7 Year Itch?

Grab a cup of coffee or your favorite beverage, kick back for a few minutes and walk down memory lane with me, if you will.

One of the best things that ever happened to me is "blogging!"
I've now been blogging for seven years!!! Where did the time go, I ask you??  I've learned a lot and made loads of great friends!!
By blogging, I've been able to visit other countries and enjoyed the scenery so much. I would have never been able to manage this by traveling....so thank you are for sharing with me.
I started my blog along with my wacky girlfriends and at this point I probably couldn't live without it. Although I don't blog as often as I use to, I do try to post once or twice a week.
Last year I started to spread a little love around with my Mug Rug Thursday. I've had to scale back this year but I still love creating and sharing them with all my blogging friends.
I've also been sharing a lot of my designs with whomever wants to try them out. You can find them on the BOM/BOW page near the top of the blog.

Through the years I've participated in a photo hunt challenge; apron swap; pincushion swap; mini quilt swap; fabric postcard swap; a 10 inch square fabric swap; a couple of round robin swaps; a few blog hops; and a yearly wacky quilt challenge.....whew!

I also, during a moment of craziness with my best friend Jerri (Jerri passed away a few years ago, but I swear that she's still looking over my shoulder with a big smile on her face), purchased a Janome 11000 which I have to say was a very wise purchase. All the wackies own a Janome which makes it ease to help one another when one of us can't figure out what we're supposed to do...hehehehehe

Here are a few of my favorite quilts that are stored somewhere in my sewing room waiting patiently for me to get around to quilting them......sigh. and a few of my favorite mug rugs and machine embroidery projects!!

A Wacky challenge

 

Some of my favorite types of fabrics - landscape and textiles.

 

Outhouses, a project that was in my head for a long time. We had one when I was little.

These blocks, I've shared with everyone. See BOM near the top of my blog.

 

Teapots - another project rolling around in my head and a BOM which I shared.

Fractured Diamond - using several green fabrics (my favorite color) and the strange pink floral. I love this design because of all the possibilities.

Barns - another project that I'd been thinking about for some time. Also shared in a BOM.

This wonderful blue fabric was in my stash and I finally came up with a use for it.

Another BOM, which I didn't share the designs and I don't have any idea where I put my designs. They are probably under a load of fabric or at the bottom of a UFO box!!

I love trees so this was a tribute to them. Also shared the patterns.

Little Princess "Ayden" loves the color pink and insisted that I make a quilt using this particular fabric that she had me purchase.

This was a project that I'd had in the works for a couple of years while collecting fabrics. Also shared the designs.

 

This was one of my first mug rug give aways.....Gobble, Gobble!!

Open Range was a quilt that I worked on when on retreat. Everyone was afraid of the rattler at the bottom. They all wondered why I'd put that one in the quilt when I'm not a fan of anything that crawls, flies, slithers, hops, gallops, swims, flutters, etc.

I think this is my favorite mug rug to make. It reminded my of the old westerns on TV.

 

This was my first Christmasy quilt.

A Wacky challenge from the Nickel Square books.

My first big applique quilt using Steam-a-seam.

From my Janome. I sat and watched it stitch out....couldn't take my eyes off it.

On & Done challenge from Fons and Porter. I placed in that one.

Pretty log cabin blocks. I was happy with this one.

My friend, Phil asked me to make a small wall hanging for his wife for their anniversary. They love rabbits so this is what I made for them.

Half-square design quilt that I doodled out and them stitched up from scraps.

My old high school asked me to make a band quilt for a raffle using some of the band uniforms. It was a challenge but once I got started I could hardly stop myself. I decided to not only make band blocks but sports that the band might play for. Twenty blocks were designs and stitched by me. This is a fantastic way to help your school out.

 

This was one of my first apron swap projects to a secret pal.

Ayden's first baby quilt. She liked it so much. I could tell because of all the drooling!!

This one was made with a 9 degree ruler. I really need to get back to that ruler....sigh!

First fabric post card to my secret pal.

Out Pastor's wife is from Jamaica and these are the colors she wanted.

Oh, here's a quilt from a magazine or quilt book...now that I see it, I remember it....LOL....I need to make another one of those. This is a great one because you can adjust the squares and 9-patches to whatever size you wish to make the quilt larger or smaller.

Yard Birds is a BOW (block of the week) I designed and shared. I love the chickens with an attitude.

This little quilt was made from that grid interfacing some years ago where you lay the squares onto the interfacing, press them down, then sew up and down and across. That one went out pretty quick.

A round robin challenge. We had to make the center ourselves then each month it gets passed around, added to and then the big reveal 6 months later.

This was one of my digging through my stash to see if I had fabrics to duplicate a clipart image. That was fun but I didn't get very far with it.

Feathered Star was a challenge that my Wacky friend Molly forced asked us to participate in. She talked us through the entire process and after everything was said and done, we were all proud of our blocks.

 

My contribution to one of my Wacky friend's row quilt.

 

Toilet tissue roll cover challenge.

Another Wacky challenge - row quilts. I chose to go vertical one. My row is the first with the hummingbirds. We each had a year to make each others rows.

I love birdhouses and these came from a quilt book. Of course I used my favorite adhesive - Steam-a-seam!!

This was made as a Quilt of Valor. I was so happy to participate in helping our veterans in some small way.

I saw a pretty quilt on one of my blogging friend's post and she encouraged me to make a Granny Squares quilt. I hadn't ever heard the name before but jumped right in and made this one....Love it!!

Another Wacky challenge but honestly I don't remember why we did this one or who came up with the idea. But black/white is one of my favorite fabrics. I do remember that I purchased that rose fabric in San Antonio.

I started this "Illusions" quilt but never got very far....lots of half square triangles.....lots!!

 

Blue is not my favorite color and I have very few in my stash but I did manage to piece this beauty from them. The rows are on the diagonal and if you know me, you know I was dizzy by the time I finished this one.

One of my first spider webs made from colors that came from some bundle I purchased at a quilt show.

This was my chicken phase. Several of my girlfriends made blocks to add to my UFO blocks and I sewed all the blocks into this wonderful quilt.

 

This cowboy quilt was made at a retreat for a lady's little boy. Thanks to Steam-a-seam, I was able to start and finish it in three days.

Another Janome effort.

Also, another Janome project with colorful fabric squares to add interest.

 

This project was from 2013. I shared designs, as well.

Love these fabrics which are always a part of my stash.

Half-square project which went to my helping hands group.

 

I hope you enjoyed walking down the 7 years of my blogging experience and thank you for your patience!!