retreats are the best

I can say that as I have been on many and always find them so much fun! I completed the queen size top last night- did you hear the celebration? and confirmed that it needs to be wider (but not longer!) on our bed. What to do? Another row of blocks - not enough...two rows...too much. We decided after walking around and measuring...a seven inch border on the sides only was the solution-and we chose the purple fabric for that. The black/white fabric will become binding on both quilts. So- one top done...the other, a few more sections to stitch together and border and it's done-which I will easily do tonight. This works for me. The design wall is once more empty. So, I actually got to bed before midnight and got up at my usual early hour. I have serious packing and finding stuff to do this morning. I am being taken to breakfast too. Last night my surprise dinner ended up being prepared by my son (the chef). WOW!!! He is a gifted chef - he and my sweetie conspired to have a celebration dinner and time with Alice before I left on my retreat-it was a big hit with me. My aunt was included as well-we all played with Alice as the meal was finished up and served. Alice had the cute dial up to 11 as my son puts it! What can I say? I have always loved babies-and nothing beats a grandchild once you have raised your own children. After this cup of coffee I will pack up and figure out just what all I need to load into my car-read, what I can fit in...I am still debating a few items.
Photos when I get back! see you all Sunday night.

drats! I want to do it all

I am quite sure I am not the only person especially a quilter that feels that way! No current photos-I have not found nor even looked for the other batteries I bought for the digital camera.
I have been stitching on the jigsaw puzzle tops..last night I got home from guild at 9 pm..and my sweetie was back at work! Poor Zoe, our boxer thought no one lived here anymore. A little quality bonding doggy time and I was back at my machine-after returning a phone call to my younger son. Have I mentioned he's engaged? Have I mentioned they moved their wedding date from the end of the year to August??? I am sure I noted their wedding quilt is next up on my to do quilt list. I looked at my May calendar and realized I signed up for 5 to 6 quilt classes! I am cancelling two of them today...what was I thinking?? That I want to do it all...that's what. This week has been totally bonkers-I swear I don't even know which day it is - until I look at my calendar-and look at my still need to do before I leave Friday list- and decide that sleeping is not something I can cancel to make room for things on the list. Out with the top 10 things I must do, down to 5 things I really want to do. I mean truly, who is in charge of my life anyway? that's right-me.
By the way, I think I misdirected on my previous post- the photo with the larger mess is the CURRENT status of that room. Not to worry, it's gonna get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
I have 14 blocks left to trim and many, many blocks to put together into rows ...so it's time to get back to the machine - and eventually I will get back to reading online stuff...seriously.

fabric room....a year ago and now

The photo at the right is from March 2006 and the photo on the left is from this morning. I left a comment on Nancy's blog that I would share my mess-and you can see why I declared this year to be focus on clearing out the fabric room so I can fit a day bed in there and we can enjoy it. My sewing room is in much better shape because I took about half the clutter/stuff and put it out in the garage! Unlike Nancy, I am not starting on this clean up until mid May. I will use this date as my goal for a much improved photo to share. In between now and then-I have at least two classes I have signed up for, a retreat 3 day getaway, and a few celebrations on the calendar....yikes. Oh, I am on the eight blocks of the jigsaw puzzle tops.
Still many hours from having a completed top (at which point I need to check and see about to border or not to border-though I have the perfect fabrics for two borders)-I am still aiming for that goal by Thursday night. However, phone calls are flying and I have been told I am being kidnapped from work at 4:30 pm on Thursday...so I may have a very late night reaching of that goal!

the last of the challenge quilts

The quilt to the left #4 was the first design I had in mind-I have this pattern and could not locate it . Now I am glad it did not turn up until after the guild show! I voted for it as one of the choices given - I think it's really well done.
At last the end of the challenge quilts: I had a comment which I answered directly about the rules of this challenge-they were; the diamond shape must be used as an integral part of your design.
the size was-minimum perimeter of 48 inches to a maximum perimeter of 144 inches. A recognizable amount of the challenge fabric must be used and must play an integral part of the design (not just as a border). The fabric may not be altered by over-dying, using the reverse side, marking, or the like. The quilt must have a quilt sleeve on the back. An identification label must be securely fastened to the bottom back corner of the quilt. Include a brief explanation of how your quilt fits the theme of "Diamonds are Forever".
So, based on those rules-you voted on several different aspects-like best use of the challenge fabric, and so on. You will note in the two taken together-one is similar to the one I made-larger and of course a different colorway ...but those diamonds are not stringed pieced-so I remained the only string pieced entry. They are all unique interpretations of the fabric and theme - all quite creative.

Some of the quilts the challenge fabric is not as noticable-in an earlier post(see Feb 15th post) I showed it along with my selection of fabrics for my project. It's the black with gold diamond looking print on it.

I have been stitching away on the jigsaw puzzle blocks-finally figured out the last two rows of fabric colors I wanted to use and now it's just pedal to the metal time. I also did errands and cooked a huge batch of lentil/vegatable soup using chicken stock made by my sweetie-so this also has a lot of chicken in it- the taste test results: quite yummy! The rain today meant no gardening-can't say I was sorry to have a relaxed inside oriented day-other than the errand running, however, one of the errands was visiting Powells
and I managed to enjoy some reading and only bought one book. I plan on sewing into the night a bit and pick it up some more tomorrow. I have a machine class for a few hours in the morning that should be interesting-I managed to lose the manual to this machine and have ordered another one. I hope they cover some of the stuff they skipped in the first class. They tend to focus on the Bernina new owners and being a Janome new owner I get sort of lost in the class. Not that I haven't learned a few new things about the Bernina I have owned for a few years now! It's just not helpful for the machine I brought to class to learn about.

and more challenge quilts yet again- and ...there will continue to be a few more posts of them too!
I am not working on anything quilty at the moment...but lined up several ideas on the cutting/sewing table..it's one week until I leave for retreat! gulp...do you know how much I have to do before then? ok-I set a high bar for myself..I want these jigsaw puzzle quilt tops done by then...so if I seem to be mia...you know where I will be-chained to my machine :-)

More challenge photos...there are even more to share. I am reading through my long list of blogs and enjoying everyone-my list is not in any particular order and I like it just fine that way. I notice I have a few folks mentioning me- and I certainly appreciate that. I am not playing as I find all blogs I visit on a regular basis to be sources of inspiration and often give me an idea that springboards me into new realms of creative play. I enjoy the friendship and glimpses of each of your lives you are kind enough to share. Each blogger I have had the pleasure of meeting has been delightful - I feel especially blessed to enjoy a growing friendship with Patti who lives close enough for us to actually get together on something resembling a regular basis!
It's not easy to find like minded folks to hang out with that share this passion we call quilting.
PS...all these photos click larger....the details are great! I especially like the one with the green and magenta...one of the ones I voted for...we had lots of catagories to vote on.

more quilt show quilts...

apparently one of the pitfalls of sending your taxes off via internet space, the day before they are due, is the too high volumn of folks doing it! I am still waiting to see if my taxes were accepted-due to my tax program failing to cope with the sheer numbers involved would be my best guess.
That yucky cold thing is trying to make a come back-so I am doing very little energy wise once I get home from work. Walking the dog is about the zenith of my output of getting stuff done :-)
I need to clear off the ironing board and get back to trimming jigsaw blocks-before any piecing gets to be done. I have a daunting list of blogs yet to be visited as well. I am spending my morning time whittling away at that reading. That would be my "breakfast time" that is..before I have to pull it together and get out of here for the day job. These photos are quilts I really enjoyed looking at and wanted to have as inspiration. I take a lot of quilt photos - not because I want to make that quilt, but rather because I so admire something about it-often it's the use of color..or a design I really admire. Sometimes it's the humor or the gorgeous quilting done on it.
Exception: I took photos of all the challenge submissions-some of them are really not my cup of tea...so I am including them for the sake of completeness-maybe tomorrow I will put up the rest of them and "get it over with " in showing them.

another day, another few show photos

I am wearing green today-so figured I could write in green too. A personal note: you know you have been out of the business too long when you can not even remember to get a tax return signed by the individual !!! yep, so used to sending them off in cyber space, I forgot to get my aunt to sign her returns-so before work this am...I will be stopping by and she will sign and have the fun of going to the post office herself instead of me. Had I remembered a stapler last night (apparently hers is in never-never land) this little errand would not be required. ah well...so it goes.
I got an email asking me to post "my" quilts from the MPS show- so..that's what you will see today. The wonky village started early 2006 thanks to inspiration and encouragement and the tutorials of Tonya.
yes, she got credit on my label-though if you read back through those posts of making it, it sure did take on a life of it's own! And, my challenge wall hanging- tomorrow I will show more challenge quilts-I took photos of all of them. There was voting and I was shameless in letting my family know which one was mine (they only had numbers on them)...mine was the furthest on the right on the back wall. This was a fun experience for me...and I have a few more self challenges I hope to get to this year.
yes, the one on the far right...this will probably enlarge if you click on it.

quilt show photos....

I attended back to back weekend quilt shows-Clark County WA and another guild-MPS of Beaveton OR -taking many photos of quilts by either quilters I knew, my own, or quilts that inspire me. So, I will be featuring these quilt photos-most of which, I do not have notes on who is the quilter and apologize in advance-a few I do know- and will be sure to give credit. Life will settle down on Wednesday...and I will be oh so glad to be back at my sewing machine. By the way, miss alice wonderful and parents attended "my" quilt show and a photo of her admiring a quilt may be included...she quite enjoyed all those wonderful quilts! as did her mother...I have not given up on quilt-brain washing her :-)
I am including a photo of Judy Hopkins and her prize winning quilt-her reception featured many,many of her quilts and wonderful stories of how she made them etc. She is actually a member of our guild- MPS- and was our featured quilter at the show. What a delightful woman!

websites for jigsaw puzzle pattern

Rather than try and email back to each person that has inquired about where to find this pattern,Stephen Seifert & Liz Schwartz. are the designers, check out their website: http://www.equiltpatterns.com/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=1&s=1&keywords=puzzling+piece


I have squared a few blocks but mostly have been sidetracked doing taxes-my own and then looked at my aunts. She is missing a long list of year end needed pieces of paper-so I have a long list of companies for her to call and track down what she needs. Don't you hate it when you put something off, and then find out when you dive in to handle it, that you don't have all the pieces?
***edited: missing paperwork for my aunt turned up in a file at her sons...wooohooo...

That's Alice in the Easter basket I gave her....as you will note, we favor purple as her "favorite" color :-)
Been on the run ever since....with a artist reception for Judy Hopkins tonight, and our guild show tomorrow- look forward to quilt photos sometime Saturday night/Sunday....and I am still working on taxes.....ugh!!!!!

Easter intteruption

Thought I would share a drag around panel quilt I whipped up last night for Alice my granddaughter for today. She is crawling everywhere now and I hope the silky binding I put around this will delight her love of touch. I also am including a close up of her new socks (part of her basket of fun). Love the colors ! I have completed up to eight rows of blocks on the jigsaw puzzle quilts by the way....not sure if I will squeeze any more time in on them today...but it sure is a joy to work on! Yesterday it was rainy and cold...today the sun is out and sure makes life good!

quilting and quilting

Sunday was my charity group day and I pinned with help 5 quilt tops, left one for a fellow PP (portland piecer) to quilt and then quilted two of them before calling it a day. The reason I am rarely online and certainly not posting nearly often enough! is shown in the photo...I have the next row of blocks done and row 7 started. It takes me longer as I am choosing the fabrics every two rows of planning. Then I often decide I need more of a certain color and at this point I may be done washing and pressing fabric. I had to add more greens to the mix. Of course I have probably more strips cut than I will end up using-but being in strip form they will just get recycled into some other project. I have to admit, this pattern is very addicting-I am stitching each morning before work-and several evenings too. Last night we had to watch the National championship of the NCAAW-and it was sad to see Rutgers lose so badly. We were so rooting for them! Anyway, I am really on a mission to get these quilts done - even delaying doing my taxes I am having such fun stitching :-) - cutting into and using these brights-many I collected years ago..really make me smile and in some cases of only having a fq-they are entirely used up! I have a great bag of small, small snippets I am saving for more color play at a later date.
I can hardly wait to have this quilt on my bed.