Guess WHAT I've Been Sewing? Hint: Not A Blouse

Has any one person on the planet sewn more blouses than I have?  I don't think so.  Seriously, I'm going to have to start building closets in front of my closets like my MIL did!  I cannot fit one more hanger on the bar where I have them now.

This rack in my closet holds ONLY CLOTHES I HAVE MADE MYSELF.  All but two are blouses, and I see one jacket.

I'm sure you will recognize most of them.

I wanted to keep them here so I could see how many I have made and not forget to wear them.

Here is my half of the closet where I can hang things.  I can see that there are MANY of my home made blouses dispersed through those other racks -- top and bottom.  My pants are there also.

I guess I have already had to let some of the blouses escape to keep them from being squashed to death!

This does not count the blouses hanging in my closet in our other home.

I do believe it is time to start weeding out the ones I don't really like that much.  Sad thing is, I can't give them away because the person receiving them would have to have all the same fitting issues that I have, or the blouse would be all wonky on them.

SOOOOOOOOOO, I was going to tell you that I have been working on a quilt top.  It is a pattern I bought in 2007 at a Bernina store in Springfield, MO.  I wasn't much of a quilter in those days, so I looked for things I thought I could actually do.  They had this made up and hanging on the wall in the store.  It was really cute, so I bought the pattern.

When I had to be at my MIL's house for all those months with NO television and NO internet, I decided to take a sewing machine and a quilt to work on for those long, lonely nights.  Recently, I finished the last block and decided to bring it home.

Here is what it looks like right this very minute on the floor of my sewing room:

I have to make sashing strips for it, and I haven't decided if I want to use this red, or a blue, or a beige fabric for those.  Three of the blocks still have to have the applique stitched around.

It will have two borders.

Here is a picture from the pattern:

Each block has to be appliqued.  I took a picture of the sunflower block BEFORE:

 And here it is AFTER:

When I get all the quilting done on top of it, it will look even better.  I am going to hang it up in here so I can have something different to look at for awhile.

NOT ONLY have I been working on that quilt, I decided to join in a project that Rhonda of "Rhonda's Creative Life" started.  At first, I didn't think I would participate, but I decided today that I was in the mood.  For some reason -- which you can read about on her very nice blog -- she is making 900 -- yes, NINE HUNDRED pillowcases for a Hospital to give to children.  She has asked for us seamstresses out there in bloggerland to help her.  I managed to make five of them today.

I didn't have a whole lot of juvenile prints because I gave them all away when my grandkids got to be 5' tall, but I did find two cute ones.

Here are the kitty cat pillowcases I made today:

 And here is one butterfly pillowcase with a contrast purple strip which I had only enough of for one:

And I made two of the butterfly cases with matching strips on the end because I couldn't find any other fabric I liked with them.

I may try to make several more tomorrow.  Depends on what mood I wake up in.  This probably seems like a simple project, but you can't imagine how hard I worked and WHAT A MESS I made trying to figure out what fabrics to use.  Check this out:

Of course, I DID find another really good use for that exercise equipment!

Remember my very first quilt -- the purple squares with the fall colored squares???  Here is another version that I started way back then, but never finished -- and I doubt I ever will since I have advanced quite a bit since that stage of my quilting life.  Wonder if anyone would want it.  All the blocks are already cut out.  They are in the bin on the floor right next to it.

That's it for today.  Time to go swing for awhile and decide what to fix for dinner.

OH!  Check out Phylly's blog.  She wrote all about the very sad tale of our most favoritist-of-all fabric store in Tulsa, OK.       www.justalittlebitofsewing.blogspot.com     She shows us the GORGEOUS fabrics she bought.  I would LOVE to have been able to be with her yesterday.

Hugs, Joy