Summer Stitch In 2012

As Pat said on her blog, Summer Stitch In is the funnest fun that ever was fun.  About 35 quilters from our Silver Thimble Quilt club come for 6 days from 9AM to 9PM for non-stop sewing and laughing and sharing (and a bit of eating) and more sewing.  Check out her blog for lots more photos and a funny story (or 20).  It's like a retreat except you can go home and sleep in your own bed.

Because of my jobs, I don't get to go for the full week but this year I went for Friday and Saturday.  Let me tell you, I needed some fun time.  And after 72 hours of quilting, caffeine, chocolate, snacks, more caffeine, and more chocolate, my friends get really loopy fun.

I just realized that I didn't take many photos.  Must have been sewing too much.

First up. I FINALLY finished the borders on my Civil War Block of the Week.

 I love this quilt.  I love this quilt, not only because it has some of my most favorite fabrics and I thoroughly enjoyed Barbara's wonderful stories every week, but because 2011 was a rough year for me and this quilt represents my perseverance through all that craziness and sadness of last year.

Pat showed me how to miter the borders since I chose not only a stripe but a stripe with a complicated pattern. Yea me.  She has a great, easy method though and if you have her book Spotlight on Neutrals, it's in there.  Love this fabric though; it's Barbara Brackman's Civil War Reunion line.

Here's another view.

  

I also started and finished this quick jelly roll quilt from the wonderful Jelly Roll Quilts book.  It's called Spiral Strips and the fabric line is an older Holly Taylor for Moda called "Natural Garden."

And here is Karin's mostest fabulous Eventide quilt out of French General fabrics.  She made this quilt just for me. 

Karin and Becky with Karin's Eventide quilt

 I wish. 

I love it!!!  

I also got everyone completely hooked on Starbucks new Refreshers energy drinks.  Have you tried them?  They are completely and utterly THE BEST THING ON THE PLANET and you need to buy lots and lots and lots.  And I can say this because I work there and I am hooked to :)  Oh yeah and we get stock options.  Hee hee!

Happy National Quilting Day & Happy St. Patrick's Day

A fun day to celebrate!  I actually got lots of sewing time in last night and today.  Hooray sewing time.  I went to my Silver Thimbles Quilt Club after work yesterday and for my usual time today and worked on the "T is for Thelma" Schnibble for this month's Another Year of Schnibbles. (the real pattern name is "Bibelot" but it is now and forever "T is for Thelma" to me)

Here are a couple of green T's  

As for St. Patrick's Day, we have been eating corned beef, cabbage, & potatoes all week thanks to S. It's one of the handful or so of dinners he makes and it is great.

Even more great is a finished quilt top!  I braved the pollen today to get a photo of my "Chocolate Raspberry Truffle" quilt top outside so the colors would show (and the cats would not).  The fabric is "Maison de Garance" by French General for Moda and the pattern is "Raspberry Ripple" from the book Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Nicky & Pam Lintott.

I need to dig through the stash for some French General yardage so I can piece a scrappy back and send this off for quilting.

I hope everyone had a great two-holiday day and you all got to sew with some green fabric.

Weekend Report: Sewing, Cats, Oscars

I did manage to squeeze in some sewing time on Saturday to work on a project from retreat earlier in the month.  I had finished all the blocks for the quilt I am calling "Chocolate Raspberry Truffle" (after my favorite ice cream at the local Bruster's ice cream chain).

I started sewing the rows together with help from Stella.  I think she is making sure the colors are all distributed evenly.

The fabric is French General's Maison de Garance.  Yummy yummy yummy.

I got about half of the top together so maybe I'll get the other half sewn this upcoming weekend.

My Battle Hymn fabric project is calling me and I sewed one of the star blocks together to see what it looked like.

Hmmm need to think on this.












On Sunday, I worked at Starbucks all morning. On my way home, my truck (Xena) drove itself to Intown Quilters to rest in the parking lot while I browsed inside.

Really it was Xena's fault, she wanted to rest in the beautiful spring-like sun for awhile.

Really.  That's the story and we are sticking to it.

I hadn't been in the shop in a long time, even though it is on the way home from Starbucks and my day job, I try to be good and only stop every once and awhile. The shop is filled to the brim with Modern Quilt fabrics, Kaffe Fassett, brights, and batiks.

I had a "filled" shopper card so snagged some goodies with a discount.  A couple of yards of Robert Kaufman organic cotton solid in gray.  I'm looking forward to sewing with this.  A cool laptop bag pattern by Fig Tree Quilts. Some Valdani thread for wool appliqué in pretty purples.  And a patterns to make owl potholders.  Owls as potholders. Oh owly love!  These would be great in my kitchen.  Now I just need some time to make all this LOL!

Did you stay up late watching the Oscars?  S. and I said we were not going to this year because we only saw a couple of the movies that were nominated for several of the main awards (Moneyball, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Bridesmaids).  We stayed up until the end anyway.  I was sorry that Brad Pitt didn't win for Moneyball because I thought he was really good in the movie.  I was so happy that Meryl Streep won though. She is class and graciousness personified as well as being an unparalleled actor extraordinaire.

I Can See Friday from Here

Oh hurry up Friday, I am done with this week and ready for the weekend. Here is the second of my two-part July UFO that I really finished in August.

The pattern is "Civil War Scrappy" from my one of my favorite books Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott.

This is my second completely finished quilt from the book.  I have two tops done, one started, and four in project-in-bag status. I really love this book.

Here's a detail.  The fabric is "Heritage Collection for a Cause" by Moda.



Tomorrow is Friday.  Yeah!!!

A Big Finish!

 Ta Da!!  It's done.  Pieced, quilted, and bound by me. 

The pattern is the 2010 BOM Jelly Roll Sampler by the fabulous UK shop and authors of one of my favorite quilting books, The Quilt Room .  The fabric is Cherish Nature by Moda. 

 I'm getting ready to hand deliver this to a very special person in honor of a very special birthday.

(Yes, I know it's late but I couldn't be there on her birthday, so we'll just have to celebrate her birthday again!)

This is about as elaborate as I get with my labels.  Usually it's just my name and a year and the cat stamp.

Here's a view of the quilt outside.  The weather was beautiful today.

I loved making this quilt for my niece Mackenzie.  I found the jelly roll shortly after she was born and the colors and nature theme are perfect for her room. 

Be on the look out later this year for the pattern in a new book called Jelly Roll Sampler Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott.

A Quick Post

Here at last are the long awaited photos of the Portobello Market quilt (or as Karin would say Portobello Mushroom quilt). As you can see, not only is it a poor quality photo (due to the antsy-ness of my quilt holder-upper) but Gomez snuck into the frame also. I gave up trying to get a good photo after this one so here's a detail sans Gomez.
The quilt is from the book Jelly Roll Quilts and the pattern is called "Daisy Chain". I made the larger size quilt by using one Portobello Market jelly roll and a half of a Hemming House jelly roll (somehow I had two Hemming House jelly rolls--no clue how this happened). These two Moda lines played nicely together and I really like the result. Now to add this top to the many many many that are waiting to be quilted. I have to zoom off now, big meeting tomorrow and I need to get some laundry done.

Anyone have an extra bailout laying around????

OY! Who knew a water heater could be so expensive!!!???!! Especially when you have a old house that doesn't meet the current building code and you need some extra code-compliant plumbing-type stuff. The plumber is coming back tomorrow to install said water heater (which must be made of GOLD!) so no hot water until tomorrow afternoon. Instead of a vacation or new furniture this summer, I am going to hang out in the crawl space and stare at the new water heater. Woo hoo good times!
Good thing the Recession Garden is growing
There are baby plum tomatoes growing and the yellow squash is growing like crazy on the far right side.

I have neglected to post the May block for the Little Quilts Saturday Sampler even though I finished it earlier this month. I am loving this quilt.

I forgot who mentioned it but Gomez Megabux has not appeared on the blog recently. I finished up the latest jelly roll quilt this evening, working around Gomez's nap. I had to wait until kitty dinner time to put the borders on. The quilt is pretty big so I'll need to post a full photo when I have a quilt holder-upper. I have three tops done and one quilt completed from the book Jelly Roll Quilts.
Time to get a new project prepped for sewing. I pulled a couple of kits out of ONE of the UFO boxes and am going to get started cutting out a couple of projects.

Karin and Becky wanted to know what Stella, Edgar and I were reading last night--we are reading The First World War by John Keegan. As you can see from last night's post, the cats are not as much into history as I am.

Saturday post #2

Here's project #2 for my peaceful/pieceful Saturday, all sewn together and resting on the ironing board. Yes, I am working on another project from the book Jelly Roll Quilts......

A Finish for April

Hooray a finished top for April! This is the Gypsy Rose quilt I worked on earlier in the month. The pattern called for a larger outer border but I decided not to put it on (1) because the fabric I bought just wasn't working for me and (2) sometimes I get tired of the small inner border/larger outer border look. I liked the quilt like this so this is what it is. I had enough of the fabric I bought for the outer border to use as a backing (it's a small quilt about 45 X 62) and now it's ready to go to my long-arm quilter Peggy (along with 50-11 other tops...). I think I will take three to her; the others being my Mardi Gras quilt (aka Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush) and E's flannel quilt (now that it is 80 degrees out...). Melisa helped me pick out border fabric for my Mardi Gras quilt at Sweet Home Quilt Co. so hopefully I will have that done by the end of the month.

PS: Check out Becky's blog for her 150th post giveaway!

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a happy Easter and Passover. Spring is just flying by isn't it? Similar to last year, I worked at Starbucks all morning and we did not have the usual Easter dinner. Instead of Easter ham, S. and I had Easter SHRIMP! I went to Whole Foods after work today (I am so happy they were open because we had NO food in the house) and hey the wild-caught shrimp was on sale so that's what I bought. Add some salad and potatoes and call it dinner.

I did get some sewing in yesterday. I set up my featherweight in the living room (because well my sewing space is a mess and I am in clutter denial). I started a new project with a Gypsy Rose jelly roll and the pattern "Two By Fours" by Teacher's Pet.

Gypsy Rose is a great Moda line in nice spring-y colors. My schedule is light this week so I hope to finish it soon.

Stella, apparently finished with the Saturday paper, took an afternoon nap on the NY Times. She also got a bath courtesy of Morpheus.

Pandora's Box Leads to a New Rule

While my mom was sewing together her applique quilt (thanks for all the nice comments BTW), I worked on "Pandora's Box" from the book Jelly Roll Quilts (does anyone not have this book yet? My mom and her stitching group all have copies now too). This is my third completed top from the book, I have one in progress, and fabric for four more. Have I told you how much I love this book?

I finished the blocks and sewed the top together. I love the colors; they remind me of Martha Stewart's colors. The fabric line is "Twiggy" from Moda. Edgar Poe decided to get in the photo shoot. He snuck behind the quilt and appeared on the other side.

Oh look at cute Edgar Poe! Then he walked back across the quilt and noticed a lump. Well if you have kitties, you know they have to check out any suspicious activity. The suspicious activity's name is Stella.

Attack!!!!! Wait a minute....

Just like there's no crying in baseball, there's no fighting in quilting.... New Rule: There's no fighting in quilting. Excuse me while I end this.

A New Jelly Roll Project

Yesterday was one of those days when all I wanted to do was quilt. That would be fine, great even, except for the whole work thing. So I worked with half a brain and thought about quilting with the other (women are the best multi-taskers right?). I do a lot of writing at my day job so I'm still hoping I wrote complete sentences without adding words like "jelly rolls" or "too much stash" or "wonder what new patterns Pat is working on" or "wonder what's new at Sweet Home Quilt Co." Anyway, I made it through the day and drove home, did not pass go, did not spend $200, did not get a speeding ticket and went straight to the sewing machine. (I did make a small detour to feed the cats, priorities you know). So I sewed, sewed, sewed until it was time to throw some laundry in and go to bed.
So here's a couple of the blocks I finished. The pattern is "Pandora's Box" from Jelly Roll Quilts (the best jelly roll book!). The fabric is Moda (of course) and the line is called "Twiggy". This is going to be a super quick quilt to finish up, hopefully this weekend.

Three Day Weekend

I love three day weekends. I get to fit in quilting, working at Starbucks, a couple of naps, some shopping, some cooking, movie watching, and errands as well as the usual laundry, vacuuming etc.

Saturday was our first official Silver Thimble Quilt Club meeting (Karin and Pat both have photos on their blogs. I worked on a Valentine's Day table topper (which I hope to finish up and post tomorrow). Kristie worked on one of her (hundreds?) of BOMs (she does absolutely beautiful work!).

Sunday was Starbucks/Whole Foods/cooking/naptime/movie watching day. I made an herbed pork loin roast, steamed broccoli, and Parker House rolls (I buy a big roast to last for several dinners and just change the veggies each night). S., E., and I watched Appaloosa (a good Western but not as good as Unforgiven). I finished sewing the binding on my Vintage Charm quilt (fabric line is Roman Holiday by Moda).

Here is a detail of the backing fabric, which is just yummy and the fabulous job Peggy did on the longarm quilting.

Today, I took Gomez (aka Gomez Megabux) to the vet for his check up. He is A-OK and complained the whole time as usual. I dropped him off, grabbed my Bad Melisa bag and went to Sweet Home Quilt Co. to see what was left after Becky and Karin's recent visit. Lo and behold, Kristie was there with her own stack of goodies. I picked up a couple of goodies too.

A jelly roll (of course) to make yet another project from the book Jelly Roll Quilts (the fabric line is Flag Day Farm by Moda) and a Moda Honey Bun (40 - 1 1/2" strips) from the Hello Betty line (really neat 1940s colors) and pattern. I can't wait to get started on these projects! Just as soon as I finish a couple of UFOs.

Three Quilt Photos

Today is a state/fed. holiday (Columbus Day) and also Canada's Thanksgiving--Happy Thanksgiving Canada!! I have three--count them three-- quilt photos today. How did I spend my weekend? Finishing binding and borders. Here is my finished "Peace in the Valley" (pattern by Silver Thimble Quilt Co.)

And here are two quilts from my favorite quilt book "Jelly Roll Quilts"

the completed "Prairie Pailey Peer Pressure" quilt (pattern is "Garden Trellis" in the book and

the complete top for "Civil War Nine Patch" made from Moda's Heritage and some stash. For some reason these photos are kinda blurry--either my quilt-holder-upper or I have had too much coffee today, take your pick.

If you have been following this blog, you know that Karin and I are making just about every quilt in the "Jelly Roll Quilts" book and have convinced every quilter we know to buy the book and join us too. Well check out this blog for a sneak preview of their new book. Karin--we have until March to finish up this book so we can be ready for the next LOL!!!!

Michelle has reminded me that it's time to get busy on Christmas gifts so I also started that this weekend. Can't show photos of those!