I quit my job and moved to a new town.  I've got some plans in the works which I'll talk about at another time.  I also have a new job with a trucking company that is interesting and that I enjoy (no, I'm not a driver).  The two ladies I work with are both fun, and I look forward to going to work.

My friend Dave and I were at the town's street festival a few weeks ago, and one of the vendors was a woman who was advertising her soon-to-open quilt shop.  She gave me information on the local quilt group.  At last - I found my kind of people! 

I went to Saturday's meeting, and the ladies were all very friendly.  The show and tell was outstanding; I was very intimidated!  But back home, I thought of the quilts I've made in the past; and I think I will be just fine with this group. 

This is Iowa Girl which I made a few years ago.  I went through the archives of my blog to look at some of my past work, and this is one of my favorites.  I have a few UFO projects in the sewing room that I want finished up in time for Christmas.  So I think I will have some pretty good show and tell next month when I go back to the guild meeting.

And this is a quilt I made almost two years ago with my friends from my TT quilt group.  I've had emails from women asking who's pattern this is.  In looking through my old blog posts, I found the information.  The quilt is Old Glory, and it's from Yellow Creek Quilt Designs.

Yes, I think I'll take a couple of my quilts for next month's show and tell.

It's cherry picking time!  Unfortunately the severe winter has ruined the local crop, but I have been able to buy some really good shipped-in cherries.

I love cherries and couldn't wait to sew up this pattern.  It's a Fig Tree mini, and I downloaded the pattern.  I just used a few scraps and some nice background I had on hand.  The top sewed up in a few hours, and it took an afternoon to machine quilt it.  Easy, easy, easy!


Last weekend Dave and I were in Michigan for a wedding.  Can you tell by this picture where we are?  Cabelas!  Also known by our hunting friends as the mothership.  lol


Can see us very well?  Look below!

I made bibs for my grandsons Eli and Masen; here's the link.  They were quick and easy.  Working with bright and funky fabrics is out of the norm for me, but I loved it and want to start buying more fun-looking prints to make things for my grandkids.

 

This one of two Swoon quilts I was asked to make for Christmas gifts.  Talk about funky fabrics out of the norm!  This one was a real stretch for me, but I was so excited about each block that I could hardly wait to start the next one.  The other Swoon quilt was simply black and red fabrics with a white background.  I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of that one because it was very striking. 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't been sewing much - still knitting like a woman possessed.  The local quilt group I belong to donated several hats and mittens plus $500 for underwear and other essentials to the local school district to help children in need.  With all the dibs and dabs of yarn that I have left from Christmas projects, I'm knitting hats for next year's donation. 

 

My job is going really well.  I'm working now for a CPA firm in Erie.  There are lots of young people in this office, and the energy in this office is upbeat and fun.  We are picking up the pace since it is tax season, and I'm working on Saturdays now.  We work like mad during the day now; soon we will be working through lunches and into the evenings, but it's a temporary craziness. 

 

And my new grandson has arrived - Colt Benjamin!  He was born in January in Canada, and I have yet to hold him.  The pictures and video I've received are just so sweet; I am looking forward to spending time with him and his family.  The count for grandchildren is now up to seven - three girls and four boys.  My daughters and their families and I are trying to get together once a month for a dinner and to spend time together.  I really look forward to this.

 

And I've been spending time with someone very special.  Sometimes I just shake my head and wonder why God is so very generous and good to me.  I am so thankful for the turns in my life even though I don't understand the whys and how comes.

 

I'll be a working girl once again.  Yes, I finally got a job; and it's a job I think I'm going to love.  I have another interview scheduled for next week, waiting to hear on an interview I was at the week before; and an application came in the mail yesterday from a place I submitted my resume to way back in March.  But I'm going out on a limb and taking this temp-to-hire position because it just seems the right fit for me as well as for them.

I tried to work at finishing up UFO's while I was home, and I did get several done; but I also started several more!  Isn't that the way?  And I began knitting like crazy.  I haven't finished my shawl and probably won't before I start my job on Monday, but I know I'll need something relaxing to do when I get home in the evenings.  The first week of a new job is always stressful.

There is a missions project going on at church, and I've been knitting baby hats as fast as I can.  With my odds and ends of yarn, I went through patterns on Ravelry and spent many days just knitting.  I was like a kid with a candy dish when it came to picking out patterns to work on!  This pattern is called Hug Cap and was designed for anyone facing illness or a difficult situation; the sizes range from baby to adult.  I made several of these; and even though the pattern looks difficult, it was easy.

My favorite dishcloth pattern is located here; her blog is one of the best I read, by the way.  I've made more of these than I can remember, and some are headed to the missions project.

My sister and her husband were missionaries in Japan for several years.  She sent me several little squares of fabric she had picked up over there.  I think they may be the Japanese version of fat quarters.  This pattern is Two Percent by Carrie Nelson.

Remember my post about the RMEF banquet that I worked at in March?  It was so much fun that I hope to be able to work at it again in 2014.  I made this quilt top from my box of homespuns.  I want to quilt it and donate it for next year's RMEF auction.

I've hung onto a piece of dark blue fabric for years waiting for the right project.  Honestly, it's at least 25 years old!  I've always wanted a double 9-patch quilt, so one day I just put the two together.  I like the little bit of red to spark it up.  Now that I'll be working again, I want to have this machine quilted with something fancy in the plain blocks.




Last year I blogged about finishing up projects (it's an on-going thing with me I guess), and this was one top I had dragged to countless retreats and just never seemed to finish.  The top finally got finished and tucked away last year.  It went to the quilter's over the winter, finally got bound, and is being used.

This is my Row-by-Row quilt top that I worked on with some of the members of my quilt group.  Those who participated made a row of quilt blocks, put it into a box along with a bundle of fabrics, and passed it to the next quilter who in turn made a row of different blocks.  My bundle was Moda's Ella's Linen Closet.  This top came back to me earlier this year.  I'll probably hand quilt this one.

And with the leftover fabrics from the bundle, I cut out Atkinson's Texas Hold 'Em.  It often seems I can get a lot of quilts out of a Moda bundle, but this time I'm only getting two.  Texas Hold 'Em is queen sized, and there are very few scraps left now.

I spent my annual weekend with my cousin Audrey in February.  I was battling a really bad cold and just didn't have my heart into sewing.  I always enjoy my weekend with her, so I wasn't about to stay home.  I had planned to finish piecing my Farmer's Wife top but was only able to get the rows stitched together.  It's tedious to stitch the lattice and then pin it to the rows, and I'm still struggling to get it done.  This has to be one of my most favorite quilt projects, and I know I'll love it when it's finally done and on the bed.  I just seem to drag my feet on finishing this one.

So there you have it - my six and a half month vacation in a nutshell!  In some ways it was really nice to have all this time to myself, I have to admit; but I started to get itchy to work these past few weeks.  Thank you to everyone to sent a kind comment or email and mentioned praying that something would come up for me.  I am amazed at this new opportunity that has been handed to me, and I am so excited for it.  In October when I was told that my job was eliminated, the HR manager said to me that he had been in my position years ago.  He added that things worked out for him and that he ended up in a better job.  I heard that a lot from others during this time off.  You know what, it really did turn out that way for me.  That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.  Romans 8:20, The Message

Where does the time go?!  I didn't realize it's been so long since I've posted.

I'm still unemployed.  Actually I did get hired for a job without even going through the interview process.  The staffing agency I'm working with recommended me for a document control position; but before I even started, the job qualifications changed, and Candidate #2 got the job. 

However, that company has contacted me about doing a three-week project for them.  I met with some of the staff yesterday, and I really like what I've seen.  And as crazy as it sounds, the sight of office cubicles and the smell of the office air got me all charged up; I'm excited to start on Monday.

I also have two interviews scheduled for the coming week.  One position is the chance of a lifetime job, and I am thrilled to even get the opportunity to interview.

I never thought I would get tired of having nothing to do but quilt, sew, and read; but pushing a needle every day is starting to wear on me.  Now that I have somewhere to go every day for the next three weeks, I'm looking at my basket of unfinished projects; and I'm going to try to get a lot more done this weekend.

These are some of the quilts and a cross stitch project I've finished during this time off.  And to my quilt group friends who read my blog, I'll have another stack of finished quilts for show and tell at this month's meeting!

Sometimes life just doesn't go the way we plan.  It's been a difficult year, and I find myself in a new lifestyle that I never thought I would living. In addition to that, I worked for for Snap-tite, Inc. (which was a manufacturing company) a total of about 25 years.  The last 19 years I had been the administrative assistant to the president and vice president, and it was a job I loved.  In April Snap-tite was sold to Parker Corporation which was our largest competitor.  And then Parker began to make changes, and my job was eliminated October 31. 

But my faith is strong, and I am confident that something will come my way.  And that's not to say that I haven't had difficult days.  It was very humbling to know that so many of my co-workers both in the factories and in the offices were shocked when they heard the news about me.  And to know that many cried, really touched my heart.  I have lots of friends praying for a new position, and I'm doing my part looking for work.  I'm fortunate that Parker is paying my medical insurance, granted my unemployment compensation, and gave me a great severance check.  So in the meantime, I've joined the volunteer group at the library in town, am babysitting some of my grandkids, and working on finishing up unfinished quilt projects.  Oh, and now I'm a Law and Order CI and SVU junkie!

And I have a new grandson.  Masen James was born to Julie and Travis in October.  He's a little honey and is the spitting image of his brother Max.  The phrase 'double trouble' comes to mind; heaven help us all.  lol

Let's talk quilts.  My quilt group had our fall retreat in early November.  Every year I think Donna and her helpers do a terrific job, and this year was no exception.  The door prizes and gifts were outstanding.  The retreat was two weeks after I lost my job, and it was excellent medicine for a hurting heart.  Here are the baby quilts that we sew and donate to a local home for unwed mothers.  My donation is in the upper left -- charm squares set with white strips.   Quick and simple.  The remaining squares from that charm pack will be used in next year's donation.

Now some of our members have challenged themselves to work through a quilt book and make every quilt.  This is one of Donna's, and I can't remember the book she is working from.  She is terrific with scrap quilts; I loved this one.  And check out the apple box next to the quilt.  It was full of her small quilts.  Every one was a winner.

  

And Mary Lou was working through one of Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles books.  Each quilt was more beautiful than the one she showed before.  And the best part of her project?  She donated 10 of her quilts to the nursing home my mom lives in.  The ladies in my quilt group have donated approximately 60 wheelchair quilts to the nursing home.  I took 19 more quilts collected from last meeting and the retreat to the nursing home this week.  The head nurse is also a quilter; and when I arrived with two large bags of quilts, she was thrilled.  And it's also nice that while she and I were going through the bags oohing and aahing over the quilts, other staff members stop their work to check out the quilts.  She told me that many of the residents have taken to hoarding the quilts in their rooms.  It's so precious to see a resident wheeled through the halls with one of our quilts on their lap.  Thanks ladies!

 

 

And for the past few retreats, we've been challenged to finish up a quilt project using only the materials on hand.  This is the quilt I finished up.  I machine pieced and appliqued this top and then hand quilted it.  My hand quilting skills need a lot of work; and now that I have time on my hands, I'm practicing on the huge stack of tops I have in my sewing room.  And I lifted this picture from my cousing Audrey's blog.  She has several nice pictures of the quilts from the retreat, so please check out her blog as well.

 

 

So there's my update.  I hope to be posting more regularly as I have lots of projects I'm working on.  And one of these days I know I'll be telling you about the new job I have.  God is faithful; He hasn't let me down yet.



I've been in a Christmas sewing mood lately  This pattern is Peppermint Swirls by Fig Tree Quilts.  I used scraps to make the blocks and purchased Moda Bella Solids for the setting and borders.  This has to be one of my favorite quilts, and I hope to have it quilted in time for Christmas.



See these sweet little skiers on this fabric?  I'm not sure how old this piece is.  I bought some years ago and used it sparingly because I loved the shade of red, and the skiers are just so stinking cute.  My friend NancyP heard me talk about how much I loved this fabric, and she pulled a piece from her stash and gave it to me.  I hung onto it for a long time to be sure that it went into a project that I would love and keep.  I found a winner!


And even sweeter is that later on NancyP found the same print only with a black background and also gave that piece to me.  As soon as I post this, I'm heading back to my sewing room because I've found another project; and that piece will be perfect in it. 

And on a side note, I use a lot of Moda fabrics in my quilts; the quality is outstanding.  However, I was really disappointed with the Bella Solids.  I found that they frayed super easy.  I won't be buying this line of fabric again.

These sweet little star blocks are featured at Temecula Quilt Company's blog.   The blocks finish at 4 1/2", and the finished quilt will be 16" square.  I didn't buy the kit but am pulling fabrics from my stash. 

We are getting a break from the heat here in Northwestern Pennsylvania, and I'm working as fast as I can in my sewing room trying to get projects finished up before it gets so hot again that I can't be in there.  My sewing room is so small that just the heat of the iron can keep the room warm!

Recently Nicole at Sister's Choice blog wrote a post on spray adhesive and using it for machine quilting small quilts.  So using my 40% coupon at the local fabric/hobby store, I bought a bottle of the June Taylor brand and got a chance to try it out today.

I reread her post so that I could follow her exact instructions.  After sweeping the driveway, I laid out the backing fabric, sprayed, and positioned my batt.  And because some things just are never easy, I had a fold in the batt which required pulling it up and repositioning it.  And then that lead to more difficulties, so I just brought the whole mess inside and spread it out on the floor.  It was then that I saw a couple of dirt spots on the white backing which I knew had to have come from the driveway.  I would suggest using a print back if you do this.

Actually the entire process was a real pain in the neck.  After getting the batting and backing smoothed out, I headed back outside to spray and lay out the top.  Make sure you pull of any loose threads on the batt before spraying as your fingers will be a mess - I'm just saying.  Spreading out the top was a lot easier and looked a whole lot nicer than the first step.

As a positive, the more I worked on the machine quilting, the better I liked this product.  There was no stopping to take out a safety pin and no getting stabbed by a straight pin.  And I use blue painter's tape to mark my lines, so I was quickly sewing a line, moving the tape, and sewing again.  This top was quilted in record time for me.

After a good washing I am thinking of giving this Schnibble to my grandson who will be born sometime in October. 

Would I recommend using this product?  Most definitely.  Check out Nicole's blog and see what she has to say about it as well, OK?

Hello luscious!   That is the line of fabric from Moda that I used to work up this Schnibble by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company.  The pattern is Bibelot.






If you've read my blog for a while, you know that these fabrics and colors are not what I work with.  But that is the fun of sewing up Schnibble patterns - getting out of the box and using charm packs that I usually wouldn't buy because of the color-ways or the prints.  And look at these prints - definitely not me!



While I worked on the binding in my sewing room this afternoon, I realized the paint on the walls is very similar to the blue in this quilt.  And the prints on the covers on my two ironing boards also coordinate very well with this quilt.  Maybe I've been out of the box all along and never realized it.

There is a lot to do this weekend.  I have the house to myself, and I've been knitting, cross stitching, and making tiny patchwork basket blocks.  So far my stack numbers 170 blocks; I have 130 to go.  It's a quiet Sunday morning (except for those noisy birds that can almost drive me nuts). 

I washed my Christmas quilt and hung it on the line to dry.  I know some may be horrified to see this done - wet quilt on a clothesline where the sun can get fade the fabric.  My quilts are made to be enjoyed and used.  If one falls apart, God knows I have a stack of patterns and tons of ideas to replace it with several more.  And I'll bet you do, too!

This is a blog post about other blogs.  Things have been crazy in my life lately, and I haven't had the mind to blog; but I have been reading others.  There are so many great ideas out there; let me share with you.

First, the quilt retreat was so much fun.  I am so lucky to be with this great group of women.  Audrey posted here and here including pictures of my projects.  Her stories and pictures are great; I hope you'll skip over and check them out.

And the button candies I labored over?  They melted in the closet that I stored the gifts in for the quilters!  I didn't think the quilt room or the closet were that warm, but wasn't I surprised to find that the closet was.  So I'll be back to work and try to make more to pass around at an upcoming meeting.

Melanie, Sue, and I have been working on Edyta Sitar quilts.  The original intention was to make a block a month.  It wasn't long before I fell off the wagon and got behind.  Now I am way behind.  Last weekend I got that project out and machine appliqued two blocks to bring me to a total of six.  I half considered just making three more and having a nice wallhanging, but I know I'll be sorry if I don't make the entire quilt.  So I'm picking away on that little by little.  Melanie has posted about making the hourglass blocks, and you can read about it here.  Again, I was tempted to take a shortcut and just put straight borders around my blocks.  But I have the fabric to make the quilt as instructed; now I just need to find the time.

One of my favorite projects is this basket quilt that I'm making from fabrics Mom had in her stash combined with fabrics from mine.  My original post was here.  These little 6" blocks are time consuming - especially when I think that I want to make 300 of them.  I am ready to start #102.  My favorite quilts are scrappy ones with hundreds of pieces; this fits the bill.  I am really cranking out blocks while I'm still interested in this project.  Each block is cuter than the one before, and I hope to be able to keep working on this one for quite a while.

I want to thank my TT quilt group friends for the stacks and stacks of wheelchair quilts they have made for the nursing home/assisted living complex my parents lived in.  On Mother's Day as I was feeding Mom her lunch, an aide was wheeling a resident down the hall who was sporting one of those quilts.  It brought tears to my eyes that my friends have shared their time and their materials to make these beautiful quilts.  What started out as a few quilts for the nursing home residents has morphed into sending quilts to the assisted living building as well. 

And the best news for last.  I posted here about my friend Angela and her aha moment.  She recently underwent brain surgery to help her handle her Parkinson's disease.  Here is her blog.  NBC has filmed her progress and will be airing a program in June about this.  I don't have the details yet on when this will be shown, but I will share as soon as I do.  She is one of the most precious friends I have, and you will love her too when you see her story.  Grab a box of Kleenex and read her blog in the meantime.

Last year my granddaughter Gianna Mary-Lynne was born. We call her Little G or Gigi now, but I love throwing in the name Mary-Lynne which is a combination of my name and her other gramma's name. She will be one year old in July. While her mommy and daddy are planning her first birthday party, I'm trying to finish up her baby quilt and her Christmas quilt. Yeah, I'm that far behind.

I used a jelly roll of Let It Snow and was able to squeak out two nice-size quilts with scrappy bindings. Aubrey Faith got her quilt at Christmas. I just put the last stitches on the binding of Gig's quilt this past weekend. I'm going to get the baby quilt out next and get that machine quilted up.

These unfinished projects need to be completed not only because I want Gigi to have these but also because there is another grandchild coming to us in October. Julie and Travis will be having Baby #3, and I need to get started on a quilt for that one. Somehow I don't see myself ever getting caught up.

This is Roundabout - a Schnibble pattern. My friend LuAnn has an old Hoosier cupboard that she will be painting a mustard color. She needed a quilt to hang on the back of it as the cupboard will be a divider between her living room and kitchen.

The fabric is from Sandy Gervais by Moda; but for the life of me I can't remember the line!

My Farmer's Wife blocks - all 111. Now to put them all together and make the top. What a journey!

A new project for the year of finishing and not starting! I guess I'm not very good at holding onto that idea. Anyway, this idea came from NancyZ in my quilt group who did a row-by-row quilt with another group she's in. I have to admit that I was hesitant to get involved in this because I have so many things I want to finish rather than start a new project. But once she showed her completed top, I was a sucker to get in on this one.

Here are the rules. Each member makes a row of blocks for however wide she wants her quilt. I have chosen the block Hole in the Barn Door for my first row. I'm using a Moda bundle of Blackbird Design's Ella's Linen Closet. Every other month when our group meets, my box with my rows and fabrics will be passed to the next one on our list. She will make a row of blocks from my fabrics and than pass it onto the next. With seven in our group and passing the boxes every other month, it will be a while before I get my box back to put it all together. That's fine with me; I'm working as fast as I can to finish what I've got going on here.

We have to pin a slip of paper with our name on it to our row before it gets passed on. I've ironed freezer paper to some quilt labels I have in my stash. My thought is to applique each label on the back of my finished quilt behind the row that each friend sewed. I love this project already!

Here's a link to Audrey's row.

Friday night here it was sleety and cold - a perfect night for staying home; but I had invited Jenny, Angela, and Sue from across the road to come to sew, and they all showed up. Of course I forgot to photograph the projects; but we'll be getting together again in a couple of weeks, and I'll be ready.

Sue has been sewing bags from this book. Now she has said she's a beginner sewer and the instructions are easy to follow. If a beginner can say that confidently, then the book is a winner in my opinion. I have this book in my collection, and she's inspired me enough that I hope to get some fabric next weekend and make one.


Jenny finished up this small quilt top; it's Whimsy from the Moda Bakeshop. She left it here; I think she's planning on me surprising her by machine quilting it up. The surprise will be on her! Seriously, she did a nice job on the piecing; I'm sure simple straight-line machine quilting will be super easy for her.


I piece this quilt top when I first started my blog almost five years ago. I want to finish this by handquilting. That was my plan for Friday night; but the top is bigger than I remembered, so I ended up with cross stitch and finishing up another ornament.



And on a personal note, I've always taken my excellent health for granted. But recently I've made some positive changes to try to insure that I stay healthy; so to that end I've started taking these. It's a fun way to make sure I'm getting the calcium I need. I highly recommend them!

When I was a kid, sometimes my folks would drop me off at Gramma's for the night while they went out. It wouldn't be long after they drove off that I'd be pestering Gramma to get someone over to the house for me to play with; and nine times out of ten it would be my cousin Audrey. Fast forward 40 some years, and I'm still hanging out overnight with Audrey - usually at a quilt retreat but this weekend I stayed at her house.

When we plan these kinds of weekends, we are power sewing and talking with hardly a lull in the action. We don't have time to figure out complicated quilt instructions or fussing because the directions are wrong. This weekend we worked on Schnibbles patterns by Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company. This is my take on Tiny Town which is a knock-off of Carrie's pattern Full House. The fabrics are from two charm packs of Blueberry Crumb Cake by Blackbird Designs.


Let me add this. I had a question on the directions for Tiny Town, so I emailed Carrie. She was prompt in getting back to me to help me figure out what was confusing me. I appreciate the fact that she takes the time to read and respond to an email. I can't say enough good about Carrie or her patterns. Here is the link for Tiny Town.



This is Lincoln from the book Another Bite of Schnibbles. Talk about quick and easy! I love how these patterns work up like this. The fabrics I used were two charm packs of Clermont Farms by Minnick and Simpson.





We took a couple hours off for a quick run to Audrey's mom's house to eat freshly-baked cookies with her before a quick stop at the quilt shop and to pick up take-out Chinese for supper while we watched The Help.

Talk about a great relaxing weekend! We sewed up a storm and ate way too much junk - a perfect combination for a great time. Audrey will be posting pictures of her projects over at Four Houses Down. Thanks, Audrey, for a great weekend!

My friend Angela and her blog buddy Amanda started The Farmer's Wife quilt-along quite a while ago. I had most of my blocks done when they started, so I never jumped in. But now that sewing around here has taken on the theme of getting things finished, I got my box of TFW supplies and checked out where I had left off.

I'm kind of obsessive about organizing and probably need some type of intervention. When I made each block, I printed off the block templates from the web and filed the page with the completed block. Then I filed everything numerically. I'm laughing at myself as I'm typing this, but seriously it did help me to know where to pick back up. There are 111 blocks in this quilt, and I wanted to set mine just like the author, Laurie Aaron Hird.

I purchased a block of the month from Primitive Gatherings, and it's some of the best money I've spent on this quilting habit. Not only were the instructions clear but the beautiful fabrics were a generous cut. I think there is enough fabric left over for another quilt. We'll see some day down the road because I'm giving my leftovers to Audrey so she can make her Farmer's Wife.

And I found a couple of indispensable tools that I feel helped make these blocks turn out so well. One is the 1/4" foot that I bought for my Bernina, and the other is a roll of white freezer paper. Some of the pieces to these blocks are odd shapes. I would trace the template onto the freezer paper, iron the paper to the fabric, and cut the pieces from there. Some of the rotary cutting directions from Primitive Gatherings used hard to cut dimensions of 3/16" and those marks are not on my Omnigrid rulers. And again I steam pressed open a lot of the seams to help keep the blocks flat.

Some of the blocks are still a bit wonky. At this point, I am not planning to repiece any of them. NancyZ can work wonders machine quilting; and in the long run, the wonky pieces will be hard to find once the quilt is finished and on the bed.

And Laurie Aaron Hird told me she tried to piece blocks that never made it to this quilt and ended up in the trash instead. My hero!

May I present my flag quilt! I love to decorate with red/white/blue in the summer, so of course there are lots of flags in my collection. On the front porch there is a weathered board flag hanging behind the red porch swing. Also on the porch is a fabric flag. We usually have to replace that flag each year because I keep it hung all through the summer. And there is a flag hanging off the deck as well. Inside there are lots of red and white things sprinkled here and there with wooden flags, dishes, and of course quilts.

When NancyP suggested a group of us make this quilt, I jumped at the chance. It's a little funky with the patchwork blocks, and I like things that are a bit off the norm.

Our target finish date is in May, but I wanted to get mine sewn and over to my quilter friend NancyZ so that I can have it in time for Memorial Day decorating.

Here's my favorite block - another flag!








And look at this. I don't use a design wall, so I always seem to end up with some kind of flaw like two blocks with the same fabrics side by side.





OK, I won't worry about it.