What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

We’ve been travelers this weekend.  We’ve put on lots of miles and I’ve stitched lots of stitches…SEE?

It started as the center star with only a couple diamonds on the outside and it GREW!!!

This is what happens when a person spends too many hours in a vehicle.  It was right around 11 hours spent of driving time.  We went up near Red Wing to a wedding on Hubby’s side of the family.  It was an outdoor wedding and it was very hot and humid but very pretty….and seeing old friends was fun for ...

Last week I finished a baby quilt.  You can find that post here if you missed it.  That one was made for the next baby girl and wasn’t for anyone specific.  Hubby has a great nephew who is expecting.  They aren’t finding out if it’s a boy or girl.  If it’s a girl, the quilt will go there.  If it’s a boy, I need a quilt.

That’s when I remembered that I had the blocks left over from the quilt I made for the fireman benefit.  There were enough to make the exact same ...

Mostly, I’m working on enjoying a long weekend.  My, oh my, this is exactly what I needed.

Kelli was home on Friday afternoon (I took the day off) and we sewed!  It was awesome.  Remember those scraps that I told you yesterday…well I actually got them the Saturday before.  All week I was busy measuring and planning and even doing a bit of sewing.  I really had no idea what they were going to be.

They quickly went from this…

into sewn quilts.

I started out with two different types of pieces.  The big triangle you can see ...

I have a wedding quilt in the make.  Remember these notes from a week or so ago?

I had told you I was working on a quilt…I was.  I didn’t let it sit very long.  I had these cut out in no time….

I sewed a lot over the weekend and got all the blocks made.

I even got the center finished…but now I’m busy deciding on borders.  Sadly, I’m not showing the whole quilt.  I want to keep it under wraps a bit…but what’s a girl to do when it’s a ...

Hubby isn’t letting any grass grow under his feet.

Remember me telling you about the goodies we got on the last junking expedition we went on…Well we bought a shelf/cupboard piece.  This….

He hasn’t liked the shelf he made for the laundry room.  He wanted something with closed doors that was neater so I suggested he revamp this piece and we could use it there.

Here’s the laundry room now….UGH.  Messy.  Try as I might, I can’t keep the shelves neat.  I bought baskets thinking that might help but it doesn’t.

The ...

It looks like I did a lot but a couple of these things have been on going projects.

This first project I’m showing you is my beginning design process for a quilt for Hubby’s great niece for her wedding.  I started out with this and a phone call to Kelli….

After talking it over with Kelli I was happy with the idea so I worked on it some more……

For most of you this is a bunch of gibberish.  For me, it’s the pattern written out in short hand.

I put a quilt on the frame.  This ...

I had an awesome weekend filled with family and chores..and time with Hubby too.  I was what I call a perfect weekend as I got a little sewing time in too.

I’ll start with telling you about the sewing side of things…I worked on this top.  If you remember I started out wanting to make a quilt for Hubby’s great nephew.  I ended up making two.  One went on and will be published in a future quilting magazine.  That one went to my friend Carla at Longarm Quilting Inspirations and she quilted that one.  That left ...

Sorry there was no blog post yesterday.  Kelli and I planned a weekend to sew..and sew we did.  I ended up so busy I forgot to check the blog and see if there was a post….I’m here and didn’t disappear.  I was busy…and then Sunday night the flu hit here.  Hubby and I are both sick.  No childcare..and as of yet no food.  It’s the kind of sick I’m afraid to eat but, I did get enough energy to write a blog post.  Here it is.

Last week I showed you the ...

Hubby’s niece had a baby earlier this month.  The new baby is Jonathon and of course he needs a quilt.  I have so many things on my plate but when a baby comes some of that has to be put on hold and a quilt needs to made.

I had no idea what to make and honestly, I’m not good at boy quilts….No matter how I look at fabric or color schemes all I see is florals or things that look girly to me.  For some reason even polka dots can look girly to me.  Plaids are ...

Last week I didn’t get much done in the sewing department at all.  As I told you on Friday we’ve had rainy-stormy weather which has called Hubby and Craig both away-then with Kalissa working that leaves me and Carver hanging out.   He’s super mobile now and my sewing room isn’t a safe place for him so evenings I’ve working on things I can do downstairs.

Remember my Rectangle Wrangle quilt?

It’s a UFO.  I got it this far and then it stalled out.  I needed to cut the pieces for the outer border which ...

Having foot surgery has been good for quilting progress.  I can’t be at the quilting machine for long periods.  I can’t be outside.  I don’t want to go to town or anywhere else but home as the walking boot is such a pain.  So what have I been doing?  QUILTING at the machine.  Life is good in that department for sure!!

I made lots of progress on this.  It’s my version of Tropical Twist from Bonnie Hunter’s book Addicted to Scraps.

I got this far only to realize I was a block short.  UGH.

In ...

I have today off.  I’m recouping after my minor foot surgery on Friday.  Tomorrow I am back at my regular job of childcare.  I gotta say, having this day sure is a blessing.  I’m getting around fine in my boot and am not worried about caring for the kids but I’m still suppose to have my foot elevated when possible and that’s hard with kiddos here.

Anyway…onto what I’m working on.  This….

We have a graduation coming up and I thought this might be a good quilt to make for it.  I am changing ...

I had good intentions….they didn’t happen.

Remember I had all of last week off from childcare.  I had envisioned long periods of uninterrupted sewing.  Machine time…Machine quilting time too.  It didn’t happen.  It didn’t happen at all.  I’m a little bit bummed about that but I often do that to myself.  I set up big expectations and then they fall through.  Honestly, I am best at sticking to my early morning rising schedule and quilting then.  I get most of my sewing in then and I love it.

What kept me from the machine ...

I told you earlier that I have this week off of child care.  I have medical testing in Lacrosse to do that will encompass the whole week so it was easier to take the week off rather than fight schedules.  It boils down to Monday and Tuesday I have to drive to Lacrosse and get a shot.  Wednesday I drive over to take a pill and Friday I have the full work up.  I have my fingers crossed that this will still leave me with some time to play catch up here at the house and for me to squeak ...

I was pretty productive this week.  I got a lot of things sent out to people.  I have a new person who volunteered to take some of the charity quilt tops.  Yahoo.  She got a new quilting machine and was looking for some practice quilts.  She offered to take FIVE so I sent them her way.  (I’ll take more volunteers if there are any.) I also sent out things to a few charitable organizations that could use a little help with supplies.  I’ll be talking about that later this week too.

In between all of that I’ve ...

Well it’s time to get back to the mystery.  I had planned this for a wedding quilt for Hubby’s great nephew but I got very tripped up along the way.

I sewed along…I thought I was doing okay until about Christmas when I realized that I mixed colors….UGH.  The parts where I put light purple I had planned to be pink.  UGH.  Then my sashing stars were suppose to be red.  It would have all been okay if I had not screwed up.  At that point, I was just frustrated and threw it aside.  Then I ...

Well the sewing room didn’t really get cleaned like it needed to.  I had good intentions and in my defense I did pick up a few things.  Between not feeling well and getting sucked in by my Talkin’ Turkey quilt it didn’t happen…but this did.

Can’t tell what it is?

If you guessed Bonnie Hunter’s pattern Garlic Knots, you’d be right.

What you probably never would have guessed is that I am doing the entire thing in batiks!!  Can you believe it?  I know, I know….that’s very new for me.  I never ...

Last week was the big push for me to get the fireman quilt finished and I did.  See the quilt here if you missed it.

This week, I have a few things calling my name.  There is this stack of charity quilts.

When I only have 15 minutes or so of time, I’ve been going in the quilting room and matching up backings with tops.  One of the things I dislike the most about quilting is finding, or creating, a backing.  Now I have big stack ready to grab and go as soon as I find the time.

I ...

Oh my…what I get myself into.

Every year I make a quilt for the Firemen’s Benefit that’s held the first Sunday in March.  Time has flown by and last week I found myself in a slight panic because not only did I realize that the benefit was just around the corner, I also realized I didn’t have a clue about what to make.  I started thinking more and more about it and looking through patterns and even trying to think of something on my own to make that would be nice but easy too.

Then I ...

So, my baby quilt is a top.

I went with scrap overload.  I added a scrappy white inner border and did a piano key around the outside.  The top is now pretty big.

It’s more of quilt for a toddler than a baby and I’m happy with that.  For the most part, in my experience, parents don’t use baby quilts like they did when my kiddos were babies.  Without the borders this was only about 32″ wide.  I like baby quilts bigger.  Now it’s pretty big but that’s all okay in my world.

I loaded ...