Antiquing with the Quilt Whisperer!

 Bonnie wanted to hit the antique mall and see what fun we could get up to there in between our workshop and lecture.  Terri and I (and later Kathy too) were happy to oblige!  I have been to this antique mall several times and usually only find about three or four quilts worth looking at so I was crossing my fingers that Bonnie would not be disappointed in the Merchant Square Antique store. 

 These are just some of the quilts we found--she is apparently the quilt whisperer!  They were everywhere! 

 This cute little quilt had "wounded knee" stitched in it and went home with Terri.  We think it may have been tribal made as it did not have a regular binding.

 Bonnie was a hoot of fun and tried out this none too comfortable baseball bat bench!

 It is blurry but here we are laying out quilts in the aisles and taking pictures and then folding them up again.  Sometimes Bonnie redisplays them better than we found them.  Super fun!

We found Bonnie her swimsuit for this summer  Hot stuff!  And her Partridge Family dress too!

 Terry is planning for her quinceanera!

It was a whirlwind trip and fun!  Kathy joined us at the end (after unloading our machines at home and feeding the dogs) and then we all went out for sushi.  Bonnie blogged about it here in case you didn't see it.  

Kathy and I sewed last night so we could get Midnight Flight done and get back to En Provence.  We made a baby size quilt.  This pattern is advanced for the triangle challenged.  I have diagnosed myself with triangle dyslexia.  I cannot tell you how carefully I laid things out...checked...double checked and even triple checked--and STILL I unsewed.  In the end my blocks are mirror image of what they are supposed to be and at least two small blocks have hst's that are turned around..maybe three.  I am apparently letting go of my inner type A because as far as I am concerned it is done!  I will NOT be making this one again anytime soon.  I love it but I find too much frustration in all the checking of chevrons, four patches and hst's for direction.

 I will add a larger border at some point when I need a baby quilt.  Until then, I consider this one done!

Next up the lecture fun!

Crazy Busy Weekend!

 Friday I got a text from my brother's fiance informing me that they were finally going to tie the knot at 5 pm that night!  They are adopting a little guy (Colton) in about a month and realized that waiting til next year to officially marry wasn't practical.  They plan to have a "real" ceremony and reception next year.  They both have been working hard to paint the baby's room and redo flooring, etc. and literally jumped in the car and headed to the courthouse as is.  LOL so here they are along with the justice of the peace and Ben in the background (the ringbearer).

I spent the night up at my mom's and then Jacki picked me up and we headed to 35th Ave. for the COM and black bag day.  Then we went to the PHXMQG charity sew in for the afternoon.  Last night I had a crazy migraine and had a long night and bad morning with it.  It is the first one I have had in a bit...ugh!

Ben's mother is also pregnant (the boys will be a month or so apart so Ben will be a big brother in both of his homes!) and tonight I quilted and bound this little quilt for her little guy--Oliver last I heard is the name.

 Today I sewed up some purple (and other) spools too.  Sue and I are going to trade some sets of ten!

 I discovered I didn't sew last month's pink pinwheels up...so here they are!

 I had a special request for a pink block so I made another pink Talkin' Turkey block..these blocks are SO MUCH FUN to make!

 I made four more Scrappy Trip blocks two that look like each of these pictures.

 Meanwhile Kathy has been working on our UFO Twist of Fate!  She has quite a bit done and it is looking great!  She also cut the BOM for 35th Ave and has her first block done (we have to do four each this month) so she is ahead of me!  I was busy quilting away and it will have to wait another day!

Yay for the Weekend!

 I got another row on my Cheddary Challenge!  I have two blocks done but they may wind up in the back since I am really ready for this top to be done!  This picture is sideways, but for now you get the idea.

 I then started putting Smith Mountain Morning blocks together (really hoping this is the UFO of the month for September--if not I may switcharoo it!).

I have two more rows together and pinned to be added, then a few more and borders.  I hope to finish this up at Becky's Sew In tomorrow.  For now, I am taking a machine sewing break and watching "V is for Vendetta" with Kathy.  I brought some hand stuff down to do and my knitting, so never fear more crafting is happening tonight!  

So very happy for a long weekend!  I am working a few hours at the crack of dawn on Monday but other than that I am free to sew, sew, sew!

Edit:  This is the UFO that was pulled.  I think I can manage to get this quilted in September!

11. MY BROKEN CROCKERY this one is a flimsy which I love and didn't want to wreck by quilting it myself. I need to either bite the bullet and do it by machine or by hand or just see if Ros can do a tiny one for me.

Updated UFO List

For all intents and purposes thirteen of the quilts listed below are done or will only have binding left to go when I get them back from the quilters.  This is the list from the end of March on my blog...not too shabby!  I am thinking I can soon get to starting something new, lol!  

I see the August UFO draw is #7 which is my Quilt History blocks from 2010.  I just need to cut and add sashing and cornerstones so that won't be as much work as some of the rest.  I may have to make a few more blocks or use duplicates too.  Whoot, whoot!

TO BE QUILTED BY ME:

3 Mourning Quilts w'Dad's Clothing-Sent to JoAnn for Quilting

Auntie's Anvil-DONE

Christmas Tree Skirt-DONE

Broken Crockery Rainbow-DONE

Little Basket Mug Rug-DONE

TOPS TO BE COMPLETED:

Bargello Seasons-Top Done, still undecided what to do with it

Lil’ Twister Pink and Green-DONE

Mac’s Bluework Blocks-waiting its turn

Cheddary Challenge ie. Bonnie's Sisters Sister Bow Tie Blocks-still in progress

I Spy Squares/Hexagons (cut what I have collected so far)-another one done, but have more to go

Jack in the Box Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2012-in progress

Nine Patch and Snowball Top-One Done, more to go

Pineapple Blossom Blocks-done and gifted to DJ Hunt

Randy's Smith Mountain Morning-making progress on this one now

Twist of Fate-still waiting

Quilt in a Day leftover bits from Night and Day-in progress now

Tina’s Crown Quilt-needs binding

Quilt History Blocks-pulled for August, so soon to be done!

HAND SEWN TOPS TO BE COMPLETED:

Hexagon Doll Quilt-no progress

Hexagon Bigger Quilt-no progress

COMPLETED TOPS FOR ROS TO QUILT:

Roll Roll Cotton Boll-JoAnn is quilting it

Bibelot Schnibbles-DONE

I didn't add anything to this list but was just happy marking things off!

My To Be Done List

A little more Cheddary Challenge progress.
Finally cut up those Lil' Twister blocks...I didn't put a border on it and may be adding that to the scraps and cutting it out because I miss it!

In May this quilt was sent to Janae and Ralph French for their soon to be born baby boy in Las Vegas.

Quilted this little baby quilt today. Just simple large X's in the corners and went around the orange rectangle and the edge. This one was made during our Staycation in Prescott so glad it is off the to do list! I made one more Pineapple Blossoms quilt block. I now have nine so I can either put this quilt top together or do a few more blocks if I want it bigger. I am not sure who this one is for..maybe one of DJ's older nieces so a little bigger might be better.

I spent some time tonight compiling the list of what I have to do as far as quilts go. I sure hope I haven't forgotten anything...this list is longer than I would like it to be. After all, I tell everyone I am a finisher! I updated the list on my blog and am astonished there are this many. Tonight while reading my blogs I really wanted to jump on the granny square bandwagon, but I think I better print this list off and start crossing them off one by one as I complete them!

TO BE QUILTED BY ME:

3 Mourning Quilts w'Dad's Clothing

Auntie's Anvil

Christmas Tree Skirt

Broken Crockery Rainbow

Little Basket Mug Rug

TOPS TO BE COMPLETED:

Bargello Seasons

Lil’ Twister Pink and Green

Mac’s Bluework Blocks

Cheddary Challenge ie. Bonnie's Sisters Sister Bow Tie Blocks

I Spy Squares/Hexagons (cut what I have collected so far)

Jack in the Box Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2012

Nine Patch and Snowball Top

Pineapple Blossom Blocks

Randy's Smith Mountain Morning

Twist of Fate

Quilt in a Day leftover bits from Night and Day

Tina’s Crown Quilt

Quilt History Blocks

HAND SEWN TOPS TO BE COMPLETED:

Hexagon Doll Quilt

Hexagon Bigger Quilt

COMPLETED TOPS FOR ROS TO QUILT:

Roll Roll Cotton Boll

Bibelot Schnibbles

Hmmm, what to start with first???

Two Challenges Met!

These first two pictures are actually pictures of a page and picture in my quilting journal...which is sadly not up to date anymore because the Modern Diary is now my quilting journal! But this large basket wallhanging quilt is my quilt number 4 from February 16th of 1991. I am including it here because today I worked on some TINY baskets which made me remember this wallhanging back from our peach bedroom days a lifetime ago. Seriously...this was made before # 3 was born and he is 19 now! It was from Eleanor Burns' May Basket in a Day book and I tied it with peach ribbon. No idea who I passed it on to, but it has been MIA for many years.
On to what I did today:
Here is Eye Spy Two all tied and ready to be gifted! Completed that while watching Phantom of the Opera recorded live from Royal Albert Hall. My daughter saw the show on Broadway four or five years ago and loved it..so we bought her the movie but twice I fell asleep trying to watch it so concluded it wasn't my kind of thing. I should have concluded I was too tired to watch it! DJ (Deaf, lol) picked up this dvd at the Redbox because she has actually seen it performed and enjoyed it. I went ahead and put it in at about 3 AM (after watching Whistelblower which was also really good) and managed to stay awake til "intermission" when I just had to crash. This afternoon (when I got up, lol) I watched the second half--I really enjoyed it and now I understand what Hannah meant! Now I have added that to my bucket list (since Wicked is not crossed off it). Randy is watching it now downstairs and so I am enjoying the music all over again as I sew and type!
Close up of the tying. Nothing special just yellow variegated embroidery floss. I am still pretending I don't see the two monkey blocks that found their way into this one! And back to baskets:
So today I worked on my tiny "Remembering Adelia" Civil War Basket Quilt. I planned to make at least four baskets and would love to have made twelve, but.... Here is the start of the block without the handle. I hand stitched the handle (first time and it look ok from a galloping horse in a misty dawn) and then unstitched where the handle should be in the seem allowance and resewed that part. I also make the bottom part of the other three blocks but the one that came out the best was the first one, go figure.


I hung it up and am happy with it! This was the challenge that Kathleen Tracy of Sentimental Quilter challenged on her blog and in her yahoo small quilt group. I have now managed to complete all of the March things I planned on, so now I will have to figure out what is next on my own!

Actually Spring Break is over in two days so I need to see what is up for teaching this coming week, grade some papers and then go over my powerpoint for the Math Interpreting Workshop Christine and I are doing on Friday. Time is flying but we are just about ready. Hope your sewing weekend was productive and fun!

Eye Spy Two

Worked on UFO #8 for Judy's drawing for March today. Here is the flimsy for Eye Spy Two. I really like this simple pattern. I have lots more squares but was trying not to get any duplicates (hmmm see the monkeys twice?) but that is fine I am not ripping! I have a bin with more squares this size though duplicates, 3 1/2 inch size squares and some hexagons I have been piling up. If I have time this month I may go for more flimsies, but if not I am going to try to get this one tied up for a future baby so I can cross number 8 off my list!

Spent much of my day working on the math workshop Christine and I are giving this month. It seems like the more we do..the more there is to do! We made great progress today and I feel good about where we are, but I am missing my sewing time!

January UFO Challenge is Met!

Worked all day, had a healthy dinner when I got home (trying....lol) and then I quilted and bound this baby all by myself tonight. Wasn't easy because I went around all those snowball blocks and used my new machine which doesn't have a wide throat! But it is done and bound in all different scrappy colors (which you can't really see in this pic) but I was happy to use up leftover bindings from my drawer!
Here is the crazy backing that says "love" all over it. I think DJ's six year old niece in Virginia will love it!

NYE Mystery 2011 is a Flimsy

Kathy came over today and we working on the NYE Mystery for 2011. I got my top together and am undecided on what to do with the borders for now. Glad to have it done, this is the first year that the flimsy wasn't together the same day as the mystery and I felt bummed about that!

Kathy has all the units you see here done and now just needs to assemble the blocks. I love her colors though she is worried it is too much white.

It has been a month of joining all kinds of stuff in blogland and so I decided to jump in on Angela over at http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2011/12/rainbow-scrap-challenge-2012_22.html for her Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Luckily her rules are flexible and I don't have to use scraps unless I want to! The color for January is red so I thought I would jump in and pick a block to make in every color of the rainbow as we go. It is always nice to find myself with a "bonus" quilt top at the end of the year! I looked through my Quiltmaker magazines at all of the Bonnie Hunter blocks for one that was good for only two colors (neutrals and the color of thhe month...) and I came up with the same one Amy did! http://skattebo-skattebo.blogspot.com/2012/01/rainbow-scrap-challenge-january-red.html if you want to see her blocks. I have copied Amy successfully before and she doesn't mind so I am doing it again! Here is my first block in red. I didn't follow the directions right the first time (what, me?) and had to redo half the blocks so that I was sewing on the half line instead of cutting on it so that it all fit together (now I have four extra small flying geese to stick in the what do I do with this unit box) and this block is called "Jack in the Box" and I love how it looks!I also put together a few more bow ties and then constructed another block.

DJ and I also got this spray basted and pinned so I can get to quilting it (this is the UFO Challenge for January)!And (s0rry for the blur) this is also spray basted and pinned. This is on the UFO list, so it will be that much closer to done when its number comes up!
I also sewed a few more light blocks on Orca Bay and trimmed them up. It was a nice day and I am happy with getting in lots of sewing time this weekend!

First UFO and Orca Bay Coming Up for Air

I am happy to report my first UFO has become a flimsy! Really that was easy since I only had to add two more rows and a border to make it so. DJ needs another quilt top for her niece's belated Christmas gift so that is what this will become. Hopefully we will get it basted and I will attempt to quilt it soon! I still have some leftover blocks in this pattern so I may put together another flimsy too so I can get it off my UFO list. (Oh, I realized tonight that I have a thirteenth UFO if I count the NYE Mystery which is waiting to be sewing into rows and get some borders).
I also made some binding for the Full House Around the Block Schnibble that I have packed up for Ros. Sorry my ironing board cover has already seen better days!
I also finished and pressed 100 (well somehow there are 102) of these babies from clue 6 I think it is. I have four of the other half done to attach to the green triangles...so LOTS left to go on that. I think that step gets pretty boring. I also finally sneak peaked a look at one each of the blocks to help me feel like this quilt is getting somewhere! I like them!
And here is the whole mess of it all packed up to go to Ros' and sew. I need to deliver a quilt top and miss the gang. June, you are welcome to come with me Saturday if you are reading this! So I had a nice night of sewing tonight. Tomorrow I work late and Friday I have to prep, prep, prep so I may not get much done til Saturday but I cherish every minute of it! Oh, I used my new travelling machine (the Brother) tonight and sewed like a top for me!