It's been a long eight days since the tornado hit Joplin.  All of my family living in the area are all OK and safe.... and even though my granddaughters boyfriend lost his apartment... he was not there when it hit and he was safe.  I count the blessings.  

Our hearts are broken and we sob for the families who have lost loved ones.  And all we can do is pray and reach out to give what we can.
The physical devastation the wind left in it's wake is unbelievable.  
The emotional trauma that has left multitudes trying to find stable ground to stand on....is unbelievable.
The prayers and love that keeps pouring into Joplin is unbelievable!    
     And day by day.... minute by minute stable ground is being found and healing has begun.
Another day....
     
So for today I'm going to post a few quilting pictures....hoping this will be one more step toward finding my normal.

<<< This is a piece of the block I've chosen for May's
Monochromatic Challenge from Judy's blog. 

 >>>

The finished 8" block is called Jack in the Box by Bonnie Hunter.  I saw this pattern in the January/February issue of Quiltmaker magazine.
I'll be making 30 blocks and adding red sashing and a border to finish at 58" x 68".  A nice sized snuggle quilt.
 
Keep sending healing prayers for Joplin.
And hug your family tight.
Thanks for stopping by....

Goodness It's been chilly this week.  Most nights we've been running the furnace since it's been getting down in the 40s.  But it's supposed to warm up this weekend.  80 degrees will be welcomed.

I've been slowly plugging away on my "Red" piecing.     One unit is all sewn and now I'm working on the other unit that will combine with the angled piece that you see here.
That's a LOT of white squares added to the corners.  Something like 480 - 2 1/2" squares.

When I first started sewing the squares to the bricks I was pretty much eyeballing the best I could.  I was doing ok....but...
Then I remembered that I had a guide that I could put on my machine.
Sooooo I had to spend a bit of time tracking it down since I'd put it away "somewhere".

Finally found it and taped it down and away I went.  Now this is much easier.

The bed of my Janome is a tad bit small for the mat but I've managed to make it stay in place well enough.    I usually pencil mark the back of each of the squares when I sew this type of block....but with this pattern there were just too many to do that way.
  
Yea I'll use this guide again and save my pencil for writing.  HA!

And while I"m sewing I'm also adding another seam 3/8" away from the first one (per Bonnie's instructions) so when I cut off the waste triangles they're already seamed together.
<< TaDa
They just need a good pressing and then stored away for another project.

This pile doesn't EVEN begin to show how many of these little buggers there are.  Ironing these has pretty much been all I've done this week.  LOL

So I'm heading off to do some more sewing, cutting and pressing.  "See" you next week........
Thanks for stopping by....

I am amazed!  Where did the time go?  Surely it hasn't been that long since I've posted.
Maybe it was Blogger's fault.
Maybe it ate all of my posts.
Hahahaha
Yeah right!

Sooooo moving right along ..... This month's Monocromatic Challenge color is Red.
I love red.
And I love Bonnie Hunter and her scrappy system and patterns....so I decided to use one of her blocks and use up some of my red Fat Quarters along with assorted White on White.

Here's a pic of some of the fabrics as I was just getting started.

I've used my Go cutter and made short work of cutting the 2 1/2" squares and strips for the bricks.  I have started sewing some of the bricks but as usual I'm getting a late start and seems like so many other projects keep pulling me away.

Like lunch!  Going to fix me a salad.
I promise I won't wait so long to post again.
 
Thanks for stopping by....