An Amazing Day

Today we went to the Heinz History Center for their Quilter's Weekend.

This years theme was "Quilts During Wartime".  

The marine memory/signature quilt I made for Paul-Michael was in the exhibit.

and a few of my quilts made with CW reprod. fabrics were displayed as well.

this picture is from home because every time I tried to get a picture someone was standing in the way....and then I got to talking and forgot....

Paul and I arrived and were able to catch the last half of Sue Reich's lecture on WW2  quilts.  It was so incredibly interesting and  moving; if you ever have an opportunity to hear her speak, don't miss it.  

She brought several of her quilts with her and to see them up close and personal, was almost too much for me.  To see how quilter's in that time dealt with their worry, grief etc in the same way that I did.  

The first three or four times I told the story of the making of my quilt was difficult, The first time my husband was standing by listening and he got choked up too and had to walk away.  But after a few times I was able to move through the emotions that I feel whenever I see this quilt (the memories are visceral, and come back in waves) and I was able to enjoy sharing this with others.  One couple came up to us and I asked the man if he was in the military. 

He was in the army. I smiled and said I could tell by his haircut! He has been deployed 3 times. He and his wife were very interested in my quilt story.  A little later I saw them walking away from it and could see in his face he was moved   Several members of my family came to see the quilts, not only mine but the many others as well. 

It was an amazing day.  

Life is Good.

just a quick update

The 2nd Witch is in is finished.

 It was on my 2010 list and I'm glad it's done and put away.

I didn't say anything but I caved further on Thursday;  I took my laptop down to my sewing space and pieced The 12 Days of Christmas from Temecula Quilt Co

I think I might hand quilt it. 

I say that because this is what HQ looks like right now.

GASP!

That black piece on the table is the bottom side of my track upgrade.  We started putting it together this afternoon, well I supervised cleaned up the boxes; Paul is doing the actually assembly. 

 And then the phone rang. 

 He got called into work. 

Always the way it goes.  

*******

This morning was the guild's newbies class.  It was a very informative class. I enjoyed it very much and from an April Cornell charm pack I made this

I think it will be a spring table topper.

I only have 6-7 charms left, looking at the photo now I think I will make two more blocks  and call it a table runner.

I'm very close to having all the little flying geese made for my Small Treasures quilt.  I had to cut out a bunch more 1.5" squares for it. 

****

Schnibbles

Last night I cut out the pieces for Madeline and today I pieced it. 

Oh how I love this little quilt.  It was the first Schnibbles pattern I fell in love with.

I finished the binding on my CW Medallion quilt a few days ago and have been waiting for good weather and a couple of strong quilt holders.  I got tired of waiting.

"150 Years Later" Civil War Medallion  (94 x 94)


A pretty painted cone flower that just started blooming. 



Stargazing

I just finished quilting my 2010 Shop Hop progressive quilt.

Stargazing 54 x 54

I must say I'm really happy with it.  I used black thread for quilting the all-over hooked feathers and I did simple outlining in the blocks.



This morning I put CW medallion on the table to work on the binding, I have about 3/4 of ONE side done-maybe

and here's what it looks like now.

Ah ya, it's exactly the same, so I folded it back up and will try again later, tomorrow....

I spent yesterday packing, moving, purging for the upcoming basement work. 

Tonight the demolish begins. 

~fun times, fun times....Life is Good!~

My new mantra

I am one tired Shop Hopper!

We finished the Shop Hop yesterday afternoon, logging 227 miles! (just for Friday) I don't know how many miles we did on Wen. evening and all day Thursday--Libby drove and we forgot to check.  Regardless it was a lot of miles and ALOT of fun.  It took us to the final 1/2 hour of the ride home to finally be 'talked out'! 

I bought mostly fabric, fat quarters and yardage-got a good deal on fabric for backing (3.99/yd!)....you know how that goes:

 Walk up to the stack of bolts... see the sign...do a double take.... look closer at the bolts (holy-moley it's all quilt shop fabric: Moda, Thimbleberries etc)... your heart beats a little faster....you're eyes dart around to see if anyone else has spied this gold mine... And then you start really looking, counting the layers on the bolt (2 layers = 1 yard, good estimator) Yup, 6 yds at least...IT'S MINE! For practically a song....

...Yeah, you know what I'm talking about! ;)

*********

My sewing room is a mess.  Since I'm a prewasher that's what I did today, 'washed the loot'...but I'm dragging and not in the mood to press. So it's all neatly, was sorta neatly, piled on my sewing chair.  I'll get to it soon.

This morning I finished quilting The CW Medallion quilt. Woo-Hoo.  No picture until it's done cuz it's also in a pile (not nearly as neat as the fabrics) waiting to have the edges trimmed and  then; Oh man, Oh man have the binding wrestled sewed on.
Yuk.

Today I looked at my design wall at this.

 

and decided that I do not like it.

 

So I spent the next few hours, 3-4 hours is more like it.

But time flies when I'm having fun.

And I now have this

(not necessarily the final block arrangement)

Oh joy 2 more quilt tops have been born! 

I'm super happy with them both.  The one on the left is probably going to get a final dark blue border and the one on the right....hmmmm not sure yet it could be 2 borders but maybe just one. It has a name though "Seppy".  So I guess I could call the one on the left "Debby" and I'd have my 3 imaginary friends (Seppy, Debby and Juber) immortalized in my quilts. 

But it doesn't look like a Debby to me, more like a Frank, or maybe a "Jedediah" or "Josiah". 

"Bob" would have been easier, had to spell check the other two....

;)

I've been quilting my Civil War Medallion quilt with baptist fans. 

At the start, I was marking the arcs with chalk and a plastic template I have. After a few passes, I wondered if I could just do it without marks.  I found I was no more but no less consistent without marking and it went a lot faster. 

Last night I thought I would finish it.  Paul had gone out for a bike ride; he's off all week since his Mom's funeral on Monday, and Meghan was at school. 

Perfect!

But no, it wasn't to be.

I ran out of the So Fine thread (#407 Clay) I was using in the top.  I wasn't sure how much was on the spool when I started and sorta thought I might not have enough, but the further along I quilted the more likely it looked like I was going to make it....Nope. 

So I looked through all my threads and thought I had a good match, but ran out of steam and called it a night.  This morning when I started to stitch, Eegads! It's not a match or even close.  I ripped it out and will wait for another cone. 

The Western PA Shop Hop starts today.  Libby and I are going to hit a shop (or two if we're lucky) this evening and then the other 9 shops over Thursday and Friday. 

And miracle of miracles I actually have a list!!!!!

One of the shops carry Superior Threads so if they have what I need I'll be finishing this weekend, if not I'll have to order it and wait a few days.  I did toy with the idea of securing the unquilted area and unloading it and loading a smaller quilt that I could do in the mean time.  But since this quilt is 94 x 94 the thoughts of unloading and reloading...nah.

****

Since I couldn't quilt I had to sew!

I know, I know, it's a tough life ...

I cut out and fused the 6th block of Henrietta Whiskers yesterday.

I sure am enjoying this BOM.

I forgot to flip the applique pattern sheet when I was transferring to the fusible so my squirrels are jumping to the right instead of the left.  hee-hee.  It really doesn't matter, so why do I mention it???

*smile*

After blanket-stitching this block and taking a picture, I got out the other finished blocks to see how it looks.

and sewed the top two rows together. 

The bottom rows I prepped yesterday

too.





Last week I started to frog an old quilt that I made from leftover blocks from Little Quilts that I had made...l-o-n-g time ago.

I really like it but every time I look at it the quilting just glares as me.  It was my first attempt at something that size on my DSM and my first stippling.  I think I could live with the jerky stipples and all. But what drives me bonkers is the thread. I used a brown variegated! YUK.

It is taking me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to un sew this baby. 

What is amazing to me is that ANY machine quilting stitches ever come out of a quilt. The quilting on this is not real good, the tension is OK, sorta--trying to be nice to myself-I was just learning....the stitch length is all over the place.  You'd think I could just rip a couple inches grab the tail an zip pity do da pull a nice section out.  Not a chance!

~pick, pick, pick~ 

It makes me feel much better about my quilting now.  I don't think I will ever do something like this again.

(oh dang-"famous last words"  just popped into my head!)



Spring...AKA migraine season.....

I woke up at 4:30 this morning feeling like doo-doo, ya' know: crap.

After tossing and muttering and waking up Paul (oops he still had 1/2 to go before the alarm), I got up and ate a yogurt so I could take meds.  I was planning on going back to bed; the medicine only took the edge off, which is great, but it wasn't enough that I thought I could sleep.  So down to my sewing room for some distraction.

I sewed the outer border on the CW Medallion quilt-yeah!  It measures 94 x 94! yikes.

No finished picture-- I've been looking at the dang thing on the design wall for so long I just folded it up, put the notes on it about backing, batting and that I have the binding ready and hung it in the closet.

******

Then I almost got out the crap  Crab apple blocks to work on,

*edit: whoops, blame it on the headache~ :)*

 

but I looked over my list for 2011 and saw Jonquils & Stars. It's a WIP just like the Crab apples but I only needed to cut and sew on the final outer borders.  I bought the fabric last month...maybe in January and have no idea why I didn't just finish it then. 

ta-da it's now a flimsy. 

Design Wall Monday (3/14/11)

Civil War Medallion Progress



The colors are a bit off; it's difficult to get a good shot with something this large and with my back smashed against the opposite wall of this room trying to get the picture focused, straight and all of it in the shot...

(the whine of this crappola photographer)

I took this picture yesterday.  The 2 outside side sections of 12 inch blocks are sewn together but not attached to the center yet.  The top on bottom are just there--not sewn together yet at all. 

I'm thinking I will end with a unifying small border around these. It will also contain/control the edges of the outer blocks.  If my math is correct --math phobic/challenged so never surprised when the end result measures different than my jotted down notes :)--this will be  a monstrous 92 x 92!

Yikes!

Check out other design walls here.

Design Wall Monday - 2/28/11

I spent this morning sewing on the 2" border around the center section and then arranging twenty 10 inch blocks for the next round. 

Before deciding on this arrangement, I had put up 2 rows of twelve inch blocks.....it was SO BUSY looking I thought I was going to get motion sick! yowza!

After I get this sewn together it should measure 60 x 60.  I'm thinking of adding a top and bottom row of 12 inch blocks.  I'll have to see it on the wall first. 

***** 

I still have 56 twelve inch blocks/ 2 eight inch blocks/ 12 nine inch blocks from my block-a-days made from CW fabric. Oh and two 14" blocks that I think I'm going to sew together into a pillow.