My Blue--Purple--Heaven Makes a Reappearance!

 After sewing up my four aqua/teal blocks and doing a bit of strip cutting I finally got out "My Purple Heaven" which has been hanging out since the Tuscon workshop awhile back patiently waiting for me to get back to it.  This one is for Lexi (Coleman's fiance).  I only made a few more blocks, did some more cutting and made some parts.

This is where I stopped off for the evening to watch "The Wolf of Wall Street."  It would not work in our DVD player in the quilting studio, but works in the bedroom.  So time to put my feet up!  I am excited that the color for April's Rainbow Scrap Challenge is purple, so I will do my best to get this quilt done in addition to my other purples.  Pretty sure I have decided to stop making the Trash to Treasure blocks....I have made three and they aren't uniform enough for me..I don't like them!  So they will go in a backing or something and I will just keep on with the other RSC stuff I have going on for now.

I also added another border to the modern medallion quiltalong.  It is now 35.5 inches square.  No idea what to do next, have been thinking on it all day with still no real idea!  Feel free to leave me suggestions!

Aqua/Teal Comes to an End!

Darting Bird

Corner Frames

Split Nine Patch

Spinning Star

All the Aqua/Teal Blocks

I was holding my spoiled chihuahua when I was trying to do this blog earlier so I could not type anything much...LOL.  I am all caught up on the RSC Challenge for March!  Loved these fun blocks.  I need to make a cat one if I can find it in the right size, I seem to recall it posted and I think it is so cute!

Catching Up!

 I had a great mail day on Thursday when this book came in the mail.  I am already almost half way through it and really enjoying it!

Found out about an estate sale that included every kind of crafty stuff you can imagine (times ten) where the prices were out of this world and went nuts on Friday after work.  Looks like a mess here...

 Lots of rulers to add to our collection.

 I decided to change the way I was folding the fabric on my shelves because much of the shelf was wasted with it folded into forths.  Now it is folded in half and in rainbow order!

 

 This is the pile of backings I have now amassed.  I was really down to nothing in that department and am so tired of spending so much cash for a backing when I need one.  If it was a big chunk and I liked it, it came home for a backing!

 This morning, Kathy and I met up with my friend and co-worker Christine and her daughter Samantha.  Christines' mom came too.  It was a Arizona Blankets for Kids sewing bee!  My friend Kelli from PHXMQG is on the board and had encouraged me to go and Samantha really wanted to do some charity sewing...she made her first quilt top!

 Here are Samantha and Christine just as she is getting started.

 Here I am with my quilt top.

 Christine and her mom also got into tying and trimming some fleece blankets while we sewed.

 She learned how to web her quilt and she didn't mess it up once!  (I messed mine up before I started webbing it, lol!)

 They had stacks and stacks of quilts..I think all told we made about 200 is what I heard.  There were 72 people there and everyone had some kind of job!

 It was a lot of fun and we all plan to go back!

 Kathy and I decided to go back to the estate sale so I could look for purples and novelty fabrics.  There was two whole rooms I really hadn't even been through yesterday!  Here is the stack of purples I found.  Lots of smaller pieces which is great for scrap quilting, so my purple is replenished!  I even found a purple chunk for a backing!

 Not the best picture, but this is the stack of novelty fabric I found--in a zillion different boxes and bags..quite an upper body workout and my hands are SO dry from touching so much fabric!

 Found this cute fabric and several pieces with words on them too!  I also found a bunch of white on whites so I am set on that for awhile!

 I am happy to say that both yesterday and today after getting home from the sale, I folded, organized, cut and reorganized everything so that almost ever piece of about seven garbage bags of fabric is put away!  The little chunks are under the ironing board by color and the bigger chunks are folded and put away here, with whites in a large tote and backings stacked up!

 

 The only actual sewing I did tonight was in finally quilting and binding this Maverick Stars baby quilt for Shiny's baby Jayden!  He is over a month old and I will be sending this home to Wisconsin for him on Monday!

Modern Medallion QAL Linky # 3!

This quilt picture is from The War of 1812 Blog.  I originally saw a picture of this quilt (or one quite similar to it) in a magazine and have always wanted to make a medallion quilt.  Several years ago, while still in Wisconsin, I bought a reproduction Hewson Center and struggled with trying to replicate it from the start!  At the time the lemonye stars were absolutely undoable for me!  This quilt is in the collection of the American Folk Art Musuem and I think it is exquisite!  I still have the center and may try my hand at making a medallion with it one day now that I have tried the Modern Medallion and have had such good luck with it!  

I have not made any more progress on my modern medallion.  I started sewing a few smaller paper pieced stars for possible corners, but so far am not loving them.  I cannot decide between another solid border (if so what color) or a pieced border of the various fabrics.  Funny, up til now it all came easier than I thought and I love it.  Now I keep thinking maybe I should stop before I ruin it!  Advice?  Do tell me what you think I should do because I am apparently STUCK! 

Linking up with MQG Ireland so you can see what the other folks are up to with their modern medallions!

More This and That!

My friend Ann hosted a sewing party a few weeks ago, though at the last minute I didn't wind up going.  I had already sewn up my space block anyway and mailed it to her.  She used it (and all the other star blocks) at the college with this set up to tell others about the project.  You can see my block is on the table.  Pretty cool!  Thanks Ann!

My block for Space--smaller Talkin' Turkey

 Whipped up another aqua/teal modified four patch block for the RSC today too.  Linking up with SoScrappy!

 I also paper pieced another Wild and Goosey.  I have not had much energy this weekend and feel SO lazy!  I think I am catching up from last week's running!

 Here are all the blocks so far...still pretty tiny!

This and That

 Today I attempted to make "Amethyst" for the Classic Meets Modern QAL.  My block is not quite the right size, but I will make it work or make another one, for now I am content with it.  Linking up with Sew at Home Mummy!

 Here are blocks one and two together.

 I also ironed up my "Lozenge" Bonnie Hunter challenge blocks.  I managed to make several in aqua/teal for the Rainbow BOM, but that is really all I have to show for that this week!  Linking up with Angela!

We watched a documentary about Pompeii while I stitched up another Wild and Goosey block.  It was interesting, now we need to see the movie about it.
Still getting in my elliptical and bike.  Lost two more pounds this week so staying strong!

Quilting on the Rim Update!

Our instructor sent us some updated photos from Quilting on the Rim so I thought I would post them.  This one is Brenna--she made it this far before we left.

This one is Mary's--it turned out great too!

This one is Becky's which I showed off before too.  Love hers!  The blues are really more turquoise.

This one is Tilla's.  Love her southwestern colors!

I believe this one is our teacher's quilt--doesn't look as big as it did in class but that is hers.

And here is mine again.  I love how it came out!

Three Awesome Stops!

Yesterday we took Monica to the Desert Botanical Gardens for Chilhuly in the Garden.  It was so beautiful and we got in tons of walking!

Kathy and I especially liked the sundial in the herb garden.  So cool!

Stop number two (after lunch at Subway for us and In and Out for Randy and Monica) was the Ostrich Farm.  This wasn't really Monica's style, but Kathy and Randy were over the moon.  I got a kick out of it though I am okay if I don't feed goats, ducks, and ostriches out of my hand again any time soon.

We also got nectar to feed to the birds.  I have never done something like this (and Monica opted not to) but figured I could try it once.  It was the best part of the whole day for me!  Seriously, these birds land on you and take the lid off the nectar, lick it clean then drop it and drink from the cup!

They are so beautiful!

Our last stop was to the Casa Grande Ruins.  We heard about an hour long talk on the history of the place and got to get up really close to see them.  Unreal to think this has been here for six or seven hundred years!

We had another great visit with Monica and she really enjoyed the sun (back to snow in Eau Claire) and we hope she comes again next year!