While they were sleeping

Three things to be happy about:
(1) the first day of school, woot woot!
(2) early morning grocery shopping
(3) cinnamon-raisin bagels

Hi everybody, thanks so much for visiting and commenting!  Yesterday my sister and brother-in-law (or should I speak blog-ese and say "BIL") arrived safely and soundly! My sister is a big Pogo Scrabble fan, and she wanted to play after dinner; my BIL is a big TV fan and he wanted to play with the remote. So I figured, Shoot! Why can't I play with my fabrics???

While I was de-cluttering and busting the bunnies a few days ago I found some time to cut some fabrics for another cobblestone quilt, so while they were doing their thing I sneaked upstairs and sewed a few.  When we had the cobblestone workshop at the WeeBee in July, Charlene used black and white for hers and it was so pretty I thought I'd go with black and white for this one...

There's something so classic about black and white!

On the previous two quilts I made, the blocks all finished at six inches.  Six inches is a great size, but I want to make a larger quilt, so I'm going with larger blocks - bust that stash! 

Now here's where this one is different:  to add interest to the quilt, I decided to use blocks in 3 different sizes:  6 x 6, 12 x 12, and 6 x 12.

Also, I'm putting in just a teensy bit of red, just to liven things up!

I wish I had more of that red above; it's an Alexander Henry fabric I think. 

Basically the quilt will be based on a 12 x 12" block configuration, except some of the 12 inches will be made up with 6 x 6 and/or 6 x 12 inch blocks!  Clever, eh???

So, while Shell and Curt were still sleeping this morning I got up and made a couple blocks, itchy fingers and all.  In no particular order, here's what I've done so far:

I'll worry about the layout after I've done a lot more!

Well, today we go out after brekky to visit museums and the MLK monument.  Have a great day everybody... sew forth and sew on til later!

A fine day for a fair!

... until the storms came and we were told to seek immediate cover... then it was a fair day!

Yesterday I went on a bus trip to the York (PA) county fair with my friend Felicia, the Slow Quilter.  What's the best way to start out a bus trip?  Why, you get that photo op - Felicia and I "opted"  each other with self-portraits!  What is it you call someone who writes your autobiograpy for you?  A ghost writer?  On the bus we ghost-auto-photographed each other!

Felicia kept saying "I just have to get one of those polish sausages, a funnel cake, and play "I Got It!", and I'll be satisfied! 

Those funnel cakes are super-delish!  I tried one with peanut butter; even after it got cold it was yummy!  I ate about half of it, and brought the rest home and had it with coffee.

No fair would be complete without the giant pumpkins and the decorated pumpkins and the little pumpkins that you wonder why they're there, but you see the tag that says "second grade" and you sorta know it's to encourage the little guys.

The judges must have had a really hard time, some of these were gorgeous as well as creative.  But I really liked this gourd painted like a duck...

As we were inside waiting out the storms, we got a chance to watch Felicia play with some shoestring licorice, LOL.

Never a dull moment around this lady!

In the handcrafts building there was an interesting demo of wool spinning and weaving...

Nostalgia, anyone?

Anybody remember these detergents - Surf, Rinso, Oxydol, Ivory Flakes, Duz??

We saw the camel and the zebra but we missed the pig races and the circus ...  and we didn't EVEN want to see the giant rat!  Living in the District, why would you PAY to see a rat???  A giant one, even.  Just hie thee away to Dupont Circle and wait a few minutes...

But I came home with this prize - a Helping Handle tool that I won at "I Got It!"

The Helping Handle is sold as a bathtub handle, but as many of you know this handy-dandy tool can be used as a handle on your rulers!  And it only cost me one ticket, which I won at some point while playing 8 games of "I Got It!" (at 50 cents a game).  Basically "I Got It!" is a bingo-like game where you toss little rubber balls into a 15-slot box as the caller calls numbers; first one to get 5 balls in a row wins.  Not a bad deal, I reckon.

I also bought some delicious Honeycrisp apples at the Brown's Farm booth.

I tell you, these apples are so good it makes you want to roll your eyes!  (But I resisted though ...didn't wanna scare anybody!)  Really, they have a slightly-sweet/slightly-tart taste that is indescribably delicious!   I've had a lot of different apples but I don't think I've ever had Honeycrisp apples before.  If you run across them, get some!

We had a great time and of course, as with all great times, we were tired afterwards ... I took a wee nap on the bus coming back home.  All in all, it was a fine day for a fair!

My sister comes tomorrow, so I'll be doing the tourist thing for a few days... sew forth and sew on til later!

Away for undercover duties!

If today is Monday, it must be almost a week since I've blogged.  I do have a specific reason for being away this time - my sister (Michelle) and brother-in-law (Curt) are coming for a 3-day visit next week and I still have to do some decluttering!

First off they'll need someplace to lay their heads!   I don't think they'll be too comfortable sharing the bed with fabric, do you?  I keep some of my stash in the spare bedroom because it's only used once in a blue moon (the bed, not my stash!) ... in fact the last overnight visitor I had was my sister way back in 2008!

It's okay if someone is just dropping in, it's easy to push stuff behind the door and under the bed and in the corner, but overnight is a whole different animal. 

Do you suppose they'll notice this stacked on the dresser??

mmm... I better move it! 

But I think I'll leave this stack next to the window, surely they can walk around it...

It's adds to the decor, right?  A little vertical interest going on!

So now you know what my undercover work will be for a couple more days... wish me luck, not much time for sewing or blogging!  I'll look forward to seeing what's going on with you all when I have a chance to come back  :o)

Laters, baby!  Sew forth and sew on ...