Old, but new

This is really the first quilt I made...way back around 2005 or so.  It was made for my oldest son.  Just recently I was visiting and he was nice enough to take a picture of it for me. I tied it instead of quilting.  It is a Turning Twenty design and I used up all of 20 FQs making it.  I didn't know how close to make the ties, and I may have overdone it, but it is still together!

Re: last post,,,,,Temporarily Fixed

This is a temporary fix....I realized that the more table surface I have, the more STUFF I put on it,,so one of these side tables may have to go permanently.  Only I can't have everything on the floor !

Also, please notice that I have a chair with a mind of its' own.  It is a very comfortable chair and I don't want to get rid of it, but its' time is running out....

Every time I get up and leave it for an hr or sometimes less now, it reverts back to its maximum height.  Being only 5' tall, I find that it will not suit.  It has a height lever, which I use to slide it downwards so my feet can touch the ground (and foot lever), but that only lasts as long as I sit. 

May have to get DH to see to it when it finally refuses to obey my command to "Sit!".

Sewing Space in Transition

Me and my mouth can get me into more confusion and disarray! Without a huge discourse of explanation, let's just say that I offered my cafeteria table, use: cutting area, for temporary use, far away from it's home.  This happened the first of the week and I have been discombobulated ever since! Other than using my dining room table, I really have nowhere to cut.  Unless I clear off the other table, which has a drop down "insert" for my sewing machine, which I don't use because the table itself  is a bit more wobbly that the one it is on now.  Oh, I know I really do have room..I see so many of you cutting and sewing on the same table. . I am spoiled..had everything where I could find it, and now I am forced to clean...

I have been sewing, away from the machine, quilting two projects.  But I need to get back to the quilt-along.  So today, I will take the bull by the horns and find somewhere to cut and lay out fabric and at least get started on this week's blocks. 

My room needs a bit of cleaning up anyway.  The dust bunnies are quilting the remnants all around the floor.  And they are starting to look good, too!

A quilt I didn't quilt started me quilting

In 2004, there was a reunion in Brenham of about 30-40 hams, mainly from San Antonio, who had known each other since the mid-1950s or so.  Hams are amateur radio operators. Amateur....only in theory.  They were so much more than that.  Some operators had rigs (radios, transmitters, antenna, etc) strong enough, that if the radio waves, weather, and atmosphere was right, they could call from San Antonio and reach operators a long way away, across the continental U.S., and even in foreign countries.  At that time, they would verify their communication by sending post cards to each other with their call signs, date and time of communication.

These particular fellows, would get together every weekend or so with their mobile sets  and have  a transmitter hunt.  A couple of them would find somewhere to hide a working transmitter which gave off a signal.  The others would get in their cars and, using their sets, would home in on it.  Once they got in the general area, sometimes it would be difficult to find the hiding place.  One time, my DH told me, they hid it on the side of a cliff, in a little cubby hole or cave.  People were tromping on top of the cliff, knowing it was so close and yet so far.

All this is in reference to quilting.....At the time, I was into cross stitching. I bought some cross stitch material that was already sectioned off in squares, a simple computer program, and cross stitched their ham call signs in each square, along with a few pictures....an antenna, a ham radio and operator, a morse code key, and a truck with a ham antenna on it...My SIL sandwiched the quilt, and we used ties to keep it together.  She ended up with the quilt, and I ended up with a picture....and the desire to continue this mysterious addiction of quilting.  Fair trade, and I got the better end of the deal!

Stash Manicure's Give-away

Rae Ann at Stash Manicure is having her end of month Giveaway here.  I am entering it...of course I'll win, at this time only about 140 people have entered,,,,and it is only the first day.  The odds are really with me...but I won't win if I don't try, right.  This is a great site.  I have had fun checking out ways to use my stash...and seeing the results of everybody's work.

Cross your fingers for me (unless you entered it also, then good luck to you too).

Week six - coming down to the wire - Quilt-Along

I am so antsy, wanting to get these finished and put together.  Don't know in what order yet, every week I create new surprises in blocks.

This week is no different.  I am pleased with the blocks.  I had very little trouble with them...a little trouble with 'New Album".  I had to put together the top and bottom rows first to be sure of my measurement on the middle one.  I need more practice, but as a whole everything turned out okay.

Week six, blocks 11a and 12a

Week 6, blocks 11b and 12b

I got tired of the wooden background behind the blocks, so I got a neutral fabric and laid it out.  No as much contrast on some of the blocks, but it got rid of some of the yellowish in the photos.

Completed blocks, Quilt A

Completed blocks, Quilt B

Thoughts on a New Design......

No picture..Can't show you..have to tell you.

Those of you with DSL (or some such fast internet) might not have had this happen.  But those of us who are still on dial-up and/or satellite link or twiddle-the-thumbs-waiting-for-it-to finish links which are slower and more frustrating may have had this to occur.

Have you ever been at your blog, anxious for it to appear so you can get on with your life, and tried to move down the page when it has not quite finished loading? I did today, and what came up was a series of beautiful striped lines colored like my blog all up and down my screen.  I thought to myself, what a beautiful blend of colors, they would look so good on a quilt!  Then, alas, my computer gave one more courageous effort, they disappeared, and my blog page came up.  Could not freeze it so I could capture it either on a camera or otherwise.

Ahhhh, well,,,, some things are never meant to be.......

Challenge completed!

I challenged myself to finish basting this top,,,,and I did.  Gotta go exercise so this is quick.  I baste this way because I find myself moving the top this way and that so I feel more secure if I am a little rougher on it than normal. 

Reporting this has been a challenge also.  After finishing the above paragraph, I had to put this in draft  mode and leave for my exercise class in Big Town, an hour away.  We came back home to be greeted with thunderstorms and a satellite provider that could not get through.  Everything has calmed down, however.

Borders done, top completed,

I finished my construction quilt top.  I decided to add only one more border to each of the sides.  The blue stands out so I was afraid that two borders of blue would be too much.  So it now waits until I can baste it.......whenever that can be.

Changing my Mind in Midstream....

I started this simple panel quilt earlier this month so that I could be finished with it quickly....it was supposed to be one of those "quick and easy" ones that we sometimes squeeze between two WIPs that are a little more mind-intensive...

 After I was done I thought, Ooops, too narrow (35") for the planned "giftee".  So I was in the market for another side border , which, of course, was not in my stash.  Last week, my DH and I went to the Big Town and I was able to drop by my LQS.  I found a good color, but it acted like a border-wrecker and insisted on being squeezed between the two borders on the sides instead of just being satisfied laying on the outside.

So, being the whuzz that I am, I complied with the fabric, ripped apart the side borders, and will be adding the blue where it wants to be....once I get it cut.

Now I am playing with the idea of adding an outside border of blue (not as wide) so that each original border will have it's partner. (I'm a sucker for happy endings).  That decision will be made after I see how this turns out , and if I have enough fabric....

Week 5 of Quilt-Along Gang

Well, what do you know...it's not even late Sunday evening and I have finished with the assigned blocks for this week.  I am learning values and color combos, even if it is in the "don't do this category".  I have all the blocks in front of me at various times during the week and even I don't know how the quilts will turn out!

Anyway, here they are in all their glory....

Week 5, blocks 9a and 10a

Week 5 blocks 9b and 10b

Completed blocks, Quilt A

Completed blocks, Quilt B

BTW, I picked out the color sashing for both quilts,,,that you will have to wait and see later. 

Now to add the link at Amy's and look at the other quilters' blocks......

Tuesday to Tuesday - One Week Challenge

Amy's at it again... She is having a one-week challenge.  We chose something to do and get done this week, starting today and ending next Tuesday.

This blue/white top has been waiting patiently in the wings since May to be sandwiched and prepared for handquilting.  This I plan to do in the next 7 days.  I usually baste by hand, using embroidery thread and long stitches.  Usually I overbaste, because I never know where I will be while sewing, and have had experiences of my basting not holding.  Granted, that was quite a while ago, but it was a nasty experience!

So count me in, Amy....thanks for the chance to finish something.

Amy's Quilt-Along, Weeks 3 AND 4....I'm caught up!!!!!

The title says it all.  I have caught up with the crowd and am riding high!

Without further ado, may I present.....Quilt A progress:

Week 3, Blocks 5a and 6a

Week 4, Blocks 7a and 8a

As of Week 4, Completed blocks, Quilt A

Now onto Quilt B.....

Week 3, blocks 5b and 6b

Week 4, blocks 7b and 8b

As of Week 4, completed blocks, Quilt B

Time Out to Fill My Cup

This past week I have been working on Life-Tasks....those simple mundane things that have to been done eventually...paying bills, buying groceries and small items needed around the house, cleaning (altho very little of that!)....and working to get caught up with Amy's Challenge. 

Right now I am taking a few minutes for myself... a cup of coffee and a book.  This one was given to me a couple of years ago by my newest DIL and son.  It is an inspirational book and one that I can pick up, turn to any chapter and read a few peaceful words. 

The author uses the name and picture of each quilt to convey thoughts or inner feelings in each chapter.  Lovely book.

3D Math is done!

It is bathed, dried, and ready to mail!

I finished my flannel quilt for my GS, along with it's "foot label" on the back. It actually is a free  rail fence pattern. This is the second quilt that I have made out of this material.  The light plaids are slightly different, but otherwise I used the same material.  I even have a little more, mainly the solid green, if I want to make something else. 

I named it 3D Math because the original pattern showed a solid black square and I did not like the bluntness.  I spend a lot of time checking and rechecking my math so that I could put a small piece in the middle of the square to break it up.  At the time, there was very little of that green plaid left, and that had a lot to do with the size of the piece. Later, after the top was pieced, I ran across some more of the same material, in New Hampshire, at Keepsake Quilting, and it was one of the fat quarters I got on sale there. So I was able to use it in the binding as well.

The "foot label" is the actual outline of my GSs foot that he sent to me. I am going to use it, along with the rest of the family's feet and hands in a quilt in the days, months, years, to come,,,,whenever I can get to it.