New Meaning to Life Support

Change out the wine for diet coke or beer and this would be perfect.
Enjoy your day and be careful what you say!   :-)

Backing Up a Little

I mentioned Claire's quilt in a previous post and have decided that I really should share a bit of a back story here. Claire and Ann came to visit for a couple of days, one of which I had a class (All Boxed In) already scheduled. While planning the visit, Ann and I had decided to give Claire the option of taking the class and making her own quilt. She decided to do it, so in order to bring her up to speed, I cut all of the fabric for her and made a few blocks.

Claire was a natural and did a really nice job finishing up the blocks and putting the top together. She even seemed to enjoy the pressing.



We took the quilt to Kare's house in order to use the HQ16 to quilt it. The machine can be quite daunting, especially for someone who has just pieced their first top, so Claire asked me to quilt it for her. I did, but she was responsible for helping load the quilt and reposition it each time a new pass was to be made. She also unloaded it from the machine and made and attached the binding.

Do you notice in the picture above that Claire is attaching the binding to the back of the quilt? She decided that she wanted to finish this quilt sooner rather than later and that meant machine stitching the binding down and not hand stitching it. (I think that was a good choice!) She did a very nice job, even on the corners and here she is adding a decorative stitch to the front.

I think she likes her quilt! What do you think?



Design Wall Monday

I've had lots of projects up on the design wall lately but not all of them have been mine. Here's what up there now - Gateway to Paradise by Little Louise Designs. I really like this quilt done in batiks, but I also had this 20 strip pack of yellow and grey fabric and I decided that I needed to use it. It was perfect since this quilt calls for jelly rolls, bali pops, or similar pre-cut strips, but it only uses 20 strips. I'll make another quilt, probably using a bali pop, but I'll make it larger.

Here are a few other projects that have made their way on the wall during the last couple of weeks.

Jerry's first quilt before borders.

Auditioning borders

Connie's quilt after learning how to sew on a binding. (Oops, it's sideways.)

Connie and her beautifully pieced quilt. (Click here to see what Kare said about quilting Connie's quilt.)

Here's Claire's quilt.

And Jerry's Framed Rectangles quilt ready to sew into rows.

Also making their way to the wall, but of which I don't have pictures available right now, are Donna's Maple Leaf Log Cabin quilt, Ann's patio cushions, the chenille blanket I made for Lynn and my modified 1600 quilt. Whew.....the sewing room has been a busy place.

I did make some organization changes that I just LOVE. Check out my notions corner. I have to admit, though. This pictures makes me realize just how much of a ruler wh*re I really am.  :-(

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.

Hiatus is Over

I guess it's time to start blogging again after a short hiatus. It's been bugging me that I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, but obviously not enough for me to do anything about it. :-)

So, what have I been doing you ask? Well, I've been travelling a bit and busy playing hostess to some relatively new quilters. and loving it.  First off, Jerry and his friend (and now my friend too!) Connie blessed us with their company at the end of June. That was followed up by a visit from Ann and Claire, and then just Ann, and then Ann and Jerry, and then just Jerry. I had a blast, and boy did some sewing and quilting get done - mine included! Oh, and Nikki and family were here for a long weekend.  :-)

Sadie likes to help Quinn brush her hair and I love these two pictures. Quinn is a really good big sister and lets Sadie brush her hair. I guess Sadie kind of struggles with the height difference though.

Let's back up here a bit. Remember when I was in Burr Oak for the Sisters' Weekend? I talked a little bit about it here, here, and here. The Sisters' Weekend extended to family time that was discussed here and we had a blast! Within a couple of days of our return from Burr Oak, Jack and I travelled to Washington Island, Wisconsin for a week.

I'll break the sharing from our travels and "goings on" into a couple of different post. If I don't do this, this post would be pretty picture-heavy and you'd probably get tired of reading.  :-)

Way back in January, Jack read about an amateur radio operator in Wisconsin who has a wonderful ham shack filled with LOTS of old radios and he wanted to see the place. After a bit of searching around online, Jack found George's (W9EVT) website and the rest is history! We arrived on the island Sunday morning and stayed in the apartment of Greengate Farms, the  rental property that George's wife Susan runs. The apartment was over a garage and even though it was small, it was perfect for the two of us. It didn't take long for both Jack and I to realize that we could live in a small space. We really don't need a four-bedroom house.

That dormer is for the bedroom window.

Here's the stairs we used to get to the apartment.

The Greengate website has some great pictures of the inside of the apartment (as well as the other rental possibilities) and I think you should check them out. I know you'll just drool over the last picture, which is the view of the lake from the apartment. Even when it rained, it was a wonderful sight.

Of course while Jack was playing radio,

I sewed. Being spoiled and having lots of room here at home made my temporary sewing digs a bit challenging at first, but it all worked well. I had my machine set up in living room. 

While the cutting and pressing was done in the bedroom.

We didn't spend all of our time playing radio and sewing. We spent a lot of time on the beach, climbing the lookout tower

and checking out the local points of interest, including Sievers School of Fine Arts. Oh my....... I would love to return to the island and take a few classes!

Sadly, we left the island Thursday late morning for our trip home. But Jack and I often talk about our time there and feel certain we'll return - maybe to take a class at Sievers!  :-)

Our return trip was pleasant and rather uneventful until we were about an hour from home when we drove right into a major storm. Wow, was there a lot of rain! On a positive note, I saw a complete double rainbow. I've seen complete rainbows (you know, when the rainbow stretches clear across the sky in one long band), and I've seen double rainbows, but I've never seen both rainbows complete. It was absolutely beautiful, and of course the camera was in the back so I didn't get a picture.  :-(

Even though we were sad to leave the island, Jack and I were anxious to return home. Friday night Jack and his friend Dave were going to make some final decisions about Field Day, and Jerry and Connie were coming up for the weekend. I'll share more about that in a future post. Soon, I promise.

I may even get around to showing some of the projects on which I've been working.  :-)





 



Design Wall Monday

Well, the Summer Solstice is still up in the design wall, but so is a new project that I started Friday. I am in the middle of quilting this so please forgive the somewhat crappy picture.

This is fairly small, only about 35" x 35", but I love it! I first saw a similar project on Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts' blog, where she was featuring Laura Jane Taylor, who made the original project.  I knew I would be making this someday and well, someday was Friday!

You can't tell from the picture, but I am quilting it with concentric circles. I think I'll just continue the circles into the borders because I really don't want to stop the movement. I'm using Superior Threads Smoke MonoPoly thread in the top and Superior Threads Sew Fine #411 Black in the bobbin. You can see the quilting on the back really well. Maybe I should have taken a picture of that. I will when it's finished. Another really cool thing about this quilt is that all the fabric came from my stash. YEAH!!

I have a goal for this week. (I know, goals - what a concept!) I would like to get the binding on the Carolina Crossroads quilt, because I'd like to finish it and be able to give it to Nikki and Zach when they're home next. I've made a tentative decision to add a very small red piping at the same time I attach the teal binding. I've felt like it would be missing something and be kind of boring if I just added the teal binding. I'll play a little bit and then decide.

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times; but be prepared to find at least one project that will take your breath away. I always do!  :-)

  

Stash/UFO Report

So I'm finally getting around to my Stash/UFO report. Where does the time go?

Anyway, I finished the binding on the Amazon Star quilt and my Fiesta! quilt. Here's a quick picture of Fiesta!

 
I'll get a better picture soon, but I still have Summer Solstice on the wall and that's the best place to take a picture. Actually, I haven't touched that quilt since last week! I did however, work on something else (new) and put that up beside the Summer Solstice. I should have finished one before starting the next, but you know how it goes.  :-)

So, 10 UFO quilts have been completed in 2012 and 13 new quilts have been completed. It sure is nice to have them DONE, DONE, and DONE (pieced, quilted and bound). I also finished the top of another new quilt and since it's small I am going to try to get that quilted and bound by the end of the week. Wish me luck!

Check out what other quilters have done with their stash.
Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.

Recent Fun

The last three weeks have been very busy and I'm finally getting around to sharing some pictures. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the annual Girls' Weekend at Burr Oak.

Here's Mom checking out the sparrow clothes pins that Pat gave me. They are adorable - Mom and the clips!

Speaking of birds, there is a hummingbird feeder that hangs right outside the kitchen window. Every year we enjoy watching the birds and this year was no exception.

I even snapped a picture of two birds enjoying a drink at the same time. Can you see the reflection of my camera in the top right? I think that's funny.  :-)





Speaking of enjoying a drink...While out one afternoon, we made a quick stop.

And we SCORED!! (At least Pat did; but she's nice and shared.)

 



To read more about the Sister's Weekend, check out this blog post, and this one. Here's another one too. There was some sewing done that weekend, but more importantly, we just enjoyed each others' company. I'd share more, but I have to be careful. We have a rule that what happens at Burr Oak, stays at Burr Oak.  :-)

I hope you get the enjoy some quality time with your siblings!