Unexpected Gifts

So...... Hubby calls me, tells me a customer brought in a box of goodies just for me. This is what he brings homes.

A sweet elderly lady, long time customer of hubby's shop was asking how our Holidays were. Somehow my new sewing machine came up. "Your wife is a sewer" ? Hubby said she was all smiles. He told her that I mostly quilt these days. So imagine his surprise when she showed up the next day with that box. She said she could no longer quilt due to arm and hand issues. Thought maybe I could put this stuff to good use. Hubby gave her a big hug, thanked her and said I'd be thrilled !!!
I went thru the box and removed what I knew I could use. My quilting buddy Deb came over, did the same.

This is what I kept, 32 yards in total. It's now washed, pressed, wrapped and added to my stash.

 
Now what to do with the rest ? Goodwill or thrift shop ? I wanted to continue this unexpected gift. Thru Facebook I found the "Wednesday Quilter's" at our local Senior Center. They do baby n' lap/wheelchair quilts for charity gifts. They were so excited to be the recipients. They got quite the surprise when I showed up in my school bus to deliver it. They were less than 3 blocks from my last AM stop. I thought it was time saving and cost effective, for me.....the Boss might not think so....Sshhhhhh ;)

They were so thankful and said  "If you ever need to find a home for more fabric..... to please keep them in mind". In the next day or so I'll be sending a very nice "Thank You" card to Hubby's darling customer. Letting her know how amazing her gift is and how it was divided up. Quilter's have amazing hearts !!!

Birthstone Quilt-a-Long 2018

Some of you may know about the Gift Marker's~

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1394448104144292/)

A few years ago at Christmas time I was so overwhelmed with how many gifts I need to finished. Several girlfriends were in the same boat. So I started the GM's, each month we make a gift and put it away. It can be for any occasion or holiday. It was amazing when next Christmas came along and we had so many gifts already done. I had only planned to try it out for a year....but several members asked to keep it going....so we have.
We are a small group of 9 gals. We are all very different and spread out across the U.S., our one and only Canadian is in Newfoundland. We love you Glenda :) These are some amazing woman to have in my corner. We have cheered each other on, talked out issue with both sewing and life.

This year we are doing a Quilt-a-Long~ I was trying to decide what to do. I ran across this FQ pack and said to myself "there are 12 of these black tone-on-tone, 12 months.......what about the Birthstones.

This is how it all started. Another member Deb and I sat down and tossed "Ideas" around. We thought this would be a good scrap busting project. We settled on Half Square Triangles, you pick the size. You pick the neutral you like or have on hand. You can do as many or as few of each as you'd like. Deb's planning on doing a table runner. I'm planning a quilt size project.

We set out to collect of scrapes. These are my choices from both yardage and scraps~

I also had a pack of 2 1/2 inch Thangles I'd bought and never used.....no brainer !!! They're quick and easy to use.

January's birthstone is Garnet. I like using these Thangles~

Just lay out  the strips and sew on the dotted line. Once you're done then you cut them into rectangles.

Then they are cut in half using the solid line. These really couldn't get much easier. I would use them again.

You just press to the dark side. Pinch seam with your fingers, pull off the paper pieces and you're finished with the square.

These are my February square which are Amethyst. I'm doing 50 for each month. Hope 600 if these little guys will make a good size lap quilt.

  

Feel free to join in on our Q.A., there are so many pretty HST quilts out there. These are just a few that I really liked.

 I'm really excited to see how these all turn out

Protectors of my Stash

These are my original stash guards. Sadly only Shadow is still living~ 

Five weeks ago I added a new member to the team. Meet Ranger~

Shadow is slowly showing him how to do his job. They make sure no fabric thieves or axe murder's enter the studio. Here they are hard at work. Behind him is my 1925 Singer case for size comparison. His Daddy is a 100 pound Goliath Doberman. Mom is a 75 pound German/Dutch Shepard X. He's going to be a big boy. At 10 weeks he was already 22.6 pounds ~

His favorite place to sleep is in my laundry basket~

In other news I've joined a de-cluttering group on FB. My studio has been done and is organized. I found a total of 47 projects in various stages from kits to flimsy's to just waiting on a binding. I now have a running list to work off from.
I also spent a wet, rainy and windy yesterday clearly out un-wanted/needed stuff on my laptop......1797 things were in the recycle/trash when I was done.Today our spare bedroom/office is getting de-cluttered. I've already gone thru the books over 100 went to work. After my tribe of girls attacked the pile, there were about 20 left that went to a donation station.
My filing cabinet will be save for another day.....it a nightmare! Wish me luck !!!