I'm back

I got back on Monday about 10 PM (drove straight through from LA to Colorado--about 17 hours). Had a great time, went to work on Tuesday at 7:30 AM. I volunteered to do the newsletter for my quilt guild, and it went out via email yesterday, and today I made the copies that need to be mailed. All of this is to say, I haven't had much time to do anything else. I'll actually do some quilting soon...maybe Saturday. Joe is going to be gone, so I might have the time and inclination.

On Vacation

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning to see my family in California. We'll be camping, so I won't have access to a computer. I'll post some pictures when I get back.

Hope you all have a wonderful couple of weeks.

Two more tops quilted

Two more tops quilted. I've decided that I will work on getting as many tops as I can finished. Both of these have fleece backings. The greek keys top is meant to be a quilt of valor. It is 54 x 69. Not huge, but I think it will be a fine size. My only problem now, it to figure out how to attach a label to it. I didn't think of that before I put the fleece on the back.

The disapperaing 9-patch is much smaller. It is only 36x48, but a nice size for a baby blanket. I don't have a specific recipient in mind, but I'm sure there is someone in my future with a baby. I just gave away the 4-patch posy baby quilt I finished a while ago, so there is always another baby that will need a quilt.

The quilting on both is very simple. I just did concentric "rings" of quilting following the blocks on the greek keys. The baby blanket just has straight lines at varying intervals. Nothing hard...and I used the walking foot on both, so that made it even easier.

And the winner is...

Yay Debby, you're the winner. Congratulations. Let me know what fabric you would like, and which patterns and you'll have it very soon.

Just soyou all know, Debby is my sister. This really made me laugh!

I'll have to do this again, I really enjoyed all of your comments. Finding out why you quilt and how you began. Thanks for playing along.

Totally Tubular Quilt

Here us the quilt I am working on...

from this book...

...with these fabrics.

Unfortunately I worked about 4 hours yesterday and pinned every intersection...wrong. See the strip set in the center. The line of black and white squares go from upper left to lower right? That is the correct direction. See the strip set in the lower left...those go from upper right to lower left...that's the wrong direction. I only sewed one set correctly, and the rest, all wrong. So I have to un-sew every seam that I pinned so very carefully. I think this one is being put away for a while. I even took out one seam yesterday, and sewed it back, and that was wrong too. I'm only supposed to have 6 strips per set, and that one I have 8 strips. Guess I wasn't too focused.

Well, back to the old drawing board!

Frame Color

OK. Lindi had a great idea. Get pieces of paper and cover the frames with the different colors. I am a bit of a geek, so I used Paint to color the frames. Looking at them together, I'm leaning towards the original frames (but that may be laziness) or the green. Can I ask for your opinions one more time? Oh, I forgot, Sherry also reminded me to remind you that I do have wood floors, so the brown get's tied in from there. It's all so complicated.

Thank you all so much for your help. I think I need to sleep on it a while. I'm going away next week, so I'll live with it till then, and when I come back, if I feel inspired or the color comes to me in a dream, I'll paint them. Too many choice, just too many. My brain hurts.

Photos above the headboard

Here are the photos I chose to go above the bed. I decided on aspects of Hawaii: a rock on the sand, plumaria blossoms and a shell. OK, it's an abalone shell, but it's still a shell, right? I like the way they look. I was going to paint the frames white, but I just wanted to see them up. When I look at them this way, I think they really do stand out from the wall. If I painted them white, the mat wouldn't be distinct from the frame. What do you think...leave them brown or paint them white?

Spiderweb Quilt Finished

Well, this one is done. I used a fleece for the backing. It's just so cuddly. If I could find a cotton fabric that would do the same thing, I'd use it instead, but this will do for now. This is the quilt I worked on last year when I went to Sisters with my sister. We took a class together; she wanted to learn paper piecing, and I didn't. This was the pattern the teacher was teaching. My sister learned how to do it and I figured out how to do it without paper piecing. I like the look of the quilt a lot. It is very graphic, and the colors just sing. I used stripes and dots and had a lot of fun finding fabric for it. We knew what class we were going to take and were able to go shopping together. We have very different tastes, so shopping was fun. I like hers as well (though she is not done yet). She used blues and browns with printed muslin for the background. Here is the beginnings of her quilt. My blocks are 9 inches, and hers are much smaller. I'm going to say 6 inches, but I may be wrong. The pattern called for pieced background as well as pieced spiderwebs. She pieced them, but since I didn't want to buy a bazillion different blacks I decided that I would use a solid.

Charity Quilt

Just finished quilting and "binding" this charity quilt. It will go to the guild next Thursday. The binding is just the back, which it is fleece, pulled to the front and sewed down.

Easy and done.

Visitors

I heard some noise outside my window...there were two of them, still in velvet. Wow, I love my house. He was within 8 feet of me, outside my quilt room. I took this out the front window.

This one has decided to nap for a while I think. He looks a bit smaller. I was going to say something about age based on number of points, but I just looked it up and there isn't any correlation, so I'll just stay, wow.

Two-Hundredth Post Giveaway

The patterns have been used (except for the frogs). They are Yellow Brick Road, Oriental Tiles, Turtles and Frogs.

I'll let the winner choose 4 pieces of fabric. I know they're not to everyone's taste, but they make me happy, and would make some child happy, I'm sure.

Here is one of the pillowcase totes I have made. It is about 12 x15.

Well, since January of 2008 I have posted 197 times. I've enjoyed this, and think I've gotten much more quilting done than I ever would have. I've chatted with interesting people and had a chance to broaden my world a bit.

I have participated in many giveaways, so thought this might be the time to have my own in celebration. I have some kids fabrics, some patterns and a shopping tote. I will let the person who wins pick the 4 pieces of fabric they want. The fabrics are all different lengths, so it will be a surprise. They can also choose the two patterns they would like. The winner will be chosen randomly on July 8 at noon MST.

In the comment you leave, I would love to know why you quilt, and what got you started.

Thanks for reading and be sure to include a way for me to contact you in your comment.

Hidden Wells Done

I found a great purple in my stash. I don't know how it got where it got (it should have been with the kid fabrics) but I found it. I think it works great, and now the top is done. I think this is one I have to quilt soon, because of all the bias edges it may just stretch out of shape if I don't get it quilted. I don't know that I will...I'll leave it up on the design wall a while to see if I get inspired. Probably something very simple.