Inspired by Nancyquilts.......

I too went shopping. Now I intended to just pick up this month's installment of 'Buck-a-Block' at my LQS, honestly, I DID. However, I had my nine year old granddaughter with me, and this was her first visit to a quilt store. This child has so much potential!! *snicker*, she would pick up a fat quarter bundle and exclaim over the fabrics in it, or point to a quilt on the wall and tell just what she liked about it, why it was wonderful. We passed a little hand bag that she just adored. Yep.......we bought the pattern. Actually, not just the pattern. We looked around for fabrics, and it was obvious that she needed a little help. So, I gave a fast lesson on chosing fabrics. I pulled a print off the shelf and explained how if this was a fabric that she wanted to use, she now could choose the rest of the fabrics by picking colors from this print. Presto! She not only got the idea right away, she grabbed a focus fabric that she wanted. She also new exactly what fabrics she wanted to go with it! We came home and cut out the pattern. The picture shows what the bag will look like. The bag and strap will be the blue print, the purple is the middle compartment, and the green will be the lining for the purple compartment. This is as far as we got before she had to go home. Boy- that was one expensive 'Buck-a-Block'!!! LOL

Magic Ribbons finished

Each evening this past week I spent 'TV time' hand sewing the binding on my Magic Ribbons quilt. This was another mystery quilt designed by Dorothy Young. Had I known what the finished product would look like, I would have had less contrast between the 'front' and 'back' sides of the ribbons, but then it wouldn't have been a mystery. The 'back' of the green ribbon seems white in the photo, but is actually a celery color. The mustard/gold ribbon has a pale yellow 'back'. It would have been better if those light colors were not quite so light. Overall, I like it and am happy with it. The photos show the whole quilt (which is queen size), a close up of the fabrics and the back with the quilting (designed by Ellen Munnich of Munnich Designs).

That makes a UFO finish. I have also started the next "Christmas gift quilt" and have about half of the blocks completed.

Spring Breeze is finished

This quilt was a mystery designed by Dorothy Young (Yahoo group, pocketfulofmysteries) which was done just over a year ago. The quilting pattern is three sizes of cloverleaf on a meandering vine from Munnich Designs. I finally got around to quilting it, using my new HQ16 on my PCQ setup. What a pleasure it was to do! I had been using a Juki98Q, which is a super machine, but just not enough throat space to quilt without a lot of tinkering about. Now I can chose a pattern and not have to reduce it size by estimating how much throat space I will still have to work withafter the quilt is all rolled up on the pole at the end. Sometimes there is was so little room for the machine to move that the pattern needs to be greatly reduced. Anyway, this is the first quilt completed on with the new machine. I did get a queen size quilted, but it still needs to be bound.

On Sunday I did begin cutting on one of my Christmas list quilts. I even have 22 of 34 9-patch blocks completed. I'm hoping to get back to the sewing room today and do some more.

The little escape....

Hooray for us! We managed to escape the usual for two days and get away. Since our son is home and job hunting, he agreed to take care of Mom for us so we could take a breather. We loaded up the camper and headed up to the lake. Its only 30-40 minutes away, but makes all the difference in the world. The first night we were alone, just the peaceful lake noises (its a wonderfully quiet campground). The second night and following day we were joined by our granddaughter.

In the last two weeks I have quilted two tops, one is finished, the second needs binding and label. When I can get photos taken, I will post those. I'm trying to get around to cutting pieces for the next top and hope I can get some time today for that. I would also like to chose which top to quilt next (I have several waiting) and what kind of design to use on it. I recently upgraded from the Juki to an HQ16 on my frame and I am just loving it!! being able to quilt larger areas in one pass is fantastic, as is not having to limit the size of your pattern because the throat gets filled with rolled quilt and will gradually diminish the amount of area you can quilt.