Thinking About Making a Quilt as a Gift?

When I looked back in my photos for the quilt I made my niece, Kelly, last year, I remembered this one I made for my former boss:

I thought I'd share it with you because it's really a simple quilt to make with a lot of visual impact, particularly for any guys on your Christmas list. I think the cutting and piecing probably only took me about a day, and then I kept the quilting pretty simple with just some straight lines to fill in the "star" and some meandering in the background. From start to finish, this one only took a few days and I think it turned out nicely--so did my boss and his wife!

The pattern is the Carpenter's Wheel, and I think you can find the block on the Quilters' Cache site. It's made up primarily of half square triangles and a few plain blocks, and I believe I made each block 6". In fact, when you're thinking about simple quilts with lots of visual impact, you might consider just taking a regular block pattern that you like and making each piece much larger, as I did with the Carpenter's Wheel block. Sometimes just one large block can make the whole quilt--or maybe four large blocks set together. The possibilities are endless! All you have to do is think outside the box a little bit!

Back to . . . uh . . . Normal?

Thanks for all your good wishes on my swift recovery from the agony of low back pain! They seem to have worked. Either that or it was the ice, Vicodin, and chocolate. Do you think it's like antibiotics, by the way, where you have to keep up the medication a full ten days even though you're feeling better? I'll go with "yes." So another eight or nine days of chocolate and Vicodin. Poor me!

I made it though a full day of work AND a Thimbleberries Club meeting after that. The RJR representative came to our meeting bearing fabric samples, and as you can imagine, I didn't want to miss that! Thimbleberries is coming out with a spring line that I liked. They'll also be coming out with four new Cover Story panels. I should have brought my camera. Blame my oversight on the Vicodin. I guess you'll just have to wait to see it.

When I was a kid and was sick in bed, my mom would often come home from work with a brand new sticker book so I'd have something to keep me busy while I recuperated. I loved licking those stickers and putting them in the right spots in the book and then coloring the rest. I blame her for any tendency toward hypochondria I may have now, of course. (I'm glad to say that my grandma's mustard plasters don't seem to have left any lingering impressions, however.) Carrying on the tradition my mother began, I decided I probably ought to buy myself some new fabric tonight--just in case that back pain came back to bother me. Finally I have a couple photos for you. (I did think last night about posting a photo of my ceiling so you could see what I'VE been seeing for the last couple days, but decided against it.) So, first is the fabric I bought--three pieces of 1800s repros. I also bought--but didn't take a photo of--a lime green from the Scaredy Cat line at 50% off, but it would have clashed with these lovely fabrics.

I really like that center fabric by Jo Morton. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but I think whatever I make would look very nice with my living room Christmas decor. I'm just not certain it will find its way into my living room THIS year. Maybe though.

Oh, and I finished something--which also justifies the fabric purchase, don't you think? Replenishing supplies? Or maybe it's a supply and demand kind of thing?

Anyway, this is just a simple Thimbleberries pattern that I started at the Thimbleberries "camp" that was held at my local quilt shop about a month ago. You can't really see the quilting, but it's fairly simple--just crosses through the 9-patches and stitch in the ditch for the borders. I did quilt stencil patterns in the larger center blocks and the border, but you can't really see them. I'm thinking this will be a Christmas gift for someone--can't say who just in case that person reads my blog. I don't think so, but you never know.

The next project I'm working on is for a tree skirt exchange that my online Thimbleberries group is doing. I've pieced my tree skirt but I still need to add the applique. I have the pieces ready to sew on and hope to get that done in the next day or two; then I'll just need to quilt it and bind it. Progress feels good. It sure feels a lot better than looking at the ceiling and wishing I could sew instead! I'm signing out now, so I can go find my ice, chocolate, and Vicodin. I wouldn't want to suffer a set back. Thanks for stopping in to visit!

One Woman's Scraps . . .

. . . are another woman's treasure!

So do you save scraps of fabric? Frankly, I'm conflicted. It keeps me up late at night, worrying about the scraps. After all, what if I run out of stash fabric? What a nightmare!

Seriously, though, much of the time, I don't really bother saving "bits" unless they're either 1800s repro fabric ('cause those small quilts are often scrappy and don't require large pieces) or if I'm just in an odd mood--and, yes, I really can hear you muttering to yourself, "But isn't she ALWAYS in an odd mood?" Still, even when I'm in an odd mood, I really only save "planned" scraps. Do you know what I mean? No? Here's what I'm talking about.

When I made Marcie's Trees on the Table toppers, for instance, I planned to save my scraps. I didn't really want to use half square triangles in the borders as Marcie's pattern directed. Instead, I wanted to make the border pieces kind of like the flying geese method where you sew a smaller square onto a rectangle and press back. I know it wastes fabric, but I think it gives me a cleaner look with fewer seams. Of course, the Wasted Fabric Fairy wouldn't let me just toss out those extra pieces I cut away. Oh no! The Wasted Fabric Fairy insists I sew a second seam line and trim between the stitched lines so I end up with half square triangles from the "scraps."

Here's what I ended up with from the "Trees" projects:

Usually those little half square triangles pile up somewhere in the Sweat Shop for awhile until I decide to watch some interesting show on TV. Just so I don't feel like I'm a useless slug, wasting time doing nothing, I'll grab my pieces and trim them up to a usable size. Most of the time, I can trim them to 1-3/4".

Here are a few more triangle scraps from the latest Hometown Christmas section:

For a long time, I collected these half square triangles until I had a small hatbox full of them--mostly from Thimbleberries fabrics because I had made several quilts using flying geese. Finally I decided I probably ought to figure out what I could do with them.

Did you ever have one of those boards with felt shapes when you were a kid? I used to love to rearrange the colored squares and triangles and circles--I could do that all day long! Anyway, playing around with half square triangles on a design wall is a lot like that--tons of fun!

Here's a photo of the quilt top I made--it still needs borders. I had an idea for my borders when I first got this far, but now I think I might donate this to the Sutter Breast Cancer Quilt Auction that I mentioned a few weeks ago. If I do that, I'll probably come up with another plan for the borders--maybe some applique. In any event, there are too many other projects to work on before Christmas, so I have until the first of the year to decide.

So, do you save your scraps? If so, what have you done with them? I'd love to hear your story!

Quilting by Committee

Thanks, everyone, for voting on how I should carry on with my third little mini. I really was having a hard time deciding what to do, so I appreciate the input. The vote ended up being 12 to 8 in favor of continuing on with the sashing and cornerstones, so that's what I did. Not without difficulty, though!

I know these are bad photos--much too dark to see very much--but this is my pain-in-the-you-know-what younger cat, Spike, who would simply NOT leave me alone and persisted in getting right on top of my quilting, sometimes laying on my arm while I was trying to feed these tiny pieces through the machine. I think one of the reasons the photos didn't turn out was that she was just too darn close for the flash to light her up. But I couldn't resist showing you what I had to deal with!

Once I finished the center of the mini, I auditioned different fabrics for the border. I really, really wanted a blue, but nothing seemed to look right, so I went with a brown. This has been a weird little project to work on since it didn't seem to turn out as I expected all along the way. As you can see--since this one is much better lit--I had help with the borders too!

Ta-da! Here's the finished quilt top.

This is a two-month Jo's Little Women's Club project of a series of three quilts. Tonight I have my Jo's meeting, so I'll bring these three for show and tell. Hopefully, I'll have them quilted by the following meeting in November. Thanks for stopping by to visit!

More Tiny Quilts

Last night I cut all these tiny pieces of sashing and cornerstones for my little rail fence-type quilt top. I put the first couple rows together, and I don't think I like the way it looks. (My plan, by the way, was to add a blue border.)

What do you think? Should I keep going or get out the seam ripper? My alternative is to just set them against one another. Please vote on my poll over on my sidebar. I'll want to work on it tonight when I get home from work, so please help me decide what to do--thanks!

Teeny Tiny Blocks

Remember these teeny, tiny blocks?

I made a bunch of them--40-something, I think. From my strip set left overs, I also cut these pieces--I'm not sure how I'll set them, but I think I'd better do something with them soon, before a breeze comes along and blows these little things away!

Anyway, I have enough of the 9-patch blocks to make two small toppers. I finished the first one using a diagonal set of 25 blocks. I think it turned out pretty cute! Funny, though, to realize I could have made a "normal" size top in the same amount of time!

Someone asked me about the fabric line I was using--Charleston III by Judie Rothermel. The small and large borders are from other fabrics--I'm not sure what lines they are as I just had fat quarters with no printing on the selvage edge. Anyway, just one charm pack of 40 squares produced all these little 9-patch blocks and the other little rail fence-type blocks. And I still have strips left from most of the charm squares, so I'll probably use those in something else. Thank goodness most of my quilts aren't this small, or I'd NEVER use my stash!

Did everyone on Daylight Savings Time here in the US remember to set their clocks back? I'm so glad it's finally that time--getting up in the morning in the dark the last couple weeks has been rough! Now we all just have to adjust to the new time. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A Quilter's Challenge!

In doing a little surfing around Blogland, I've been surprised--although I don't know why I SHOULD be--to see Marcie's patterns popping up on blogs all across the land! Do you know Marcie? If you don't, you should!

Sometime about a week ago, Marcie posted a picture of a new little Christmas pattern she had designed for a small tabletopper. She was a little undecided on what to do for a final border, came up with three different versions, and then designed one that combined the elements of two of those three versions (that's the picture above). So, altogether, there are four versions of her Christmas tree pattern. Best of all, the pattern is free!

So, okay, here's the challenge--pick one of Marcie's versions and make it this weekend. No, you don't have to get it all quilted, but see if you can get the cutting and piecing done. That's what I'm planning to do, and I think it would be fun if some of you "played" along--almost like all of us getting together for a little quilting retreat. I don't think it will take more than a few hours. So, do you want to "play"?

Here's all you have to do--visit Marcie HERE. This will take you to her directions for all four versions. The topper ends up at 24" square--wouldn't it also be cute to make it into a little tree skirt for a tabletop sized tree?

If you DO join me in this project, please send Marcie a photo of your pieced topper as she's requested if we use her pattern. You can also post a comment on my blog on Sunday or Monday to let me know if you made one and whether you have a photo on your blog too (assuming you have a blog).

I have several more of Marcie's patterns, and they're all great--take a look at her patterns while you're over there if you aren't already familiar with them. This weekend I should be working on quilting the Thimbleberries Christmas tabletopper I made a couple weeks ago, but I just can't stand waiting any longer to make this little project, so I'm just going to set the quilting aside and have some FUN! I DO hope you'll join me!

P.S.: If you do accept my challenge, feel free to duplicate this post on your blog or direct your readers to this or tell them what you're doing with a link to Marcie's pattern--wouldn't it be fun if we could get a bunch of people making the same little quilt this weekend? Marcie would be so proud!

Quilt Shop Purchases and "Class"

I thought I'd share photos of a couple things I bought at the quilt shop the other night. The first photo is of the Pumpkin Boy panel from Thimbleberries. They've come out with several reproductions of the original Cover Story quilt panels and they're kind of cute. I've "collected" a couple of the original, "vintage" panels but since I didn't have this one--and since I love Halloween!--I decided it needed to come home with me, along with two coordinating fabrics for borders.

I also picked up a cute little Halloween kit--I love that black cat! It reminds me of my older cat. Then I had to bring home a few odds and ends--sale yardage and a couple fat quarters as well as one of those small patterns that work well with charms.

With these purchases, I now have "kits" for three more Halloween projects. No, I don't think I'll make them for this holiday. In fact, I went to the grocery store today and picked up a couple Christmas magazines. I guess I have a short holiday attention span!

The "class" I signed up for tonight is more of a group of women getting together to sew than an actual class where there's any teaching and learning going on. The quilt shop picked out three projects from the newest Thimbleberries Christmas book for everyone to work on, and all three projects feature snowmen. There's a stocking, a table runner, and a table topper or lap quilt. The shop isn't making kits up, though--everyone just brings their own fabric or buys it there. And which project will I work on? Well . . . . You guys know I'm kind of a rebel, right? So after signing up for the "class," I came home and got the book down off my shelf and found a completely different project I wanted to work on. Here's a photo from the book:

It's not that I don't like snowmen--I do! But I decorate with snowmen in my bathroom and I just couldn't see putting a table runner, table topper, or stocking in there!

Tonight I pulled fabric from my stash. See all those appliqued mittens in the pattern above? Of course I love to applique, but I'm not fond of fusible machine applique and I don't have time to hand applique all of those darn mittens, so I decided to pick a "feature" fabric to use in place of the mitten blocks. I went ahead and pieced the 9-patch blocks and cut the alternate squares and put them up on my design wall. Here's what mine looks like so far:

Of course, I still have to sew the blocks together and then add all those borders, but I just might be able to get the top done during class. The feature fabric shows cabins in the snow, and there's a bit of blue in there which will go nicely in my kitchen, so I've decided to make a table topper and try to keep the colors happy and bright. I'll let you know how far I get in my next post. Of course, I may end up just chatting and eating (they're feeding us dinner) and not getting a whole lot done, but at least I have a head start! And I'm sure it will be a fun way to spend a Friday night!

Have a happy Friday!

Coming Along!

I'm late posting tonight again, but this time it's all good. I came home to an empty house--even my husband wasn't home because he had a late meeting at work. What luxury! If only a cleaning service had visited before I got here!

My house is really filthy. At this point, I think the only really clean thing is the refrigerator I cleaned the other day. I might decide to live in it. After the domestic stresses of the past few days, I just didn't feel much like cleaning. Instead, I figuratively locked myself in the Sweat Shop all evening and got on with the very important job of quilting. At least when I'm in there, I can ignore any mess outside that door, and any mess inside the door is usually a happy clutter of fabric and quilting supplies, and I can live with that.

The quilting on the leaf quilt is coming along, and I think I just might finish tomorrow night; if not tomorrow, though, then most definitely by Friday. Well, unless a kid comes home to visit or some other natural disaster strikes. Of course, I'll still need to add the binding. Oh, and I guess I still have to clean house too, so there are a few possibilities that may side track my plans.

Speaking of projects moving along, how's everyone in the Hometown Christmas group doing? By now, you should have completed the first section and have the second section done by the end of the weekend. The first book ends, I think, with the red bird section which isn't numbered Section 3, but it will be the next one we'll work on, and that will be "due" by October 15th. Are you all keeping up?

I wanted to share a couple quilty things that have arrived in the mail. Since I couldn't attend the Thimbleberries retreat at the Main Street Cotton Shop in Hutchinson, Minnesota, I did the next best thing--I ordered the Mr. Halloween's Party bucket of strips from that line and I ordered a Buck Bundle of the Thimbleberries fall fabric line. If you're not familar with MSCS's Buck Bundles, they're kind of fun! A Buck Bundle consists of a 10" square of each piece of fabric in a line, so it's really about the equivalent of getting 4 charm packs. I didn't get a photo of the Buck Bundle, but here's a photo of the Mr. Halloween's Party bucket:

In other quilting news, did you know that Kim Diehl is coming out with her third book soon? She's one of my favorite quilt designers and I've preordered her book. Since I began quilting, I've always preferred quilts that are pieced with some applique added, and I love quilts done in the country/homespun/slightly primitive style, so when I "discovered" Kim Diehl, I felt like she was a kindred spirit. Looking closely at the quilts in her books, I see many of the same fabrics I have in my stash. Here's the new book:

My last bit of upcoming news is that a new Art to Heart/Nancy Halvorsen book should be out before long called "Be Attitudes." I really like the look of this quilt but I'm not certain I'd ever get around to making it, so this is one I haven't ordered. I may change my mind, of course. But for now, I'm resisting. Here's a photo of the book with the quilt on the cover--cute, isn't it?:

And since these aren't out yet, I'm not really "megging" you, am I? Nah! I wouldn't do that!

Project Storage

The other day, Carole asked how we all store our ongoing projects so we're able to find them again--assuming, of course, that we don't just cut into a pile of fabric and follow it through all the way to the binding before picking up the next project. What a novel concept, huh?! But I think most of us have a couple projects in different stages of completion. Okay, I confess I have more than "a couple." I thought I'd share with you my system (yes, I DO realize "system" is a bit of a stretch of the imagination!).

First there's my shelf. That's the one in the middle of the photo. I have various swap blocks tucked away there that will someday grow into a quilt. I even have a few piles of fabric that I might cut into someday. (Yes, those are eyeball straws in the glass on the desk. So?!)

Then there's the "bucket." I love this thing! I picked it up on eBay for a song and didn't even realize how large it was until it arrived. The bucket holds seriously ongoing projects, like block of the month quilts and sometimes folders and patterns from Thimbleberries and Jo's Little Women clubs.

On my quilt rack, I keep projects that are at least partly done. Many times, the tops are pieced but are awaiting applique to be truly completed. Right now, I have my Thimbleberries Club quilt on top. Underneath are several other tops. Truth to tell, I see one or two that should be moved onto the next stop of my quilt completion system!

Then there's this basket. In this basket are quilt tops that are fully ready to be pinned and quilted. I won't show you the overflow pile, but I do have a couple that don't fit in the basket. Which is one of the reasons I'm trying to get a couple quilts quilted now!

I hope you enjoyed looking around the Sweat Shop (and, in the case of the last photo, beyond) at my various project storage ideas. I like to keep things in view so I know where to find them, but I also want them to look as attractive as possible--no plastic bins for me, because I forget what's in them. You know the old saying, "out of sight, out of mind." What works for you?

Leaf Quilt

Autumn is in the air. The mornings and evenings are crisp and cool. Sleeping in on the weekend under a cuddly, warm quilt is as close to Heaven as I hope to get for awhile. These chilly weekend mornings are perfect! Until our older cat, Button, stands on top of me, glaring, until I wake up, get out of bed, and feed her.

Aside from doing all that statistical research regarding boxers and briefs yesterday, I managed to get the tables set up on the patio and pin my leaf quilt. With the cooler weather, I'm getting in the mood to decorate for fall, and this quilt will, I think, be perfect on the bed in my daughter's former bedroom. I hope--hope!--to have it done by next weekend so I can start transforming the house with leaves and pumpkins and Autumn colors.

I never seem to be able to accurately predict how long the quilting will take, though. I spent several hours yesterday quilting these leaf blocks and have only gotten about half way done. And, of course, I'll still need to go back and add a lot of fill-in quilting between the leaves.

Here are the pesky appliqued leaf blocks that have taken most of my life to finish. I'm not sure how many there are any more because the number of blocks left to applique seemed to multiply every time I'd set it down.

I plan to quilt for a couple hours this morning, and then when my arms fall off, I'll take a break and clean house. Guess I'll need to use my toes for that. I'm hoping my arms will regenerate while I clean, so I can spend another couple hours quilting this afternoon. Do you think we build muscles and burn calories when we quilt? Judging from the way my shoulder muscles feel this morning, I'm sure we must. I wonder why there aren't more thin quilters?

It's Monday

It's Monday, the weekend's over, and the excitement is gone. Mondays are like that sometimes. At least my work day is over and now there are only four more work days until the next weekend.

It's not that I don't enjoy my job--I do. It's just that I'd rather play. I sure wish someone would pay me to play. Yvonne--at least I think it was Yvonne in one of her kinder moments (LOL!)--said I should design quilts. Yep, I'd love to do that but I'm pretty sure no one's going to pay me the money I'd need to pay my bills every month. At least not for a long time, even assuming I could do it successfully. Beside, so often when you HAVE to do what you love in order to make a living at it, it becomes less joyful. So, I guess I'll keep plugging along at my day job. Four days left until the weekend. Did I mention that?!

So, for some reason, I don't feel like I have a whole lot to say today. Most sane bloggers would have just not bothered with a post, but I feel compelled. And I'm probably not sane anyway. But then you know that, right?!

When I was thinking about what I could share with you in my totally uninspired mood, I remembered that some time back, I wanted to talk about quilt show challenges. Have you ever entered a quilt show challenge? Did you enjoy it? Hate it? Never finish the project?

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with the idea. On the one hand, I'm usually not thrilled with whatever theme and/or fabric my guild choses each year. On the other hand, by participating, I'm usually pushed outside of my quilting comfort zone, and I think that's a good thing. If you don't have the opportunity to participate in a formal quilt show challenge, then I'd challenge you to pick a fabric and/or type of quilting that really doesn't appeal to you much and do something with it. With Christmas coming up, even if the project ends up being something that doesn't fit your personality, surely you know someone who would love a quilted Christmas gift!

I have two quilt show challenges I participated in that I'd like to share with you. Here's a photo of the first finished wallhanging:

See that fabric I used in the tulips? The challenge was that we each were given a fat quarter of this hideous--to me--streaky rainbow fabric. I cut mine up and used it in the tulip petals, leaves, and vase as well as some of the ivy leaves. My friend Karen used it in the wings of a butterfly, which were then outlined in black bias strips--stained glass style. It was truly beautiful, and she won the challenge, but I did manage to get a ribbon in the appliqued wallhanging category.

When we were first given the challenge fabric, it took me awhile to decide what I could possibly do with that ugly stuff, but I'm very pleased with the result. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box. Here's another photo of a "surprise" that lurks under the curtains of this wallhanging:

And there's a little story I made up to go with this quilt. The cat--who looks very composed and serene when its "person" walks in the door from work, had been chasing the mouse earlier and knocked over the vase full of tulips.

The second quilt show challenge I wanted to share is this wallhanging (click on it to enlarge to see the various fruits and veggies better):

The challenge was to use the rusty fall fabric that I used as an inner border. I failed miserably since that fabric just doesn't fit with the rest of the wallhanging, and it really doesn't show up well. But it was a fun wallhanging/tablerunner to make. I had taken a class with Velda Newman earlier in the year and learned to do things like make cantaloupes with painted fabric and cheesecloth, so I took some of her ideas and ran with them. Believe it or not, this wallhanging only took a couple days to make from start to finish.

The quilt show theme that year was "Cornucopia of Quilts," which is where I got the idea for the fruits and vegetables. And making something like this--about as far from traditional quilt design as I've ever strayed--was somehow extremely liberating!

Check out my Horn of Plenty--I know you can't see it well in the other photo. Kind of scary in a weird, bizarre sort of way!

So, my point is that we can all use a good challenge now and then. Don't stick just to what feels safe to you. Sometimes, by moving outside your comfort zone, you learn things about yourself and your quilting that you may never have realized otherwise. Although I don't think I'll ever give up traditional quilting to become an "art" quilter, making the occasional art-type piece is fun!

Round Robin

Have you ever participated in a Round Robin? If you don't know what I'm talking about, a Round Robin is where a group of quilters decide to pass their quilt tops around to each other, and each quilter adds another "round." Eventually the quilt makes its way back to the originator.

About a year and a half ago, a small group of us--I think there were six--decided to start a Round Robin. Each of us created a center and passed on any fabrics we wanted to be used in the quilt as well as thoughts we had as to color, etc. Our instructions were few in order to allow the others to be as creative as they wished. Here's what the center of mine looked like (ignore portions of the first "round" that you see--the center that I began with was simply the star background with appliqued vase and roses):

We were supposed to each have each person's quilt for about a month before passing it along. In some instances, personal issues arose in a quilter's life that kept us from staying completely on schedule, but we didn't do too bad. I think all the quilts found their way home in about eight or nine months. In addition to our six quilt tops, we also passed around one that was a surprise for a friend, so in effect, we were working on seven tops.

I decided to get mine out today and add the final border. My plan is to give the quilt a scalloped edge once I'm done. Here's what it looks like now:

I didn't quite get it squared up with every line straight on the wall, but I'll take more care once I pin it for quilting. It's not perfect--I'm not sure that you can expect perfection when so many people work on one quilt. The same thing goes for swapped blocks. All of us have different sewing machines and the measure of a 1/4" is a little bit different for each of us. All of the gals in my Round Robin group are experienced quilters and did a nice job in deciding what to add. A couple of us applique, a couple of us prefer piecing, and one of our group loves paper piecing, so each and every quilt is the result of using different techniques. We also passed along journals with the quilt top so that each quilter could write about what she added, why she chose the design she did, and the date she completed her round. I love this quilt top because I can look at each round and think about the friends who created it.

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CHECK OUT VICKY'S BLOG AND SEE HER HOMETOWN CHRISTMAS START! (MORE THAN A START, ACTUALLY!!!!)

It's Friday Night!

Wooo-hooo! Okay, yes, I DO realize it's not REALLY Friday night, but it is for me since I have the next three days off work, and then the three days after that for the long Labor Day weekend. No, I have no plans to go anywhere, except into the Sweat Shop, of course! And I did tell my husband that maybe we could go for a drive up to Auburn on Saturday. Auburn is an old gold rush town located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. It has all kinds of cute shops, but the main attraction for me is the quilt shop there. It just so happens that it's owned by a husband and wife, and MY husband used to work with the quilt-shop-owner husband. The two men always wander off and talk car stuff, which is a great distraction while I fill up a bag of goodies! I don't know about you gals, but I ALWAYS hate it when my husband's standing next to me at the register of a quilt shop. I can't help but feel guilty!

I DO have to go out tomorrow and run a couple errands, though. My husband called me at work today and suggested that since I'll be off, it will be easier if I'd run over to the post office annex and pick up some new keys to our mailbox kiosk rather than him having to do it. Easier for who? That what I'd like to know! Of course, if he went before work, it would mean getting up 15 minutes earlier. If I go, it means getting up, washing and fixing my hair, and putting on make up! That's at least a 45-minute job, minimum!

Originally I was going to go to the grocery store and run a couple errands tonight on my way home from work so I could just relax tomorrow. But since I have to go to the post office, I figured I might as well run around doing all my errands tomorrow (wouldn't want to waste a good hair and make-up job). Which means we won't be having the large shrimp salads for dinner tonight that I was planning. Which means I was going to feed my husband tuna salad sandwiches for dinner instead. Until I realized I had no tuna. Which means he has to go out and pick up sandwiches and Starbucks iced lattes while I sit here and chat with you. It's all good. I think about now he's wishing he would have just not said anything about the post office and gotten up early to go get the keys himself. Funny how one thing leads to another, isn't it?

The photo up there at the top is of my quilted tabletopper--the one I quilted from the back side. I'm not sure you can really see the quilting all that well, but I'm very pleased at the way it turned out. Under it toward the bottom of the photo is the "Monster"--one of the projects I plan to get finished before I have to go back to work next Tuesday. Besides that, I have a fall leaf quilt that I've been working on for the last year. Actually I started it last year and worked on it a couple times and then haven't touched the darn thing in at least six months. That's another project I'd like to work on. And there are a couple others but maybe I should just wait and surprise you with photos. Check back in with me over the next few days and see what I've been doing with my time off. I have a sneaking suspicion that not only will I have a couple completed quilt tops and/or finished quilts, I just might have a couple photos of wonderful quilt shop finds! You know, I'm not sure that going to just one quilt shop while I'm off will be enough. Since I'll be out running errands tomorrow anyway, maybe I'll find my way to one or two other quilt shops. Sure is easier for me to pick up those new mailbox keys, isn't it?!

I'm Quilting!

Sorry if my humor yesterday caused you any accidents or any otherwise unanticipated pain. I know it was unexpected since not every single one of my posts is necessarily funny, but you should know by now that I occasionally get a little funny and, as Sharon (Red Geranium Cottage) mentioned yesterday, it WAS a full moon. I think you're safe with today's post. There's just a slightly funny part near the end, but I don't think it will hurt you or cause coffee to splash across your screen or keyboard. Okay?

First of all, the Juki works just fine! I've been quilting away today but don't really have anything completely finished to share with you. I quilted the placemats I made last week but I need to bind them. I'm also quilting the tabletopper I made with the Scaredy Cat fabric. Remember this?

Well, I decided to back it with this fabric I had leftover from the Bonnie Sullivan Happy Halloween/Boo lines:

Have you ever quilted from the BACK side of a quilt? I don't remember doing it before, and had I thought of it ahead of time, I would most definitely have put the pins on the back instead of trying to reach under and unpin! (It's probably due to this new, lighter hair color--you know about blondes, right?) Anyway, when I sat down to quilt the topper and thought about what I wanted to do, I decided to just follow the meandering print on the back and it's turning out great! I'm using a variegated Valdani thread with a large needle since the thread's a little thicker. I'll get a good photo once it's done.

So, now what about the Monster? Well, I'm going to try it again once I finish this Halloween topper. Since the Juki's working just fine, I figure it must be the thread. Have you ever heard of putting thread in the freezer? It's supposed to help put a little moisture back in case it's dried out a bit and breaking--at least that's something I've heard. With that thought in mind, I put a spool of thread in the freezer last night and woke up this morning to find it sitting on the kitchen counter. My husband got up first and made a pot of coffee; when he got the coffee out of the freezer, he saw the thread and thought I put it there accidentally. Honey, the day I get THAT forgetful, please just shoot me, okay?! I seriously wonder what thoughts about me went through his mind this morning, but I figured it was best not to ask.

Sunday Follow-Up

I write this knowing full well I'll probably never hear the end of it from Sharon over at Red Geranium Cottage. Goodness knows I gave her a hard enough time in my comments to this post where she said she and her husband had barbecued frozen hamburger patties. So, of course, I thought about just not saying anything, but then I thought NAH! This is too good to not share! Anyway, last night I barbecued these Chile Lime Chicken Burgers, and boy were they good! These were one of the things I picked up at Trader Joe's the other night. Yes, I'm sure there must be a way to make homemade chile lime chicken burgers, but I don't have a recipe handy and these were convenient. If you're watching calories, fat, or just want to eat reasonably healthy food and have a Trader Joe's nearby, try them! We topped ours with lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, and pepper jack cheese. Sorry I couldn't get a photo of the real thing for you, but we were just too darn hungry! So, all I have to show you is the box!

I got everything done and checked off my "to do" list yesterday, including playing around with the Scaredy Cat charm packs. I decided I just wanted to make a simple tabletopper to put on the low chest of drawers in the kitchen, so snowball blocks seemed right--just big enough to show off the fabric a bit but nothing fancy. I finished making the blocks last night and got the top together today:

The border fabric is a vintage-looking Halloween print, From The Collection of Edelen Wille for Marcus Brothers. I think one of my next projects will be getting it quilted. It will give me a chance to play around with my Juki once more and see if I can get it working--if not, into the shop it will go! I really want to get "the monster" done, but it occurred to me to wonder whether it might just be the thread that was giving me fits, so quilting this little topper will give me a chance to try it out.

I was chatting today with Vicky at LA Quilter who mentioned she had dug out a Thimbleberries kit for the Hometown Christmas quilt that came out a couple of years back. I think I'm going to dig out my kit too and work on it along with her. This is a quilt I really liked a lot when it came out but never felt like I had the time to sit down and do it. I think we'll just do a couple blocks a month and see how it goes. There are some cute blocks in that pattern that I've always wanted to use in other, smaller projects too. So maybe I can whip up a couple tablerunners and such along with making the blocks for the main quilt. Coincidences are funny--I just mentioned this particular quilt to Patti over at Quilting is My Passion yesterday when we were talking about quilt shops up in her area. I had been to one on vacation and they had the Hometown Christmas quilt made and hung just inside the door. So, maybe it's meant to be that the quilt be made now with all these coincidences--it certainly IS about time! I'll post a photo in the next week or two of what the quilt will eventually look like.

Back to work tomorrow. But, in the meantime, back to the Sweat Shop for the rest of the day!

Thimbleberries Club Block of the Month--Next Step Done

I finished making three more blocks to fill in the center of my version of the half-sized Thimbleberries block of the month . . .

And then I put all the blocks together for the center tonight . . .

Now what? Well, I need to dress up the house some. I'll add some stitchery and some applique, I think, although that part of the plan is still developing. In the original pattern, the next step would be to add a checkerboard border. I kind of like that border but I'm also thinking about a fence. So maybe a fence and then a checkerboard? Or a checkerboard and then a fence? Or just one or the other? Any opinions?

Thimbleberries Club Block of the Month

All those blocks at the bottom of my design wall that I told you to ignore in yesterday's post? Do you wonder what they are? I thought I'd give you a look.

I'm doing this year's Thimbleberries Club block of the month in half size and making a few other changes. To my taste, the original version has waaaaaay too many contrasting sashings, filler pieces, and borders, so I'm trying to simplify it a bit and adding a few more blocks since my version is small. I think this will turn out to be a largish wall hanging. Here's where I'm at so far:

It looks to me like I have three more spaces to fill. In the space to the left of the house, I think I'll make a pine tree block. Down at the bottom border, I'm considering another heart to balance out those up at the top. And I'm not sure what will go in the third small square underneath the door of the house, but it will need to be something simple because that's not a very large area. Then I'll use the background fabric to sash all of the blocks together. I may end up adding a bit of applique if there are spaces to fill. And I still need to "dress up" the house a bit, but thought I'd wait until the rest is done to decide what it needs.

Thanks for stopping in to visit! Have a good Monday! (Or is that an oxymoron? Have a good one anyway!)

One Weekend, Two Quilt Tops, and a Bunch of Dumb TV Shows

The weekend's nearly over. I can hardly wait until the fall TV season starts. As I've mentioned before, I like to watch TV while I quilt, and I feel like I've watched just about everything worth watching on TV--and a lot that's NOT worth watching.

I spent the weekend mostly working on piecing two Halloween quilt tops using the Bonnie Sullivan/Maywood fabrics. I actually planned to piece one top, but then I had the brilliant idea to make a piano key border for it. As it turned out, that plan was a little less than brilliant. When I put the center up on the design wall with the pieced borders, it was much too busy. Then what? Well, I decided to use the borders in a Chinese coins design top--I just needed to piece another row of strips, the sashing, and the borders. Here are the two tops (ignore all those miscellaneous blocks at the bottom--they're for another project):

Sometimes when I spend so much time quilting, it feels like the weekend's passed me by. I get wrapped up in a project and it's hard to pull myself away to do anything else. Before I know it, the weekend's gone and I didn't do half the things I planned. I wish weekends were longer! Five more days until the next one . . . .

A Little Something Else

Okay, I think I have my mojo back. Tonight I'm going to make a block for my Thimbleberries Block of the Month. Even if I can't get the "monster" done for tomorrow night's club meeting, I'll have my block done for this month as well as a purse/tote for show and tell. I've been working on the purse the last day or two and finally finished it. This is the first time I've made a purse, although I did make one other simple tote a few years ago.

My online Thimbleberries group is having an anniversary swap--we've been "in business" for five years this month and we're celebrating! So this is the tote I made for my secret someone--I don't know much about her tastes, so I hope she likes it (well, of course I DO know she likes Thimbleberries!):

I don't think she reads my blog, so I think I'm safe in posting these photos. The requirement is that we make something using all Thimbleberries fabric; I used some plaids and some fabric from the Autumn Faire line from a couple years ago--it looks a bit like applique but isn't. There's a pin-tucked pocket on the front, and both side panels are pockets also. This is mostly a pattern by Renee Plains called Patches and Pockets with a few modifications made by me that I thought might make it a little easier.