2011 heat wave

I'm thrilled I have the AC to turn on in the heat wave much of the US has been dealing with. I hope you found someplace to keep cool.  I usually go to the basement studio to work a bit where it is even cooler.  I have been working on 2 customer quilts that I don't want to share till she sees them.

The church ladies decided they wanted to do a block exchange like some guilds have.  I was the second to pass out my directions.  Each participant is to make two blocks and we're taking turns every other month. These are the first blocks turned in to me. I think I already know how I am going to put them together. I guess it wasn't too brilliant not having a plan to begin with. I guess it's the way I work.

If it gets below 80 degrees I'll go for a walk.  There is a gorgeous prairie in fullllll bloom now with paved roads just a mile down the road and my route takes 45 minutes. I should think to take the camera. It is a new kind of subdivision for Wisconsin. It has about 52 one acre home sites on almost two hundred acres with restored prairie, woods and a lake for residents to enjoy. Only 7 houses built since the roads went in maybe 4 years ago. No wonder why. I can't get over what good medicine that walk is. Dealing with the people I help has been challenging these last two weeks.

 The Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show is coming up soon.  I'm getting excited about that.  I think I want to start planning my spending.  Any tips on how to do that???? Again this year between the classes I am taking, teaching and volunteering, I'm planning on spending most of the week there. I wonder how much I'll sleep.
Hope to see you there.

Life as Usual

NOT.  I sure wish it were life as usual around here. I have a case of insomnia getting increasingly worse. An hour or two of sleep at night makes it difficult to function during the day. I've always had trouble falling asleep and didn't call it insomnia cause I always felt rested the next day.  That 's not the case now. So I got little quilting done again.  I did get 30 friendship-stars finished. Now to decide what to do with them. Isn't that always my problem. I've narrowed my choices a bit already by adding the dark triangles to all the blocks. And I decided not to go with scrappy sashing, IF I use sashing.  I like all my options, but one I am not showing that I like is to use them for a border.  Of course, I'd have to decide on the  blocks they would border and then make them.  What do you think?

I've not done too much quilting in the studio either. I've been so frustrated with my longarm quilting  that I ordered the new Edgerider Wheels for the machine. Nothing wrong with upgrading the equipment. They are so new (to the company) that they aren't really even advertising them yet and they are selling like hotcakes.  There is a 2-4 week backlog. I can hardly wait.

I need to clean out the closet again. This time I need to get all the nooks and cranny's in the room too. Dragging everything out is a scary prospect, but it is usually inspiring.  Sounds like fun to me.

Looky what I acquired.

How do you like the antique quilt top I just got? Isn't it a hoot? I'm glad I don't have to 'Make do' with what ever fabrics I can get my hands on just so I can finish my quilt. I figured it's about 100 years old based on a book I have called Dating Fabrics. I counted over 40 different fabrics in it. It's got a few stains. I think I am going to check the reds for fugitive dyes before I wash it. I'd hate for the red to wash out and leave some of those patches just a pale tan. I might rather leave it stained.

With Mark off this last week I didn't have much time to myself to quilt. I started making some friendship stars. I'm not sure what I am going to do with them. Here's some on my flannel wall with some  bigger  triangles leftover from another project.

I don't know what came over Mark. He was off of work this week and I convinced him that we didn't have to stain the house again this year. So, instead we spent lots of time in town with everyone else celebrating the 4th. Highly unusual. The East Troy Lions Club sponsors quite a bit every year including a carnival and beer tent with live music, parade, tractor pull, fireworks and an antique car show. Also this weekend the Teal Sound Drum and Bugle Corp was in East Troy. They were here most of the week, staying at the high school and giving a presentation one evening.   We also went to his sisters on the lake a few times.  We had an unusually good time. Tomorrow it's back to life as usual.  I can't wait. I hope you had a great weekend too.