Wow, where has the month of May gone?

Holy cow, it's already Memorial Day!  I hope you were able to enjoy a nice long weekend with family and friends.  I was fortunate enough to be able to do so.  This afternoon, John and I went over to see "Men in Black 3".  We enjoyed the movie.  This is a picture of the courthouse lawn - all decorated for Memorial Day.

The month of May has just flown by.  We started out the month celebrating my dad's 90th birthday.  Here's my sister, my dad, and me.  The majority of the family was able to be here for the party - just missed a few. 

The boys and John gave me a new camera for Mother's Day - it's a Canon Power Shot and I love it.  It will take some time to get used to it.  The photo below was taken with the new camera.  The one with my sis and dad was taken with the old camera (a very old Sony digital) and the photo at the top was taken with my new phone (HTC Sensation, has an 8.0 megapixel, but really doesn't compare to an actual camera).   

I have been working on another Arkansas Crossroads quilt - this one with the Sherbet Pips fabric that I have been wondering what to do with.  I paired it with a pale gray for the x's, and I am happy with the way it's turning out.  Never mind that I have a bunch of blocks to re-do.  The gray squares are 4 1/2".  I made this first bunch right.  Then when I was cutting more, I cut them 5".  Not sure why..... I was having one of "those" moments.  Anyhow, I bought another yard of gray, so we should be good to go.  I hope to work on them tonight.

Here's a quilt I finished over the weekend.  It's for a new baby girl.  I call it "Wonky Coins".  The strips are pieced to used dryer sheets, trimmed so they are all the same size, then sewn together. 

And here's the back.    I quilted it with a wavy line, on the diagonal to make a diamond pattern.  It's not perfect, but it will be ok...

 

I think it's ready to be quilted

I finished sewing the log cabin blocks together last night, and I gave it a good pressing this morning.  I am thinking no border, but then dh asked if I was going to put a border on it.  What do you think?  I've kind of been in a no border mode lately, and right now, I like them better without.  Plus, I would probably have to go out and buy more fabric for the border, and I have been trying to avoid buying anymore fabric.  Let me know what you think.......I know, it's hard to tell.  Not a very good picture, I'm afraid..... :)
On a side note, I was tracking the fabric I ordered for the backing - it went from Kansas City to Saint Paul, and that's where it is tonight.  Couldn't they have just dropped it off - I'm practically right on the way.  Oh well... maybe it will come tomorrow, but I'm thinking probably not until Thursday......

Yellow Pinwheel Quilt

I sewed the binding on this quilt last night, and then washed and dried it in the dryer.  It got that nice crinkly look that I love.

The back is a solid pale yellow.  It was one of the many pieces of fabric I got last winter at the Joann's 75% off sale.  They were moving to a new store, and Julie (Joe Tulips) and I just happened to get in on the good deals.  I last talked about this quilt here.  I first showed these blocks last July here. 

It's going to be a college graduation gift for a friend's daughter.  She also has a daughter graduating from high school, and I made the t-shirt quilt for her. 

This might be a long trip...

Ok, I don't know what possessed me to start a new block.  I saw a few of the "Arkansas Crossroads" blocks out in blogland and on Flickr.  I found a free pattern online, but it called for 3 1/2" strips and squares.  Well, I have a lot of 1 1/2" and 2 1/2" strips, so I looked for a pattern that offered the block in different sizes.  I found what I was looking for here. 

Here's my first one

I must be crazy.... I'm using the inch and a half strips and squares...I messed one up last night - got a little too crazy trimming.  This block measures 8 1/2" square.  I spent my whole morning working on this - It's my 11 to 7 day at work, and I had ambitious plans to get some cleaning, etc done, both at home and at my dad's house.  Yeah, right.  This was much more fun.....



Sneak Peek

Here's a peek at what I've been working on over the weekend...

And I just realized I am making way more blocks than I will need.  These blocks right now are 12 1/2 inches square.  I was planning to make the quilt 7 x 8.  I was making 59 blocks so I'd have a few extra.  There are always some that don't turn out the best, and this gave me some wiggle room.  Well, that would make the quilt 84"x96".  That's just too darned big to manage!  Even though I won't quilt it myself, it's still too big.  So, I'm scaling it back to 6 x 7, 42 blocks in all.  I guess the extra blocks will be seed for another quilt.  :)  Oh, and the Whoopie Pies....... I swear they're as addictive as crack cocaine.....I can't leave them alone!

Whoopie Pies

Ok, so I started looking up recipes for Whoopie Pies today.  They sounded easy enough.  Most of the recipes I found were very similar.  I decided on this recipe.  Since only Mr. Small Town and I are home (we are empty-nesters, you know), I made half a batch. 

  I only made one change - I used a Red Velvet Cake Mix instead of Devil's Food. 

We haven't tried them yet, but I'll be sure to let you know how we like them!  :)

It seemed like a rather blah week around here.  I have been sewing log cabin blocks.  16 are finished.  I only have the last 2 logs to put on the other 40....

On a side note, I got a cortisone shot in my knee on Tuesday.  It feels a lot better - still not perfect, but definitely much better than it was!

Finished projects

The top photo is a table runner I made this past week.  My son and daughter-in-law gave me some pretty fabric squares for Christmas.  This set of them included 50 4" squares.  I thought they would make a cute spring table runner.  I say "son and daughter-in-law" but I'm really quite certain that my son had nothing to do with picking them out....:) I love receiving quilt fabric, and it was a great gift!

The bottom photo is an apron, hot pad and oven mitt I made for a bridal shower gift. The shower is this afternoon - I better get the gift wrapped up and get my clothes changed and out the door soon! I just love the fabric with the blenders. I thought about adding a couple of Marguarita glasses and some Marguarita mix to the gift, but the shower is at a church, and I'm not sure it would be appreciated! :)

The picture below was taken this morning, as a fire burned down the bank in our little town.  So devastating.  We are lucky that no one was hurt, but it is a huge loss for our community.  Fire departments from 3 other towns came to assist our local fire department.