New Computer

Wow, I have a new computer. It is so different than my old one with a new keyboard and a new, VERY SENSITIVE mouse. I am attaching a picture of Lizzy in hopes that it will all work while my computer-literate son is here so please bare with me.

I will post again very soon with more info on my days away without my computer.

Until then.....Happy Quilting

Sorry, No Pictures

There are no pictures in this post since I cannot get them off my new camera! DH bought me a new purple camera for my birthday. It is a nifty little thing that can fit in my pocket. It is about the size of a cell phone. I took some pictures on Thanksgiving. I had a darling picture of the grandbaby, and I also have a darling Christmas card with her picture on it. I thought I would take a picture of the Christmas card, then transfer this picture into my post. I took the Quick Start manual out today to read it to find out how to get the pictures transferred to my computer from the new camera. Well, since our computer son married and moved away, I do not have a computer savvy person in the household. I have read, and reread the instructions, but I cannot get the pictures transferred from the camera. It takes installation of software and transferring the pictures from the camera to the card reader before they can be transferred to the computer. My other camera just automatically transfers the pictures onto the card reader. Then I put the card reader into the computer slot and magic happens: my pictures are transferred to my computer. Well, that's not happening today. So, either the camera is returned, or someone needs to help Mom out and do all the other stuff and explain to me how to use everything. Technology is great, but only when you can figure out how to use it! I am so disappointed. Oh well, life goes on. I can tell you what I have been doing this last month. I have been working on finishing some UFOs. I joined Finn's UFO challenge again this season and have been working on getting some UFOs finished as well as some other things. I have been working on getting setting triangles sewn onto the rows of my Mandarin Squares quilt. Once I get that accomplished, I can sew my rows together and the top will be complete and on to the quilter it will go. I finished borders on two other quilt tops. These two quilts have been sent to the quilter. I have almost finished a little needle holder that has been getting lost on my sewing table for over a year. I saw it again the other day when I was going through my scrap baskets. I decided it was a good time to get it finished. I needed to purchase some little Velcro tabs to use as closers, or else find some ribbon to sew onto the edges that would tie it together. I decided on the Velcro tabs. There is a new Christmas Tree quilt hanging on the wall in the living room. I took the class, finished the top, had it quilted, and hung it on the wall in less than two weeks. That is a treat for me. The tree quilt is smaller than the quilt I usually hang on the wall during December, but I like it and it may be the only Christmas tree we have up this year. As of this date, DH and I cannot find the tree we want, live or fake. The same thing happened last year. No Christmas tree. What I need to do is go through all our Christmas decorations, trim them all down to a couple of boxes, then it will be easier to use them. We have boxes and boxes of decorations, some new and many from years past. When our children moved out, they did not take any of their Christmas decorations with them, nor any of their quilts. I guess they all decided that Mom and Dad could store them since we have the largest space. But with all the "stuff" we have stored, our space isn't so large anymore. I did notice they took all their electronic gear with them, though. That is just as well I think since I would not be able to figure out how to use any of it anyway! LOL! I hope that you all are having a wonderful, stress-free time shopping and getting ready for the holidays. LOL! Many of the houses in our neighborhood have their Christmas lights hung around their houses. I love all the Christmas lights. We have received a few Christmas cards already. I should get busy with addressing ours this weekend. I also love receiving cards, and if I don't send any out, then the next year we will not receive any! Hopefully I will conquer the picture transferring problems I have with the new camera and will have some new pictures to post soon. If not, I will go back to using the old camera. At least I know how to use it even if my pictures aren't as clear as I would like. Take care, stay healthy and happy and enjoy the season. Happy Quilting P.S. Well, it seems that I have lost all the paragraph spacing in this post. I am sorry about that. I did a spell check on this post since there were no pictures included. That must have taken out all my paragraph spacing again. I have paragraph spacing in my draft. Besides no pictures, now no paragraph spacing. What next?

Where Has The Time Gone?

It has been ages since I posted so I want to apologize for not being more on top of things. Time has whizzed by. This last month I have been babysitting two and three days a week, I finished two baby quilts (the Noah's Ark panels) and gifted them to the new mother and grandmother. I attended a retreat, attended a quilt show, took my aunt out for her birthday, finished two quilt tops and sent them off with a quilter to be quilted. And, last Saturday I attended a quilt class in a quilt shop. It has been a long time since I signed up for a class at a shop. I had a good time and almost finished my top. I had spent two days before class getting the pieces cut and presewn into HSTs so that I could get my top finished in class. But alas, I did not make it. I counted wrong on my HSTs and ended up 36 HSTs short, so I finished it yesterday.

I babysat our darling grandbaby today. We had a good day. Tomorrow is my long day. I start at 6:45 a.m. and do not finish until 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. That makes for a long day. I hope baby is as good and happy tomorrow as she was today. Can we hope for two days in a row? We think she is teething already. She has a slight cold (runny nose and some sinus congestion), so she is not a happy camper these days. But she was a doll today, thank goodness. My husband has been sick, so he is not going with me. He usually brings me lunch and we eat together, then he stays for the afternoon and helps take care of Busy Lizzy. He is complaining that he misses her which I am sure he does. He likes to give her her bottle. She is usually quiet and happy during that time! He always gives her back to me when she starts to cry!

My husband also enjoys watching our son and daughter-in-law's big screen television. They have a whopping big screen, My husband is looking at these televisions at the store and drooling a little each time he walks by the television section! I think our television screen is big enough, but it is not one of those thin screens. We still have the regular size television, not the newer size.

I am posting a picture of baby girl that I took last week. It is a bit blurry (sorry), but she is constantly in motion and I find it hard to take a picture of her face when she is still. The only time she is still is when her eyes are closed!

I am also posting a picture of my quilt top I finished yesterday. It is a pattern by Gail Abeloe of Back Porch Press. It is her Christmas Tree Quilt pattern. I really like it and hope I can get it quilted and up on the wall this Christmas.

Well ladies, take care of yourselves during this flu season that is already upon us. Also, have a Happy Thanksgiving (if I don't get back to you before then).

Happy Quilting

Baptism and a Halloween Killer Tomato Quilt

Our darling grandbaby was baptised today in chuch. This picture is of the proud mother and father with their newly baptized daughter. Aren't they a beautiful family? We think so.

The grandbaby was so good. She did not get fussy until after she was baptized. When the priest poured water over her sweet little head, she did not even cry! I was crying, but she was not! She seemed to enjoy the attention. There were a lot of family in attendance. It was a wonderful day to say the least.

Here is a picture of a quilt I donated to our guild. We offered opportunity tickets at the guild meeting last Tuesday. A friend of mine won the quilt for just one dollar. I decided that this quilt needed a new home where it would be used and loved. It was taking second place, actually third favorite at our house. I have a darling Jack 'O Lantern quilt that we hang on the wall at Halloween every year. I made the Killer Tomato quilt in my evening adult quilting class back in 2007. I was quite pleased that it raised $90 for our guild at the meeting. I wish everyone who bought a ticket could have won.

There was also a BOM drawing at our guild meeting. I made three darling Halloween blocks. My name went in the drawing, but I did not win. Oh well! I really do not need another Halloween quilt! But those blocks were so cute!!!

Have a great week.

Happy Quilting

Wonky Panel

When I saw this panel on the cover of Keepsake Quilting earlier this year, I knew I had to have one panel, then two panels. I have a friend who loves anything with a Noah's Ark theme. She is a grandmother-to-be, so I decided I would make her daughter-in-law a quilt with this panel as well as a quilt for my friend to keep at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I purchased a second panel at a quilt store when I finally saw it in person. This fabric store carried some coordinating fabric. Fortunately, I purchased a few yards of coordinating fabric. too. The baby shower is this Saturday. I thought about this panel, and thought about this panel. When I realized the baby shower was only two weeks away, I decided I should get serious about making these quilts. I wanted to finish my mystery quilts before starting these two quilts. When I finished the mystery quilts, I pulled out these two panels and began my plan of attack. I knew that I needed to trim the selvedges and square up the quilt. That was not so easy. I measured, and trimmed. Then I measured again, and trimmed some more. In order to make this panel straight with square corners, I had to actually trim off all the borders that are on this panel. Then I still needed to even up the center picture a little to make the panel even on all sides. This first picture is a picture of the original panel as sent to me by Keepsake Quilting. I did wash both panels. Notice the yellow border. Do you see how it bows to the left? There is no way I could square up this panel and have all the borders even. I guess I could have blocked the panel. I thought about that, but then I also thought that when the baby's quilt was washed, it would dry back in the original form, the crooked way. The second picture is what I ended up with after I sewed borders on the trimmed panel. These borders came from strips of the coordinating fabric. It doesn't look bad, but it is definitely not as cute as the original panel, but at least it is even on the sides and has square corners.

This last picture is of the print that I am using for the back of the quilt. It is one of the coordinating fabrics I bought to go with the panel. I love this fabric with all the baby animals. What I should have done was to make a pieced quilt top and use the panel as the back. I would have wanted more of the coordinating fabrics to accomplish this idea.

I was so disappointed in this panel. Why cannot the manufacturers make panels that are straight, and useable? I have used panels before, but I never had this much trouble getting them squared up.

Have you had problems using panels? What did you do to make them useable?

Happy Quilting

Halloween Cuties

I finished sewing together all the Halloween blocks, then this top. If I had known the mystery quilt would have been hearts, I might not have chosen Halloween fabrics as my focus, but then it would not have been a mystery, right? I like this quilt anyway. My focus fabric was the purple background and pumpkins with those darling little cuties popping out of them. It reminded me so much of our grandbaby. She is too little yet to pop out of a pumpkin, but next year...watch out pumpkins!

I finished this top early in the week, before I became sick. I had been well all last year. I thought about that and decided that since I was not at school around all the sick kids last year, I stayed healty. Well, I started volunteering in a Kindergarten class this year, only one day a week. Well, I guess one of those little darlings shared their illness with me, or maybe not. Maybe I obtained these germs somewhere else. Bottom line: congested sinuses, sore throat, cough.

DH and I went up to the Sonora quilt show yesterday. I was determined to keep our date with Julie and husband to view the show and have lunch. I became so tired about half way through the show, that we decided to go home. We missed viewing half the show, and lunch, too! Bummer!

On this coming Saturday, I have an invitation to attend a baby shower for a friend's DIL. I purchased a Noah's Ark panel from Keepsake quilting earlier this summer. Since the shower is this coming weekend, I need to get that quilt finished. Guess what I will be sewing this week!

Hope you have a great week. Stay healty and be happy.

Happy Quilting

Camp Stitches 2010

Camp Stitches is an activity our quilt guild provides for us on a yearly schedule in the month of September. It is held at the community church hall where our monthly quilt guild meetings are held. Members donate items for a silent auction. There are classes available, and there is lots of food and fun. This year the committee offered two mystery quilt classes, a poinsettia wallhanging class, and a hot pocket class (to carry your hot iron). Our admission to the event is usually squares or blocks sewn for Community Quilts. The Community Quilts Coordinator was there sewing together quilt tops all weekend. The theme this year was juvenile prints. There were some very colorful quilt tops that were hung up on the design wall as they were finished. I signed up for both mystery quilt classes. The first class was held Friday night, and the second mystery class was held on Saturday morning. The picture below is the quilt top that I finished today from Saturday's class. I had one and a half borders left to sew onto my top on Saturday afternoon. I ran out of energy on Saturday and did not stay to finish them. I was tired on Sunday, so I finished my top today. I have not used the color black in many of my quilts. I have done one quilt with a black background print, and that was many years ago. I like the design of this mystery quilt, and I like the focus fabric that I picked out for this quilt also. I really was thinking PURPLE, but somehow this fushia color jumped out at me at the quilt store. Friday evening's mystery quilt turned out to be these funky heart blocks. We precut our pieces before class. We had cut enough fabric for 12 blocks, but I finished only two so far.

These are the TWO blocks that I was able to sew up from Friday evening's mystery class. It started around 7:00 p.m. I left about 9:30 p.m. I was not going to stay late and sew up the rest of my blocks as I needed to get up early the next morning for the Saturday Mystery Class.

For the Friday night mystery class, a finished sample that one of the teachers showed to us was darling. It was made with scrappy pinks and a little green. It was very springy. The other teacher had done her blocks in beiges and light browns with a little green and peach thrown in. Her blocks were very elegant.

I did not take my camera, so I was not able to get a picture of all the chaos that was everywhere in the hall last weekend. There were tables, and machines, and irons, and fabric covering every open space. I believe all the quilters accomplished a lot of sewing, and it seemed that all the ladies enjoyed the classes.

There was a silent auction on Saturday. I want you to know I resisted participating in the silent auction this year. I donated several items, but bought only two things on Friday night. I purchased a small stack of black and white fabrics, and a mesh project bag. It was red and very pretty. Too bad it was not purple.

I am so glad I finished one mystery quilt top this year. I was very tired on Saturday. My energy left me about 2:30 p.m. I continued to sew, and resew, until around 5:00 p.m. I had to drag myself and my things out of the hall and into my vehicle. I was not sure I had enough energy to drive myself home, but I made it home okay.

Now that this year's Camp Stitches is over, I can look forward to next year's Camp Stitches.

Happy Sewing

First Two Bear Paws

This is a picture of the first two month's blocks of the Bear Paw Saturday Sampler BOM that I am participating in from In Between Stitches in Livermore. I like the block on the left the best so far because the bear paw tips are more defined. In the second block, they are very muted, but I like the star shape that is produced as a secondary design in the center of the paw. This is what will be different in each month's block - the inner part of the bear's paw. Of course the fabrics will be different, too.

I am anxious to see what the next block will be. Tomorrow is our meeting. Hubby and I must get up early so I can be on time to the gathering, then I will not need to pay for my next block kit. I will also be picking up my next month's Vintage Memories block kit.

Here is a darling pix of a darling grandbaby. Isn't she a cutie patootie! Hopefully we will be able to see her and Mom and Dad this weekend. I hope she is fairing well in the heat wave we have been experiencing. I apologize that this picture may be small. My son emailed it to me and I have not figured out yet how to make it bigger.

Have a safe and happy Labor Day, or for those who do not celebrate Labor Day, please have a safe and happy weekend.

Happy Quilting - Pam

Vintage Memories BOM and Baby

Here is a picture of the Vintage Memories BOM I have signed up to receive for the next few months. There are three different blocks on my design wall. The two blocks on the top row are the same block. Each BOM kit has enough material for two blocks. I have made six blocks so far in the three months I have been receiving block kits. The first two months were easy, peasy, but the third one was not so easy for me. It has those tricky triangle pieces that I have trouble sewing together. But I persevered and they are done. I had not sewn any of these blocks together until last week. I decided that I wanted to keep up monthly with these blocks., I sewed them all in a period of two different days. Now I am current. This is the BOM that I said was in softer colors than my usual color palette.

Here is the latest picture of our darling grandbaby. Mom and Dad brought her over for a visit early in the week. Then we all went out to dinner. Baby was very good. She slept through the entire meal. I hope she slept during the night so her mommy and daddy could get some rest. She was awake for the time she was at our house. I was able to hold her during that time. I think she is quite taken by her grandma! LOL!

We are in the process of having a new roof installed. Bang, pound, bang, bang, bang, saw, etc. What an experience! The worst part so far was the debris on my fabric. I went into the back room last night to check my email on the computer. The computer, the printer, and my fabrics on my table were covered in a black, gritty dust. Of course, I had two big light pieces of fabric on the top of the stacks. They were covered with black junk. I took the fabric outside and dusted it off. I hope I will not need to wash it again because they are two 5 yard pieces. I forgot to tell you we have an open beam ceiling.

Yesterday a crew came in to take off the old roof (tar and gravel). We are upgrading the roof with composite shingles so a new layer of wood must be applied before the rest of the process can continue. We left twice today because we needed to have a rest from the banging and the booming. Someone was pounding a nail into the wood right above my head this morning. I felt like I was in the dentist chair and they were drilling on a tooth! Yuck!!!

This process may last a couple more days, then we will have a nice, new roof, and peace and quiet. Hopefully there will be no more water leaks when it rains.

School starts again on Monday, so our quiet will not last long. It has been a nice, quiet summer since there was no summer school this year. The school across the street has been empty, except for custodians and maintenance personnel.

Have a great weekend.

Happy Quilting

Churn Dash Finished

My churn dash challenge is finished, at least the top is finished. It turned out pretty good. Sorry the picture is not great. The wind was blowing today. I took several pictures, but this one is the best one.

This morning I went to In Between Stitches in Livermore for the second Saturday Sampler Block meeting for the Bear Paw BOM. I finished my first block and took it in to show that I had it finished, received my free ticket for the next month's kit, bought some darling purple and black pumpkin Jack 'O Lantern Halloween fabric, saw some beautiful quilts on the walls, obtained my kit, then headed off to the Railroad Cafe for breakfast.

After breakfast, we stopped at a friend's house who has a darling little boy about 3 months old. I gave her the Hungry Caterpillar quilt I had made for her. That little guy is so cute (her baby boy). He has so much hair. It is sticking straight up all over his head, and so thick too. He has such a cute smile already. He is stealing hearts already I am sure.

After we returned home from our excursion, I drove over to the church where we hold our quilt meetings. One of my friends was teaching a quilt class today. She was teaching how to make a Birds In the Air block, and turn it into a wallhanging. It was so quiet when I walked into the class this afternoon. All the ladies were working away. As I walked around the room, I saw so many great color combinations in the fabrics everyone was sewing with today. One of the ladies made a darling red and white baby quilt with the Birds In the Air pattern. It was so cute, and she made the entire quilt top today in class. She was ready to take it home and quilt it when she left class.

The idea of the quilt design was very interesting. It is much like the design idea of my Puzzled Nines quilt except I am using 9 patches instead of Birds In the Air blocks. You choose a focus fabric, then make quilt blocks with the focus fabric and one other color. You also cut large squares and rectangles from your focus fabric. Next you put these all on a design wall and start arranging blocks and focus pieces until you find a design you like, then sew them up. You can make a more traditional type design, or you can be totally random in your placement of pieces. Everyone's quilt will be different. I like that kind of class. It is so much fun to see what develops when everyone receives the same pattern, but makes their design unique using different fabrics and different placement of the units.

Yesterday I was able to spend some cherished time with our grandbaby. The grandbaby is getting so darling. Her face is changing into less of a newborn shape and more of a defined shape. She is awake longer at a time, and is sleeping more hours at a time. This makes mom and dad very happy! Baby's eyes are open more and she is starting to focus her eyes. She is noticing movement. She was totally entranced with the sky light. When I would move around the room with her, she kept looking for the light from the skylight.

Wishing you lots of fabric and fun and many baby sitings for this upcoming week.

Happy Quilting

Stilll Working on the Churn Dash

Once I made some of the mixed blocks last week, I couldn't resist putting some of them up on my design wall. I want to get the remainder of the mixed blocks done this weekend so that I can sew the rows together next week. Since I am getting so close to completing all my blocks, I can hardly wait to see it all come together.

This week was another exchange of a row in our row quilt exchange. I had the most beautiful Jane Sassman fabric to work with. It was very difficult to decide what I wanted to do with this fabric. It was our fourth row, and the first fabric that I have received so far that had some purple in it. Now I have another package with another theme (a sewing theme) on which to work.

Hubby and I also made a visit to our grandbaby's house for some baby time. There are no new pictures because I forgot to take the camera again. We had been shopping and I picked up some baby outfits and tee shirts in the next size range for her. Her mommy said she was growing out of the first size range of 0-3 months. We bought her 3-6 and 6-9 months items. I also found a darling brown and beige TY teddy bear that just dropped at my feet (literally) so of course it had to come home with us.

Some friends of ours are going to be first time grandparents. Their grandbaby is due in October. Grandma-to-be is fond of Noah's Ark things. Last week I found a Noah's Ark Christmas ornament and bought that for her. Then this week I found this darling Noah's Ark stuffed ark with animals who that noises at a book fair, so that came home with me also. I am getting so bad. I cannot pass any baby books, or baby departments without finding something to buy for our grandbaby, and now I guess for our friend's grandbaby, too! This grandbaby thing is so contagious, and all encompassing I am discovering!

Now I understand when my mother came to visit our first child she would always have a lot of things that she brought for the baby. When our daughter was a baby, she had darling dresses and outfits that she outgrew before she ever had an opportunity to wear them all. My mother kept buying and bringing and buying and bringing all the time. Now I understand why!

Wishing you all happy sewing and happy baby watching.

Happy Quilting, too.

Light Churn Dash Blocks

Well, I have all my light churn dash blocks sewn. There are eight other blocks to sew, then I can put all the blocks together. I am getting close to a finish and I am getting really excited. I love it when a plan comes together!

Next on my list is a row for the current row quilt I have in my possession. This is the fourth exchange, so when this row is made, there will be four out of seven completed. At every exchange we share what we did. The exchanges are getting better and better each time. These row quilts will be awesome when they are all finished.

We had a visit with our grandbaby on Friday. She still sleeps a lot, but she was awake for a little while when we were there. Sorry to say that no pictures were taken. A friend of ours took a gift she had made for the baby. We were all there when our DIL opened the gift. It was a beautiful baby blanket that was hand stitched on the front. It is a counted cross stitch pattern. It is beautiful. Also in the gift was a darling little silver box for baby's first tooth, and another little silver box for a lock of her hair. I hope our son will take a picture of the blanket so I can post it. It is an absolutely darling, colorful counted cross stich pattern. Counted cross stitch is one craft that I have not enjoyed sewing. I guess I cannot count well enough because I often get lost in the pattern.

Today has been a quiet day in the neighborhood so far. Many families must be on vacation since there are few children riding their bikes in front of the school. There are few families at the park, too. Not many children playing on the playground either. It is nice to have some quiet days in the neighborhood. We live close to two hospitals so we hear sirens daily, all day and all night, too. It has been quiet in that respect as well. I like that. The quiet indicates no emergencies. Some days the sirens are wailing going in both directions.

Hope you have a great week ahead.

Happy Quilting

More Churn Dash Blocks

Here are more of my dark churn dash blocks. I am making the light ones next.

No grandbaby time this week. Talked to Mom and Dad though. We will probably see them next week.

I have been working in my sewing room this week, moving things around, finding lost stuff and loosing found stuff. You know the drill. I am trying to convince myself that I do not need everything in that room. I am not doing a good job of believing myself though! I have ideas spinning around in my head. It is time to pull them out and put them into action.

I have also been pulling fabrics for my churn dash blocks. That is what causes so much confusion. There are stacks of fabrics for certain projects on my sewing table. I have been pulling some of those fabrics and cutting strips from these fabrics. I am cutting the strips into pieces and sewing my churn dash blocks. I want to remember which stack the fabric was pulled from so I can return the fabric to the correct stack. This is one of the reasons I want to get these "in progress" projects finished so I can take the fabric away and put it....? Also, I don't want to use up all of a fabric that is intended for another project. I like scrap quilts so it would not be a problem to replace a used fabric with a different one. But that is not my choice at this point in those projects.

Yesterday was the first meeting of the new Saturday Sampler class at In Between Stitches. The teacher shared her finished sampler quilt top. She chose the bright color path. I chose the Joanna Figueroa designed fabric path. After seeing the teacher's quilt, I wish I had chosen the brights. The Joanna Figueroa designed fabrics are great, too. I know I will like it even though it is in more soft, muted warm colors. I hope there is some purple in there somewhere! But I shouldn't complain if there isn't since the last Saturday Sampler was all purple. That is what prompted me to join the group - a purple quilt!

While I was there, I also picked up a kit for the next block in another BOM I joined. It seems the colors for the first two blocks are much the same colors of my new Saturday Sampler BOM. Am I falling out of favor with purple? Absolutely not! I am expanding my color horizons. When another purple quilt comes along, I have no doubt I will jump on the purple wagon again.

Happy 4th of July and Happy Quilting

Grammy Post

Okay. Here are more pictures of Granddaughter #1. Who knows, there may be more granddaughters to come. We hope so! Dad is holding her and he was trying to burp her, but she was not cooperating. As you can see, she is fast asleep already. Here is Mom just after Lisette was fed. Mom is trying to decide if Lisette's diaper needs to be changed or not.

Auntie has a turn to hold the baby. She was trying to get Lisette to open her eyes before we took the picture, but again, no cooperation from the baby. Yes, Auntie has some green hair!

While Grandpa holds her, she is so relaxed she is making little snoring sounds. She is quite happy in his arms.

Lisette is still not waking up even when Grandma holds her.

Now that you have seen the latest pictures, I will tell you what I am working on in the sewing room. I am sure you are totally interested!

On Thursday, I was sewing all day on the blocks for my Mandarin Squares quilt. I thought I sewed all the rows of blocks together. I also thought the next (and last step) was to cut the border triangles and corner triangles, and sew them onto the rows. Then I could sew all the rows together, and Ta Da! Finito! Well, not so. Before I could cut the border triangles, I needed to add some sashing to all the blocks, and add sashing rows between the block rows. I would then be able to get an accurate measurement in order to cut the border triangles (hopefully).

I am so close to having this quilt top completed. I am anxious to finish this top. It will be approximately 96 inches square. Once I finish the top, I will need to make a backing. Another quilter was showing me a couple of her quilts the other day. She pieces her quilt backs with fabric left over from the piecing of the quilt top. I am not a fan of making quilt backs so I try to find the easiest, least path of resistance. I like the look of a pieced quilt back, but I am very seldom willing to put the necessary effort into making one.

A dotty quilt my friend Monica made for me has a pieced back. It is squares of all the dotty fabrics she used on the top. I love it. That is what I should try to accomplish. Although, some machine quilters do not like pieced backs and will not quilt any quilts that have pieced backs. They do not like sewing through the many layers formed by the seams. Some machine quilters are okay with pieced backs. After I asked one machine quilter about her philosophy of using pieced backs, she told me that she works with what she gets. She said she makes it all work together. I like that attitude.

I feel multi fabric quilt backs are fun and add another dimension to a quilt. I don't feel that every quilt should have a pieced back, but many quilts can benefit from the added color and festiveness. What do you think? Do you piece your quilt backs or do you go for the solid fabric for backs? While you are thinking about that, I will sign off. Enjoy the weekend.

Happy Quilting

Inset Strips

This last week I was working on the samples for my Quilting 101 workshop for Saturday (yesterday). I have had a book, Thinking Outside The Block, for a few years. I have always liked the technique that Sandi Cummings used with the inset strip block. There are several different quilts pictured in this book that use the inset strip block. Since I did not have a particular topic set for this month, I thought that it was time to present the inset strip block.

This block is so easy to make, and becomes addictive after a while. You start with one, then two, then three, then...... I have included a picture of the blocks that are pinned up on my design wall that I had sewn as samples for the workshop. I am pairing the inset block with the variable star block. That is one of the combinations Sandi has presented in her book. These blocks measure 6 inches finished. I want to make 25 or 30 more star blocks with more inset strip blocks to complete a wallhanging. It is another project that will be "in progress" for a while since I still have other projects to finish before I can play with this one again.

The last picture is the little purple ditty bag that I found for purchase. When I looked at the price, I thought I could get a yard of fabric for that price! I will take it with me to classes and workshops to collect scraps. At all the classes I attend I always tell folks that if they have fabric scraps they do not want, they can donate them to my basket. Now I have this cute purple pop-up ditty bag that I can take instead of my basket. When it is empty, I can squeeze it down and it collapses into a flat purple circle for storage.

Before I forget, Happy Father's Day to all you great dads, and also to all you great moms who are/were both mother and father to your children, like my mother. My mom played both roles, mother and father. My dad left us when I was young and my mother raised me and provided for me until I married and moved out. I often would send her a Father's Day card on the day. She would be laughing when she would call me to tell me she had received the card. I hope you all had a great day.

We had a visit from our granddaughter and her parents today. They came over for breakfast. She was asleep the entire time she was here and she never really woke up. She squirmed and fussed a little but did not open her eyes. Maybe on their next visit we can see her awake. Until then.....

Happy Quilting

Here she is!

These are the proud grandparents. Don't you love my Christmas wreath that I still have on the door?

Here is the proud papa. He can hardly keep his hands off her. She was being very active while he held her.

Baby and parents stopped by today for a visit. They were out to see the baby doctor and stopped on their way home. So, I was able to get some pictures of the baby. Isn't she darling? Her name is Lisette, and her daddy is calling her Lizzi, I think. She is so soft and sweet, that is until she cries. She was hungry while she was here so Mommy fed her.

Center Medallion

Hello quilters. This is a picture of nine of my basket blocks that I have been receiving the first Saturday of each month for the last year. There are three more basket blocks, but they are not on point and are a different style than these nine.

I went to my BOM meeting today. This is the last month for the basket quilt. We received a finishing kit today (not free). We should have received a book on ribbon borders (not free either), but it did not come in yet.

This center medallion is to be set on point, but I don't know how to make it on point for posting. Just tilt your head to the right side and squint a little and maybe you can envision it on point! *VBS* With the additional background fabric we received today, I hope I will have enough fabric to make my setting triangles from that fabric. The setting of the original design has four (not on point) basket blocks that have a more contemporary style that I have decided not to use. These blocks are positioned in each of the four corners.

I have a formula to make the size for the setting triangles that are really corner triangles (big corner triangles). With the fabric I have, I really, really, sincerely hope that I will have enough fabric to make these big triangles out of one piece of fabric. I don't want to piece them together if I can help it. When we started this BOM I asked if I could purchase some extra background fabric. I was told it was all gone and the store could not purchase any more. I imagine they were holding what fabric they had for the finishing kits. I should have asked today if there was any extra fabric. I am sure someone else bought it today if there was any left. I have been looking for it at every quilt store that I go to, but so far no luck at finding anymore of it.

There is also a ribbon border which uses the background fabric as well. If I use all the background fabric that I have for the big corner triangles, then I might not have enough for the ribbon border. I know I can use some other fabric, but I want all the background to be the same on this quilt. I could change the border and not sew the ribbon border. I thought about a piano key border, or just use a different fabric for the border.

I also am not happy about the one block that has a dark background in these nine blocks. The quilt that we saw when we started this BOM did not have any dark backgrounds in the blocks. All the blocks had the same light background. I placed this dark block in the center since there is only one dark one. The layout given to us today did not have any dark backgrounds, so I wonder why we have one? I should have sewn that block with a light background, but I did not know if there was enough of the background fabric that we were given that month to make that change. Once I get the dark border strip all around the center medallion, then maybe it will tie it all together. There is another dark strip around the ribbon border, and the ribbon border itself is dark also.

A few months ago I decided that I would not do another one of these BOMs with the $5.00 block. But......next year's theme is a Bear Paw design. I have wanted to do a bear paw quilt for ages, so, I signed up for next year's Saturday Sampler BOM! Can you believe it? I am such a glutton for punishment!

OMG! I just received a call from our son. He said his wife's water broke and they are at the hospital now. I guess that means that the grandbaby is on the way! Whooppee!

Finally, it is done!

Well, it is finally finished, label included! This is my friend Debbi's quilt. I did the binding on it last week after I received it back from the quilter. I finished sewing on the label 10 minutes ago. I don't always sew on labels. I am trying to do that more often because of the history thing, but it is like borders. When I get to the borders, I always think I should do something really interesting, but I usually end up with plain borders because it is faster. I want to make a couple of pillowcases for her from the "found" fabric so that I can use some more of that fabric. I think she will like the bonus of pillowcases. I know I would, and I like making them. Pillowcases are much faster to make than a quilt, and they use up lots of fabric. I went pillowcase fabric shopping the other day, so I have a few to sew up now.

The two Hungry Caterpillar quilts are next. Once I get the binding on them, I can deliver them to the new babies. There is a new baby girl, and a new baby boy. I saw that Eric Carle has another fabric design available. It is called "The Very Series". It is bugs and butterflies and a sunny sun and other critters. I am sorry that I did not buy any of his Brown Bear fabric collection.

In this picture of Debbi's quilt, my friend Grace and my husband are holding up the quilt. When Grace came over today, I enlisted her aid to help hold up the quilt. When I posted pictures of it before, my husband was holding it. This quilt is too big for one person to hold so I was not able to get a good picture of the entire quilt. I think the quilt turned out well. As long as Debbi is happy with it, then so am I.

Tomorrow night is the June guild meeting. I want to get some sample blocks made to show for the June Quilting 101 workshop. It is hard to believe that June starts tomorrow. Where has this year gone?

Happy Quilting

Presents, Presents, Presents

Isn't it fun to receive little presents? I am so fortunate to have received these little items recently from quilting friends. I love to give as well as receive. It is rewarding to see the smiles on the faces of folks when they receive something you have made for them. I certainly had a smile on my face after receiving all these lovely gifts. When I receive them in the mail, the giver cannot see my face, but believe me I am smiling from ear to ear, sometimes even jumping for joy! What a wonderful little zipper bag. Jeanne gifted me with this darling little bag. She made this from charm squares. I liked the pattern so much that when I found it in a quilt shop, I purchased it for myself. I love this little bags. They are so handy for small projects, or to carry sewing notions, and so many other items.

This darling wool pincushion was made by Karen. I saw some of Karen's wool pincushions in a blog post. They are so cute. Each one was just a little different and I fell in love with every one of them.

This lovely purple block was made by Patsy and given to me at a quilt meeting. She had made this block with a purple theme. I saw another block that she made with a blue theme. I think she is also in the process of making a green one, too. This block is hand pieced, hand appliqued, and hand embroidered. I hope you can see the little blue and purple flowers that surround the appliqued center piece. Patsy enjoys doing lots of handwork and does a beautiful job of it. too.

This is a darling little purple yo yo mouse that my friend Candice made for me. It is filled with crushed walnut shells. I can use it as a pincushion, or I can use it as a friendly little critter sitting on my sewing machine and encouraging me to sew, sew, sew. Or, I can use it to hold my small fabric pieces in one place so that they do not go flying off my table. Or, I can use it for all of the above. I was so surprised when Candice gave this to me at a meeting. I love the little yo yos on the tail, and on the ears. This mouse is a friendly little critter who will not eat your crackers!

A big thank you goes out to all these ladies for my lovely little gifts. I really appreciate the time and energy that it takes to make hand made items. I truly enjoy receiving them. I think I better get busy and make some darling little gifts and pay it forward!

Besides receiving fun gifts, I have been doing some sewing as well. I am still working on my Puzzled Nines quilt. I received my friend Debbi's quilt back from the quilter so I am in the process right now of sewing on the binding and applying a label. Yesterday I received back my two Hungry Caterpillar quilts also. After finishing Debbi's quilt I will get the caterpillar's bound as well.

I wish you a wonderful week ahead with lots of fun sewing packed into your "free moments". *VBS* Until next time.....

Happy Quilting

Puzzled Nines Class

Yesterday I attended a guild sponsored quilt class. It was a fantastic class. The class was called Puzzled Nines and the teacher was Linda Wagner. She was also the program speaker at our guild meeting on May 3, 2010. She brought lots quilts to share with us that evening. There were lots of quilts that went whizzing by quickly so that Linda could show them all within the time limit she had for the evening's program. The topic of her presentation was playing games with yourself so that you could get those UFOs completed that most of us have residing in our sewing rooms. I say "most of us" because I know there are quilters out there who actually finish everything they start before they will start a new project, i.e. no UFOs. I hold those people in awe!

Linda is a very energetic person. She is also a prolific quilter. With all the quilts she shared, and the many she has finished and given away, I have decided she never sleeps. She works a full time job, and makes quilts in her spare time. She also teaches classes and does lectures for groups like ours. The quilts pictured above are some of Linda's Puzzled Nines quilts.

Linda is working on a series of floral Puzzled Nines quilts. She has three finished quilts in this series. She started class by placing her focal fabrics for her fourth quilt in this series on her design wall. She then added nine patches here and there and talked about how all the pieces could play together. By just moving one or two pieces, she showed us how a section could look better, how it could flow into the next design element, or even change the whole design concept with just a change of a nine patch or a focal fabric.

Linda had given us homework for this class. We were to bring at least 50 completed nine patches and our cut out focal fabrics to class. After Linda's class lecture and demonstration, we then started working with our own pieces on our design walls. Linda moved about the room for the rest of class and helped us with our designs.

This was such a great class. Linda is an excellent teacher, and shared with us so many wonderful design ideas. What I like so much about this class is that everyone's quilt will be different even though we all had the same teacher and the same class instruction. All the students asked for a follow up class so that we could see everyone's quilts again, and have Linda critique our designs.

This last picture is of my design wall at class. I have focus fabrics and some nine patches placed on my design wall. I have at least 100 more nine patches to place, and I want to find some more focus fabrics that will blend with what I have. I need to move some of my pieces around so that there are not too many umbrella pieces together. I think it looks a little bare right now, but when I get the nine patches all placed with the focus fabric pieces, I think it will look a lot better. The quilt size I am thinking about is a lap size, but as Linda said, the quilt will tell you what it will be.

For me this was a very liberating class. I feel much more confident that I can design a quilt on my own, and execute the design to my satisfaction. I usually work with patterns. I have never felt the need to make "original" designs, but after this class, I feel that I can design and sew a unique quilt without a written pattern. My grandbaby's quilt was inspired from a picture of a quilt in a magazine. After Linda's Puzzled Nines class, I am much more at ease with working without a pattern.

Happy Quilting

More Retreat Pictures

The first picture is my grandbaby's quilt. The theme for the baby's room is teddy bears. My friend, Grace, embroidered the four teddy bear patches on her commercial machine. The next two quilts are the Hungry Caterpillar quilts that I made for two pregnant teachers who teach at the school from where I retired last year. These two quilts are at Shari's house waiting for quilting. These quilts, and my hunky cowboy pillowcase are what I worked on at retreat. I was so thrilled to finish these quilts. I have known for months that the babies were on the way, but of course I waited until the last minute to get them sewn. I need that pressure of a tight deadline to get me motivated I guess! *VBS*

This quilt I made a few years ago in a class with Alex Anderson. It is her scrap bag beige class. I have had this quilt in a plastic bin since I finished it. I finally decided it needed to be quilted. Now all that is needed is the binding and a label to finish it.

Jeanne made this quilt for one of her Girl Scouts.

This is another quilt that Jeanne made for one of her Girl Scouts.

This is Monica's patriotic quilt. You will notice it has many of the same blocks that my patriotic sampler quilt contains. We were both part of the same block exchange. She added some embroidered patriotic redwork blocks, and also added some blocks of her own to finish the quilt. My picture does not do this quilt justice.

Here is my hunky cowboy pillowcase. Neat, huh? LOL!