What A Week

Our week started with a visit from our DS#2, DDIL, and DGS#6 (now that took some thinking). Anyway, they live in CO so we don’t see them often and they are currently on a three week tour of family and friends. Only one week out and they look exhausted and it didn’t help that she came down with bronchitis right after leaving home.

Monday saw our SIL coming over to start cooking on his beautiful homemade grill.

Here you see him waiting to turn the chicken and burgers, our DGS#2 wrapping corn for grilling and DH cheering them on. I’ll bet everyone for a mile around was wishing they had an invite to the feast.

Eventually we had two rooms full of family plus DGS#2 brought a friend who is a girl (???). There was lots of laughing and no picture taking cuz I was having a really good time and forgot.

Tuesday morning I got a little sewing done, getting the binding ready for Going Dotty.

I decided to make it a scrappy binding (something new to me) using the quilt fabrics.

Then in the afternoon I went to the school with DH, reading blogs while he taught, and then we went to a little town in AL that boasts being Alabama’s Antique City. Well, not so much but we did find this.

But what happened this afternoon was the best. I had checked for Dotty’s backing fabric at a quilt shop yesterday and found nothing I wanted, well not for the backing. ;-) So I made a plan to tour 3-4 shops in NWFL, looking for backing. However, before making that trip I went to the LQS and look what I found.

Isn’t this just perfect?

It's Monday again

It's design wall Monday and there is something new on my design wall. Here we have nine D4Ps with sashing. The blocks are 10" finished and the sashing will be 1 1/2". With a 6" border, that would make this quilt 48" square. That's big enough for a baby quilt, isn't it? I could make a couple more blocks and set it 3 x 4 but this is looking good to me, I think.

I really like the fabric. I collect owls and that is why I bought the owl print but the other is so very different. And besides, I'm not much into "cutsy wootsy" stuff.

But what I am into is this............

My Going Dotty flimsy/top is done.

I was so excited when I finished stay stitching around the outside that I had to run outside to get some pictures. Of course the sun immediately went behind some clouds. I think it was because he was embarassed to be seen beside something as bright as this.

I had decided to stop at 90 x 90 rather than the 90 x 108 I had planned because I only have a queen sized bed and I figured that would fit. However, I had to come in and throw it on the bed, just to be sure. I have enough fabric to make another row but as you can see it will not be necessary.

I don't have any backing fabric that has jumped out and volunteered for this quilt so I may just have to do some "shopping" to find just the right thing. How awful.

Be sure to visit Judy's blog to see what other quilters are up to.

Change of Focus

Two solid weeks of polka dots and I needed a
change of pace. So, of course, I started on something new, a baby quilt. I saw a tutorial last week on how to do a disappearing 4 patch and really wanted to try it so here is what I worked on today. Isn't that cleaver? So far I have only made 9 blocks and am trying to decide if, when I have made some more, I will sash them (I have some yellow fabric) or just sew them together.










I guess we will just see later on.


Edit: you can find the tutorial at Sally's blog. Sorry I didn't have that info when I wrote this post. :-(

What a Week

What a week this was. When I last posted I was in the dark, in the studio at least. But in gallant quilting form I brought a machine and “Dotty” stuff over to the little sewing space in my bedroom and spent Thursday sewing as many blocks together as I had parts. And, I discovered that I hadn’t made enough parts for the size of quilt I want.

Friday our SIL came over to check the electric connection to the studio and guess what he found.

This is the circuit breaker for the studio: fried. He thinks it was hit by lightning and finally gave up the ghost. I had lost power a couple of times but was able to restore it by reswitching the breaker. I guess each time we did this it weakened the breaker a little more until “it was no more.” Anyway, with a new breaker I was back in business.

So I planned a full day of studio sewing for Saturday but just as I got everything back in and ready to go, DH came by to say that he had meant to talk to me on Friday about a little something. It seems he had “just stopped by the car dealer and ……..” Well, you probably know the rest. Here he is sealing the deal.

Here he is signing the deal.

And here he is explaining to me how good a deal it was.

Thank goodness for Sunday. I was able to sew a few more blocks and begin putting some of them in rows.

I have decided to sew Dotty together in fourths. And, I have one of the fourths sewn.

The blocks are 18” square so Dotty will be 90” x 108” before borders, which I am thinking about not using. It seems that the quilt is so busy it doesn’t need borders. What do you think?

Murphy's Law

First, I seemed to be really wiped out from my long weekend of classes and family visits. Monday I got up, ready to go and after just 20 min. of sewing, I was pooped. I tried to gear myself up but by noon I found that I couldn't concentrate. So back to the house I went and I bounced back and forth between a little house picking up and sitting with the puppies.

Tuesday found me in bed until after 9 am. Still tired, or just limp, I spent a little time in the studio, again getting only a little accomplished, so I came back in the house where I got less accomplished than on Monday.

This morning I was raring to go. I was off to the studio where I completed the two blocks I had started on Monday and Tuesday. And guess what happened. The electricity cut off in the studio. I have checked the breakers and can't get it going again. It is still on in the house so I know we aren't having a blackout, but with 98F weather I also can't work in the studio. Does this mean I have to do housework again today?

Here are my two latest Jelly Roll Sampler blocks. I got a little behind but I am caught up now.


Here is the problem with this challenge BOM. I am beginning to run out of full strips. It is going to get really difficult to make the last four blocks with the partial strips I have left. I guess that is what the challenge is. I know that some people are using fabric from either more than one block but I decided to use just the one roll with only adding the muslin background fabric occasionally. May not have been the best of decisions. (?)

I am adding two pictures of the quilt our guild has as a donation quilt. Our town is having a townwide "homecoming" in November and the guild decided to do a quilt show as our part. Additionally, the homecoming committee decided to make some additions to a beautiful playground to make it more accessable to handicapped/disabled children. Our quilt proceeds will be going to that cause.

I am not in this picture and I did not participate in the quilt making or quilting but I did make the label.

Design Wall Monday, again

I had a great time at the embroidery conference but it was three days away from my studio. Then, just as I was getting started in there this morning, our DS#1 and his wife (here for a high school reunion) called and we were off to have a short visit with them before they left town to return home to Atlanta. We got caught up over lunch and then home where I spent most of the afternoon installing computer programs. I finally gave up on getting any sewing done and spent the rest of the afternoon getting caught up on reading blogs.

So, my design wall is exactly the same as it was on Wednesday. But hold on, by this afternoon it will look very different. I have a complete list of things to work on and first on the list is to finish laying out this quilt and to catch up on two BOMs. Then I will feel that I am back in the groove.

Be sure to stop by Judy's blog to see what several others have been working on and I hope everyone has a great quilting week!

Grateful

I retired 4 years ago this month. Today I was thinking about how lucky I am. I can sleep until I wake up: rarely do I have to hear an alarm. Then I can accept an impromptu lunch invitation: I don't have to coordinate with my "lunch hour." And I can work on whatever I want, whenever I want and for however long I want.

I am also lucky because I am friends with my daughter. At lunch today we laughed and laughed while we ate. What fun it is to be able to be friends with your own daughter.


Here is about 1/2 of Going Dotty. Most of the block pieces are made but I will not know for sure until I can get it all on the wall. Of course it doesn't fit on the wall but I will figure it out. I keep taking pictures so I can see how the colors are playing together.

However, I will not be back to sewing until Sunday afternoon. I am going to a 3 day embroidery workshop starting tomorrow and then we are having a visit from DS#1 and his wife Sunday morning. I will probably have the shakes by Sunday afternoon.

Have a good rest of the week and weekend, see you Monday.

Coming Along Nicely

This weekend DH was out of town judging a Jr. Miss pagent. (I think he and the other judge, who judge together frequently) have a lot more fun than the girls.

Anyway, I took this opportunity to get started on Dotty. To the right you will see all, I think, of the purple blocks. I say "I think" because there is no pattern for this so I am really figuring it out as I go.







Anyway, as soon as I had these blocks on the wall I just had to set one block together, just to see how it looked in real life. Good, although with just one color it is kind of drab.














So I got busy and made the orange blocks. Now I love orange but even that didn't do a whole lot for this plan.







However, once I had four colors on that wall, the quilt started to really come alive. I am so impressed, and I still have two more colors to go.













Here is a three, well almost three, block layout using the four colors. I just think it sings and my sewing room in the studio is so happy.

I have a lot of household work and errands to do tomorrow so I don't know if I will get back to the studio or not but I sure hope so.

Be sure to stop by Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing. Judy is my inspiration, you know.

Dotty started

This is where I was this morning, cutting and starting to sew
strips. I have currently been sidetracked by lunch, feeding our birds, doing dishes and trying to transfer data from one computer to another. But I will get back to them and plan to focus on them this coming weekend.

Yesterday my DD and I spent the day traveling and shopping. We had such fun at Barnes & Nobel, a nurses' supply house and, of course, a fabric store. But the best time was spent at the Mello Mushroom. Oh, my!!!! We ordered one pizza, mushroom with feta and spinach, could only eat one (large) piece and the rest came home, split between the two of us. But it was WONDERFUL. And was WONDERFUL again today. ;-)

Have a great weekend (mine starts on Friday)!