Unconscious mutterings 5/27

1. Dancer :: Tiny


2. Intellectual :: glasses


3. Direct :: TV


4. Tolerate :: everything


5. Post :: fence


6. Instinctive::Mother


7. Brink :: of danger


8. Regain :: control


9. Repulsed :: by the sight


10. Distressed :: jeans

I'm a Baglady

I have been working on a Baglady challenge from Quilting in Indiana. Each person stuffs a gallon ziploc bag with fabric and sends on to a victim :-) who makes a top to return.

Liz sent me a sack 0' florals and I have been doing my best to make something nice for her in return. Last year I sent fabric to her, and this is the gorgeous top she sent back.

So I am hoping to repay the favor and give her a really nice quilt in return. Liz is a very experienced and accurate quilter, so I have been taking my time with these, squaring every subset and then each block in hopes to give her a well pieced squared top in return.

These are some of the blocks I have been playing with on my design wall, not exactly sure how I'm going to set these but I do like the scrappiness of them.

Row x Row

This is Lisa's RxR with my row added to the bottom. She used the free online pattern here. Its going to be one sweet quilt when its done, and really heavy! I guess I never thought about it, but because the fans are folded versions of the same sized square to make the block, its literally twice as heavy as a normal top. It will be very warm!
I christened the new machine with Lisa's rows, love that built in walking foot! Didn't pin except to join the rows! I wanted a fast machine like my Grand Quilter, it sews like 1600 stitches a minute, and I keep it set about half throttle for piecing, so around 800. A normal sewing machine sews around 400, I wanted something to make things go faster. Well although the new machine doesn't go faster, no pinning and needle down option makes the whole procedure quicker so I guess I got what I wanted!

New Arrival!

This little darling entered my life on Saturday. Isn't she cute? I called the kids on the way home to tell them we were bringing their new little sister home....they thought I meant we got another dog!
I took my old workhorse Singer Scholastic to be serviced and an occasional wild stitch problem fixed and found that it would cost over half of what I paid for it 5 years ago. It seems I wore it out. My husband said, "These are what they put in schools for Eighth graders to beat the hell out of, and you WORE IT OUT!!!" :-) I was looking at the Babylocks and Pfaffs the place sells...drooling. When I found this little sweetie, she was a floor model which saved me $500 so I bought the quilt package along with it so I could have the table and extra feet. There are so many different stitches! I am definitely feeling inspired now and glad I am taking a spur of the moment vacation next week so we can spend some quality time together.
How she purrs! I am in love.

Unconscious Mutterings 5/20

Coastguard :: cutter


Buddies :: online


Nap :: nice


Groan :: Moan


Sitcom :: star


Reader :: 's digest


Heroes :: Save the Cheerleader


Amazing :: Grace


Woman :: shape


Don’t! :: stop

Laurie's rowxrow

Laurie's Row x row quilt for Quilting in Indiana group with my row on bottom. See...I did manage to sew something!

Unconscious Mutterings 3/13

1. Film :: star


2. Dragon :: teeth


3. Hunger :: strike


4. Plucked :: chicken


5. Dissolving :: in water


6. Executive :: chair


7. Ridiculous:: story


8. Mist :: love in a


9. Minority :: Jesse Jackson


10. Map :: quest

Retreat friends

Photos of the retreat girls working hard!

May 2007 Quilt Retreat

Well, the May 2007 North Webster retreat has come and gone. Wow! What a great time! Wonderful new friends, delicious food, inspiring shopping, drop dead gorgeous view, and quality quilting time. It was such a huge success that May 2008 was filled within 36 hours of the end of the 2007 retreat.

This is the best view of the cottage, from the pier on the lake. The bottom level has sleeping rooms and a kitchen and large common area that was used for meals. The middle (main) level has some sleeping rooms and the common area is where we all sewed. The kitchen on that level was set up for pressing and snacks.

The top loft level held bunks also.

This is the view from the back deck, its a wonder we got any sewing done at all, don't you think?
I always choose to sleep in the loft, same bed, top of the stairs to the left. People ask why wouldn't I want a private room? This is my view from my bed. You tell me why I would want to wake to any other view!
I actually did get a few things done. These are the F8 Swap blocks from Mailblocks with black sashing, set on point and double folded border strips.
More swap blocks got a quilt to call a home! These are Wonky House blocks from www.quiltville.com that we did as a swap at Mailblocks. I made wonky little tress to set as corner stones. Now for a cute border idea....anyone got one? :-)
I also managed to sew 80 flying geese blocks for a swap, 50 bow tie blocks for a swap, 5 lotto blocks and 20 kid friendly blocks for new babies coming quilts.

Maybe I will get a chance to post photos of those before they leave the house.

Can't wait to do it all over again in September!

Plus I am so happy to report that although I over ate and ate lots of things I shouldn't have, I arrived home 3lbs. heavier than when I left. But after 2 days of being back on my plan, I am back down to the weight I was at before I left. So I had my fun and now, back to the business of losing!

Unconscious mutterings 5/6

1. Tumor :: out


2. Bunch :: of kisses


3. Gratitude :: felt


4. Feel alive :: breathe


5. Connect :: to each other


6. Temptation :: cant do


7. Brighten:: your day


8. Jewelry :: sparkley


9. Tough :: as nails


10. Harmless :: spider