New Zealand Major Milepost!

This morning I knew that I could not attend my daughter's soccer game (where she plays killer defense) because the sun was shining. No, I'm not a vampire, but sometimes I'm sensitive to sunlight. (Yeah, sure, tell me another one.) So I set myself a goal: get all the blocks set in the monotonous New Zealand quilt. I say monotonous because the sewing looks like this: one after the next after the next...

Stashbusting Alert! So, to keep myself sane, I pieced these from my strip box and my crumbs. If you look close, you can find where I used an actual 1" square of fabric. I'm very pleased with these little 6 1/2" blocks. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I still like 'em! I'm especially pleased because I worked with colors I'm not normally fond of: russets.


And so, after all that trouble........ Ta-da! Yes! The New Zealand Quilt top medallion is finished! (In Desirean, that means all the blocks are together but no borders have been added.)
And now I'm pooped. But I gotta make dinner. If I had smileys, I'd put a frownie face here. Chicken cooked with shallots and bacon and something...maybe biscuits, ratatouille, braising greens, vegetable soup... Sounds good.

Tiny Blue Heaven

This is a 6" version of Quilter's Cache Blue Heaven. (Their's is 12".) It's for Stashbuster's charity block roundup. I thought I'd give it a try and see if I liked it. They said ANY two fabrics and, I swear, the blue-orange-purple is only ONE fabric. I received it in a fabric swap... so it was an "Obnoxious Fabric" swap, but I think it works here. Still, I'm kinda glad it's used up!

Done! (Almost)

Ew! Scary inside-out tote!




The Vibrant Tote is nearly finished. It just needs two large buttons sewn to the outside pockets. There's a method to my madness: I don't want to finish it until I can get credit on Stashbusters.... and since it doesn't need to be finished until Christmas, I'm okay!

I've started on another tote, too! But the recipient reads this blog and is smart.

Vibrant Progress

I've worked a little more on the vibrant tote. Today I decided to try out one of the fancy stitches on my Elna to quilt the handle. I figured if I hated it I could just toss it. Well, it's not getting tossed!

In other news, I've joined the UFO challenge at Stashbuster. You join the group by sending 2 fat quarters and a list of your quilting Unfinished Fabric Objects (within their guidelines, of course!) In a very intense way, you will be encouraged to finish projects. I have a list of 17, which appears quite paltry in comparison to others!

How to Look Busy

I finished these stitchery projects quite some time ago and rediscovered them a couple of weeks ago. I signed and dated them--this year, seeing as that was part of the stitching (shameless justification, I know!)--and took 'em to the framers. I LOVE how they came out. Nothing like rice paper and velvet to va-va-voom it up!

The girl was so cute: she told me they were trying to figure how how to tell me the pink and green Sweetheart Tree one was lost so they could take it home!

The Amazing Six-Hour Quilt

Presenting the amazing... Six-Hour Quilt! This baby was cut and sewn in only six hours: one quilting session. I swear, I think the Holy Spirit got into my sewing machine yesterday! I call it Ballerina blocks. It has 48 6" blocks, only because that's how much fabric I had. The inner burgundy border had 1/2" of leftover fabric (eep!) and the outer border had about 8" by 4" left. (Enough to please Bethie as a little gift!)





I'm not the only creative one in the household, though. My daughter and her bud volunteered to make the banner for their soccer team, The Cherry Bombs. Teamwork made it fly: 3 1/2 hours and done! (And that includes shopping!)



Sad news: I had to spend plenty of time frogging the bottom of Jingle Bell. Boo. That sad little pile of threads in the corner are all that's left of 200 stitches or so. (sniffle)

Revving Up!

I've decided to make a number of totes; most of my creative time today has gone into cutting the fabric. Here's the selection for one of 'em, inspired by a vibrant shirt on a gorgeous blonde.

Friendly Totes!

Isn't it amazing how a pattern can look entirely different based on differing tastes? Mine's this jungle-y one:
My friends finished their totes and let me take pictures. Bethie insisted that her beautiful smile be part of the picture. Who can blame her?

...and here's Valerie's Tote!

Your Opinion is Solicited

Trippin' Out, the quilt for Vince, has come back all assembled from Therese. See the beautiful cross back that Cathy made?

Also, I spent a little overtime at PQM meeting and finished the top for Siesta. See the gauchos havin' their nappy-time? The crazy 9-patch blocks were rejects from a swap--they didn't quite fit the guidelines, but now they have a home. And the siesta fabric has been begging to be used since we started this ministry. I can't wait to see how Cathy does the cross for this one! Opinions solicited: I really liked how the blocks just floated on the blue, but maybe it's a little weird; should I trim the blue and add another border?

Now I must must must spend some time working on quilts for the family! Has anybody else noticed that charity quilts get done and personal quilts just sit in the box?

Ta-da!

It's finished! I know it's not perfectly symmetrical, but it was my learning piece and I love it. (so there!) P.S. Anybody out there doing Quilt Pink?

What color is your soul painted? Grey Your soul is painted the color grey, which embodies the characteristics of elegance, humility, respect, reverence, stability, subtlety, wisdom, strong emotions, balance, and cancellation. Grey falls under the element of Water, and symbolizes the moon, tide, ebb and flow. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

Grey? Me? Grey? Elegant? Huh? Who wrote this thing?