Another EQ Block Entry

Just playing around in my EQ program again, so decided to enter another block before the deadline of November 15. Fun!



Suzy

Too (Two) Doggone Cute!

I realized I haven't posted pics of my babies for awhile. Well here they are... Aren't they too cute! Luv 'em to bits. :o)

Puppy Luv,

Suzy

EQ Is Having a Contest!

Any of you readers out there owners of EQ6? Well, they're having a Rose of Sharon quilt block contest ending November 15. Here are the specifics.

Now, you know I'm entering, right?!?! LOL! In fact, yesterday I sent in three design entries. Sincerely doubt I'll win with all the talent out there, but it sure was fun playing in my EQ6 program again. :o)

Here are my entries so far...

Design fun,

Suzy

And The Winner Is . . .

Clare!

Thanks hubby for lending a helping "hand" by drawing the winner. :o)

Clare, please email me with your address so I can wing these goodies on their way to you!

Random fun,

Suzy

An Anniversary Giveaway!

Hey you all out there in blogland! No, it's no my bloggie anniversary -- it's my 30th wedding anniversary! Yep! Hubby and I have been married for 30 years today, and given his health, I am thankful for every single one of them. So I want to share a little happiness with you all, too! I'm having a giveaway!!!

Since I love this Gwen Marston book so much (that I accidently bought 2 of them, ugh), I decided I would give away my other copy. It's brand new, never used, and I've included some yummy fabric, as well! There's a full yard of the berry print, an 8" x 36" piece of the dark cranberry, a FQ of the medium pink tone-on-tone, and a FQ of the dusty rose circular fabric.

All you have to do is comment on this post before 11:59pm EST on Saturday to be included in the drawing. A winner will be randomly picked and posted on Sunday, October 11. Just make sure I have a way to contact you if you win. If I don't hear from the winner within 24 hours of my winner's post, I will have to draw another winner.

Luck to all!

Suzy

What's Up Next...

Well, since I don't have a design wall to show my current project, I guess the carpet will have to suffice. LOL! This is going to be my Trip to Bali quilt. Lots of purples, pinks, golds, blues and lime greens in these fabrics. The sketch shows how it will look once done, although when I colored it in EQ6, I just used a couple different colors to get a general idea. I didn't want to spend all my time tediously coloring each one differently. Not counting the black borders, I will be able to complete this whole top using only 2-1/2" strips and 5" charms. Finished size will be 93" x 110" -- a really good sized bed quilt. So far I have the 80 (yikes!) blocks-in-blocks completed for the center. Next up are sewing the 2-1/2" strips together and cutting them into 2-1/2" squares for the center inner border. Easy but time-consuming. I'll get there eventually and I love working on it because the batiks are all so colorful and different. It's like eye candy. :o)

Bali Hai,

Suzy

Cottage Charm aka Taffy Treats

Another one bites the dust! UFO that is. :o) I think at the end of the year I will do a collage of all the projects I finished during the year and count how many were completed UFOs and how many were new projects. I think it will make me feel good to see how much I accomplished in 2009.

Anyway, here is Cottage Charm. It's a beautiful kit done by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill. She called the kit Taffy Treats, but I named the quilt Cottage Charm. I totally love the fabrics in it -- Poetry Collection by April Cornell for Moda. In fact, I love the fabrics so much that I tracked down and bought a FQ bundle of all the FQs in the entire collection and they are being shipped to me as we speak. Yeah, I know, like I need more fabric. :oP

The scalloped border was a new one for me. I'd never done one before. It's presentable, but I'm not 100% happy with it. I know I'm a perfectionist, and maybe it's just me or maybe there's a trick out there that I don't know about to get the inside scallops (concave curve?) to not wrinkle a bit. If you know of any tips or tricks on how to achieve that, I'd love to hear from you. I cut the strips on the bias like it called for, but maybe I stretched them too much sewing the binding to the quilt, or maybe I didn't stretch the binding enough. Who knows? Hopefully with practice, I'll become better at it.

Sure hope my sister likes it.

Quilters are poets with fabric,

Suzy

Finally! -- A New Camera!

Yay! Finally got hubby to break down and actually go out and look at cameras -- and we came home with a great one! A Sony DSC-W290 in silver. I love it! It's sooooo easy to use. We also invested wisely in an 8GB memory card which ups the picture storage to almost 2,000 pictures or 2-1/2 hours of video. Sweet. The store didn't have it, but we are also going to get another battery, so one is always charged and ready to go. With the nice new red case we're good to go! Can't wait to take pictures now! The picture screen is a huge 3". Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout. LOL! :o)

Camera Crazy,
Suzy

Road To Recovery

Hi all! I am finally feeling better (although still not 100%). Advil is now able to keep the pain at bay and as the days go by, the Neurosurgeon says time will heal it. I am soooo happy to hear that surgery is a last resort! I'm getting up and around now, and although I'm not allowed to bend, lift, stretch, clean or vacuum (jeez, what a shame -- thank you Merry Maids!), I am doing some cooking. The herniated disk is between L1-L2 and herniated toward the spine rather than out the side. That's the main reason surgery is a last resort. He would have to cut the bone of the spine to get to it and the herniation itself is located quite closely to my spinal cord which isn't a great thing either. Even with all said and done, the surgery would only carry a 60-70% success rate. No thanks. But like the surgeon said, the good part of where it is located and the size of it indicates that time should heal it. Taking it easy and not pushing myself is key. If the pain gets too bad, he indicated that I could get an epidural block, which would be a needle in my spine with quartizone (spelling?) and other meds to block the pain. Depending on the person, it could alleviate the pain for 1 day or up to 6 months per shot. I'm not a big fan of needles (so much so that I had my children naturally to avoid the epidural shot itself), so that will be a last resort for me for the pain. Right now two Advil 2-3 times a day is sufficient. So I AM healing! Yay!

The past week or so I have done a little quilting (in spurts) and finished a top for my sister's newly decorated hallway (it was an easy to piece top and is one of my UFO kits called Taffy Treats :o) ) and it is now at the quilter's waiting to be quilted. It will have a scalloped edge, which is new to me -- so keep your fingers crossed it turns out right. LOL! I'll post a pic when it's done. We s-t-i-l-l need a new camera, so I'm trying to talk hubby into it some time this week.

We also had our grandson this past weekend and I had him practicing his stitching at the sewing machine using lines printed on paper that I had drawn using my EQ program. He learned straight lines and pivoting. He enjoyed it a lot! Next visit I'll have him do more pivoting and move him on to following a curly-cue line. He catches on fast. I think I have a future quilter/sewist on my hands and couldn't be more tickled.

Recovering Nicely,
Suzy

Out Of Commission

I know, I know. It's been more than 2 long months since I've posted. However, I have a very good excuse. I have been sidelined since July 5 with a herniated disc which they finally (F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!) diagnosed after a recent MRI. Stupid insurance companies!!! Now I'm just waiting for a call from the NeuroSurgeon as to the next steps to take to make my life painfree again. I have been in agony!

I can only spend small amounts of time at my computer (basically just reading my e-mail messages), so please forgive the lack of posts. I'll update as I learn more.

Big Time Hurting,
Suzy