Sunday Sentiments

Is your family obsessed with FIFA? Even my teenage son has been getting up "early" *gasp* to watch the soccer games! I thought I might get a little stitching done on my "Journey" quilt while watching the tournament with my family,  but these games are too captivating and no stitching is getting done!

However, I have completed the boring job of stitching together scraps of batting to make a piece large enough for a quilt. The last time I used up batting scraps (click here)  I worried the whole time I was machine quilting about not stitching them together. It worked out okay I think for that baby quilt, but I'm not taking any chances with a larger bed sized quilt.

This has been a very lucky week for me...I received THREE quilty gifts this week! The first one came in the mail from fellow quilt blogger Julie. She sent me her baptist fan stencil to try with my next hand quilting project (when I pick which one it will be).

And she sent along the most gorgeous fabric that I have seen other bloggers writing about called "Rouenneries". It is so beautiful, and although it should go into the "too lovely to cut into" fabric pile, I think it will breathe new life into my Chocolate Covered Strawberry Sampler! Thanks Julie!

And Jackie dropped this new cutting mat into my studio mailbox. It has a rotating base, which is perfect for trimming HST's...have you tried one yet?

I am loving it and finding the trimming to be much faster...thanks Jackie!

And my third quilty surprise was a bag of scraps from Judy (hey...all these generous friends have names that start with 'J'...isn't that weird?!?).

I am totally inspired to cut up these scraps for another "leader/ender" project, although I am only half way through my current one!

Thanks Judy!