Lost Pictures of Carolina Crossroads!!!

I had the best pictures of my Carolna Crossroads quilt (from Bonnie's first Quiltville mystery) quilted, bound and finished and SOMEHOW...*sigh*...they were lost. I was going to post it on Tuesday this week and I went to upload them and they were gone from the disk. I hate technology sometimes because these are the kinds of things that happen. Anyway that's another quilt out the door and in the hands of it's new owner in Arkansas, my brother Melvin. I actually got it finished in time for him to use it this year!!! Yay!

Pay It Forward!!!!

Hey Guys,

See the PAY IT FORWARD button on the side of my blog? Here's how it works. I am one of the three people who committed, which means Lani will send me a hand made gift sometime in the next 6-12 months (or sooner if she can). In turn I promise to send a hand made gift sometime in the next 6-12 months to the first three people who comment and commit themselves to playing. In order to play you must post it to your own blog, and promise to send handmade gifts to the first three people who leave you a comment committing themselves to playing along. So if you would like to receive a handmade gift, leave a comment!!!! I'm eager too to see who wants to play! The button on the side of my blog links back to Lani's blog, where I commited to the Pay It Forward.

Hope of Hartford!!!!!!

I will honestly say that for a long time I did not know the name of this block and I loved it!! Of course, I made it anyway and through doing a little "surfing" of all the quilt blogs, came across the name of my little lovely block!!! A friend gave me some of these brown pieces she was going to throw away *GASP* (shame on you LISA TRIPP!!) QUILTER'S MOTTO: Never throw any scraps away, especially if the fabric costs over SEVEN BLOOMIN DOLLARS A YARD GIRL!!!!!! But I digress, this very large and very pretty quilt top emerged!!! Like it? I do and it is not my usual BUSY pieced topper!!! Okay, so I can do other things and from now on I will not balk at trying new and seemingly simple patterns. Happy Quilting!!!!!

New Show with Christian Kane!!!! Leverage !!!!!

Cool new show coming up with my favorite actor Christian Kane!!!! Can't wait!!!!

Old Tobacco Road Topper DONE!!! Yay!!!

This is truly a beautiful topper!!! I love the colors sooooooo much that I think I'm going to do another one just like it to keep for myself. As you can see, it's so big that I couldn't get a whole picture of it. :-O!!! I can't wait for the next mystery Bonnie!!! Okay, now on to the quilting...

Still piecing away...and oh yeah, purchasing...

I really loooooovvvve the pink and browns that I purchased. I'm thinking of doing the Jane Stickle quilt in these colors, then again I really would like to do it in the repro fabrics that I've seen. *sigh* Decisions. decisions. I'll figure it all out later. Almost done with piecing Old Tobacco Road. I will post a picture when it is finished!!!!!! Happy Quilting!!!!

Movin' right along.....

Well I'm doing great with the latest Quiltville.com mystery quilt, "Old Tobacco Road". Ain't it purty...? As you can see, I'm working with 2 separate pieces because I hate to work at the machine unless I have to so most of it is hand pieced. I already had the bonus pieces for the pinwheels (thank goodness for Bonnie's tips!!!) so I just pulled them out, squared them up and put them together. So that step went pretty fast. I already have my "geese" units finished also and I can't wait to get to the borders. So many quilts to quilt and sooooooo little time. This winter I will definitely have my quilting hands full.

How Do You Fix A broken Mirror?

Very creatively!!! I've had this long mirror for a while and decided to fix it up a little and hang it in my bedroom but just as I was getting it out to add little fancy schmancy...cccrrrrrraaaaccccck it went. Bummer....so here we have a very creatively FIXED (he he ;-b) mirror of the unusual design. I just hung it here to take pictures. Anyway....I like it!!!!!

IT'S FINALLY DONE!!!--Well the topper anyway!

Well , here it is and I love all the colors. It is going to fit great on my kingsized bed!!!!! As you can see I took some before pictures just because all the colors were so nice and it is so huuuuuuuge that I wound up having to take it outside and put it on the roof to try to get a decent picture. This is the topper finished and I am going to trim it out in black. I am really proud of this quilt and I had sooooo much fun doing it. As soon as I have it quilted I will post another pic!!!! I cannot wait for the next Mystery from Quiltville.com. Thank you Bonnie Hunter for being sooooooo sharing with your work!!!

COMING SOON!!!

Coming soon. I still have to finish the boarder for my project ORANGE CRUSH but here is a preview of the coming attraction.

I LOVE To Piece by Hand

This was a project of love for me. I love to piece by hand and this was a topper that Bonnie Hunter has on her site at Quiltville.com that I just HAD to make for my brother. I'm not going to say which brother because they may see my website and it's a suprise!!!!! I still have to put the borders on and quilt it. And of course, if you hand piece you HAVE to hand quilt. I think I'm goingto do a continuous fan for this one. I'll post it when I'm done!!!

SWAPPING FABRICS!!!!!!

If there is anyone out there who would like to swap fabrics, I have plenty to share and would like to get some new variety for my stash and am just tyring to stay out of the stores!!! (You all know how that goes!) Please view my blog and e-mail me and we can trade fabrics for the heck of it. I even like to use mens shirts - stripes and plaids - for my quilts. If anyone is bored with the same ole' thing let me know!!!
:-D.

Darlene

Old Things are the best things!!!!!

Here are some veeeeerrrrrrrry old blocks that were done by hand by a friend who has since passed away. I recently found them again while I was looking for some fabric. Aren't they gorgeous!!!??? I have 9 of the Slanted Diamond Star blocks and I think I am going to hand wash them and set them on point with a complementary fabric. Anyway, the purple one is my favorite. As for the others, I think I will just include them as rogue blocks in some other quilt or maybe duplicate them and make a smaller lap quilt with them. Oh well, just thought I would share because they are sooooo pretty!

YAHOO!!! I'M KEEPIN' UP!!!

I can't believe it!!! I'm actually staying current with this mystery quilt. Sorry about the blurry pic but I never said I was a photographer. ;-D

By the By

By the by.... this is not all of my nieces. I do have more and did not mean to exclude them in my previous post. They are all gorgeous and I will add some more pics of my entire family later. SMOOTCHES!!!!!

THE GIRLS

Well, I don't only quilt. Occasionally I do spend time with my nieces. Here they are all pretty for the Sunday meeting. I got to spend some time with them a few weeks ago and we spent the night at Granny's house. (Yes, that's what they call her.) Granny Doris, that's my mom, and she told them that they were soooooooo good that they could come back anytime. Ain't she sweet. Tiffani is the little one, Michaela is in the middle and Brittney is in the pink and black dress. They are all going to spend a whole week with me in July. I'm sooooooo excited. I hope they are too. LOVE YA GIRLS!!!

On a side note. I did find out the name of the site where I got the "Arkansas Twister" pattern. It is the Troy Corporation- This was in their riverwoods collection by Johanna Wilson - at Plum Creek Patchwork. See Ya!!!!

Latest Step Finished

I am soooooo proud of myself. Quiltville.com is doing another mystery quilt and I am actually keeping up! I just finished the latest step #3. Here it is. I have never used the birdhouse fabric before and I think I've had it for over 10 years. It just seemed appropriate to use it for this quilt I guess. I can't wait to get to the orange in the "Orange Crush" mystery!!!!

Sewing With One Eye

This is my topper I made from Bonnie's pattern "Blackford's Beauty" at Quiltville.com. The topper pieces were cut during my confinement after eye surgery last year in January. I pieced and pieced and booooooooyyyyyy was it wonky when I finished!!!! So, I spent the last YEAR...yes, YEAR, fixing the darn thing. And this is the result. Even though it's not perfect, I love it. I still have to do the border but I haven't decided what I want to use yet!!!!

Quilts Finally!!!!

These are quilts that I am making for myself and my family. The first one you see is just laid out on my floor and ready to be put together. It's for my Mom in Arkansas and it's called "Arkansas Twister." It was online somewhere I forget. I'll find out and post it on my next blog. I think everyone should get credit where credit is due!! It's going to be pretty when it's all finished.

The next one I had to hang outside on the clothesline to get a good picture of it. It is called "Britches." I got this pattern online from Marcia Hohn's site (good site!) It's for my brother Robert and his family. I picked this pattern because he has a houseful of boys (3) and I just thought this would be a great hand me down eventually for the kids.

The really colorful one was made for my "lovey" Bryan. He picked out the pattern "Drunkards Path" and the Tasmanian Devil novelty print. He keeps it in his TV room. Occasionally, I find him in there wrapped up in it sleeping.

The purple wagon wheel thingy--I don't know what it's called really--is for me. I got the original from a friend who found it at a yard sale in a bag!!! Can you believe that? I duplicated the pattern and made this quilt for my kingsized bed. IT IS HUGE!!! I'll get it quilted sometime in the next year or so. I'm quilting this one by hand.

This is just a sampling of what I like to do. Eventually, everyone in my family will receive a "homemade" quilt from me. That is my goal. I will put in some more pics later!!! I did start the new Orange Crush from quiltville.com--Bonnie's site. I can't wait to see it all finished. Mine is very colorful!!!! Bye for now!!!

Still Procrastinating

I really got busy this weekend to finish the toppers on some of my quilts. Yes, I said some. I think I've got about 20 going, plus Bonnie's new Orange Crush mystery quilt. (Iknow another one. I just couldn't help myself.) Hopefully, I will have pictures up this week. We'll just keep our fingers crossed for that.

Be patient with me I'm a Newbie

Eventually I will be getting around to posting all of my works in progress. And that's what most of them are because everytime I get started with one I see a new pattern calling my name and just cannot wait to start it. Do I feel guilty about that? NOT ONE BIT!!! ;-)

Dreaming.......

I wish quilting were the only thing I had to do.......my husband says....keep dreaming!!!! Love that guy!!