I caved....

Bunny Hill Designs

I have Cathy to thank blame for posting about it on her blog.  

FIVE DAYS I made it FIVE whole days.

(without starting something new)

 I do believe that is a new personal record for me.

I'm feeling pretty good.

I may just join

I'm feeling kinda crazy. 

It could be the handful (7,8, 10...) Hershey Kisses I just ate.

oink-oink

I'm still thinking about the second one, the first is a done deal. 

I've printed out the directions.

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.

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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 **

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

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. 



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.

Design Wall Monday 5/9/11

On my design wall are the blocks, eight done-one to go, for my LeMoyne star quilt.  The pattern is in Kathleen Tracy's book, Remembering Adelia .  I was attracted to the blues the first time I saw it.

I finished my little 9-Patch Doll quilt (also a Kathleen Tracy design)!

I machine quilted it on my DSMachine. 

I'm seriously smitten with this little sweetie.

And although it seems just about everybody has already made a Schnibbles quilt, I finally have my first one together.  I pieced it as a Leader/Ender, which was easier to do with the rail fence blocks.  The star blocks I pretty much pieced each one at a time.

The pattern is Lincoln and I used "American Primer" charm packs from Minnick & Simpson.

The backing is pieced, binding made and just waiting for it's turn on HQ.

Check out other design walls over at Patchwork Times and have a great week!

Design wall

 I found that I can rotary cut without it hurting my back. 

I can also do laundry but that's not near as much fun!

*wink*

This is a quilt from Remembering Adelia.  I wanted to use Thangles to make it but wasn't thinking (naturally). Thangles gives me 2 identical HST units.  I only want one since every blocks wants to be it's scrappiest! 

So after trying a sample block with thangles I just cut all the rest of the hst's using my Easy Angle ruler and my stash of 3.5" strips.

By the end of the afternoon my back was starting to hurt but I seriously think it was the laundry that did me in.

My other design wall  has my first Schnibbles on it.

Lincoln I sewed the rail fence blocks as L/E.

  I thought I was Soooooo clever using it for a L/E. You know kill 2 birds with one stone (yuk) and all that.  However, it took no time at all to get the rail blocks together.  The charm pack I'm using is from Minick &Simpson  American Primer collection.

Today I am going to try to quilt.

The house needs cleaned but I really doubt my poor back is ready for that-why risk it!