My turn!

     It's my turn! Thank you Mme. Samm and Marlene at Stitching by the Lake for organizing this blog hop. Also, a great big Thank You to Amy Bradley for the design! After seeing the pattern, I just knew I had to join in! It has been so much fun!

     When I started my It's All About ME wallhanging, I chose some fabrics that I thought would be fun. They had a lot of pink. When I went looking for the background fabrics though, I couldn't find anything to coordinate with them. So I ended up changing my color scheme to a more blue palette. I decided to stem stitch around "biased" and then use a running stitch to add some dimension. I liked the effect but went back to the blanket stitch for the rest of it.

     I didn't have any striped fabric for the hair so I decided to use a light-colored gray Copic marker to add some stripes to blue-gray fabric. (I always think of older women with blue-gray hair. LOL!) I decided to bling out the glasses with some seed beads.

My "necklace" is a piece of ribbon that I marked to look like a measuring tape. (As a quilter and a math teacher, I thought it was appropriate.) The cats were added later - after I thought I was done - when I found some cute fabric! Anyway, here is my future self!

  This was my very first blog hop, so I want to do something special - how about a giveaway?!? Please leave me a short and sweet comment by the end of the hop - you do not have to be a follower and I will ship anywhere. If you are a follower, leave a second comment telling me so for an additional chance to win. If you do not get a reply to your post from me, you are a no-reply blogger! Please check your settings! I will randomly draw the winner on March 1st. What will you get? How about these 4 lovely fat quarters? The pink stripe is what I originally bought for this project.

Good luck & thanks for visiting! Come back soon! And don't forget to visit the other participating bloggers today!

Quilting Lines
Mountain Delights
Jane's Fabrics and Quilts
The Fuzzy Hat Quilter
Ramblings of an Empty Nester (that's here!)
NautiStitcher
Quilt Doodle Designs
Living Life
Freemotion By The River
The German Mom
Stitchin'ByThe Lake

Too tired to sew?

Wow...I really want to keep sewing, but I just looked at my last seam - the one that I pinned so meticulously...what a mess! I suppose that means it is time for bed. Anyone else do that? Besides, I need to finish up the Heart of Ohio Shop Hop tomorrow. That means I need to be well rested! I've hit the closest three shops. It's been a lot of fun. I've purchased several fat quarters, some yardage, a Steady Betty, and a tote pattern. I wonder what I will buy tomorrow ... :-)

Blog hop schedule

It's here! The It's All About ME Blog Hop schedule. This is going to be sew fun...I can't wait to share my "future self" with you.

Tuesday, February 19
Just Let Me Quilt
Sunshine Quilting
Karen at That Other Blog
Grammie Q
Gracie Oliver Arts
Marjorie's Busy Corner
SnippetsNScraps
Sowing Stitches
Pigtales and Quilts
Stitchin'ByThe Lake

Wednesday, February 20
Buzzing and Bumbling
Cherries Prairie Primitives
Kwilty Pleasures
Sew On And So Forth
Sew. Darn. Quilt.
A Stitch In Time
Doodling In My Mind
Moosestash Quilting
A Patchwork Life
Vickie at That Other Blog
Susie's World

Thursday, February 21
Kris Loves Fabric
The Quilting Alleycat
Cat Patches
Bumbleberry Stitches
Chickadees Country Cottage Crafts
In Stitches and Seams
Why-Knot-Kwilt
Quilting Unleashed
Rosemary at That Other Blog
Thimblemouse & Spouse
Sew Many Yarns


Friday, February 22
A Little Bit of Lorene
Life In The Scrapatch
Boston Bits
I Love Wool
Patchouli Moon Studio
As Sweet As Peaches
Just Quilt It
Grandmama's Stories
The Slow Quilter
Robin at That Other Blog
Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Monday, February 25
Quilting Lines
Mountain Delights
Jane's Fabrics and Quilts
The Fuzzy Hat Quilter
Ramblings of an Empty Nester (You are here!)
NautiStitcher
Quilt Doodle Designs
Living Life
Freemotion By The River
The German Mom
Spoilt Dog Quilts

Tuesday, February 26
Pat Sloan's Blog
To Love Handmade
Feathered Nest Studio
Selina Quilts
Gypsy Dreamer Quilts
Sheila's Quilt World
Meadowbrook
13 Woodhouse Road
Zellerwear
Stitches of Love
Janice at That Other Blog
In The Sewing Basket

Wednesday, February 27
The Passions of Cliodana
QuiltMamas
Marathon Quilter
Marla's Crafts
Fiber Babble
Simple Sew
Sewn Seabees
Charlotte at That Other Blog
Nini's Patchwork
Charlotte's Creations
Ipiece2-Mary
My Spoolish Art

Thursday, February 28
Cherry Blossoms
Hill Valley Quilter
Dachsies With Moxie
I Like To QuiltBlog 
Quilt Smiles
More Stars In Comanche
Tea Time Creations
Shedding the Wolf
Life, Quilts, and a Cat Too
Judy at That Other Blog
Madame Samm

No more teenagers

Today we took a trip to visit our youngest at college. His birthday was two days ago (Valentine's Day!) - and now he's 20! No more teenagers! The oldest turns 21 in just under two weeks. Sigh. Well, it's a four-hour round trip and I didn't have any car-travel friendly quilt projects, so I grabbed this long ignored cross stitch. No, I didn't do all this today! But I did make some progress and I don't know why I quit cross-stitching. I enjoyed it even though I need to get back in the rhythm of stitching again. I know it isn't much to look at yet; just take my word for it that it is the start of an angel watching over a newborn. And even though I enjoyed working on it, the quilter called and said she finished the baby quilt that I made for my niece's newborn, so I will pick that up and finish the binding - which means the cross stitch goes back in storage as a continuing UFO!

Ready for the blog hop!

So I'm getting pretty excited about the It's All About Me Blog hop.  I'm all done with my wallhanging; I really like it. It was so much fun.

Lately, I've been working on a couple other projects. I have a pre-printed fabric that I planned on using for a quilt many years ago. I am piecing it together now; I shouldn't call it piecing, it's mostly sewing long seams.  It won't take long to finish, I have just two borders left. Then I will use the leftover fabric for the backing, take it to be longarmed, and find it a home. I think I have enough fabric to make pillowcases to match!  Originally, I had planned this quilt as an easy summer quilt to throw on our bed. It doesn't appeal to me as much now, so I think this will turn into a guest room coverlet.

I am also working on a Lil' Twister quilt. It is yellow, aqua, and brown. I really like how it looks I so far! I also have been playing with some Christmas fabric scraps to make potholders. The first was a disaster, the second a bit better, and the third is finally something that doesn't embarrass me!

In the next three weeks, we will celebrate three birthdays. Mine is on the 22nd, (George Washington's birthday), my oldest son's birthday is March 2 (the same as Dr. Seuss), and my youngest son's is on Valentine's Day. We like our "special" birthdays! But oh my, time is surely speeding up! I'd like it to slow down a bit. By the end of these three weeks, we are birthday-caked out. My DH will get an apple pie for his birthday in April. It's his favorite anyway!

Hope everyone is safe and warm!

Pay it Forward

February, what better month to participate in Pay It Forward, spreading L*O*V*E and happiness!

Here are the details and how this will work:

The first five people to comment and leave their email and blog address will receive from me, sometime in 2013, a small gift handmade by me....a surprise in the mail!

In this age of digital everything, who doesn't love actual fun snail mail?

There will be no warning, but once I know that the recipients have indeed received their surprise, I will blog about the gifts I sent with all my blog readers!

The Catch:

The first five people who comment MUST make the same offer on their blog!

If you're interested in participating, making some new friends in blog land, and sharing your creative talents, then please leave me a comment.

I will be contacting the first 5 people who comment to get your mailing address so I will be ready to send your surprise in the coming months!

Question!!!

I have a wonderfully warm down comforter that is starting to show it's age. I REALLY hate to just get rid of it and was thinking of using it in place of batting. I have some pre-printed material that would make a quick quilt top and backing; I just don't know how easy it would be to actually quilt. Has anyone done this or something similar? Suggestions are welcome!

I am working on two projects right now: the It's All About Me blog hop and a UFO from last year, a Lil Twister baby quilt. I can't show you the blog hop item yet, but here is a picture of the baby quilt top. My next step is to start cutting it up using the Twister tool template. I used Moda's Lily & Will II charm pack plus a Moda Deb Strain (Cherish Nature Honeybees) fabric for the background.

I'll wait to see what it looks like before choosing border and backing fabrics! Blog hop starts in about 2 weeks. Take care!