Quiltathon Day 2

The flannel quilt is done, done, done! It was very toasty sitting under it today while I stitched down the binding. We had a cool rainy day here today so it was a perfect binding day while I watched my man, Greg Biffle win his 2nd Nascar race in a row!!!

I also put final borders on a small quilt for a friend. It will be quilted later in the week. Then I made a paper peice block for another friend and fianally I worked a little while on my depression blocks. This has been my leader/ender project for quite a while. Each 8" block has 16 half square triangle units in it. I seriously thought I had more HSTs made and I might have them stashed somewhere in this nightmare of a sewing room but I am too tired to look any further. Especially after searching for my orange thimble. Which by the way, I love!

So my Quiltathon is over for this weekend. Tomorrow I go to work on my friend's quilt. I have to have it finished before Wednesday morning. For this week coming up, I have a plan and I hope I can stick to it! I think this is the week Crystal and Mike move so I need to schedule some help time in there somewhere. They are going to need a supervisor and I am perfect for that job!!!

Quiltathon Progress

Or Lack Of Progress. Judy at Patchwork Times is having another quiltathon this weekend. I planned to join her and spend the weekend getting some things finished. I am so inspired to quilt again that I couldn't wait to get started. Plans were changed for me.

It was all cloudy and cool outside and I was thinking it might rain today and I would be able to stay in and sew all day. No rain happening here today! Hubby decided it would be a great day to get the rest of the wood split and into the woodshed. Oh lucky me! So after a breakfast of a fresh tomato and bacon sandwich, we went to the woodshed. After 2 hours, the pile was split and stacked. I sat in the lawn chair and admired my work and then admired the garden, thinking of the pioneer women and all the hard work they did and how lucky I am with all of my modern stuff. And very thankful for Advil!

Then I had a bucket of tomatoes to take care of. I had some bananas that needed to be made into bread so I found a recipe for banana zucchini bread and made a batch into muffins. I had enough shredded zucchini so I made another batch of muffins. Then I bagged them up, put them in the freezer. I love having stuff like that on hand. Easy to grab for Hubby's lunch box. Our son stopped in for a couple hours so no sewing got started until after dinner.

I had the binding made for the flannel quilt. I had sewn all the leftover peices from the quilt together for the binding so it was ready to sew on. I did that and then spent the next hour looking for my new thimble. I bought it at AnnaLena's and swear it was in the bag with all the fat quarters (I forgot to tell you all that I came home with 84! fat quarters!!). No, not there. Did I put it in my knitting bag? No. Crap, where is it. Did I leave it at the beach? In the Bronco, suitcase, in the fq bag???? No, i left it inside the 2nd bag that I had emptied, folded up and put away. I don't even know why I looked in that bag. Glad I did.

So now I am going to go use it and see how much I like the orange rubber thimble.

Fun, Funky Feathers

When I grow up, I want to quilt feathers like Judy at Patchwork Times. She makes fabulous feathers, just look at this post about her quilt back. It is stunning. I know she has spent hours and hours working on them. You have to to get good. I'm just having fun with mine. The are funky looking but that's ok. I'm kinda funky looking too! But I can tell the difference from when I started to the end of pass 2. They are looking better. Not fabulous like her's but better.

My quilt is 60" wide and I've done 2 14" passes. I am on bobbin #7! I'm using up the partial ones first. I didn't realize how many I had that needed to be emptied. I have lots of bobbins so I've never needed to empty one just to load it up with different thread. I try to have enough filled when I start the quilt but I have no way of knowing how many I will need. I guess and I'm usually wrong--not enough or too many. But this with this quilt, I need to wind ZERO!!! Now I need to get it finished so I can move on to a black and batik.

Using It Up

I have several bobbins loaded with various veragated threads on them. I am loading this flannel scrappy quilt on my frame this morning and got to thinking about thread color. I thought about using a gold color or maybe something that would blend in to all the colors. I wasnt sure what to use. I'm going to practice my free form feathers on this one (I think!) and so I decided to use up some of the bobbins that are partically or completely full. Then I decided to check my thread and found these 2 spools that are almost empty. I have no problem using both spools up on the same quilt. It is scrappy. I am not wasteful! I think it is going to be a fun quilt!

I'll give a progress report later. I have feathers to try. Why are they so scary???

Can You See the Quilting?

Quilting Fun

I love it when I have a fun quilting day. Today was a pretty fun day once I got to play. I had to get some groceries this morning. So I put all of that away and started to play. Then my eyelid swelled up like a balloon. This is the 3rd time it's happened so I called the doctor and they got me right in--my favortie thing to do-make 2 trips into town in one day. It turns out my tear duct is clogged so after a hot camomille tea pack, the swelling is down. Stupid eye!

This quilt was made by my sister Sue for her friend Rae Jean. It's what I call a happy quilt. While surfing blog land the other day, I came across a link to a link to a link---you know what I'm talking about! It is a tutorial for a really cool free hand quilting design. So I got out my scratch paper and started to doodle. I wish it showed up better in the picture. Maybe if you click it and make it larger you can see. Maybe not, but this is what I've been up to.

Anyhow the tutorial is over at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure on this page. She is waaaaaaaaay better at it than I am. I think if I do 4 or 5 more quilts with this design I might be almost as good as Kim. And when you are on her blog, be sure to tease the kitty cat! What the heck, click on this link and read all of her blog, she has some pretty cool stuff over there.

So now that one is finished and ready for delivery. The next one is ready to load on. I think I may have found my mojo again!

I am hoping this photo in this post shows up. If it doesn't, I'll just have to post it again.

You Know You Are A Quilter When...

...you take your quilts with you on vacation. Notice 2 quilts in the room. Mine on the chair and Crystal's on the couch. It made our suite seem more like home.

I popped this lap quilt into my suitcase just before we left. I thought it would be fun to sit outside and watch the waves and since I don't own a heavy coat, I took a quilt. I was quite surprised when Crystal's quilt appeared.

My quilt became the game quilt. Elliot loved jumping on the bed, wrestling with anyone that would play and hiding under the quilt and yelling yooooooowhooooooo for whoever wasn't in the room.

I am so glad my quilt went with me. I wonder where it would like to go next!!!

Vacation is Over

Am I allowed to whine because my vacation is over? Thanks! I knew it would be ok. We had a wonderful time at the beach with Crystal, Mike, Elliot and Clella. Visit their blog to she a hilarious picture of Mike in his bubble bath! and 2 of the cutest kids in the whole wide world!!

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and got home Monday about 2. Then we had to go into town and rescue Dee, Vern and Taylor from the 4 legged children. They were all happy to see us except maybe Vern. He was sleeping and I don't think it was time for him to get up yet. He works the night shift and barking, happy dogs aren't the best way to wake up. Sorry Vern, you can sleep in today.

Crystal, Clella and I made 2 trips to Anna Lena's Quilt Shop. I am going to miss that store when it closes later this year. It is my must go to place whenever we go to the beach. She is having a going out of business/early retirement sale so we helped her along. We discovered Homespun Quilts in Astoria. It's a very nice shop. Lots of different things and wonderful samples. This is a definate go back to shop.

Now that I am home, I must get my butt in gear and get some quilts finished. I am in the mood to quilt so I better get to it. That is after the zucchini is taken care of! And the tomatoes and the broccoli that went nuts while we were gone.

TTFN

Does This Enhance My Dorkiness?

I have a passion for all things sewing. I can't help myself. I do not apologize for it. I love to sew. I love to watch sewing shows. I search for sewing shows on TV. That includes HSN when they have on the sewing machine sales shows. I record it. Yes, I record it. And I watch it. Sometimes more than once!

I am not interested in buying a new sewing machine. I watch for new project ideas. Like I need anymore ideas. The enthusiasm of the hostess is contagious and makes me want to sew, sew, sew. Not buy.

See my old Kenmore with my paper peicing project I am working on??? I love sewing on this machine. My "fancy" machine is set up for embroidery and I didn't want to change it over. So while I am working on my project this morning (I've been up since 3!!), I search my recordings and there is HSN with the National Sewing Month show. Lucky me!

Now that I have shared this bit of information with you, I hope you understand my dorkiness. I just can't help myself. I love to sew!