I have no problem quilting a pantograph over applique –especially on a busy scrap quilt. Pantograph is Happy Times from Willow Leaf Studio.

This is one of my UFO’s although technically Mom did most of the piecing and stitched down all the applique. It was a Block of the Month that we both signed up for and Mom finished her quilt over two years ago. I’ve learned that BOM quilts are NOT for me especially if they have lots of applique.

We needed a quilt for a gift and this was the perfect one to finish up.  I redesigned the borders and used a red inner and outer border with a 9 patch border between them and while I liked Mom’s quilt with the log cabin border from the pattern, I like the ones on this quilt better. After it’s bound, I’ll post a better photo.

For those interested the pattern is called Home is Where the Heart is by Lynda Howell and it can be found on her webpage — you’ll need to page about halfway down to see it.

The boys flew home this afternoon and it appears that I’ve caught Chris’ cold. I’m assuming that will mean canceling my dentitst appt. on Tuesday which I’m not too sad about since I need a cavity filled and a filling re-done on another tooth, something I’m not looking forward to.

I did manage to finish my sock while watching the Olympics today. Still need to knit the other one and I haven’t gotten much binding done either.

Keith always fixes brunch when we have company and Chris decided to take photos.

Mimosa’s and French Toast — Yum!

But I enjoyed spending today at the Mall of America with the boys while Keith was working.

Yesterday, I walked the few blocks to the new Target Field to meet the boys at the Light Rail station and we were back there today to ride it to the MOA.

Keith’s company built a new US Headquarters just up the river from us — about a half mile from our townhouse but today was the first day I went inside. We’d scheduled lunch several times but he kept canceling on me — today when the boys got in from Atlanta we went over for lunch.

They moved in April 2009 – the  photo was taken before it was finished

And a view of downtown from one of the nearby bridges across the Mississippi. The building is right on the river.

I don’t usually like to shop but while Keith works tomorrow, the boys and I are going to take the light rail down to the Mall of America, get lunch, and look for a few things.

Speaking of things that tempt me …. I love Mary Stori’s beaded work and one day I’ll play more with beading too. Maybe when I find time for that Crazy quilt.

As much as I struggle with time management I can’t imagine how those of you with jobs and kids find the time to do all the creative things you want to do.

Quilting is obviously my main focus but as I wander around the internet and visit blogs I constantly come across people doing things that make me want to run out and buy supplies so I can try too.

Visiting Vicki and Judy’s blogs are dangerous for me — I managed to resist the urge to make postcards and knit socks for well over a year in both cases before I caved in.

Other things tempting me right now are Kathie’s mini quilts and Crazy quilts but I don’t plan to take anything else on right now.

By the way, I had no intention of stocking up on sock yarn and planned on buying as I used it up but I’m already way behind with yarn for 5 additional pair here and yarn for 4 more on the way after visiting Suzanne’s sale. I’m NOT buying any more yarn or sock knitting books!

So what tempts you the most?

With Chris and Adam coming tomorrow, I needed to get ready for them and clean up around the house. I really hate cleaning!

Since I take over both the media room downstairs and the 2nd bedroom for my quilting, we have a sleeper sofa in the living room and this cot I set up on those rare occasions we have company. Chesty jumped up as soon as had the linens on.

Then he decided he needed to check how soft the pillow was – do you think I should change the pillowcase for Adam

Chesty went to the beauty parlor yesterday to get ready for the visit from his brothers – can you tell?

He gets all excited when I tell him Chris and Adam are coming but he doesn’t seem to understand the word tomorrow and was patiently waiting for them while I did my cleaning.

After hand stitching the binding on this donation top by Tamera while watching the Olympics this evening, I managed to piece a backing and make a few string blocks so my Tuesday goals were met.

For those of you interested in how Tamera pieced this, she has a tutorial on her blog.

Saying goodbye to Los Cabos this morning and home by dinnertime.

Don’t expect to see much work from me this week, I’ve got 2 days to get ready for Chris and Adam’s visit on Thursday.

Doing absolutely nothing on vacation!

Well nothing except reading….

Since I wasn’t going to sleep anyway I worked all night.

4 quilts trimmed, binding made, and machine stitched on – ready for me to hand stitch while watching the Olympics when I get home.

And 2 rather simple postcards for my family exchange for February. The nice thing about exchanging postcards with the family is I never have to worry about how good or how creative they are – it’s very low stress and we’re happy just to exchange them with each other.

I even went outside and down the street to the mailbox at 4:15AM  (with my coat over my PJ’s) so I wouldn’t forget to send them before leaving. Since we live in the back on a dead end street of a small development — that’s not as bad as it sounds.

Keith will be up in about 30 minutes and it will be time to get ready to leave and I feel better for having accomplished something.

I just seem to be puttering the last couple days.  A little knitting here and there, some string blocks yesterday and I did manage to piece my one back for the week too. Are you impressed? Using Tuesday for strings and backings is working out well for me.

We head to Los Cabos early in the morning and will be gone for several days so there may not be any posts. I’m not sure what my internet access is going to be like and I might just forget the blog and enjoy my time on the beach with a tropical drink in hand.

In the meantime, since I’m sure I won’t sleep tonight I think I’ll work on getting some quilts ready for binding – after all the Olympics will already be in progress when we get home.

So on my floor tonight – the pink and brown Stars and Pinwheels quilt. I’m adding borders to make it just a little bigger and since Adam’s wedding is set for the end of March I can’t put it off any longer.

Someone asked what yarn I was using for my new socks — it’s a Stroll yarn from Knit Picks called Peacock Multi. Pretty isn’t it?

I finished them up this evening while I watched the Colts lose the Super Bowl.

And just look at how neat that heel turned out!

I’ve already got another sock cast on but this one using fingerling weight yarn (the above socks are sport weight) and size 2 needles which feel like tooth picks in my hands. These are toasty warm and they fit so nice!

I was reading one of the sock books I bought today and she has several patterns for tube socks — it never occurred to me to not knit socks with a heel but I was thinking it might be a good pattern to practice two at a time socks since they look so easy and I wouldn’t even have to worry about the heels — has anyone made tube socks? Any reason I shouldn’t give them a try?

Tonight’s cleaning task is moving the 3 stacks of mail from the kitchen and filing it all right after I do my Wii. Maybe I’ll even get a little sewing in.

About Socks

• I can’t watch a movie and knit them but I can watch TV which takes less concentration
• The harder I’m concentrating the tighter my knitting gets. I need to loosen up.
• Socks are the perfect project because even with mistakes you can wear them and since they’re hidden no one has to know they’re not perfect. I’ve never been good at practice pieces that aren’t good for anything.
• I LOVE working with the 2 circular needles. Having all the sole stitches on the 16″ needle and the instep on the 24″ inch needle makes things really simple to follow and my book shows me how easy it is to convert patterns written for DPD.

If you’ve been thinking about learning to knit socks you should go for it. I’m good at reading and teaching myself to do things but if you aren’t it’s worth taking a class.

About Wii

• While I kind of like the Wii Fit, the routines or exercise seem too short and they don’t flow as well from one to the other as I’d like. Also while some are fun and some do get you moving they just don’t feel like you’re working hard enough.
• After debating whether to spend more money on the Wii as an exercise option, I bought EA Sports Active (it’s made for the Wii) today and did one workout and it’s really SO much better. The intensity is higher and the flow of the workout seemed smoother or more connected is maybe what I’m trying to say.
• From here I’d like to continue with the Yoga on the Wii Fit and add in the EA Sports Active workouts and see how it goes.

Finally, ignoring the mess in the house doesn’t make it go away! I need to go back to doing just one small task a day to get the clutter back under control.

First quilting, then knitting, then piecing, and finally writing up instructions for the Twisted 9 Patch.

I didn’t expect to finish this top today but I’m glad it’s done. I’m ready to move on. If you’re interested in the instructions, click on the link above which will take you to my MaryQuilts.com site.

I’ve turned my heel on the 2nd red sock so that one will definitely be finished this weekend as I’m planning on knitting while the Super Bowl is on. I don’t really care about either team but I’m sure we’ll have the game on so I’ll just sit and knit.

Now Keith and I are going to go out for breakfast and run a few errands before I come home and collapse into bed.

Keith came home this evening and asked why I was quilting in the dark – That’s what happens when your thread blends too well with the fabrics in the top and you need to see where you’re going.

This is another donated top from Tamera.

EDIT: If interested in how Tamera made this top, she has a tutorial on her blog.

Quilted with freehand leaves and loops.

I have a couple leaves pantographs I like a lot but the Circle Lord template is still on the table and I might do one more top before taking it off so I went ahead and quilted the leaves freehand. Given how well the thread blended with a lot of the fabric, a panto would have been easier.

How fun to receive emails and photos from people saying they’ve used one of my instructions to make a quilt — and especially when the quilts are going to a charitable organization. Today I received an email from Susan sharing photos from their retreat where they use my Red Rover instructions.

And then later today I had kind of a funny feeling when I opened this email from Accuquilt with an ad for their strip dies and saw their free project quilt.

I know the Quick Strippie I’ve had posted on my site is a really basic quilt but other than the strip sizes in this one corresponding to the size of their strip dies it looks exactly like one of mine.

I almost deleted this post because I don’t want to sound like I’m the only one who can come up with such a simple quilt but who knew I was so attached to the idea of *MY* strippie being out there and used by so many people and really it’s the instruction sheet that’s downloaded most off my MaryQuilts.com site and the one that I get tons of feedback on because the quilts turn out so cute and are so easy. Now when I see one out there, I won’t be able to assume they found it on my site.

I’ve been piecing and quilting these tops from Coins donated during one of our HeartStrings projects and now I’m officially tired of them! Helen, one of our members from the UK offered to take the remaining coins off my hands (probably enough for another 2 maybe 3 quilts) so this will be my last one, at least for a while.

You’ll notice that yes, one again I used the Circle Lord Swirls template and I’m trying to decide if this is the last one for now or if I’ll do one more before taking it off the table and trying out the new clamshell one waiting in it’s box.

I’ve also been using this subtle King Tut variegated thread on the last 3 tops. One of the biggest things that saves me time is grouping tops together that I plan on using the same pattern and thread.  You might think it’s boring but when I have lots of tops waiting here for quilting even small things like that save me time.

As far as other items from my day…..

Red sock # 2 has been cast on and I’m working on the leg. Thanks to the bad influence of JudyL, not only did I order yarn for 2 more pair last night online but I searched out a local yarn store and bought yarn for two more…. that doesn’t include the yarn that should be here any day with my smaller needles too. (Yes, I’ll have yarn for 6 pair of socks waiting).

AND WHO KNEW that the yarn shop was on the block behind my grocery store and that we’ve driven by it multiple times to get in and out of the parking garage. In fact, the only time we drive to the store is when we buying more groceries than we can carry — yes, it’s even within walking distance just about a mile and a half each way.

Speaking of walking, it was snowing tonight so we decided to walk across the river for dinner (almost as far as the yarn shop) and played a little in the snow on the way home. Is there anything better than walking in the snow at night? I don’t think so.

I’m still on an odd schedule but I’ve been changing the date on my posts so that when I’m saying today or tonight the post matches the day I’m talking about. You probably don’t care but when I go back to look something up it helps me if the post says Thursday when I’m talking about Thursday…..because right — it’s really Friday.