Monday, May 31, 2010

Design Wall Monday (Week 22)



This is the first quilt from my Block-a-Days-cool beans. 
I have the 2nd & 3rd borders cut.  When I first started to play with these blocks I was ho-hum about them, but they're growing on me. Check out other walls here.

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And barely got the current bl-a-days done by Sat. evening. I'm up to June 14th! I've started 2 new colorways: Batiks with black background for the next bunch of 12" blocks and 
the one 9" block on the far left is in 'bright' colors.  I have a good bit of those fabrics and there are 20 more 9" blocks in the calendar (yea, I flipped through and tallied them!)
The 2 at the top are 10" blocks that I'm using Astor Manor and coordinating fabrics.
The block on the far right is a 12" in CW fabric. I need one more and I'll have the 32 needed for my quilt layout...woo-woo!




Friday, May 28, 2010

Sea Stars 74 x 90


The binding and label were finished last night.
The hanging sleeve finished this morning.
The pictures are still warm in the camera!
Drop off for the quilt show is next Tuesday...no sweat!


  I did an all-over "Swirly Echo" from 
The Pajama Quilter Reloaded workbook.  I used KingTut #907 in the top and a med. blue vareigated Aurafil in the bobbin. I forgot to take a picture of the backing, it's just a medium blue paisley I already had.


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Lest I forget



Jelly Roll Quilt Along Block #7.  Put a fork in it...it's done!!! woo-woo.





Yesterday when I went to the mailbox...


...there was a package in with the bills. 
It was from Kathy!  In celebration of her 500th post she had a give away and I was one of 4 lucky winners. The little mini flag made by Kathy herself!  It is beautiful.  The workmanship is exquisite.  And you really have to see it in person to appreciate it. It is perfect.
I'm so happy to have it to remind me of Kathy and to help decorate my home.  I spent a little while last night trying to decide where it would look best. 
Right now it's here:





The photo is me and our oldest son Paul. At the Marine Corp Birthday ball in 2005.

I've looked at the little flag several times today and it makes me smile and think of Kathy who  I'm happy to have met through blogging and all the rest  of you who I've come to share so much of my days with.  My family knows about you all too since I tell them what's going on from your posts, even if it's just about the weather. Like Jeanne having something like 12 feet of snow in Big Bear Lake this past winter (Paul would like to move there) or Shannon's pictures of Tennessee (ah, Paul wants to live there too) or learning about chickens and the fun of grandkids and the fact that her husband and mine are like almost the same person--it's sorta freaky-- from Judy (Paul would move to Washington state too!-but I couldn't take the rain, sorry Judy!)

So again, thank you to Kathy for the wonderful keepsake that I will cherish forever.





Monday, May 24, 2010

Design Wall Monday (week 21)

My wall has been getting a work out!  I've been playing with the block-a-days blocks. 
Here is what is on the wall now. They are all 12" blocks that I used the same fabrics for.  I think I'm going to let it stay up and think about sashing and borders while I work on other stuff. The smaller block to the right will be a label for the back.  I played with EQ6 last night and made a sample quilt with 3 borders, if I knew how I could import a picture of it, but I haven't gotten that far in the lesson book. 
Honestly, I'm on lesson 6 and that got me to the point where I can put quilts together and make labels and I stopped moving forward in the workbook.  I need to re-focus on that.



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Here are a few pictures of other blocks that were on the wall this weekend too.
Not too sure about some of these blocks.  I wish now I would have been more aware of fabric and block size during the first few months of the bl-a-days.  Some of the blocks, that didn't make it on to the wall will most likely become incorporated into backings I'm sure!
16" + 8+




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And this is the 30 Civil War Repro 12" blocks that I have so far.  I thought I had 32, which is what I need for the on point layout I am thinking of using. It will be queen size and for my bed! I forget the final size something like 86x102. Obviously I've miscounted and still need to make 2 more.  I'm planning on a 1" sashing between the blocks and these are just randomly put up not a finally layout by any means:



I'm pretty happy with it and was bummed to have to take it down for now.

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And since I didn't get to post separately this week (I got side tracked) here are my block-a-days from May 31st through June 7.



Enjoy the other design wall at Judy's.




Sunday, May 23, 2010

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2010




This will be my 2nd Quilt Festival!  I was a new blogger for last Fall's festival.  It was a blast and took a good couple of days, maybe a week, to visit all the quilts, but I think I saw them all.  I almost didn't enter because I was afraid of "Mr Linky"!!

I've been changing the living room furniture around so that means the quilts get changed too.
I brought this one out for a couple months.



It's a Little Quilts pattern.  It measures 31" x 43".  I made it in 2003.  It is one of the last quilts (if memory serves me correctly) that I hand quilted.  I have an emotional attachment to this quilt that I can't really explain.
All I know is that I l-o-v-e it! 
It could be that many of the fabrics are from when I first started quilting in 1989!  I recognize and remember them...(how is that possible--when I can't remember what I wear to church from week to week?) 
The center block, "bear paw", is one of my all-time favorite blocks, the fabrics are "my kind of colors".  I remember I almost used a plain border  because I didn't want to tackle the set in seams on the bow tie blocks, (I don't think I'd ever done set in seams by machine before). I guess I didn't have trouble with them,  or they wouldn't be there --patience is a virtue that I'm sadly lacking :)

And this is truly a scrap quilt, my favorite kind!  I used blocks leftover from other Little Quilts that I had made and all the fabrics were from my stash.

 

So that's my entry.
Enjoy the rest of the quilts in the festival.
Check them out here.





Thursday, May 20, 2010

OBW #2




Is off the wall now. 
 I'm playing around (in my mind) with border ideas. I have a couple hexi's left over and would like to put them in the borders. But I don't have enough of the dark brown batik I want to use for the inner border, I need to get to a quilt shop and hoping to go tomorrow.  
Oh as I was writing this I remembered that The Quilt Co. is open until 9 pm on Thursdays....it's only 6 here now and a 35 min drive...c-ya later alligators!!