Design Wall Monday

I'm going to do part of a demo day at the quilt guild I belong to. I'm demonstrating how to choose fabric, stack it and cut it for stacked blocks. I've had this fabric for about 8 years I think, and thought I would use it for the demo. I got the Stack n Whack-ipedia and decided to use the sampler quilt as the basis of the demonstration blocks. There are 6 different blocks in it, and a I think a good selection of types of blocks. I may choose another fabric and use it as well, to show another example of what the blocks can look like.

I finished the 3 blocks on the left, so thought I'd post one more picture.  

Kare asked for a picture of the fabric. I always forget that. The coral flowers are 1"-2". Kare also asked that I share my guild presentation on my blog, so when I get that far I'll be happy to.

Oh, and the book is Stack-n-Whack Ipedia by Bethany Reynolds.

One Moment

When I woke this morning and looked out the window, I noticed a bit of color in the sky. It was nearly 60, and for the mountains at 5:30, that is warm. I grabbed the camera and got a couple of pictures of the clouds. It's amazing to me, how different pictures look than reality--much more washed out. I tried to get at least one shot that showed the subtle color, but didn't succeed too well.

It's finally spring. The aspens are leafing...the color is so amazing and seeing the leaves bud and bloom (if leaves do that) always makes me smile. We don't have them very long. It's the beginning of June, and the fall by the end of September, but while they're here I enjoy them.

The contrast of the leaves against the sky is wonderful. I caught one of the trees when the leaves were still in bud, then through the new leaves as the sun was lowering.






The wind was blowing a bit, and we have a deck, so I was standing in the tree tops, watching the leaves glow with the light.

I love this time of year.

9-Patch Swap...Done!

I woke up yesterday morning and knew how to finish quilting this quilt. The top has been done since October 13, so it's waited 7 months to be finished. I had most of it quilted and didn't know what to do in the 9-patches. I ended up just quilting around the center square. It's simple and I like the way it looks. Now to send this off to my niece. I hope she likes it.

I'm going to try to get a couple of charity quilts quilted, then the QOV top quilted. If I am diligent I may have all three done by next week.

Wish me luck.

One Moment

I looked out the window two evenings ago and noticed the low light shining on the trees. I love the quality of light in the evenings and wanted to see if I could capture it. It wasn't very exciting in the camera, but then I noticed the sky. We have some beautiful blue skies here in Colorado, so I took a couple of cloud pictures to share.

There was a light breeze, it was warm and the birds were singing. Spring has just arrived in the mountains. Earlier in the day I went for a walk at lunch time and noticed the neighbors near work had lots of irises blooming. The lilacs were smelling delicious as well. I didn't have my camera, but here is a moment at the end of that day.

Getting Something Done

I read blogs every morning what I wake up. This morning I didn't sleep very well, woke up at 4:30 an started reading. What about Orange had a post this morning about time management help. There is a site called mytomatoes.com that sets a timer for 25 minutes, asks you to write a couple of words about what you accomplished during that time, then gives you a 5 minute break. I know I work well using a method like this, because I've done it before. Usually I set the timer for an hour, then get a 30 minute break, but I thought I'd try it this morning. 

I've not been sewing or quilting much. Just been wasting time on the computer. I had this 9-patch nearly finished quilting for quite a while (quilting is my least favorite part of the process, I just don't feel confident or creative.) Anyway, when I woke up at 4:34 (to be exact) I lay in bed for a bit to see if I would fall asleep again. No luck, but I did think of a way to finish this quilt. I had all the sashing quilted, but didn't know what to do in the blocks. I thought about spirals and tried a couple--really ugly, so I un-quilted them. Then I just put it aside. The simple outline around the center square is working for me. Nothing exciting, but it does the job and I like the way it looks. I finished quilting around 2 columns in 25 minutes. There are 5 on the quilt, so it should only take about 1 more hour or so to finish the quilting then the binding. I can then send it off to my niece. YAY!

Design Wall

I made a bit of both borders and I think you all were right. The checkerboard doesn't seem to detract from the quilt as much as the scallops do. They're not very hard to do, but time consuming. When I asked my husband he thought they were kind of blehh and suggested something with triangles. I may try that too. This one has been hard for me to get motivated with the borders. I guess I should be more like Judy and make the borders first! I couldn't make the borders because I'm not sure of either of them. Yuck.

Thanks for all of your help last week. Maybe I'll let this one stew a bit longer and work on quilting some tops I want to get done.

If you want to see what others are doing, check out Judy's blog.

I'm Stuck

I don't know what to do with the border. I'm thinking a thin inner border, then maybe 4-patch blocks with black and the ombre fabric, but I can't get the picture in my brain. Maybe a simple border of the ombre fabric, then a wider black fabric. I also thought it might be interesting to have a scalloped border. Here are some mock-ups. What do you think? You can click on the picture to see a larger one.

If you want to see what others are doing today, check out Judy's blog.

Beautiful Day

What a beautiful day we had yesterday. It seems spring has been a long time coming. On Sunday we had 2 inches of snow, 2 weeks ago we had 8 inches. Yesterday it was 79 degrees, clear and warm. The smell of the blossoms on this tree was just wonderful. I don't think I've noticed before how lovely the blossoms smell. I was walking across campus, and the scent of the trees in bloom wafted by...just lovely.

Hope you have having a wonderful spring (even though I know most of you have had it going for a while.) Enjoy!

Oh, if you would like a chance to win EQ7, check out Bloomin' Worshop-Anita's blog. She won a copy and you have a chance to win too if you leave a comment. Oh, and another chance at megaquiter...Mary won too.

Design Wall 5-3-10

Well, here are all the spiral blocks. I think I finally have them right. I'm thinking of a black inner border, then maybe a piano keys border. I'm not sure about that yet, just a thought at the moment. I love the colors and the way they flow together. I didn't get much sewing done this week, we were house and teen sitting for a week for friends who are moving and needed to find a place to move to.

I did get a shirt sewn, but don't have a picture if it yet.

If you want to see what more folks are doing, check out Judy's blog.