Wish I'd shoveled yesterday...

Nine inches... oh my aching back.  Now I'm wishing I had gone out a shoveled the first four or five late yesterday instead of having to do all 9 today.  Not a day off for me so hoping I can get out the driveway without shoveling this morning and then will do it tonight.  Ahhhh Michigan

Additional fabric choices

Yesterday was the last day of "Spring". No snow left on the ground and mild temperatures.  But no worries, today winter is back.



Yesterday I went out to Ken & Pamela's to help Pamela stencil a border in Miss Molly's room.  Molly discovered that you could peel off the wallpaper border in her bedroom.  So Pamela decided to stencil a border on.  That's one way to outsmart an almost 2 year old.  Also discovered that for now Molly is in a youth size bed, do guess Uncle Darryl's quilt should get finished first.  Especially since he and Anna have set a May 15 date for their wedding.  Got to get cracking.

Friday night I went to check on fabric for Jennifer's quilt.  Unfortunate the white floral almost totally gone so I opted for the orange floral along with 3 other prints that "go".

Now I just have to decide on a pattern. and maybe find one or two more fabrics, but this is a good start.

We have just one more go around in our block exchange.  Jo let me know that in Fons & Porters Love of Quilting March/April issue they have a Monkey wrench quilt set with plain shirting block between.  I'm doing my blocks in a positive and negative in white on white with my indigo collection.  Here are a few of my blocks.



Fabrics

My mother is in the mode of making "wedding" quilts right now.  My nephew is engaged and in my mother's mind the 2 nieces who aren't engaged yet, but in their 20's are on their way.  For my other niece who has been married for about 5 years, my mother made an embroidered quilt. 

Her preference in quilts is whole cloth quilts or embroidered quilts.  Neither takes cutting or piecing, which she doesn't much enjoy.  Early on my one niece made it known she would like a pieced quilt.  And she was specific about the colors: brown, orange, green and blue.  I know my mother had thoughts of primary colors and that is just not her bag.  This weekend coming home from a retreat, I and a friend stopped at a store and I think I found just the right fabric.  I am ok with the orange background print but think my mom would probably prefer the ivory background, but we'll see.

Guess I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Quilt Retreats

So how can anything be more fun?  Time spent with friends, doing something you love, a great work space and good food.

Some of the Variable Stars spend the weekend at the Hankard Inn at Pleasant Lake.  A few friends and relatives were also included.  There was scrapbooking, quilting and painting going on, lots and lots of conversation, naps, late nights and just time to decompress.

I got back our last mystery quilt from Wendy who quilted it for me.  This time I decided to go with some brights, quite different from my usual civil war reproductions.

I also finished putting borders on a mystery quilt from a couple of years ago.  I would never have thought of using greens and purples together, they just weren't in my pallet but I always enjoyed quilts at guild guild that were that color combination.  So for this mystery I decided to try green and purple.  I think it turned out good.  Looking forward to seeing what Wendy does with it. I think the pattern was called inlaid tiles.

I had planned to work on a quilt for my nephew, Darryl, this weekend but left behind my background fabric.  So I sewed as far as I could get with the fabric I had with me.  This quilt is a great scrap user.  It's going to be a queen size so I have a LOT of blocks left to make.

Last of all, in the box I took with my projects in were a bunch of 4 inch squares that I had cut after making a floral quilt for my sister-in-law.  They were all soft, faded looking florals.  I had along a medium green fabric that I had bought so I figures I would just sew the square with a narrow 1 1/2 inch sashing between and see how far I got.  Ran out of the green.  I have one more column to add, I think, the sashing horizontally and then a border.  I think this will be for my great niece, Molly.



Finally just a few pictures of some of the girls ladies at work.

Doesn't everyone look serious?  Nose to the grindstone.

Finally a couple of TA-DA's  Becky and Roxie finished a couple of projects.

Becky's finished quilt

Roxie's son-in-law's tee shirt quilt

Now, back to the work that pays the bills tomorrow. Updates on Molly and Darryl's quilts coming up.

What I've been up to...

I have been trying to get some sewing done.  With a wedding and birthdays coming up it's time to get sewing.  First was a few 3 inch variable star blocks for the Charm and Daughters of Charm quilt for the silent auction at the Capitol City Quilt Guild show coming up in May here in Lansing.  These were the one's I made

Next came my exchange block for December that I needed to give at our January meeting of the Variable Stars.  That block was Pam's block made with 30's reproductions.  This is her block..

Saturday this past weekend was terribly cold, 10 degrees or lower.  So I wasn't about to go to water aerobics.  So I just stayed home, turned on the heater in the basement and started sewing components for a queen size quilt I need to get done.  The blocks are made of 1/4 sections like this one

of which I made at least 35 on Saturday.  They will then be used to make these blocks

By my figures I need to make 80 of these blocks.  I'm glad we have a quilting retreat coming up in a couple of weeks.  I'm hoping to get them all done before the end of the weekend.

Between the holidays I went through my box of quilt tops to see about getting some to Wendy for quilting.  I hadn't realized how many of them need borders.  So I need to start picking borders and getting them on.  I figure I can do that during our Wednesday craft day at work.

Well more to follow

Loss of a Friend

This morning I received an email that a very good friend has passed away.  I had known Marge probably for at least 15 years.  She was a member of our Variable Star quilt group.  Marge was a wonderful woman.  She had many interests but number one in them was her family. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 18 months ago and had fought valiantly to have time with her family.  She has shared her thoughts all through her illness and has been an inspiration to many.

I'm glad she had this extra time to make lasting memories with her family.  She will be greatly missed but will serve as a continuing inspiration.

Happy New Year

As starts go for the new year mine was just a little rough.  The Monday after Christmas I came down with the intestinal flu that had made it's way through most of my family since Thanksgiving.  Guess that is what I get for getting cocky and thinking I had avoided it.  Must admit though that it helped me to get rid of a few of the pounds that I put on over the holiday.  Now I'm ready to get back to eating healthier and getting back to my work outs.  Today I made one of my favorites, tuna patties, for lunch.  My recipe makes four so I could have one for lunch and now have some for tuna pattie sandwiches this week.  I've also got a turkey meatloaf in the oven.  Mmmmmm, meatloaf.  I could eat it 6 days a week.

I have started machine quilting Jack's heavy equipment quilt.  I got most of the straight line quilting done. Now just need to do the borders and some more quilting in each of the blocks.  I really don't have a good set up for machine quilting so it is a little slow going.  I also need to work on my block exchange block for January.

Vacation in 2010 was a trip to London and Paris, complicated by the volcano last spring.  This year I'm going to do something I have thought about for about 3 or 4 years.  I'm going to go out to Wyoming and go on a 3 day wagon train excursion into the Tetons.   It is kinda in honor of my dad as he did quite a bit of his growing up in South Dakota.  The last time I drove he and mom out west for a Lei reunion we saw a wagon train just outside Belle Fourche and dad seemed to be intrigued by the idea.  I saw an article about a ranch that runs the 4 day trips so I have contacted them for more information.  I feel confident enough in the progress I have made and will continue to make in my health that I want to do this.  I have always been intrigued with the West and so why not go.  I went out a couple of days ago and bought a pair of hiking shoe/boot so that I can get them broken in before the trip.  The other think I have to do is to brush up my riding skills.  Not sure if I will contact a friend who has horses or just go out to someplace like Sundance.

Well, enough lallygagging, back to sewing.

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year.