Grandmother’s Choice BOW – Week 17

I’ve been sick all week, so I’m finally posting last week’s block.  Barbara calls this one Mother’s Delight.

Lots of fun new toys!

Santa left lots of fun presents under the tree for me and in my stocking!

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Stitch-In-The-Ditch in Purple?

Just wanted to share this photo as a way to illustrate how any color can be used to do your stitch-in-the-ditch.  On this piece I used a purple thread because it blended so well with all of the colors in the blocks.  The thread is So Fine! #438 by Superior Threads.  The dark, kind of dusty purple, really goes with the black, the bright purple, the brown, etc. in the backgrounds of these leaf blocks.

And as a shocker, the quilting was all done in RED, can you believe it?  I can’t.  If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be doing some of my quilting in RED, I would NOT have believed you for one second!

*These leaves were part of a block swap that a group of us did in November.

Grandmother’s Choice BOW–Week 16

Worked on this week’s block this afternoon.  I was in soooooo much pain with my knees – but at least this helped me mentally block out some of that pain.  Barbara called this week’s block Capital T.

A Fun Surprise!

Look what came in the mail today!

I’m so thrilled!  Three of the blocks that I did appear in Barbara’s book …

Catch Me If You Can

Comfort Quilt

and Barbara Frietchie Star

It is so neat to see this book finished!  And what a special gift to receive right before Christmas!

Why buy it there?

Over the last few days I’ve been following emails from three different quilt shops as they do their own version of a “stuff my stocking” promotion for Christmas.  First I have to say that I did one of these last year, and it was fabulous fun.  I took advantage of about half of the 12 deals that they offered, and had some neat things in my stocking on Christmas morning!  So I was looking forward to the same this year.  Well, things have not been so exciting this year … and I’ve got emails coming in from THREE DIFFERENT shops! 

So far NONE of the deals have been very interesting.  One shop offered note cards, another one offered coffee mugs … not exactly the kind of quilting stuff I was looking to add to my stocking. 

But what really baffles me are the shops offering rotary cutters and blades, cutting mats, etc.  These are things that you can get at JoAnn Fabrics with a 40%, 50% or even the occasional 60% coupon!   And even if you don’t have a JoAnn’s locally, you can buy it on-line and still get it for less than the quilt shop price even with the shipping cost!

I check in at my local JoAnn Fabrics frequently to see what’s there … and I generally never buy anything there without at least a 40% coupon.  Between the ones they send me in the mail, the ones in the Sunday paper, and the ones that come through on the JoAnn’s app for my iPad, I can usually get about 3-4 items per trip.  And if there’s something else that just happens to jump in my cart as I walk through the store, I can use my Quilter’s Club discount card to get 10%.  I never buy fabric there – once you’ve used the quilt shop stuff, you just can’t switch over to the JoAnn’s stuff.  But all of the notions, batting, pillow forms, zippers, storage bins, magazines (ones that I don’t already subscribe to), etc., all come from JoAnn’s.

If I can save $$ in certain areas of my quilting obsession, I’ll have more $$$ to spend on things at the quilt shops!

P.S.  While I do buy all of my cutting items at JoAnn’s, I switched over to Creative Grids rulers a few years ago and use those now exclusively.  Those are only available at quilt shops.  I put my original (yellow) rulers in my travel bag so they are still being used occasionally.

Grandmother’s Choice BOW – Block #15

Didn’t have a chance until this afternoon to work on this week’s BOW.  Barbara Brackman calls this one Centennial.

Grandmother’s Choice BOW – Block #14

Finally finished this week’s block.  Barbara Brackman calls this one the Bride’s Knot block.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yesterday was my birthday! 

We actually had my main birthday celebration on Saturday night with the family – since that day was easier for my sister and her family to come for the party.  Mom made me a red velvet cake this year!

I received lots of great quilting stuff from my husband and my Mom.  I got the Blockbase software, 2 quilt design books, some notions like blue wash-out markers and Wonder Clips, etc., four ½-yard cuts of Civil War repros, some 8” fabric squares by Judie Rothermel, and some circle templates.

Of course I got a lot of neat non-quilting presents too … some pajamas and a robe, four Pandora beads, a gift card for some clothes, some cash and candy, an iTunes card, my favorite shampoo and conditioner (the type you have to get from the salon), etc. etc.

That night we all went to Kentucky Fried Chicken for supper – since it was a decent price to feed 6 adults and two little ones – and it’s fairly close to Mom’s house.  The chicken wasn’t as good as it could have been unfortunately.  On Sunday night hubby drove up to Outback to get us take-out (which is fairly common for us) and they messed up soooooo many parts of the meal!   It really kind of put a damper on the rest of Sunday evening.

So it was a very up and down kind of birthday weekend.