First of all, thanks

Thanks to you who wrote to me about 'that quilt which shall not be named'. I appreciate the support. I am just glad it is finished, and I'm gonna' get that sucker quilted and use it.

I've really been working on this medallion quilt from Downhome Quilters. I love it the name, Follow Your Heart. You can see where it's going from here to finish the middle, but then there is more to go. Go here to see the pattern. You know how you fall in love with a fabric? Well, those friendship stars that are gold was the fabric I loved. And it's the one I'm least happy with in this quilt. Not enough contrast, but I still think the quilt is going to be beautiful when it's finished.

So my daughter from NC was here this weekend, and we had a wonderful visit. She has a friend who is expecting her 2nd baby (in about 18 months!), a son. Well, I said to Holly, "Well, I won't have to make a quilt this time, I don't think. I gave her one last time." So Holly tells me how A. has this quilt on the wall of her daughter's room and how she just loves it. So, you guessed it. I'm making a quilt. If she appreciates, I'll make it.

This is the pattern I chose. It's easy and fast. I found it on the McCalls site. I may change it up a little...I'm thinking about not doing the narrow verticle sashing between the rows of boats, but I'll decide later.

I was starting to despair in the fabric store when I found this great light blue with a design that looks like waves. And I had to have the fish. So here are the ones that are finished. I have all the sail HST made and am trimming them down this evening. I would like to get it done pretty quickly. I have less than 3 months!
I'm using only stash for the sails. I wanted a variety, but I know already that the solid look (tone on tone) really look best. But I'm going to use up some of my left over I Spy squares. I am dedicated to using what I have as much as possible.

So that's it for me. I would have posted much sooner, but Blogger has been really tempermental. Thanks again to those of you who emailed me. I love hearing from folks. I hope you all are sewing up a storm and staying out of this heat!

So, here it is.

This is the quilt with multiple problems. Oh, the poor color choices! Oh, the clipped off points! Oh, those blankety blank tri-recs! But I think the quilt needed them, badly done or not.

It's not the pattern...in fact I really, really like the pattern! I take full responsibility for this quilt turning out so badly! If you are interested, it's the BOM at Quiltaholics.
I like this view of the quilt much better!

Iternets, we will Never. Speak of this. Again.

I really have been working.....

honest! I am almost finished hand sewing the binding on a baby quilt. I can't post the picture cause I think it's going to my cousin whose son and wife are having a girl baby! She might come read this, and I don't want her to see it yet. I've also decided I have to redo part of the "oh just let me get this ($*& thing finished" quilt. I can't stand it. I'll take a picture of it when it's finished, maybe later today. Maybe!

So here are some pictures of my friend-like-a-sister and the quilt she and her sister-in-law made. They took the all of Granny's handmade pieces that nobody else wanted because they were worn, stained, or torn. They just started snipping and cutting, and using antique lace, and came out with two beautiful quilts. These pictures are of the first one. She loved doing it, and I think we may go through some of my mom's stuff and do the same thing. I think it's a great idea, and I'm thrilled she'll help me get it done.

Right now Linda is working on a Tennessee themed quilt. I looked at her book and decided there were way too many templets for me to want do it right now. Linda does the most beautiful applique. Makes mine look extremely shabby. I love her anyway!

Burning question....

Do other people make a mess of a project now and then or am I the only one? Nobody ever talks about it!!

This morning has really made me live by my motto of "Better finished than perfect." What a mess this quilt is. I can't even list all the things that are wrong with it. I even thought about just stopping and putting it away, but I figured they'd find it after I died and I would just be mortified if they took it to someone to finish!

I kept thinking about my mom's quilts. Now that I piece, I see she made lots of mistakes. But we never noticed them! And we cherish them all, no matter what.

So, a mess or not, it will soon be finished. I need to put on one more row of tri-recs, and then finish it up with another gold border. And boy will I be glad when it's done!!! And I'll take it back to the same ole' longarm quilter cause I'd be ashamed to show it to anyone else!!

Update

FYI, I've been down the last 2 weeks with back pain. I don't see myself getting to do any sewing for a while. It's hard to do from bed. I'm feeling a little better today, but I just can't tell how long that will last. Hope all of you are being productive and getting some projects finished. More later... maybe much later!

And the complications continue...

So I decided the only way to want to sew was just to get up there and do it. I worked on the tri-recs border for the scrap quilt. And wouldn't you know it, they are about 1/2 inch too short on each end. I have no clue what I have done. I am going back through them and double checking seams, and that slowed me down.

I absolutely love Deb's designs from Quiltaholics, but I always have the tiniest bit of trouble. I think her definition of beginner, and my definition of beginner aren't the same! If you haven't checked out her designs, head over there. She is great!

I would take a picture of my latest disaster, I can't. I made a big mistake. I pulled weeds. For about 5 minutes. I have been in bed or on couch all day. My back is totally out of whack. I am going to have to break down and do something about it eventually, I guess.

All my good intentions.....sheesh.

The reason I'm getting nothing done.....

We have had a great few days.....and I miss having little Dennis here already. I am so lucky to have 3/4 of the kids here all the time.

Anyway, the real truth is that I've lost my drive. I go to the loft and just look at all the equipment. I putter arond, and I come back downstairs. And now Grace is napping up there, so I don't even have nap time to work.

If anyone reading has a trick to make me want to sew again, tell me! I used to be able to go up and if I stayed long enough, I'd get motivated. Not working these days.

Sigh.

Goals for next week.....

I WILL, I mean it....I WILL

1. Finish sewing the tri-recs and gold borders on the the Quiltaholics
2. Work on finishing the gold tone quilt
3. Get the border started on the baby quilt so I can hand quilt in the down times

Treasures

Well, very little sewing has been done around here. We have been working on emptying our house in town so we can get rid of it. I have found some treasure, as the title says. I've found a lot of handwork that my mom and aunt did....some experiments in painting on fabric, some odd quilt blocks, and lots of linens and crocheted pieces. I wish I could remember how to crochet. Well, maybe not.

How many afghans can a person have? I guess I have Mom's, Ruby's, and mine, and I bet there are more than a dozen. And I have a huge, huge, huge trashsack full of mismatched skeins of yarn. I'm going to have Holly look through and decide if she wants some of the cooler stuff, and then I'm getting rid of it. (I'll try to remember to take some pictures and post them)

On the quilting front, I have added fabric to the back of the baby quilt. It looks ok, but I'm still unhappy. I have the binding picked out from my stash, and it's laid out to cut, but not done. I am going to have to finish up a few things and pack things away up there so I can pack things up more for company.

Discouraged....

I haven't been sewing a whole lot. I got the 3 quilts back from the longarm quilter, and one of them was quilted off center. The backing now does not cover the front. This has happened once before, so I was very careful to square things up, no uneven edges, certainly big enough. Well. Didn't matter. I am trying to add fabric to the back now so it's big enough to finish up. I realize this isn't the end of the world, and probably will not even be noticed, but I know. And it shouldn't have happened.

I have no idea where another quilter is around here. I have held back several quilts because I didn't think they could do what I wanted, and now I am sure they can't. And I don't like the idea of mailing tops away. Dilemma.

So I hope I didn't make a mistake!

Well, I found another discolored light block on the quilt block I was worried about. I soaked that edge in water and made sure all the edges touched, and no color ran. I don't get it.

If anyone is reading have you ever had this trouble? I went shopping but didn't find anything I loved for the 2 borders, so I can still easily replace this block.

In other news, I should be getting a call anytime that the three quilts I took to the shop are quilted. I'm anxious to see them.

Goals:
Finish this scrappy sampler in this lifetime
Finish the medallion quilt (coming along nicely...almost to the put together stage)
Work on handquilting Bub and Ginger's quilt. (Why did I ever join Pogo and start playing Canasta?)

Next project? I think I'll do and Eleanor Burns book I have. I've been collecting greens for the trees, and I think I have enough now. Or maybe that would be an excuse to shop? (Get thee behind me, Satan.)

Repairs

So I'm trying like crazy to find a fabric in my stash to border a scrappy sampler that I made. I was laying out the different fabrics to try them out, when I saw something on the matching edges of two sides of the quilt top. I hunted around, found fabric, and replaced as best I could. Now I've about decided the red in the block is running cause there is another small beige block that needs to be replaced. I may just take out the whole block and do another one. I know I prewashed!!!

This gold doesn't exactly match, but I don't think it can be noticed once it's all together. However, this is the block I might just go ahead, replace, and get it over with.
And, on top of all this, there is no good fabric for the borders. I have to go fabric shop. (Beat me!)

Mary Jo's

I was in Charlotte recently visiting my daughter and her family, and I just couldn't resist a little sidetrip to Gastonia and Mary Jo's. I wanted to take a picture just to prove to everyone how much fabric they have, but, to be honest, a camera would have just slowed me down. It took long enough as it was.

I did, however, keep on task. For once, I had a list of quilt dimensions and fabric swatches. I bought backing for 4 quilts. I was hoping to get the wide fabric, but I didn't like the designs or quality of what they had in stock.

This is a baby quilt that I made from a mystery pattern. It is made from fabric left from my youngest grandson's quilt. I got this blue fabric for the back. I used the same fabric in pink on the top.

This is the all scrap quilt, Chiclets. I really liked the pattern on this gold fabric.
I started to do a tone on tone blue for the back of the blue and yellow, but decided to go with this fabric that matched beautifully.

I got a plain white/off white background for another scrap sampler that I made over a year ago, too. I hope to get at least a couple of these to the quilter this week.

Fabric

This is a close-up of the fabric for the quilt. I loved, loved,loved the deep blue, and just worked with what they had in the shop to get the rest.



I have the center of the medallion quilt done, and I want to just continue working on it for the next few days. I need to finish some Friendship Stars, and then do some Log Cabin blocks. I'll show you this weekend.

Done!

Here is the blue/yellow quilt top that I've been working on. I need to take a close up to show the fabric. I love the dark blue. The yellow is daisies, and I don't really like daisies, but it looked good with the other fabrics. I'll post of picture in a day or so.

I have begun another quilt, and I'll post that, too. It's a medallion style quilt. I love the fabrics individually, but don' tknow if I like them together. But they're going to go together anyway!

Didn't think I was ever gonna' finish it, did ya?

Well, I did. Blue and yellow quilt top is completed. I'll take a picture in the next day or two. It's rainy and windy, and the best place to take the pictures is on our porch.

Whew!

Now...new projects....I have the fabric for a sampler out and ready to go, and am thinking about a baby quilt. I'm ready to put Holly's wedding quilt together, but I don't have the pictures she has chosen for it. We are going to visit soon, and we'll figure out something.

Finally, progress!!!

So I finally felt like doing something. I finished the binding on this quilt this morning. The only thing lacking is a label. I took a picture to show the quilting design since it really shows up on this design.

This was a mystery quilt designed by Deb at Quiltaholics. For those of you who don't know what that means....When you do a mystery, you get fabric requirements, but you don't know what the finished quilt will look like. I've done 4 mysteries. Two of them are Deb's. I will try to take some pictures of the other mysteries and post them later this week.


These are the quilts that hang over the rail of our loft in the barn where we are living right now. They were all done by my mother except for the bottom picture, left quilt, the Irish Chain. She hand quilted all four.

I'm not a slacker....

Really. I'm not. We were gone for two weeks to Alaska, and although I tried, I did not get to one fabric store. We saw one, and my husband pretended to be sad for me because it was closed on Sunday when we saw it. I did meet a lady who designs miniature quilts at a craft show. She had some beautiful designs, but I have enough to do without starting one of them!

So...goals. This is tricky as I hurt my back when we were in Alaska. It is slowing me down, and I haven't done much of anything. And I've been reading. Lots. We bought a bunch of books in Alaska, and I've read 4 and I'm almost finished with number 5.

I did work on the blue and yellow quilt. It is almost all together. So that is my major goal.

1. Complete blue and yellow quilt top.
2. Finish hand sewing the binding on the gold quilt.

I'll try to post some pictures of the two quilts I'm working on if blogger will let me.

Goals updated:

Put borders on Chiclet quilt Done
Try to get Chiclet quilt to long arm quilter didn't get there
Try to get blue/yellow top together Nopey
Cut scraps for a few minutes each time I go to the loft to sew YES!
Continue hand quilting and working on binding of brown/gold binding whenever possible Didn't get much handquilting done, but I am almost finished with the binding.

Goals for this week: NONE! Shopping maybe?

Tuesday update

I had the camera in my pocket when I went upstairs, so took a picture of my scrap storage system. This drawer is right by the cutting table. I have a drawer for 2.5 inch strips, 3.5 inch strips, strings/noodles, and a drawer of cut I Spy squares or fabric. The bottom drawer is just stuff until I figure out what to do with it. After I cut scraps, I just turn and drop them into the appropriate drawer.....

.....except for squares. They have a tins, 3.5 inch, 2.5 inch juvenile or bright, and then other 2.5 inch squares.

And I got the border on the scrap quilt! Finished!!!!!