TINY HSTs: Trim Technique with BlocLoc Ruler

First, please let me explain why I have been MIA for six days. It has been my birthday week with lots of celebrations and doings. . . now we return you to our regularly scheduled blogging. . . lol

Ruler on pink fabric so you can see it better

Have you tried the relatively new BlocLoc rulers? They are really amazing. Love the accuracy! A short demo vid to watch is HERE.  Sew tonight I was making little 1.5 inch HST and thought I'd share a few photos with you:

Align 'frosted' grove on diagonal seam - trim first two sides

Rotate ruler, slide down to desired size - final trim of last two sides

better with print center... or...

is it better with the Pink center???

Last Wednesday morning as I took a quick leap into the front yard to grab my newspaper -- I was still in my jammies -- up pulled the FedEx truck with a box. The most delightful little Orchid planted in a pink polka-dot latte cup was inside! Surprise. So fun. You know who you are... and thank you again very much!

Until next time. . . I will be printing shapes on fabric with Inklingo and working on the COTSG Mystery. What are YOU up to?

Check out what others are doing: linking to Connie at Free Motion by the River.

Quilty Hugs,

Surprise Gifts from Germany... & Photo u/l problem solved!!

Friends are so wonderful! Not too long ago a surprise package arrived from Germany. Brigitte had knitted a beautiful shawl for me- see below - and our mutual friend Katrin made me a Pouch and hand crocheted Key Cover to tuck inside the package! Big surprise!
The darling pouch holds my new iPhone perfectly and safely - the front pocket holds the 'ear buds' or the charging cord.  I just love the fabric Katrin used!

See my iPhone - the black, just barely peeking out the back pocket??

I just love the darling lime green closure snap. Not sure what it is made of... plastic maybe? Never seen them before. Because it is soft, there are no worries the phone screen will get scratched.

Hand crocheted KeyCover - created by: Katrin /Cattinka

The beautiful shawl below, was knitted by Brigitte. Isn't it gorgeous?!! Thank you so much. This lovely shawl is the pefect size to wear draped over one's shoulders, or looped and secured with a shawl pin [like a scarf]. I've worn it both ways and absolutely love it!

A big hug to my DD Laura who agreed to model the shawl so I could get some pictures. Thank you, Laura!

This great pic really shows off the beautiful yarn Brigitte used.

Thank you again, Brigitte and Katrin. I'm overwhelmed by your generosity and I will always treasure these lovely gifts.

Blog photo u/l problem solved: A HUGE Thank You to Cath, Mary and Tina who offered excellent advice in their comments regarding the photo uploading problems many of us have been dealing with lately. Today's fix turned out to be a very simple one: I tweeked Tina's suggestion and just toggeled between "compose" and "html" in the post editor. Select 'html' to u/l pics, then toggle back to 'compose' to move pics around, add captions, edit/write the text, etc.. Worked like a charm!  One note: b/c I am a novice with HTML, I found it easier to select/copy/paste and move the text around... NOT the photos. Was pretty easy.  Thank you again, ladies... aren't bloggers wonderful?!

Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

A NEW BEGINNING - a baby orchid

Look at the pic closely. . . do you see it? A tiny orchid is just beginning. It will be quite a while before it opens at the top of a long willowy stem and shows off its beauty. We will all just have to wait. I'll try to post a pic every 4 weeks so you can enjoy the process right along with me. Orchids are so facinating!

Orchid bud just beginning

One of my darling kidlets recently went to Germany and Austria for a couple weeks of vacay. They had a grand time and brought some goodies back to share with me... CHOCOLATE!  And it was all in a darling wooden box.

 

So... let me tell you... this chocolate was [notice the past tense here...lol] sensational! Totally yummy! Too bad there were only 9 pieces in the box. Or maybe that's a good thing... good for my hips anyway.

 

All gone! :( ... but the box is great! If i don't store bobbins in it, perhaps it will be a good place to keep my zipper fobs.

Until next time. . . I'm sewing mug rugs and sorting UFOs... what are YOU up to??

Quilty Hugs,

HAPPY MAIL - A Wonderful MugRug

Another gorgeous MugRug flew across the BigBluePond and has made it safely to California.  Thank you, Rosemary! I just love this darling mug rug. Isn't it beautiful? Check out the stitching!

MugRug designed and made by: Rosemary D.

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Quilty Hugs,

HOW 2 WRAP SECRET SANTA GIFT. . .

Secret Santa gifts are so fun! This year for our Annual Family Party we were given a range of how much we could spend: $15-$20.  Below is how I wrapped my little gifty which is all bling and very little substance!. . . . hee hee hee:

Secret Santa Gift

But first things first...
1.) Find rock from neighbor's yard -- ask first! lol --  clean, wrap in tissue paper, put in bottom of bag:

"cost" of rock NOT factored into the $15 to $20 limit...lol

2.) Slip Lotto Tickets inside set of 4 special Holiday Coasters:

Coasters / Mug Rugs from scraps + Lotto tickets

3.) Wrap Coasters in tissue... add bow. Place in bag and 'poof' the bag out with more tissue paper [see above]:

Coasters n Lotto tickets all wrapped up

Ta Dah! All done. I'm such a kid this time of year...lol... can't help it! Until next time, what devious methods have YOU devised to wrap your gifts???

MERRY CHRISTMAS

&

HAPPY NEW YEAR

From my home to yours -- whatever you celebrate and share this time of year may your Season be full of blessings, family, friends, good food, and fun.

Linking to: SoScrappy RSC2012.  Click over and see what the others are up to.

Love n Quilty Hugs,

PS: If I turn up MIA from posting for a few days it might be a result of too much party or too much "festive drinks" at the party! lol

"STAR POWER" - I WON!!!

Wowzer!!! I won the drawing at Bea's for "Star Power" by Judy Martin for EQ7. Thank you, THANK YOU, Bea! I am thrilled to my toes.

Star Power by Judy Martin for EQ7

Please be sure and visit Bea's blog - especially on Tuesdays - Bea writes wonderful and easy to understand tutorials for EQ7. Just last week she taught us all how to d/l and add manufacturer's fabric samples to our own custom Library! Excellent. Thanks again, Bea. I am so excited!

Until next time. . . I am going to install Star Power and then prep a few Dear Jane blocks; what are YOU going to do today???

Quilty Hugs,

HAPPY MAIL & Quick n Easy Coasters

Donna, of BrynwoodNeedleworks, sent me a surprise bit of Happy Mail. A set of colorful charm squares and a sweet note. Thank you, Donna! I have already put the charms into a project.


Happy Mail - surprise gifty from Donna

The pic below shows some very quick to make Coaters. Take 6 charms for each coaster: fold 4 of them in half, arrange, stitch and turn. I like to zigzag the edge before turning - they launder better that way.  These are so fast, so easy... too cute. Make great gifts.

Coater on left shows zigzagged edge & Coaster on right is turned right side out - finished.

Coasters slip over the foot of a wine glass making them very useful at parties.

It was really really hot a few days ago. Got up to 90 INside the house! Thank Heavens for fans. Below is Missy's solution to keeping cool while napping. I just can't resist sharing this cute picture of Missy stretched out over the edge of one of her beds taking an afternoon snooze. So darling!

Missy stretched out trying to get cool on a hot day.

Until next time. .  . what are you working on today???

Quilty Hugs,

SURPRISE FROM A SPECIAL FRIEND - Kitty Jewelry!

HUGE surprise last Tuesday: my sweet friend Jill presented me with a Pendant she had made for me. She d/l a few of kitty pics from my blog, fussed with them in her photo-software, and created the jewlery pieces. I am stunned by her generosity. So happy!

After the pendant, she also made a few other pieces... even a couple of magnets! Two of these now live happily inside my portable 'sewing kit'. So cute. The other 3 will become fobs for my quilting tools... need to get a couple of lobster claw findings to put them all together. Thank you so much, Jill!

This is a quick post -- sorry I have been MIA for the past week. Been busy moving and rearranging furniture. It is a much bigger job than I thought it would be and is taking a lot longer, too. Isn't that the way these things go?? lol
Until next time, please have a lovely day stitching. . .

Quilty Hugs,


Linking to Connie's Quilting By The River Tuesday Linky Party

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone. My #1DD Kay and her sweet hubs Randy sent me some gorgeous flowers for Mother's Day. I thought I would share them:

Until next time. . . I'm off to the sewing room to sew some more strings together. Pics will follow.

Quilty Hugs,

ORCHIDS IN BLOOM & BOUQUETS, Too

Just a quickie post to share a gorgeous bouquet from my #2DD Laura. On HER birthday she sent me flowers to thank me for "our day"! Love that girl! The other pics are of some Orchids in bloom. Aren't they spectacular? I love Orchids. In the close-ups, if you look closely, you can see some of the "bearding". Isn't that neat?

Hope you enjoyed the little floral show. Thanks for stopping by for a visit -- see ya again soon.

Quilty hugs,

Mug Wrap - Easy & Quick To Make

A sweet friend - Julie - made this darling Mug Wrap for me. Isn't it cute? She used wool/felt, a little Velcro to close, and decorated it with YoYos and Buttons. I just love it. Although it is the shape and size of a "Starbuck's cardboard sleeve", it works very nicely on many of my coffee mugs. Thank you again, Julie! I love it.

If you want to make one, just save one of the cardboard sleeves from Starbucks; open it up and voila there is a pattern. It helps if you elongate the back edges a little bit so it will fit more cups. I've also seen these made out of quilted fabric and they are cute as well.

That's it for today. I hope you will make one of these handy Mug Wraps for you or someone you love. Until next time. . . Quilty hugs,
PS: I took a 'crayon coloring' workshop a couple of weeks ago and will post about what we did and show a few awful pictures next time... you can hardly wait, eh?! lol

Happy St Pat's Day - flowers n Mug Rugs

Isn't this the cutest bouquet? A sweet friend brought it to me last night -- even sang to me as part of the presentation! What fun. We had a small dinner party here last night and these flowers made the perfect center piece.

Speaking of flowers, a couple of years ago some darling friends got together and sent me a beautiful orchid plant. This year it is blooming again for the third time! It is so beautiful.

Sewing up a storm I managed to make 18 Mug Rugs for DD's office. The pics don't show the amount of green in them, but the gals liked 'em and they are quick and fun to make:

I learned a nifty thing this morning: Make a folder on my desktop to hold modified pictures for my blog; save-as the pics I want to use and REDUCE the pixel size - now perhaps I won't be eating up my assigned mb in Piccasa. At the same time, a "watermark" can be assigned so all pics will automatically have my blog name on them. Won't have to do it individually anymore! WaHoo! I just stumbled across this info by clicking around. It is true what they say: "Necessity IS the mother of invention". I had topped out at my storage limit and was tying to figure out what I could do -- well, other than deleting posts and previous pictures!

Thank you for stopping by. I hope wherever you are you have time to create something you love.

Quilty hugs,