Silliness

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day finishing up a customer's quilt.  Today I got back from water aerobics and got to work on blocks for our December block exchange at our Guild meeting.  The Ohio Star block is always a winner, and those flying geese units...that triangle part that gets trimmed, well I couldn't just throw those away.  Now I really don't have time for messing with those, but I did anyway, so that is just silliness!  And besides what am I going to do with these little guys?  I only have 24 of these and they are little.

The last time I did something crazy like this I made a tablerunner, but those blocks were much bigger to trim from and there were many of them. 

Time to load another quilt on the machine.  I guess while I'm doing that I can ponder on my teeny weeny blocks.

My evenings have been spent trying to finish the set of 4 placemats that I am in the process of hand quilting...still.  

Back Home

Our trip was wonderful and now it's back to the routine again.  I finished two of the 4 placemats (hand quilting) that I took with me, but that's about all that got done.  We had lots of time to visit so that's what matters.

Pineapple tablerunner



It's finished!  All labeled and ready to go.  The colors are that of the USMA Black Knights of West Point.  The tablerunner is a hostess gift for a couple who's husband attended the military academy and was commissioned there.  Hence the black, gold and gray.  In the spirit of the approaching football game in early december between the Army Cadets and the Navy Midshipmen...Go Army!!!  Beat Navy!!!

I did the design in EQ6, found a pineapple block that I liked and set them on point.  EQ6 filled in the side blocks very nicely for me.  I decided to paper piece this one, though it had options for rotary cutting and templates. 

I did get my daughter's t-shirt quilt finished...but she may read this blog, so I'd best show it to her first.  I get to see her Thursday, I can't wait.

Time change wreaks havoc

Every time we do the Daylight Savings I am messed up for about 2 weeks.  As I write this it is 3:01 AM and I've already been up, taken the dogs out, made coffee and checked all of my Yahoo and AOL mail.  Don't know why it does me in, but it does!

Goals today:

1. Mail 2 quilts back to Minnesota.  These are donations that came from Heartstrings Quilt Project, the quilts were pieced by some fantastic ladies, I quilted them and they are going back to be finished and donated for a very special project there.
2. I finished the table runner top that I was working on.  It needs to be quilted today.  This one I"m going to do on the domestic machine because I want to stitch in the ditch, did you know that quilting stitch in the ditch on the longarm is one of the most difficult things to do?  Since this project is small my domestic machine will be just fine.  Besides I need to load a customer quilt on the machine to do.
3. I'm still working on kitting up the rest of the hand sewing work that we are taking on our trip.

There should be a 4 & 5 but I may need a nap after 1, 2 and 3.

Getting ready for a trip

DH and I are heading up to Missouri soon for a yearly fall family gathering.  I don't know about you, but when I hear Road Trip I think of what sewing project to take.  Never mind about the clothes, I just throw a few things together...but I do put some thought into what quilty things I can take along to work on.

So the first item/s I am packing is a set of 4 scrappy placemats that I decided to hand quilt some time ago.  This is definitely a UFO, all 4 placemats are on one backing because that's how I basted it on my longarm.  I have one placemat almost done, only 3 more to go.

The next item is another UFO, an orphan block which I also decided to hand quilt back in 2001-2002? 

And to mix things up a bit I decided to kit up some hand piecing from a book called 101 Patchwork Potholders by Linda Causee. 



The blocks in this book are made from templates and the block finishes at 8".  I think a few of these will be fun and different to work on, nice and small and quick to stitch.  First thought was to really make some potholders, but a quilt made from all kinds of different blocks would be fun.  The blocks are either a 4 patch or a 9 patch base so all of the blocks based on a 4 patch would go together and the same with the 9 patch.

Now then, we are only going away for a long weekend, but it would be awful to run out of things to do, so I always pack more than I need, especially if I keep the projects small. 

Coming up for air...

I've been trying to get some customer quilts finished up so that I could clear a block of time to work on some charity quilts, I've got several from Heartstrings, and a couple from our own Linus Project with the Azalea City Quilt Guild in Mobile, AL. 

Yesterday I did a binding marathon to prepare bindings for 4 quilts.  I hope to get those sewn on today and get one of the Heartstring quilts on the longarm.  I love to work on donation quilts, my mind always drifts away, imagining who might get the quilt...

But at this very moment, I need to get ready for water aerobics.  Off I go...

Productive weekend

The dogs got me up at 4am, thank you very much...just as well, I have plenty to do.  But I got a bunch done as well. 

1. I got the customer quilt finished on Friday, just a stipple as she wanted.
2. I worked until I got all of the t-shirt blocks finished for my daughter

Now I'm ready to put it all together!


3.  I started working on a tablerunner for a hostess gift.  I did the design on EQ 6 ( I haven't bought 7 yet)  This tablerunner is the colors of the United States Military Academy Black Knights GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY!! 

This pineapple pattern could have been done with templates, rotary cutting, or my choice on this one, foundation piecing.  This is a good start.  I have one more main block to finish which would be the third center block on point, and then I have to fill in with 3 more side halves.  I need to have it finished by mid Nov, we will be headed up to Northern Missouri for a family reunion.

I was a bad girl yesterday and pigged out on pizza, not that pizza is bad, it isn't in moderation, but I wasn't moderate...so my tummy is a bit off today, serves me right.