Studio Stats

So the last thing I wrote was that I was going to go get my sewing organized for the next opporunity I had to sew. I never thought that would entail cleaning and organizing my sewing room. I feel so rejuvenated! It didn't take much to go through my stuff, but I work best if things don't get toooo out of control. I have no priorities or immediate plans for my quilting right now, so I just thought I'd survey the workload. Next thing I knew I was actually dusting. This is the situation:

quilts needing binding 5
tops needing borders 8
tops needing quilting 103
tops in progress- PHD’s 15

So, I really got organized. First I removed two chairs from the room and moved a table to a better position. That alone made me feel great for 2 days! Next I put away a few piles of fabric then stacked up some of the work waiting to be done. In a little while I could see that this pile of tops waiting for borders is the first I'll focus on. Ripping, pressing, tea-dyeing and designing are required on some of these which might just be why work stalled.


As I was working I came across this red and purple print that just might be perfect with the red and purple stripped triangles that I made in March and April. I never had any real plans for those triangles, so now I'll come up with a plan to incorporate the print. Sort of my own personal mystery. What fun.

So did I actually get any sewing done? Yes, actually I quilted more on Brian's extra long log cabin quilt and I cut background triangles for the red and purple mystery quilt. I also put blocks together to move it from the PHD pile to the needing pressing and borders pile. I think I will take the ironing to the basement this week. Even with the A/C on I'm hot all the time. Ask Mark!
Sew long till next time.

Mending, piecing and stitching, oh my

And quilting, too. What a busy day sewing in so many ways. I had mending and alterations that had been sitting here since winter. And I finished up the last two logs on about 50 log cabin blocks that the church ladies started and quilted more feathers on the big quilt on the frame and made up another 6 of the 12 pillowcases here for the million pillowcase challenge.
It sure feels good to get all those things off my list.

On the wall in the photo is another comfort quilt turned in by one of the church ladies. It's waiting for me to add borders and quilting. I'll add the borders cause all the blocks were from her stash and I have the church's fabric here. The piecer is betting that we have something suitable.


Here are a few more of the quilts turned in last Tuesday. The sampler I put together from the orphan blocks that I collect. Occasionally I make a block or two from leftover pieces. I think I needed to put together 3 for this quilt.

The quilt below Lucrecia put together starting with a pillow panel in the center.
Now I am going to organize my next day's sewing. I hope that's tomorrow. Sew long,

A quilty June

Well, I'd have written sooner, but I have been having some trouble with the new modem sent to me by my ISP. They are taking it "to the next level" and hopefully can find a problem to fix.

I did happen to get Spring Dance together a few weeks ago. Now I feel I can move onto other things. I am surprised how long that one was on my design wall. Once it was this far I debated borders and decided just to go with a flat piping before the binding.

More comfort quilts were turned in last week at church. We had quite a few quilts piling up and decided we needed to make a distribution. I took in 13 quilts to Love Inc. They were thrilled to get them. It is always nice when the gals in the office are excited when we come in with quilts. Sometimes we make a delivery and you wonder if they really want them.

Here are just two of the quilts turned in. Both double-four patches. Amazing how they can look so different.
In the last two weeks I also attended a 25th anniversary party for the guild I started. It was great fun to reminisce with other past presidents that were invited and some of the charter members. I also gave a program to a guild in Illinois, delivered the raffle quilt to Judy to quilt and quilted one last Friday night with the girls. All this quilty activity has motivated me to do even more quilting. I can't wait to see what I get done. My to do list keeps getting longer. It must be time to post that. That's it for now. Guess where I am going.
Sew long,

Lovin' the Rain

Am I strange to like rainy days. When I had a huge garden I used to pray for rainy days so I could take a day off from working in the garden and clean my house. Then I got smart. I just prayed for a cleaning lady. I like the rainy days now. I think it is the quiet sound that I like and I tend to get lots done then.

It's been raining several days now and I got some real quilting done. This was a top I had sitting around for almost 10 years.

Since I still have no plans for it, the binding will probably continue to wait patiently in my tub o' bindings. I really don't mind doing bindings cause I do them completely by machine, but I'd rather do other things right now. See? I know how to prioritize. Now I am down to 103 quilt tops. Doing good I'd say. Sew all the long rainy day.

Old fashioned charm

Time sure flies when you enjoy your work. I planted all my annuals. My peonies are finally opening, just as we are getting a week of rain. Just like every year.


The raffle quilt top has been in my possession for a week now and I finally took a picture. I had Pam's challenge on the wall the whole week and didn't get far enough on it to take it down without getting confused! Dear Mark thinks it will appeal to the aging population of our church just fine. Uh, that would be him. What does he expect from almost a dozen golden girls?

Lily's cuddling lessons are not going well. This is the cat that never liked much to be held more than 60 seconds without her cardboard box. With a box, she has been known to go 3 hours!
Well, I am going quilting. Sew long,

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.

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.

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.

Spring challenges

What a beautiful spring we have had. I was really torn between going to the Crazy Quilter's
annual quilt show and staying home and working in the garden. I hate missing the show. I see so many old friends there. Of course I went to the show. I figured the garden wouldn't sprout too many weeds in one day.

I am always so inspired when I go to a quilt show - to buy more fabric. I was doing a pretty good job too of resisting until I ran into Pam. I haven't stopped by Pamella's Place for quite a while now. I told her how I enjoyed it a few years ago when I had her pick out fabric for me to make a couple of quilts for class samples.

These were the class samples for a 5 session class covering all the Thirtysomething units. We made sampler blocks in class, not these quilts. I really enjoyed the challenge of working with fabrics I wouldn't normally choose. I like to claim that I LIKE ALL fabrics, I just don't buy or use it all. I haven't the time! Ok, That is probably not the whole truth. So, at the show I suggested she pick out some more for me. And in less than a minute she picked out the two bundles of batiks shown below.

I am kind of stumped now with this new challenge. I have an idea or two. I don't have to use them all, and I can add up to 6 more fabrics. Should be interesting.

Are you up for a challenge? I could send you a bundle of fabric from our Church stash if you'd like. Let me know.
Here's hoping you get to enjoy spring in between some quilting stitches. I know - it's a challenge. Sew long.

Giveaway winners announced

As promised, I have two winners to announce.

Save the Scraps goes to Deanna at czereyna@yahoo
and Twin Peaks goes to NannaBonnie in Florida.

Ladies, you need to get me your address if you want to claim your prize.

Save the Scraps seemed the more popular of the two books, though many would have been happy with either. I'm kinda glad to hear that, because I have another scrap book due out late this fall. Thanks everyone for participating. It has been fun checking out your blogs.
Stay tuned for another giveaway this summer for my Birthday!

I haven't had a chance to quilt all week. But I did get my taxes done, visit with my sister from PA, and review the editors changes to my manuscript. With all that out of the way, I will be anxious to get in the garden in good weather. I will have to be sure not to overdue it so I am tooo tired for quilting. Wish me luck, and the same to you.

Master Textile Coordinator

There is still time to enter my Giveaway!

Textile Management Specialist or Master Textile Coordinator? Call me what you want, but Shelly did have a cute idea over at her blog post on Monday. What job title would you give your quilting occupation?

I liked Master Textile Coordinator for me. Just a half hour after I got back from retreat a few weeks ago, I got a call from one of my church basement quilting ladies. Lois said she had 7 trash bags full of fabric from Donna's house. Her family wanted it to go to charity after she died. Mind you we only got about a fourth of it. The photo here is from before Donna's contribution. If we get anymore soon, church will have more than I do!


As the official kit coordinator (or Master Textile Coordinator) for our group, Lois wanted to know where I wanted it. Before the contribution I would have said half our stash is here and half at church. Now I clearly have two thirds. I was thinking we could use a few more volunteers when Lucrecia called. She'd been back less than a week from her winter home in Panama (yes, the country) and offered to help me assemble kits. She was here Friday afternoon and we put together about 10 kits. I was pleased with what we got done. There is another 6 or 7 kits that I hope to finish coordinating before we meet on the 20th. It was kind of nice thinking I didn't have to do it all myself. Lucrecia is a fairly new quilter and did a fine job. I was glad for the help.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend and enjoying their friends and family and has great weather. I don't expect I will be quilting much this week; I am having company from out of town AND spring is here. Sew long.

Weekend report

If you like quilting books, you won't want to miss my giveaway. You have till April 9th to sign up.



Friday night Shaggy didn't come to quilt with Margie and Sue. She came with her boyfriend to visit though. I love it, but we don't get any sewing done then. I enjoy it when she comes to sew too, and not just cause she brings this candy bag she made for when she comes.

I also quilted a comfort quilt for Quilt club. They go so quickly on the longarm. Maybe too fast. And I worked on some pillowcases for the pillowcase challenge. I don't really know what it is about except I guess it has something to do with a magazine and the fabric companies and either the sick or the poor. They are collecting them at Oconomowoc Ben Franklin.

I am using a new coffee cup this morning and realized I never shared with all of you the wonderful door prizes I won at the retreat a week ago. Do you believe this is my first sewing basket? I sewed lots of doll clothes and my own clothes since junior high, but I don't remember ever having or using a sewing basket. So I am thrilled to have won it. It had a few notions included. In a second drawing I won the coffee cup. Pretty good haul I'd say.

Today I am going to tackle my taxes. With any luck I will be sewing again tonight.

2 x 2 Giveaway

I just had to get in on the fun and host a giveaway! My first year anniversary blogging is coming up and I wanted to celebrate and thank you all for blogging along with me. I am calling this the
2 x 2 Giveaway because I am giving away a copy of my two latest books (2 winners), you will have 2 chances to enter and I'll keep it open for 2 weeks. Here are the rules.

1. Post a comment to this blog telling me which you would rather win, either Twin Peaks or Save the Scraps. Be sure to check out the above links to my website and to preview all the projects click the link to Amazon.com. You can only win one of the two books, so there will be two winners.

2. For a second chance, post a notice and link on your blog, then comment again here. I am anxious to see your blogs and see some of your quilts.

3. For those of you that don't blog, just send me an e-mail. I will include your name in the drawing.

4. Drawing will be the old fashioned way. I will announce the lucky winners on Saturday, April 10.

Now, back to quilting. Sew long,

Spring Retreat Report

Good day everyone in blogland.

I am happy to report I recovered quickly from last weekend's retreat. That doesn't mean it was less wonderful. I just took better care of myself. I got a walk in every day and didn't overdo it. Also, a massage therapist was there this year. I was long over due for a massage so signed up for half an hour. So many of the other ladies did too, that she came back the next day. Instead I got a 5 minute mini chair massage on Friday night and half hour on the table on Saturday night. Amazing how much that 5 minutes helped.


I had hoped and expected to get more done. But it isn't a big deal cause I didn't have any deadlines. I first had planned to finish this applique. But I only brought the one bobbin in the machine and it had the wrong color.


So I worked on this star first. I didn't finish it because I wasn't sure I was going to like how the light golden inner borders looked. We didn't have a flannel wall at our disposal so rather than be unhappy and want to rip it, I brought it home to study. Still undecided that it is dark enough. I am thinking of tea dyeing the border first. Yes I realize the fabrics for the 60" star are rather plain, but won't the quilting show up nicely?


Then I started making red strip-pieced triangles for a mystery quilt like Sharyn Craig's Strip Tease or Margaret Miller's Strip's That Sizzle. I often call a quilt I've started a "mystery" because I don't have definite plans for it yet and it is a mystery to me what I am going to do with the blocks I have started.
After that I worked on some nine-patches for another mystery. Not sure if I will set them with half-square or quarter-square triangles and won't even think about it till I have made many more - someday.

Well, I am sure that all the inspiration from this retreat will last me a while. I should have thought ahead and gotten my taxes done before hand. Now I have to stop and take care of those, and just when I was on a roll. Thank goodness they have gotten easier with the computer.

Stay tuned for a report on progress on these 3 new projects. Sew long,

Tis a season

I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day. It was glorious here. I am all fired up and ready for the retreat this weekend. I managed to come up with a few more projects to work on. I realized I won't finish Gayle's Flower Garden. I thought I was further along than I am. But I will take it and 5 others. That way I can work on whatever I am in the mood for.


Yesterday I met at church with the ladies. Lots of comfort quilts were turned in. The scrap Contrary Wife Quilt was made years ago by a deceased member of our group. The family included it with a contribution to us of some of her fabric.

It's show season around here. I hope to see a few this spring. I don't usually enter shows anymore, but it is fun to go and see old friends and support the quilters. Spring and fall are the same around here. Shows, retreats and beautiful weather. I couldn't pick a favorite. Have a good one and sew long.

Preparing for Retreat

Last week I realized I was going on retreat next week and thought I better get ready. It has been difficult because I can't decide what to work on. I always like to take lots especially for this retreat cause it is 4days and I sew fast. I want to keep in mind that last Nov. retreat wiped me out pretty bad so I better plan some down time. This retreat is in the Kettle Moraine State Forest -Northern Unit so there are hiking trails nearby. If I use them will depend on the weather. Last year we woke up to snow.

So far this is what I have planned to do.
1. Blind stitch applique the swag on the red and green applique quilt.

2. a big one block quilt like this one. Different design, different colors and a pieced border.
I love these for using up old fabric fast. I have already made two and plan on doing more.

3. some pillow cases for whichever magazine that challenged all of us to produce a million pillowcases this year for the needy.

4. Maybe I will finish up the Gayle's Flower Garden hexagon quilt top. I don't want it much bigger and hope eventually to make one with black and dark colors instead. This is how far I am now.
5. I have to plan more, so will rummage through my scraps or books till I am inspired. Maybe I will take along another PHD.

I love the energy generated by these retreats. Even getting ready has me all fired up.
What motivates you?

My own mystery quilt

Greetings fellow bloggers. Do you blog more than you quilt? Seems I do.

It also seems to me that I have been jumping around alot from project to project. Maybe that is because I am attempting to finish up some PHD's. I jump when I don't have what I need or know what I want to do or have to think about what I need to do next. All good reasons to have more than one project in the works at a time. I think I would get bored if I finished each project before starting the next. And likely very little would get done.

I finished this top with the exception of the green border I still need to buy. I started this about 15 years ago, so it will be a challenge to find fabric that goes with it. The border fabric wouldn't be an issue if I had planned this quilt from start to finish. Seems I rarely do that. But I had planned an entirely different quilt with the Thirtysomething star blocks and didn't like the way it was turning out. So I ditched the plan and 12 years later came up with this idea. The half blocks around the edge were also an afterthought. I didn't want just a plain light border and it was all the fabric I had left. I guess it doesn't really need another border, but right now it is only 72" square. I wonder if I will ever find suitable border fabric. Looking tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Sew long,

Super Students

I love it when students share the completed quilts that they have made from my classes. Especially since I am not too good about remembering to bring my camera to classes. Sue stepped out of her comfort zone when she chose the fabric for this quilt. She did a super job as always.
Rita designed this quilt after taking a series of Thirtysomething classes with me a year and a half ago. Rita enjoyed the techniques so much she also made this Thirtysomething medallion as a wedding quilt for a granddaughter.


I'm glad to show their quilts especially since I haven't taken any photos lately. I keep forgetting to get new batteries for the camera. I did decide to add a border to the log cabin quilt. So once that is washed and attached I can show you that. My history suggests that could be a few years though. It's was kinda hard for me when I didn't need it for anything. Maybe now with the blog I will be better at completing the tops.

Quilting at church yesterday. Lots of great show and tell and no camera as ususal. Some of those pieces will surface again when the quilting is done. Maybe I can get a shot then.
Thanks for stopping by. Sew long for now.

What is your perfect Quilt size?

How's everything in quilt land. Do you have cabin fever, or don't you get it cause you quilt? My visit with Judy 2 weeks ago was just what I needed to jump start my enthusiasm for quilting again. Since then I quilted two tops for church comfort quilts. Here is one. I guess I never took a pic of the other one.

Then I went with Judy to quilt club at Ben Franklin and that inspired me to finish the logcabin I started when we went to quilt retreat in November. Only I forgot to take a picture of that too! I did get three pictures of other settings with the quarter-quilts that I made. I must say it was much easier handling a large quilt by putting it together in quarters. You will have to wait for my next post to see what setting I chose.


I am undecided about the border. I border nearly everything and I am not sure I want to add one to this. It now measures about 88" square. I like that size for a bed and realize the quilting will take up several inches. So I might just add a narrow border. I am really curious what size quilts you like to use on your beds. This information probably would have helped me more earlier when I wrote the last 8 books, but I am curious now cause my gals are coming over for quilting in a few minutes and we always pretend to argue over the perfect size quilt. So, please, do tell. More later.
Sew long