What's wrong with me?!

See this quilt? This was a Christmas present for my parents...in 2007...see what needs to be done? The border is completely marked. It just needs to have the border quilted and be bound. I quilted the body on the LA but it was only the 2nd quilt I had LA'd and I didn't have the confidence to do the border.

See this pile of fabric? This is for a quilt I have had in my head since I was inspired by a quilt I saw in a shop in
Wellsboro.

The problem? Why can't I just finish the Christmas shop and let the black & white squares alone? I have absolutely NO willpower. I belong to a group, Prolific Online Quilters, and there was an opportunity to join a UFO busting endeavor but I just couldn't handle the pressure...which would have ONLY been imposed by myself.

This is why I am "The Reluctant Quilter"!

Before it leaves town...

Here is the finished product - Chesapeake Blues

This is a close-up of the quilting so that you can see how pretty the threads were.

I used smoke monofilament to do the FM quilting on the border. I loosely outlined the coral and kelp shapes just to give the border some texture. All the rest of the quilting was done with the walking foot. I really love this quilt. I have an idea for another one but I need to get some WIP under control before I start yet another project.

Why is it so easy to get started and so difficult to finish?

Quilt Along Quilt

Just a quickie post...I finished the "quilt along" quilt top about an hour ago. Because it is so large (roughly 80x65) I had to lay it out on my foyer floor. If you notice any dirt on the tile my only excuse is that off-white textured tile is hard to keep clean!



This has been months in the making. Amanda Jean (Crazy Mom Quilts) gave instructions for a block nearly every week until 12 were completed. She also posted finishing ideas and quilting information for the quilt. Since mine was pretty far outside the norm, I completed the top a little differently than the others in the group. When it comes to the quilting, the only idea I have is to quilt vines and leaves in the pink sashing. I have no idea what I am going to do with the rest of the quilt. Suggestions would be appreciated!

What a day!

It may have been raining like crazy yesterday, but I had a terrific day! I spent the day with Julie (sister) and we had a plan to visit several quilt shops and a used furniture store that we had heard about.

The furniture store is in Ephrata which is the most darling, little town.


I would LOVE to live there. The store is packed with all kinds of furniture and has a lot of cherry and mahogany pieces. I think they get most of their stuff from estate sales. Julie was looking for a buffet for her dining room. Julie's house was built in the late 1700's and her decor in the formal rooms of the house is very traditional 18th century...lots of cherry, Queen Anne legs, etc. She found a gorgeous cherry buffet and a large, enclosed hutch for fabric storage in her sewing room. We managed to get the buffet into my SUV but she has to go back and get the other piece. I found a PINK wing chair that I am going to go back and buy this week if it is still there. (Needed a little time to think about it!)

On our way to Joann's in Lebanon, we had to go past a Mennonite quilt shop near Brickerville (way out in the boonies!). They have a lot of fabric that is from collections two and three years ago and is a great place to shop if you don't need any customer service. They carry Hoffman batiks for $5.75 a yard...I swear it's true!!

Next was Joann's and they didn't have any of the sale batting left but I did have my 40% off coupon so I got some anyway. By then I was starving so we did a quick drive thru at Mickey D's and then on to Burkholders.

By then, I was getting tired and I thought Burkholders would be a quick stop. Nope, never is! We both found fabric we wanted (notice I didn't say needed) and that stop took about an hour.

When we arrived back at Julie's the rain had pretty much stopped so we unloaded the buffet, put it in the dining room and it is perfect. (We are such good shoppers!)

I am tired just writing about our day...Probably bored you silly reading it! Hope you are having a great weekend where ever you are!

The big one is done!

I put the last stitch in Emily's quilt yesterday morning. It took me about 4 hours to hand stitch the binding but the results are worth it. Here's a photo of the quilt (Thanks to my very tall boss!) The color is a little distorted as the purples are showing up darker than they really are.

The second photo is a close up of the quilting. I FM's it on the long arm. The design is just loops and hearts but I think it came out really nicely and I am very excited about giving it to my granddaughter...at last!

I only need to finish hand stitching about 14" on the binding of Brian's quilt so I am only 2 labels away from the finish! I can't believe that I will have everything done and ready by this weekend and I don't leave for Virginia for another week. I am usually one of the world's greatest procrastinators. I am amazing myself!

No rest for the wicked

OK - maybe I'm not really wicked but, for whatever the reason, I can't sleep. I can't keep my eyes open after 8:30 at night and then I wake up at 1:30 or 2:00am. Five hours just isn't enough rest and just after lunch I am dragging around. I had these weird sleeping habits before but I thought I had moved past that. Maybe I should totally give up caffeine but the headache would be unbearable.

Upside of not sleeping is that I have time to read some blogs that I would not normally get around to reading. There are some really interesting folks out in blog land!

This morning I trimmed Emily's quilt, cut binding and now I am ready to attach the binding. My sister has volunteered to hand stitch the binding down for me but I really want to do all of this myself so that I feel that I have truly made it. Now when my hands have cramped up and I can't use my thumb anymore I will totally regret having made that decision!

It's almost 4:30 and NOW I'm getting sleepy...and I have to be at work at 8. This is going to be a really long day!

If it's not one thing...

At last, I had the time to get over to the spring house to work on Emily's quilt. Julie came down to join me and brought her son's Doberman puppy. Cute dog, bad dog. As I was quilting, the dog grabbed the bottom of the batting off the floor so I stopped, shooed away the beast and continued quilting. Then she came over, sat into the batting and stretched out a HUGE hole. I totally freaked out. My sister kind of laughed it off and said she could hand baste it back together. "People put scraps of batting together all the time", she said. I'm thinking, "Yeah, on a table runner or wall hanging maybe but NOT ON MY GRANDDAUGHTER'S BED QUILT!" I managed to maintain a decent tone and said that I didn't know how that would work for something that was going to be washed repeatedly. But, it IS my sister's LA and she lets me use it whenever it isn't loaded so I have to be polite. So, the first pass (top to bottom across the quilt) was done, I rolled it forward on the frame to start the next pass and Julie started stitching the batting together. I went to the other side of the frame and sat down in the chair to wait. And then I noticed something...the tension on the thread was totally off and there were small loops all the way across the quilt. Now the whole freaking thing had to be ripped. OK, deep breath. Julie then suggested that we rip out the stitches and since it it was going to be taken apart anyway, why didn't we just load fresh batting? YES, YES, YES! I finished ripping out the stitches and had dinner plans so I didn't reload batting but that is my plan for today. And if that dog comes down to the spring house, my head will explode!

On a happier note, we hit the Fat Quarter Frenzy yesterday morning and here is a portion of my loot.
Pam couldn't go with us so I gave her another 7 that I had picked out thinking she might like. After Julie and I made our choices (25 FQs) from the large "selected" group of fat quarters, they bagged them up and then you could choose any fat quarter in the shop for a dollar. Such a deal!...especially on batiks that are always more expensive. Notice all the purples? Don't ask me why. I think that purple is so yummy but I would never use it in my home. Thankfully, my mother loves shades of purple so I chose those to use in the wedding ring wall hanging we are making on retreat. I will give it to her for her birthday. Yeah, gifts! Another way to feed the addiction and feel good about it!!