Middle of June Already???

Wow, I can't believe it's already the middle of June!  I sure haven't been posting much lately, have I?

Well, I have a good excuse.  Seven weeks ago we adopted a new dog, a 10-month-old English Shepherd named Holly. 

She's a very nice dog, but needed quite of bit of training, so we had a six-week obedience class which we completed Saturday.  Here's her graduation picture

She even got to wear the hat.  It used to have a tassel, but some previous wearer chewed it off - LOL.  I'm having a lot of fun with her, but a new dog is really time-consuming.  She and the cat are still not best friends, but we're working on it. 

Not too much quilting has been going on in the last few weeks, but I did finish Town Square and sent it off to a friend.

The colors didn't come out too nicely in this picture, but this was made with the Lovely fabric line from Sandy Gervais.  It reminded me of a beach vacation with the turquoise and peach colors. 

So that is about the extent of my quilting lately!  I joined the Block of the Week from Primitive Gatherings, so I've been stitching on the first couple of blocks of it.  I'll post pictures when I get a few blocks done.

Hope everyone is having a nice spring.  It has been beautiful in Wisconsin the last few days. 

Hands2Help Update

A little quilting has been going on at Troublesome Creek Quilts!  Not too much, since spring is finally here and flowers need to be planted, but I have made some progress on my Hands2Help quilt.

The top is finished, and it's ready to be basted and quilted, which will hopefully happen yet this holiday weekend.

The fabric Joy sent to me was very cute, so I fussy-cut the little animals for the blocks.

I found some border print from the same line of fabric, so I'm really happy with how this turned out.  The quilt is about 60" square.

Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend!

Mr. Mailman's Been Good to Me!

This week has brought all kinds of goodies to my mailbox.  First, I won a contest on The Noble Wife and Jacquelynn sent me these wonderful quilty items - three of her fun patterns, some notecards, and a hand-painted quilt pin.  Thanks, Jacquelynn!  That pattern on top is saying "Make me in wool!"

For the past few months, I've been a pattern tester for the Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Volume 3, and yesterday in the mail I got my copies of the magazine AND and nifty mug with the magazine cover on it!

There are some great blocks in this magazine, and I got to test some of them.  It was great fun, although a couple of them were a real challenge.  I have a greater appreciation for what magazines go through to get a good pattern printed, and will probably be more forgiving of an occasional mistake after this experience!  Be sure to hit the blogs that are having the 100 Blocks tour this week - you'll love this magazine!

And last but not least, I got an Easter basket from my mom, but I haven't opened it yet.  Have to wait until tomorrow for that!

This weekend has mostly been spent getting to know my new dog.  Yesterday we got a 10-month old English Shepherd from another client at my vet's office.  We've spent the last 24 hours getting to know each other.  It's going as well as can be expected at this point - she needs some obedience lessons (which start next Saturday) and to meet the cat, but we're taking that part prettly slowly.  The cat is mostly hiding out upstairs or downstairs.  We left her plenty of escape routes.  She was used to our last dog, but it all has to start over again.  Last time, it took three months for the cats to be able to cope with a new dog, so I hope the process goes a little faster this time!  The dog is very keen to meet the cat, though - too bad it's not mutual!  I'll post pictures in a few days.

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Off They Go!

Today is a vacation day for me, so I'm using some of the time to get some of my charity projects in the mail.  I mailed this quilt to Quilter's Newsletter to send to earthquake victims in Japan.

This quilt was made from a pattern in a Quiltmaker magazine.  I liked it because of the large pieces of fabrics that weren't cut up, and I had this cute dragon princess fabric to use.

Isn't this great fabric?  I've had it in my stash for years waiting for the perfect pattern.  Hopefully a little girl in Japan will love it.

The Just One Star blocks were finished last week and sent to guild to be mailed off to Moda.

And last but not least, the fabric for the Hands2Help quilt was sent off to my swap partner.  I had some neat dinosaur fabric for that one.

Can you tell I'm a sucker for kid's prints?  I have never met one I didn't like!  I made an I Spy quilt for my son many years ago, and just never stopped collecting fabrics for another one.  One of these days, I need to make about ten I Spy quilts.

Have you heard about the Hands2Help project?  The button on my sidebar will link you to the project.  I think it sounds like a great idea, and I had fun picking out fabric to swap with my partner.

We're in the middle of getting 6" of snow today.  (Sigh)  I thought spring was here, but I guess I have to wait for a few more days.  The daffodils always get snowed on at least once.  At least it's a nice day to stay inside and sew!

Guest Blogging

Today I'm a guest blogger at Stash Manicure.  Come on over and say hi!

Happy Birthday

Somebunny is having a birthday!  Be sure to stop by The Raspberry Rabbits and wish Shell a happy birthday tomorrow.

Happy National Quilting Day!

Tomorrow is National Quilting Day - how are you going to celebrate?  My guild is having a sew-in all day. I'm going to start a new quilt - Town Square, out of the new Scrap Basket Sensations book. 

The pieces are all cut out.  This is the Lovely line of fabric by Sandy Gervais - isn't it pretty?  It just says "spring" to me, so I thought this would be the perfect thing to make on a March day.  If the sewing goes as quickly as the cutting did, I should be able to get the top pieced in a day.

Our snow piles are almost melted, so maybe spring is on its way.  We had robins in our back yard today, so that has to be a good sign!

Whatever you're doing tomorrow, enjoy National Quilting Day!