Ta Da!

I accomplished my goal of finishing the last two blocks in Amanda's quilt along. I cut the pieces before bed last night, woke up at 1:30 and pieced the first block and then finished the other block when I woke up at 4:30. Do I need a life or what?!? I don't know if it is related to my age or my thyroid but at least when I wake up in the middle of the night I am trying to be productive.

This morning I also cut the inner border for Emily's (oldest granddaughter) quilt. I hate pieced borders on solid fabric so I cut the fabric length-wise. The only efficient way I could do it was by folding the fabric in quarters so I put a new blade in my rotary cutter and it cut beautifully. I hope it is at least reasonably straight! The last quilty thing I did this morning was cut the backing fabric for my mother's wall hanging. This is a collaborative effort for Julie and me. My mother is a penguin freak so we think she will love it. I will post photos when I have quilted it.

All this before 5:30am!

Post-Thanksgiving...

The past week is a blur...lots of preparation for the arrival of my sons and their families, lots of cooking, lots of eating and lots of shopping! It was wonderful having all of them here with me. My grandchildren are beautiful and brilliant and such a joy.


One of the things I was determined to do was finish the Pumpkin Glen wall hanging and I completed the last stitches of the binding on Wednesday morning. I am so pleased with the result. I decided to really free form quilt the panel and it honestly looks like the entire thing was pieced. Here's the completed panel and then a shot of my quilting. (Boy - do I need a decent camera or what?!?)


I am now so far behind with the "quilt along" but I am determined to cut and sew two squares tonight in order to catch up. I am feeling pretty intimidated by the number of projects I need to finish by Christmas. I think I will resolve to set aside time every month next year to work on Chrismas related projects so that I don't end up with a huge stack of things left to complete at year end. My problem is that I get distracted by something new and then I end up with 20 WIPs and I start to panic. I really wish I had some kind of self control!

Quilt Along...

I'm doing the "quilt along" on Crazy Mom Quilts and finally did my block for last week (now that she has posted the block for this week!) I am using the yellow fabric as my neutral. I have had this fabric in my closet for about 2 years so I figured this would be a great way to motivate myself to do something with it!

I am anxious now to do the next square and see how that turns out!

Busy Friday & Saturday!

Here is the first of the two wall hangings from the Pumpkin Glen panel that I purchased. I am really pleased with this little one and it fits beautifully on the wall under my photo shelves. I am in the midst of thread painting the larger one and I hope to have that ready to bind by this evening.

I am trying so hard to get everything ready before the Thanksgiving feast at my place. My parents and both of my sons with their families will be here. I have a menu, recipes, a list of what food goes into which piece of china, etc. Yes, entertaining brings out the OCD in me! I want to have everything (with the exception of the turkey) prepared in advance and ready to just be re-heated on Thursday. I really would like to be able to relax and enjoy my family and not be scurrying around like a nut!

I need to get dressed, pick up my sister and head out for our mini-Shop Hop. The rest of our group is going to be running for about 8 hours to get to as many shops as they can. Since Julie is recovering from her knee surgery, we are only going to try to get to 3 shops and get her back home before she is too worn out. I am such a good big sister!

The best laid plans...

Julie and I only managed to get to two shops on Wednesday but we had a great time. I love evey opportunity I have to spend time with my sister. She is creative, talented, funny and just about the best friend anyone could ever have. Of course, I think she is damned lucky to have me, too! Anyway, this was just supposed to be a little jaunt, find a couple of fabrics to coordinate with some quilted purses she is working on and I was just going to get my Shop Hop squares and be happy with that. So much for plans! Julie found gorgeous fabrics that we had never seen and purchased fabrics that she was initially looking for but also enough to make at least 4 additional purses. She ended up getting so much that she had to reach into her wallet twice for more cash! I didn't spend quite that much but between the two shops a Ben Franklin disappeared. I swear if I find fabric that I like I just cannot tell myself "no". I am sure there is a 12-step program somewhere that I should be attending!

I saw this on a couple of other sites and I thought it was a hoot. I have the quilter's horoscope for me below:

Taurus - April 21 to May 20 - Taurus is the quilterwho always finishes a project, as they are persistent and determined. Has anyone ever SEEN my UFO pile?! When attending workshops or using a pattern they will follow every instruction to the letter. Never! They can be greedy when it comes to their stash, as they know the value of material. Got me there! They save every bit of scrap. Nope - I am a tosser of small pieces However, they are warmhearted and loving to such a degree that they have given away nearly every quilt they have ever made. I hate to part with quilts! They are gifted artists, excelling at sewing, patchwork and quilting. OK, I am pretty good with sewing machine The stitching in their quilts is of such high quality that their quilts will endure for eons. That's the goal!

You can find the rest of the quilter's horoscope here.

Need a little help from my friends...

I made a little wall hanging last weekend and quilted all but the border. I want to do a leaf pattern with a vine connecting the leaves. I know that SOMEWHERE I have seen how to do it...you know point A to B, continuous, machine stitched. I cannot for the life of me find the example. I have been drawing on paper but I know exactly what I want and I cannot draw it correctly so I know I won't be able to sew it correctly. Does anyone know where I might have seen this pattern? I have a Shirley Thompson book with quilting patterns but it isn't in there. I have been digging though magazines that I have. Not there, either. With my luck, it was in something that I borrowed from the library and returned!

I have decided not to do the shop hop this weekend. I am going to take my sister to 3 or 4 shops this afternoon (half a day off from the office - whooeee!) and then just send money with my quilting pals to pick up squares at the shops they go to on Sunday. I would not have made it to all 18 quilt shops on the hop anyway so I would be out of the running for the Janome 6600 (which I covet!)

If anyone knows the pattern that I am talking about, please let me know. I really want to finish this wall hanging and the border is crying out to be quilted!

Top complete!

I made a lot of progress on my little panel quilt. Especially considering that I ran out of fabric for the last border last night. I HAD to go look for fabric this morning :) Actually, my sister and I wanted to get started on the Eastern Pennsylvania Shop Hop and we were already a week behind so we went to a couple of shops this morning. I am going to take off half a day this week and we will be able to get to a few more. Julie has surgery scheduled for her knee next Friday so she won't be able to do the big "hop" with the rest of our quilting group next Sunday.

I managed to get away with only a few fat quarters, 1/2 a yard of fabric to finish my border and my shop hop squares so I have no guilt about my purchases today. I really am completing a lot of projects. Unfortunately, none of the ones I need for Christmas are finished. I need to stop quilting for myself and get my gifts completed...or started even!

Here's a sneak peak at the wall hanging. I know that the pieced border isn't exactly right but to do it precisely I would have had to do a lot of math and something like this doesn't warrant making my head hurt!

I think this panel is sweet and I am really looking forward to quilting it.

Two more to go

I completed the table runner made from fabrics that I got in a bundle of fat quarters from Joann's. I think I like it. Finding something in my stash to use as a border was a bit of a challenge. Most of my green yardage is "sage-ish". (I make up my own words whenever necessary!) I had this piece left from the border of the quilt I did on retreat in August.

I am about half way through the Pumpkin Glen wall hanging. I pieced one of the borders and attached that yesterday morning. I am going to put another skinny border this morning before work. My plan (and you know what always seems to happen to plans) is to finish it this weekend. Originally they were calling for snow tomorrow which I would LOVE but now it looks like just rain. Either way I am going to stay in the house, make a pot of soup and a couple loaves of bread and sew...unless someone calls and needs me to go along shopping at Ladyfingers!

Finally!

I am finally back at my sewing machine again. I have had a case of the serious "blues" for a couple of weeks and I am feeling like myself again. I really wanted to sew but I just couldn't make myself do it!

Part of my "therapy" is always shopping so I picked up an inexpensive bundle of coordinating fall color fat quarters at Joann's and thought I would try the disappearing 9-patch that I read about on Helen's blog: http://quiltsatcs.blogspot.com/2007/04/disappearing-9-patch-tutorial.html It was fun to do and has kind of a "Yellow Brick Road" feel to it. The squares went together quickly and I now have a table runner up on my design wall. Yesterday I picked up a couple more fabrics for the borders on my harvest cheater panel (Pumpkin Glen by Kim Schaefer for Andover Fabrics). I really like the panel but I take issue with the way Andover printed it on the fabric. The cutting line for the panel is right up against a portion of the panel that is meant to be sewn. When you attach a border, it takes up part of the panel design and looks really dumb. I looked on Andover's website and they show the panel in its entirety with a border so that means that the panel was cut outside the lines. I guess you can do that when you are the working for the manufacturer but quilt shops are not going to give up portions of the panel on either side. So, I just cut the panel into sections and I will use only bits and pieces. It's annoying but it is the best solution I can find. I will have the largest portion finished tomorrow so I will post that when it is ready to be quilted.

Gotta run...I want to finish the table runner while I am on a roll!