Pay It Forward

I have received the nicest little secretary/notebook from Marlene (Stitchin By The Lake). I agreed to Pay It Forward with her. This is an exchange based on the concept of the movie "Pay It Forward" where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on. So here is how it works: I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange with me. I do not know what that gift will be yet, but it will be sent within the next six months. What you need to do in return, then, is Pay It Forward by making the same commitment on your blog. Please remember I will need an email address to correspond with you.

I enjoy making gifts for friends, and just think, it could be purple! So, be BRAVE, be my FRIEND, and PAY IT FORWARD with me.

More Kaleidoscopes and Some UFOs

I could not wait. I had to sew the corners on some blocks. I wanted to see what they would look like when they are square. I adore them!!! I am having just too much fun with these.

Unfortunately, I must put them aside and work on my exchange blocks. But I have been busy this week getting some UFOs finished. That feels so good. And, I did get to see TWO Perry Masons today. I had to give up some sleep for them, but I did it. Since I am on summer break, I sew and read blogs well into the night. Perry comes on at 8:00 a.m. our time, so I am not getting my recommended 8 hours of sleep each night. For the last few nights, it has been maybe five or six at the most. I think I went to bed about 2:00 a.m. this morning.

I have been sewing a lot today, and feeling good about my progress. I even did some house cleaning today (that's right; you read that correctly). DH had a two day painting job, so he was out of the house for a few hours each day. I seem to get so much more done when he is not sitting in his chair with the remote in his hands!

Happy Quilting

Lots of Kaleidoscopes

Here are a few more kaleidoscope blocks. I am having so much fun making them (when I can get to my sewing machine). I have been finding more turquoise/agua fabrics. I have cut some up and added them to my pile of strips. If I use every strip in a block, I will have a couple of king sized quilts. Why can't I just cut a few strips? Why must I cut lots of strips? I guess it is because I love my rotary cutter. It is purple, and works much better than my yellow one!

I have also been spending lots of time at the dentist's office. I have had a tooth (the roots were all that was left) surgically removed, a root canal, and a huge cavity removed with a crown forthcoming in the last week. My dental insurance will remember my name by the time they pay what I have left on my dental bills. I cannot believe how much dentists charge. The last root canal that I had done was $600, including the crown. I will be billed $1,095 for the root canal, and I don't know yet how much for the crown. I am really in the wrong business. I will never make that kind of money. The root canal dentist made over $500 an hour from me and my dental insurance. There is a money problem though. My insurance only pays $1,500 a year, so I will have to pay the rest of the money! And here I was planning on sewing all summer! Ha-ha!

I did get a quilt top to the long arm quilter today, and I have one more border to sew onto another mystery quilt and I will be able to get it quilted as well. Of course, who knows where the money will come from to pay for them after I pay off the dentists? I may have to stand on the street corner and sell strawberries, or pencils, or something for extra money!

Editing

I apolgize for not getting Elaine's blog address correct. She is at www.elaineadairpieces.blogspot.com. Blogger is not allowing me to edit any of my posts. I cannot even edit a draft. Once I put in a picture, I cannot get any part of it highlighted to make changes. In the past, I could highlight a name (or word) and connect it to the blog email address. I cannot do that anymore. I do not know how to fix this problem, but I am working on it. Please bear with me when you see strange things in my posts. I cannot fix typos most of the time, so I must be very diligent when I type in my posts. I have been thinking maybe I need to close this blog and start another one from scratch since I cannot seem to get to anyone at Blogger for help. I will post that information if it really becomes necessary. I like my little purple blog and do not want to change, but I might not have any other choice if I cannot get this one to work better. Again, I apologize to Elaine and everyone for this error. Keep on quilting - Pam

Kaleidoscope Fun

Elaine (http://www.elaineadair.blogspot.com/) is doing a kaleidoscope quilt. It is gorgeous! She has inspired me to make one also. I cut some strips of turquoise (with a little purple thrown in) and have made my first block. I like the color combination of turqouise and purple. I am trying to make the perfect turquoise and purple quilt (for me). I have made three or four quilt tops with that color combination, and I like every one.

I do not know how big this quilt will be. I am "flying by the seat of my pants" so to speak. I know I will add in some more purple, as I have had purple withdrawal lately. It is fun to make a quilt just from an idea, rather than a pattern. There are still lots of patterns out there that I want to make, but this quilt is a venture into the unknown for me. It is just for play. Thanks Elaine for the inspiration,

Happy Quilting

Another Finish

Tonight I finished the Halloween embroidery block. I enjoyed doing the embroidery, all except for the letters. That was time consuming. I chose to do the broom shop. There were some others, but I wanted to be knows as the one who sewed the broom shop. I can envision flying around the quilt on my used broom!

I have three or four more blocks to finish embroidering on my Periwinkle Lane series. I should have finished them a year ago, but I fell behind when I was sick. I want to get those finished so I can put them together in a quilt. I have my other fabrics picked out for the quilt. Of course, I have changed my mind so many times. That is why I want to get them sewn together. I am afraid I will forget what I have chosen (the last one) and use the fabrics in some other project! I have done that before!

About the fender...

I wanted to add to my post about the car fender in the picture with the mystery quilt. That is part of the Porsche that DH bought and has been parked in our driveway for 5 or 10 years. When he bought it and it was towed to our house, he told me he would have it running by Christmas and we would tool around in it while I was on winter break. Ha-ha! Not exactly. At the time he had good intentions, and I believed it would really happen. But then, he encountered the rewiring necessity. That stopped him in his tracks. He even enlisted the aid of one of the daughter's boyfriends. He worked on it, but did not finish it. I have been having trouble with Blogger. Once I post a block, I cannot seem to be able to edit it. Also, if I move around on my blog draft too much, my mouse pointer does not work, and instead of the arrow getting me to a place where I want to change something, I click on the mouse and I have a menu that says "Clip Art". I don't want clip art. I wonder if I have pushed a button/key stroke somehow, and have drifted into another zone (the Twilight Zone)? I am having so much problems with getting pictures in my posts, and then editting a published post. As usual, I do not know how to fix it. And, worse yet, I do not know how I can contact anyone from Blogger and get help to fix it. This is all in addition to my paragraph spacing problem which is always an issue lately. I don't know what I have done to my setup, but it is not good. Anyone else having any problems? Sometimes I cannot leave comments because the comments screen does not come up until I sign off my computer. Oh well, life goes on! Happy Quilting

Mystery Finally Revealed

I am finally posting a photo of the mystery quilt I have been working on for two months or more. I chose these colors because I wanted a bright quilt. I am not happy with the way it turned out. I think the checkerboard borders overpower the design.

I have seen a picture of a purple version, and it is beautiful. I have seen a teal/brown version, and it also is beautiful. Mine is not, but it is done. I persevered and finished the top. One of the quilters put her quilt on her bed and sent me a picture. She has a smaller bed than I have, and her checkerboard borders hung over the sides of the bed. The center unit shows on top of the bed, and it is very nice. She also added a small teal strip as her last border before the checkerboards, and that really pulled the teal color out of her pinwheels. DH told me that I should add a small strip of red before the checkerboards. I had it all sewn together by that time, and I did not want to rip and recalculate, and resew. So what it is, is what it is...FINISHED! Now on to another project. I can check this one off my "to do" list. Of course, it is not quilted yet, but it may never reach that stage. I need to let it set a while.

I made an Irish Chain quilt with reds and greens. I sewed it up one night while providing security at a quilt show years ago. It set for at least five years before I happened to see it again. I wanted a Christmas quilt finished for one of the beds, so I had it quilted. I really like it now. Maybe my happiness will come later for the mystery quilt. I really do like my posies mystery quilt. Maybe the checkerboards will grow on me! Who knows?

New Posies

Here is my newest accomplishment. Last Saturday I went to a mystery class that was presented by my quilt guild. This was such a fun class. The two ladies who taught the class did all the color selection, cut out all the pieces, and even gave us a cute blue bucket at the end of class.

The class was well paced throughout the day. My table partner was fun, and we chatted throughout the day trying to catch up on what was happening in our lives.

I would have finished these blocks if I had not put a little extra spin on my pieces. The process for getting the snowball type block (the flower) was to sew squares on each corner down the diagonal, then cut off the extra fabric (like when you make flying geese blocks). I really do not like throwing away fabric. I save all these little triangles and sew them together and produce all these little cute squares that I will use someday in something. There were a few larger triangles that we cut off as well as many little ones. My table partner gave me her leftovers, and I took those home after class. When I marked the diagonal line on the square (the sewing line), I also marked another line 1/2 inch away for the second sewing line. When I sewed the first marked line, then I also sewed the second line. I cut between the two lines and Wallah - there was my little half square triangle square! Such fun. Well, anyway, it took me extra time to mark and sew these two lines (instead of one), so I did get behind most of the class. I finished two blocks before I went home. All the parts were finished, just not all sewn together to make all the posie blocks.

I finished sewing the posie blocks the next day. I applied the last border last night. I wanted to post a picture of this darling, colorful quilt top. With the heat wave we have had the last few days, it has been hot in my sewing room, so I did not get it finished as quickly as I could have if I had sat and sewed all day.

I also read a book in between sewing moments. Now I need to finish an embroidery block. After that, on to another project.

Happy Third of July

Here is a picture of a bargello quilt that I made over 10 years ago. It usually hangs on the wall in the living room, but it is hanging in my sewing room today. My red/white/blue mystery quilt is hanging in the living room now. It is one of the quilts I exhibited in the last quilt show. I also have a red/white/blue applique quilt that needs to be quilted that I wanted to have finished so that it could be hung during the summer. The stars and hearts fabric was bought during a retreat weekend years ago. Some of us went shopping at the LQS. One of the ladies had this fabric at the front of the line. When it was opened up on the table, the rest of us in line saw it and had to buy some, too. Before we left, I think we had purchased the entire bolt that day! I had to fudge to get the borders to work out with the fabric I had.

Center Panel Finished

The center panel is finished, finally. Next comes some strips for the inner borders, then the checkerboards for the outer border. There is lots of sewing on this quilt. I have gone through two large spools of thread already! Our monthly guild meeting is tonight. We will be playing Quilto. No formal meeting is planned for this month. It will be more of a social time. The summer meetings are usually less formal, and more socialization. Next month is our Community Quilts meeting. We will be working on charity quilts. These meetings are lots of fun because you can cruise around the room and say hello to all the folks you have not seen in a while.