A Little This, A Little That

The weather has been wonderful: low 90s, sunshine and a nice breeze. I have found myself balancing piecing with reading (and of course housework). And look at what a week of rain and then sunshine has done for my plants. My hydrangea flower is getting bigger and my roses are outdoing themselves.








I did get all my Dresden plates done and have started working on a layout.






I also have been working on the A Tisket A Tasket BOM at Bunny Hill. I got a late start with these but have now gotten them done through May.

And, I have made another Quilt in a Cup.

They have come out with a lidded cup so, of course, I had to have one. It arrived Wednesday and Thursday I was busy making a little quilt for it.

See, I even made a label for it.

DH and I will be leaving for Maryland on Monday so I am putting together some things to work on while we are traveling and visiting. Each of the above BOM blocks have a small amount of hand embroidery to complete so I am bringing them along. I did a lot of hand embroidery MANY years ago so figure I can do a little now. LOL I will also be sewing down the binding on Alabama Escargot. Any bets on how much I actually get done?

I am currently enjoying an evening “home alone.” DH has been assisting with a college musical, Footloose, and the first performance is tonight. I went to the dress rehearsal last night and it was terrific. Tonight I am finishing the laundry, reading blogs, and beginning the planning for packing. And I guess that sitting here writing/reading on the computer isn’t getting any of that done so I better get off and get busy.

One Of Those Days

Did you ever have one? Well, Friday was one around here. I had the day planned and got busy laying out three different projects to work on: doing the backing for the Puppies charity quilt, start the hand sewing on the Jazz binding, and a new project called Quilt in a Cup. I sewed three small orphan blocks together and prepared to do some simple quilting on my straight stitch DSM. As I was attempting a practice piece (haven’t quilted with a DSM for three years) it seemed the machine was slowing down. I tried it several times and it got even slower. So, much like raising the hood of a car, I looked around the machine. And what did I see? Thread hanging out of the wheel:

lots of thread. It took the rest of the morning, afternoon and this morning to dislodge almost all that thread.

There is still some in there but it is not binding anymore. It seems that when I leave the bobbin thread on the second spindle it works itself down the side and get caught onto the wheel.

Anyway, this afternoon I finally got one project done.

It is a perfect use of orphan blocks or scraps. The cup comes with a piece of batting which I used to make a template so I can make different “quiltlets” to change out for holidays and seasons.

After one successful project completed I decided to not take any more chances and spent the rest of the day reading. There is something very restful curling up with a good book.

EDIT: Cups can be found here. They also have a list of retail stores.