Neighbor Girl quilt top

Part I of this top can be found HERE
Now I just need to decide on the age old question--To Border or Not To Border.

I like the idea of narrow black, narrow color, wider black.   I am not sure if I even have any more of these fabrics to play with.  Right now this is 48 x 72 (ish)

5 Minute Block, part II

Yesterday I posted about working on block to bust some old calico stash.  Doing the happy dance,  this top is done!!   It is very rare that I actually go from cutting to sewing to top.  Proud to say this one took a total of 6 hours from cut to ta da (time)  I started cutting yesterday and sewed 4 rows, just to be sure I 'liked' it.

Now on to piecing as much into the back as I can.  The rest of the calico fabric is going out the door to the first person to holler 'dibs'.    Happy Happy day, I just freed up space on my shelf to start another 'collection' - lol

Looks like my 'snow days' are behind me.  Two full days of showing properties coming up now that the snow is melting.  Fingers crossed the first one is the one the buyers love.  Wouldn't it be great to get to sneak in a bit more sewing- lol

5 Minute quilt block-- link to tutorial

Dawn was looking for a new block to share with the quilt group next week.  She shared the link to Suzanne McNeil's 5- minute quilt block with me and asked what did I think.  I think she gets extra points for finding a block before I did--lol!
You can visit Suzanne's site and see the tutorial  --Here

I have a 'pile' of calico that has been begging to be worked.  I had gone as far as to pull it out a couple of times but it always seemed to get back on the shelf uncut.

Well thanks to today being a SNOW day...... the rest of the story is yet to be written.

I am a fan of cut first and figure out the setting later.

Here is my cut Yellows to be use in the center position as the triangle/geese.

While I was chunky cutting my 'three' fabrics per block  I made a pile to be sub-cut into 2 1/2 inch strips for a possible piano key border.  If the 'keys' don't make it into the top, I will use them on the back.  Hope is to bust this aging collection and get it all off the shelf.  I will piece as much as possible into the back and the rest is going out the door to anyone who will give it a good home.  More on that threat later- lol

This is a very die friendly block. ... Cut three rectangles-  You can actually do this with any size rectangle, I used my GO Die # 55005  (3 1/2 x  6 1/2) 

I choose to always use my dark (browns, blues) on the bottom and Yellows as centers and Red/Pinks as the other side.

The first couple I sewed I took time to iron.  After doing about a dozen, I unplugged the iron and finger pressed, way faster.  I am all about not going crazy making a utility quilt.  No one every complains that a wrinkle kept them up at night!

See how the bottom right looks a bit off?  It actually fixes itself when I roll the edge.  Promise!

See all better and even better after it gets sewn-  I use a chicken tracks stitch and white thread.

Sew... here we go, two rows done and sewn together.  Eight more to go for a 60 x 72 (ish) center.

This is going to be a controlled scrappy, being that I am just using the three piles of fabrics.  I divided  each row of 12 into sets of 4,6,8, 12 of color A,B,C.  So in the example, There are 8 red-a and 4 red-b matched with 4 blue,4 black,& 4 blue, The yellows are 4a, 4b and 4a.
The second row is 4 red, 8 pink,  4 black-a, 4 black-b, 4 blue,  2 yellow-a , 4 yellow-b, 6 yellow-a

I am hoping as I progress there will be secondary light and dark chunks emerge.  We will see.....

3 kiddos and misc lamp parts

To make a short story long..... I needed a shorter rod to 'fix' a lamp I was working on.  It is cheaper to purchase a lamp from the thrift shop than to buy the part I needed.
Then the question is what do you do with the extra lamp parts?

Make Yard ART!!  

Lane, Derik and Karlee helped me level and stack the glass.  We hammered a metal rod into the ground so this beauty doesn't tip over.  We also used up a tube of clear caulking to weather proof it.

I can see a couple of more spring/summer Yard ART projects in our future--lol

The lamp shade is a damaged piece that I salvaged from my Craig's List purchase.  I am looking for a smaller base to put it on but for now it has a place on this lamp.  The scale is still off even after I shortened the lamp base.

 I hope that I don't start collecting lamps now- lol  (wait too late!)

I made the rooster as an adapter but changed my mind and went with a shorter shaft.

I will keep an eye out for a shorter lamp base to balance the shade better.  But for now I am happy to get to save this glass from the trash pile.

a little quilting and a little collecting

I don't quilt for the public but every now and then I get talked into working on a donation project.
This Quillow is for an upcoming event to raise money for kids.  I didn't write the details down so I am not sure exactly when this auction piece will find a new home.  The 'boots' were new to me and took a bit to get use too!

 Thanks to Craig's list, I got to help a gal purge her glass and mosaic collection prior to her move.  I know I didn't really need to spare her the joy of adding all this to her yardsale.
I paid more than I wanted too and way less then it is all worth but happy to say it is home and on its way to being sorted and introduced to my own collection of misc future yard sale stuff.
(Seriously, this is supposed to be all used up in mosaic work in my lifetime, but we all know the grand-kids will be cleaning it up long after I am gone- lol)

We lost count on the number of full jars.  The glass globs, marbles, stained glass pieces, stones, and other misc were sorted and brought inside.  There are 4 totes of ceramics/china/etc/ and a dozen more lg pickle jars left to go through this week.

Who wants to take bets on how many relatives will get some sort of mosaic stepping stone for Christmas this year---insert evil laugh here- lol

Karlee 'found' the glass leaves and I added them to the one plant I haven't killed yet.  Today is very overcast, hopefully tomorrow morning I can enjoy the sunlight coming in.