Spring Quilt Camp with NimbleThimbles

 I went up to quilt camp at Emmanuel Pines last Friday for the weekend.  It started snowing on the ride up and snowed and snowed!  Very little of it stuck, but it was snowing for hours.  I have not seen snow in quite awhile so it was fun--really felt like Christmas on April 1st!  I worked all day Friday and a good bit of Saturday on making Bonnie Hunter's Love Shack!  I love how it came out. It was a super fun project to do at camp because it involves lots of different  blocks.

 I have wanted to make Love Shack for a long time but it involves several patterns on quiltville (maverick stars, strings, happy scrappy houses, wonky hearts and letters) and also lots of size adjustments which are not my thing.  I was so proud of myself for figuring all this out--even though I counted the blocks wrong in the one column and so made the blocks too big and had to eliminate a maverick star or start over!  I will be keeping this one and hanging it in the living room or dining room.

 Saturday Kathy, Kathy, Becky and I took a hike to stretch after all that sewing. We wound up going four a half miles (20 min for each mile) and made it out to the road.  Really good conversation all the way too. So glad to have quilty friends who sneak exercise in too!

 Saturday night Barb helped me make sixteen trivet Christmas presents.  I made them all out of Christmas fabric and will be making more in other fabric too.  They are made from a hexie ruler and lots of fabric folding.  The tricky part is pinning them just so.  That is the part Barb is much better at than me!  You stitch around the outside and flip them out at the center and they look great!  When I was done with all that and the quilt auction I continued working on En Provence.  This quilt A is for Adaminaby from 2012 was my auction quilt and Kathy O (the tall Kathy from the walk picture) won it for 25 dollars.  I ran across this little quilt which I had forgotten I made two of and decided it was a good auction quilt.

 Sunday morning we hung out some of the quilts (some people did not hang anything out--not sure why) and you can see the center of my En Provence on the right top.

I would never have even gotten it out if not for the fact that Marguerite had not brought her finished top and her daughter Laura was busting butt working on hers all weekend (along with other stuff).  Seeing Laura making progress motivated me to get to it!  Not sure why I was dragging my feet on it as I usually am right on schedule with getting the mysteries done but this year the trip to New Mexico to get my my son and his girlfriend and her kids (flat tire, no money and diabetic ketoacidosis and hospitalization was involved) knocked me off track.  This quilt has his hospital gown fabric in it.  Stitching the memories in.  Sunday morning I got the borders mostly made but thought I was four star point units short...turns out I was not.  I got home and discovered I started with the wrong star point color.  Of course I did not figure that out til I made the four star point and attached them.  HAHA!  Last night I fixed and attached the first borders and did some ironing.  So this morning (Monday) I attached the last border, did ironing and made the backing and cut the binding.  I still need to get a picture of it though.

Hand Tying a Little Quilt--Finally!

The board for PMQG met today for a few hours and we got alot of stuff figured out and realized we have lots more to go.  I am learning lots from these ladies and my own research about setting up groups and working with different programs online...really nice to be developing schools even if they aren't sewing skills yet.  I will miss the meeting next weekend but in October we will be making nametags.  I added some fun ones I found online to a Pinterest board http://pinterest.com/azandee/modern-name-tags/ after Alyssa showed us the really cool sewing machine one...pretty sure I need one of those!  

 I was in the mood to just sit on the couch and watch show after show about 9/11 tonight...so I worked on handtying this little quilt from awhile back.  Bonnie Hunter is encouraging us to get in some hand work so here is mine!  Thanks for the motivation Bonnie!  I then added the binding and it is done.

 Not the greatest pictures but you get the idea.  I love the back of this one..I had to have these darn frogs and they look even cuter in a project than on my shelf.  I am sure this one will get the back displayed now and then!

Tomorrow is going to be all about making geese for Hawaii Sunset...I haven't even checked yet how far behind I am compared to the other gals...off to do that now!  

Summer Day and Pineapple Blossom oh my :)

 Kathy and I got up early and tended June's estate sale this morning, too hot afternoon so it didn't take us long to close up when the people slowed to a trickle.  June sold lots of fabric to lots of happy quilters!  We came home exhausted but I rarely can nap so before long I had texted Becky and asked her to come sew!  I mostly puttered around and talked Becky's ear off but she did help me decide on some grey for Summer Day's binding so it is done and ready for the next little one.

 The back is as cute as the front, lol.  Love the variegated thread that Ros used to quilt it!

 My SoScrappy Rainbow purple pinwheels are done, but half of them didn't get trimmed before I sewed them together.  So these need trimming now and I accidently sewed one together wrong but hey they are done.

 I whipped up one more Cheddar Challenge block...two more and I can add another row to my quilt top.

 Becky whipped up a cute rendition of A is for Adaminaby that matches her Carolina Crossroads.

 I made a second binding and attached it to this Pineapple Blossom quilt which I am pretty sure will go to DJ for her birthday May 30th.  I hope she likes it.

Sunday Sewing or Third Time is the Charm!

I typed this post up twice at work but the computer I was on didn't have google chrome and so all my stuff was lost.   GRRRR.  So I am now at home after a day at work and a few hours at June's place getting organized for the thrift sale.  Wowza, lots of work that is.  Anyway, this first picture is Daisy, Joe, Rosey and Zoe all eating on schedule...no more free feeding for them, they all chubbed up too much so we have changed things up a bit and it is going well.  

This is Kathleen Tracy's Simple Doll Quilt.  I whipped this up for my small quilt group challenge of the month for June.  It comes out of the book below and was made from leftover charm squares.  It will be made into a doll quilt for a gift.  

I caught up on season 7 of Desperate Housewives this past weekend with Kathy on Hulu.  When I wasn't watching that I was listening to this audiobook Randy gave me.  It is keeping my attention too.

Cut more bow ties and sewed another block for the Cheddary Challenge.  I am trying to get another row on before the year is up.  I can't believe it has been almost a year since Bonnie got us sewing these.  I have really enjoyed it--especially knowing I will remember so much about the year based on the fabrics!  This block has two of my just finished Cal Mystery quilt and one from Kathy's.  It also has several floral pieces that were leftover bits from cutting the Florabunda swap for my quiltville swap group.  I sent mine off today and can't wait to see what I get back from the others.  I don't have time to do Florabunda right now, but I will kit it up for when I do.

Also took out the messed up tacking from a week or so ago and redid A is for Adiminaby til I was happy with it.  I got the binding on and hand sewed that down too.

So "Feeling Blue" is hanging in my sewing room (with other tiny quilt peeking out from behind) and now cheers me up.

Judy pulled # 12 for the UFO for June which happens to be my Season Bargellos (all made in a Quilt University class) which is the oldest UFO I have since it was made like four years ago when I was still in Wisconsin.  In case you haven't been with my blog since the beginning, I had this great idea to put them into one quilt so DJ and I worked hard on figuring out borders (not my thing) and putting them all together earlier this year.

Here is what it looked like when it was all together...it is hard to tell but the border fabrics are actually coordinating prints that each of them has in them (just in different colors).  I hate it.  Ros liked the idea of quilting it even less when I brought it to her.  So now it is in the UFO pile and I have to figure out what to do with it.  Seriously.  UGH!.  Please comment with any suggestions you might have.

Crossing fingers this posts....

Feeling Blue

 In November of 2008 I made "A is for Adaminaby" as my first mini quilt.  It got me hooked on little quilts and I can remember how happy I was making it (I actually made two) since it wasn't long after we moved here and got into my quilting studio.  Today I cleaned through the bookshelf above and got rid of a ton of quilting magazines...see the space I made on the shelf?  LOL.  While doing so I ran across the magazine that had this little quilt in it and decided I should make it in blues and try to remember how happy I once was.  In the end I named it "Feeling Blue" since I am still blue though it makes me smile anyway.

 It is a super simple little quilt to make--twelve strips sewn together and cut apart again (1.5 inches) and then some unsewing and resewing and viola you have a cute little quilt.

 Here is is with one of the originals.

 I hung it up (other minis behind it) so I can look at it while I sew.  When I get the motivation I will hand tack it like I did the other one.

 The only other productive thing I did today (besides making spaghetti and trying to get some old frozen bread to rise) was help Kathy hang this pegboard and arrange my rulers.  I have wanted one of these in this exact spot since we moved here almost four years ago.  It will be so much easier to find my rulers and I was pleasantly surprised to find most of them had a hole for the hooks!  You can also see the little yellow pinwheels I made the other night on the design wall.

 

Tomorrow is another day, hoping it will be less blue :)

My New Machine and Second A is for Adaminaby

I finished up my second A is for Adaminaby which replaced the one I had. The first one went to the quilt auction at camp (since the second one wasn't quite done) and a very nice gal there took it home. The back of that one wasn't great, the second one is MUCH better as I tied it instead of making little x's on it. Blogger won't let me move the pictures around so I moved the text from the end to here. Strange! So the pieced back is the first pic.

I forgot to mention that I arrived at quilt camp a few weeks ago and within four or five hours my Janome machine did its usual fit and stopped working. It seems about four times a year to stop pulling up the threads from underneath. I had just had it in in December or January and I was not happy! I decide to go out and buy an inexpensive machine because the last one I had (a JCPenney 10 or 12 stitch) worked with little or no problems for more than a decade. Though granted I didn't sew near as much. So here is my new baby and it works great.

I need to spend some time today figuring out how to do applique on it because my tablerunner "homework" needs to be done by Tuesday night and I don't know how to make that stitch on this machine. I did use it to zig zag binding together and it worked great for that!

In other news, I have been missing my favorite little pair of scissors for more than a year I think and the other day when I dumped out all my tying thread (variegated DMC floss) there they were! I have used the floss a half dozen times but they were buried in there and I never found them. They aren't the ones in the picture above, they are the geese like ones, gold and expensive too! Happy to have them back!

I heard that Bonnie Hunter has a new mystery quilt pattern coming out in the next issue of Quiltmaker. I can't wait to see the first clue, I am sure I will be joining in even if only to make a small one. Her quilts are among my absolute favorites! Anyone else planning on doing that mystery?

and the Quilting Goes On!

Kathy is finally working on the dog quilt project that I bought her in Chicago last year! She has four blocks partly together and a pretty good idea how to do it now!

Remember way back when I cut for two of these A is for Adiminaby little quilts? Not sure why I did it at the time, but today I had time to cut the rows and lay it out on the wall. Looking good!

My tablerunners are coming along. I machine quilted Tara's and pinned the binding on it...looking okay.

Also spray basted and pinned the other of my mystery tablrunners. It has the fruit ladies fabric on the back!

Happy National Quilting Day All!

Two More Little Finishes!

Sunday was apparently a day of little finishes! I finally sewed this little pincusion closed and added some fun buttons. One of the dogs found it before I finished it so one corner was a bit chewed...I did some repair and will still use the pincusion just for fun! Darn dogs! They don't usually chew anything up (one likes the remote if you leave it down and are gone a long time so we hide those) but this reminded them of their little stuffed doggie toys I suspect!

Happily sewed the binding on A is for Adiminaby! It is perfectly square but I love it anyway. The colors make me smile, the little stripe on the border makes me smile and I will be hanging it up soon. I got the next magazine (Australian one) and discovered I missed one! The one I got has C is for something or other and now I want to know what B is! I will keep my eye out for that one, but darn it! I do have two Quilter's Home that I have extra copies of I would be willing to trade for the Aussie one I need if anyone wants them!

Not sure if I mentioned I am now working a part time interpreting job on Mondays and Wednesdays...so I am SO tired on Tues and Thurs mornings. I leave my house at 6:30 AM and get home at 10:30 on Mon and Wed. I am insane, but I need more fabric money and so I bit the bullet and took the hours. The pay is great...may go back to that next year and give up teaching at the high school since I am thinking I am not as good at managing high school kids as I would like to be. I try, but it is not exactly what I was hoping it would be!

Still no more progress on DD....I did get started on the bluework one night, but need to pick it up again.

Accounting for my UFOs

Someone else posted a picture with lots of boxes of quilts in progress and asked us about how many project we had going on. So I thought I would take stock of things and post some pictures in case you didn't read my blog when I started these projects!

These are my star blocks from my online group's star block of the month challenge. I truly enjoyed the challenge, but find getting all these different size blocks to work together an even bigger challenge! I need to just bite the bullet and buy some black fabric and just put them together. I really want to use the blocks, not just have blocks, but I am a pattern girl...I follow the pattern better than I do my own thing. Funny because that isn't how I live my life in other areas!
This tablerunner is just waiting for me to find and make binding and get it on there. I quilted it on my machine already though this picture isn't current. This one is for me for under my laptop...right now there is a flag tablerunner, lol. This is from this past fall but it got pushed to the back of the pile while I was doing Christmas presents and then I just sort of forgot to do it! I plan to get moving on this one this weekend.


Bargello Seaons, this is from my Quilt University class last Spring. I love all four of these and planned to put them into either four wallhanging that I can change with the seasons or one quilt that I can fold over with the current season showing for my quilting studio. They aren't exactly the same size and I got really stumped with how to combine them...so I think I will do wallhangings so this UFO gets done! Not sure if I am brave enough to quilt them myself though. See this is what holds me back!

Walk in the Park (Quilter's Home) is all set except I need to doing the sewing/applique on the gorgeous blocks and then put it all together. I love how this quilt looks so far and I am afraid to mess it up! I think this one is the oldest UFO I have...it is from December 2007!
And of course this is my most recent UFO, A is for Adiminaby. I have it all hand quilted with little x's now and yesterday I bought the binding fabric. So this weekend I plan to get that attached so when I have time I can hand sew the binding on this one too.

I guess I can consider this one a WIP and not really a UFO since I am actively working on this Double Delight Mystery from Bonnie's Quiltville site. I absolutely can't wait to see this one together. I picked up a few more light shirting materials and another pink at the quilt shop last night since I was running short to finish step 3!

I also have squares and hexagons for I Spy (still collecting) and Flea Market Fancy Squares but since nothing but the cutting is done I won't count those! I also have my daughter's slightly started cat wallhanging. She finally was interested in sewing so we got all the stuff for the project and just didn't get time to finish it. I am hoping she will come visit this summer and we can work on it together.

This means I have five (or eight if you could the Bargello separately) UFOs and one WIP to get moving on...two should be almost done by the end of the weekend. Thanks for challenging me to access what I have and think about getting them done. I don't like to have them lined up...I am a finisher! So how many UFOs or WIPs do YOU have going on?
Wish me luck because I have to take the Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessment test tomorrow! I have been studying for it all week and hope to pass the first time through!