keeping a new year's promise

Each year with good intentions, I make a list of handmade gifts that

I plan on finishing in time to put under the tree on Christmas morning.

Last Christmas found me closer to finishing my gifts than
I have been in the past and when Christmas morning arrived
all that was left to finish was one sock.

On New Year's Day I made a promise to myself that on July 1st
I would lay aside whatever quilt or stitching I was working on
and begin working on Christmas gifts.

Today the calendar reads July 5th....promise kept.

and the winner is.....

The less bloggers who know about a giveaway,
the better your chances to win, which is why I
don't announce that one post or another is a giveaway.

Each person who left a comment on my last post was entered
into a drawing marking my two year's of blogging.

The winner is Judy!

I've already begun to fill the box with goodies and will get
the box into the mail next week. Please email me with your
address and let me know if you will be home to receive a package.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to leave a comment and
mention their favorite picnic food...we will be trying many over
the next few weeks.

here's your chance to play....

With the 4th of July quickly approaching,

our family is making a list of food that each of
us would like to have on the picnic table....

So...I want to know what your favorite picnic food is....

leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite picnic food is
by the 2nd of July and include your email address so
that I can contact you and ask for the recipe.

my heart pines for things familiar....

no longer able to make Lancaster by lunch,

or even in a day for that matter...

and too far to be called a "quick trip"

my heart aches for things that brought smiles....

a great quilt for showing off hand quilting...

sweet simplicity!

7 naughty quilting words that begin with R...

rip
repeat
re-iron
re-measure
re-cut
re-pin
re-stitch

I also thought about calling this post..."Now you see it...

....now you don't!"

Or how about "A bad week quilting is still better than a good week at work!"

I had a shoulda, woulda, coulda moment...
in that I shoulda remeasured the blocks and sashing
and I woulda not had waving sashings and borders
and I coulda been done with this top and I'd be quilting it by now.

I was just a few basting stitches away from preparing this top
for quilting, but I know better that to think
that everything can be quilted out.

Once I stepped away from the quilt and came back
the next morning I knew that had I gone forward with the quilting....
I would have been forever haunted by
the waving sashing and borders and the little verse I
heard my mother say many times when I was a child......


ALWAYS FINISH

If a task is once begun
Never leave it till it's done.
Be the labor great or small,
Do it well or not at all.

UNKNOWN


I think this little verse will find it's way onto the label that
eventually will be stitched onto the back of the finished quilt.

one link leads to the next...and a little bit more

One of my favorite quilters has a website,
but no blog... and while popping over to see what's new in her
little corner of the world, I noticed on the bottom of her web page
the mention of one of her quilts in an upcoming quilt magazine.

A quick trip to town to search for a copy of the magazine
and a raid on some fabrics Sarah and I found at
the quilt show last summer ...

One child away to the symphony and another
lost in an old war movie....who can resist trying a block or two from
the pattern in the magazine.

I'd love to find a blue and cheddar repro for the border,
but I am trying to use up and make do with what I have.

A LITTLE BIT MORE:

The miniature Chimney Sweep block shown above was
machine pieced by me using the pattern by Ann Hermes
that appears in the August/September 2009
of Quilt magazine.

Using the fabrics from my stash I was able to reproduce a block
very similar to the one shown in the magazine.
The fabrics I used for the block were from Judie Rothermel's
Lancaster County III collection.

next generation dishwasher model

Mom's Rule # 493
Put your dishes in the sink and I will wash them.

Mom's Rule # 494
Leave them on the table and you will wash them.

Our cabin was built without a dishwasher and we have
decided to try living without one for 365 days before
we make the decision of whether we will invest in buying one.

Frequent breaking of Rule #494 has allowed me to spend
time working on a bit more hand quilting.

Oh the joys of being the rule maker!