Its a Churn Dash

Saturday I attended a quilt class sponsored by our quilt guild. The teacher was Jennifer Rounds and the pattern was her "Mandarin Squares". It is a modified log cabin courthouse steps pattern (says Jennifer). The fabrics I am using are rather plain compared to the other quilters' fabric choices. I completed 5 blocks in class, and I am now working on the other 20. I have two more rounds to go and I will have the blocks completed. Then comes the sashing, and the assembly of all the blocks. In Jennifer's pattern, the borders are a bigger version of the main block cut diagonally twice. She provided some other options in class so I am not sure exactly what I will finally decide on for the borders, but I would like this quilt finished. I do not want another UFO, especially since I have spent so much time cutting the strips and sewing the strips into 25 blocks.

Sunday I met Julie and Julie and we viewed the East Bay Heritage Quilt Guild's annual quilt show at the Oakland Convention Center in Oakland, CA. This guild has (I think) over 600 members, and it is a very diverse group. The quilts that were exhibited reflected this. It is always a great show with great vendors. What I like so much is that the aisles are wide enough so you can actually see the quilts. There is room enough for chairs in the center of the ailses and you can still have plenty of room to walk through.

It was great to meet, in person, Julie (Floribunda), and see Julie (Barn Quilter) again. Julie (Floribunda) had a beautiful quilt exhibited in the show. Julie (Barn Quilter) has a picture of it in her blog. Check it out. Julie (Barn Quilter) presented me with a pack of fabrics given to her from a friend. She was so generous and shared pieces of the gifted fabrics with me. I have included a picture of them in this post. I am so anxious to pull the pack apart and play with those fabrics! My fingers are itching to touch and stroke all those pieces! I am such a fabriholic! *VBS*

Now, to the churn dash picture. I am making churn dash blocks for a challenge that we are doing in one of my exchange groups. We are not exchanging this time, but making a quilt of our own choice which we will keep at the end. The challenge is to see what everyone comes up with using the churn dash pattern. I had a couple of ideas and settled on this one after seeing a quilt in a book by Patti Eaton. Actually, all you are seeing are some of the PURPLE churn dash blocks. When I get them all made and sewn together, I will post a picture. The only criteria we came up with was it is necessary to use at least one churn dash pattern in our quilt. This quilt could be a miniature, or larger. It could actually be wearable such as in a vest or a jacket. It will be fun to discover what each quilter comes up with.

I must get back to sewing those last two rounds on my 20 more modified log cabin blocks, and make more churn dash blocks. There are still three baby quilts waiting in the wings. I have managed to procrastinate for months on those baby quilts, but the babies are close to becoming reality, so I must get sewing!

Have a great week, and.....

Happy Quilting

Three Months on Time!!!

Can you believe it? I have made my $5.00 BOM meetings on time for three months in a row! WOW! Three free BOM packets! WOW! I even made it early today thank you. Hubby made sure we were both up early - he set HIS alarm last night. What do you think about that?

I wasn't even sure I wanted to go today. Yesterday one of my wisdom teeth left my mouth (a specialty dentist pulled it out). I have one fourth less wisdom in my mouth. I am only half wisdomed now. The dentist put me under for this surgery. I remember them asking which arm was best to find a good vein. I told them my right arm, and that was the last I remember until they woke me up and said it was time to go. HA! Go? Go where? I didn't want to go anywhere. I couldn't talk, walk, and barely could make any sense of who I was, where I was and why I was there! WOW! I hope I don't ever have to go through that again. I have more pain today than I have ever had with any other procedures that has been done to my teeth! Ow! Ow! Ow! My pocketbook says a BIG OW! too!

Anyway, I did get up early and took some pain meds and off we went to the quilt store. I was so excited that I was on time for the third month. The picture I have included in this post is of the last four blocks I have sewn for this BOM. We have three more blocks to go and then this BOM will be ended. I received my $5 kit for free since I received a free ticket again today. Whoopee! I love being on time. Because I arrived early, I was able to get a good spot to see the demo, too.

After leaving the quilt shop, hubby and I went to our favorite breakfast cafe, The Railroad Cafe. I did not have my usual breakfast since I am on soft foods for a few days yet, but I still had some good stuff. Next month I hope I can order food that I can actually chew!

My next quilt project is getting my fabrics ready for class on Saturday. This is another strip pieced quilt, so there will be lots of cutting of strips. The teacher wants us to have all our strips cut into the necessary size pieces so we can get started sewing right away. Since there are a lot of strips to cut, there will be lots of strips to sew. This is a large quilt. It will be fun sewing in a class again. I love seeing what other quilters are doing and what color schemes they are using. My color scheme will be a surprise!

I hope you all have a Happy Easter tomorrow, and find lots of Easter eggs. I also hope that some of them are chocolate. I know where I am going to find my chocolate Easter eggs (shhhh, they are in the closet). I remember when our kids were younger my mother would color eggs and hide them, then the kids were let loose to find them. I miss that activity. I haven't colored eggs for quite a few years. Do you color eggs for an Easter egg hunt?

Happy Hunting and Happy Quilting