The Mystery Continues

So far there are four parts, the pinwheels, the triangle squares, and the checkerboards. I only have six checkerboards done so far, and I need 18, so I still have a few to sew together. How is this all going to blend into a quilt? The instructor insures us we will really like it. Below is a pinwheel block sewn together. I will need four of these. I could not wait to see one completed, so I stopped sewing checkerboards and sewed together the pinwheel block. I will make four pinwheel blocks. These blocks will not use up all the pinwheels. So what happens to the rest of the pinwheels?

When I finish the checkerboards I will need to cut off the corners and sew on a triangle (like in snowball blocks, or flying geese blocks). I dislike cutting off sewn patchwork, but that is what the recipe says to do. I have decided to keep the corners and add them to some scraps and make more crumb blocks. I love making crumb blocks. It is such mindless sewing and it uses up lots of scraps.

I should get back to making those checkerboards. It is so much sewing. Cut the strips, sew the strips together, cut the strips into more strips, sew those strips together. But it is faster than cutting little squares and sewing them into checkerboards.

The weather here is cold and overcast today. Tomorrow is the first of June, and it is still cold enough to wear sweatshirts. I received an email from a friend in Texas this week, and she says it is already HOT there, so I should not complain. The sun will come out eventually. I just need to have patience, like with my checkerboards.

Happy Quilting

It's Finished

This baby quilt is finished, quilted and bound. I have it wrapped in a cute baby gift bag awaiting the transfer to the expectant mother. She started dialating yesterday, so I wonder if she is at the hospital this evening. I bound this quilt in a red dot fabric like one of the charm squares in the quilt. Unfortunately, it does not show in my picture. At least I remembered to get a picture before I wrapped it up for giveaway!

It has been so busy this week at school. I seem to forget every year how busy it is the last few weeks. The phone did not stop ringing all day. This usually does not happen until the very last week. If it is this busy this week, and there are two more weeks left, how busy will it be on the very last week? I like to be busy, and I love my job, but something has got to give. I hope it is not my temper!

I received an email from one of my daughter's friends in Texas. She is pregnant for the third time. I made quilts for her two other children, and I certainly want to make a quilt for this new one. One quilt was finished at midnight last night, and another quilt is added to the list today. I am in a circle here, an unending line of baby quilts! But I love it! I truly enjoy making quilts for new babies. New life with a new quilt, what could be better?

Happy Quilting

Where does the time go?

This picture is of the pinwheels for a mystery quilt I am making. I am behind in my sewing, but the pinwheels are almost done. Such little things, they are, only 3.5 inches. 144 HSTs, yuk!

Last night I went to a UFO night at One Quilt at a Time. I was an hour late getting there since I almost forgot it was on that day. I pin basted the baby quilt I had posted previously. Maybe I can get it quilted this weekend, and the binding done. There are only three more weeks left of school, and I want this quilt done, and another one also if I can squeeze it in.

Where does all the time go? I think that I have enough time to do things, but then the time is gone. I am busy doing things, but everything does not get done. This happens at my job, as well as my sewing. I look at the calendar, I think I have the time planned well. This time period is gone and I look at the calendar again. I did not finish this project, or that project, and I cannot figure out where the time slips away. I know I overplan things hoping that I will get it all done. Usually I do not, but if I did not push myself, nothing would get done.

Working really interrupts my sewing time! I have all these wonderful quilts and projects that I want to do, but I never seem to have enough time to get them done. I require more time to rest now days. My eyes get tired quicker, so I do not focus well as long as I would like.

We are dogsitting for our son this weekend. He went on a mini vacation and left the dogs with us. I call them our grandpups. They are the closest thing to grandchildren we have right now, and they certainly require as much attention as a grandchild does! They traumatized the cat. She hid up on top of DH's closet, and has not come out since last night!

Well I need to get back to my pinwheels and baby quilts. Hope you have a fun, safe weekend.

Happy Quilting

This morning I finally had my camera, saw the ducks and took a picture. They were sitting under a tree near the fence. I parked my van and got out with my camera. When I was close to the fence, they raised up and started waddling away from me. I tried to get a closer picture, but the fence was in the way! It was really hot here today. I wonder how they faired without water to play in? No sewing done today. I had a difficult time getting this picture to post tonight. I guess Blogger is having some problems with photos tonight. Where are those pictures of duck quilts? Happy Quilting

Duck Update

The ducks were waddling around the corner again this morning. They were in the school yard, right next to the fence. My co-worker and I went to lunch today and she has noticed them before, last year. She said someone told her they come back every year. Forgot my camera again. Maybe I will remember it tomorrow. But tomorrow is Teacher's Day, and I have treats to make tonight, so I will be carrying a lot of stuff in tomorrow. I will put the camera by my purse and maybe if I can manage to remember to actually take it with me, I can get some pictures! Gotta run. I am hoping to get my baby quilt basted tonight at class. DH has dinner ready, then off to class, then home to bake, then to bed and up again to start it all over tomorrow! What a life!!! HAPPY QUILTING P.S. Anyone have any duck quilts they can post on their blog? Let me know. I have one in fabric pieces, with the pattern, on my sewing table. I wanted to make a duck quilt for DH last year! Maybe this summer (ha ha). P.P.S. I see no paragraph spacing again. I wish I knew what was happening here with my spacing. Oh well. Blogger does not seem to recognize my carrier returns. They are in my draft, but do not appear on my posts. Sorry folks.

Ducks and Roses

One of our neighbors has beautiful rose bushes blooming now. I snapped a couple of pictures this evening to share. I had to take a picture of the little purple plant. We have a big purple plant in front that is taking over our yard, but the blooms were closed when I went out front to get some pictures. I have been viewing many bloggers' posts seeing wonderful new spring growth. We really do not get much change of the seasons here in the Bay Area. The leaves fall from the trees in autumn, are reborn in spring, and flowers bloom in the springtime. Some bloom in the winter, too.

The roses are so pretty. I love to watch the buds start with one color, then when they open up they often change to another color. I really like the roses that have a different color on the edges when they have completely bloomed.

DH does not like rose plants, so we do not have any planted in the ground in our yard. He does have one little tea rose in a pot that he has been nursing for a couple of years. It is blooming now. I hope the blossoms last a while since it makes him so happy when he sees them opening up. I brought it home from work one day after all the blossoms had fallen off. DH loves to rescue plants.

About the ducks: when I turned the last corner near my school this morning, I saw a mallard duck and a his hen waddling across the street. At that moment I thought it was quite odd to see two ducks waddling across a paved street so far away from a body of water. I waited until they had crossed the street before I continued my turn and I drove on to the driveway of the school. I watched in my rear view mirror until I was in the driveway of school to see that they made it all the way across the street without being squashed on the pavement by a careless morning commuter on their way to work.

It was a very busy day at work, especially since my co-worker came in late because she had to take her husband to a doctor's appointment. I was so glad to see her when she came walking through the door. Anyway, the day progressed so fast, as usual, with me not getting enough work done in the time allowed. When I left to return home, I got in my car and left the driveway of school heading down the street from where I came in the morning. What did I see but the same pair of ducks standing in the middle of the street, again. They just stood there, not moving anywhere. I again stopped and waited for them to move along so I could pass and not run them over. I passed them by and wondered why they were still in the middle of the street. Had they made a nest at the corner house, and they were trying to get back there? Were they looking for food at that house? Was there a children's plastic wadding pool filled with water and they were stopping by for a swim? No dogs had encountered them and chased them away? No cats had stalked them and attempted to eat them? No fast moving car had tried to squash them in the street?

I wish I had a video camera with me and I could have recorded the pair and put the video on utube (You Tube, YouHoo Tube?) Maybe they were just hanging out in the neighborhood waiting for a photo opportunity, a real Kodak moment! There is a story lurking here, maybe a mystery to be solved.

But for now, I need to get my fabric out of the dryer, stroked and folded, and blended into the stash. No sewing done today, but I did visit my sewing room looking for a pattern. I need to go back in and get the baby quilt ready for basting. No rest for the wicked (and I must have been very wicked in my past life since I am making up for it now)!

Happy Quilting

The new week is almost here, and I have not done everything I wanted to do for the previous week. This was a quiet weekend. Saturday I went to One Quilt at a Time. They had a mini doll show, and I was invited to bring some of my dolls. I took some of mine and some of my mother's dolls to display. It was so nice. I originally planned to stay a couple of hours, but I ended up staying all day. I had made a batch of chocolate chip cookies the night before, and took those to share. I forgot to take pictures though.

This picture is a quilt that I am making for an expectant teacher at school. Her shower is Wednesday. I had planned on quilting this quilt today. In the midst of cleaning off the kitchen table, I thought of another quilt I want to make, and decided to take a quick trip to a LQS to check out their brights. While I was there, I made an appointment to use their HQ16 to quilt my Half Log Cabin quilt top.

I bought some fabric for the back of this baby quilt yesterday, and I washed these fabrics today. I also needed a batting for the baby quilt, so I bought that today as well. There are so many great, wonderful fabrics out there that I do not have in my stash. My stash is overwhelming, but I do not have everything!

Our daughter came by to visit this evening (which was a treat), but this interrupted the process for basting the baby quilt. Basting is my least favorite part of making a quilt. So, needless to say, I did not get the baby quilt basted, but I did get the table cleaned off. And we had a good visit with our daughter and her boyfriend.

I hope all mothers (and almost mothers) had a great Mother's Day today.

Happy Quilting

Quilt Show

These are three of the quilts I had in the show. My purple/orange Angle Play quilt was there, as well as My First Dots quilt. The show was great. Lots of wonderful quilts. Some beautiful applique, and some fun holiday quilts. There were some Christmas folk art style quilts that three friends had made. Each was a little different, but all three were great. There were some darling Halloween quilts. Also included were some great antique quilt finds.

I went to the show late Sunday afternoon. I should have gone when they opened the doors. When I arrived, I met some students from my school even before I got inside the show. Then there were guild members that I had not seen for a while, and some of the TAS group were there, and some adult school members. Besides all the other ladies in the guild that I see more often. I hardly had time to see all the quilts before the show closed. I was only able to shop at one vendor's booth. That's just as well since (as someone else said) it did save me some money!

The show was taken down quite quickly. It always amazes me to see how fast the show comes down as compared to how long it takes to hang a show. Everyone is ready to go home, so the take down is much faster!

The first picture is of my mystery dots quilt. All the fabric has dots or circles in the fabric. That was a fun class. Shari did a great job on the quilting.

The second picture is of my red, white and blue mystery quilt. Look at it carefully and you will see the fantastic quilting. Genece did different patriotic pictures in the blank areas. I love the fireworks around the border.

The last quilt is my new bed quilt, Whirlygigs. All but two of the blocks have matching sister blocks. I posted a picture of it earlier that was a close up of the blocks and the quilting. Genece did a great job quilting that one also. As soon as I brought this quilt home, I put it on our bed. The old one needs washing. It will be added to the bed when it is cold enough to have two quilts to sleep under. I love that quilt because it is the one my husband and I designed together. Of course, I did all the sewing, but we each designed our side of the quilt. The quilter sewed our names and the year 2000 in the border.

All in all, it was a great show were fun was had by all. Hope you will have a great week.

Happy Quilting

Strip Top Finished

This is a picture of my strip quilt top that I made to donate to our Community Quilts group. This is the one that I worked on at the Strip Poker night. Elaine, we played poker and used fabric strips as our anty, instead of money. When we played Strip Poker at guild meetings, it is a simple variation of poker. We use regular playing cards. Everyone puts one strip into the pot, then we all are dealt a card. We turn over our card and the highest card wins the pot. If there is more than one with the same card, then a second round is played with those ladies only.

When we played strip poker last week, we actually played regular poker, which I have never done. We used our strips as "money" and we bet with the strips. We went around the table and antied up again, and someone could up the anty, then if you wanted to stay in the play, you had to meet that anty and raise it or call. I have watched poker played, but have never done it myself, so I am very naive as to strategy, etc. I think that is why I lost so many strips. I just did not know how to play it well enough to have any strategy. But it was fun, even though I did not win much. When we play strip poker at the guild meetings, more people win even though the pot is smaller. I like that better. Everyone goes home with some strips, usually different ones than they came in with to play.

There is also a dice game we play at retreat which is called Left, Right Center. It is played with fat quarters of fabric. We bring three fat quarters, and we play with those until the game is over. With this game, only one person wins all the quarters. I don't like that part, I think mainly because I have never been that person! But it is fun to play because you never know who will win until the last person loses their last quarter. The last quarter could go around the table more than once.

Getting back to stripping, this quilt was started years ago (when I was in my blue and burgundy period). I have sewn the blocks on different sewing machines. I did not realize how much better my quarter inch seam is now until I started putting these blocks together. I should have squared them all up before I started, but I thought that they would all be the same size since I was working with the same size strips. But no-o-o-o, not so! I did not pay enough attention to my seam allowances, and some were really wacko. I was determined to get it done, so I trimmed a little here, resewed a little there, and finally it is together. I finished the borders with the fabric I had left in the bag. I must admit it is not my best effort, but it is finished! I am too embarrassed to give it to a machine quilter to quilt for me, so I will probably quilt it myself. I would like to get it done this summer so that I can finally have it donated, and feel that I have done my donation duty at last.

When I joined my guild, I thought that I would get a couple quilts done a year for Community Quilts, but that has not been the case. I am lucky if I get one complete quilt done a year, but I do work on other parts of quilts when we have our get togethers with the guild. One month we work only on Community Quilts at our monthly meeting. We bring our sewing machines, tools, etc. and make blocks, or put them together to make tops, tie tops, bind them, or label them. It is lots of fun working together to make these donation quilts.

FYI: I did not win any of the quilts that were raffled today, nor did I win the darling blue Singer Featherweight sewing machine that was provided by a guild member and her husband. I really wanted that Featherweight, too. Is there anyone out there who has actually won a donation quilt?

Happy Quilting