almost a ta-da.

I have the blocks all sashed but need to made 28 more units to go round the outside to frame it nicely.

The challenge was thrown down to have the quilt together by July 1.

I laughed....out loud.

One of my coworkers had a stroke.  She's doing well but it will be a long recovery.

This is the signature quilt I'm making for her.  I have all the blocks ready now, just need all the ladies I work with to get the signed pieces back to me...

The colors are a bit off, it's very soft, feminine and has a peaceful feel. I think it fits the bill. It's all from stash and most of it is actually charm packs,  French General some light CW...forget the designer

I finally finished quilting a H.U.G.E. customer quilt 102" x 121"

all over feathers, I never thought it would end.  I timed myself and it took me an hour and 15 minutes for one pass...yikes!

 Jenny  is having a new QAL-perfect timing as our local Shop Hop is next week and now I have something to actually shop for.

I quilted up this pillow yesterday morning, forgot to take a picture. I'm going to make binding for it now and then I'll show it all finished.  

I quilted

and quilted and quilted

and I had some tension issues! YIKES! The top thread popped out of the upper tension discs.  I noticed it and fixed it but didn't check the back of the quilt-I was on a roll ya' know!

I didn't see this until I rolled the quilt a few times.  

Yes I gasped out loud! Luckily with all the looping it was easy to rip out. and since I had stitched the spine first and then went back to do the feathers the stitching line was still there to follow. 

whew!

And double whew! that this happened on my own top and not a customers-which would have had me hyperventilating for a minute.

And in spite of all the thread wasted and my concern for running out- I didn't. 

The new cone is on it's way :)  

I was able to photograph this on the deck-it was 66 degrees yesterday!

It's in the 30's again today.  

(80 x 92)

...and the binding is sewn to the back now!
Dare I say that I am on a roll?
nah-that would jinx it.

I contemplated sewing the binding completely by machine.  I am pretty sure my thumb will split again with the hand sewing. But the thoughts of wrestling such a big and heavy quilt twice for binding was too much.  

I will deal with the thumb.

Dresden

Today I finally got the CW Dresden top together.

I have to put the borders on but for now it's down off the wall.  I am tired of looking at it...taunting me...

Chloe is 1/2 quilted!  

I am so happy to be quilting again!

All over freehand feathers. 

 I'm using Essential Pro 'caramel' thread and I have I feeling I'm going to run out.  I came upstairs to finish dinner and to order another spool!  If I order one, you know I will have enough on this cone to finish!!

   

********

Meg and I had massages today....oh my gosh!  

I think I need to do this more than every 5 years or so.

*******

My grandma passed away last week.  She still lived on her own, in a small apartment but rarely went out anymore.  My dad grocery shopped for her every Friday.  

She had 'very bad heartburn' and called 911 herself.  My parents didn't know about it until a few hours later when the hospital called to let them know she was being admitted! 

She had had a heart attack.  Her wishes were to not have intervention of any kind.  A few days later a second heart attack.  

She was born in 1912. 

Yep, this December she would have been 100 years old! 

I have been helping my parents with cleaning out the apartment.  It is a sad thing to have to go through and discard and divide.  I felt the same way last year when we cleaned out Paul's parents apartment.  

Makes me want to cull my 'stuff' now.  

And I'm not even thinking about all my sewing stuff.  

**I resolve to redouble my efforts to get Meghan into quilting**

**smile**sigh**smile

So I am thinking these things, in between working at Hallmark---YOU DO KNOW THIS IS ORNAMENT PREMIERE WEEKEND!!!

Always amazing to me when I worked there before and it still does.

Christmas in July and all that crappola.

:)

I have been doing a bit of quilting too.

feathers actually, all over soft, pink and lovely...

...just what this quilt and I needed.  

The next quilt is loaded, wonky feathers. Almost as much fun as regular feathers.

Fun times, fun times.

Life is Good

even when it's sad.

If at first you don't succeed...

...go out to lunch with a friend and her little granddaughter, visit a quilt shop.  

And then you will be ready to tackle

"the witch".

The background is way more orange than this washed out picture, same with the outer border. 

She's a little wonky, but then again she is a witch. 

"Fixing" her wasn't as difficult as I thought.  But then I was doing regular block unsewing and re-sewing not paper piecing-much more in my comfort zone.  

I almost want to make another one......ahhhahahahaa! 

Meghan and Paul wanted to know what I was going to do with it-make a pillow?  I said I thought a little wall hanging and got some static, good nature d of course but still,  about 'another wall hanging'.  

sigh. (they're right) 

 I think I will make it into a pillow.

*******

I finished hand sewing the binding and label on Irene this afternoon.  I actually thought it was already done, oops!

I love the sun light on it.

I'm still here

I think I've been sucked into some kind of time wasting vortex. 

Vacation feels like it was 2 months ago instead of 2 weeks ago!

 Time flies, apparently whether I'm having fun or not!

I did start quilting again on Libby's quilt-that I had loaded and quilted one pass on BEFORE we left for vacation.

border peek

all-over feathers

If I can get myself out of this black hole of paperwork and what feels like a to do list that's a mile long. It really isn't but cement is in my shoes or so it seems. 

I would have posted sooner, I do have things to say/share. But I was having trouble getting used to the new computers' photo editing software. 

 I think this one is actually better than what I had on the old computer, it's learning how to use it and remembering the next time I upload that is making me more nutso than I like to be on a daily basis. For example, last night I uploaded the 2 pictures above and this one too.

There were 2 other pictures from a weekend bike trip we took.  But when I put the card in my computer,  I must have clicked on a different wrong button for 'where' to upload to. Because it then took me an hour to find them. And actually I didn't find them I juststumbled on found the right place and re-uploaded them. 

And now I can't seem to locate the bike pictures anyway. 

(I can hear the swoosh of the black hole of time coming to envelop me again...ahhhhhhgggggg)

Then I stayed up until 1:30 making folders for the nearly 3000 (OK only about 2700, I tend to exaggerate!) pictures that I transferred from the old computer. Sadly, most of them now have a date stamp of August 2 2011, which is the date of the transfer.  I'm sure I screwed that up somehow when I did it. Although some of them will show the correct date when I click "insert date" but the majority say "8/2/2011". So weird. 

It has sure made it NOT FUN to try to find a picture. 

I made folders for My Quilts, Customer Quilts and OBX Vacation 2007 and 2011.  As you can guess the quilt folders are what took all night to do.
 And to think I only have maybe 1000 1500 pictures yet to go.
 And why did I do vacations 07 and 11 but skipped 08 and 10? (we didn't go in 09) WHO KNOWS.

 This is what I mean about the time wasting vortex.
 I'm not being my usual organized, OCD, list making, list crosser-offer self.  I'm starting to think I'm sick or maybe it's all the walking we did on vacation and we've kept it up here at home.

That would just be my luck: regular exercise makes me lose organizational skills! 

 Maybe it's stored in the belly fat I carry around!  And I thought it was just a protective layer of flub cushioning my wash board abs. (You know the abs you can't see because of the protective layer...)
 We all have them some of us just don't like to flaunt them.

Fun times, fun times...Life is Good.

1ST Post on my new laptop

I feel like I'm all thumbs!

I wanted the Geeks at Best Buy to transfer all my files for me (I'm lazy like that). 

I did back up my photos and some other quilty documents myself, but not everything, don't ask me why (I'm lazy like that).  I got a call from them that the hard drive was bad and they couldn't get anything off it.  Bummer!  

On one hand, I lost all my music; only about 100 Cd's worth. I hardly ever listened to them through the computer anyway so it wasn't critical but I would have backed them up if I had remembered them though.

On the other hand,  I feel very good that I got every last penny's worth out of the old computer.  

So I've been spending the last few days learning the new stuff, kinda fun since this computer actually works right and doesn't freeze and mess me up.  I forgot how nice it is. I did finally install the wireless mouse yesterday and in typical "me" fashion, I couldn't get it to work.  I was really getting upset-I even went on-line and downloaded a bunch of stuff for such situations, changed the batteries -twice. I had been at it for over 1/2 hour and was starting to say bad words. Paul had been sitting on the couch reading the paper quietly while I muttered away at how I KNEW I should have just got the wired mouse. Why do I listen to those guys at Best Buy. I know ME I can't do stuff like this....

 Paul said, "let me take a look at it." 

Just for the record: I'm better at computers; which isn't saying much, so therefore I don't think it can be called bragging or anything-just wanted to clarify.

 :)

He opened the mouse and in 2 seconds said,

 "You have the battery in backwards."

I love that guy.

********

So I've been a very good binder and have all the binding sewn on to the quilts I quilting over the last couple weeks.  I only have the hand sewing part done on Madeline and Winter White.

But I'm pretty happy with that.

Finally got my first tomato! Yum.

 

I quilted My Apple Orchard. I stippled the center and did a curling feather in the 9-patch and outer black border. 

I made the 8th block for HWhiskers BOM.



Here is a picture of the top so far.  Just one more block to go.

Oh and I thought you might like to see a picture of Annie with her inner tube collar.  I posted about it a couple weeks ago. 

She's all healed now. Yeah.

*******

I spent part of today walking around the downstairs with a tape measure trying to decide on furniture arrangements.  I've come to the conclusion that some of the stuff has to go or be repurposed.  I measure and say "hmmmm"  alot. 

Oh man, I just accidently changed the view on my screen to 125%---wow I can read it way better! 

 lol.

Scary, the things that can crack me up.



I finally got some pictures

In no particular order.

close up of quilting -free-hand feather meander

  

back of Madeline

Evening Shadows-custom

"Irene" (formerly LCQA quilt)

Jelly roll quilt -stippled

back of Jelly roll Races quilt

Last night I started to load My Apple Orchard. I'm just going to do an all-over either stipple or maybe a double ribbon, but probably the stipple. 

I still have 6 big quilt tops that need quilting. They are all from  my 2010 block-a-day personal challenge.

Apple Orchard was the smallest at 73 x 93, which is why I picked it. 

I got a new laptop yesterday, have to take my computer for them to transfer what they can from it. I'm hoping for an easy transition from desktop to laptop-I did get a wireless mouse for it though.  I'm using Meg's laptop for this post and I'm ok w/it but I've been using it everyday for a month or more and I think I'm as good as I'm gonna get, I just like the mouse better.

****

Our oldest son Paul is visiting with us. 

I'm not sure if I've shared in the past that he is a religious brother in the Oratory of St Philip Neri.  Last week he received his acceptance letter from Mount St. Mary's into the 2nd year of their pre-theology program.  In 5 years (by God's grace) he will be ordained.  We are excited for him as he takes this next step in discerning his vocation. 

My husband is excited also that Mt. St.Mary's is 10 minutes from Gettysburg, PA! 

Update

Molly and I are spending time together outside in the yard (she's a professional tennis ball retriever-I think)

If we're not outside we stay in the basement.... So I've got a lot of quilting done. 

LCQA --now named "Irene":

Jelly roll races:

Evening Shadows:

Schnibbles "Madeline":

Schnibbles Winter White is loaded now and 2/3's quilted

  Jelly roll races, I just stippled, Irene I did custom quilting on and will have better pictures after Molly leaves and I can find the time.... I quilted with an all-over feather meander on the others-just love using that!

I did sew the binding to my Jelly roll races top but am waiting now to see what the next step in the basement deconstruction/construction will be.  If I can't use my stuff downstairs, I'm figuring I can sew binding upstairs.

**some of you may see through this flimsy excuse to just avoid the dreaded binding process--basically you'd be correct **

****
Our oldest son, Paul is here for the week (BIG SMILE). More news on that later.

My Design Wall

My design wall is still pretty much the same.  It's the same picture as last week too! 

I do have some charms up there now; I'm making a 2nd  Charm party tote from a packet of charm squares, but only have the front and back panels (12 charms each) sewn together.

(no pictures)  I made this one first and as per usual, why make one when your can make two?

It was gifted to the "prez" of my Bunco group.  I had delusions of finding the perfect dice fabric and appliqueing "bunco beauties" (which we call ourselves--to hoots of laughter).  But the best laid plans I forgot about wanting to make it about 2 days after our last month's bunco and didn't remember until last week...bunco was on Saturday, the last one for the summer.  I did find dice buttons and I think it's quite sophisticated looking. 

More importantly the prez loved it. 

*****

I finished the Batik Sampler quilt. 

I do like it.  (she says hesitantly), no I really do, kinda

. 

 It's a fine example of feather over load. 

Ya know how I've said while I'm quilting something I'm scared how it will look as I can only see a small area of it? Well, the entire time I was quilting this I LOVED it.  (that will hopefully be a warning in the future). And couldn't wait to see it.

Ready.....

This picture doesn't quite do the OH MY GOSH THOSE FEATHERS ARE  SMACKING ME IN THE FACE!

So let's try this one....(hello Annie, you ham-dog!)

just click on the picture and DANG GIRL! ~~~ you'll see what I mean!

(Did you say "whoa"? I do every time I click on it...'whoa'.)

Hellllloooo feathers!

 Not the look I was going for.

I'm disappointed.  

But hey it's a learning process.  And (this is so typical of me) as soon as I unloaded it and got the WAMMO effect; I remembered practically word for word Kimmy Brunner's admonishment in her "Whirly Twirly Feathers video" to be careful how your use your feathers or you'll overwhelm the piecing..... :) ~~hee, hee, blush.

as my 6 year old nephew says and I quote:

 "Fun times, fun times...Life if Good."

(my sister, seriously, has no idea where he picked this up...)

   

******

The weekend was beautiful --Saturday was a 5 1/2 hour bike ride in the country, Amish country...where we saw horse and buggies and all kinds of farm critters and I forgot my camera.--Always forget something.  We got lost in Amish country too....that was fun!  

At one point Paul said to me loudly over his shoulder, "I'm getting a GPS holder for the bike!"

Good idea! 

we forgot the GPS too....

We got a 2 1/2 hour ride in on Sunday.

It's raining again today.

 fun times, fun times.....:)

Design Wall Monday May 16, 2011

Here is my wall.

I'm going to see how long it can stay here like this. I want to use a light grey CW fabric and I don't have enough on hand. 

I have so much other stuff to get done, caught up on, enjoy this week.

 It will be a test of wills to see if I can leave this alone.

***

I have started the quilting on my Batik Sampler; will try to post a picture of quilting later.  I'm doing an all over feather with a bright variegated thread.  I'm doing regular feathers not the hooked ones I just did on the last  2 quilts.  The thread on the black batik shows every bobble and I'm going extra slow and still frogging a "too wobbly" one every now and then. 

Edit: here are a couple pictures, sorry about the glare.

Hooked Feathers

Last week while blog surfing I happened upon a new to me blog. Jennys Doodling Needle.

I was scrolling through the beautiful pictures of her quilting and lo and behold she had a tutorial on  all- over hooked feathers.  Now I have the book by Sally Terry "Hooked on Feathers" and have quilted them, in fact they were the first feathers I tried.  So I took a good look her pictures and instructions and started practicing on paper.  I had already loaded a quilt for Libby but it was just sitting there since I hurt my back digging in my flowers...

I finally decided it was time to try the feathers 'for real'. 

My last practice page I pinned up on the wall across from HQ.

I always find it a little scary stitching out an all-over and only being able to see the area that I'm working on. It's not until I finish and unroll it that I can say whew!  That's good. For me a lot of my concern is keeping the feathers (or whatever the motif is) a consistent size. 

I was pretty excited when I finished this one.

So I loaded my Schnibbles Lincoln top and quilted it too. 

oh doo-doo, now I have to bind it!

gag.

******

The weather here is beautiful. 

Paul and I are going out on the bike for a nice long ride and dinner somewhere.

We went out last night too-just for a ride tho', we had dinner at home on the deck w/ Meghan;
Grilled Cajun chicken salad and baked potatoes.
Delish.