WooHoo! Forest Quilt Along Party is Starting!

WOOHOO!!

Today is the Official Start of the Little Forest Quilt Along

And don't forget to read Stephanie's Blog - you'll be glad you did.

It's time to chose which pattern you want to use and the size you would like to make.

Sherrlyn's Original

Get the pattern from The Purl Bee here

or use Ariane's Triangle in a Square blocks

and add the tree trunk

Next collect your fabrics.  You will need some greens, your background fabric and don't forget some brown for the trunks!  (Like I did!!  LOL!! )

I went to Joann's to find some white on white little stars.  They had it there for years. That's one good thing about Joann's you can always find the same fabric.   Only this time I wasn't so lucky; no star fabric available!  I came home with this white on white.  

But they only had 1 1/2 yards.  Since I want to make my quilt bigger I'll go back and see if they get more in, add a different white or ???

Here are some of the greens I had in my sash.

And I have this strange green print - which makes great looking vines.

And what do you think of this weirdly patterned green?

And I do like this Christmas green with the red bows. 

Just right for my Christmas quilt.

This week is getting our fabrics and supplies together.

I'm off to wash my fabrics!

Okay - Show us your greens!!

Little Forest Quilt Along

IMPORTANT EDIT:   Stephanie of Peas In a Pod is having a give-away to go along with the Little Forest Quilt Along - so hop on over there and see what's happenin!  

Little Forest Quilt-Along and a Squirrel

Is everyone one getting excited about the Little Forest Quilt Along?  There's still plenty of time to join. 

Little Forest Quilt Along Starts Sept 1st (that's tomorrow!)

But even if you join today, you'll have time to gather your fabrics so don't worry.

Sign up here or with Stephanie and don't forget we also have a Flicker Group.

I'm excited because for a couple years I've wanted another Christmas quilt.  Ours is just getting so worn.  It gets used so much in the winter, but I just haven't had the time to make one.  This Little Forest Quilt is going to work out just right and be fun to make too!

And since last time I showed you a monkey, this time I'll show you Scarlett's Squirrel that I finally finished! Yay!

Giveaway Winner & a Monkey

Okay it's that time!    Drum roll please....

Random Generator Picked the Giveaway Winner:

     Susan with Susan's Needle Magic

Congrats Susan!!

This is the first time I've used the Random Generator and I don't know how to post it's selection.  (Maybe that not part of the free service.)   

Thanks everyone for helping us spread the word about the Little Forest Quilt Along.

Now on to the Monkey part of this post. 

Do you remember this book?

Well, Serena wanted to make this Monkey for her boyfriend.  She begged me to take her to the fabric store.  When I refused, (I was tired.  And you all know I was very tired if I didn't want to go to the fabric store!) she went out and found scraps to make her own striped fabric and scraps for the rest of the Monkey.

Ta Da!!

I think it turned out adorable!!  One of the patches is a dinosaur that she fussy cut, and another has little blue hearts.  Serena's not into sewing so I'm really proud of her for doing this all on her own. 

Good News: Little Trees as ONE piece.

Now I was thinking (as was Lynn of Alamosa Quilter ) the little trees in the Little Forest Quilt Along would look nice as a single piece. 

Here's where we do the Happy Dance!! 

Ariane has done a tutorial on a Triangle in a Square!  Check out her tutorial - she has done a great job of explaining how to make these and even gives several sizes.



Ariane's Triangle in a Square blocks - Look! She made different sizes!

How cool is that?

With a little tree trunk this could work .  I'm not sure if the size would be exactly the same as the one in the Little Forest pattern.  I've been thinking of making the quilt a lap size, so for me this would be a good method.

I just thought you might like to know.

Linda

Dog Gone Good

Some people have donuts and coffee in the morning,

But not me!

Here's what I got this morning...

The cutest, calmest puppy.  He's was lost, poor little thing! Apparently for three days he was

living among the office bushes.

Today one of my co-workers found out about him and offered him a sandwich.  I offered him a nice place to stay - since my office is one of the few without carpet and a door. 

Within a hour or so we were able to find him a home with the cousin of one of the workers. Good! No Dog Pound for this Puppy.

YAY!!  A dog story with a happy ending.

Linda

Don't forget to sign up for the Little Forest Quilt Along and for the Giveaway!

Design Wall or in my case Design Carpet

Here is what is on my design wall/carpet. I finally grouped all my civil war blocks together to get an idea what to do with them. 

See what is on everyone Design Wall here.

I just love working on these civil war blocks.  It's so relaxing to just do one or two blocks per week.  These are the two that I just finished this past weekend.

Each block I make is my favorite.  Until I make the next block. LOL!!

Oh and don't forget to sign up for the Little Forest Quilt-Along!

Terri's Little Forest Quilt

(Or blog about it for the Give-Away)

Happy August Stitching,

The Bad Stuff

Along with the good stuff that happens on vacation - there's always something you would rather didn't happen. 

So here's the bad stuff.

On the way up we stopped in Vegas at a KOA Campground.  The guy wanted to charge us $88.00 for staying!  YIKES!!!  We could stay at a four star hotel for $42.00.  So we went to dinner, and hubby decided to go back (since we were tired) and take that site.  UGH!!!!  Oh well. 

But then when we walked in that guy was busy and he told the other gal - give them an inexpensive site.  She also gave us a discount and the site was $48.  Okay, so that turned out okay.

Our next major mishap was with the bike - oh dear...not to my husband baby!  It got a gouge in the front fender.  Small gouge - but still it went right through the clear coat - right through the red paint, down to the metal. 

While riding through Spearfish Canyon, SD we came across Russ Mowry, a Master Pinstriper.  He painted and worked his magic and hid that gouge.

Hard to read - it says Mark & Linda  Sturgis 2011.  The gouge is right under the barb wire. 

So that actually worked out very well.

Next, and this was a dozie!  We were on our way home - had gone about 20 miles.  Mark says very calmly "We have rubber coming off our tire".  I look and say just as calmly, "Oh and it's LOTS of rubber".

Yep, this tire had had it!!  So we quickly took the next exit - Thank goodness there was a Walmart right there.  The manager said - it would be 2 1/2 hours before they could change the tires - we had decided to get four new ones.  And then it would be 2 1/2 hours to change them.  So much for an early start home. 

Well, Walmart can be an interesting place - but not for 5 hours!!

As it turned out they had a little eatery - serving pizza.  After eating and shopping - we were actually on the road 1 hr and 58 minutes later!!!  Thank you Walmart Mechanic!!!

We went another 10 miles down the road and we heard a loud BANG!!!

Our hitch broke - okay, how can metal 1/2 of an inch bend? That square hook piece the chain is hooked to bent and came off. 

It only took about 1/2 hour to weld it on. Now we can be sure know that won't be coming off.    So even when things don't look so good - they can end up being better than you anticipated. 

Okay, time to get back to stitching,

Linda