The short list

Back to the retreat Friday with Judy.  I did 3 of these blocks for "Ladies in Waiting".  I will work on them when I am quilting with my friends.  Won't take much thinking. I think there are at least 24 blocks planned with a pieced border.

















On my flannel wall are the rest of the blocks I cut and sewed at Judy's. It doesn't look like much now, because they are stacked in order to sew. If you recall, the friendship star blocks I made a while back, what you see here is the border.







I was telling Judy the other day how I am lucky that I can do whatever I want whenever I want where my quilting is concerned. After looking around the sewing room tonight, I think I have to take that back. I don't think overwhelmed is the word, but sometimes it sure does feel like I have an awful lot that I want to do. I need to prioritize my projects. That's not usually a problem for me.  Take a look at the other piles I have around the room.

This 1930's quilt has been waiting for the border for just a few weeks. That's when I changed my mind about how to assemble and border the blocks, but now I have to locate the muslin that I used in the blocks to make the border. Also not usually a problem.

The binding for Lisa's quilt is half pressed.  I haven't gotten back to it because the table that will support the weight of it had a Christmas tree on it. Put that away this afternoon, so now I can bind. I have 3 others waiting for binding.  Oh yes, a basket of socks is always waiting to get sorted.

These are my newest red fabrics that I washed and ironed tonight. Some of them I have had almost a year and they waited in a special laundry basket in my closet.







This last pile (that I am showing) is actually 2 different piles. One for an applique quilt that has been waiting for at least 6 months. Yes on the floor in the corner behind my cutting table. The other pile is some fabric that I want to move into the cabinet cause I want to rearrange some of my fabric for easier access to the batiks. I wanted to wash the reds first. Sure hope that doesn't sit for another month.

Sew, you say. Yeah, I should. Binding for Lisa first.   I mean NOW, I have 3 hours till bedtime.
 Wish me luck and good luck to you.

Two too big

Yep, you read that right. I've got two quilt tops to show that are too too big for my flannel wall.
The first is the top I started at retreat last spring, inspired from the book "One Block Says It All". I didn't get any further because as usual I had to add the borders. I already had the pieced borders pieced, but I wanted to get a different tan fabric. Once I did, it still sat in the pile. I'm not too sorry it's too big for my flannel wall, because that means it'll be a good sized quilt for my bed. Someday. I think these are great stash busting quilts because it uses a lot of fabric quickly. I hope to make more but I think before I do that I ought to quilt one and see how I like doing that.

This other quilt top is called Mothers Fancy Star, I made it for my sister about 27 years ago . She was always going to send it off to get hand quilted and never quite got that far. It sat in the corner of her bedroom on display for who knows how long and gathered dust. Now with the long arm, I am happy to quilt it. So I washed it this morning in the bathtub, and hung it on a line to dry. This one measures 104" x 128"! I would like to convince her to remove a row and make a quilt 104 inches square. This would not only make it easier for her to handle and launder and me to quilt, but also, if it were square she could rotate it on the bed for even wear. It's her decision. And I would be happy to instruct her how to use the same ripper. She is lucky she has a choice, because if it were 128 inches square, it wouldn't fit on my frame!I'll probably quilt this one now as soon as I get the batting and backing for it. I've already planned the quilting for it and there will be a minimum of marking to do. Thank goodness!

I also sent a small box of small quilts and quilt tops to an Amish auction. I don't necessarily expect them to do very well but I am hopeful that I will still be satisfied. I think that's the same outfit will have another auction again in November. If I am pleased this time around I might very well send some more for the November auction. Sounds like a great time of year for a quilt auction - just before the cold and before Christmas.

Well I guess that's about all the Quilty stuff this week for me.
Sew long,

Loads of Progress

I have had lots of energy to sew lately and I am getting lots done. Yet, I feel like I have to get "caught up" with my sewing. I don't know where that is coming from because I have no deadlines or commitments. I haven't had this kind of energy for a while now, so am glad for it.

I got the borders on this Swizzle Sticks quilt finally. I made the top at retreat last November and didn't put the border on cause I wanted to change the cornerstones. They were a coral pink and didn't give it the look I was after so I ripped out the pink ones and replaced them with the dark gray. Glad I did. I wasn't sure I wanted to put the blocks together at retreat without a design wall to spread out the blocks and audition the color of cornerstones. I learned from that mistake. This is one of my newest and favorite Thirtysomething quilts. I still can't believe all the designs you can make with that little unit.

I also got Brian's big log cabin quilt done. He took it home today and at 9pm when he called it was still out in his van. I can't imagine he will be needing it tonight anyways. It has been hot and muggy this weekend and promises to be the rest of the week. Okay with me, I will stay in and quilt.

I got a few other simple borders done, but didn't take pics yet cause the sun was shining on the wall. I also assembled more kits with the fabric cut with the Studio cutter. I still have to put some directions together for those. I also loaded another big quilt on the frame and it is 1/4 done already. It's hard for me to believe I got so much done and Mark was home on vacation. Makes me think his retirement won't be so bad after all.

Here is hoping all you quilters find a little time each day to get some quilting done. I know, it makes my day!
Sew long,

Busy with my stitching

It's been a great spring here, but I haven 't been outside working too much yet. I haven't been quilting much either. After I realized I had a few shirts in my closet that were more than 12 years old, I cleaned out my clothes closet for summer, went shopping and made a new shirt and new shorts. Making a little dent in the stash of fabric for clothes felt good.

Pam's challenge has to wait till I find the fabric to go with the design I have planned. I intend to find it in my stash. I tend to jump around from project to project so I finally got back to the red and purple strip tease quilt that I started at retreat. I finished the purple units.





Now I need to decide on the background. I already decided I don't want boring beige, and I don't want to go scrappy. So I tried these out cause I really don't want to have to buy anymore. Can you tell I tend to like fairly plain fabric? Maybe a shopping trip is in my near future. And maybe you can tell, I have not totally decided on the setting yet either.

I had an uneven width log cabin class. It's always kinda fun watching the lightbulb go on in everyone's head. The idea is to use up all the little scraps that you don't want to toss, nor do you want to cut specific sizes or shapes from them. These go fastest if all the scraps are sorted lights from darks and then organized by length and of course chain piece. To see a few of these, click on log cabins in my list of posts at the left. Okay, my other left.

Also, I took in 15 more kits to church. Lucrecia had helped me with 10 of them and I did another 5. Nine attended last Tuesday, so many of the kits went home right away. And we had 1 new gal and I am expecting another new gal next month. Should be fun.

A Happy Place Somewhere in Wisconsin

I'ts been a quilty few weeks. I'll take a few days to post about it. For starters I had a great time Friday and Saturday at the retreat in Waupon or wherever I was. I know it wasn't Wausaw, Wanakee or Walmart, but I'm not sure it was Waupon either. Judy and I arrived Friday around 3pm and worked on our quilts till 11pm. Back at it at 7:30 Saturday till 11 pm again. Stopping of course for meals, a walk on a gorgeous November afternoon and a bonfire at night!
This is project 2 of 2 that I worked on. I want to rework the the first one a bit and still need to add a border so that will have to wait. I did get all 13 of those blocks done though. But then I went to work on these log cabin blocks. I was quite pleased to get 39 blocks made. Not sure how many I need yet. Anywhere between 100 anc 144! At least they are fast and easy and I can make them all from my stash!
We were back at it again by 7:30 Sunday. Things ended tooo early though when after a short service where the pastor brought out his accordion and led us in song, we had brunch and most everyone left. We were invited to stay as long as we wanted and the 4 diehard quilters at our table didn't want to arrive home in time to have to cook for our families. So we were the only ones that stayed and didn't leave till 4pm.
How we got so much accomplished is beyond me. At one point our table was accused of having "too much fun". But then again we were all "quilting professionals", with one being a quilt teacher, another a shop manager, another a longarm quilter (that would be Judy) and myself, the author. So at times we were quite serious about getting something done.
That evening I wasn't very tired and surprisingly I slept well. But it caught up with me. Monday I napped for 6 hours! and 2 more hours each Tues and Wed. Good thing I didn't have other commitments. A recent discussion with other quilters was about our recovery time after a trip. I was sure glad to hear I wasn't the only one that was wiped out. I heard Judy was dragging too. No doubt, come March I will be looking forward to the spring retreat. More soon. Sew long.

Mixed Feelings

Hello everyone,
Okay, I am so new to this, I don't know where to start. I want to thank everyone for welcoming me to blogland and their nice comments. I'd like to respond to each of you, but I am pinched for time tonight. Boy, can I lie. Really, I don't know how to do it yet except for here. I intend to visit each of your blogs though.

Thank you Wanda for spreading the word. And was it Carol that wondered about my departure from the quilting world for other business? (That was 9 years ago already.) My retirement lasted 2 years. I think I was feeling a bit burned out after self-publishing 3 books and then all the teaching and promoting and shows.... But quilting kept calling me back.

Since then Martingale & Co. published my book Save the Scraps and just recently, Twin Peaks. Isn't it interesting all the twists and turns in life. I am really glad I did those 3 books myself, but am sure glad I am not doing them alone anymore. As we go through different phases of life our priorities change. I could not devote the time to it now. I am happy with Martingale's part in my books and hope to continue with them for a while.

I did get a chance to get back to my other retreat project. Not sure I like it enough to make it much larger. Maybe it needs a pieced border. I will leave this on the design wall a while and think about it.

Tomorrow I am off to Quilt Festival at Rosemont. I hope they have vendors there with longarm supplies. I think I have enough fabric for a while. I need to think about thread for finishing some of my tops. Doesn't that sound like fun? And of course, I have to buy a souvenir book. No, they don't have a show book to buy. I just use it as an excuse to buy another quilt book. Anything that appeals to me. Luv books. I will put my theory on control over fabric shopping to the test, too. It doesn't help that my dh doesn't care.

The comfort quilt I showed on my first blog is almost done. I haven't been able to quilt as usual this week cause dh is off and he always cramps my style. However, he was a real gem this afternoon and helped me in the garden with some huge clumps of perennials. It was finally a nice spring day.

that's all for now, sew long