Archive for October, 2009

Keith left this morning so it’s time to get back to work. It seemed like I had plenty of time before the next trip but here it is Monday and I leave on Friday.

Today’s goals are to get some laundry done, hand stitch this last binding so I can ship quilts to Jay for his nursing home project,  and get everything off my kitchen counters so they can install my tile backsplash in the kitchen tomorrow.

I also have a quilt of Mom’s that I’m going to try and get done so I can take it back with me but I’ve got to piece a backing first so we’ll see.

We had snow again today — it’s a wet, melty snow but I love seeing it come down.

By the way, even though I haven’t had a chance to get something new started for the design wall – I’m thrilled that the Stars and Pinwheel top was finished this week and is no longer up there. My plan after these next two trips are to start one or maybe two new piecing projects.

Keith’s been traveling a lot so I’m working a bit less on the days he’s home. Yesterday we walked downtown for date night and them came home and watched the Twin’s game. We’re not big baseball fans but they’re in the playoffs so we’re catching a bit of the games here and there.

I did take off this morning to attend a meeting of the Upper Midwest Longarm Guild and to talk about HeartStrings. I was a little nervous to be in a room with so many talented longarm quilters but they were very nice.

And speaking of this morning, we had snow last night – our trees are just starting to change color and it’s already snowing!

Finally, blue skies after days of rain! Yesterday and today were beautiful, breezy fall days and I got out of the house for a while both afternoons.

Yes, the Stars and Pinwheels are finally assembled into a finished top. It’s too big for my design wall and Keith isn’t home to hold it up for me but trust me — it’s done (at least the top)!

This is the 2nd quilt I’m finishing to send to Jay for his nursing home project. Pieced by Cheryl and quilted with Nouveau Scallops by Lorien Quilting.

The colors are a little off because my intention is to show the quilting so I didn’t use flash — when it’s bound, I’ll take a photo in better light.

Maybe I should be!

My idea for Vicki’s postcard challenge was a bike ride in autumn. So I went up to my sewing room this afternoon with a couple ideas.

First, I wanted an autumn background and found this leftover strip of coins from some other project. Looking at all the Joann’s fabrics in it, it must have been a really old project.

And speaking of Joann’s, I’ve used some iron on crystal motifs in several cards before like this one and I had a bike but it was in pink and black — I thought it probably wouldn’t work but decided to try it anyway.

Nope, not so great. So I decided to try again and just quilt the bike in perle cotton. I don’t know where I found this paper but it comes on a roll and it’s like tissue paper — pretty easy to stitch through and pulls away easily.

The effect is kind of lost in the background and I would like it better if the bike was more prominent but I’m done with the challenge for this month. Are you participating?

I’ve been helping Deb with her blog and website design and look what I got in the mail today! She had Vicki custom die some fabric for me and I love both sets! Aren’t they gorgeous?!

It wasn’t necessary but what a wonderful gift. Thanks Deb (& Vicki).

This string top was pieced by San (Gypsy Quilter) and will donated to a wounded soldier through Quilts of Valor.

It was quilted with Ebb and Flow, one of my favorite pantograph’s for patriotic quilts.

But since I don’t have  any quilt photos to show today — I thought I’d show Chesty begging for dinner. I ran all around the house trying to find him last night after being downstairs sewing — he was waiting for me by his food bowl.

I’ve made progress but the pink and brown blocks are still on the design wall. I guess I’m just not able to get something new up every week — maybe I’ll shoot for once a month.

I did manage to sew a while today AND get a quilt loaded and started so I don’t feel like a complete slacker but the best part of my day was a long overdue massage!

Keith and I were able to attend an event yesterday for the Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity — we got to see 4 Habitat homes and attend a reception. It’s a great organization that we’ve contributed to for years but this was the first time we’d seen homes in person. I hope to have some HeartStrings quilts to donate to them next month.