Another Month Finishing Up

I've been working on finishing up a quilt and some blocks.

All in attempt to get a big (well, for me) bunch of fabric used in September.

Big hint: I've used more than purchased in September.

Full report tomorrow!

Now, off to finish the binding on an Irish Chain.

Happy Quilting All!

New Ironing Board

The Hubs working on

Cool

New Ironing Board

I tested it today and it worked great. Love being able to iron a big piece of fabric.

A quilt is loaded on Ruthie. I'll be quilting it tomorrow. Binding it the next and it will be done! Yes! Maybe I'll get another quilt ready to quilt and quilted before the end of the month.

Happy quilting all!

Charity Blocks

Here's what is currently on my design wall. These are Jacob's Ladder blocks that will be going to a yahoo group, Stash_Quilters, for a Quilts of Valor quilt. I really like the looks of this block. Easy and versatile also.

Hopefully, this will get in the mail either Saturday or Monday.

Earlier this week I also made this little basket. The pattern is here, at Moda Bake Shop. I didn't quite make it like the pattern listed. I left off the handles. And, mine turned out a bit more square than rectangular. I try to make a small prize for my quilt group to encourage folks to make the block of the month. So, after someone wins the blocks, the rest have a chance at a little prize. The internet has wonderful little projects.

Tomorrow I plan to quilt two quilts on Ruthie. One is another charity quilt from my guild in Maryland. And, then I have a Irish Chain lap quilt to do. I'm hoping to do some free hand leaves and then something in the spaces -- flowers or some such thing. The leaves will be practiced on the charity quilt first. I'm hoping to do flowers similar to the ones I did on a previous quilt. I'll keep you posted!

Happy quilting all!

Yes, I Joined a Swap

See the new picture on the side bar? Inchies Christmas Swap. It is being hosted by Quilting Gallery. You can pop over to see what it is about and then join us if you want. These look like they will be cute and fast little items to make. I'm going to have to try one soon to make sure they are fast!

I've got more quilt pictures to share but have to get going now as it is almost time to leave for one of my quilt groups. Stay tuned for some more interesting quilt pictures!

Also, click on Mysteries for Relay button if you want to join and do a mystery this weekend. All money is given to cancer research. Marge writes a great mystery.

Happy Quilting All!

Eye Candy Again

I was busy taking photos of quilts while I was down in Maryland. Here are a few that I can share with you now.The quilt on the left is owned by my buddy, Sharon. It was a round robin done by members of Faithful Circle Quilters. I know Sharon did the center square with the white background. A different member did each section according to the rules. The quilts were kept in plain bags so no one knew whose quilt they were working on. I particularly like the final border with the interesting corners. I checked them out carefully. I believe they were machine appliqued on. The amazing thing about this is the colors are some of Sharon's favorites. I've seen round robin quilts change drastically from the beginning squares. This one has pride of place in Sharon's house.

Monday night I attended the weekly Faithful Circle

Quilters meeting. (yep, I'm still a member!) The guest for the meeting was Debra Gabel, of Zebra

Designs. Debra was talking about creativity. Along the way she showed us many of her patterns (including lots that had been released this summer.) Notice the Ohio stamp behind Debra. (it's new)

I liked the little Scotty dogs. Also, notice that great use of large rick rack.

Here are more of her stamp designs. Debra gave much credit to FCQ and its members because of one of our challenges. The Baltimore Stamp was the first. The building under the T and I was the challenge fabric. It was a colorful geometric print. Debra's entry had people asking for patterns. She has been adding stamps over the last few years. Her newest is one about beaches.

Debra showed us how she developed her creative ideas. One of the things I learned was how she uses her computer to make letters. She picks a font, types her word into her word processing software and enlarges the word as large as she needs it. Then she chooses outline and prints it out to use it as her pattern. I'm planning on trying it on one of my quilts soon.

I've had a good day getting blocks ready for tomorrow's Mt. Laurel Quilt Guild's meeting. We're turning in our Halloween blocks tomorrow. I still need to make a little something as a give away. It does seem to keep people entering blocks. (And, I use up some of my stash!)

Happy Quilting All!

On Jenny's Design Wall

Since I'm visiting in Maryland, I thought I'd show you what is on Jenny's design wall. She is making a small trip around the world with some yummy reds, black and white.

Looks good to me!

I cut out an apron from some older fabric. I believe I will give it to Aprons for Afghanistan when it is done and a few more "friends" are made. You can read all about it at the link above. Tomorrow cooking and Jen's young quilters group is coming over. I'm making cookies. I was going to made fresh salsa but I couldn't find jalepena peppers. If I go out tomorrow I'll get some, otherwise, they get store-bought salsa!

Happy Quilting All!

Nation's Triathlon

No, don't panic, I did NOT run a triathlon. But some one close to me did so we all trooped down to the Potomac River to cheer Kevin on.

We hiked by the Lincoln Memorial.... it's been years (decades?) since I've been on foot near any of the memorials in Washington.

Here's a peak of the Lincoln statue inside the memorial.

Before too long we were in the midst of the race. There were over 5000 participants this year -- nearly double from last year. Kevin was already done with his swim and almost finished with his ride when we got there. But we were lucky to see him ride in for the transition from bike to run. A big cheer went up from us. (he said he heard us . . . but maybe it was our general noise.)

I got a real kick out this young lady's sign:

HEROES WEAR SPANDEX!

And, yes, there was a ton of spandex covering all sizes and shapes of bodies.

After we saw Kevin come in with his bike we decided we needed to go to the finish line to wait for him. The finish line was right next to the area where the runners were beginning the run. (remember, that was after the 2 mile or so swim and the 25 mile bike part...)

When I saw Kevin coming to the end I quickly snapped a picture. Evidently not fast enough cause I had a perfectly good picture of someone I didn't know at all! Don't you love digital photography? That photo was trashed. We do think this is Kevin at the finish line. He's one of those two guys in spandex. (hey Kev ... are you on the right or the left?) He started at 7:30 so his approximate finish time would be 2 hours, 30 minutes.

He came in 347 out of 3,933. I guess all 5000 entrants didn't finish the race.

One of the most unusual runners we saw was a lady who was probably 8 months pregnant. She was walking and taking pictures when we saw her. She kept going forward than would walk back to take some more pictures. Don't know if she finished or not. Maybe she wanted to get that baby going. I do know she had a bib number so she really registered.

>Here's Kevin with Aimee after the race. He doesn't look like he has been swimming, biking and running for 2 and a half hours does he?

We finished up the morning by going to Chipotle's for lunch. Yum.

Needless to say I'm not getting a whole lot of quilting done. But I will be posting some quilts over the next few days as I have been taking pictures of quilts.

Happy Quilting All!

Lazy Day

Wow! What's happen to me... my blogging is falling off. Sorry folks, I'm being lazy. Here's what's been happening:

• spent 4 hours at the local library volunteering.

• cleaned the house -- or at least parts of the house

• got borders on a quilt

• sewed the backing for quilt

• started to load a charity quilt on Ruthie...

Not all that much. Today I made an apple pie that is going on a trip with us. Kevin loves my apple pie so I am bringing it down for dessert.

For those who don't know us well, Saturday evening we will be glued to the TV watching the University of Southern California play Ohio State. Pat and I went to SC and Brian, Jen's dh, is from Ohio, thus a major Ohio State fan. A friendly little rivalry will be playing out that evening.

Sunday morning we're going to cheer Kevin on at the National Triathalon in DC. (I may have the name wrong, sorry Kev. ) We are negotiating what time we need to get to the location... I don't do mornings all that well!

Hopefully I'll have new photos over the next few days.

Happy quilting all!

Done But Not Shared

I finished this quilt a week ago... I know it was before September started because I needed another finish so I could actually USE more fabric. Pitiful, I know. But it did get me to do the quilting and binding quickly! A lucky friend of mine is going to get it but she doesn't know yet. I haven't decided when I'll give it to her. She may have to wait for her birthday.

Unfortunately I took the picture in the late afternoon so it is a bit dark. But you get the overall feel. I showed the quilting up close on this day.

Raggs, of course, had to come out to see what I was doing. He sure has some strange habits -- notice he's got his bottom on one step and his feet on the step below. And, he's shaggy again. He's going for a day at Bark Avenue tomorrow. Phew, just in time as he stinks like a dog! (well, he is a dog... but, ....)

I hope to have another top finished this morning. I may wait for the quilting to get done before I share it with you. It was a mystery on Mysteries for Relay, a yahoo group that Marge runs. You make a donation to cancer research through Marge's relay site and Marge provides the mystery. I've had to pass on doing some of the mysteries as I had a bunch of things piling up. I still need to finish some tops but I think I'm jumping in to do the next mystery. It's coming on September 26. If you've never tried a mystery this is a great way to get your feet wet. You can join for just one mystery or for a year of mysteries. And, if you want to get an idea of what a year of mysteries looks like visit the home page of the group. Two of my quilts are shown. Woot, Woot!

Happy Quilting All!

Thoughts on Slowness

Slow -- moving or proceeding with little or less than usual speed or velocity.

(according to Dictionary.Com -- have you found this site? It's great when I can't spell something or I want to quickly figure out if I am using the correct word or a word correctly.)

My quilting has been going slowly. No major deadlines, no minor deadlines either. I'm drifting a bit. Today I will be working on the blocks for FCQ Equilters. And, maybe a block of a month for Faithful Circle Quilters. Then, if I finish those I'll make a decision about what quilt/s I'll focus on over the next week. And, hopefully at that point I'll ramp up my quilting (to build up....).

Are you going to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Show outside of Philadelphia from Sept. 17 to 20th? I plan on going on Thursday, 9/17. And, for part of the time I will be selling raffle tickets for this quilt:

It is the biannual raffle quilt for Faithful Circle Quilters in Columbia, Maryland. This is the quilt that won Reserve Champion at the Maryland State Fair. The drawing is scheduled for April, 2010 at our next quilt show. If you are at the show, stop by and buy some tickets. Tell them, Bonnie S. sent you. If you are there on Thursday, maybe

we can meet. I believe the quilt is entered into the show so you may need to do a bit of searching to find it.

You can see more pictures of it at Faithful Circle's web site. Enjoy!

Happy Quilting All!

Wednesday Quilting Back on Schedule

My Wednesday group took a two week break. But we were back yesterday -- great to see everyone! The noise level was amazing -- I guess we had lots to yack about. And, we had some great show and tell. I really like this scrap quilt. I may have to figure this one out to make myself. What appears to be little circles of light is actually circles on the fabric. They certainly didn't stick out like they do here.

We went to the local fair -- GDS Fair -- the initials stand for the local townships that participate. I was surprised there weren't more quilts exhibited. Maybe next year I should enter one. Of course, the display space is minimal. Lots of crocheting and knitting though. Unlike the Minnesota State Fair there wasn't much being sold on a stick -- only thing we found was turkey on a stick. It didn't take us long to see the 5 horses, several cows and bunches of chickens and roosters. Unfortunately, this is a very small fair but we enjoyed the beautiful weather and seeing the exhibits.

Not much else going on around here. I am making some blocks for my FCQ Equilter group. I am late getting the blocks done but I was focusing on some other quilts. Unfortunately, these don't go fast with something around 35 pieces in each block. I'll get them done by early next week. No quilting tomorrow... we're off to the big city to hit a bunch of different stores -- Joannes, Borders, Target, Wegmans....

I still owe you a picture of the finished Wonky 9 Patch. I'll try to remember to take the pic tomorrow. Until then Happy Quilting All!

Fabric Busting Report, Finally

Here's my report for fabric usage from August.

Fabric used: 13.5 yards

Fabric purchased: 6.625 yards

Net fabric USED from stash: 6.875 yards

YEAR

Year to date fabric used: 63.375 yards

Year to date fabric purchased: 81.375 yards

Net Year to date USED from stash :(18) yards

Wahoo! Snoopy Dancing going on around here! Finally, for the first time this year I have used more fabric then I brought in. Will this be a trend for the rest of the year? Can I use more fabric this year than I buy? I am going to try to continue this so I have a use-it-up trend going. I guess one month can't be a trend.

I'm off to make some small dents in my stash. A block here, a block there. And, yes folks, I do count EVERY block!

Happy Quilting All.