Still goin at it

So maybe I haven't been goin at it with the gusto I'd like but I am still doing some sewing. After an icy night it was nice outside this afternoon so Mark and I had to wonder around the neighborhood for a few hours.
This morning was quilting at church. So not in the mood to sew. But we did organize a bit, planning backs for tops, cutting batting  and destashing some of the excess that was not appropriate for our use. Mark always has a real pretty rag collection.

Last night I put together some blocks into a small sampler. I'd made about half the blocks when I demonstrated in classes the others were donated orphans. The smaller blocks were supposed to be 8 1/2" but measured barely 8". That simply means  to add even wider frames to bring them up to 12 1/2". Mary Kay will finish it with a lavender border and binding.


I have 1 block left on a spring themed wallhanging. It's a paper pieced block of 3 birdhouses! There's also bunnys hopping on it. Yes it is cute and I don't do cute easily. Taking out one bunny and adding 2 birds from the same designer. Yes I will paper piece the birdhouses. And the applique is just cut and paste. After all it will only be on the wall briefly for a few years.  It's early, I'll go now and see if I can paperpiece.

Just a little behind

It would seem that I lost interest in blogging or even quilting. It's just that I've been a bit busy. Mark isn't much better since he herniated his disk 10 weeks ago. Tomorrow he's going in for surgery. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon.

I still need to locate my camera but till then I found this picture I haven't shared yet. I finished the top a few weeks back. When I last posted about it I hadn't decided how I would arrange the blocks, either on point or square. I went with on point and this time I remembered to sew them together into the sections shown here instead of diagonal rows. I really don't like doing it in diagonal rows. This method made it much easier to handle. I love it. In fact I have another one at studio 3 that I'm assembling the same way. With luck I can show them both to you soon. I just might be hanging around the house a little more than usual to make sure Mark doesn't get into trouble post-op.

 During the heat wave of the last few days I've actually done some sewing at home. (As opposed to at Studio 3.) The ladies of the Quilting Hands of St. Peters have set aside their quilting for a while in favor of Little Pillowcase Dresses. The pattern also gives directions using yardage and that's what we are doing to use up some of our fabric. Our stash has grown considerably and it's getting older by the hour. The intent of the whoever came up with the pattern was to send the dresses to little girls in Africa. But our church has a mission in Haiti the poorest country in our hemisphere so we intend to send them there. I think we have about 50 started. Again we kinda work assembly line style.  I put together about a dozen in the last two days.

 I'm linking up with Judy again. It's been a long time. I'm glad I didn't miss seeing the quilt top that she's been working on all year.

My Quilting Marathon

This has been the best quilting marathon I've ever participated in. I should do this more often. The pile is 7 quilts deep. I thought I only had 2 or 3 more comfort quilts here but I forgot about the half dozen of my own tops I decided to contribute. I am sincerely hoping  this trend will continue for the next few months. Perhaps as long as I have everything I need then it will. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.  I'm glad the church basement ladies will do the bindings even though I don't mind that step.

I musta made this blue one over 20 years ago. It is next in line to get quilted, then I will donate it too. I will do a casual custom quilting job it. That means it will be simply and lightly custom/freehand quilted as opposed to the overall meander I might for some of the other comfort quilts.

And this one I just finished. All of the blocks except two I made to go together. Want to guess which two?  I framed them each with a different fabric cause we don't have the yardage to make sashing  all the same. And really I don't like sashing anyway. I made them all so they all came in the same size. But if you are working with blocks from different sources like a block lottery or exchange through a guild it would work to add wider sashing to the smaller blocks then trim them all down to the same size. It would also be an opportunity to repeat or introduce some new colors to make the colors  work together better.  I've had just about enough of the sampler quilts for a while After demonstrating twice a week for over a year I still have a mountain of blocks left. In fact, the blocks I arranged on the wall a few weeks ago are still there though I did make a few additions.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the donation of fabric left for us at church last week. I haven't gone through it all but feel better about it now. Especially since I found backs for several of my tops. Perhaps when the roads clear after this storm I will go back and go through the remaining 6 boxes. It was fun even though it feels a bit overwhelming. Sure hope there are no orphan blocks in the mix.

Linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday. 

Quilting Cause Its Dark

I pushed the blocks around a little  on the flannel wall.  Wasn't I clever to add corners to those boring nine-patch blocks to make blocks like in the last quilt I made. They started with 3" cut squares. I wish I'd done my quilt in that size. They made 10 1/2" blocks where I made 12" blocks in my quilt.  What am I going to do with a king size quilt. I don't even want a king size bed. Comparing this weeks and last weeks photo you would notice I found some more triangle units laying around. I may end up incorporating them as well.

I haven't put lots of thought into the quilt on the wall cause it has been so nice here for Dec. We've been cutting and stacking brush in the woods to burn later when we get some snow. It's cleaning up so nice. And once again I can't wait to enjoy the woods next year. And since it's been so nice we made this pair from a birch tree we cut down a few months ago.

 

It does get dark early. It's the only reason I can think as to how I actually quilted a comfort quilt this week. Tonight I will get another one loaded and begin quilting.

In the Groove

It's been feeling real good to do some sewing. I don't feel like I am getting very far though. But since there is no hurry that's ok. I have about half the blocks done for my latest. I'm only showing what fits on the wall at Studio 3 here. I'm going to need a name for this thing. Any suggestions?

I also dug into my drawer of Civil War prints. OOhhhh that felt good. No concrete plans yet but they're formulating.

I've also finalized plans for our next raffle quilt. I will share the plans later but for now I'll just say it will be blue and cream and use this star pattern. I had the gals at Studio 3 try out my directions. I've chosen this star cause the way I make 'em the points float so we can trim the blocks to all the same size if needed. And since as many as a dozen ladies may make the stars there's a good chance we will need to do some trimming

Tomorrow is quilting at church. Our local nursing home has asked us for muffs for the residents hands. We love the idea. Basically all we need to do is make a little quilt lined with fleece and sew it into a tube. Okay, just not in that order.  I wouldn't be surprised if we make a few extra for ourselves!

Time to join the linky party at Judy's. Guess I will be blogging for a while.

Quilting in August

Since Mother Nature turned up the heat I went to Studio 2 and did a bit of quilting. Finally. The quilt tops are piling up. Not just mine but comfort quilts from the church ladies.  I've been making sampler blocks at Studio 3 for a while now and finally have SOME of them together in quilt tops. I am not even sure who put them together. I made about half of these blocks and I likely won't do all the quilting.

I still have as many blocks to put into tops. Some are already in specific piles and waiting for my attention and others don't play as well together. So I will focus on making sampler blocks to go with those. Then I am about ready to say "enough" with the sampler blocks and start something that requires more thought and planning.


A discussion we had at quilting last week was about what size quilts we should make. Apparently it doesn't matter. We've gotten measurements from the different charities and though each one has their preference, all sizes were requested. Good to know. Many of the ladies find it difficult to quilt anything bigger than a lap quilt on their own machine.

So yes, I am still quilting and looking forward to cooler "indoor" days when I know I will be back at the machine even more than I have been.

One month later

   Wow, it's been a whole month. I didn't think I'd write much this last month since I was gone to California for 10 days and otherwise across the street.
Quilting has definitely been put on the back burner temporarily. I have even missed meetings at church. I am hoping to get things back on track re: my quilting starting with the comfort quilts. We have a meeting tomorrow so I will prepare for that later today.

  It is supposed to be hot and humid today so I will retreat to my sewing room later but only after I finish the three passes left with the long arm on the raffle quilt.  Only a few classes at Studio 3 have been cancelled cause I was gone and the holiday was in there.  So see, I have been doing some quilting.
  Re: quilting, the rest of this summer I want to focus on making comfort tops with the ever-growing pile of orphan blocks. Here is just a few more from the stack that I am auditioning. I will collect the rest from Studio 3 and sort through them. Perhaps even preparing a kit and passing it on to the gals at church.






    Our trip to California was fantastic. After flying overhead all these years I decided to take a slower route to see the scenery. I'd wanted to see the giant Sequoias since I first learned about them as a girl and never had the opportunity when I'd gone west to teach. I told Mark we could wait till he retired, so finally we went. I didn't want to drive there (we are in SE Wisconsin) and I didn't want to fly so we took the train. I really enjoyed it.  We took the train as far as Reno then rented a car and drove down the East side of the Sierra's to Yosemite Park. Then we drove through Yosemite and south to Kings Canyon  and Sequoia Parks. I never thought to fly back from there so we reversed the route and took the train back home. It is indeed a beautiful country and the trees are really awesome.  So glad we went. I won't share pictures cause really all you need to do is google images of the trees or parks.

     And as it is summer I've been outside. I've taken to calling my restoration project across the street my 18 acre garden. We are not doing a complete restoration but the removal of all the invasives still  qualifies it as a restoration. Between 11 acres of woods and 7 acres of the wetland we have our work cut out for ourselves. Some days we do nothing and others finds us "weeding" as we cut and/or poison the most invasive non-native species. I am continually amazed at all the wildflowers I keep finding. Though I am sure they have been there all along, because of our work we now have access to them and they can thrive and be enjoyed. This patch of Canadian Anemone was actually found growing along side the road a few miles from here. A huge patch that would fill my house, that we'd never noticed before.

One Less Pile

We had some rain over the weekend and I got a chance to sit down to sew. This has been cut out since the end of March. It felt good to sew again. Tomorrow I will turn it in to quilting at church and show the gal that made the centers of the blocks. It would be nice if the colors were better in the photo. Try double clicking the photo to see a close-up.b The top of the photo is closer to true color.

I missed the last meeting at church cause I was busy filling orders from quilt  market. I wonder what the ladies did without me. We always have lots of stuff in progress. I think we are about done with our 9-patch project where we made a bunch of scrappy 9-patches and then set them various ways in about 8 different quilts that didn't require triangles.  I am sure we used the same pattern a few times - like the snowball. We all like that one.  I think with the 9-patch project done we will move on to crumb quilts next.

I've also been wondering what I ought to work on next at home. Usually if I clean out the closet something turns me on. But there are lot of piles that should go in the closet so I will just clean the sewing room and see what I find. Probably not till next time it rains as I am still digging and pulling weeds. It's like a habit. I go through lots of garden gloves.

6 Hours of Therapy

I understand it is pretty normal behavior to start another quilt before finishing a quilt that was started earlier. That is just what I did on Thursday when I got together with the gals at Studio 3. We packed our lunches and worked on our quilts for 6 hours. Almost a mini retreat! I cut and pieced a bunch of Cracker blocks.  I think the reason for starting so many quilts is cause we are excited to see our latest idea of fabric and pattern, come together. And perhaps there are not so many finishes  because at some point we know what the quilt will look like and in my case anyways, I don't need another quilt.

 My list of current projects is something like this:
1. Pieced border on Union Square
2. Join blocks in Penny's Irish Chain
3. Bind A Good Bet
4. Put my 9-patch stars on the frame
5. Always a few comfort quilts waiting for the frame
 I hesitate to call these PHD's. I think I reserve that name for if they get put on the shelf in pieces.

 Notice I never did quilt my 9-patch stars. Instead I loaded these 2 little comfort quilts. I put them together from leftovers of other quilts that are waiting to get quilted.These each took only
1 1/2 hours to quilt, after I decided how to quilt them. I sure liked that they went on and off so quickly.  I'm thinking maybe I will do a few more little ones soon. For years I have been saying that a little quilt would be perfect project to try a new technique, but I haven't been motivated to even figure out what techniques is that  I might want to try.  I am too busy enjoying what I am already doing. 




Yesterday I spent the day at Sew Many Pieces quilt shop in Richfield, WI celebrating the shops 1st Anniversary. Mickey asked if I would come and demonstrate from The Thirtysomething Block Book. I was glad for a reason to visit the shop. I liked it more than I expected! I guess I thought she said she had lots of modern, but she had a real nice mix. I wish she were closer.

Crazy Eights Revisited

I've got 56 Crazy Eights blocks done and ready to assemble into a quilt top. This time I made them scrappy. If you don't know me by now, this is not how I will use them in the quilt. Hopefully I can show that in a few days.

Typically I don't procrastinate when it comes to piecing, but I have been putting off assembling the top for a few days now. This will be bed size and that always makes it a bit cumbersome and when I don't feel real well I just do easy stuff.  I'm not sick, just suffering side effects to an antacid I'm taking. Started those the other day after an awful night that nearly sent me to the ER.


Years ago I wrote a magazine article for Chitra Publications. They ran a regular design challenge column called "What If". A block was presented with guidlines for construction (usually by Sharyn Craig) and inspiring quilts were shown using the block in different fabrics and settings. I did about 6 of those articles, Crazy 8's being one of them. If I could locate the article I'd show you , but at the moment all I can find is this photo of one of the quilts featured in that article.

I'm trying out another new camera. I didn't like using the one on my phone and the last one quit. This time it was an easier transition than usual.
Tuesday at church we nearly finished 5 quilt as you go comfort quilts. We used Kaye Wood's 6 hour quilt pattern. Next we will adapt the pattern using 6 1/2" squares. It will be a great way to use up our batting scraps. 
I did a one-trunk show of quilts from my new book at the Ben Franklin quilt club. They have 3 separate meetings to accommodate all the gals. It was good to go since I haven't been in over a year. That was Tuesday and Wednesday.
We're not quilting at Studio 3 on Thursdays again till after the holidays. But Friday we got together and I showed them another way to make the Square-in-a-Square quilt like this one I made last year.

Lately every quilt top I pull out of the closet I wish I had quilted. So I put one on the frame downstairs and will go to work on it after I join the link party at Judy's. And tomorrow I will link up to the new linky party at www.shecanquilt.ca. Please join us.

Happy Holiday

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving holiday. I was content to stay home and make dinner for my two guys. In between I gathered all the batting scraps I could find upstairs, downstairs and in the closet. There were too many cluttering up my space. I was able to put together 9 small batts with a bag left for 6 1/2" strips for our quilt-as-you-go comfort quilts. We have batting scraps of all kinds. cottons, polyester and blends. Different lofts too. I knew the others at church were going to be asking me to order some more batting soon, but I won't till we use up some of this.We also have packages of batting to use that someone donated last year. We would rather work with a roll of batting, but we will use this cause it was free. We all like that.

A couple of days ago I was rummaging around in  a pile in the corner and came across a bunch of old Thimbleberries that had been cut into 2 1/2" strips. So I very quickly decided on a project and began cutting and sewing the squares and rectangles for some Crazy 8's blocks. I made lots of progress. Again I really liked that they were already cut into 2 1/2" strips even though I cut them who knows how long ago.  Now I kinda see the appeal of the jelly rolls.  I still really prefer to make my own.

More work with Lucrecia today on comfort quilt kits. Tonight I will put another one on the frame downstairs. Quilt quilt, eat, sleep quilt and repeat. Is there anything else?

Studio 3 Sampler 1

As you can imagine, I divide my time between my sewing room, the quilting studio and studio 3. Sometimes I feel like all I do is sort and organize quilting stuff but especially this week because I have been planning a few projects to piece this winter. That always means pulling fabric from the drawers and drawings and photos from my files. I have settled on several so far but have yet to tweak my plans for most of them. I've decided to straighten up most of the mess now and dig in again later.

This morning I was working on backs for these three comfort quilts I'd like to get quilted soon. I brought these from church last Tuesday and when I opened up the fabric I'd selected for the back for one of the tops another top fell out. I do have some fabric here for backs I will choose from for the 3rd top. I will do a panto on one of them. I will do a freehand all-over on the other 2.

I put together my sampler blocks from the sampler class at Studio 3. More blocks were made, just not in the same group of fabrics. Mark thinks I need to add the light green as an inner border. I will have to dig around for something. If I can't find any here, I might skip it. I am pretty happy with how this thing turned out. It's a little bright for my taste, but I liked working with the colors. Better yet, I finished it without having to buy any more fabric. If I had made any more blocks, I wouldn't have had enough fabric to finish it like I did. I considered framing each block in a different print but thought this was better.
The snow is piling up fast here. Up to  4" expected. Wet and heavy. Did errands in town at noon. I am going to check the blogs linked up to Judy's and then quilt downstairs the rest of the day. Thanks for visiting.

Uneven 9-patch

I had a chance to do some sewing yesterday. After much deliberation I made these uneven 9-patch blocks using some of my least favorite fabrics in my drawer of 1800 repro prints. This was actually a pretty common pattern over 100 years ago.

 I am surprised by how much I like it because it is so simple. Sometimes they were arranged with sashing though usually they alternate with a plain block.Occasionally the quilt history/documentation books show it used in a border. Maybe that's a good idea  for a bed size quilt where repeating the same block throughout gets kinda boring.

 
I am not sure why I chose my least favorite fabrics to use since my goal here is to make something I like. I think it's cause I like a challenge and Sue thinks I need a challenge. She suggested somethintg with tiny pieces or curved seams like she likes to do. She doesn't know what a challenge it is for me to use fabrics I am not really keen on.Which is kind of funny because she won't help with the comfort quilts cause she doesn't like to work with fabric she doesn't like.   

Anyway my intent is not to make a quilt with just this block. If it were, I would definitely be using my smallest scraps. These are the centers of the blocks. Stay tuned to see how it develops.
Again I am linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday for her weekly linky party.  Thanks Judy.

Killing Time

If you ever taught quilting, you know that after a little while the class doesn't need your constant attention. Its during those moments that I make an extra block or two from comfort quilt fabric. These are some of the extra blocks I/we made in the last few months. They aren't really orphans, so I guess I ought to pay better attention to the fabric I select so they work together.

Since I've decided on the setting and made

all the blocks I need for my Shoo-Fly quilt,
I started to add the sashing.  But I had to
take one more "what if" photo.

Still busy working in the woods, but I will take time next week to go to the Machine Quilting Today show in Oconomowoc. I will be volunteering. Not sure if or which classes I may take yet. Hope to see you there. 

Going to Judy's Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday first.

Practicing Freehand

My daughter's friend asked me to quilt this for her on my longarm. It is about 80" square. I've done little quilting this year sew I was concerned it wouldn't turn out well cause I wanted to do it freehand,or at least, not follow a pantograph. I can usually follow lines pretty well, but I wanted to do it freehand and I'm not real good at that, yet anyways.  I am just a bit concerned that I may never get very good at it if I don't do it more often. That and the fact that I never could draw very well. And wow, now I am just doodling on a quilt with this big machine and it's fun. I just wish I was better at it. So I plug along and practice. Actually I quilt, but I always call it practice cause I need more of that. One thing for sure though. If I really am just doodling, then it is sloppy work. But if it is a real quilt, I try harder. I do think I need to mark the quilting lines more. That is always something I didn't like to do. But to do a good job, I guess I need a good sharp line. The chalk doesn't do it for me. All that means it is not as freehand as I'd like it to be.  Some teachers say doodling on paper everyday helps. Maybe I could do that while I have my morning coffee.

I was glad to finish this one up and already have another one loaded. It is a small
sampler comfort quilt. Should be fun. Now off to check out the inspiring quilts linked up to Judy's for Design Wall Monday.

Shoo-Fly So Far

Have you tried the Shoo-Fly block from layer cakes yet? I've only made 16 so far. I am happy with how it is going, I've just been busy with Festival to do anymore. I hope to make more Wed. night. I'm liking them, but now I have another idea.What else is new?
 
I am mostly unpacked from Festival. I had a perfect time. Mark really impressed me. What? Wait  a minute. Did I say that? Yep, he was great to have along. He's even ready to do a few more shows - and during hunting season! It was wonderful for so many of you to come by my booth and say hi. It was especially sweet if you bought my new book to complete your collection of Gayle Bong books. Thank you. Mark and I agreed the worst thing about the trip was all the traffic. We are quite used to a forest of trees not a jungle of cars! We never got lost, though we took a few wrong turns. It doesn't help that IL never seems to have road signs where I want them. Silly me. I never thought to use the gps on the phone. But then, I hear they aren't all that accurate.

After cleaning up everything from Festival I was inspired to dig out all the fabric for comfort quilts cause I want to take it over to Studio 3. What a mess! I've done an initial sorting, but it looks like it may be a while before I take it over there. I have many potential kits bagged up that I would like to finalize before I move them. On the table are all of our "pre-cuts" that "we" cut. Under the table are only some of our orphan blocks. And the piles on the floor?  Who knows.   The small cardboard box has bigger scraps waiting for a destination. The green tub has strips for string quilts and log cabins. The shelves in the closet are still loaded with  40 more kits waiting to be finalized. UGH! There sure is some ugly fabric out there. I'd love a sneak peek into the homes and closets of the designers of those uglies. I love the organizing and planning. I will dabble with sorting the mess while it rains this week. And probably pull some weeds.
It's Monday. That means it's time for heading over to Judy's for Design Wall Monday.

Just 8 seams

I just love being so busy. It's the associated stress that I can do without. Stress as in my baggage didn't arrive until 20 minutes before I needed it for the first lecture scheduled in California. Surprisingly I wasn't too worried about it but there was still stress. And stress as in my return flight encountered more turbulence than I ever want to encounter again. Me thinks I'd be happy to drive even 10 hours to distant guilds - for a while at least. I always did like road trips like that. Surprisingly it becomes a bit painful gripping the steering wheel for so long.  With Mark retired now, perhaps he would be interested in  joining me.
And from what I hear, self-pubishing is not for sissy's. There is plenty of stress associated with that too. Book 9 should be in my hands by next weekend. Finally.
Last night when the girls were over for quilting, I stitched all of 8 seams. It felt so good. We laughed about how therapeutic our get togethers are. Any sewing we get done is a bonus.

  The 8 seams are the 4 to attach the borders and the 4 mitered corners on this quilt top. Sue made it but didn't add the borders before she realized that she didn't want to quilt it. Then she thought if it were smaller she would quilt it, so she removed one whole round of blocks. At that point she donated it to our church group. It was unanimous that the other round of blocks should be reattached and since she already cut the border, it should also be added. Guess who got elected to do that. It took me a while only partially because I had to close up a bunch of loose seams on two edges of the quilt and 2 rows that needed to be reattached.  Well, thanks Sue. I know it will be my job next to locate fabric for the back and get it quilted. That's okay though, cause I really don't need another quilt and I do want to quilt - even though I haven't been doing much of that at all this year.
Close-ups are nice for checking the fabrics that were used. For a better view, double clicking on the photo should enlarge the photo even more.

Next up I think I will add the blue border to the Delectable Mountains quilt top I made last year.

And thank you to the California Quilters that invited me to meet with them. It was an absolutely wonderful trip. And everyone was so friendly, too. I like when that happens.

Crowded at the Orphanage

Quilting at church was last week Tuesday. Since then I've been working off and on with their scraps. I brought home the leftovers from the string blocks we made and combined those strings with the leftovers from the odd width log cabin blocks I just made and other odd bits. I was thinking next we might work on some crumb quilts but I don't think we have enough crumbs for that. That led me to digging to see what else we might work on next. I pulled out the pile of orphan blocks. It had grown since I last sorted through them.  I put 9 different quilt kits of blocks together. I also bagged up more string blocks I made with sashing fabric for a total of 12 new kits.

           

                                                         
                  This is my favorite collection of blocks. These are 12".

 
                                                          









And this one with 9" blocks. Most kits needed a few more blocks to round it out to a workable number so I took smaller blocks and will have to add frames or something to make them work. It is a good opportunity to add a bit more of the right color to tie the blocks together.With a bit of luck, sashing, cornerstones and borders can do that too.

Of all the blocks donated to us, it is rare that I trash a block. I did that with just one block this time. It was not just that it was so poorly made AND ugly, but it also used real sleazy fabric. It just wasn't a keeper. Then sometimes when I have a block that doesn't work out I cut it into pieces for crumb quilts. 

And that brings me back to the topic of willy-nilly quilting. As a rule, I just cut up the blocks that don't lie flat or  square. It really doesn't matter to me if the points are missing. In my own quilts, I strive for perfect points. I don't find it difficult and that is what I was taught 30 years ago and for every reason you can think of in  between. On the other hand, I know there is a number of quilters that rather enjoy quilts that break the rules. They are even encouraged to do so by the likes of Gwen Marston and her books, Liberated Quiltmaking and Liberated Quiltmaking II.
Believe it or not, there aren't any quilt police. You might think otherwise if you overhear a conversation about the workmanship of a quilt. Some people don't understand that quilting isn't the same thing to everyone. Some find pure joy in combining fabrics at random in a willy-nilly, carefree fashion without regard to any rules.After all, quilting should be fun, relaxing and stress-free.  Others are uncomfortable at the thought of quilting with such wild abandon and consider the work sloppy or lazy. When I first started teaching quilting, I had to learn that we all quilt for different reasons and there are lots of reasons to take a class. I also  learned that quilts don't have to be perfect. I'm glad I know how to make a quilt near perfect and know when and how to work nilly-willy. Sew, what about you? How do you feel about quilts with attitude? Is it okay to "miss the points" deliberately, or not?  I think they are fun, I sure have a hard time doing it deliberately though. Just thinking about all those scraps and the wonky wild quilts they could make.

Home Alone

My plans for the day changed so instead of going to Quilt Expo in Madison I stayed home and got these blocks and sashing put together. I have enough fabric that matches the sashing for the back so I will get it quilted soon and take it in to church for a comfort quilt. I wouldn't normally use such a busy print for the sashing, but this works for me. Probably cause none of the other fabrics really have much going on.

I also put some time on the longarm. I found the perfect time to work downstairs. When the sun is coming in the window at just the right angle I can see the quilting so much more easily than when all the bright lights are on overhead.  Now I have plans to rig up a light so it shines at the same angle as the sun. I think that means Mark will first have to add another outlet for me downstairs. Oh goody.

We are slowly adjusting to Mark's retirement. He was gone today and I did indeed relish my time alone. I still have a few hours so I am going to see if I can find something else to sew. It is either that, or paperwork. Uck!

Mile A Minute Quilt

Rummaging through boxes of Christmas decorations, I came upon this quilt top stuffed in a bag. What a hoot! I have no idea how, when or why it was in with the Christmas decorations.  I made it 5 or 6 years ago and never finished it. You can call it a Crazy Quilt, but to me that would indicate there would be some fancy embroidery and there is none. Some call it a Crumb Quilt. That name works for me, but I had this labeled on my computer as Mile-a-Minute Quilt. Whatever you call it, they are fun and fast to make and I am ready to make another.

Tuesday was our regular meeting day at church, and because not everyone showed up the week before, I thought I could go again this week to see if anyone shows up cause they missed the message that we changed to last week. Lois did show up, dropped off her finished quilts and left. I stuck around and sorted through the fabrics again, pulling out all the small pieces that need to be cut for scrap quilts. I brought a bundle home to work on.  A big part of me always wants to have ALL the scraps cut and sorted before I do any kitting and yet I know that isn't going to happen. I need to constantly remind myself  that the scraps are never ending and that I should  kit up some scrap quilts with what is already cut And make another Mile-A-Minute Quilt. I don't know if it is cause it's the holiday season or what, but I'm having trouble focusing on a project that would require more thinking. A fast project like  this would be ideal. First I need to clear some room of wrapping paper and gifts.


I went into Milwaukee with Mark yesterday to turn in his ID badge - not quilte 40 miles. On our way we noted all the changes in the 45 years since he started working there. For starters, the freeway was built about 39 years ago. I remember that, cause the exit to his house was opened when we were still dating.
Then we noted several cell towers, water towers, business/industrial  parks, shopping centers, homes and subdivisions. In Milwaukee, we passed where I once worked as a teenager and where I hung out with my friends and the parking lot at the airport where the kids made out and families watched the planes take off and land. I wonder what will take me there in the future and what will change. We did finish our shopping and never contemplated getting the Accuquilt cutter.

Today is Mark's first day of retirement. So far, so good. We haven't gotten any of the snow forecasted yet. It should start this afternoon. 4" to 10" depending on the way the storm blows. Here is hoping that everyone gets there gifts finished in time to give. And I hope you all find a little time to take a few stitches this next week too. I am sure I will.