"Frugal Frannie's" tip of the day!

(image from google images)

First of all, I must add my disclaimer: 

"No my name isn't Frannie, and by no means am I starting an advice column, and no slight is intended to anyone named Frannie or to anyone who has an advice column!" 

But I do consider myself very "frugal" - not a hoarder, just keep things that I might use later! (by the way, I DO throw away fabric that is less than 1 1/2" square!)

But I was just "pleased as punch with myself" and wanted to share and give ya'll a laugh!!

Well, I have been stitching away on some small quilts and what's a girl to do with the little strips of batting left over? Well, Frugal Frannie just couldn't throw them away so she thought and thought and thought some more - put the strips in a pile and thought some more...

Then Frugal Frannie had an idea!!! Make stuffing!!!!

So, she lined up the strips into handable (not a word I know - but hey this is Frannie talking! and Frannie likes order!) piles:

Then with the handy dandy rotary cutter (love the person that invented this - why didn't I think of it!! LOL) and large ruler, cut the piles of strips into smaller strips (about 1/4" wide):

Then turned the handy dandy cutting mat (love it, too!) and using the rotary cutter, cut the narrow strips into about 1/4" squares.

Then with the edge of the ruler scooped them into a nice pile,

and put them in a box!

Took less than 5 minutes total to do this!! And boy do I feel good about my tip!!! (LOL)!!!

This really is just to show ya'll that I have been stitching!!! The results to come soon!!

A little bit of quilty stuff and a whole lot of other stuff!

Hello dear blogger friends!! I can say I've missed ya'll. I've been pretty much hit and miss on blogger/computer time. The saying goes that "Time flies when you're having fun"!! Well, I have been having a lot of fun - but a lot of other stuff too!! (most of it fun, too!!) This morning, I've got the bottle kids fed, the cow milked, breakfast for Mike and him sent off on a clearing job, made my "walk-about" checking kids and nannies (I'm on the down hill side of kidding out - only 5 nannies left to go!! Yeah!!), so I got myself a cup of coffee, took a couple more photos and now I'm checking in with ya'll!!

Don't know really where to start, so I'll start with the little bit of quilty stuff. Raewyn came for a visit!!! She spent a few days with us, and she may never come again - she didn't have much of a vacation at my house! She trooped along with me doing my chores! But I can say we talked up a storm and shared our farm/ranch lives as well as some quilting stuff!! What a grand time I had!!

She brought me a bunch of super cool goodies from New Zealand!! A super neat table runner with kiwis!!! And in some of my favorite colors!!! The piecing and quilting are just exquisite!! I will treasure it always! Plus, some Manuka soap, a deck of cards with New Zealand wild life photos (as good as a photo album!), some Old Fashioned Creamy Fudge made locally there in Northland, a note pad with birds (she knows I love birds!), a thimble with kiwi birds highlighted with paua shells (I think) and some buttons made of paua! What a haul!!

We did share a few quilting adventures: I showed her ALL my quilts and projects (I'm sure she thinks I'm nuts!! - like I'll ever finish them!! LOL) Many of you know that I don't favor Paper Piecing (okay, I'll admit it - don't know how to do it and didn't want to learn!) But our guild's BOM for May was a simple foundation paper pieced block! So I hog-tied Raewyn, drug her to my sewing machine and she gallantly instructed me on the art! Voila---my first successful foundation paper pieced block!!! Thanks, Raewyn, I couldn't have done it with out you!!

We also attended a book signing of Marie Bostwick's latest novel "Between Heaven and Texas"! My first ever, and what a great 'send-off' memory with Raewyn!! She has the photo of us together with Marie - so bug her to post it!! By the way, the book was awesome! One of my favorite all time reads!!

Now, to the other stuff! Spring is always busy for me, and this one has seemed even more, but it has been a good one! The day before Raewyn arrived, we received 4 1/2 inches of rain! It feel in about 2-3 hours, so Mike said we had a young flood! I called it a "tank filler". We call our man-made ponds "dirt tanks" and it filled up and ran around on both sides of the dam!! First time is has been full in about 10 or 11 years! Two years ago, it was completely dry, so we are so very thankful for the rain. The down side of that much rain at one time is we lost four baby kids to drowning. (boo hoo)

We had our first kids born on April 16, and there has been a birth every day since then except on one day. For the most part, it has gone very well. We have lost a few kids, and two nannies and we have 12 bottle babies, but the warm weather and rains (we've also had a little more than an inch more in the past week) has helped the pasture to green up, and all seem to be doing well. Go here to see photos of the goats! They are pretty cute!

Other ranch work has included shipping pasture cattle. It also went well, just busy for a few days, gathering, moving, loading etc. Go here if you want to see those events!

Sometimes, Mike needs me to help on one of his clearing jobs (he clears brush and trees from ranch land using a skid steer). So, on his current job, he found a huge cedar tree and the owner had told him that if Mike wanted any cedar trees for posts, he was welcome to cut them. Never a dull moment in our lives!

When Mike got it cut and it fell - the top branches covered up the skid steer! No harm done, though!!

This past weekend was a landmark event for our family! Our youngest daughter graduated with her Bachelor's degree from Tartleton State University! The whole family gathered in Stephenville for the event, and our son and dil were so gracious and hosted a BBQ in their back yard! It was a grand time! Beautiful weather, great food, friends and family - what more could anyone ask for!! So proud of you Mollie!

Well, I'll bid adieu for now! Remember - Be Joyful!!!!

All About Me...

...this is a post about things for "me"!! (It'll be short I won't bore you with my own accolades LOL!!)

First  - "Harmony" - a fun SAL from Lori. First SAL in which I have participated for quite some time (a BOW doesn't count in my book), and I even purchased a couple of reddish/browns from the Generals Wives collection just because my stash just didn't have enough of that for me. When I got it together, I just really liked it - ALOT - so I'm keeping it for me!! It coordinates well with my living room decor! I did machine quilt it with clam shells so I could practice FMQ and following lines - I figure my FMQ is more "humble" than my hand quilting!! LOL Thanks, Lori, for hosting another wonderful little SAL!!!!

Secondly - I recently made an order from Connecting Threads and if you have ordered from them, you know that it is free shipping if your order is $50 or more - well I was about $12 short, so I perused the clearance section and found a book on sale for $12.99! So really I only spent about $6 on the book because I saved shipping by buying the book!! Don't you just love my rationalization!! LOL But I LOVE this book!!! I'm already planning 3 quilts from it!!!

Lastly - a Gift just for "me" from my dear friend Janet O. I missed making Lori's "Abundance", but Janet made it and then sent it to me - just because!!! She knows that I love stars and we have such similar tastes in fabrics and quilts - and I LOVE it!! I haven't decided where to display it - for now it sits on my sewing desk so I can see it, and touch it and be so thankful for it and wonderful friends!! Thanks Janet!!

Stitching, Stitching, Stitching...

...but not too much on TWQ - boo hoo. What with garden to prepare/plant, seedlings to start, cattle to move, calves to mark, nanny goats to check as kidding is soon to start, Border Collies to work, cooking, cleaning, KEEPING GRACEN twice a week (woo hoo!!), all my other stitching projects took precedence over TWQ. But it is back on the front burner and I make time every day to hand quilt - my favorite kind of stitching, though it takes longer!

So here's my other stitching projects - some finishes and some WIPs:

1. I finished the flimsy for my Christmas Sampler Quilt - I call it "Joys of Christmas". It is 88" square and will fit a full bed nicely. Now, I need your input - how to quilt it? I would love to hear every opinion out there!

2. I made another "Spring has Sprung" small quilt. I made four 8" blocks this time instead of nine 6" blocks. This is for a door prize for guild. So many of the ladies liked it and one asked if I would donate the first one as a door prize, I decided to make another - just for them.

3. I'm all caught up on BB Grandmother's Choice blocks!! I've pictured the pieced blocks, but I also pieced an equal amount of chain blocks, too!

4. I've finished two more Stadium quilts for my booth at the market. The black/gold/white one is all FMQ!!! I'm really pleased with the "snail tails" in the diagonal blocks! I just straight line cross hatched the maroon/gray/white one.

5. Lyn, my dil, asked me to make a quilt for her for her mom's birthday. She ordered the fabric on-line, and shipped it to me. I knew she wanted a chevron pattern, so I thought, no problem. But when I opened the box I went - WOW how am I (Ms. traditional fabric girl going to every put these together!!!) But with the help from Mikkie, we laid it out and I think it turned out very well! Lyn loved it (she wondered the same thing when she first saw the fabric, too!! LOL) and she is sure that her mom with love it too! So fun to make something outside your comfort zone! I just FMQed a meander as I felt like the fabric needed to tell the story!

6. Susan over at Starwood Quilter is hosting a Quilter's book club. I'm doing redwork blocks to represent the books and I finished the first two. "The Persian Pickle Club" was our first book, and I didn't know that a Persian Pickle was a Paisley! Did you? Well, I found a pretty Paisley sketch on google images and used it for my first block. The second book - "A Single Thread" by Marie Bostwick, talks about friends helping to mend broken hearts - so I created a broken heart being stitched back  together with a "single thread"!! I'm having fun with this, as it is relaxing to embroider small blocks (9") while I'm watching TV with Mike!

7. My leaders/enders project are 3" nine patches for another Christmas Quilt.

8. Have you seen Ruth's finished CWR quilt? Well, it is absolutely wonderful!!! She quilted "hooked" wreaths in her setting blocks, and I was so inspired by her and her tutorial, that I practiced! I'm thinking about doing the same for the setting blocks on "Joys of Christmas". What do you think?

Hope this finds each of you doing well!!

Stitching Away...

I know all of you have been super productive - I've seen such absolutely beautiful quilting projects in blog land!!! So very inspiring!!

I have finished 3 quilts and thought I would share!

My first commissioned quilt was a baby quilt (about 42" x 56"). The quilt was for a little boy with the colors  teal, gray, and white, and I could choose any pattern I wanted.  A couple of years ago, I purchased a collection of embroidered blocks, so I chose three dog blocks and added the pinwheels. I machine quilted it by straight line quilting around the dog blocks and then FMQ a finial design in the big teal triangles, clouds in the gray triangle, meandering in the pinwheel area and "loop de loop" in the sashing.

I also finished up another stadium quilt. This pattern was a D9P (so Freda, I finally got one done!!) I just FMQ an all over meander and I thought it turned out nicely. I have found that I really enjoy "freestyle" FMQ rather than following traced patterns! I like making up patterns as I go! I NEVER thought that would be me!!! I'm such a symmetrical, geometric math person!

I had the BOM presentation for guild this month and I opted for a simple traditional block - Jewel Box - done in scrappy greens and white/off whites.  I made a small quilt using 6 inch blocks (for guild we will make 12" blocks) to see if I liked how my fabric choices went together. It measures about 20" square and I've named it:

"Spring has Sprung"!!!!

The guild members really liked it and many wanted the 6" cutting instructions along with the 12"! so I guess it was a hit! I just straight line cross hatched it with FMQ scallops in the border. It now sits on my coffee table reminding me that "something" is green, even though it is pretty much "brown" outside! Sure praying for rain!

Blessed Joyful Stitching to Ya'll!!!!

Non UFOS, Winners & "Abundance"

I know that my last few posts have primarily been about my UFO projects, but really that isn't all that I have been doing. One of the reasons that the UFOs got caught up is that I used them for leaders/enders for other projects.

Mikkie (oldest daughter) needed a baby shower gift and asked me to "help" her make a baby quilt. She helped - bought the fabric and cut out the pieces!!! Oh yeah, she delivered the quilt!! LOL But it was such a joy to work together on a project. She is such a blessing in my life and continues to encourage me in my quilt endeavors. But alas, she's not really gotten the bug yet - but maybe because I'm still here making them!!

I also finished another Stadium Quilt for my booth. I haven't sold any more yet, but I am not discouraged and still enjoying the process. I also have 2 other flimsys ready for quilting and blocks are being pieced for a third. I'll post pictures of those when finished!

Speaking of Stadium Quilts - when I posted about my new venture I also mentioned a "contest"! (go here if you need to refresh your memory). Well, I hadn't forgotten about it, just put it on the back burner. There wasn't a clear winner, so I chose two. Karen over at Log Cabin Quilter had an invoice of $350 and in my book that was a lot of yardage!! The other winner is Denise at Count it All Joy (love the name of that blog!!) bought 60 yards at one wack!!! So, ladies if you will send me your choice of email addresses, I will get an on-line gift cert sent your way!! Thank you so much for being such faithful followers and kind friends!!

Now to the "Abundance" that God showered upon me this past month. Mandie (2nd daughter) and Bobby made a trip to Seattle Washington. I always ask my kids to get me a souvenir thimble from their travels. So, of course she did, but being the sweet, sweet thoughtful person she is, she also found some vintage fabric from an "antique" store.!!! It is just so lovely, and I'm contemplating the projects!! Be sure and click on the first picture to see the detail of the little flowers and stripes!! It is a just so pretty!

Now to the amazing part of the "Abundance" - A friend of a friend (of course they are all quilters!) sold her house in town, but didn't want to move her quilting "room" so she donated all of items (fabric, tools, tables, etc.) to my friend who also being the very generous person insisted that all of her quilting friends come by and "shop" her dining room table. I was unable to go for a couple of weeks, but she sent me an email stating that she "needed her dining room table back" and would I like to come and "shop". So, I made the arrangements and went by. When she answered the door, she said, "I'll only let you in if you promise to take everything on the table!" Well, of course I said yes!!! But much to my surprise is was covered!!!! She insisted that I was the very last "shopper" and that she was definitely glad for me to take it all!! I don't know the exact yardage - much of it was FQ, many remnants, and several pieces of yardages, but I would guess that it is some where around 50 yards!!!! God is amazing!!!

So, because of that generosity, I did start on another project. Susan at Starwood Quilter is hosting a "Quilter's Book Club" where participants read a book a month and then make a block that represents the book. The blocks are our choice, but Susan does a superb job of researching out the books and many possible block choices, with links for free patterns. She will also host a discussion on her blog at the end of each book. I've done several "sampler" block quilts in the past couple of years, so wanted to participate but do something different. So, I have opted to do "Redwork" blocks, and use this gorgeous rose floral fabric and wonderful red gingham (some of my favorite) for the setting blocks. It will be a nice project to stitch while I'm watching TV with Mike and only doing one a month won't be so daunting! There is plenty of these two fabrics (even for the backing) to make an nice lap size quilt.

Joyful Stitching!!!!!