WTH!!???

so this is laying, dead, in the driveway...it's not a little crawdad either- about 4 inches long....

hmmm....

no small feat seeing as there is no creeks or bodies of water close to the house....there's a creek about 300 yards behind the house....

wonder how it got there????

thanksgiving wrap up

thanksgiving was spent south with davis' family.

went hunting friday, with no luck- but there's enuf deer in the woods to have better luck later....

i got to do something i've never got to do before- lay pennies on a train track. we stopped at a transfer track intersection and the front train was stopped while the back train passed. i placed three pennies on the track and waited....

(i learned that those type of train cars carry automobiles to savannah to be shipped overseas- how cool)

i was surprised how loud the noise was as the train ran over my pennies *thunk thunk thunk* then when the pennies vibrated and fell off the rails, no more thunks......it was cool!

the holiday weekend was pretty uneventful- except when i locked the keys in the truck and had to call a locksmith on thanksgiving afternoon....that wasn't cheap.

*squee*

i'm not a fan of tennis shoes.... i'm not very athletic. if i need to run, it's caused i've emptied my clip, it's not dead yet, and still chasing me *laugh*

i was reading julie's blog and saw her post about her new shoes and *swoon* i had to have my very own pair...

now, i do! i just need to figure out where i can go so i can wear them...

sunday sunday, da da da dadada

i had to get out of the house...

i popped over to Joann's to use my 60% off coupon. i bought some extra wide backing to put on my curvy rails fence...i found some nice bright pink that was perfect!

while i was out and about, i decided to stop in at Tiny Stitches (i needed to get binding) and bumped into some friends and had a visit....

thanks to everyone who commented with suggested names for the quilt...i liked kathyrn's suggestion and simplified it to "Wiggles". i can't say the word 'wiggles' without smiling....can you?

on the way home i stopped by one of the high school's craft fair. i've seen the signs in previous years, but never stopped and i wasn't in any hurry to get home. HOLEY MOLEY!! every hall, the cafeteria, and the gym was packed with artists selling wares.

i bought some dog treats that came in this cute pair of elf pants...honestly, the dogs lucked out- i only bought the dog cookies to get those pants....too cute!

then it was off to home- so i dug out my serger and made some pillowcases (like all i bought was backing and binding)...i made two sets of christmas themed ones and a cute set with apples and trees. it's hard to see, but the cuff of the apple set has names of all the apple varieties in between the zig zag....perfect!

so that's what i did yesterday....someone alert the media *grin*

curvy fence

remember the blocks on my design wall from the bottom of this post?

it was september's block for the block lotto and i didn't win, but the idea of a quilt made from curvy rails really intrigued me, so i made one from my batik stash.

it's a biggie- 104inches x 112inches...

how bout that B&W inner border? L.U.V!

i got stumped when it came to the outer border...i wanted something that would blend and not compete with the blocks. i found this one today and i knew the minute i saw it that it would be perfect for this quilt.

what should i call it? 'curvy rail fence' is a bit uncreative for my tastes *grin*

the quilt parade continues

this time of year turns me into a flimsy serial killer *giggle*


alberta took home her two.
first her bird embroidered quilt

i quilted a simple loopy E2E and outlined the birds

second, her tree quilt.
a fun quilt to quilt.

a simple meander in the background and zigzaggies to help sell the pine tree shape

sharon picked up her boyscout quilt.
made with badges...

a simple meander behind the patches and CC in the setting rectangles. the yellow inner border has a design i've named dovetail and a spiked swirl in the red outer border.

melanie picked up her spinning christmas stars.

i quilted E2E scrolls. this is an design i've been waiting on the perfect quilt to use it on. i have plans on quilting it on one of mine soon, after i get all my payfers christmas quilts done first....

winner winner!

it's time to use mr. random number generator to see who will win the pouch...

i threw in a FQ of the fabric (it's an OOP fabric by Jean Wells copyrighted 1995) and a key fob i made.

thank y'all that entered and welcome to all the new followers!

congrats to Rosa in Spain...send me an email (half_square AT hotmail DOT com) with your addie and i'll get it in the mail for you!

11-11-11

thank you to all the soldiers, veterans and active duty, for defending my freedom. thank you to the families for their sacrifices in support of those soldiers.

i want to share my newest quilt!!

i wanted to get out of the house this week, so lisa hosted another sew-in at her house. i finished my to-go quilt 'Weedwacker', and didn't have anything readily portable to take. then it hit me....

i had all those way-extra strips i cut for for Echoes and caroline mentioned on my halloween UFO finish post about the moda bake shop pattern that used 2.5" strips to make a neat spiderweb quilt, so i grabbed all my fassett strips and of to lisa's we went (barney is welcomed as well).

i spent the afternoon sewing strips together and cutting 60degree triangles...so in the afternoon i stopped and laid out some triangles on the background. we had to run up to the walkway and look over to get a better idea....L.U.V!  so more strip sets were sewn.

this is what i have so far, and i have decided to make it bigger, so this weekend i might sew some more strip sets (lord knows i have the strips).


















i found the perfect border lurking in The Stash....rotary cutter for scale.

it's going to be a fun quilt!!

yesterday Nemo was treated to a spa day.

his old shoes were replaced by the new M&M Wheels from APQS. what a lovely difference!

i would of took pictures, but i don't think you'd been able to see thru the mess. the machine and frame had to be partially deconstructed, and it's tight in my studio to begin with.... 

since i had nemo out of the frame and upside down i decided to repacked the grease in his bobbin box (it was needed) and now he purrs. he's like a whole different machine!

there's so much more to LAing than stitching....there's all this maintainence stuff that needs to be done too...

we've hit 300!!

i promised to host a giveaway when my followers reached 300 and folks *snoopy happy dance* that time has come.

WIN THIS POUCH  i'll see what else will fit in the box if there's room.

no special hoops to jump through- just leave a comment on this post and you'll be entered to win. i'll use some random way to pick a winner tuesday, November 15th. i have to have a way to contact you, so make sure if you are an anonymous commenter or a no-reply that you leave your email addie in your comment.

thanks for the milestone y'all and good luck.

*GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED! CONGRATS TO ROSA IN SPAIN*

busy bee

i killed a couple of flimsies last week....

vickie picked up her black and gold BOM

i custom quilted it

detail of the center.....i love the feathers!

kathy took home two:
first her presents quilt

i quilted it with my E2E i call 'cotton candy'. it's my version of the '3s and Es' design

and her red and green wall hanging

it presented some unique and fun quilting challenges

theresa picked up her jacob's ladder quilt

it's to be a Christmas present for her brother. there are quilted words that are meaningful to both her and her brother. i hid them so well, we had a hard time finding them when she picked it up.

after piecing the back of my halloween quilt, i had just enuf fabric left over to make a pair of pillow cases. i found the perfect! cuff fabric in my stash.

i went to Joann's this weekend to pick up a couple things to finish some projects, and i found more of the buzzard fabric (i named the buzzard Elmer, he looks like an Elmer) so i'm the proud owner of 3 more yards of it. now i have another future holiday UFO *giggle*

and my husband *grin* sent me some floral love today! thank you honey, i love you back

we are only 3 followers away from the pouch giveaway...

speaking of milestones! i almost forgot- friday was my seven year anniversary as a long armer...SEVEN years!!! (that's alot of thread) i quilted my first 'payfer' quilt on November 4th, 2004. thank you to all my talented customers who have allowed me the honor of quilting their quilts...i can't wait to see what the future holds!

October Block Lotto

for October, the chosen block is bonnie hunter's scrappy trip around the world and how could i resist! the only requirement is that the fabric that is on the one diagonal read as dark, preferably black.

i like little hidden things in 'scrappy' quilts like this one, so i tired to use a novelty print as one of the strips in each block...

this is fun thing to do...go over and have a look. participants are from all over the globe.

remember my 'Echoes of Color' quilt? it uses this block.  after making that quilt, i was all "count me in" in this month's block lotto.

i am in love with the style of quilt the block produces! scrappy goodness overload *grin*

i actually considered the black diagonal for this quilt, but ended up not doing it...

i usually don't make the same quilt twice, but if i don't win the blocks, i might have to make another quilt with the black diagonal....