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.