Something old, something new, something purple, something blue

No, it's not the wedding saying, it's my birthday! (hence the purple part) And the title will make sense in a little while (grin).

First things first. In response to inquiring minds that want to know...here's a picture of my kissing cousins thread. The one on the left is Melcomart's ARC and the one on the right is Isacord. These are the staples of my thread drawer. ARC is no longer available having been replaced by Madeira, which I've been told is good thread, but I'm going to be replacing my color stash with Isacord, which I've been building up over the past year or two anyway. I run these threads exclusively in the bobbin no matter what thread I use on top (King Tut, Rainbows, ARC, Isacord). And that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Did I mention that they have over 200 colors!!

You are seeing a sneak preview of my birthday wholecloth. I didn't get started until late afternoon and didn't get as far as I wanted to, but the night is still young.



I've tried to make it a habit since 2004 to make a birthday quilt every year...more on that later...this one is some of the hand dyed fabric from the workshops last month with Jamie Wallen. It's just a little piece, somewhere around 28 x 40 I think and it's going to be yummy.

Son #2 is my artist, this is a picture he painted and gave to me today for my birthday. He knows my colors doesn't he! He's on his way over and we're going to bake cookies tonight.

This is my REAL birthday present, even though it arrived a little early (last week). Pixxie is checking out my new ride! (This is my something NEW, or at least new to me)



Tomorrow in celebration of my birthday I'm going on a road trip to my favorite retreat center in Tomball, the Quilter's Cabin This will be my third time hosting a sew-in. I've dubbed this one "49 and holding!" and can't wait to pack up the new ride with all my quilting projects.


This suitcase if full of my living room fabric left-over scraps. I've made curtains, a wallhanging that isn't quilted yet, and a couch quilt that just needs the binding sewn down and still have scraps!. My goal for this weekend is another scrap quilt (see the EQ6 pattern?) and cover some pillows for the couch. (This is my something OLD, even though some of the other projects are older - just work with me here okay)


This is another project that I'm bringing to work on. Several of the gals are bringing the same "block of the month" that we never quite finished. Off hand I can't remember what year Quilts By the Bay in Galveston offered it, but I'm sure one of the gals will refresh my memory. I'm going to try to come up with something creative and use the 5 blocks that I managed to actually make and turn this into a smaller quilt than the original queen 3 x 4 setting with sashing. The retreat center has fabulous design walls and I'm eager to take advantage of them! (This is my something BLUE)

And here's my something PURPLE. It's also my unfinished 2007 birthday quilt. The plan for the quilt was to contain 47 purples to celebrate my age, now I have to figure out if I can work in 49 or just call it done and not worry about it GRIN. This was the only year (2007) that I didn't complete a quilt for my birthday. The others have all been pretty simple patterns, I guess that's why they got finished!


Oh, and I thought I'd throw in another something NEW just in case. These are fabrics that I collected when I did my Dangling Carrot quilt but decided not to use, I just used the fabrics that my friends shared with me. Well, one of those cyper friends was Le Ann Weaver author of Loose Change. If I have the opportunity I think these fabrics would look great with one of the patterns in the book. It's a great book, I'd highly recommend it.

Well, Son #2 just arrived, I'd sent him out for eggs. Plan on making enough cookies for hubby's lunch and a co-worker who keeps asking "when is your wife making cookies again", son #2 and his roommate, son #1 and his roommates, and enough to share at the retreat this weekend. That's a lot of cookies!

Stay tuned, there WILL be photos from the retreat! In the meantime, check out the webshots from previous year's past. We have a great time! Wish you all could come GRIN