Revisting the Past

After sharing an older piece yesterday, I thought I'd share another "old" quilt today. This is "Spring Break," featuring Daughter 1 and Prince floating at the lake.
This quilt was juried into the International Quilt Festival in their "Celebrate Spring" exhibit a few years ago. I remember how labor intensive this piece was - it's made almost entirely from tiny (1/4 inch wide) strips of fused fabric.

As usual, click on the pictures a couple of times to see them closer.

For the next 10 days or so I'm going to be uber busy helping kids move from point A to point B and then from point B to point C. Two kids. Three moves. It's all good though! Happy days ahead! Meanwhile, I'm having a show and tell here, sharing some oldies but goodies until I can get back to quilting.

Remember this quilt?

I made this for a guild challenge last year. The challenge was to include a flying geese unit and a bit of red in your quilt. Instead of making a pieced traditional flying geese unit, of course I had to step outside the box and make these flying geese:
I called it, "Happiness is... A Gaggle of Geese. It was one of the winners at the guild level, and was then entered (along with the other winning quilts) into the Ultimate Guild Challenge at the recent Knoxville AQS show. Our quilts were juried into the show. I wasn't able to get up to Knoxville to see it hanging, but I do know it's back in Birmingham now. I'm picking it up Thursday. No, we didn't win ribbons at Knoxville, but it was great to have our guild represented there.
Whenever I have a quilt juried into a national show, I always take advantage of the appraisal that is offered. I love all my quilts no matter the monetary value. But it is nice to get the appraisal feedback when I can.

I got the appraisal in the mail yesterday. Yes, it made me happy! $1900! That's not as much as my large portrait quilts are usually appraised, but I'm definitely pleased with the amount.

Playing with Fabric

I finally got around to opening the box of fabric I bought from Melody Johnson. Squeal!!! Look at all these delicious stripes! I'm drooling, but I can't get too excited yet. I'm in over my head with so many projects at the moment.
Here are the pre-cut strips she sent along.
I've also been picking out fabric for another project.

Lake Dogs

Hubby got a bee in his bonnet. He wanted to go back to the lake yesterday. Though I'm still recovering from the last trip, I agreed. So hubby, Daughter 1, and I (along with the doxies) hit the road for the land of the wet and wild. We took the boat to a small island where the dogs could run free and explore.
Prince did some swimming.
Prince did some heavy duty rock rescuing, on his lifelong mission to rid the lake of rocks.
Mickey was happy to sit in the shallow water, watching Prince do his thing. It was a good day. Now back to the quilting life.
Look what the mailman had brought while we were gone! Yummy! Melody Johnson mentioned on her blog a couple of days ago that she wanted to sell her stash of Kaffe Fassett stripes. I e-mailed her quickly! I was the first to respond, so I got the honor of buying them. It's over 6 yards of fabric (a really nice variety), plus she threw in some pre-cut strips. It was a real bargain! I'm in stripey heaven! It will be some time before I can use them - too many irons in the fire currently - but I do have big plans for them.

Pinterest!

No pictures today. Hubby and I hosted a big party at the lake yesterday, so we've been gone 2 days. We got home late last night and today (for me) has been a day of rest. I haven't had the energy to make it upstairs to the studio, or even to unload the car. It will all still be there tomorrow when I'm more rested.

So today I want to share my love for Pinterest! Do you Pinterest? Have you even heard of it? I'd been hearing about it, but until I joined in I didn't know how fabulous and fun it can be!

Pinterest gives you a place to create on-line bulletin boards of inspirational photos, recipes, ANYTHING you see on the internet. See a cool quilt you love - pin it to your board. Want to save that fab picture of someone's redone furniture - pin it to your board. You can create multiple boards, each with a different subject matter. You can follow others' boards, and they can follow yours.

I urge you to try it - it's way addictive! Check out my pins here. Follow me if you'd like.

Quilting and Computing

It only took minutes to quilt the top section and square it up. If you're wondering how big it is at this point, it's about 32" across by 44" in length. I've been planning all along for it to be a lap quilt, but now I'm thinking it might be better as a wall quilt - a piece of art. Hmmm. Not sure. I don't have a great deal of fabric left from my swap, so I'd need to buy some to make it significantly bigger. Not a real problem. I know I want to add at least one more vertical row - it's too skinny for me now. I do have enough fabric for that. Decisions, decisions. I'll have to think on it.
Mickey was my assistant while I did the tutorial on Quilt-Pro. It went very well. I think I'm going to love this new software and all it can do. Beats the heck out of coloring in little squares by hand!

Slowly, But Surely

I finished the wide row I started yesterday. I sewed it to the quilt, along with it's backing and some batting. Now it's ready to be quilted and that's where I stopped this afternoon. Here it is, ready for some attention tomorrow from my Handi Quilter - love this machine!
I've been wanting to buy some computer software for designing quilts; it's getting tiring using colored pencils and graph paper! Much to my surprise, they do not make a version of EQ for Macs. How can that be? You can make EQ work on a Mac if you have this and that and the other, non of which I have on mine.

After more research, I found Quilt-Pro. Yes, they have a version for Mac! I got it in the mail yesterday, and installed it this afternoon. The instruction manual is great; I need to go through the tutorial included in the manual before I dive in head first. That's on my list for tomorrow (along with quilting the row on the cross quilt).

Saturday Progress

Not much progress today. I spent most of my time doing some big-time housework. Daughter 1 came over last weekend and cleaned out her old room. So today, I cleaned it thoroughly, washing all the bedding while I was at it. Then I moved on to the basement den. It needed a ton of attention, too.

I did manage enough energy to make 5 crosses for a row across the top. The rest of this row will have to wait for another day.
Here's a shot showing the 5 blocks. They still need to be trimmed.
And here's a close-up (as requested, Val) to show some quilting. For new readers: you can click on any picture two times to make it appear larger so you can see more details if desired.
Mickey shared an apple with me this afternoon. He loves to nibble on an apple core.

It's Getting BIgger

I added a row on the right side of this quilt this afternoon. I especially like the bright orange fabric I added today.
Get a bit closer...can you see why?
Closer.... there it is! Doesn't every quilt need a dachshund on it?

No Pictures:(

Blogger is not cooperating with me this morning - unable to load pictures. Or maybe it's IPhoto that's acting up. Not sure. But since I never made it up to my studio yesterday, it's just as well. No progress on the QAYG.

I will definitely sew today! I need to do a bit of cleaning in my studio, too. It's becoming cluttered - don't want it to get out of control!

My new Accuquilt Studio dies came yesterday - a boxful of fun!

And So It Grows...

I added the row across the bottom this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll do a row on the right side. I'm kind of loving the quilt. No measuring. Wonky cuts. Easy straight line quilting. I'm learning that the key to success in this process is to square the quilt each day when I'm done. As long as I keep it square, I'll be okay.

More QAYG Progress

This is becoming my late afternoon project. I spent most of the day doing quilty projects that NEEDED to be done. (More about that soon, I promise!) Then around 4 in the afternoon, I worked on this. Today I added the left side section. Tomorrow afternoon I'll add a section across the bottom. I'm going around and around, log cabin style.

I placed an order for more Accuquilt studio dies today; hubby wanted me to get some for my birthday. I can't wait for them to get here! I ordered another circle die (my third), an equilateral triangle die, and a drunkard's path die. He also got me a subscription to a Machine Quilting magazine. And a beautiful flower basket to enjoy on our deck. And some steaks to grill out - we do love to grill!

A Rockin' Guild Meeting

At our guild meeting, we had food that stretched from one end of the room to the other. What a nice birthday lunch!
We were serenaded by an Elvis impersonator while we pigged out.
Here's a sneak peak at our opportunity quilt for next year. A real beauty!
In the afternoon, I add another section to my orange and blue cross quilt. I'm really enjoying this Quilt As You Go technique. I'll try to add another section today.

The heat here is sweltering! Heat index has been going up to 114! Great weather for sewing in my cool studio.

Another Lake Weekend

Ahhhh.... Our graying doxie, Prince. Snoozing on a boat. His favorite thing to do.

We went back to the lake Thursday for a long weekend. Relaxing. Boating. Napping. Zooming on the Sea Doo. Reading. Grilling. Ahhhh....

Today is my birthday. I was thinking about how birthdays felt when I was a kid. They felt different than other days. Remember that feeling? Now that I'm 51, they don't feel much different from other days. And that's fine with me.

I'm excited to go to a quilt guild meeting this morning. It's our last meeting of the year. (Our new year starts in September, after taking August off.) Today's meeting will be like a party, with everyone bringing food for a pot luck lunch. Oh the food! With well over 100 members, there will be tons of food. I made a vegetable sandwich spread with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and onion, mixed with mayonnaise and Knox unflavored gelatin. Sounds a bit strange, but it's oh so good - spread on bread, crackers, or even by the spoonful. Yum!

Tonight hubby is taking me out for dinner. And then (triple yay!) the premier of this season's Design Star on HGTV. A very fun day!

Orphan Blocks for a Tornado Quilt

Look at this lovely package I received in the mail last week. The amazing stamps blew me away!
Inside? Orphan blocks! For a tornado quilt! Sent from Diane all the way from the Netherlands! WOW! Thank you so much, Diane!!! I promise they will be put together soon, and I'll show the results here.

A Day at the Lake

We celebrated the Fourth on Sunday, spending the day at the lake with family.
There was yummy food.
A new Sea Doo; Daughter 1 and her hubby tried it out.
A nice boat ride; my mother, Daughter 1, and Prince enjoyed the ride. I stayed back at the house to keep an eye on my father and hubby's mother. We realized it was too much of a trip for my Dad. He barely made it through the day. He was exhausted, and I nearly never got him back into their apartment later that evening.
I'm King of the World!

I hope you all (USA readers) had a lovely holiday. I didn't do much sewing over the weekend, but I did do some quilty stuff. Some cutting of fabric. Some writing. Some planning.

A New Start

I know, I know! I have enough projects already! But I had an hour to spare this morning and couldn't resist. I pulled out the orange and blue fabrics I received in a bee swap earlier this year. Though there was a suggested pattern to use, we could choose to do our own thing, which I am doing. I added some white fabric to the mix and started stitching some wonky crosses.
I ended up with four, stitching them together to make a wonky square.
Then I quilted it with wonky lines (see a theme here?) and squared it up.
This is the start of a larger quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) quilt. I've been wanting to try the technique and this seemed like a good project for it.

Meanwhile...slaw in the refrigerator, fresh butter beans simmering on the stove, fruit salad in a bowl, and ribs ready to go on the grill. Yum! I think we'll be eating barbecue in some form or another for the next few days.

Matching Toes

Some people match their shoes with their purse. As I finished the binding on this quilt yesterday...
I realized I'd matched my toes with my quilt! How funny!

I used the scraps to free piece the backing - I'm loving the look. I will definitely try this again.