Smiles and a Giveaway

I haven't done much sewing this week. Maybe a block or two for the MMBII swap. Why no sewing machine love? Because, Bran and I went on a road trip to King's Island amusement park. Why all the way to Ohio from New Orleans? Because we're crazy. Oh, and we were meeting friends from Canada, eh. It was so much fun - I haven't laughed that much since, well probably last week when I invited my friend Kaelin to the Saints game. lol.

Speaking of Kaelin, she's got a super giveaway going on at her blog, The Plaid Scottie. Go check it out. I've entered as many times as I could - now it's your turn. Go, go now. :)

Work and Fun

It's been a pretty busy week for me. I spent three days to/from/in Houston for customer training. But, still I managed to complete 6 more Mod Bento Box squares for the Mod Bento Box Swap II. :) Here are quarters of all eight squares I've completed so far. I'd love to get 24 squares total finished so that I can have a larger completed quilt this time, but I'm not sure I'm going to get that many finished - or if that would be too many for the moderator to deal with.

Bran and I had tickets to the Saints first home game (pre-season) tonight. It was fun, but kind of a Houston Texans slaughter. I took this photo of us near the end of the game, as you can see many people had already left. We stuck it out though. :)

Rainy Saturday

OMG, I LOVE the rain. The best part about living in the South is the fabulous thunderstorms. :) I grew up in the San Francisco East Bay and let me tell you...if you're watching a movie set in SF and it's raining and thundering it's WRONG! Wrong! SF gets plenty of rain, but maybe one or two thunderstorms a year. Are you listening to me, one or two - tops. lol.

So, enough of my no thunderstorm in SF tirade. Today I went to a sew day with the New Orleans Modern Quilt Guild. We were making blocks to donate to Anna Maria Horner's Tennessee Flood Relief effort. Between three of us we made seven blocks, then started to do some work on our own projects. I love this group...it is a blast! And, if you live in the New Orleans area go visit The Quilted Owl, the shop (and owners) are adorable. :)

Here are the two owners of The Quilted Owl digging through Kaelin's pile of scraps. And below are our Flood Relief blocks.

Friday the 13th

Ree - ree - ree - ree. lol. The hubby just reminded me that it's Friday the 13th. He's easily amused. He seems to think that to celebrate we should watch Evil Dead tonight. I love Bruce Campbell, so that's probably going to happen. :)

OK, so on to what I've worked on this week. Here are the rest of the blocks for the Christmas Mod Bento Box that was started last week. Yesterday evening I completed piecing the quilt top. It's now on my pile of tops to quilt. The other Christmas quilt, the one I'm quilting, is still being quilted. That didn't get as much time devoted to it as the other.

I also decided to join round 2 of the Mod Bento Box swap. I know I've been making a lot of these blocks lately. When this most recent top is complete I think I'm gonna lay off the Mod Bento Box for a little while and move on to something else.

Christmas in July

What you say? It's not Christmas or July? lol.

First here's a little present to myself. :) I'm so ready to jump into a couple of projects from both books, but first I'm finishing up some other work.

The other projects I'm working on are both Christmas projects. Please forgive me for being that person who works on Christmas projects in the summer. I actually started piecing the quilt on the frame, below, last Christmas. My parents had come to visit and my mother wanted me to help her with a quilt. So, we both selected fabrics from my HUGE Christmas stash and made our own quilt tops. We got hers pieced, quilted, and bound before she had to go. Mine got pieced. Now, before the Christmas rush, I'm getting it quilted.

Today I started piecing another Mod Bento Box. This time it's not a swap, it's all me. I wanted to make a larger quilt than the last Mod Bento Box, but that's not going to happen...well at this point in the process it's not going to happen. That last Mod Bento Box has become my favorite quilt. So, of course, I've got to make a million more. :)

Mod Bento Box Complete

I just just just finished binding the Mod Bento Box Swap quilt. Now it's in the wash. I love how wonderfully crinkly quilts become after a wash. :)

I guess now I'll have to complete piecing the "Scratch 'n Sniff" quilt I started last fall and the two quilt tops waiting to be quilted.

Finishing More Projects

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that I finished quilting and binding this 60 BoS donation quilt earlier in the month. It still needs to get it's "crinkly goodness" wash.

This afternoon I finished binding the Mod Sampler quilt, then it got it's wash. It's all crinkly good. :) I really like this quilt, though I don't love the fabric I sashed it with. I was going to sash it with linen, but instead I sashed it with this cotton/poly blend. I thought it would be OK because the vintage sheets were cotton/poly, but the sashing just feels like plastic to me. I think this is why it took me over a year to quilt and bind it. I still don't love the sashing fabric, but I like the final quilt.

After finishing the Mod Sampler quilt this afternoon I got the Mod Bento Box on the frame and I've got just over 1/3 of it quilted. Now I've got to decide what I'm going to bind it with.