One more picture.....

Only one more picture after this one, I promise! tonight I finished sewing all the separator bands onto the braids and just had to try it out on the bed. This will be the last picture, until I have the borders on, quilted and bound. It fits the queen size bed perfectly with one braid hanging over each side.

Now I have to find something I can talk about while I finish this quilt. I have nothing new to report on the kitchen front. We ran into a snag in our renovation project, as we started losing water pressure. Now we live in the country and have well water, which I love. So after many visits to Lowes, several consultations with the Lowes plumber and replacing a switch of some kind and the water pump, we finally discovered it to the be the bladder in the water tank. Now in all honesty - I did not even know we had a water tank, and much less that it had a bladder!! Who knew? Add to this situation that my poor husband has been working 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, and you can see why we have not made progress on the kitchen. The water situation will be remedied by this weekend, and we can get back to knocking a doorway in the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.

Thanks for stopping by!

Separator Bands

Here's an update of my French Braid quilt. I have completed the braids and the separator bands, and in the process of assembling the quilt top. Here is what a separator band looks like. I don't have them all on yet, but I am getting there. This will be going on our bed, and Fred has said he really likes it, so that is a good thing! Hopefully I will have a quilt top to show you sometime soon.

Be sure to check out May Britt's blog: http://abyquilt.blogspot.com/ as she is having a give-a-way to celebrate two years of blogging. Congratulation May, your blog is terrific and I appreciate so much having you as a blog buddie!

Happy Stitching !

Can't win if you don't enter

Good Morning,

I have just been enjoying reading blogs and having my morning coffee. I wanted to let you know of some give-a-way:
http://ohioquilter.blogspot.com/ and http://lindijanej.blogspot.com/. Check them out - you just might win!

Friendship Block Swap #2

Yesterday Cheryl, Carol and I exchanged our Friendship blocks for the second time. The fourth Wednesday of each month has taken on a excitement of its own as we meet for lunch and exchange our blocks. And here they are.....

Carol made the heart and Cheryl the American Flag in honor of July being USA's birthday - July 4th, Independence Day! I just love these blocks and feel blessed to live in this wonderful country!

And what did I make for this Independence Day month? A pineapple of course!!! And why a pineapple you ask? Because this is the land of the free and I could! Ok, I really just wanted to try my hand a pineapple blocks and this was a good way to do it without having to make an entire quilt. Happy Stitching !

Goodies!

What a fun mail day I have had. Today I received a little package from Rhonda over at Quiltnutcreations.
I am collecting 2.5 inch squares for a Cathedral Window quilt workshop I will be conducting and she was so sweet to share some of her beautiful leftovers with me. She also included a wonderful card she made. I just love coffee, so the card is perfect for me!

Here are the pincushions I received in my pincushion swap. Aren't they great!!! The ring pincushion has been used a lot as I work on my braid quilt. The peach is just so perfect for South Carolina - sorry you ladies in Georgia, but I believe SC raises more peaches than you do! this was a fun swap and I am so very pleased with the treasures I received

Speaking of treasures, look at the generous gifts that came with my pincushions. Fat quarters of fabric, hand crochet dish cloths, an absolutely beautiful hand embroidered table topper and the most adorable china teacup pin cushion. Thank you again ladies. And I do owe an apology to you all, as my list of address got throw out by accident.

Then last, but certainly not least, I received the hand made journal from Lizzy. The inside cover is a map of Paris.

Thank you all for your generous gifts of time, talent and treasures!

Great Give-A-Way

Hey y'all, Debbie over at http://die-steppdecken-des-quilter.blogspot.com/ is having a great give-a-way. Drawing is August 1 so hurry on over and get your name in the hat...hmmm, or maybe not, I would really like to win this one!!

The Good News is.....

The Good News is my new countertops have been installed...Yippee!
The Bad news is they scratched the countertop putting the sink in...sigh. Called the contractor, a new countertop on the way, but now we have to endure the mess and smell of the glue all over again.

The Good news is...I now have under the cabinet lighting that I have been wanting for 30 years now, and a new faucet !

The Bad news is that the contractor left all the lighting wires exposed...how tacky is that!! Hubby said he will fix it this weekend.

The Good News is that hubby and I got a new ceiling fan installed and it runs smooth with no wobbling! WTG Fred!!

The Bad News is when the contractor put in the new switches, changing out the cream for white, he did something that we have not figured out yet and sometimes the switches work and sometimes they don't. Guess you should never have a countertop/cabinet guy to electrical work.

All that is left to do in the kitchen now is to paint the walls, new flooring and knock a hole in the wall to create a passage way from the kitchen to the dining room...hmmmm, think we will ever finish?

The Good News is I got three days off work for this project. Two spent at the house while the workers were here and today I am headed to Columbia to see my good friend Darlene. I also got in some sewing time, finishing up my braids for the French Braid quilt and completing the July Redwork stitchery. No bad news here!

Happy Stitching!!!

Christmas in July give-a-way!

Be sure to check out Blue Bird Quilts (http://bluebirdquilts-lyn.blogspot.com/) for a Christmas in July give-a-way!

Happy Anniversary, Overall Quilter!

Its been a good day, inspite of having a flat tire and getting rained on...but I get ahead of myself. Today is the two year anniversary for a LQS nearby, called Overall Quilter. Its a great shop and I went to the celebration this afternoon with three of my quilting buddies - Cheryl, Carol and Diane. I did not buy any fabric, but I did pick up some goodies I have been wanting. One is a Kaleidoscope template needed for my KScope quilt - I have been looking for one of those for weeks now. This morning I was watching a video about hand quilting and the instructor was telling about how wonderful these mechanical pencils are that are made for quilters - gotta have it, and now I do, along with some extra yellow and red leads. Then I found the perfect miter binder marker - woohoooo, now I will have perfect mitered binders. (I wish it were that simple!)

So we head back home, and I notice the car is starting to ride a little rough, and I ask Carol - are we getting a flat tire? She kinda thinks we are...but not sure...we are on I77 going pretty fast, heavy traffic, no place to pull over...and then all doubt is removed. Flat tire, grey smoke, and I am pulling over on a very narrow shoulder on an interstate overpass. So after placing a call to dear hubby to come and HELP, I think to call the insurance company as we have roadside service on our policy. Trying to convince them that I need a tow truck rather than just someone to fix the tire is interesting. Now I ask you, would you want to change a tire, standing on a interstate with heavy traffic and 4 panicy women watching? So they agree to send a tow, hubby arrives and takes my friends off to their cars, and I wait on the tow. There is this very high median in the road that separates the interstate road from the on ramp, - about 3 feet high and 4 feet wide...so I decide I am probably safer sitting on that instead of in a car that could be rammed by a big rig at any moment...so I climb up on the median and enjoy a nice breeze that was blowing , watching traffic speed by. Speaking of that breeze - its actually a severe storm blowing in. The tow truck gets there, this rather interesting looking fellow gets out and tells me he is going to fix the flat right there on the interstate. Now I am thinking...you see the traffic going 80 mph, a storm blowing up, and you want to change it here...but what do I know? Hubby back now...I sit in his truck and it is starting to rain...uh, more like a downpour. Tow truck guy (TTG) having trouble getting tire off...you see you have to unlock the lug bolts or something like that...hubby gets out in the rain to get the tool to do that with, but too late, TTG has already ruined the rim of our tire. We now have two police cars parked around us with blue lights flashing...pouring down rain...tire rim destroyed, and you might know where this is going....TTG gets the spare out and it is flat! We have had this car for 6 years, never needed the spare. How was I to know it would be flat. TTG should have checked that BEFORE he started changing the tire. So he has to tow it after all. I just have him take it to the repair shop and leave it there. Hubby takes me home and all is well...for now. Sorry no pictures, guess I need to learn to carry a camera with me at all times.

I did manage to do a little sewing tonight, finising up my third braid on my French Braid quilt. This is just a glimpse of it. These braids are very long so hard to get it all in one picture. Yesterday was my Stitchin Friends club meeting and they started their braid quilts. Some very beautiful fabric combinations - I will have to show pictures next month when they bring their braids back and we assemble the quilt tops.

Darlene brought me a birthday present she had on order back in May. I just love it. Have you heard of The Gypsy Gripper? Here's a picture...and boy does it grip. Thank you Darlene!

Thank You, Jane

Look what arrived in the mail today, from Jane, over at Crazy Here and Now blog. Thank you so much. I just love the fabrics and the book.

Remember this cool phone I showed you in my blog that my hubby installed in my kitchen. Well, here is all that is left..sniff sniff.

We were having phone problems, and repair men came out, and discovered the culprit was the new phone. It was directing all our incoming calls to voice mail. So, it had to go.

Hey, the good news is my counter tops are to be installed on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Kitchen Re-do

My kitchen is still a work in process, but I wanted to show you the nifty things my wonderful hubby installed for me. We purchased the cabinet organizers for the lower cabinets and they are wonderful back and knee savers. Back because now I don't have to bend way over and twist to see the back of the cabinet or knee because I don't have to get down on my knees to actually get something out of the back of the cabinet. I also have a place for my trash and recycle stuff that I can close up. (I guess I should have emptied the trash before I took this picture, but hey I am all about reality shows!)

The counter tops are still not redone, which is why you do not see the tops of my counters - this reality show just goes so far! I am working on the Be Patient block in my Golden Rules of Attitudes quilt and as I said before - this quilt is talking to me. You think, maybe, when I finish this block the counter top man will have my new counter tops ready to install???? I think I will get on the new phone my dear hubby installed this weekend and give him a call, and just remind him that these were supposed to be in over a month ago!

Happy Stitching everyone!

Lasagna and French Braid

Now how is that for a subject? I do mean French Braid, not French Bread. I took a day off from work today and spent most of the morning cleaning out a closet and my sewing area. Made a trip to the dump (live in country) with a lot of stuff that I have no earthly idea why I kept in that closet, and have another big pile ready to take to Goodwill for folks to pick over and take home with them as a treasure. This afternoon I made a cherry cheesecake and lasagna for supper. This is only the second time I have tried to make lasagna, and it came out so much better than the first time. Note the casserole dish..that is a "treasure" I brought home from Goodwill. Kim had inspired me to check it now and then. For those of you read an earlier post I wrote about renovating my kitchen, you see I still have the same tired counter tops...another long story for another time.

This afternoon I worked on my French Braid quilt, cutting out all the sections for the braids. It was a lot of cutting, but I enjoy cutting and organizing my pieces in neat stacks (ok, maybe that is too much information). Anyway a very quiet, relaxing afternoon. Tonight I hope to get a braid put together, so stay tuned if you're interested in seeing how it goes. The picture looks like I stood on my head to take it! I was actually trying to get a pic without all the background stuff showing up. I guess that is what cropping is for.

Wishing you all a safe and fun July 4th tomorrow!

Be Kind

Another block finished on my Golden Rules of Attitudes quilt - this one is Be Kind. This quilt is talking to me, or maybe I should say lecturing me, as I make the blocks. I had a couple rather unkind moments during the construction of this block and each time I picked it up I felt chastised and reminded that I should BE KIND to others, even if they were frustrating me beyond any measure. My next block is Be Patient, and I hate to think what is headed my way as I learn to be more patient.

I also began a Block of the Month with QBee Quilts, a LQS, and completed the first block. I must say a big thanks to May Britt who explained to me the benefits of placing a "lining fabric" or white fabric behind the the one you are stitching on to protect those pesky shadow lines from appearing. I tried it on this block and it worked like a charm. I have learned so much in just the short time I have been blogging!

God bless!