A Blogiversary Celebration

Gran is celebrating her 1 year blogiversary with a wonderful giveaway.  Please go and check it out; but not too many of you as I want to win.  LOL!!  She wrote a great post too.  I'm glad we are blogland friends!  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

The Daily Grind

Well, I'm back to it.  Fun is over.  All done.  Back to work.  My Baltimore trip was fun.  We all had a good time.  The Pet Expo, well.... I was a bit bored but then I don't own a pet boutique like my cousin does.  Now if it was a FABRIC expo, I would still be there!  :)

Got home late last night or early this morning, I should say.  We pulled into the driveway at my cousin's house just after 10:00 p.m. but I still have an hour and 20 minute drive from there.  So I'm dragging today.  Thankfully it's a quiet day at work.

I did a little shopping and got myself some goodies.  I stopped at two shops: Seminole Sampler and Bear's Paw Fabric.  Both of their websites are very non-descript so I was taking a chance.  I liked Bear's Paw over Seminole Sampler.  They just had a much better selection of fabrics and patterns and notions.  If I am ever in Baltimore again, I would stop there.

So my loot...

And I'll break it down for you...  Carrie Nelson's new book - Schnibbles times Two.  An older edition of Quilts and More (I want to have them all).  This one is Spring 2007.  2 fun kitchen towels that I can embroider on and 2 variety packs of FQ.  Just so you know, I only bought the Schnibble book, one pattern and one FQ at Seminole Sampler.  The rest is from Bear's Paw Fabric.

Next.... a quilt kit (I'll show you a close up), some FQs.  Some for stash, some for a future project. 

Now, I'm going to digress here for a minute.  I am on the HUNT for aqua-y blue fabric.  See that blue with the white starburst pattern on it in the pic?  Yeah, like that.  It's more aqua than blue in person but you get the picture.  I need more!  Not of this particular fabric (but that would be nice) but of the color in general.  I've seen sooo much pretty aqua out in Blogland being used and I can't find any!  WAAAAAAH!  Someone needs to clue me in on what the fabric lines are so that I can shop some more.  Sharon mentions Lecien Fabrics to me.  I'll have to check them out too.

Okay, next... some yardage for stash and projects (LOVE that Bubblegum Basics!  Glad I found more of it!), tote pattern - new beach bag for this year and a bobbin saver.

The quilt kit.... French Brights by ClothWorks and I LOVE it!  There was a store sample done of it and I fell in love.  It uses the Yellow Brick Road pattern, which I've already done as my first quilt but I am going to do it again.  This one will be lap size and for my Punkie Pie since she LOVES red and she is just so cheery!  Reminds me of her.

So that is it.  My Baltimore trip in a nutshell.

Now it's back to work and back to getting some projects done!  I have a few deadlines for myself.  I'm going to miss one but that's okay! 

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Good Morning Baltimore!

Good morning Baltimore

Every day's like an open door

Every night is a fantasy

Every sound's like a symphony

Good morning Baltimore

And some day when i take to the floor

The world's gonna wake up and see

Baltimore and me

Know what movie these partial lyrics are from??  C'mon.  Take a guess. 
 
Give up?  Okay, I'll tell you.  The movie Hairspray.  I'm a big fan of the 1988 version with Rikki Lake as the lead role of Tracy Turnbald.  The re-make is OK.  Not my fave but I can tolerate it.
 
Anyway!  I am headed to Baltimore on Friday for a quick trip.  We will be home Sunday, late afternoon.  My cousin owns a pet boutique and we are going to a Pet Expo.  Well, SHE is.  I'm going fabric shopping!!  LOL.  The three of us (me and my two cousins) are road-tripping and I need to know if there are any fabric shops in the Baltimore area that I NEED to go to. 
 
Anyone?  Anyone?  I really don't want to drive more than an hour from the downtown Baltimore area to get to the shop though.  I decided that one of them I will go to is Bear's Paw Fabric.  I have no idea if they will have anything I am looking for but we shall see.  It's only 20 minutes from the convention center.
 
Any others out there I should check out during my short trip??
 
Enjoy your day!
Jen

Pinwheel Block for Donation

I signed up to make one pinwheel block that will go into a comfort quilt for someone in our Potholder swap group who has suffered a huge loss.  I hope this will help her when she needs a big hug.

The colors we were asked to use were blue and green and I've seen some of the blocks already out on the flickr group created.  Mine will blend in nicely.

I need to get going on my own pinwheel sampler.  I've put it aside because I lost my pinwheel mojo but I think it has found me again.  This simple block was giving me troubles and I re-did it three times.  Third times a charm, right?  I found that I'm not as careful as I really should be in my measuring.  I was really upset with myself once I got the block right and noticed my careless mistakes.  Sooooo, I will go back to my pinwheel sampler and continue on.  I have to keep telling myself that it's not a race and I wasn't going to get it done in any short amount of time since I wanted to make it bigger to fit my bed.

Just burns me that because of my silly mistakes, there are LOTS of blocks I need to re-do because they are going to bother me!  Which means I'll have to get more fabric.  Oh.  Fabric shopping! That always makes me feel better!  :)

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

A Giveaway!

Sinta at Pink Pincushion is celebrating her one year blogiversary with a giveaway.  RUN don't walk over there and check it out!!  You know you want to! 

:)

A Little Show and Tell

I received my potholders for the second swap I joined.  Came all the way from the UK!  First time I had "international" swap items.  I love it all!  My potholders are perfect for me and I hate to use them but I will!  Celine did a wonderful job with everything.

I got a Patchwork & Quilting address book, a pencil, PINK measure tape and my potholders.

Here's a close up of the potholders:

Thank you Celine!

Next, my handy DANDY BAG!  Kris created a very easy and SUPER CUTE bag tutorial and there is a sew along going on today but I have a pretty busy day planned so I got mine done ahead of time.  I'm going to use it for my quick trip to Baltimore next weekend.  Wanna see?  Okay!  I'll show you!

I've been hoarding the Bubblegum Basics fabrics forever!  I almost gave up on my Dandy dream because I mis-read the instructions and saw that I needed a 3/4 yard for handles AND lining.  BOOOO!  I didn't have that.  BUT I did have a 1/2 yard of the Prints Charming fabric that coordinated great with all my colors so that's what I used for the lining.

I made a decision that all the little girls in my family will get this tote as a birthday gift this year and maybe I'll put a trinket or two in it.  It was very quick to put together.  Thank you Kris!  You did a great job on your tutorial!!

Tonight we're having a small birthday party for my husband.  He turned 41 yesterday!  He is an old man - well, compared to me he is!  :)  Prime rib dinner and an ice cream cake. Should be fun!

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Jelly Roll Sampler - Block Four

Here's my block 4.  Quick and easy.  Not too crazy about the block but took me minutes to put together.

Here are all 4 of my blocks so far.  I need to add MORE BLUE!

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)