny

I may never make the trip to France to see Monet's beloved gardens at Giverny, but I was able to catch a glimpse of the beauty that inspired him.  The New York Botanical Gardens, in the Bronx, is holding a special exhibit of flowers growing at Monet's Gardens at their Conservatory.  The exhibit will be on view until October.  We visited shortly after the opening in April and returned again on Sunday.  In addition to the floral display, the Library at the Botanical Gardens has diagrams and photos of the gardens as well as 2 of Monet's paintings and his sketches of the gardens.

The Botanical Gardens feature a changing array of gorgeous gardens that change with the seasons. The heavy down pours this June have taken their toll on the Enid Haupt rose gardens, but there are still many beautiful and fragrant varieties to enjoy.

On our first trip in April, the 20% chance of rain that was predicted turned into a heavy rain that soaked through my raincoat and filled my camera with water.  The camera is a loss, but the memory card managed to survive with the few photos I was able to take of the peonies..

Viewing the beautiful colors and varieties really made me want to try a water color quilt.  One more quilt to add to my "must try" list.

May For Me

Thanks to Marcia, Sharon, Snoodles, and Tonya for inspiring quilters all over the world to take some time to do something just for themselves during the month of May.  On the first  Saturday in May, I attended a local quilt show and was able to see Bonnie Hunter's trunk show.  After years of reading about Bonnie traveling around the country to give workshops, it was great to be able to see her in person.  Her talk  was funny, informative, and full of beautiful quilts.  She gave several workshops in New York state and she taught Jared's Star for the local guild.  Unfortunately, the workshop was filled, so I wasn't able to attend.  I did get to have Bonnie autograph one of her books  as a surprise birthday present for a dear bloggy friend.   I was surprised that a large number of quilters that I talked to on the shuttle bus and at the show had never heard of Bonnie before.  After her talk, everyone was talking about how great she was.  It was really weird visiting her blog and reading about restaurants in our local area that she visited during her stay

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On Mother's Day, my Viking daughter and I went into Manhattan and attended Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.  We had lunch at a  Thai restaurant called Thainy and it was small enough to live up to its name.  ON our way back to Grand Central Station, we decided to visit the observation deck of the Empire State Building,  I had not visited there since I was a little girl and my daughter had never been there.  I got to meet King Kong.  The visibility that day was 25 miles so the view was great.

I also managed to join a weekend sew along with the C-Bees online  group using the Twister Tool.  I used 5 inch squares and the small size Twister  ruler.  It will be turned into a table topper  for my night table.  I found it difficult to judge where to position the light and dark charms for the best color balance.  

In my next post, I will share more May for Me adventures.