I was completely surprised

I had the best surprise a quilter could ever have last night. I went to get Jen for our BOM and she said I needed to come in to see a super secret project she had. So of course in I went. She told me I had to sit down on the floor so I did. First she handed me a card and I opened it to read it. It was a pretty card and it said " Friendship is the golden thread that ties our hearts together." It was signed Love, The Prolific Online Quilter's. She went on to explain that the quilt project was started a few days afte I had fallend during the winter and smacked my head. This was a love quilt started by Heather and then finished up by Jen. All of the best online Prolific Quilters had made blocks for my quilt. I think I would have cried but at this point I was so surprised that I couldn't. I just sat on her livingroom floor and didn't know what to say or think. She then handed me the most beautiful quilt that I have ever seen in my life. Each block was so different and signed by the maker. I can't begin to thank all of you for this fantastic gesture of friendship. I will cherish my quilt for the rest of my life.

I haven't let it out of my sight yet. I took it with me to BOM last night to show everyone. I took it to my BOM today to show everyone and as I type this it's sitting on my lap. I can say for sure it's very warm. I even fell asleep last night on the couch covered in MY quilt.

So here are the ladies that I'd like to thank from the bottom of my heart.

The label says this.

Cindy, thoughts of you in each tiny stitch. Stippling, Binding, Stitch in the Ditch. This quilt brings thoughts of love so true from around the world, especially for you.

This quilt has been quilted with love for Cindy Wehr of Wisconsin in the year 2008. By,

Moneik Stephens of South Dakota

Jill Montgomery of Ohio

Michelle Bartels of Iowa

Hazel Bartoszek of Ontario

Gina Smith of Wales

Carol Van Rooy of Ontario

Kristie Layne of Kentucky

Heather Ridges of California

Jen Buettner of Wisconsin

Sherry Thater of Wisconsin

Carla Rowley of Alabama

Nancy Badertscher of Virginia and

Maureen Erb of Wisconsin

The Quilt was organized by Heather, Top Assembled and Quilted by Jen

Now if you'll bear with me I took some pictures of this wonderful gift. Once I have someone who can hold it up for me I'll post better pictures but I wanted to share this with all of you.

THANK YOU all again. I don't think of you as just blog land friends but I think of all of you as family.

Cindy

The shower curtain is hung

Today was the day to hang the shower curtain I made. I tried the tension rod that I had but it just wouldn't go tight. While I was fiddling with that one I noticed the one that hung in the shower was a tension rod to begin with. OK so I took that one down and put the ring on it and then sat and attatched the inner liner to the curtain that I made. It's finally place and all I have to do is steam it to get some of the wrinkles out of it. I'm happy with it and I started putting all the other touches I had bought into the now green bathroom. I need more decorating to happen but it will as I acquire things. I'm just glad it's up. Hmmmmmmmm is there another one in my future like maybe for the holidays? Anyway it's a summer gardening theme so any ideas as to what to put in there would be appreciated.

Stitch N Pitch

Don't you just love how Julie decorated her husbands truck for the tail gate?
This Brewers quilt was fantastic, sure wish I owned it.
Time for semores
Proof that Jen hand stitched her binding down while at the game.

Once a year our local Brewers stadium has what they call a Stitch N Pitch night. This year Jen and I went with our local quilt store Patched Works. What a fun time. First we went to a tail gate that the store put on and Julie the owner did a great job, thanks Julie.

At game time we went into the stadium and with our ticket we got a baseball cap and a kit that contained a project. In mine I got a knitting book and a great little counted cross stitch project that I'm going to do. Then it was game time. I didn't take anything along but I did end up making some yo yo's for the shop and of course Jen sat and hand stitched binding on her newest wall hanging. A couple of rows infront of us there was a group of ladies who were all knitting. I was amazed at that. One woman had four small needles and she appeared to be maybe knitting a sleeve or a sock I'm not sure which but the fascinating part is she never looked at her needles she knitted a mile a minute and just kept her eyes on the game. Unfortunately the Brewers lost but a fun time was had. Just wanted to share some pictures I took of the night.

I'm caught up

Last night I went to a sew in at our local quilt store Patched Works. I had a fabulous time there. Most of the ladies were set up down stairs in the class room but three of us, Jen, her friend Jen and I set up tables upstairs in the quilt shop to sew. It was so much fun I can't wait to be able to do it again.

First thing I did was finish up my Friday night BOM block. I can officially say I am completely caught up on the Friday night blocks. It feels great and I'm really loving this new quilt as it grows.

Next month for two Friday night we're going to take a class where we are going to do the entire center of the quilt. There are two different ways to do it and I chose to due a huge applique for the center. Stay tuned for pictures of that once it's together.

Today I ran some errands for Jen because she had to work and then I headed over to the Patched Works because they are celebrating their 2nd anniversary of being open. As always a good time was had and I did come home with some different fabrics to start making a few things for the holidays.

Vacation is over, I'm SAD

My vacation came to an end and I had to go back to work this morning. The two pictures above are what my desk looked like on my return. Now when I leave at night there is nothing on my desk. I left it neat as a pin and came back to this. It might not look like much to some of you

but let me tell you it took me most of the day to get through it all. When I fill in for anyone else I always make sure they come back to a neat looking desk.

Anyway my vacation was great. I had a fantastic time and went to work refreshed this morning. I got so much done at home and it feels fantastic. I cleaned out my closet and went through most of the drawers in my my apartment. GoodWill and the garbage men loved me. All total 20 bags left this place and I still have more to go. The rest will be done little by little since I still have many hours of sewing to do this month.

Time to go clean a little and then see if I have a little time to sew yet tonight. Now I know why it's so important to take vacation time not just a day here and there. I still have time left over so look out at what else I can get done. Of course I have next to nothing to wear since most of my clothes went out but that gives me the opportunity to shop.

Yes we were still sewing

I just wanted to post and updated picture of Jen sewing during the Survivor Challenge. If you look closely at the clock you can see that it's midnight. That was Saturday night when at 11 I told her I was tired and was going home and she informed me there is no "tired" during the Survivor Challenge so I stayed for another hour and then went home.

We had such a great time sewing together and I got lots done. Nothing compared to her though. That girl sews like the wind.

Weekend sewing marathon

Over the weekend I did a sewing marathon with Jen. I had set a goal of 50 hours for the month of July and I can happily say that since July 1 I have 27.25 hours. I had a great time and got lots accomplished. I worked on my old BOM's that I was behind in and got quite a few done. I showed a couple more the other day. These are for two different BOM's. The 16 log cabins and yes I said 16 are for my Saturday BOM and the rest are for my Friday night BOM. For Friday night I have one more to do for June and then I'm caught up. Saturday is a different story because even though I only have three months to catch up on not a single one of them is just one block. Like the 16 Log cabins were from one month. And yes you're not seeing anything I did put them together backwards but I left them. At that point I was tired and said the heck with it all.

It kicked my butt

Yesterday got off to a great start sewing wise. I completed one of my BOM's until I measured it and I was 1/2 inch off. Earlier in the day I had been using Jen's machine since mine was still on the frame and I told her to keep it on there and just go ahead and quilt a quilt she wanted to get done. No problem since the machines are the same. So I sat down and put the binding on my shower curtain. Pictures later once I get out and get hooks and hang it. It turned out great. Anyway back to the block. I didn't reset the foot and my seams were too big. This block had all kinds of 1/2 square triangles and other pieces in it so I started the redo part. Now if I had been making this block for myself I'd have just gone ahead and recut and been done with it but each month we get the fabric for the specific block. I ripped and sewed, ripped and sewed somemore. In all that stupid block took me six hours. I was so tired I could hardly see staight anymore but I was determined to get it done. Once that one was done and measured the exact size I went on to make another BOM just to prove that not all of them are awful to make. I got home after midnight from Jen's.

We had a great 4th of July sewing away the time. Mike got a new grill the day before so he kept us in grilled foods and they were great. We even had smores later at night. What fun that was. I tend to like to let my marshmellows flame up because I get impatient. When Jen was little we used to march in our local parade all the time and when it was over you got an ice cream at the end. Yesterday after the local parade was done or I figured it was done we had ice cream as a trip down memory lane. Our whole day too was to keep Holly happy since she's afraid of firecrackers and fireworks noise. They give her Benadryl to keep her calm and yesterday it worked great.

The block with all the pieces is the one that kicked my butt. My favorite picture from yesterday is the one with Holly hiding behind the batting while her Mom quilts a top. The picture of Holly puin the bathroom is priceless. She heard some bottle rockets go off and in there she ran. In the end they put one of her blankies on the floor and she slept for hours. Now they need to put a sign on the door officially making it " Holly's fall out shelter".

I've decided on 50 hours

Well I've decided to sort of join in and see if I can get 50 hours of sewing in for the month of July. I have so many BOM's to catch up on that maybe that is where I should start. Tonight I can happily say I'm in for three hours to start with.

Good luck to Jen and Moniek and Jill on their big challenge.

19 and counting

OK ladies I have to tell you what a terrific feeling it is to be going through things and tossing. I'm up to 19 very large bags, 13 of which went to GoodWill yesterday. The rest was stuff that really wasn't worth anything so out it went. I did find that I have 3 packages of super glue with two tubes in each package. Under my bathroom sink is cleaned out and it looks great. The junk drawer in the kitchen, wow what a difference and I found so many tools that need to go back into my tool box. This is so much fun.

I did take time out to run to the quilt shop to pick up backing fabric for my shower curtain and tonight I can wash that and get it hopefully on the frame to be quilted. Then of course there was grocery shopping to be done and I can say it went well and I saved a bundle on everything today. I figure by the 4th of July I should be burned out.