Done!

The sister's choice quilt is done, quilted and bound. I used different blue 2.5" strips that I had cut to make blocks as the binding. I like the look of it! Now what to do with the rest of the 2.5" strips I cut?

My next project is a baby quilt. I've been making bright 4-patches as a leader/ender project. They will be set with black sashing and bright cornerstones for a baby quilt. Tracey James was born on Tuesday...and since his brother and sister have quilts, he'll need one of his own!

Weird? Me?

Blogger won't let me post this...maybe I'm too weird???

Who would ever think there is anything weird about me? Of course, when I asked my family they were able to come up with a thing or two! I'm amazed at how many weird things I have in common with others who have posted their lists!

6 weird things about me...

1. I absolutely HATE to have my feet touched. By anyone, including me! I'd love to have a pedicure, but it will NEVER happen!

2. I hate to ride as a passenger in my own car. I don't like to drive either...but I'm fine as long as I'm not the passenger in my car. I guess another weird thing with my car is he has a name. Bubba. I have a little Volvo S40 and on a vacation to Vermont with my daughter right after I got it, she kept pointing out Volvo trucks and saying, "Volvo". I didn't know what she was doing and asked her why she kept saying Bubba. Now everyone in my family calls my car Bubba!

3. I have a hard time starting new projects. I love to look through books, plan, buy fabric (or plants, whatever I need) for a project, but have a hard time actually getting going on it. Once I do, I'm fine...it's just that initial push to get started!

4. I'm not a shopper. I haven't been to the grocery store in weeks, I don't like to go to the mall and if I could buy everything I need online and never leave the house, I would. I love to be at home! Fortunately, I married a man who LOVES to shop...so I leave it to him.

5. I think I'm a hippie at heart. I'd love to dress in flowing clothes, poet shirts. I loved having a big garden when I had the yard for it, and providing food for my family. My mother always said I was a "flower child" when I was little...if I didn't get such looks from my kids, I'd probably be one now too!

6. My favorite line around the house is, "Life's a musical!" Which is why I sing frequently (and horribly!) to my kids...even if it's asking them what they want for dinner. They just roll their eyes...

So, I guess that's what's weird about me! I'm tagging anyone else who wants to play!

Sister's Choice

After much consideration I decided that I didn't like the Sister's Choice blocks enough to make an entire queen size quilt of them. My husband didn't like them at all, which also figured into the decision! So, using what I had on hand, I managed to get them all together. Since I didn't have a decent looking fabric for a border, I put on a piano key border and now the top is done. Funny thing is, I LOVE IT! It would make a great quilt for a little girl. I'm thinking that this one is destined to go to Keepsake Quilting. I haven't heard from them about the first quilt I sent, so I'm assuming that hasn't sold. Maybe this one will...especially if it's priced well. I think this will be quilted with Baptist Fans...I hope to get it on the machine tomorrow!

Found it!

What a relief! The block on the right is the one that I struggled with...and we won't even pay attention to the fact that it's not very square! As Brenda says, "Better finished than perfect!" Keeping the block from you know where company was another applique block that I'd forgotten I'd completed. It hasn't been trimmed down yet.

It's another beautiful day here in Southern NJ, sunny, cool and breezy. The clouds are starting to roll in though and the weekend is supposed to be a washout. Maybe THEN I will get some sewing done!

I just received the book "Create Your Perfect Quilting Space" by Lois Haller. What beautiful studios are pictured! Makes me want to recreate my spaces...the longarm studio (AKA living room) downstairs and my little quilting studio upstairs. I'm so fortunate to have 2 rooms in my house dedicated to my quilting! I know the longarm studio needs a makeover, I've chosen my paint color and will be painting this summer. There is only so much furniture rearranging that can take place, though, when the room is 18 feet long and the machine is 14 feet! Upstairs, I know I can arrange it better...and that room won't need painting! It even has the same stenciled border as one of the rooms in the book, just in different colors. All in good time...

Vacation?

Wow, this week is going so fast. My thoughts of having lots of time to quilt have gone right out the window. It has been a good week. We had a wonderful dinner at my sister's for Easter. Salad, ravioli, spaghetti, meatballs and sausage...it was all delicious. The rest of the week has been spent running to appointments, taking the kids to the doctor, taking my older daughter job hunting and soon I'll be leaving to meet my sister for lunch. A busy week, but a good one!

Here are the few Dear Jane blocks I have managed to complete...can you tell I like to do the applique blocks? I have one more that I really struggled with, but now I can't find it. I hope I haven't lost it for good...I don't want to make that one again! It's a slow process, for me at least, as I try to squeeze these in among my other projects. It has never been a priority...just one of those projects I'd like to finish in the next 20 years or so! The close ups are just to give you an idea of the fabrics I'm using. Most are Robin Pandolph's Christmas fabrics, but there will be others in the same color families mixed in. I don't want it to be a Christmas quilt...just a pretty quilt!

I did manage to finish the quilting on an Amish style quilt that I had on the machine. I'm hand sewing down the binding now, so once that's done I'll post a picture.

Slow Progress

I've only managed to make 11 of the Sister's Choice blocks this week, but I also put together 3 Dear Jane blocks...all of them with applique! I'll dig those out later and post a picture. So far I'm pleased with how these blocks are turning out, although it does look awfully purple!

Tonight our daughters are in a reenactment of the Stations of the Cross at our church. This is always a very touching service. Last year my son played Jesus...it was so hard to watch him die on the cross and be laid out on the stripped altar...even if it was all pretend. Tomorrow we're headed to the Keswick Theater to see Jesus Christ Superstar. I haven't seen it since I was in high school. My kids grew up listening to the soundtrack, so hopefully we'll be able to control ourselves and not sing along to the performance! In July we're taking them to see Godspell in Philadelphia...that's another of my favorites, although I've never seen it onstage.

The weather has been damp and dreary all day. Other than a 2 mile walk this morning, I've been inside all day. It's so nice to be off school...I'm really looking forward to next week. It will include a trip to a quilt shop in my area, The Little Shop. I remember going to this store when I was a child, maybe 6 or 7 years old, to buy fabric. I picked out a pale green swiss dot (remember that stuff?) that my mother made my Easter dress out of. Over the years it has changed owners, expanded to the storefront next door and has become a delightful little quilt shop.

I hope everyone has a blessed Easter!

April Finish...

I finally have a new finish report! This is a quilt I received after a dear friend had passed away. She had pieced it, done some machine quilting and had marked the large triangles for hand quilting.

When I received it, I added some more machine quilting. I then bound it and started looking for a rayon variegated thread that matched what she had used so I could continue hand quilting. I finally found some and started the quilting during the Olympics. When they were over I set it aside and picked it up again last week to finish the quilting. The first picture is of the whole quilt and the second is one of the hand quilted motifs.

I also have started a Sister's Choice quilt from Bonnie's Quiltville using some of my older FQs and strips. I didn't intend to make all the points purple, but since the first 4 blocks turned out that way, I think I may stick with it! I'm using the same background throughout the quilt, so with that and the purple points, it should pull the quilt together.

So, that's what I've been doing!

March Wrap Up

It seems as if March was a month of starting, not finishing...adding to stash instead of using it! My only finish was the flannel quilt which I donated to Camp Reach for the Sky. I did quilt a number of customer quilts and charity quilts.

On the starting side, I cut and started a Sister's Choice quilt, all from stash. I also made a stretched stars quilt top, almost the same as the one I did with my 5th grade class, but smaller. Somehow the stars are going the other direction too...it just looks wrong that way! This will be a class gift for the teacher I work with...the students will all sign it. I'll post a picture later. I also started a 4 patch baby quilt which will need to be done by the end of this month, since the baby will be arriving in early May.

So...I've created a few new stash projects and will be starting some Christmas gifts this month. I also hope to finish a few older projects. It's time to make a new list!

Birds in the Air

I've quilted several Birds in the Air quilts in the past few months and I found this one to be so striking! The customer used all civil war prints and the colors just went together perfectly. I did a freehand feather meander over the entire middle of the quilt and feathers in the outer border. The inner border is a curlycue design.

I just bought the book, so I think I may have to make one for myself!

Other than that it's been pretty quiet here. Except for the couple of hours I spent in the emergency room on Friday! My youngest, Grace, was at the beach with her friends on Friday afternoon as they had the day off and it was gorgeous out. She managed to trip over a cement step and rip a nice hole in her toe...it was about the size of a quarter and only attached on one side. She calls me and says, "mom, I'm bleeding. My shoe is bloody, my pants are bloody...are you going to be home soon? I came home, put a call in to the doctor and he said to take her in. Grace managed to talk the ER doc out of giving her stitches (she's good, isn't she?) and he superglued the whole thing back on using Dermabond. She didn't manage to talk him out of giving her a tetanus shot, though! I have to take her to the family doctor this week to have it checked. Don't we know how to have fun?

Last night, my DH and I took a ride over to Dave & Busters on the Philadelphia waterfront and met some guys who came in from all over the country for a big sales meeting at my husband's office. There was a 3.5 hour wait for a table...and we didn't get there until 8:00 at night! We hung out at the bar with the guys and finally were seated at 10:30, a whole hour early. We had a great time...I can't remember the last time I had drinks with 9 guys!

Today was a quiet one, spent most of it finishing this quilt, then I dropped Grace and a friend off at our church youth group meeting and my 16 yo daughter and I went to Panera for dinner. I love that place...I had a chicken caesar salad that was just delicious.

Tomorrow I'll have to do my March wrap up, but I can't remember what I did last month, so I have to think about it!