Archive for January, 2009

Not the best photo but #7 of 10 tops for January is done. This HeartStrings top was pieced by Barbara in FL and sent to me to quilt and donate. Quilted with Wandering Daisies pantograph. You can click on both photos for a larger view.

Here’s a better shot of the quilting. You’ll see the rest of the top once it’s bound.

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I’m doing a better job this month keeping up with my binding as I quilt – this top was pieced by Mom and given to me to quilt and donate. It was from a kit I bought her at Tiny Stitches last year when I was in Georgia visiting the boys.

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For those of you who asked, the class I’m taking is at JessicaSprague.com, it’s the 2nd one I’ve taken there. Don’t be too impressed with this first layout….the layouts are provided and you basically just go step by step to add the photo, papers, elements, and journaling BUT I did manage to redo the template when it wasn’t wide enough for my photo.
Wednesday’s challenge project (this one I did do from scratch can’t you tell?)…..I intended to take this photo of the boys and selectively recolor the cherry on the spoon but somehow, I ended up putting another photo of them over the top of it instead.

With just 2 weeks until their visit, the boys are on my mind.

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In general I feel I pretty much march to the beat of my own drum – I can be rather single minded, almost obsessive at times but I don’t consider myself easily influenced by what others around me are doing. So why did I grab this book instead of a mystery novel today when I headed out to the coffee shop and lunch? I’ll blame Suzanne (she’s also the one who influenced me to explore the digital photography/scrapbooking classes).

I bought this book in September on our trip to NY/DC when we visited the MET and the National Gallery of Art when I realized how little I actually know about art. I have looked at the pretty pictures but until today, hadn’t taken time to READ it.

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I doubt I’ll be able to stay up all day after not going to bed at all last night but I needed to get out of the house so I worked for a while this morning and then headed to the coffee shop with my computer.

I’m taking another online class – more digital scrapbooking. The first class is making a layout using a photo that has been selectively recolored. I chose this one of Mom that I took in December when we took flowers to Dad’s grave – there was just something about the red of her coat that struck me.

I put a binding on the Polar bear & Penguin quilt and started assembling the blocks on the design wall. I really want to start a new quilt but so far I’m resisting.

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I’d seen a post on Cheri’s blog about Obama calling for a National Day of Service today in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Even though most of my days are passed in service to others, I wanted to make sure I worked on donation projects today.

Tonight, I’m working on quilting this cute top that was pieced by my Mom. She’d given it to me to quilt and donate and I’m in the mood to work on another kid’s quilt after finishing up the binding on the Happy Block quilt earlier today. I’m doing some freehand swirls and when I’m finished – it will be #6 of the 10 tops I’m quilting in January. (It will be finished tonight!)

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I didn’t sleep this morning after working all night but I did need a little nap this afternoon. We watched Philadelphia lose and Pittsburgh win and I managed to hand stitch this binding tonight.

If you’re interesting in making your own Happy Blocks, you can find instructions at my MaryQuilts.com site.

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• 2 tops quilted
• 2 quilts bound and a 3rd almost finished
• Half the blocks are now finished for the RWB top
• Fabric pulled from stash for 2 backings, 2 bindings, and all the RWB blocks are from stash
• No fabric purchased
• 5 of 10 tops for January are quilted and the 6th is loaded on the longarm

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I really thought I was much further along on this quilt until I pulled the blocks out the other day and put them up on the design wall but now I’ve finished half of them. Since this quilt has 4 distinct sections, it will be easy to assemble. Here are the red sections, I’ll play a little more with the placement of the blocks and then sew them together.

Before I started making blocks tonight, I was binding my first Happy Quilt. I made two versions and hadn’t planned on making another top but as I was ironing, I noticed the pack of charm squares sitting on top of my pink fabric.

I’ve been trying to think of a way to use these (a gift from Deb) and I think a pink and brown Happy Block quilt might just work. But first I have to finish piecing the above top.

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After losing tonight (by 4 points) to Keith at Scrabble, I messed around with our new Roku player trying to get it set up to play Netflix movies. While it was a little bit of a pain to set up – it’s very cool. We rejoined Netflix and in addition to the movies they deliver on DVD, we get unlimited free *Play Instantly* movies. I’d been watching some on my laptop but the TV is better because I can bind quilts and watch.

Tonight I saw Arranged while Keith slept on the floor. I thought it was interesting and I enjoyed it. Last night on the laptop, I watch Impromptu . I wouldn’t call that one good but I did find it interesting and I spent some time looking up information on Chopin and George Sand and then downloaded some Chopin music from iTunes.

Now, I’m going to go piece blocks for the RWB quilt and maybe even get a binding made and sewn on.

Is anyone else in love with technology??

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