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.

Out and Back

 I've been gone so I haven't had a chance to sew. Before I left I cut out the fabric for a mystery I am doing with the Oconomowoc shop. I rarely join in the fun, but I thought once I followed directions and chose my fabric, I wouldn't have to make anymore decisions for that quilt. So I chose these fabrics and did my cutting. I will NOT try to solve the mystery, but instead do what I am told. Will it be fun??? I chose some orange prints and some older fabrics. Wish I knew how they will be used.

 The Stringtown Quilters of northern Kentucky are a bunch of fun quilt-loving ladies. I hauled my two trunks of quilts for a program Thursday night with workshops following on Friday and Saturday. I think we found each other equally inspiring.  As usual, the ladies in the "Savor the Scraps" workshop were very enthused about my Thirtysomething techniques and encouraged me to get going on the block book. All along my goal has been to get a book proposal accepted by the end of the year. I guess I better get going.

On the way to the airport, Mark asked what town I was going to, but I couldn't remember.  Did I ever feel dumb when I realized I was going to Burlington, KY. How could I forget that when Burlington, WI is just 10 miles from here??? I stayed at the lovely Willis Graves B & B in a home built in the 1830's. Breakfast was absolutely the best of my life. I'd be thrilled to go back.

It's cloudy and rainy today and that is fine with me.  I finished my nine-patch quilt but didn't get a picture yet cause it is so dark inside and out. Check later this week for that picture. We are sure to get more sun and I'll try to get a good one then. Meanwhile I will start sewing  on the mystery - and putting together that proposal.

It's a Life

I finally got an hour to sew tonight. I decided to make the nine-patches and triangle-squares into fourpatch blocks. I only got these 10 blocks together so far and I thought  it was great, cause I finally have something to post on my blog. Unfortunately, it's nothin' new, except that you can see the configuration of the units in the fourpatch needed to build this design. It's either this or photos of my patterns other quilters have made and sent to me.  I love that they send them to me, but there are clearly  favorite patterns and I'd be showing the same ones often.

 I've been a bit too busy to sew lately. Last weekend I was in Rockford visiting the guild there. They have an afternoon and an evening meeting, so that means two lectures. They requested two different lectures. Then the following two days we booked workshops. The classes were great fun as the ladies discovered how many different designs could be made with the two different Thirtysomething units. Click on the posts labeled "mystery" on the right to see what we worked with. After Friday's class, my hostess Teresa took me to the quilt shop Lucky 2 B Quilting in Pecatonica. I really liked the shop and Polly's taste in fabric. 


It sure would have been nice if Mark took care of the laundry while I was gone or . . .  Besides the usual household stuff to do, I have been finishing up paperwork for probate on mom's estate and Mark is retiring, so there is extra paperwork there and all that other stuff of life. Add to that, I have been getting some walks in with Sue. It's been soooooo pretty this fall, I can't resist. I hope your having better luck finding time for some stitching.

Tell Me Why

     This is what kept me awake last night after my show for the Patched Lives Guild:
Why is the space on a longarm sewing machine between the needle and the motor called the throat and not the armpit? 

     Since the Machine Quilting Show I quilted this orphan sampler for church. They are fun to quilt, but without any practice to memorize the quilting design for each block it was easy to get confused. So I ripped a little more than I would normally. I try to keep the quilting on the light side for these quilts, but sometimes it isn't easy. Maybe it is time I quilt one of mine again.  I see I will have to play with this new camera a little more. The color isn't the best. Here are a few closeups.

      It was great to see so many familiar faces in the crowd last night. More than one gal was surprised to see that it was me doing the program.  We both attend the BenFranklin club way over in Oconomowoc, and I never let on there who I was.  Sometimes I try to be just one of the gals and it is easy at a shop club as opposed to a guild meeting. Things aren't as "social" there.

     And here's a few things I learned at the meeting last night:
Grandkids can cramp your style, but in a good way.
I have lots more local mystery readers of my blog than I thought.
I have more than one "biggest fan" in Wisconsin.
Sometimes Walmart clears fabric at 75 cents a yard.

Happy quilting.

3 down, 6 to go

 Sometimes I don't know where I find the time and other times I know I am addicted to the Internet. I need to try harder to balance my time better. At any rate, I put another quilt on the frame and started it.  I am finding that while it is nice out I like to work on my quilting after dark.  We live 2nd shift here, so I will often go to the studio after 9pm. I guess it rained or I wouldn't have gotten the new borders on these old tops. 

This first one is called Friendship Chain.  The blocks were from a block exchange in the Crazy Quilters guild I belonged to at the time.Each block has 12 set-ins. The girls didn't like me much for that, but they did a great job. At least it didn't have 50  pieces. Linda Bohling had the foresight to date her block 1989. Thanks, Linda.

 

 I'm not so sure I like the dark green, but it's not going anywhere.  I didn't audition the green on the wall first cause there was stuff in the way. It's sure hard to get nice pictures with the quilts on the flannel wall when flannel doesn't cover the whole wall. The big ones are hard to get up there as it is, especially when they are too big for the space. That pile of stuff is gone now, so I intend to audition several options for another top. I will be looking for input from all of you about that.

This next one was a sample for a magazine article I wrote years ago. I never named it, but I recall that I set 6 little arrow units in a 9-patch with 3 blue squares. Does that help?  I know how everyone tries to decipher how the pieced quilts go together. I've given plenty of lectures where everyone looks at my quilts kind of perplexed. Now this one I like better with the new brown border. And now it's a decent twin size. Sure beats a gazillion lap quilts.

 Well, it's 10pm, time to work in the studio for an hour. Sew long,

oops, I did it again

The lecture went pretty well last night. It was well attended by the guild of over 220 members. I have been to this guild several times in the past so it was great to see so many friendly, familiar faces. I was reminded that the very first time I taught a quilting class was for this guild at their retreat 15 years ago. There were 32 in that class and it was not an easy project. Boy was I nervous. I knew my material, but didn't know if I could teach. Well, that was then, this is now and I wasn't nervous at all last night- till I realized I forgot my notes! But apparently I don't need them. Guess what? I know the material. It was a fun group with lots of show and tell and as usual I forgot to use the camera. They have a show coming up May 16 & 17 at Rock County Fairgrounds. If I am around I will plan to attend. Maybe I'll think to use the camera then.

Forgetting to use the camera isn't the only thing I did again. I have this tendency to make a quilt and then rearrange the values and/or colors and make it again. Okay, I do it deliberately - usually, but not this time. You saw the start of this a week or two ago. This blog may be just the motivation I need to get that pieced border done sooner rather than later. Oops. I see that I have a quarter block in the wrong orientation. Aren't photos great for showing mistakes?


The black with hand-dyes I call "Wish on a Rainbow". Look closely and you will see that both of these use the same piecing. I must have 15 pairs of quilts where I have made a second version. That sounds like the start of a new program for a guild.
Well, I better get sewing. Sew long.