Happy Mail . . . A surprise from Elaine!

Tuesday's mail brought a complete surprise -- Happy Mail from Elaine!

I've been struggling to find CW repro pinks and Elaine came to my rescue. I'm all set now -- that's for sure! She sent SIX pieces of fabric!!! And a sweet darling card, too.
Oh, and guess what other little surprise she tucked inside? A cute little bag of Mulling Spices for Wine! Wowzer... I've always wanted to try this. BTW, if I turn up "off line" for awhile, you'll know I'm sampling the wine! LOL
I don't know how Elaine does it, but she always seems to know her friends' heart's desires, and then she finds a way to make it F-U-N! Thank you, Elaine, you are a keeper!
All for now. . . thank you for stopping by and sharing in my joy,
Hugs,
Cyn;-)

REMEMBER. . . & Thank You!

Some nice flag pictures . . .

To all Military Service Men and Women - both past and present - who have so selflessly served their country:

.

THANK YOU!

Remember, always remember . . .

Fly your FLAG today!

Hugs,

Cyn;-)

DearJane Progress & A Nifty "Chart" Idea...

Below are the blocks I have so far for my Holiday Jane [working title]. This quilt will alternate blocks of Red & Green.
The blocks are in no particular order in this pic. I just stuck 'em up on the design wall to get a picture. As you can see there are a couple of goldish colored blocks included - most of these are from the DJ Holiday Block Swap of 2007. These blocks will not be a part of Holiday Jane, but moved to another quilt project. Sorry for the lousy picture! [BTW, not all blocks have been trimmed, as you can tell...lol]

The CHART IDEA: A couple of like-minded DearJane enthusiasts met at the Temecula Quilt Company last Friday. An idea was shared to paste up 'snippets' of our focus fabrics into a chart. I thought, "This is neat! and could be a useful tool."

Isn't this is a great idea? It really shows how fabrics, values, and colors will [or won't] work together. One person cut apart their Bennington Poster [ouch!] and pasted the pieces to a sheet of cardboard. Laura cut squares of her focus fabric and glued it to a larger piece of plain fabric.. . I will do the later version, using all the various Reds and Greens that I have collected.Later, I could even raw-edge-stitch this little "chart," sandwich it up, quilt it, and voila! A cute little wall hanging.

Well, that's all for now. . . more later and thank you for stopping by,

Hugs,

Cyn;-)

Mystery Gift or DJSP??? . . .Happy Mail is always fun!

Friday's mail brought a Mystery Package to my front door. . . . .

"Happy Mail" is always so much fun!

The package had a Kansas return address, but an Illinois postal meter stamp. . . a puzzle! No note, message, or card inside—just some nifty goodies all tied up in pretty ribbon. I think it’s from my DJ Secret Pal – she is a very clever and fun person who has come up with some unique ideas and gifts so far this year. Gotta love her, and I do!

This Journal has lines, which is very helpful to me! She also sent a tube of Blistex, always welcome; and one-half yard of gorgeous pink CW repro fabric!! Nice, very nice.

Whoever you are out there . . . thank you so very much!

*huge grins*

All for now… I hope to put up some more pics later of my Holiday Jane DJ blocks that I worked on yesterday.

Hugs,

Cyn;-)

PS: this is the first time I've tried posting by emailing directly to my blog and attaching pics... wow, I still have so much to learn! lol. But at least I tried it.

Happy Mail: Giftie from FRUMMIE!

When I arrived home Saturday from class, late and tired, waiting for me was a "Happy Mail" package from Frummie! She sent QuiltMania - what a super magazine! Page after page of glorious color photos and tons of great ideas! Especially Basket Blocks! These peaked my interest because I am a member of "Basket Case Quilters". LOL. No explanation necessary...eh?! Frummie enclosed a set of Perfect Circle templates, too. I've never used these before, but am looking forward to trying out the technique. Then, more goodies: stacks and stacks of little strips of very pretty fabric AND Frummie printed them in 1/2" hexagon shapes using Inklingo*. Thank you, Frummie!

I couldn't wait to try out these cute little hexes, so below are a few pics of my stitching process -- 6 hex petals, to one hex center, to make a little flower:

First, cut out shapes and arrange for sewing; begin sewing 2 'petals' together, then add hexes one at a time; close the final seam [1st & 6th hex edges to complete circle]. You can click on an image to enlarge it. The 2nd pic is a macro shot and that's a size 11 needle! It looks so big in the photo.

Press, twirling the s.a. to distribute bulk. See how the intersections form little "flowers" on the backside after pressing? Cute! Here is the completed miniature GFG block. I placed my thimble next to it to show its size.

Thank you very much, Frummie, for the opportunity to sew some of these darling little Hexes. . . it was a lot of fun. Thank you, too, for the great magazine & Perfect Circle template set. Your generosity overwhelms me!
That's 'show n tell' for tonight, friends . . . *vbg* . . . thank you for stopping by,

Hugs,

Cyn;-)

NOTE:

*Inklingo is a fabulous program that prints the shape of choice with both cutting and sewing lines on the wrongside of fabric using an ordinary inkjet printer! Amazing. For supreme accuracy, "cross hairs" at all seam intersections are also printed. Look for them in the photos in this post. If you haven't tried Inklingo yet, go to Linda's website and try the LeMoyne Star collection for FREE!

The Road Less Traveled: Row 7 - Block # 2

It still seems strange to be making such 'big' blocks. The six blocks in Row 7 finish at 8 3/4" square and 9 1/4" unfinished... lucky for me, my blocks are these measurements. Whew! That's a relief. lol. Here is block # 2 of Row 7:Time to switch gears for a day or two. The weekly meeting of our CWD quilt class is tomorrow, so I better get a block or two finished and then pack the car for Monday's trip.

More later. . . thank you for stopping by,

Hugs,

Cyn;-)

PS: Do you think the 4 little blue-lavender squares look out of place in this block?? I was trying to repeat some of the blue from the fussy-cut red square in the center, but maybe the final Red HSTs [in the corners] should have been a print with a mix of Red & Blue???

The Road Less Traveled: 1st Block - Row 7

This is a 'quickie' post to share the pic of my first block in Row 7 [above]. Would you believe that this block actually began its life in Lavender? lol... the fabrics sure did change as the block progressed. But that's how it mostly is with quilting...eh?! Auditioning various fabrics in multi-fabric blocks is one of my favorite things to do. Didn't use to be, but is now. Hey, I like Red/Purple/Lavender combos, so I'm happy with this block. It's a keeper.

So far: Rows 2 & 6 are complete, with ten blocks in each row, and Rows 5 and 7 each have one finished block. This quilt has been fun to work on.

All for now... thank you for stopping by,

Hugs,

Cyn;-)

The Road Less Traveled... Row 5

About a dozen like-minded quilters meet at the Temecula Quilt Company every Monday to work on The Road Less Traveled quilt - a Lori Smith design. It is a *row* quilt of seven rows of various sized blocks from 5 1/4 to 8 3/4 inches square, with horizontal sashing separating the rows. This is my first block in Row 5. The center didn't meet up as well as I'd like, so a little un-stitch and re-do will be necessary. lol.
Civil War repro fabrics from several different lines seem to be playing well together, so I will continue mixing them. I'm loving these colors and fabrics!
All for now... back to sewing;-)... thank you for stopping by,
Hugs,
Cyn;-)
PS: The blocks in this row finish at 7.5 inches. It feels really strange to make such big blocks!

Happy Mail - H2H Siggie from Rosa!

Isn't this a darling siggy? I love it! Love the pink fabric, the appliqued heart. . . everything!

Wowzer, I am a happy camper - happy mail from friends is always a special treat! THANK YOU, Rosa!

All for now... thank you for stopping by,
Hugs,
Cyn;-)

Grandma's Apron - 30's Fat 8th Swap. . .

Twenty-four of us on the DJAlt Yahoo list decided to swap some 30's fabrics. These are the photos of the beautiful fabrics that arrived on my doorstep April 22nd! All the fabrics are different - not one repeat in the bunch! Thank you, everyone! I am tickled to add these gorgeous fabrics to my stash, and can't wait to put them into a nifty project. . . I'm thinking of a Strippy Quilt of scrolling vines with flowers and leaves using all these fabulous 30's prints. Can you picture that, too? Pretty.

Maybe some easy pieced blocks in the alternat-ing 'strips'. . . nothing too hard or fancy, as I want the appliqued 30's fabrics to be the "star"! What do you think??? I wonder which pieced blocks were popular during the 30's? Sounds like some *research* will be involved. lol
A very large and grateful "thank you" to our Swap Nana, Elaine! She organized the whole thing - huge job - and kept us all in line! LOL. Thank you, Elaine, for a superior job!

More later. . . thank you for stopping by,

Hugs,
Cyn;-)

The 1st LEMON!!! - I'm so excited. . .

WOWZER! Our lemon tree has given us a lemon! We planted this tree only a few months ago. I am so excited that I just had to share a picture with blogland! Snoopy Dancing! *vbg*.

The little tree is about 8ft tall now. The tree's branches are to small to support much weight, so the lemon dropped to the ground. Undaunted, my DD Laura rescues the poor thing and this pic is her holding the lemon for its picture. LOL. Not enough to make a pie, but I'm thinking a squeeze and drizzle over some fresh shrimp sitting atop a pile of greens - - sounds yummy!

All for now. . . thank you for stopping by,

Hugs,

Cyn;-)

Happy Mail - Siggy from Claudia!

A beautiful siggy just traveled across the Big Blue Pond, all the way from Germany, to my mailbox. *VBG*

Don't you just love the incredible embroidery Claudia did in the center square? Your dog is darling! Thank you, Claudia. My siggy is already in the mail and on its way to you - I hope you like it. Thank you again.

All for now . . . Thank you for stopping by,

Hugs,

Cyn;-)