More block swap blocks finished

The last three blocks for the swaps I was in have been mailed out. Actually, one had been mailed a while ago, I just didn't have a chance to load the picture. The other two blocks went in the mail today.

Here are pictures:





I hand pieced the Drunkard's Path block because I cannot sew decent curves on my sewing machine. Actually, I have a hard enough time doing straight seams on the machine!!

The square in a square block took a lot of time. . . . not in the sewing, but in the planning. The fabric that I was sent was wild but there was only one strip of each fabric (and some of the strips were not full WOF) so trying to make up blocks that were 12 1/2" was a brain twister for me because the math wouldn't match up with the strip lengths. My nerves really came out when I got brave enough to do that cutting!!

But, now all the swap blocks have been completed and I can mark that off of my "need to do" list.

There are a couple more long term projects that I have in the works. . . .it will be nice when I can get them out of the way.

Until I have more things to show or say. . . . .

In peace and pieces,

Lots of discussion. . . . . .

There has been lots of discussion lately in blogland about ways of starting & stopping your sewing each time.

Bonnie Hunter has the "Leaders & Enders" thing (which is a variation of the method that I use --- but she gets something out of her excess thread). My method has always been to take a scrap piece of thread & run it through to make sure that the stitches looked good. Then, since I'm easily bored, I just kept using the same scrap pieces (well, there were 2 pieces really -- one to start with & one to end with).

By the time I was ready to "retire" my thread checker it was so thick and covered with thread that you could not tell what the original fabric was.

I'd show you a picture but I can't find my camera. . .thought it was on the kitchen table, but it's not. . .so I'll have to edit this once I get a picture.

I still find it hard to do Bonnie's technique with any regularity. . .it just doesn't work for me; but I use a thread catcher so that I don't get a "bird's nest" of thread on any of the blocks that I want to work with.

Do you use a thread catcher?


In peace and pieces,

I LOVE Craigslist!!!

Have you ever sold or purchased anything from craigslist.com?

I've known about craigslist.com for quite some time. . .but never had too much interest beyond looking for small items. I always felt more comfortable with eBay.com for both purchases and sales (if I couldn't find what I was looking for locally).

But last week I took the plunge & posted my DH's travel trailer for sale on craigslist. He didn't think that we would get any bites, since the trailer was 23 years old (but still in pretty good shape considering that it went through both his ex & me for many camping trips).

WOW!! Is all that I can say. . . .we sold it in a week. . . .for a very fair price.

There were people from several states that had enquired about it (which surprised me to no end) and the family that purchased it are long-time campers graduating from a pop-up to a travel trailer.

While my DH was a little sad to see the trailer go -- for the good memories of travelling with his daughter -- we were happy because I can now park back in the driveway. . . plus the memories of the problems with the ex will no longer be travelling with us.

Our new travel trailer was wonderful over the long weekend. . . .even with all the heat & humidity we had.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a fun 4th of July.



In peace and pieces,