July swap is all done!

July swap is all done!

I confess that I am OCD. I am proudly OCD.
Most of my factory working life I spent in shipping departments. I love counting. I love number combinations. And as a lead person I trained new people. I sure could tell who was not able to do the job. I do not know why I am saying this. I guess I wanted to share my love of counting.

Every package was opened and counted. I had 9 swappers + myself.
Easy peasy...some sent 2 sets some sent 3. I played 4 times...
except I came up 20 packages short. So I pulled 20 from my own pile and fixed the one basket that was short.
Now I am putting the swap into their respective envelopes then remembered that one swapper only swapped 5 sets! HA! I was right all along.
So funny!!!
Something like this would have major freaked me out. I have noticed that since I have been on thyroid meds that I am coping so much better with the blows that life throws at me. I get a blood test this month and then will see the Endocrinologist to see how I am doing.

Here is my Bess helping with the hexie sewing. She claims my left hip as her territory all the time. And she is so sweet that she asks first before jumping up.

Bella claims my feet/legs. Sometimes she is between my legs and other times she is also on my left side.

Here are the 200+ fabrics I ran through the Accucut. And the basket is full of my strips. This was taken a few weeks ago. But I had not posted about it.

I have 171 pink hexies with cheddar centers done. I may make them into diamonds. The two extra hexies are under each flower. I am using 3/4" hexie papers. I was punching all my hexies from junk mail and those postcards in magazines. I took a chance and bought a ream of 67# cardstock vellum. Perfect weight for hexies. Not as stiff as regular and purchased hexie papers. I bought pale gray so I can tell the difference without too much worry.
XOXOXOXO
Subee
Postage stamp swap hostess!

Quilt for Great grandson Lucas

And I had two panels...so what did I do? I made two quilts!!!

And folks we have evidence that Lucky and Bess are more than just our pets. They must like each other too!!!

And on a sad note. I have resigned from all the swaps I have been hosting for the last few years. (5?)
I need to regroup and spend time on my house and stop buying fabric. I always felt as if I needed to play more than once in these swaps and money was spent. I have great fabrics here and need to use them up.
XOXOXO Subee

I'm back...so sorry for the delays in postings

Things have been so out of the ordinary here. Some very happy things and some very sad things.
Sad thing is the passing of my young 39 year old nephew. Much too young and sweet to have been taken so early. Another sad thing was the return home of my brother Michael for the funeral. He spent a week here and it was so sad to see him leave. He has always lived away from the rest of us. Out of 8 children he always had the itchy feet. The rest of us stayed around close to each other if not too close in our daily lives. And my hubby also lost his oldest sister. He also comes from a family of 8 children. But he is at the other end of the eight kids than me. I was first in my family. He has two younger sisters but he is the youngest boy.

One really good thing is DH is almost back to his normal wonderfully charming self. He credits pharmaceuticals. And says he has a new appreciation for being "normal" again. He is doing really sweet things...

• like driving home with two chocolate dipped ice cream cones on a 95 degree day.

They were melted but it was the thought that counted!!!

• We are going out and playing music again. What a joy. What fun! I even clipped off all my fingernails and he put new Martin Marquis strings on my guitar. My fingers remember the chord positions but boy do my finger tips hurt!!!!

• And he also surprised me with this great old sewing box: 

 It is sooo cute and I do not see a single nail in it. 

It matches my oak roll top desk.

 And more shirts arrived from my deceased son-in-law. (former SIL)
These are much better to work with than that t-shirt quilt I made this Spring. I think I can squeeze a few quilts from the stack and one will go to his current widow. The others will go to his children...blood and step...no distinction in loving them.
I have always wanted to make a Carpenter's Star quilt. Here are some blocks made already. This is a fun block to make!!!!

•  And some kitty pics for you all

It is very rare for my cats to be together in one place for very long. DH says look three on the bed so I ran in and took a picture. Then the battery died in my camera. Figures...at least I did get one picture.

XOXOXOXOXO Subee

FLORIBUNDA quilt is finished!

I have to admit that I did try to do the "blog thingie" when it started on Bonnie Hunter's blog.
(http://www.quiltville.com/)
But...I never made it past her newest creation/idea/quilt design.
Her name for the quilt is Floribunda. She said it was a place for those florals we all have in our stash!
I had been cleaning up my cutting area and came across this Michael Miller fabic with cats in tones of grays, blacks and browns. And I had a black/gray/brown floral that had all the colors in it. They screamed "We belong together"! So I used a precious pale gray fabric as a background for the Floribunda block. The quilt just seemed to sew itself. Honest I was only going to make a tiny one for the kitties to lay on. Then I made more blocks and it kept growing until I knew I needed to stop or I would not be able to quilt it myself. I have way to many quilts waiting to be quilted.

 It finishes to a comfortable 52 X70. Perfect to drape over a chair or to throw over my lap.

 I am a glutton for punishment. I love straight line quilting. So I cross-hatched the entire body of the quilt. I did no marking. I simply went from one corner to the other crossways and then moved one square over and repeated. Then I went the other way diagonally and voila' it is all quilted!

I did not cross-hatch the border. I just did one diagonal line throughout. This picture does not show it as I had not started it yet. I have the binding all on and just need to hand sew it down. My favorite part of quilting. It is also the saddest part of quilting. I get to say goodbye to my quilt.
I dedicated this quilt to my Pain Management doctor. He perished in a plane crash last weekend. I am so sad for his family but also so sad for me. He has kept me going after my back surgery. I do not know what I am going to do..........