Monday Mumblings...

I was a busy beaver this past week, but not so much in regards to quilting. I finished up four more table runners (2 Christmas and 2 everyday) and got my project boards ready for some upcoming classes. I spent Tuesday and Thursday helping out at Country Fabrics, a "local" quilt shop, during their annual tent sale and on Friday, I attended one day of Quilting with Machines. Wednesday was a busy day as well, as I helped a friend with a presentation and then played volleyball that night. I spent Saturday trying to play catch-up and yesterday Jack, Lynn and I spent about 3-4 hours doing some run-around work getting a bunch of little things done for the wedding. Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it!

This week will be a little busy as well, but not so bad. I finally dyed my gridded flannel to the dark color I wanted; and so far I like it, even though I have yet to hang it properly.

I know, some of you are wondering why I want a brown design wall. I found that the light color of the batting I was using before washed out many of my fabrics choices. I thought about using black batting, but I work with a lot of black fabrics and thought I'd have the same problem. I played around with various colors and brown just worked the best for me. I took the advice of a couple of people and put felt on my wall. Well, I REALLY disliked that because I had to use pins to hold the blocks and pieces in place.

While attending a Judy Niemeyer workshop at Tennessee Quilts way back in March/April I was introduced to a gridded flannel by my friend Denise. (On a side note, I did not know Denise before arriving in Tennessee, but we had a mutual friend - Hi Mary! - and now I am happy to call Denise my friend. Mary and I were traveling south together and since Mary was going to be staying with Denise, she invited me to stay at her house too, sight unseen. Now that is one trusting soul!) Anyway, Denise had this flannel up on her design wall and I loved it.

I tea-stained some and it was ok, but I really wanted it darker so I finally took the time and dyed it to my desired color. As you can tell, you can still see the gridded lines and I'm happy about that. I'm hoping to have this completely hung by tonight and then I'm set to go. YEAH!!

I bought a bolt of this gridded flannel and still have some if anyone is interested. Just e-mail me and we'll talk. I have a friend who wants some dyed (not quite so dark), and I plan on doing that later this week. If you want some dyed, I can do that for you too. Again, just e-mail me and let's talk.

For the past five years or so, I have made the homecoming sashes for our local high school. It's that time again and I've got the ribbon ready to go.  

 

The game isn't until Oct 12th, but I really would like to have these done and delivered by the middle of next week. I don't want to have to worry about embroidering these while I'm thinking about Lynn's wedding.

 

Speaking of the wedding, I am going to spend some time today sewing napkins. I was going to post a picture, but it would just look like a big pile of black fabric (which it is). Perhaps when they are done I'll get a good one and post that.

 

Tomorrow is going to be busy, as I have a class from 10-2 and I'm helping my friend with another presentation in the evening. I seriously doubt too much will get done, but I do want to have something ready for handwork when I get home. It already sounds good to just sit back, relax and hand stitch a binding, doesn't it?

 

Well, as the title says, those are my Monday Mumblings...

 

Do what you love and enjoy your day!

 

Design Wall Monday

Here's what's on the wall today.

I'm participating in the Iron Quilter Challenge at The Missouri Quilt Company and this is what I''ve made using two charm packs of Summer Breeze by Sentimental Studios for Moda Fabrics. Ignore the yellow fabric that looks like a border. That's the fabric that I want to use as backing and I'm checking to see if I have enough. I don't want to have to buy more fabric and I think that with creative piecing this will work. The quilt's kind of small, about 50" x 60" or so and it shouldn't take me long to finish. Of course since the challenge deadline is December 31st I really don't have much time to wait to finish this up now do I?

As much as I like this quilt, the really exciting thing about today's Design Wall Monday is the design wall itself! Up until this past week, my design wall measured about 60" x 76". Here's a link to a picture of the original design wall construction. Of course I quickly found out that even though that was great, I like making larger quilts and needed to add width to my wall. Here's a link to my solution - design wall "wings".

Well, there's an update. Jack, my wonderfully supportive husband built some sturdy, removeable wings and now my design wall has the ability to extend to 96" wide! AWESOME!!!

I have not added the batting to the wings yet, but that will happen soon. The wings are removeable, which I really like. Here's a view from back side of the wings. The cross bars hold the wings and give them stability. When not in use, they are stored behind the orginal design wall. The wings themselves are stored next to the original wall and are not in the way. YEAH!!

Here's a picture (partial view) of the back side of one of the wings. Do you see the brackets?

I'm so luck to have the space for this and a husband who "gets" what I do!

Check out what other quilters have on their design wall today. Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.