What Is On My Plate

It has been a busy December.  Yesterday, I mailed all of my packages for Christmas.  I have attended a couple of Christmas parties.  Fun was had by all.  I ate all the wrong things and my scale tells me so.  January is coming and I will worry about it then. 

I have a few things quilting related on the burner and a new quilt coming up.  George and I have been busy.  He is doing a fine job.  No broken threads, I am so very grateful.  The colorful tube in the picture is my cats tunnel and way down the room you can see Yethi and Jack laying in front of the door soaking up the sunlight.   

This is the pattern I am using.  Part of it is free motion and the rest I printed out on my printer and followed the lines.  I am doing each individual block.  The quilt is 64 blocks plus the borders.  It is big lap quilt measuring about 72x72. 





Hallelujah

 This quilt you have seen the blocks peaking through in pictures of other quilts for some time.  I still have 4 blocks to make.  I have redesigned this quilt several times and now think I might have it right.  The borders are really going to add to the design.  This is the Hallelujah quilt.  Don't you think the leaves look like they have their arms up singing?  Notice the half square triangle to the left (actually there are several stacked together), they are part of the outside border. Notice the different patterns that the blocks make when they are put together.   Comeback and see this quilt when I finish it up.

BOM

I was into QB a couple of weeks ago.  They had just completed the first month kit for a new BOM.  I looked at the pattern and fell in love.  It is going to be gorgeous and the colors they have chosen are terrific.  I don't usually do BOM quilts, but I thought possibly I could do this one and still do all of things that I have waiting in the wings.

I guess that is it for today.  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year. 

End of July................

It is hard to believe that it is the end of July.  Can you hear Jingle Bells around the corner.  It seems like after the 1st of August, time just flies.  I have a lot to do, and I imagine if you are a quilter or a crafts person, you are thinking, "how am I going to get all of this done."

Michael's Quilt

One more project finished.  This is the doggy quilt for Michael.  You can't see the quilting but I put doggies and doggy bones on it. 



Starring the Waterlilies

 I am working on the back for Spinning Stars.  I still have more to add to this back.  Some if not all of you know that I piece my backs.  I make my backs without a pattern and by the seat of my pants.  It is rare that I actually take pencil and paper and draw them out.  This quilt top is based on a pattern by Dot Collins.  I took her pattern did a little change (surprise, surprise), made it a bit larger.  I am going to have her do the quilting.  She is an award winning quilter and does a wonderful job.  I would like to enter it in shows next year and the following year. 

There is a Lot of Spinning Going On

Hope all is well with you.................

Rain, Rain Go Away...........

I hear thunder.........so far no rain today, but I think it is coming.  We have had rain for days.  Sometimes it has been a lot.  The grass and the weeds grow, grow and grow some more.  The yardman was here today.  My yard was looking like a field.  One nice thing, everything is green and actually when it rains it is cooler and the gulf stays cooler.  Down here we are about 45 miles north of the gulf living with the fear of a hurricane dropping in very quickly.  A cooler gulf is good. 

Gabrielle's Quilt

I have been working on grandchild number 2's quilt.  Last posting I showed grandchild number 1's quilt.  I finished the binding a couple of days ago.  And now I am quilting grandchild number 3's quilt.  "George" and I have been rather close.  I have had words (no cussing but close) for George.  I used King Tut thread.  King Tut is one of the best cotton threads around.  George did not like it and anything I did to try to fix it, did not work.  When I bought the machine the company sent me a sample of "So Fine."  So Fine is made by Superior Threads and they are also the maker of King Tut.  So Fine is a poly thread.  I tried the sample, hoorah, it was great, no breakage.  I found a sale and ordered several cones of thread.  Quite by accident I bought the same thread that I using in King Tut.  When the cones arrived I discovered I had the same color thread, so thus stopped using the cotton and changed to the poly.  I am back in good spirits and I like George again. 

This quilt has lots of color.  The center is actually a tree (you can click on picture to make it larger).   I loved this fabric when I bought it.  The scraps are on the back. 

Hope all is well with you.

At The Cabin..........

At the cabin.........what a view..........


At the Cabin



At the Cabin

We stayed in a cabin on a lake.  The cabin was nice for the time of year that we were there.  Beth and Jim stayed in it during the winter.   They had problems trying to keep the cabin warm.  The cabin was roomy with 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen/dining area, and a large living room.  Across the back of the house it was almost all glass.  There was also a game room, garage, and a mud room.  The view here changed from the time that we arrived until we left.  When we arrived none of the birch trees had leafed out, but by time we left they had.  Early in the morning the lake would be still, there wasn't a ripple on it.  The reflection in the water was gorgeous. 

Beaver

We were visited by a beaver.  He was building a house within about 10 feet of the back porch.  He would swim around, find a stick (sometimes big sticks) bring them back, hop up on the pier, cut them up and add to his house. 



Duck at the Cabin

 We had many ducks on the lake.  I was amazed at how beautiful they were.  They were black and white.  Ducks I had never seen before.






Sarah's Quilt










I have been working on quilts for my grandchildren, they live in Washington State.  Now there is another lovely place to visit.  They live on Whidbey Island.  This is the first one I finished and I quilted it myself on "George" (George is an APQS sit down long arm).   It will not win any awards, but it was actually easier to do then what I thought it would be.  I need practice.  The stitches are a long way from being the same size.

My Alaska story will be continued for another week or two.  If you would like to see what has already been written check the previous posts.  To make the pictures larger, click on them.

Eyelashes and Slidell/New Orleans Trip

Eyelashes

The eyelash quilt is slowly coming together.  I have made minor changes to the color, have not changed the design (it is a Judy Niemeyer pattern).  You will notice the picture is much better.  I bought a new camera.  It is doing a much better job then my old one.  I have almost all of the pieces made for this quilt.  I have been assembling blocks and the bottom row is put together.  This quilt has partial seams so thus I won't attempt to put the rows together until I have all the blocks finished. 

This past weekend I went with 3 of the gals I sew with to Slidell, LA.  The GSQA was holding a quilt show at the civic center.  We stopped at Mandeville, LA at a super shop.  Lots and lots of batiks.  I really tried to control myself, but it is difficult when you see all the gorgeous colors looking back at you and saying "take me home."  It is almost like looking at a puppy.  My New Year's resolution I think has fallen by the wayside.  It was a good idea in January but so far it has been a "big bust."  I have an upcoming trip to Alaska.  The only thing that will save me is I can only stuff so much into a suitcase. 

At Slidell we stopped at "Louie and the Red Headed Lady" restaurant.  What a super place to eat.  I only wish they were in Moss Bluff.  I would eat there everyday.  I had a catfish poorboy (I know that is not how they spell it).  It was supersized and the catfish was wonderful.  The waitress asked me if I wanted it "dressed."  Dressed????  I always dress........It is a term used in the New Orleans area meaning, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo (I think, I have that right).  Dressed, by all means.  As I said, wonderful.  After the show we went on to New Orleans.  I will save that for my next post. 

Hope all is well with you............

Quiltmaker, Bow Ties, and Eyelashes

My Easter Dress

Back in about September, I was working on a block (My Easter Dress) for a group quilt.  I sew with a group (8 including myself) of ladies every week.  We meet 1-3 times a week to chatter and to sew.  I put my block on my blog and also on Judy L.'s blog (design wall Monday).  One of the editor's from Quiltmaker was nosing around the blogs and she saw my block.  This is a block from one of Quiltmaker's Block Books.  She contacted me and asked about the details of the block, the quilt, and the group.  If you would like to see the results check out http://www.quiltmaker.com/.   In the middle of the page it says recent blog posts.  Under that click on - My Easter Dress. 



Eyelashes For a Lady

 I am still working on my Judy Niemeyer quilt.  This is a doozy but it is going to be a great quilt with lots of color and movement.  I am using 43 different batiks in it for the center and I don't know how many more in the border.  I wish I could take credit for the design, but I can't.  In the picture it looks like a big mess but it is slowly coming together.  By next week (I hope) it will be well on its way to being finished.  I need to have this to the quilter as close to May 1st as I can do. 

A Bow Tie Affair

This quilt is the last quilt that Larry Abshire (The Quilt Shoppe, Westlake, LA) quilted.  He quilted most of my quilts.  His talents are greatly missed.  Larry moved onto doing a thing that he dearly loves and that is being more involved with the American Legion.  He is the state commander and has a lot of work to do but he gets a lot of satisfaction in helping all the vets across the state.  This quilt I named "A Bow Tie Affair."  When you look at it you see white pinwheels, but if you cross your eyes a little you will see bow ties. 

Got to get busy, that quilt will not finish itself.  Hope all is well on your end.

Raspberry Tea and Flowers to See

This quilt you have seen before except.........it is different.  I made this quilt with a border of green and brown polka dots.  Sometimes you do stupid things and you know there stupid but you do them anyway.  Well, I made this border, cut the strips, the dots were not straight.  They were straight on part of the strip but not straight on the rest of the strip.  I knew I would not like it, but I didn't want to mess around with it and I did like the polka dots, so I put the border on the quilt, added the outside border, which you see plus the polka dot corner stones.  When I looked at the quilt hanging, I did not like it.  I put it in the amoire.  It stayed there for months. 

I finally decided that I really like this quilt and I needed to do something with it.  I took off the borders (the green and the brown polka dots) and the corner stones.  I found enough fabric of green with brown leaves and etc and decided I liked it.  So a new border was born.  Then I decided I had a red border on it already before the green and I thought a flange border in red would look really good.  So thus, a flange border was added.  Then I thought about the corner stones.  What can I do for corner stones?  I decided to make four more pineapple blocks.  So now we have pineapples in the corners, I put the brown print border back on and I have a top finished and I like it. 

I made a back and it is ready to be quilted.  Hooray!!!!!

I must apologize for the terrible photography.  I really need a new camera, and I guess I am going to have to break down and buy one.  When I do get one, I will post it again.  The colors are great and picture does not do it justice.

I must run, I am off to sew with friends.  I will add to this tonight or tomorrow, so come back and see what is going on at my house.