Hanging a Show

What do you get when you put 20 women and 1 man in a 450 square foot house? This:

Sometimes it seemed like we had lots of Indians and no chiefs. At other times it seemed like we had too many Chiefs and lots of the indians were sitting out on the porch. And toward the end, the indians just stood up and made chief-like decisions and all the quilts got hung.

More, and I hope, better pictures after the show closes on Sunday.

No Design Wall Monday

This has been a week of little progress. Almost every day I have gone to the studio and then been interrupted with other things. I did get the top done on a gift quilt and have most of the pieced back done.

Yesterday we traveled north for a wedding. The couple had gone to Las Vegas to get married but yesterday was the formal Catholic service. And, after that, they will be doing a formal Greek Orthodox service. I guess that after all that they will really be married: lets see them get out of that. LOL





While waiting for the wedding, DH and I did some antiquing/flea marketing. I did not find anything I wanted until the last place where I found this.

I’m sure it was supposed to be a medicine cabinet but I saw a thread cabinet for my quilting thread cones. It has three doors and is very sturdy. It won’t be going up on the wall until I make some changes in my studio configuration.











DH also got something to go in his “cowboy” front room.


He has a lot of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy books and I thought this would be a perfect place to display them.














This afternoon I was off to the next town over where our quilt guild is holding a small quilt show next weekend. We have been given the opportunity to use a small four room house for a three day show but first we needed to clean it. When we walked into the front door this was what greeted us.

The next room had 3 dining tables with four chairs each along with two pillars, a small marble table and a small narrow table and chair. The only room that was not filled with furniture was the kitchen but now all of the chairs are in there and all the knick knacks that filled the walls and tables. Then we swept all the floors and wiped down all the other surfaces.

Tuesday evening we will be hanging the quilts and the show begins Friday evening. I will be working the show Friday and again Sunday afternoon as well as the take down and clean up.

Design Wall Monday

Here it is. As anyone who looked last Monday can see, the BOM blocks are still on the wall. In fact, there are three projects up there and I didn’t work on any of them last week. I did, just this afternoon, look for similarly segmented blocks for the BOMs while at Barnes & Noble. I own the book, 5500 Quilt Blocks, but can’t find it. I guess that will be project #1 for this week.

Also on the wall is a bunch of strips. I plan to sew them into one large, long strip set and then quilt it for either a table runner or placemats.



So what did I do this week? Well I made this.



Front

Back

I got it done just in time for the temp. here to go down and between the chill in the air and the wind, a sweatshirt jacket was just the right thing. Isn’t it purty?

Friday and Saturday I was in a machine embroidery workshop, learning how to use my software and getting project ideas. I really love it when the creative juices get a little jolt.

Sunday was spent with DH: you know you have to give the old man a little of your time. We went to NWFL to spend some time at Barnes and Noble, eat, and shop in Office Depot. Then back home for a quiet night prior to the start of a new week.

Musings and Batik

Given how busy I seem to be, one would not think I had time to “muse.” But when I am piecing, I tend to think. What I have been thinking this week is that I don’t think any of my family reads my blog. I think that when I first started writing some did, but I don’t think they do now. I am careful to not show the things I may be making for them but I never get comments about what I am doing or what I share about the goings on in my/our lives. Now, I don’t know how I feel about this, maybe a little hurt and maybe a little relieved. Fortunately, musings don’t have to come to any conclusion, just flit around in my head and then leave.

The batik part of this post is much more exciting. I started a new project Monday. A little history first. A couple of years ago I made two sweatshirt jackets.

Then one year ago I started Weight Watchers and after a 60# weight loss, they are too big for me. I really hate that because I love them but I haven’t seen a good way of altering them so I decided I needed to make a new one. Here are the parts I have so far made.

This is the back.

This is one of the fronts.

And this is one of the sleeves.

I love the dog batik and have had it around for at least 2 years. The colored squares were a pack of batik nickels I won at guild about 4 years ago and never had any idea of what to do with them. But Monday I had inspiration and off I went. I paired 2 nickels with a 91/2” square of the dog fabric and then made up 3 mini quilts to cover the back and two fronts. Then I cut smaller batik squares, paring them with orange strips, and ran them down the middle of each of the sleeves with a different batik flanking it. Anyway, I had hoped to get this done today but, alas, I chose to spend time with family instead. I will be gone every day for the next three days so I won’t get back to it until at least Sunday. Too bad, too, since we are supposed to actually get some Fall temps over the weekend and I probably will wish I had it to wear. Anyway, Sunday I will be trying to figure out what to use for the binding and then serge the parts together and bind.

Design Wall & WIPs

Judy asks “What’s on your design wall?” every Monday morning. Well, here is mine.

These 5 blocks are UFOs, leftovers from a BOM of 2005, I think. I used 7 of the blocks for a valance in my bedroom and always planned to make a throw with these 5. But as you can see, here they are, still orphan blocks. So on the design wall they went. I have finishing fabric for them but just haven’t decided what I want to put between them. The blocks are 15” so they should make a nice sized 9 patch plus borders.



On Thursday I got my first Christmas gift for this season, quilted. Friday I sewed the binding together and on the front and Saturday I finished sewing it on the back. I won’t have pictures until later but am really happy with how it turned out. I have one other gift to finish as I have not planned handmade gifts for more than a couple of people.

DH was off on Saturday to judge one of the last Jr. Miss programs in AL for the season and I had all day in the studio. I did a little cleaning and then some sewing. I am working on a Dresden plate quilt: 4 plates have been appliquéd with 2 to go. Today I made the centers for all 6 and fused 4 on the completed blocks. Next week I hope to get the last two appliquéd and then all 6 centers stitched. I also set up a new quilt with the last fabric I bought and plotted the design layout in EQ6. The last thing I did was sort and press lots of 1.5 and 2” strips for some scrappy strip piecing. I have an experiment I am going to try and if it works, I will share later next week.

We have not yet entered into Fall in the South. It has been rainy, warm (90F), and humid. I don’t mind much as I have been able to continue wearing shorts and my feet haven’t been cold, yet.



Anyway, late last week, due to the high humidity, I found this growing in my front yard.

The next day, the mushroom looked like this.

Isn’t nature wonderful?

Life Is Good

I love it when each day something good happens.

Monday: I took the RX to the dealer for it’s final prep and then met DH for lunch. After he left to teach his class I took the opportunity to visit another LQS. This store, Front Porch Quilt Shoppe where I got these.


The store is 90% Moda but I like to mix and match so these come from two different companies. Do I know what I will do with them? No, but I am sure they, either together or with other fabrics, will make beautiful quilts.


Tuesday: I spent the day bouncing back and forth between the studio and the road. I was at the LQS getting batting for a top ready to quilt, ordered a Subway platter and returned later to pick it up. When I got home from there our DD and SIL were there (he was edging our yard with his weed-eater) and had come for dinner while we all watched the Troy football game (they won).

Wednesday: In the morning I got a Christmas gift quilt loaded and the first two passes quilted. ( I don’t think anyone who doesn’t quilt knows what goes into loading a quilt.) I had made the back last week but with the car buying adventure, never got back to the quilt. In the afternoon I did some studying of my WW materials and then I was off to lead meeting #3. The ladies in this group are so funny and I had a great time. And last night I saw that Amazon has dropped the price of Kindle, again. Now I just have to decide if this is really what I want. I am conflicted as to whether or not to get the Kindle or the Sony. I would really like to rent books from a library rather than buying them every time.

Today, so far: I received an email this morning from our oldest DS saying that he and his wife will be here next weekend: his 30th high school reunion. Now I wonder, how did he get so old when I didn’t?

The Week That Was

So I figured that when I wrote my last post I would be ready to get back into the studio and start getting things done. Thursday was spent finishing up housework and reading as well as spending some time with the puppies. So on Friday I finally got to the studio and worked on my Eleanor Burns BOM block for about 15 min. when DH showed up and asked me if I would be interested in looking at a new car. Six hours and 100 miles later I was the proud new owner of this: a Mazda RX8.

Saturday dawned somewhat chilly but again found me in the studio. 15 min of work on the BOM when, again, DH showed up, asking if I would like to go out for breakfast and a run to NWFL, getting some drive time in the new car. While in FL we did some antiquing and I got this sewing accessory. It seems to have been made in Germany by Pfaff but I don’t think it was ever used.

And, we also made two stops at quilt stores. At Margie’s I bought this fabric. It is my plan to make pillows for DH’s “cowboy room” and some extra to see if I can either make covers for the backs of our table chairs or possibly reupholster them, if I can figure out how. LOL






At the Quilting Station I bought these beautiful fabrics.
And this t-shirt.

































Now, 30 min of sewing over 5 days didn’t seem enough so today, except for a lunch break, I have been sewing. I completed, yes, completed the BOM, appliquéd two basked blocks, two Dresden plate blocks, and embroidered labels for the last two quilts.

And, so I don’t get bored, I set up fabric for two new projects. Slow start but a roaring end to the week.