Fun pockets and quick quilts

This lap quilt is made from a charm pack in the pattern named dissapearing 9 patch or Magic 9 patch. I have lots of little charm packs, I just dig them. One of the best marketing ideas Moda Fabric has ever come up with. This is a tiny tiny town in the middle of Australia and the fabric selection just stinks and is insanely expensive. For the most part I do not even go to the fabric shop. The lady who owns it is so mean. She wouldn't even talk to me until I brought my Berninas in to be serviced then she saw what I had and all but fell over herself to sell me a Horn Sewing Cabnet. Anyway...I love the charm packs because it is like holding an entire fabric collection. I can select which prints I want to order in yardage and use later in bags and quilts....but I have a bunch of them. What to do with them??? Well how about make little lap quilts? I have made several, but this one was so darn fast. Unbelivably fast. I think I will aplique some circles on the lower corner just to give it some spunk. We will see. I like hand apliqueing these days. Gives me a chance to sit down after the kids have gone to bed. Typically I do not sit during the day. I am always standing at the cutting table or cooking in the kitchen or pressing pieces of bags. It is nice to put my feet up and rest from time to time. Rest but still do something. I can't do nothing. When I finish this one I will list it in my shop. Maybe it can go to a good home.

This is the pocket in the latest Cathy bag I am working on. I just love it so much. It is a tiny quilt inside her bag. I love the DCU and dark blues and aquas. It reminds me of a very stormy beach at dusk. The middle of the block is linen that I dyed myself. I dye fabric outside these days. Second migrane I have ever had after my fabric dying class taught me that lesson.

I am poping up all over the Internet lately. Wow, I am flattered. Thanks so much. Sew mama Sew has one of my bags and diaper pads up for their Quilt month. Thanks! What a surprise. Shelagh over at Une Petite Etoile has just sent me a big box of scraps from her lovely studio. I will be using that fabric for my Hero Quilt cause. Thank you Shelagh! Westminster Fabric gave me a massive donation last month. Now... to figure out how to claim all these blessings on my 1040 tax documents! Oh Lonnie! Why can't we still live across from one another? (Lonnie was my Tax goddess last year).

Update on the bird man. He was in my backyard (yep, inside the fence) filming the mating Cuckos the other day. It is all just too weird to be alarming anymore. All three of my kids were getting to look through the camera at the figs since their racket runied the love making mood of the Channel Billed Cuckos and they took off for a more quiet enviornment. I will be so happy for my husband to be home again. I am horribly out of practice with this single mom gig. I know I have only done it for a month, and my husband was just in Denver not driving up and down Route Irish in Baghdad, but man it has been a challenge. My heart goes out to you who are having to deal with the 15 month deployments. My husband just did the 12 month ones. That was horrible, but 15 months? yuck! I made a quilt at Christmas for a man who was on his 5th deployment...I can't even imagine how stressed his wife and children must be not to mention him!

Ok, dinner is almost ready. Wish my husband luck on his 14 hour flight tonight and I hope he makes the connection in Sydney. I miss him.