Want a tease?

No, NO....not like that! Geessshhhh! You people! Ya'll sound like TJ getting all excited! Anywho, back quilting.

I've made this quilt top for my friend from Flordia. Her grand baby will be here any day now. Remember my nephew's "odd" name, Kentlee? Her granddaughter's name will be Meilin. I'm not even sure if I can pronounce it right. Next time I talk to her, I'll have to make her say it for me. I've even got the binding made and ready. I'm not sure what to do for the backing yet. I'm checking out everything I have to see what will do best. It might just be white. She sent me some pictures of Meilin's nursery. OH MY........it's white and pink heaven. So pretty.

I'll show it completed as soon as it's done.

For Kaye.....

.....and anyone else who might find this interesting. The other day on Kaye's blog she was looking for ways to baste without getting on the floor. I too, cannot get on the floor to baste a quilt. Well, I could...but, someone would have to help me up. Soooo, I explained to Kaye how I do it and I'm sure she understood it. However, if she's like me pictures make it easier to understand.

I lay the backing, batting and top on my sewing table. Half of the quilt will hang off. I hand press it flat, just smoothing it out more or less. Then I start at the very top of the quilt and start basting going from left to right. Now, you see I've got my new basting gun. Normally I would sew big stitches across the quilt to bind, that has worked great. Today, I used my gun and so far so good. I guess the true test will be how it does during quilting.

Here you can see I've basted the first row or so, and folded it over and moving on down towards the bottom of the quilt.

Almost finished.

Ta-dah....all done and I haven't basted any wrinkles. Which I have done before.

I hope this helps Kaye. And I hope you have a table big enough to do this on. Let me know how it works for you if you try this.

A Break from the Winter Blues

Most of us on the East Coast are expecting a BIG winter storm to start within the next 24 hours. Pat had a great idea on her blog. "Let's break the winter time blues", she said. She had several ideas of how to pick a picture. I went to my 5th folder and choose the 5th picture.

And what a great picture it is. This picture was taken along the creek that runs down beside the Linville Caverns.

Yesterday was TJ's 34th Birthday. My cousin that sews (well, she's my only cousin) comes up every Wednesday and we sew or craft something. Or sometimes we just sit and talk and have a blast. Yesterday was no different. TJ normally goes and picks us up lunch, but we decided to go out yesterday since it was his b-day. Well, before we left we had a surprise for him on the way back. He loves adventure and loves to have a good time. I have a Chrysler Sebring convertible right now (rental car, I'll explain later) and it's brand new. We had lunch, and went to the spill way at the damn and it was roaring with more water pressure than I'd ever seen there. Anywho, on the way home we pulled over and put the top down on the car. Yes, it was 41 degrees. I've never laughed so hard in all my life. Me and her were not to cold, as we were in the front seats with the heat on high. Thankfully, TJ had a hat on and a hoodie. He said it was cold but he would be fine as long as we didn't roll down the windows. So, what do we do? Yep, rolled down the windows. We had a blast. We stopped just short of being home and put the top back on.

I think he'll remember this birthday for awhile. His mom called later from California to wish him happy b-day and he told her what "we did" to him hoping for sympathy, but she was soooo on our side. She loved it and just laughed.

Happy Birthday to the love of my life. I'm glad you can have so much fun and see the best in everything. (Even if you were freezing)

My "new" car was hit in a parking lot 2 weeks ago. It crumpled the hood so bad, you couldn't open it. I didn't even notice I had been hit till I got home that night. It was a hit and run. It's been in the shop since Monday and we're hoping it will be done Friday. uggghhh

Star Wars Completed

Another one out of the UFO pile.

It's a super windy day outside, so I took this picture inside. I really think the wind is going to blow us off the mountain and set or slam us into the next mountain.

Here's the back with my super binding skills recently acquired. Don't look to close, it's not perfect yet! haha This is about lap sized. However, I don't think TJ will use this. I think it will go with his collections of Star Wars junk stuff.

I think the back would relax more once washed and dried.

So Proud.........

.........of my binding. You thought I was going to say E, didn't you? Shame on me.

Nevermind the lint, but it is black ya know. I'm just so glad I finally got the hang of this. I know your wondering, what did I do for binding before now? Well, I'm afraid to tell you. Maybe I will one day.

This is Tj's star wars quilt that was in the UFO box. Woohoo, another one bites the dust. I'll show it completed tomorrow.

Can you Yo Yo?

I can, and now I'm addicted!

Can you believe I don't have a thimble?

Last night, hand sewing binding to the back of a quilt finally sank into my brain. I watched a video over and over and over. Seriously..... I was on a roll, it was all looking good. I was so proud of it, so I wanted to show you all. This morning I noticed the finger I was using to push the needle through has a nice blister on it and is really sore. I set out to the quilting shop today to find a thimble. They were $8-10. Is that normal? I couldn't pay that for a thimble. I guess if I find out it's normal pricing I will. Instead I found something else they had for the same purpose. I'll tell you about it later in this post.

Remember the "frayed trees" blocks I was working on? Here's the lap quilt from those. I just quilted using stitch in the ditch.

Back of quilt with the greatest backing I've ever seen. (lol, only because it's turtles) And the best binding job I've ever did. This is the quilt I basted using the link Gene provided in yesterday's comments. It worked! It was more work, but it was worth it. I'm still trying to find what works best for me when it comes to basting.

Here's my loot from the quilt shop today. I finally got a yo yo maker. Some fat quarters, they used to be $1.00 and now their $1.25. Not to bad, but it does make a difference when you buy several. And, the thimble thingies. If you click on the picture you can see it better, they are like plastic stickers that stick to your finger, in place of a thimble. errrmmm......does not work! Not for me anyways. These will probably end up in my next giveaway. So, I guess I'm still in search of a darn thimble. I'm guessing my Wal-Mart probably don't carry them since they have nothing fabric related. We'll see.