Sunday Best Schnibbles and Walk in the Park

This lovely quilted Flea Market Fancy fabric is on the back of my February Sunday Best Schnibbles!














You can see the fabulous quilting that Ros Atwood did on it! I am so glad to have found a local gal to quilt for me so I don't have to send boxes all over. Though as prolific as I am sewing these days I may have to spread out the quilt tops anyways!
Here is the front! It looks fabulous close up and far away if you ask me! I just have to bind this one when I get it back and I am all set.

Also this afternoon I did some ripping and sewing of my Walk in the Park quilt. As you can see, in the end I left one of the boo-boos for posterity! I added in a leftover nine patch and saved myself the trouble of ripping it out. My perfectionist streak must be weakening!

I also made the binding while I was at it! I think I have run out of stuff to sew unless I want to get moving on Tara's quilt...it is all cut into strips!

This is absolutely the most satisfying day I can recall in recent history. Maybe I should get up early more often :O

A Whole Lot of Progress!

Kathy made me a gigantic A for my quilting studio! I may paint it down the line, but I really like it! This morning I got up at 6 AM (for no real reason, which is RARE!) and sewed up the binding for my Roundabout Schnibbles Quilt!

I then decided to finish up my Quilt History Quilt top...I went ahead and put the last three not so hot blocks together and then realized that I needed four in order to make the size better...I don' t like those three blocks (upside down but on the left of this picture) and so I will put them into the backing of this quilt. At this point it still needed the last border....
I completely forgot to take a picture and blog about the ice skate I got from Kimmie from Michigan when we met up a few weekends ago for the quilt show and such. I didn't wind up getting as much time with her and the gals as I had hoped, but we had breakfast together before the show. She made this cool ice skate painting! Sweet, huh and very thoughtful of her to give EACH of us one!

Now you can see I did cut and add the wide outer border to the Quilt History 2009 quilt. It is BUSY but I like it anyway. I also whipped up the binding since I was on a roll. Now all I need is the backing and it can go to the quilter!

I was also multitasking while doing all this. When my Dad died six months ago (has it really been six months already) he passed on to me his dad's old film reels that had been converted to VHS. I watched almost three whole VHS tapes this morning while sewing...much of it is from before my Dad even came along (1946) and it starts out black and white and no sound...eventually it is in color and there have been parts with sound but not many so far. I have caught a few glimpses of my Dad as a baby and a toddler. Even better is seeing his mom, Florence, who died when he was six. I have only seen a few pictures of her and now I can see her personality and her love for her husband and boys. There are also lots of visits to National Parks, a plane and train crash mess (Grandpa was an engineer and maybe this was work related??) and even the race between Seabiscuit and I forget the other horse in which Seabiscuit barely loses. It is taken from the stands, so I guess my grandfather was there! Interestingly enough..I have only watched a few movies with my Dad in my adult life and one of them was Seabiscuit! There is also a Packer Redskins game from the same time frame...looks like it is at Lambeau! Anyway, I look forward to watching more this afternoon.

I then decided I was going to just put this Walk in the Park quilt together and have Ros quilt it...hopefully since I didn't do any applique she is up for it. This is my challenge UFO and I want it all done by July to show at my guild, so done is better than perfect..right!

First pic it is without borders, second pic I have the first sets of borders on. Unfortunately time was running out and I was in a hurry and I messed up putting on the final border...so I need to rip out two sides and switch them and add the last side to fix that....that is on the agenda for this afternoon so there should be another post!

After talking to Coleman for a bit, Randy and I went for Mexican food and then I came home and DEEP cleaned the car. The weather is PERFECT for that sort of thing. I also reorganized and loaded the food and games for Disneyland...we leave on Monday!

Ayla with her Quilt Schnibbles Roundabout Done!

I put this one Night and Day block together but just the one. I am sure this will come to camp with me and I should finish with a completed top!

Here is Ayla with her quilt, she loved the pink and the teddy bear backing...which is good since that is what she requested. Now she ust has to keep it away from her brother!

I finished my Schnibbles Roundabout last night as well. I worked on it at Becky's Sew-In on Saturday then came home to finish the last three blocks but forgot to adjust the seam allowance and so I had three not so right sized blocks which I didn't notice til I had it all together....so Sunday night I tore a bit of it out and resewed and trimmed until I was happier. Then I got the borders on...I like the look of this one, but doubt I will be making it again! I used June's Angler to do the corners and it was okay, but maybe not quite as accurate as it would have been if I had drawn lines instead. It was quicker though.

I am back to work after my one job's Spring Break...already missing time in my sewing room!

Sneak Peak at Night and Day

I started sewing the strips together for Night and Day (for Tara and Tommy) and couldn't resist putting the first block up on the design wall to see what it would look like! This block isn't stitched yet, but I am liking it! I have quite a few strips and blocks to go though...I am happy to finally have started this quilt! Off to see a movie with Becky, then back at it!

Nimble Thimbles Meeting

On March 16 the members of Nimble Thimbles brought in any older quilts they have that were made between 1850 and 1950. Quilt historian, Barb Eckoff from Iowa joined us to talk about quilt history. Barb put the quilts in date order, and then talked about the particular fabrics that are in the quilt - reflecting style and colors of the time, as well as the quilt pattern names in order to date them. Members shared whatever bits of the history of the quilt with us and we saw a TON of older quilts!
My camera was not flashing right at the beginning of the presentation, but eventually I changed the setting and got better pictures. I didn't include very many from the unflashed ones because the quality was so bad but these are the pictures in order...they went from oldest to newest--roughly.

I LOVED the look of this one!

This was a seven sisters quilt and I learned that the seven sisters were the seven seceeding states from the union.

Huge and gorgeous!

I was so excited when my quilt came up that I didn't take a picture of it, but this is where it fell in the presentation. I have previously blogged about this quilt and told the story of it. I was absolutely fascinated to hear that Barb thinks it is from around 1924 (not 1955 or so as I was thinking since my grandmother got it from my great grandmother in about 1958) as the fabrics are from around that time. I am now wondering if this wasn't a quilt of my great grandmother's for many years before she passed it on to my grandmother (not her only child--a daughter, but the one that became my grandfather's second wife when she died way too young) and how exciting to know that! I want to get this individually professionally looked at now!

A lot of the pinks had faded in this quilt, but so pretty!

Yo-Yo's!

A Coffin Quilt

Everyone loved this unique border...probably made to make the edge straight!

I love the orange!

Forgot to turn this one!

I really like this one too.

I am off work today and hoping to really hit the sewing room in a few minutes so hopefully there will be more to post later on!

Arizona Block Done

Today I stopped at June's for a few hours and we gabbed and I cut this block out..that is about all I accomplished as I am just really tired considering I am working less hours this week due to Spring Break! So after getting my taxes done (came out in the red after paying the preparer, but not bad) I decided I needed to sew this block together finally! This is the third one in Amy's Passions BOM for March. I am now all caught up. I accidently cut the blue out where I should have cut red, so then I switched the colors..I guess red makes more sense for Arizona sun, but overall I am happy with it. At least I finally sewed something. Schnibble is up next for March!

What I've Been Working On

Yesterday I picked lemons, oranges, tangarines, and key limes (though they aren't really green for some reason they were falling off the tree ripe) so I wanted to show you that. I guess fertilizing them paid off because we have lots more fruit this year!

The other day I sewed these pieces together for my Schnibble Roundabout border...they will be cut in half. That is as far as I have gotten on this Schnibble so far.

I have also been occasionally working on this little Moda Bake Shop handsewing project when I get time. The top is almost sewn together. I have really enjoyed this and may have to start keeping some kind of hand sewing with me at all times! The fabrics are just so cute!

I should also mention that last night I got a little crazy and ordered LOTS of fabric (at least for me, lots of fabric) and I can't wait to get my hands on it! It is that new line with the umbrellas and rain drops by Riley Blake and Denyse Schmidt's new Meadow Hope Valley and Prairie Hope Valley...sometimes you just gotta!