Thursday, May 27, 2010

Challenge progress

Hello everyone in blog land,
Progress has been slow with the challenge fabric from Pam. I have finally made a decision and it is almost together. But I wanted to show you, with the aid of Electric Quilt 6, what my favorite mistake would look like side by side versus what I intended. So here they are. Note that I did not take the time to add all the variations between pink and yellow. Yes, I mean orange. At one time I thought I would arrange the stars from yellow to orange to pink. So if you are wondering what I decided, it won't be long now.


I wasn't able to put as much time in the garden last spring as I would have liked so I've been putting in lots of time out there this spring. Sometimes it is a toss up, which I'd rather do, quilt or garden. And of course May is prime time to work in the flower beds in Wisconsin. Thank goodness I didn't have any quilting that HAD to be done. Even though I will be glad when this top is finally done.

I'd like to focus on machine quilting next. If it is hot, humid, rainy or dark this summer I will spend time in the lower level quilting. Well some time anyways. Mark works nights and I always had energy till midnight to work in the sewing room so I am hoping to do that. Besides tv is all reruns, isn't it? I know that's the way it used to be. Please don't tell me if it has changed. I wannna quilt.

However, I will have to wait a while longer yet. My annuals aren't all in yet. We get late frosts here sometimes so I wait till the end of May to plant the tender ones. AND Tomorrow my Page Proofs are due from the publisher for book8. Don't you love life?
So, enjoy your gardens or your quilting and life! Sew long,

Farewell Sweet Pepper

A while back I showed a picture of my cat Lily, promising to show her pal Pepper someday. So here he is, a typical cat loving anything resembling a quilt. We said goodbye to Pepper last Wednesday. He was 15 years old and his arthritis took a turn for the worse. He was my all-time favorite cat and he Loved cuddling. I'll miss him tons. Thanks Pepper, see ya on the other side.

Lily was never one for cuddling, so we started cuddling lessons and she is getting better at it. If not the cuddling at least she is asking for more attention. I'm so glad to have her. Of course, she is not the same, but she's better than no cat. Lily would probably say she was always the better cat, being a girl and all. Man did Pepper love her.

Well, now back to the garden and quilting.
So long.

Friday, May 14, 2010

My Favorite Mistake

Greetings everyone,
Maybe mom was right the other day when we visited she said I had a lot of things on my mind. I was rattling off a list of things I am working on. It sounded like the usual to me. Spring cleaning, gardening, bills, computing, charity quilts, quilts for classes, personal quilting, etc. I prefer it when I have lots to keep me busy. I just wish I could work for several hours at one task. I have learned the hard way to balance my life better. Yeah, that sounds better than it is. What I mean is working at one task for a shorter duration. I can't seem to get as much done that way, evident by the fact that I haven't completed any tops or quilts in the last month or more.

I have made some progress with the spring challenge fabric I bought from Pam's. In the left stack in the photo are the 6 fabrics I am planning/allowed to add to the 12 on the right.


This photo shows how easy it is to design a new block. I call it "My Favorite Mistake". After the units were made, I put them on the wall to take a pic for the blog. I almost didn't catch that I arranged them incorrectly.

Below is the correct arrangement of the units. However, I am not sure I am going to arrange them so they are colored as suggested in this pic. It's Friday. My girls are coming to quilt and I hope to get more blocks done and make a decision about how this will go together. Wish me luck.