How cool is this?

My new MP3 player that I won came home today. At last. It had been at the P.O. already on Friday. I found the delivery notice in the mail box on Sat. but the P.O. closes early on Sat. So, Mon. I hot foot it to the P.O. only to find they are closed for Presidents Day. Now, I ask you, do they really NEED all those Federal holidays? I was working!! And they were keeping me from my good stuff!! Anyway, my name was put in a drawing along with everyone else's who completed the Nebraska Learns 2.0 online course at the Nebr. Library Commission & I was one of nine winners. Many thanks to the Nebr. Library Commission and the sponsors who provided the prizes: Nebraska Library Association, Nebraska Educational Media Association and the Information Technology and Access Round Table of NLA. Thanks too, to Allana, Susan, Christa and Michael for their patience with our sometimes less than technical wizardry.


Here's another cool thing. I was cruising Alycia C.'s blog one day, looking at pictures of QOV quilts donated for her No Soldier Forgotten project & there was something about this quilt that caught my eye. There was a close-up pic of a block & when I enlarged it I recognized it as one of the blocks I made to send to Sue Frank for Heartstrings last summer for the Red/White/Blue project. The blocks were put together & sent to Ann C. in Canada, who quilted it, bound it & sent it to Alycia. It was so fun to see what had been done with the blocks.

Look What I Got!!!

Look what was waiting for me at the Post Office this morning......the door prize I won from the Heartstrings New Year's Block Party. It's from Deb in AZ. Thank you so much, Deb. The fabric looks so yummy and I know I'll spend a lot of happy hours with the book. Thread is always most welcome, I use a lot of it.

Tonight is supposed to be our quilt club meeting but as lousy as the weather has been all day...blowing like crazy and snowing way more than they told us to expect.....I'd just as soon postpone it. I'm home from work now and really don't want to think about going back out again. A few of our member's who live out of town probably won't attempt coming anyway.

What fun!!

This is my 3rd and final set of Happy Blocks for the Heartstrings New Year's Block Party. I finished up last night about 9:45, having completed three complete sets of 48, plus I had six extra blocks for a total of 150. This was such a fun project and if your year goes the way New Year's Day goes, then I'll be happily sewing all year. One thing I did learn by doing this was that my considerable fabric stash is missing something. Yes indeed, I will have to shop for blenders, those fabrics that may not be solids but read as solids from a distance. A few of the ones I used for my blocks would pass if viewed from a distance of 15-20 ft. from the back of a galloping horse. We all need goals for the New Year, right? Mine is to shop for blenders!!!

As for other goals, I think I'll try to finish some of the started or planned for a long time projects, some of which are only piles of fabric & a pattern. I also plan to keep using fabric from the stash as much as possible. (with the exception of those blenders!!)

Cat blocks for Heartstrings finished

This is where I have been this afternoon.

Started out with this pile of pieces

and ended up with this set of blocks for the Heartstrings virtual block party for New Years Eve & New Years Day. They are very bright & cheerful & the quilt made from these will keep some child nice and warm.

These blocks are really quick & fun to sew. It's no wonder they're called Happy Blocks. The cutting is what takes the time. I have another two sets of 48 cut out and ready to sew so will work on that this evening and tomorrow.

Strips Cut!

Last night about 10:30 I went to my sewing room and cut the strips for the framing pieces for my Happy Blocks. I should have gone ahead and done the sub-cutting because once I got into bed I just laid there and listened to the wind howl. I always have a hard time getting to sleep when the wind blows so hard. I can sleep like a baby through the worst thunder & lightning storm, but a little wind keeps me awake. Strange, I know. But then I think mice are cute too. Don't want 'em in my house, but they're cute. :-)

Heartstrings Happy Blocks

These two piles are fabrics I dug out of my stash this morning to make Happy Blocks for the Heartstrings New Year's Happy Block party. The request is for bright, cheery fabrics for quilts for children, with novelty prints in the center and solids or tone-on-tones for the outsides of the blocks. The pile on the left is novelty fabrics left over from the alphabet quilts I made for my grandchildren, with coordinating TOTs. The pile on the right is bright cat prints with my hand-dyes for the outside strips. I'll make a complete set out of the cat prints and as many as I can out of the other novelties. This project starts out on New Year's Eve day and continues through February so there's plenty of time for making blocks. The blocks collected by Heartstrings for this project will make quilts for children who need something to brighten their days.