new fabric and complete blocks

It's been an up and down sort of week nice to finally arrive at Friday night. I thought I would share the perfect tree word fabric I found for Nancie who was in our summer class of Tonya's-now that she has received it. Plus, I finished and mailed off 31 heartstring blocks to help in the green center short term project. I cleared this counter space and found it perfect for trimming the string blocks. You can see the nice pile of fabric debris left.
Tonight I have made the first block in a new quilt project. Once I get a few more made up I will share a photo. This is the quilt I am making for our Christmas family mom and dad. All fabric from stash, my favorite place to shop as a rule. Tomorrow I am having my one day personal retreat. I hope to cut and make a lot of blocks. One block finishes at 14.5 inches, so this should go together pretty fast. Sunday is our first Sunday of the month charity group meeting date. Karen and I plan on pinning several quilts and quilting up a storm. It is supposed to rain over the weekend and I can't think of a better thing to do than stay inside and play with fabric. And, as the quilt shop where we meet is only a mile from Alice, I think a fast visit afterwards will be in order.

checking in

Friday was a bonus day off and I spent the majority of it out in the garden-supervising and working with a crew as we ripped out and moved large shrubs to other locations. I have been dealing with some minor injuries and there is no way I can do the manual labor required to get the yards ready for the coming winter. Of course once we got going I came up with a few additional ideas on what I wanted done. At any rate that took care of most of Friday, though I managed a small amount of block sewing. Saturday we decided to go across town and while doing an errand I checked out a new quilt shop and did a little adding to the stash. One yard I bought is being mailed off to a fellow classmate of Tonya's summer class. I don't think she has a blog but I will wait until I know she has received it to share a photo of the fabrics I purchased. I made progress on a stack of string blocks I am making to send in to Heartstrings.
We are in the midst of a green center block-athon and I look forward to finishing these today and sending them in. Meanwhile, I have decided the next project is to pull fabric and cut for the two Christmas quilts I want to have done by November 30th. I have several more weeks ahead of bonus days off and each day I want to devote to getting quilting done. Today is such a blustery day-the wind chimes are making wonderful music to sew by.

Oh, and we voted yesterday! That was part of our errands- dropping off our mail in ballots at the corner library into the ballot box they have set up. No postage to buy and we know they will be delivered on time and safely. When it is your turn, I hope you take the time to cast your vote.
Off to work on those string blocks and enjoy the day.

wrapping up the weekend

I made these pants for Alice,





and when she woke up tried them on...not bad! She wore them home and I will make another pair longer in the leg next time..feel free to click to enlarge if you want to check out those butterflies. I have my string blocks out and set up to stitch on but have found myself not quite in the mood.

woo hoo it's Friday night

I love this Friday night-it's my last being on my own and I know I will be able to sleep in tomorrow until I wake up. I buckled down and tidied up the fabric room-there is now plenty of room for Alice and her porta-crib to spend the night. I have been meaning to make a new pillow case for a pillow I came across that would be perfect for when she spends the night here. I am showing the before and after -I am not such a fan of creepy Halloween stuff. However, these bugs are exactly my type! (click for a larger view)
I have more of this flannel fabric for a pair of pants for Alice. I am looking forward to an Alice weekend and fitting in quilting as I can. I grocery shopped and stocked up on all her favorites. We are supposed to have sunny days this weekend and playing at the park will be at the top of her list of things to do. And, here is a photo of the space she will be sleeping in tomorrow night.


I will take down the big ironing board that the quilt is over there on the right side-plenty of room for a small crib - eventually we will get a twin trundle bed when she graduates to a "big" bed.
PS- the hanging quilts were not made by me- two were made by children in Africa for a fund raiser I contributed to and the other is by Bonnie M. Bucknam, called The Edge of the World 2007-she was a vendor at our guild show with wonderful hand dyed fabrics and a few pieces to showcase her fabrics-this was my big birthday gift that year. I have not found the right spot to hang it up as yet. She lives in Vancouver WA.

the quilting I am doing tonight

Click to enlarge and see where the green thread is to know the current quilting area, under the" is"
I watched the final Season 5 Runway show tonight and the designer I had been rooting for (Leeann from Portland OR) won! woohoo! I had to holler all by myself...being home alone and all. And during this show and others this is the quilting I have been getting done. I had to go find a glass in the kitchen to help draw half arcs (see the green thread??) as my curve sketching was not coming out the way I wanted. I am taking my time doing this hand quilting and really enjoying myself. I will finish across and then decide what and where to quilt next. I am making it up as I go along and loving it.
My workplace finally put up a firewall so I can no longer read my yahoo email at work on breaks.
drats! It was such a help to be able to pop on and shoot off a quick email or get some reading time in. Oh well. I think I will just have to leave my desk and take a quilting break instead.
Tomorrow night I need to go over to the kids and give some lessons in pruning to my dil. She is a budding gardener and I am mentoring her a bit. Always fun to go over to their house and visit.
Alice is coming on Saturday to spend the night-we can hardly wait!

back of rainbow hope

I came home for lunch yesterday hoping for an email with a number for the rainbow hope quilt.
I was lucky and the number was there. I followed the directions and popped it into the mail on my way back to work. I took not the best photo- you can not even see the black sleeve, but, the label was the main focus and that shows up great. I plan on emailing family and friends to encourage them to go check out all these quilts and bid on ones they like. There is a wonderful variety of quilts to look at and bid on. Of course, I will do some bidding myself. What a wonderful way to support fellow quilters and raise money for a great cause. You can go take a look anytime here.

Quilted Hope

Here it is all quilted and waiting for the quilt number to be emailed to me! No photo of the back until after I add that number. I had to add a traditional sleeve as I had missed reading that requirement the first read through.

I am pleased to have this finished and can turn my focus to several other quilting projects on the go. This week I am home alone and want to make the most of no distractions to accomplish a few things. So far I worked late Monday and arrived home at 8 pm. A good thing as I reached a goal at work and can cruise through the rest of the week easily. Tonight I will arrive home on time and ready to do the next thing- whatever I decide that is. I know how quickly this week will fly by and no matter what I get done or not, it's nice to enjoy some quiet and alone space/time.

Hope...

now ready to quilt-I knifed edged it rather than bind it-which means it finishes at just under the size limit without losing any part of the letters on the sides.
whew! My plan is to hand quilt with perle cotton in various colors. Next post will show how that works out.
We are going out to dinner tonight and then I can settle in and quilt while catching up on tv watching. I may feel a little sad to mail it off come Monday but know it will help fund a wonderful cause.

I have something new to show

though Alice and family were here for a visit and brought supper and they all were being adorable- nope, I am not showing new photos of them.
After they left, we cleaned up and I decided I needed to get some quilty things done, no matter how late it got. I fixed another pulled apart seam in my kindness quilt (nice that I had not done any quilting before noticing it this time), I cut fabric for a quilter in need, and then sat down with the priority hope challenge rules and notes. Aha, a chance to use the gorgeous hand dyed fabrics I bought at spring market. I started with this roll, cut strips, and here is the completed top. It can not be larger than 9 inches by 12 inches..I will be just about exactly that. I may have to trim a bit more, as it needs to fit in a priority envelope without being scrunched in. It was so much fun to make this, and fast! These fabrics can be found here.
If you want to join the fun of making one of these for a deserving cause- check out how to do that here.