The "Useful" Basket

When I first started reading quilting blogs, I came across the cutest tutorial for a smallish, fabric basket from the Pink Penguin.

I made it for Christmas gifts one year for teachers and "special" friends.  I have three of them being "useful" around our house too.

Each year, our homeschooling coop gives out scholarships to two of our outstanding graduating seniors.  We have a Senior Cake Off, Cupcake Auction, Silent Auction and anything else we can throw in the pot to raise funds for the scholarships.

This year, I'm selling "Useful" baskets.  I have one made up and sitting at our Welcome table on class day.

They're $5 a piece and made entirely of scraps or fabric that's been gifted to me and leftover batting.

No cost, except labor, for me.

Financial benefit for the scholarship fund.

I've sold three already!

It isn't a lot, but every dollar goes to help a senior buy books, meals, necessaries as they go off to college!

Well....................................................................................

It's mid-September.

You know what that means?

Yup.

Tee hee hee!



Drat!

I love computers.

Well.....

not really.  Yes.  No.

It's a love/hate relationship.

I've lost my INBOX twice.

Twice!

I can't sign in to Flickr.

And my comments are being listed as from, "Anonymous".

Sigh.



Starry Summer Quilt

top that I started last year is done!

Here it is with only three rows of six,

and here it is with five rows of six and the border!  Can I just say "Yay!"

I pulled it off the WIP pile this week after some yummy vintage came in from Jeni at In Color Order.

I shouldn't share this, but she has beautiful vintage fabric, ships fast and has the cutest bunny named George.

The star blocks are from Modify Traditions blog.  Easy peasy!

They measure 12" finished.  I anchored the corners with some of my favorite vintage prints.  I'm pulling out full size vintage sheets I've stashed to find the perfect one for the back, and once that's done, it's on to basting and quilting.

 It measures 72" x 84" and is just the right size to snuggle under on the hammock (when the mosquitoes allow)!

Hope your summer is going well.  Javi is working part time and loafing part time.  Middleman is still lifeguarding and Ben just gets away with about as much as he can.  God is good! 



Squirrel Baby

That came to visit.

I was sitting out on the swing Wednesday night and heard a strange little sound.  Saw a hosta leaf move and found this little fellow.

Either hit by a car, or fell out of our oak tree.

He couldn't move his body from the middle back down, so I don't think he could have crawled into our yard from the street if a car hit him.

We called the Bird Lady at Yorktown Wildlife Resqu Haus and she had us bring him over.

She was going to call some BSU professors to come get him and nurse him back to health if the paralysis was temporary.

While we were there, we got to meet:

a bittern

Furrby the Screech Owl

Stevie, the blind kestrel

a Barred Owl

five individual Red Tail Hawks

a Peregrine Falcon

and these little cuties, juvenile Screech Owls.

Mrs. Shaffer will take in injured and "unwanted" animals from all over.  Besides our squirrel and the birds pictured, she had baby bunnies, baby starlings, robins, ducks, chickens and sparrows.

I'm hoping this is somewhere Middleman, Bean and I can volunteer at over the summer.  Cleaning cages and helping to feed the animals.

What an adventure!

Oy! I'm sewing again!

This has been a whirlwind!

But I have managed to get some sewing in this week.

Thankfully. 

Blissfully.

Finally!

This was May's block for Meg at IMQG.  I loved the patterns and colors she had us work with.  She wanted a wonky Log Cabin.  I'm a little late, but it's been crazy I tell you.  Crazy!

Another project I started was a way to tame the scraps!

A scrappy, stringy Ohio Star block.  This measures 12.5" unfinished and I love the subtleness of it all.  I have a huge tote full of scraps.  I'm cutting 2.5" strips and randomly sewing them into fat quarter size pieces and cutting the fabric for the pattern from that.  I know I have other things to do, but this was a mindless kick start to get the quilting mojo back into action!  It's working and again, I have another new WIP to post on Lee's Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.  So don't forget to go and see what other quiltey people are up to this summer

I've also been working on these:



snowball blocks.  LOL  See that cute lil' something taking a nap?  That, my friends, is Tundra.  A male kitty we adopted last week.  He's about 6-8 weeks old and the cutest lil' thing!  They were having a sale...so we went for the twofer...

and this is Gizmo!  She is a tiger calico that has also staked out a claim in the sunroom on my sewing projects.  Tundra is a little bit bigger than a Coke can and Gizmo just a bit bigger.  She's about 8-10 weeks old.  Yes, we are crazy.  We've always had multiple cats.  The last of our original three passed away a week ago and we decided to adopt kitties while all the boys were still at home and these were the cuties that came home with us.

Hubby sweets and I also attended our niece's wedding.  He is my best friend, confidante, counselor, buddy and all around nice guy.  Don't know what I'd do without him!

Off to work on more strips for the Ohio Star!

Have an awesome week, my friends!

Edited to add I'm perterbed blogger won't let me log in to leave comments!  What is up with that!

The Sweet Life

Josh graduating from basic.  He and his sister, Julie.

Two weeks spent building, assembling and decorating sets for Arsenic and Old Lace for our co-op.  Middleman was Dr. Einstein.  Bean and Javi were dead men.  LOL

Late night jam session after the co-op talent show.  These kids are so smart and talented!  Middleman in his "hippy" stage in the red shirt.

Middleman out of his "hippy" stage on the left.  He played an alcoholic plastic surgeon who is soft and cuddly!

Plus a wedding.  Co-op graduation program, niece graduating and then a wedding today as they head off to Texas.  Awards programs for Bean and Middleman and last days of school.  Javi made the Dean's List.

My cup runneth over.

Humbly thankful.

On the down side, I asked Javi to help me sort through the boys' toys in the sunroom and clean it up.  That was three weeks ago and although I did get my machine moved out there, it will probably be time to move it back to the den before I can actually get to it!

No matter.  Sewing is always there and these moments in life aren't.

Enjoy and live life with others to the fullest!