A finish!

I finished hand stitching the binding on my fall quilt last night. Here comes the confession part; I had some fabric for the backing, but I accidentally made this quilt too long (I was on a roll) so I ended up not having enough fabric. I ended up using some of the fabric I bought for the backing for the binding. The machine quilter and I decided to go with muslin for the backing and let the quilting in a dark color be the design. It's quilted in a reddish brown. It's the only one I have done this way.

I have the binding ready for another quilt and will sew it on soon. It's for a scrap sampler I made from Quiltaholics.

Picture on a Saturday morning

I finally got around to taking a picture of the finished sailboat top. And had to post this one to prove to all you cat people that dogs love quilts, too. This is my Rosie.

I am going to get my act together shortly to go into Hancock's. Drove by yesterday to see the big sign that said "STORE CLOSING". Darn.

Monday

Boy, I needed today to rest! We have finally started in earnest to pack our house in town so we can sell it. We worked for 4 days and I'm beat. It was good to have a day to rest and sew. And play with Grace.

I finished the sailboat top today. If my new grandbaby is a boy, he's all set! Guess I will have to wait until September or October to know if it's a boy or girl. I am looking at patterns to start a quilt for a girl. I decided to do two this time. The other quilt I made ended up a little 'girly' for a boy. Not this time! We got fish and boats.

(And why do I have the only kids who don't want to know what sex the baby is??!?! How easy they could make this!)

I found a quilt today with Teddy Bears. I'm thinking. Anyone have a special pattern you use for a baby quilt?

I was a baaaaad quilter!

Wait! I'm not on a no buy program. I'm free to spend money...and I did! *G*

Mary Jo's is just amazing. I really have to focus or I could just wander around for hours.
I bought a cool backing for the sailboat quilt. I got a new brown that isn't a directional print for boats.

And then I bought some pretty Thimbleberry fabric I just liked. It's stash. But surely I got enough for a quilt!

4 yards background, 4 yards dark (I really liked this one), 2 yards of med dark, 2 yards med, and 1 yard of another sorta' light medium. I was thinking maybe I could just find some blocks and do a sampler. Surely I can get a pretty quilt out of it. Or I might do the Quiltaholics mystery quilt next weekend. That's a thought.........

I'm so sorry that I am so bad about updating this blog. It seems as though I am busy all the time and accomplish nothing. I am trying to read some of your quilting blogs, but haven't commented. Bloglines is good on letting you know when people update, but it's a lot of trouble to comment from there.

I have done some sewing. I have finished all the sails for the sailboat quilt and now I'm working on the boats. I have 40 HSTs to sew and square up to finish the boats. (Well, 36 but who's counting?) Then I need to shop for some fabric for the backing. I think I know what I want. Just need to have time to get there and pick it up.

I am so ready for sunshine and warm weather. C'mon spring!

Is there anything more tedious than squaring up a bunch of half square triangles? Ugh. I only have about 70 more to go.

Quick check in

I spent the week visiting my daughter in Charlotte. Here is her precious little one. We had a busy week going to story time, the mall, drawing with sidewalk chalk, and playing choo choo. And she lives in Charlotte and I didn't go to Mary Jo's. I won't brag too much, though, cause I meant to go on the way home. I just ran out of time. Must sew.

One down....

...and a bazillion to go! I finished this table runner this morning. I had left over blocks and put this together really just to practice machine quilting. I intended to try free motion, but ended up just outlining shapes. I finished hand sewing the binding this morning.

The main reason I ended up sewing was Gracie, my granddaughter. She naps in the sewing loft, and when I go up to get her, she commands me to sew. This was the top project in a pile, and I got it done in just a couple of short sessions. I also spent some time picking out sail fabric for another boat baby quilt. I like to use all the cute children's prints I can find, so I've been going through the I Spy fabric.

In honor of Valentines Day, I'll share a quilt I made a few years ago. It was a One Day Quilt Frenzy Yahoo group weekend frenzy called Mended Hearts.

And now I'm off for Valentine lunch on this cold, windy day. Hope you are having a happy Valentine's Day and you are warm and cozy.

Quilting news

Well, remember how repairing two blocks a day was working for me? Not so much now. Sigh. I have decided, however, to start another baby boy boat quilt. I always try to have a baby quilt or two stashed just in case, but I'm flat out right now. I bought some more 'wavey' blue for the background yesterday at Hobby Lobby. (Sale!)

So I also need to figure out another baby quilt to do, maybe a girl. Maybe gender neutral. Gotta' be prepared!

Snow

I'll start this post by showing the snow we got last night...that is already gone. And this was enough to let out schools for miles around. We Southerners are such wimps.

On the quilting front, redoing the two blocks a day is working. It is making me want to do other things, though. Oh, no, it wouldn't be that I want to continue repairs or finish up some UFOs. Oh no. I want to start something new. I am going to try to force myself to focus on redoing the wedding quilt blocks.

I am trying, pretty unsuccessfully, to ignore the Super Bowl 5 hours Mystery.

Update

Things here continue to improve with my husband. We got good news from the pathologist and are very pleased with that.

I still don't have much quilting energy, but have a plan. I am still redoing the quilt from my daughter's wedding. I sure wish I'd had a decent machine when I made this the first time, as almost every seam will be resewn by the time it gets finished. (And it's a lot of seams!) Anyway, to get myself started, I go up to the loft and must redo two blocks before I quit. It's worked for the last several days, so maybe it will get me moving.

I'm also waiting for the fabric requirements for the new BOM. I'm trying to decide whether to do it in black with brights or in something more traditional. Maybe I should just do two...... Sounds good to me!

Back in the saddle

Well, my husband's surgery is over, and we are on the way back to normal, but not there yet.

I have decided the way to get back in the swing of sewing is to start a new quilt. Stop laughing. I'm going to the Planet Patchwork block of the month. I did one of their BOMs before (Galactic Twinkle), and I love it. I love it so much that I haven't gotten it quilted yet cause I'm not sure my long arm quilter could make it look like I want it to.

Anyway, the quilt choices are here. Number 4 won, and its name is Celestial Migraine. If you've checked it out, you see why. I love that these quilts are so dramatic, and get me out of my earth tone rut.

Want to do it, too? C'mon...you know you wanna'! It starts Feb 1.

Can't. Get. Started.

I don't know when I turned into such a procrastinator. I think about what I want to do, but can't seem to get moving. (not just quilting, either!) I read blogs, my Yahoo groups, and books, but just don't have the energy to sew. When I can't get to the machine, there are lots of things I'd love to do. But when I have the time, I just don't do it.

I need a jump start. Any ideas?

You there, Internets?

I am so sorry for the lack of posts, and if you are still checking this blog, you have patience! We've had some medical issues going on around here, and I just haven't had the time or desire to sew. Maybe after the dust clears from the holidays I'll get inspired.

I hope you and yours are having a wonderful holiday season.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The reveal....

No, I've not been on Extreme Makeover! I never posted a picture of this quilt I made for my cousin's first granddaughter because she sometimes reads this blog. I wanted it to be a surprise. So now that the quilt has made its way to Texas (finally), here it is....

It was a mystery quilt from the Pocketful of Mysteries Yahoo list. The pastels were left from my grandson's quilt, and the background was from stash. (Hooray for me!) The three colors in the upper left corner don't look like that, and I really finished it and just didn't send the top!

Too clean....

OK, my "studio" is also my guest room. My daughter and her family were here for Thanksgiving and it had to be cleaned if they were going to find a place to sleep. Well, I can find nothing. Nothing. My favorite scissors? Put up so I won't lose them. Along with the fabric I need for binding and my leaf blocks and fabric. I know they'll show up, but how discouraging.

And boy do I have scraps to cut. (Yes, I even looked down by the scrap bin.)

Who has time....

to sew??? Good grief, has my Christmas panic set in! I can't believe how much I have left to buy. It's scary.

Quilting goal for the week:
Get baby quilt in the mail.
Figure out what I want to do for my downtime handwork...quilting? Put on a binding?

Notice I didn't say "do it"...I just said to figure it out. Hope you are feeling the creative juices more than I am.

As we crowded around our little table today here in the barn, I had thoughts of past Thanksgivings. They may not have looked exactly like this, but the feeling was the same. I loved being with all my aunts and uncles and cousins when I was a kid. As the grandkids whizzed by and the dogs barked, I found myself hoping that the kids would have memories that would make them feel as good as I do now when they are my age.

It was a wonderful day here, and all of our children and families were here to share it with us at one time or another. It doesn't get any better. (The food was great, too! We had an unexpected dish of turkey enchiladas from our son the chef that were wonderful!)
Don't you love the guy down in the right bottom corner? We're included!

While on our two week vacation in Hawaii, I got to see lots of Hawaiian quilting. These two quilts were owned by the museum that sponsored the trip we were on. The first is a beautiful example of Hawaiian quilting. It was the woman's first quilt, too.
This quilt won a contemporary quilt award at a show in Hawaii. On it is a picture of the restored sugar mill at the museum onn Molokai. It is a beautiful quilt.
There were several quilters on the tour, and our tour leader, in the blue shirt above, gathered all the books she could find on the island so we could buy them if we wanted them. I got one on traditional Hawaiin quilting.

Traveling

So I have been in Hawaii for the last couple of weeks. I saw one particularly beautiful quilt, not Hawaiian in style, but contemporary. I'll post a picture once I get the laundry done, Thanksgiving menu planned, and dogs washed.