On Quilt Guilds

Last pics of finished baby quilt; I washed it and had two yo-yo's fall apart on it, so re-stitched  them and decided to hand stitch all around every yo-yo's for a secure hold.  Quilted with 80 /20 cotton batting (the last of a roll I had for several years) on my Juki, just freemotion scribble.

This past weekend I worked on a sample of the Delectable Mountain block (Bonnie Hunter) at http://quiltville.com/delmtspf.html.  She is just the best, I try to read her blog at least once a week.  She shares a whole lotta patterns for free and is just fun to read and follow. 
Every month the quilt guild I belong to has a member do a tutorial on "block of the month".  My turn is this month.  Members can (if they wish) make a few samples of that block for the next month and they are all put together for a drawing, each block you make equals one ticket for the drawing.  If you win, you get all the blocks.  The block can also be done up in red, white and blue and donated to our wounded warrior quilt efforts.  I enjoy the quilt guild.  Visiting with friends, beautiful eye candy when it is show and tell, it is a relaxing evening for me.  So this is my demo for the quilt block:

Hopefully, if you click on the pic, you can see it enlarged, it is a fairly easy block with various setting options.  It has been snowing all day and the weatherwoman predicts it will continue to snow all weekend.  I am going to try to just stay and home and sew, my own little weekend retreat.  Adios. Bernie.

Thimble Thursdays, Yo-Yo Along, and Blue Tote in Progress

I have added two new buttons on my sidebar - one of them links you to Penny's blog, Sewtakeahike and her Yo-Yo along with counter! Neat idea and fun blog.  I had to grab it just to start counting my yo-yo's.  I started making them just because - they are kind of addictive - now I feel like everytime a put together a few and tuck them in their little tin, its like saving pennies! Ha! The little "yo-yo counter" is cool.  I think you could also use it to count blocks for a quilt, etc.  Thank you Penny.  
If you check out Kathy at Shawkl, she has put out some really neat thimbles for embroidery.  She also has lots and lots of other neat stuff and a very pretty blog.  I have been wanting to attempt embroidery and these little thimbles got me motivated.  Not so much detail I will get lost, a manageble size.  I am four months behind what she has posted, but think I can make progress with these. If put together for a miniature quilt top I think I could showcase a collection of souvineer lapel pins I currently have stuck in an old sunhat. You know, I don't do handsewing or handwork, but ever since I started those yo-yo's I have realized how soothing it is, we will see if branching out to embroidery catches on with me. :)

Last weekend I spent some time in my sewing room putting together a tote (modifying a pattern I had previously used) Remember this

Nice enough, but I wanted something smaller, with pockets inside and ties on the side so it wasn't saggy, baggy when empty. So I cut back on the number of 5" squares (actually used 4 1/2" squares because that is what I had in scraps) and added some pockets and a zipper.  This is what I have done so far - hope to finish up Friday night.  I put the zipper in the lining on one side and pockets on the other.  I used a light weight interfacing on the lining and stacked up the exterior on a very thin poly batting.  I will quilt it and then put together the exterior and lining. 

Adios.  Bernie