Blessings from the Hollow completed

My Blessings from the Hollow is complete. I did alter the pattern a bit to make it my own. And with my TALL Hubby's help I have an outside picture of the quilt.

I love these colors.

I bought the border fabric at a LQS.

It matches in color and theme perfectly.

But the sad part is this newer LQS is closing in April.

One of our rare sunny and warm March days. The daylight shows the colors so precisely! But there was a bit of a breeze! But then it is March!

 My big board that was made by a great guy in the Tool Room at work. He was making his wife and another Millwright's wife one of these boards and surprized me with one too! I sure do miss those great Millwrights. But I do not miss work! I have been lazy and had left two layers of old covers on the board. This time I patiently removed all the old layers and added:

 ....Navy Pintuck heavy duty material. I had bought an entire bolt when I first was setting up my quilt frame. I used this to make my leaders for the poles. Now I have some nice straight lines for pressing. And I hope this material holds up better than the sheets I had been using. The sheets worked fine but after a few months of heavy pressing the fabric started to get brittle.



And this was my own creation. Now granted it is not exactly precise. But when "rough" measuring a length of fabric, it works great! I just lay a ruler down and make the marks. My big board variation is larger than the Big Board that came out years ago. Mine is 24" X 66".

Blessings and Chipmunks are awake!

Hubby suggested and I totally agreed that we wanted sashings bewteen the blocks.

Now all we/I need to do is select a border fabric to call this quilt done. I really enjoyed making these blocks. The quilt is called Blessings from the Hollow by Mary Flynn.

It is in a newest book from Kim Brackett called Scrap Basket Sensations.

The instructions were clear and consise. I am ready to tackle another pattern in the book.



Organization is the key to success to piecing. Being a control freak this helps me keep things straight. I went through all the steps at the same time for each fabric set. I double sewed all the folded corners and have a nice little basket full of 2" half square triangles. Before I knew it I was ready to assemble all the blocks.  The pattern was really a pleasure to piece.

I added this GREEN pincushion to my newest sewing machine.

The cushion hangs on the extra thread spool pin.

Sheila ( the machine's name) sewed all 26 of my guild's block swap blocks.

We went through 3 bobbins and she did not have a problem at all.

The sewing machine store owner finally called me and they are ordering the new part anyway.

I bought myself a new purse. I also bought a Laurel Burch tote bag.

I cannot believe that I forgot to snap a picture of it!

Hubby took me shopping to a new quilt store (Quilts and Friends in Roanoke, Indiana) on my BD.

The store has a "Man Cave" for the hubbies.

I spent a blissful couple hours shopping without worring about him being bored!

And the store was to die for! Even I was on sensory overload!

I ended up spending all my BD monies on fabric for daughter #2's BD quilt.

Her BD is in May and she loves Oriental.

I bought some great Oriental fabrics. I am going to do some abstract piecing with big hunks of the fabric. Then will added pieced blocks around the larger hunks. It will be like working with panels.

THE CHIPMUNKS ARE AWAKE!!!!!!

This is the first chipmunk I have seen this Spring.

The cats are on "high alert". They are used to the birds and the squirrels.

But these chipmunks bring out the hunting urge in even the most laid back of my kitties!

The chipmunk is there but I wanted to show you the kitties watching.

All five of them were there but I was not able ( or fast enough ) to get them in the picture.

We have had rainy weather but it is warming up.

I hate the time change.