Christmas Present for DH

I have the best friends in the whole world. We get together once a month for our "Sit & Sew" or whatever you like to call it. We've been doing this for several years now. tirane's house is on English Street, hence our name "The English

Since the day I started quilting my husband has wanted a quilt. Not just any quilt, he wanted a certain design. I had a mental and emotional block about it and never made the quilt. At our November get together after my talking about it again my friends said "Just bring the fabric Babs".

At our December get together they helped me make the quilt. tirane has the pictures and has done a great post about it so please check out her blog...

What friends are for

A little determination

I was so bound and determined to get it finished by the end of the year I finished the top at 3:00 Sunday afternoon.

I've already pulled a BIB (blocks in bag) and some scraps and am gonna shoot for another finish.

Remedial Math & White Christmas

It went like this:

18 inch blocks needed- they were easy. Done.
12 inch blocks needed-Done
6 inch blocks needed. It took me a while but I made all 36 needed.

I start to assemble. OOPS. Everyone knows I can't count. I needed 27 of the 12 inch and I'd only made 18. Back to the sewing machine yesterday.

ALL blocks are now made. The 6 inch blocks are sewn together in their pairs and next I'll sew the pairs to the 18 original 12 inch blocks.

I'm bound and determined to have this into a top by the end of the year. I'm going to use up large scraps and piece the back but I have till mid-to late January to get that done...when are we meeting tirane?

We had a WHITE Christmas here in Dallas! Here is a picture taken of the pond behind our house.

And here is a picture of my niece Raegan in the apron I made her for Christmas. She is going to be 3 in March. She has a kitchen set she received last Christmas that she plays with every day.
And this year she received more appliances and foods to go with it. Martha, Sandra, Rachael, and Paula need to watch out in 15 years or so...

I used the Apron pattern from "Sewing for Dummies" by Simplicity. It's definitely a keeper and I'll make more of these in the future.

Helping Out

Irish Flood Quilts

I have deep Celtic roots. I've volunteered at the North Texas Irish Festival for the last 4 years and met some wonderful people from Ireland. I'm going to set aside the "Random Blocks" quilt and other projects for a bit and make some blocks and tops to help out with this effort. I'll be concentrating on kids quilts as that is the largest portion of my stash.

First I finished this

Then I made the last 5 of these. Here are all 9 18-inch blocks

Then rather than switching to black thread and digging out my brights I decided to keep going and made these last 6 12-inch blocks needed

Friday morning I went to Golden D'or and bought these

75 yards for $80.

Then I made this block for Dec. BOM at the Garland Guild

While I was at it I made this one since I'll be presenting it for the January BOM.


I also got several more of the 6 inch pink and red blocks made and did laundry, dishes, took the trash out, slept, and ate. What did YOU do this holiday weekend?

Thanksgiving Week Goals

I have 3 simple goals for this week. If I get them done by 8am Friday, I'm going to reward myself by going here for one of their 25% off everything sales. I need backings for several quilts and I might treat myself to some more black & whites for an upcoming project.

My goals are

• finish a charity top I just started on Saturday. I have the center pieced, just need to add the borders. (they are cut) It's a really cute kids quilt.
• Make the 18 inch blocks needed for the pink/red "Random Blocks" quilt. 4 of 9 are done.
• Make at least 5 "Happy Scrappy" quilt blocks

I Won!

I never win anything but I have been following along in the 100 Blocks Blog Tour and I fell in love with this block by Julie Pieri. She named it "Hot Fudge Please".

Each block designer was given a copy of the book to give away and I checked out some of the designers blogs and I won a copy from Julie! WOW! So pretty soon I'll be getting this in the mail.

There were so many beautiful blocks. I visited about 20 of the blogs but I only entered about 8 of the drawings so I feel really lucky and happy to be a winner!

Thanks Beth for turning me on to this!

Black & Bright

I just love Brights. Loud, Vivid colors are my favorites. I always say "If it hurts your eyes I'll like it".

When QATW had a swap for these easy Black & Bright blocks earlier this spring I just had to join. Purple seemed to be the favorite color. The original quilt design had all the blocks on point but of course I had to be different. I played around with laying out the colors randomly and nothing looked right. So I did this.

It's hard to tell but there is a difference between the dark blue and the light blue. They seem to blend together. Those are teal blocks in the bottom left next to the purple corner.

I'm doing a skinny border of black, and then a scrappy/strippy border of colors around it with the colorways switched. Does that make sense? The 1/2 with blues, green, teal will have pink/red/orange/ yellow strips and vice versa. Then I think there will be another strip of black beyond that. I hope it turns out like the design in my head. LOL.

I've also been working on a layout for some 30's Sampler blocks and I've been making "Kansas Trouble" blocks with scraps for another QATW swap. And I'm plugging away at cleaning up the sewing room. I've got the afternoon off today and am going to get back to working on it.

This is actually week 3 of my 13 week challenge and my goals are:

• get the borders cut for the Bright quilt
• finish designing the layout for the 30's quilt
• finish the "Kansas Trouble" blocks for that swap

Oh, I keep forgetting to post some really fun news! I joined the Garland TX Quilt Guild back in the spring and I've been asked to serve on the Board! They need a "Fundraiser" chairman. So far the only fundraiser they've been doing is the monthly BOM at meetings. So I will get to pick those and make one to show and sell the tickets and all that. I think it will be a lot of fun. I can't wait to get with the gal who has been doing it to see what blocks have already been done cause I have lots of ideas but I want to make sure I don't repeat a block too soon.

Voila!

I finished it yesterday! I am so glad I followed tirane's suggestion in using the square in square border. It really makes the quilt.

Then I stayed up late and got another set of blocks into rows. I smell another finish coming on!

Fall 2009 Online Quilt Show

This is my entry in Amy's Fall 2009 Online Quilt Show. This is the first top I ever made. I saw the pattern in a magazine and had to make it. It took me several months to gather up the fabrics I wanted to use since I was a new quilter but I wanted a scrappy look.

I started the top sometime around 2001 and it got put away until last year. I pulled it back out and finished it up and had my dear friend tirane do the quilting.

Here's a closeup of the quilting

and a closeup of the border. It's one of the only times I've asked her to do something specific in the border. I wanted a holly vine and as usual she did an outstanding job.

I hope you've enjoyed my quilt and check out what other quilters around the world are doing!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know....

1. What thread do you use for machine piecing?
2. How often do you change your rotary blade?
3. How often do you buy a new ruler to use?
4. How often do you clean out your lint and oil your machine?
   

I have been using Coats & Clark ever since I started sewing but it does put out a lot of lint. I change out my rotary blade as soon as I have a hard time going through a couple of layers of fabric.

I think I'm too rough on my rulers/templates. I use a 6 1/2 inch square ruler a LOT. It seems that if I've been getting a lot of projects done, I have to get a new ruler every other month or so. The corners end up worn off. I like the yellow Omnigrid ones.

I clean out my machine (at least the parts I can get to easily) every time I change the bobbin and I oil it the first of every month.

---------

An update on the square in squares for the border- they are done except for squaring them up! Maybe I'll have a finish by Sunday night?

30's prints

I'm working on the square in squares for the border of the shoofly quilt and wanted to show off some of my favorite fabrics. Some of these were given to me in a special exchange we have in QATW called "Heart to Heart". If you need certain kinds of squares or strips you can post a request and then people will send you packages in the mail if they have that.

I think I especially like the little houses on purple and the cute Little Bo Peep print. So many of the prints I have remind me of quilts my Grandmother made. I wish I had pictures of those.

I have about 1/2 of the 46 squares needed...

October Goals

1. Finish "30's Shooflies" quilt
2. Get bed out of sewing room.
3. I just got a commision to make a baby quilt for a boy in blues and browns. I'm going to do something very simple like a rail fence or a turning 20.
4. Make substantial progress towards "Random Blocks".
5. Blog at least twice a week WITH pictures.

My hours at work are getting cut again for a while. I'll have more afternoons to get some cleaning and sewing done though so I look at it as a mixed blessing.

13 week Challenge

I decided that I'm giving myself a 13 week challenge. Each week I'm going to pick 2 projects and ONLY work on those 2. I CANNOT start anything new (from scratch). It must be from my UFO list or my BIB list. I hope to have at least 4 tops finished by the end of the challenge.

I've decided on the border for the 30's shoofly and will get those on. I should have time left to make a few more Random Blocks.

Projects that only need a little bit of work will get worked on till they are done. Other projects may get worked on a bit at a time.

A non-quilty goal for next week is to get rid of that bed and then I'll have a design wall!!!

And the Winner Is.....

I realized it was really weird of me to put a giveaway and my biopsy news in the same post and I apologize for doing that.

But I did promise that anyone who posted had a chance to win my scrap bag, so the winner is.....

GINA!

Please send me your address and I'll get this bag out to you!

Opinions Please

Here is something I'm currently working on. I want to add a 2 inch border of white and then a color and then another 2 inch border of white...but what color to add? I'm stumped!

Over 1/2 gone!

Well I woke up Saturday morning with a bad cough that followed me around most of the weekend. I didn't get any sewing done. However, I did some reflection, planning, and organizing in my sewing room.

David has agreed that if I can find a buyer for the twin bed then we can get rid of it and that will free up a lot of space in the room. I need to move some stuff out of the way and take the frame apart and post it on Craigslist. Anyone local to Dallas know anyone who'd like a Twin bed with a Red metal headboard in great condition? It's really cute, just not needed.

I went through my tubs of blocks. I posted over a year and a half ago my list of 'BIB's (blocks in bags). At that point I had 73 sets total. I now have a list of only 25!!!!! I should go back through the old list and count the ones actually made into tops, but a lot were given away or traded away. Some still on the list don't really speak to me anymore so I'm thinking of trading or giving them away too.

My new list of 25:

Crumb Blocks
Black & Bright Pinwheels
Fall Sampler blocks ( I have enough blocks for 2 or 3 quilts though)
30's Sampler
Brown/Pink/Cream Sampler
Black/Pink/White Sampler
Blue & Yellow Sampler
Christmas Sampler
Halloween Blocks
Black & Bright Indian Stars
Lot O' Hearts (won in QATW February Block Lotto)
30's Churn Dashes
Spring Fling
Tennessee
Orange/Yellow/White Sampler
Better Be Bright Blocks
Red & White Sampler
Pink & White Sampler
Butterfly FBS
Pink & Purple 16 patches
Black & White & Wild Friendship Stars
Batik & Cream Sampler
Kids Buzzard Roost
Scrappy Bowties

That doesn't count a few UFO's. To me UFO is anything I'm currently working on, or have started and not finished. That list includes

Pink & Red Random Blocks
Babs meets Freddy & Jane
Adagio
Rocky Road to Kansas
30's Shooflies
Red/Green Dutchman Puzzles
Black & Bright Zig Zag
Spiderweb

In the next couple of days I'll post my list of October Goals.

150th post!

This is my 150th post! To celebrate that and the great news I got from the Oral Surgeon today, I'm having a giveaway. I've gathered up a bag of 150 scrap pieces from one of my scrap tubs. Nothing in this bag is smaller than 2 1/2 inch square. There are a lot of 2 1/2 inch strips, 4 inch charms, and FQ's with one corner cut out. There are several whole FQ's.

Anyone who posts on this comment gets a chance in the drawing. If you feel inclined to do so and post something on your blog about me, my blog, or my giveaway, you'll get another chance.

I'll draw a name and post the winner at 4pm on Wednesday Sept. 30th.

The good news from the Oral Surgeon is that the 2cm x 4 cm chunk of white stuff on my tongue that they removed came back as "pre-cancerous". I'm sooo glad she decided during the biopsy to take the whole thing at once rather than 1/2 of it as I would have had to go back for another surgery.

The bad news is that once you get 1 of these you are likely to get them again. So I get to stick out my tongue a lot the rest of my life and check for white spots. LOL.

I'm still sore and can't eat real food yet and still talk a little funny and don't really feel like going anywhere so I feel another sewing marathon coming on....

Sewing Marathon

Here it is several weeks later but I finally did my weekend sewing marathon. I need to do these more often. I got so much done. I had a medical procedure done on Friday and didn't feel like doing anything except sleeping and sewing. So that's exactly what I did.

First- I tackled "Medina's Project". She and I exchanged blocks a while back. She sent me 7 blocks and extra focus fabric. I'm glad for the extra because 3 of the blocks were so far off in measurements there was no way of saving them. These had been blocks from "friendship swap" and you know how that is sometimes.

I spent a long time trying to decide if I should take the bad blocks apart and try to use some of the fabric and remake new blocks but after playing around in EQ6 and looking through books for layout ideas, I decided to make 9-patch blocks. There was exactly enough of the fabric for that. So here is Medina's top. I hope she likes it and doesn't think it's too dark. It's only 48 inches square but I think it will make a nice wallhanging behind her couch.


I also owed her 4 Dutchman Puzzle blocks from another exchange. She wanted 30's and Cream.

Then I made these "Jacks-n-Six" blocks for a swap in "Friends Who Quilt". The colors came out sort of dark but they are Orange, Brown, and Burgundy on Cream.


I'm still recovering from the procedure and cannot talk very well. I'm also on a liquid/soft foods diet for a week. I hope to get some more sewing done this week. I want to get back to working on my pink & red "random blocks" and I may try to finish up the 30's Shooflies top I've been puttering around with for a couple of weeks.

As far as the medical procedure- I won't go into all the details here but I had a biopsy done on my tongue for a large white spot I'd found. They removed the entire spot and I'm awaiting results on Friday. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. If you'd like to know more, just e-mail me.

Calgon.....

I know I've slacked off on posting. I've slacked off on sewing too. I went to the guild meeting last night though and showed off the "Hole in the Barn Door" and 1 of the shooflies. Got lots of compliments and got lots of inspiration to get going again.

There's a game going on at QATW where we chose 3 UFO's to work on for the month. They'll draw a number every night and the next day we're supposed to work at least 20 minutes on that project.

The UFO's had to be at least 3 months old, so I chose....

1. Rocky Road to Kansas- need to make tons of block parts.
2. 30's shooflies- already sewn into rows now
3. Black & Bright Windmills. I have 8 blocks, want to make at least 4 more

So she'll draw a number between 1 and 3. Or if she draws the Joker, then we get to pick any of the projects to do.

This weekend I'm going to have my own mini-sewing marathon and see what other stuff I can get done. I have Christmas presents I'd better get to working on too.

Thimbles? and blocks

They still did not have the power restored. After calling all the parents to let them know I went to JoAnn's. I picked up a bulb and a spare. I looked at thimbles....hhhmmm...I don't know anything about thimbles. I had no clue what kind to get...do you have a favorite? Ideas? Your suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated.

I did buy a little bit of fabric. I have realized in making these blocks that a lot of my fabrics are Tone on Tones. I needed something white with pink and red in it. I found 2 fabrics that were perfect and bought just 1/2 yards of each.

Here are the blocks I made last night and so far today. I am probably going to make all the 12 inch blocks first because they are the easiest. I have 7 made so far, just 20 to go.


I won't post pictures every time I make a few, I just seem to be on a roll. These are so addictive that when I get this top made I'm thinking of doing one in brights to use up some scraps and stash.

Pinks and Red Random Blocks

After writing earlier this morning I got a call from work NOT to come in. They had some guys come in to tear up part of our parking lot and re-do it and somehow they managed to CUT the power lines to the school. They had to call all the parents to come get their kids NOW and then they called me. Hopefully they'll be able to get it fixed tonight.

So since I was home I got a few things done around the house and started working on these.

Only 33 more 6 inch blocks, 25 more 12 inch blocks and 9 18 inch blocks to go. But they are going together really fast. I'm going to keep working on them the rest of the day so we'll see how many I can show y'all tomorrow.

I tried to do some binding work but I kept sticking myself. I need to get a thimble. I also need a bulb for my machine cause it went out. I'll be going to JoAnn's tomorrow for sure. Just going to stay away from the fabric area because I DON'T need any.

Charity Quilts

I have been going through my UFO's and picking out blocks and fabrics that I really don't care for and making those into tops for Charity quilts. I finished another top last night. 5th finish in about 2 months. Granted, all I've done is sew blocks together and add borders but that's more progress than I've made in a long, long time. I have other projects calling my name, so the charity ones may slow down a little but I'm going to keep them out and work on them when I feel the urge. Typically that happens when I hear something on TV or elsewhere that tugs at my heart strings. Then I feel like I need to be doing my part to help. I have my share of problems and things going on in my life but I know that there are people far worse off than I am.

I stayed up till midnight last night and finished this baby quilt. I know that some little girl is just going to love it.

I wish I'd done a little better on centering the squares of the fabric but it still turned out OK.

Today I'm gonna take a quilt with me to work and try to do some binding. Then tonight I'm gonna see how many of the "Random Squares" blocks I can make. Here is my good friend tirane's. She LOVES Black. I'm doing mine in pinks and reds simply because that is what I currently have a LOT of in my stash. Beth is doing hers in a set of teal and brown fabrics. It will be interesting to see how these all turn out. I'm way behind but with the rate I've been sewing it may not take me long to catch up. LOL. Swooze, are you still doing one too?

My 150th post will be coming up soon. I'm going to have a small giveaway or 2. Keep watching!

August Goals

I'm keeping it simple again. I have lots to do at work getting the summer over with and ready for the school year to start. I'm really excited about the class of kids I will bet getting.

My Quilty goals for August are

• 1 DJ block a week
• Finish the Pink/Brown/Cream Baby quilt
• Get most of my Pink & Red "Random Squares" quilt done
• Finish project for Medina
• start Christmas presents not already done

2 Finishes and a Start

Well I didn't quite make it by July 31, but I did finish these 2 Shoofly tops this weekend.

I had other intentions for the borders of the first one. I had designed something in EQ6 using some slanted strips. I printed off the patterns and made the blocks. Dumb me forgot to REVERSE 1/2 of the blocks and so all my strips face the same way. So now I have 28 of these


I don't have too much more of the black dots left. It's a standard fabric from JoAnn's, but I realized in making the Shooflies that sometimes the shade of black and quality are different from bolt to bolt. I think what I'm going to do is make as many of the reverse blocks with the fabric as I can and have a cool zig-zag quilt.

I got a few other things done this weekend too. In the QATW swap I did for the pink/brown/cream Rail Fence blocks I received 20 blocks from a swapper that were too small. I cut those down to 6 inches and made 5 of these blocksI had played around with placement for a standard Rail fence but just didn't like the way it looked. I am going to use these 5 blocks in a large 9 patch design. I haven't decided what to put in the other 4 squares. I think this will be a charity quilt so I don't want to do anything too complicated and it's only going to be large enough for a crib quilt.

Hole in the Barn Door

I finished it last night. The border fabrics both came from old stash- fabrics I bought several years ago when the Hancocks 5 minutes from me closed down. Here is a closeup of them as I think it's hard to tell in the other picture. I soooo want a design wall or I need to clear off a better place to take pictures.


I have enough of the jigsaw puzzle fabric left to use as the focus fabric for a quick quilt.
Just need to find an easy pattern.

I also got rows sewn together for the Black & Bright Shooflies. I decided rather than making 1 large quilt I'm making 2 small. 1 will have the pieced borders I designed and I found a great black with colored Musical notes on it in my stash for the other one. I think this Hole in the Barn Door is the first time I used a print and not a TOT to border something! So I am learning!

Goals for the week of July 13th

My boss is on vacation so I have Office Duty this week. This means that I have my mornings free to get some sewing done. I fully intend to take advantage of that!

My goals for the week:

1. Finish Kids Hole in the Barn Door.
2. Finish Kids Shoofly
3. Make at least 3 DJ Blocks.
4. Continue making Crumb Blocks. My scraps and partial block bin runneth over. This quilt will be my Camping quilt so I need to have it made, quilted, and bound by mid-October.

I'm going to pull some multi-colored brights from stash and choose from those for the HBD. I hope to finish that top by tomorrow morning. I have the black washed and all the scraps ready to go to finish the Kids Shoofly. I can do it! 2 tops this week!

Pictures

Here are "Hopscotch", "Cathie's Campfire", and "Simple Simon"



These have become addictive! I spent some time this weekend sorting through my bright scraps and pulling all the Black & White fabrics I'm gonna use. As fun as these are though, I really want to use my time this week to finish up a couple of UFO's.

Friday night I pulled this BOB (blocks in bags) and sewed them together.

I don't know what colors to do for borders. It is going to be a charity quilt so I really don't want to piece anything. I could do strips of any colors except yellow. There is a lot of green already so I really don't want to use that. I thought about a skinny blue and then wider red, or reverse that and do a skinny red and then a wider blue? Help?

Multi-Tasking

The other night David and I were watching "Surviving Surburbia" and "The Goode Family" on TV. 2 more shows that I love and have probably been canceled. The last several Saturdays they've finished up the "Eli Stone" episodes. I really liked that show. Not just for Eli's sometimes musical visions, but that each show seemed to convey an almost spiritual message to me. Beginning this Saturday they are gonna show the last 4 episodes of another short-lived favorite- "Dirty, Sexy Money". Nothing spiritual about that show, just several good looking men.

Anyway, I already digress. We were watching TV and I turned on the computer. I played some solitaire and I worked on some stuff in EQ6. David questioned what I was doing. I can't "just sit". If I "just sit" I fall asleep. My hands have to keep moving. I have to have something "to do". I seem to multi-task everything. You should see my "to do" list. I plan short things to do while I'm waiting on other longer tasks. For instance, clean out the dishwasher while waiting on the washing machine to finish.

Now most of the quilters I know have lots of projects going on all at once. Right now I have:

• Dear Jane (aka DJ) Blocks
• Adagio
• Scrappy Rocky Road to Kansas
• Crumb Blocks
  
• Kids Hole in the Barn Door
  
• Kids Shoofly

The first 4 on the list are "on-going" projects that will take me a while. The 2 kids quilts are short term projects that I'm actually hoping to finish this week if I can stop making DJ blocks long enough.

However, I really do know a couple of quilters who start 1 project and actually FINISH it before they start another one. I don't see how they do it. I like having choices. I see what mood I'm in and that decides which project I'm gonna work on. I've already got another UFO pulled and 2 quilts I want to start after these 2 kids quilts are done.

So what do you do? Are you fidget-y? How many projects do you have going on right now? What do you do to relax? I tried reading...it put me to sleep too...

Weird Names

Here are A6 Uncle Homer and A8 Florence Nightingale. I should do some research and see if there are reasons behind the names. Most quilters know A6 as "Uneven Nine Patch". I've also heard it called "Puss in the Corner".

As I get into this more and make the harder and more challenging blocks and work with other brights and colors, I may go back to these beginning blocks and redo them if I need to change colorways.

Adagio

Here are 2 of the blocks. This is going to be so cool. I love how all these colors are playing so well together although I'm not quite sure about that dark green corner, so I might change it later. We'll see when I get more blocks made.

On a Roll Again!

After being so frustrated Saturday night about the pink & brown quilt, I drowned myself in a little bit of ice cream and went to bed feeling defeated.

Was not to last long because just a few hours later I was wide awake and ready to go, so I picked out patterns and printed off papers and got these made.

I had already made and sent her 5 but I don't have a picture of those. I hope that she likes all of them.

After a break to do a load of dishes, several loads of laundry and take a short nap, I spent the evening working with these strips

I got 48 blocks started but didn't finish a single one. I will tonight and get a pic posted. I have grand ideas of entering this one in a show so I am trying to take my time and do everything just right. Sure don't want to sew any of these upside down. LOL.

What's wrong with this picture?

Yep, I just realized after all the problems with the piano key borders, that in my rush to finish this, I sewed the last 2 rows on UPSIDE DOWN. ARGH!!! I don't know how to fix this, other than beg and tip tirane real good for her help. Or just give this to charity. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it anyway.

But it's done for now and I'm on to those blocks for Medina...

Sewing Marathon

The school is closed today and David has to work all weekend so I am having a sewing MARATHON. I'll do a little sleeping, a little eating, and take a break tonight to go to "First Friday Folksingers" at church but other than that I'm going to sew, sew, SEW.

My weekend goals are:

• Finish the Pink/Brown/Cream Rail fence aka "Sweet Rails".
  
• I'm starting my version of "Dear Jane" and have picked very easy blocks to start with. I want to get at least 2 done this weekend.
  
• I need to make some blocks for Medina. We had a 1 on 1 exchange and sent each other a yard of fabric to make 12 blocks. She's a SAHM and had all of my blocks made and back to me within a month. I've been slacking and haven't finished hers (several months later). Still need to make 7 blocks and hope to get most of them done this weekend.
• Many years ago when I was active in the quilting group at about.com we did a swap for 2 1/2 inch Moda Marble strips. The colors chosen were so pretty I didn't want to use them in anything else and sat the tub of strips aside. They started screaming at me the other night and I sat down and designed the quilt in EQ6. I have a ton of solid black to use with them and have named this quilt "Amish Stripes". Gee, I wish I was more creative with titles. LOL. I want to get this quilt started and as much progress made on it as possible.

So that's it! I promise pictures and progress updates so stay tuned!

Helping out a friend

http://kristiesyardsale.blogspot.com/

Quilt Guilds

Tuesday night I attended my first meeting of the Garland Quilt Guild. The speaker was Margaret Bucklew. Although I do not applique I found her work fascinating and she told a lot of funny stories. She does Portraits in fabric. Here she is with 2 of her works.
This is a quilt she did that was highlighted on the show Texas, Country Reporter. She told us the story of meeting this soldier and I wish I'd taken better notes. Sorry about the bag being in the way.
When you look at this up close you can see the reflection of a flag in the sunglasses that he is wearing. She talked about how to choose just the right colors and I learned a LOT from her on values and shading. She brought in her computer and showed us how she turns a color picture into black & white and then plays with the values until she gets everything just right.

After her lecture there was Show & Tell and I showed off Leslie's Quilt. Here I am on the right with the Guild President, Valerie Hubbard, on the left.
Helle hasn't finished the binding yet, but it earned me an extra chance in the Door prize drawings. You get 1 chance just for showing up and 1 chance for bringing a Show & Tell. It seemed like there were at least 20 door prizes and maybe 60-75 members there

There were several people that I knew and I had such a good time that I joined. I picked up the BOM for next month- Diamond Star but they are asking for it to be done in Red CW or Blue CW on Cream CW -none of which I have but I think I can get some large scraps from a good online friend.

They are also doing a couple of drives for some charity quilts and I'm thinking about giving a few things for those.

I'm excited to get involved! I feel even more motivated!

June Goals

I'm keeping it fairly simple this month as to not get too overwhelmed.





Quilty Goals :

• finish the binding on the charity quilt


• finish making the pink/brown/cream rail fence


• bind the Blue & White quilt


• Make huge strides on the "Lot O' Hearts" quilt


• Make at least 6 blocks towards my secret project.

It may sound like a lot but it's really not. Notice I didn't say "Finish" the Lot O' Hearts quilt. :)

Non-Quilty Goals:

• Lose 10 pounds


• Read at least 1 book that isn't Quilting related. Last Saturday I made a trip to Half Price Books and picked up a $3 copy of this

I am finding it very interesting. It's been a very long time since I've read anything Non-fiction.

• Clean out my car and get it washed!

That's it. I can do it! I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

Current Projects

Here are a couple of things I've been working on lately.
I have been taking my scraps and doing this

and this
to make blocks like this

and Saturday after I got home from "Sit & Sew" I decided to take a whole bunch of these
6 inch Rail Fences I had from a block swap


and make them into a top. It isn't quite finished yet.
I have 6 of 12 rows put together.

My bad wrist has hurt a little bit the last few days so I haven't finished the binding on the charity quilt just yet. I know there is no real rush but I want to get it done before I start binding something else. I feel I need more practice.