Almost Finished!

Well I cannot say I will be sad to see this quilt off the frame!

Don't get me wrong.  Now that I have brought it out again I remembered how much I do actually like this quilt.  I look back at the different fabrics in the squares and remember the projects they came from.  I remember each wedding quilt, each hand bag and each baby quilt etc that these fabric scraps came from.  I also remember how much I learned with this quilt.  And, honestly, how much the two of us have gone through together to get to this point.  We've had our ups and downs together.

It sounds like this quilt is now a living being at this point.  Perhaps it is?  Perhaps when something represents so much history, so many memories and so many emotions it takes on some life of it's own.  Maybe that's why I have such an emotion reaction to this quilt?  I don't really know!

What I do know is that this quilt is almost at the last boarder - yet - and to me, that means a lot!

Finally Racked!

I finally did it and I am proud of myself!  I finally racked my beast of a leaders and enders quilt!

If you have been following my blog for a while you might know that I have a real love / hate relationship with this quilt.  Why love?  Look at all those scraps!  Why hate?  Well, just about anything that could go wrong with this quilt has!  Heck I have even sewn in an incorrect fabric into this quilt!  Then after all of that I didn't like it until I made it a bit bigger!

I have blogged about it on many occasions, the last being May of 2012, and heck a few years ago I made a video showing how to make the alternating blocks!  The links will take you to a greater explanation of how the quilt was put together.  

In the process I set some goals with this quilts.  I succeeded with my goals mostly and I am happy with it.  But, sometimes, do you ever just form an opinion about a quilt and just need to put it away for a little while?  Well that's what I did with this one - we just needed some distance from each other.  Or, rather I did ;-)

But now I am determined to get this one out of the closet and onto a bed!  We've had quite a journey, this quilt and I, but, I think it's time to take the last few steps and finish it!

Have you ever needed time away from a top in order to come back to it?

Smart Phone Stands

Hi all!

Sorry I know that it has been a while!  What have I been doing?  Well, the holidays happened but I also got quite sick with this flu that seems to be taking everyone down.  I'm still down to be honest but hopefully starting to mend a bit.

One cool thing I did come across, and wanted to share, was this new die from AccuCut.  It is the Creatables Smart Phone Stand and I think they are the cutest little things!  When they were having a 50% off sale I grabbed one.

I did purchase a pack of the plastic sheets to use but the woman on the phone told me to save my plastic lids - like the type on yogurt.  I thought that this was a great tip!  Cut off the edges and run it through the machine.

It makes some cuts and makes some creases.  Fold on the lines and Voila!

Super cute little phone stands!

They are very sturdy too!  These would be good for a classroom setting, of course, but they are also great for an office setting.  We love ours for around the house for watching Netflix on our phones or iPods.  I also have a few substitute teachers that take my fitness classes and they are constantly checking their phones to see if they have a class the next day.  I made up a bunch of these so they could prop them up in class!

Was this die a wee bit of an indulgent purchase - yes!  But, I am ok with that!  What do you think?  Any other uses?  Ad hock business card holder?