Monday, April 30, 2007

More Nine Patches

Here is the result so far of my piecing with the nine patches Linda and I made. Lots of them have become 36 patches, and between the sashing strips are nine patches. I have a good deal of the rest of the quilt put together, but no more rows attached so far.

I do like working on this quilt, but for some reason I'm having to push myself to work on it. Is it because I'm seeing so many other wonderful quilts on your blogs that I'd like to make? I'm not sure. I'll keep plugging away though. I have four weeks to finish this one.

The christening was just lovely, and we had a really nice time. I did have an outfit crisis one hour before it was time to leave. When I got all dressed I didn't think my outfit was quite 'dressy' enough to wear to church. I panicked and ended up wearing a longish hankercheif hemmed skirt with a black beaded top. I still wore the lovely shoes, and while they were really comfortable, I was glad to take them off when we got home. The 'new shoes' thing I guess.

Of course, once we got to church Marty and I realised that neither of us had remembered to bring our camera, we do that so often. I had even left my phone at home. Hopefully we'll have some of the official photos at some stage so I can share them with you.

Well, that's it from me - I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend.
x o x

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Clean Carpet and Christening

I'm working with my phone camera here today. My regular camera is full, and I'm just too darned lazy right now to download them all.

Soooo ... here is a dubious quality picture of the clean carpet in the lounge-dining room. Kind of amazing how many icky kid stains there were all over the floor. I'm contemplating taping up the doors with crime scene tape to keep it nice for a while. My next project for these two rooms is to replace the icky grey blinds with some lovely curtains, and to make a cute applique quilt for the space above the sideboard. I should take a better picture of the sideboard for posterity. It's actually a drop leaf table from the 30's or 40's. It was my Grandparents first ever table when they were newlyweds. I must ask them if it was new at the time or if it has history they know about.

And tomorrow we're off to a christening. Makes it sound a little run of the mill doesn't it? But I should elaborate. My SIL & BIL are having both their precious bundles christened tomorrow, and they asked Marty and I to be Godparents. We're entirely chuffed, and hope we can live up to the very important job. And of course, it also meant there was some serious shopping to be done!

First up, I got christening gifts for Nicholas and Sophia. Little gold crosses - something for their future.

My second purchase, while not as important in the big scheme of things, quite important to me. Some new shoes! I love the peep toe thingy that's happening in the stores right now. I'm a retro girl, and these remind me of shoes from the 40's. Could have been more adventurous with the colour, but I knew I was going to wear black trousers, but hadn't figured out the top yet. Also didn't want to go quite as high in the heel as I could have, toppling over in the church in front of the whole family would have been slightly embarrasing - I'm outta practice with the 'really big girl' shoes!

Next I headed into my fave clothing store, where I sprung for a new pair of black jeans, a really cute lacy cami top, and a raspberry colour wrap/cardi thing which I will wear tomorrow, and a plum colour knitted jacket with a drawstring at the waist. I'm not normally a big shopper, but cold weather has arrived and I'm feeling like I need some winter clothes.

We have had three days of constant rain, which is like a dream come true. Hopefully we will get enough rain for the farmers to feel the benefit, and to hold off any further tightening of the water restrictions. Ohhh, and our garden is just loving it!

Friday, April 27, 2007

New Project

This is the beginnings of the new project I drew up on Sunday night. It doesn't look all that interesting yet, but I'm excited about how it's coming along.

Linda and I exchanged a whole lot of nine patches during last year, and I used up a lot to make the zig-zag nine patch project earlier this year. I still had 110 nine patch blocks left over and was looking for a way to use them up.

This quilt needs 136 blocks, so I've made up the extra 26 blocks I need, and I'm currently working on sashing strips. 100 of the nine patches were sewed together to make twenty five blocks like you see in the picture. My blocks will all be set on point, so after the sashing strips are completed I will need to cut up some setting triangles.

I'm having fun using up scrap and stash fabrics, and it's amazing, I'm really starting to see the fabric piles getting smaller! I'll be sewing away for the rest of this afternoon and this evening - my time is entirely my own right now. Marty has taken the kids over to the beach house for a couple of days, so until tomorrow sometime if you're looking for me ... the sewing room is where I'll be!

Ohh, and the sewing room is clutter free now - all the quilts and furniture have been returned to their rightful places in the lounge and dining rooms. Thank heavens - the complete disarray was making me twitchy!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Can hardly move!

Everyone knows this is not what my sewing room normally looks like. Ohhh my goodness, I can hardly move in here.

We've had our carpets cleaned in the lounge and dining room today, and that meant everything had to come outta there. All except for that enormous wall unit of course. Thank you so much to Flylady, it took less than an hour to empty both rooms. No clutter in there before ... and nothing at all now!

I will say ... and look away now if you have a delicate constitution ... that the middle of the night bathroom visit was hazardous with random furniture in unusual places. I don't like to wake hubby going to the ensuite ... is that too much information for you all? *ggls*

I just don't know how I'm going to get any sewing done - I can't put the stuff back until this evening. And I really must get some sewing done! I have a top which needs quilting and binding for a customer, I have to give it back to her on Thursday, and I have a new commission for the magazine.

On Sunday evening a little thought of a quilt drifted into my head, so I quickly drew it up on the computer lest it drift away again. I thought it was cute, so emailed the picture to the editor late Sunday night, and 8.30am on Monday morning, I received an email commissioning the quilt. Woohoo! Talk about fast turnaround! I've stitched a little of it, and when I have my space back again, I'll show you some little sneaky peeks.

Have a wonderful time in Paducah to those of you getting ready to travel - gosh I wish I was going with you. Be sure to take lots of pictures!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Family Room

The table runner is all finished, and in place on the coffee table in the family room. I really love how it looks.

Recently Kathie commented "There are subtle cues in your home tipping off the visitor that this is the home of a quilter..." Honestly ... I just don't know what she means!

Off to the movies this morning - we're seeing Mr Bean. I think the kids will love it, should be fun!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Coffee Runner

Last night I completed my coffee table runner to the stage where I'm ready to hand sew down the binding on the back. I can't wait to get it on the table. You know, the whole time I was sewing these blocks, I felt like I'd seen them somewhere before, and when I checked my mail, Leah cleared it up for me. It's the same block Judy had used in her first Hour a Day quilt. The link is here if you'd like to check it out (and make one of course!). Too funny, because I'd always said to myself that I wanted to go back and make that quilt someday. Looks like I have had a practice run with the blocks!

The coffee table in the family room currently has a quilt on it, but it is an older Thimbleberries project (which I love) and it doesn't really fit properly and gets pushed and pulled around. I wanted one which fit the top exactly, and I'm going to hand sew some of the rubbery non-slip stuff on the back so it won't move too much. My main motivation is to save the table some wear and tear (wish I'd done it a while ago), last year, a small-ish person in this house who will remain unnamed *s* accidentally spilled nail polish remover on the table. Not too much, but enough to take the finish off the table in a few spots. So, this runner is destined to 1. cover the marks, and 2. hopefully take the spills and knocks in the future and save the table a little.

On a completely different note, last night we had a little rain, I haven't checked to see how much at this stage, but I'm soooo hoping we'll get some more. We really need it. Last night on the news it was stated that if we don't get any rain in the next few weeks we'll be going to the next level of water restrictions, and the farmers in the river regions will lose their water allocations. In fact, our Prime Minister suggested we should all start praying for rain ... I'm thinking maybe a rain dance might do the trick ...

Friday, April 20, 2007

10am and the house is still

I'm the only one moving around the house this morning. Marty is off at work, Amy is sleeping over at my Mum's, and Cameron is still asleep! He and Marty were out a little late-ish last night and I'm always happy to let Cam sleep in if he needs it. Fortunately it's school holidays right now, so we don't have to race out the door anytime soon.

Two 'show and tell' items for you today. First up, I finished another sock - this is a cute colourway. This is the 6ply yarn, and gosh it feels so much thicker than the 4ply I'm now accustomed to. I did a much better job with the kitchener stitch, and only slipped two off before I should have. I've secured them with some stitches while I was sewing in the end, so all should be well. I predict that by about my 20th sock I should have this down to a fine art!

Second item is some blocks I started making up last night. I'm making a little topper for our coffee table in the family room. It measures 21" x 42", so I was racking my brain to think of blocks I could make to fit that unusual size. First I was thinking of 7" blocks, but couldn't find any I wanted to use, and then while looking thru the book that goes with my Marti Michell templates, I found a 10.5" block - perfect! It's called Lincoln's Platform, and I'm using all the same size pieces I used for the blue and cream top. Amazing I could find any blue and cream scraps left in there!

Still keeping 'some' of those housekeeping balls high in the air. Yesterday I was looking at Cam's play mat in the family room, you know the ones with the roads and buildings. I was wondering how I would ever clean it effectively ... when I realised it would probably fit in the washing machine. It sure did and when it was done I hung it on the line (participated in the US hang out the washing day without realising). I was able to bring it in before Cam even missed it. It came up as clean as the day I found it in the rug shop ... umm ahem ... I mean the day Santa delivered it!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Painted and dusted

In our lounge room we have this huuuuge wall unit. It's been in place since we've moved in, and because of it's size, it's unlikely to be moved until the day we move out. This presented a problem when I painted last year, I painted everything but the wall the unit is against, and it has bugged me since the day I packed away the rollers.

Our friend Jonnie is a painter, and when he painted my front door not so long ago, he saw my wall unit quandary. He offered me the loan of a tool he has, a tiny roller with a long handle. He suggested that it would ease my mind if I painted all around and rolled just behind the unit. My eyes would be fooled, and my sense of order restored. Sooo ... sans deadlines and commitments, yesterday was the day I could take this project on.

First up, I had to take down all my toys from the top of the unit, and here you see them on the floor. They were soooo dusty I couldn't believe I hadn't got them down and cleaned them earlier, and while lifting them down, I remembered why. Gosh they are just so darned heavy! And to think these were Singer's portables of the time!

I got busy with the painting and finished it all up before 1pm, so I could sit down with a coffee and watch Oprah while the paint dried. I'm so pleased with the result, and Jonnie is right, I know the wall isn't painted behind the unit, but it looks wonderful nonetheless. And after my puny arm muscles decided they were ready, I dusted and polished and then hefted the machines back up to their home. When they were in place I added a note to my shopping list ... swiffer, with a long handle.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Been tidying :-)

I don't know how everyone else fares, but for me, when I'm on a quilting deadline, I tend to drop the ball a bit in other areas. Lately, I've had a few quilt pressures, so the house is somewhat less organised than usual, and I've been looking forward to getting it back in order. I get kind of edgy when things pile up too much, and that's how I've been feeling lately.

Does anyone else have that experience? It's almost like I can't actually keep all my chosen balls in the air at once. They are family life, housekeeping, quilting, social life, and my own special ball - my health. All the balls just can't seem to be juggled at once. I completely accept that it's hard for me, and while most of those balls spend a little time on the ground, I really don't like it when I get too far behind with the house - maybe because it's most visible to others that I'm losing control a bit?

Anyways, enough with my little vent - I've spent the last two days tidying and sorting, and I've managed to get the house in better order and I've even sorted out the cutting table. My brother visited for the day today. He works out of town, and when he's around, it's nice just to be in the same space together. His computer isn't working at home, so while he checked emails and stuff, I spent some time cutting up some more scraps etc. Tomorrow I'll catch up with some more chores, and I'm even going to finish up a little bit of painting in the lounge room. Happy days, I'm feeling more calm already!

The kids are on school holidays right now, so we have two weeks together to spend some quality time. Next week a small interruption to the q-time, Marty is going to take them over to the beach house for a few days for a little Daddy bonding time. How fun - as much as I'll miss them, I'll have uninterrupted quilting time - yay for me! I can't even imagine how much quilting I'll be able to get done!

And on a completely different note ... I had a surprise the other day that almost made my hearts stop completely still. I mentioned the other day about three blogs that I adore, but you know - I'm totally unworthy, so wouldn't deign to email them re the Thinking Blogger Award thingy that has been circulating recently. Well now ... one of the three was The Crochet Dude - Drew Emborsky. And he only commented on my blog to tell me I could email him anytime. Ohhhh my! First up, whatever was he doing here? And second up, OMG he commented! Now, I don't usually get all worked up over hero worship type issues, but goodness me ... it just made me feel all happy inside, you know? What a sweet guy! I would just laugh the insanity laugh if next Crazy Aunt Purl stopped by ... I think I'd need a de-fib machine on standby ...

Well, that's it from me, I've a sock on the go, and a little piecing, I'll give you some more show and tell when it's not sooooo late ...

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Fading and Spiderwebs

The other day, Kathie from Threadlines showed off a gorgeous quilt she made in her early days of quilting, and she talked about how badly some of the fabric had faded. I too have a tale of faded fabric, and sadly, the fabric in question is in one of my all time favourite quilts.

I still have a piece of the original fabric, and I've pinned it next the the block in question on my Dear Jane quilt. I was just gazing over my quilt this one day, and my eye rested on this block, and I was thinking that I didn't remember the fabric being quite like that. Imagine how surprised I was when I found the original fabric and compared them. Now, this quilt isn't really that old - I finished it in 2000. It hangs on the wall in our dining room, and it doesn't get that much light, it's not a room we use that much, and all the other fabrics are really just as they should be. It's just this particular fabric. And you know what, it's not an el'cheapo fabric either, it's one of those museum collections. Oh well, it doesn't diminish my love for the quilt in any way, if anything it just adds to the charm.

And now on to the spiderwebs ... Last year while I was in Paducah, I was determined to find the Marti Michell stand. I really wanted to get a set of Double Wedding Ring templates, and I hadn't seen any I liked here in Australia. Imagine my surprise when I found it was actually her at the booth. I gushed 'Ohhh, I've come all the way from Australia to meet you'. She was so sweet and kind and did all sorts of demonstrations just for me, and I ended up spending a small fortune, as you do. Well, one of the things I bought was the Kaleido-Rule. Yesterday I took it out, and thought I'd have a play with it. You know ... you just can't rush these things ...

And here's the result - three spiderwebs. I think I remember seeing something like it on Norma's page a while back?. I made the one in the background at the top as a practice first, using up scrap 2"strips. You can see it's all random and a bit messy. The two in the front were made after I got the hang of it, and I used up some of my Sarah Johnson prints. Gosh I must have had them ten years now? Scary. This afternoon, we're heading to my parents for a BBQ, I'll finish the binding on them and give them to Mum as a gift. I'll even give her the practice one - I'm sure she'll find a use for it.


I'm off to play in the sewing room, there will be binding abounding!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Blue and Cream top done

The blue and cream borders are finally done! I'm sorry I can't show you a fulll size picture, there just isn't room in the sewing room to spread it out entirely, the kids are in the lounge where I would normally take pictures, and since they're not well, I'm going to leave them in peace.

It was fun putting the borders on, and I just let the placement of the blue and cream fall where they may, I didn't want to agonise over it too much. I'll have fun quilting on this one, I know I want to use a variegated blue thread, but I need to decide if I want to use one of those lovely YLI cones, or if I want to get some rayon. I love the sheen of the rayon threads, but I love the weight of the YLI thread. I'll think on it later on.

Almost exactly one year ago, I was getting set to travel to the USA to spend some time with my wonderful friend Linda. I just can't believe how fast this past year has gone. It really just seems like yesterday. We spent time together in California, and travelled with members of her quilt group to Paducah - Wow, what an experience!. Thank you so much to Linda and Jerry for being such wonderful hosts. The quilt show in Paducah is drawing near, and Linda and her group are preparing to set off again. How much do I wish I was there with them? I'm looking forward to hearing all about their adventures!

And now to my 'tag' from May Britt. She has received a Thinking Blogger award, and has bestowed one upon me also. Here is the link to the award. I feel so unworthy of her praise, but thank you so much for your kind words May Britt. I had to think overnight about my five favourite blogs, and gosh it's hard to do. Many that I read regularly have already been tagged, and there are three that I don't feel worthy enough to email them *lol*. The ones I love, but wouldn't dare email are: The Yarn Harlot, Crazy Aunt Purl and The Crochet Dude. Go ahead and visit them and revel in their wonderfulness.

The five I'm going to list are going to be because they each have something a little extra happening in my life, there are so many more blogs that I read each day and look forward to seeing that they've been updated ...

One: Bonnie from Quiltville. I know Bonnie has been tagged already, but how could I not mention a quilter I have 'known' for almost ten years. We worked on our DJ quilts together way back when we were members of the DJ list. Bonnie is responsible almost entirely for my love of scrap quilts. Bonnie has said it herself, 'we go way back'.

Two: Tonya - our favourite Lazy Gal. How special did I feel when she took me under her wing to help me break free from the points police. The take the leap challenge was one of the hardest and yet also easiest things I've ever done. Thank you Tonya

Three: Kathie from Threadlines. Kathie was so kind to share a bag pattern with me last year - thank you so much hon. I think Kathie is the quilter/knitter I'd like to be - she's really stylish. I don't know if it's necessarily true, but I feel like should I actually meet her, she'd be the one in the designer outfit and I'd be the one in a trakkie. I almost feel unworthy ... but gosh she's just so darn nice :-)

Four: Forest Jane. Jane is such a honey - not so long ago she asked me if I'd be interested in helping out with a project she had going on at the Library about Australia. I don't think I've ever been asked a question that cracked me up quite so much ... she passed on that one of the children asked "Why do the Aboriginals make such salty cracker spread?". I don't know if you have to be Aussie to think that's amusing ... but I tell you, I laughed ... and I laughed some more! Jane was so kind to send me such a box of treats - and one of the children sent me a set of mardi gras beads, what a darling :-)

Five: Computerpeach Kim. She knows how anal retentive I can be about my blog, and how I just hate it when things aren't spaced just right. She was a darling and logged in for me and fixed up a picture in my sidebar when it was just a couple of pixels from where I wanted it to be. I'm sure she thinks I'm not quite all there! Also, the wonderful fabric diet buttons she makes, that help me so much to stay on track. I have spent so little on fabric lately - and I just really dont need to. Thank you so much Kim, you're amazingly clever!

Really, if I have ever commented on your blog, you're one of my favourites - so go ahead and award yourself anyways. So hard to limit myself to five blogs, and yet so time consuming to write something about all my favourites.

Have a great day everyone!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

At it again ...

I've been at it again - I made up a little mug mat and paired it up with a cute coffee mug for one of my students at the quilt store. it's hard to see in the picture, but it's just a little 5" log cabin block made up with some of my Thimbleberries scraps. One of these days I will have none left ... honest!

The girls have been mad for these bags made with pet mesh inserts, and Jenny C. has been showing Jenny S. how to make one. She's made a few now, and I wanted to thank her for using her class time to help out.

Not much quilty going on here, life has been getting in the way, tomorrow is quilt group, so maybe some show and tell after that.

May Britt has tagged me with a Thinking Blogger award. I need to list five of my favourite blogs I'd also like to award. I'm going to think on it overnight. I can't even imagine narrowing it down to five ... eleventy five maybe!! Thank you so much to May Britt for the kind words ... I feel so unworthy!

Hope you're all having a great day :-)

Monday, April 09, 2007

Two mitts - a pair!

First up, a big thank you to Computerpeach Kim for the wonderful graphic for our April Fabric Diet. What fun to have my buttons automatically update!

We're having a bit of a 'veg' day today. I do plan to do some chores after I'm done on here, but not too much. Yesterday was a lovely day spent in Mannum with my Grandparents. Nanna just loved the little table topper I made up for her. It's so much fun to know that she appreciates my addiction so much. Her Easter gift was kind of a happy accident, because I made too many border blocks, but sometime this year I'll make her a planned project. I always have to ask her to USE them, as she always thinks they're too precious to use. It's amazing, a lot of people feel that way.

Nanna and I went visiting with some of her friends, and on the way home we stopped by the lookout to check out the view of the river. She tells me that the river level has dropped 3 feet. In the city apart from the water restrictions we don't really feel the effects of the drought we're in the midst of. Out here in the country we can see the brown hills, and the mud where water used to be. Let's hope this winter will bring lots of rain here in Australia.

Last night I managed to finish the second mitt. See them there - they're almost identical!! And that little bundle of wool is all I have left over. More than the last ball, how mysterious? I'm going to put the little bit left over in a ziploc baggie with the label from the ball, just in case I need to make a repair someday. And because I'm a knitting fool lately ... I cast on a new pair of socks last night. I have no idea how these ones are going to go. I purchased the yarn at the craft fair last year, and this stuff is 6ply. I haven't managed to find a pattern for six ply, so who knows, I may have to make them to fit me, and give them away to a friend with bigger feet. Nothing like flying by the seat of your pants!

Hope you've all had a great weekend, take it easy on the chocolate, okay?

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Parcel and piecing :-)

A super huge thank you to ForestJane for the wonderful parcel that arrived on my doorstep on Thursday. My hubby actually found it when he came home from work, so it was a huge surprise, and I had the best time scooting thru the contents. Jane has sent me the most lovely fabric, trims, treats for the kids, a seam ripper (cuz we all need those), a magazine, a mountain of buttons and sequins, a fairy doll, an Easter pin ... ohhh it goes on and on. Thank you Jane, you're just darling. Our customs dept must have thought her parcel interesting, as the box was labelled as having been searched. I wonder what they thought of my loot?

On the quilting front, I have pieced the borders for the blue and cream quilt, I just need to press them now and attach them to the quilt top. I hope to have that done later this afternoon. We were to have taken Cam to a little friend's birthday party, but the poor little guy has come down with tonsilitis, and after a visit to the doctor, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. He's resting happily now, so I should get some time in the sewing room.

After piecing up a storm to get the borders together, I discovered that I'd made nine extra blocks. In the spirit of stashbusting I pieced the blocks together and utility quilted them to give to my Nanna. We're visiting with them tomorrow. She has a little table next to her armchair in the TV room, and this will be the perfect little table topper for it. On the back of the table topper I used a fat quarter that has been in my stash for a reeeeaaaalllly long time. I remember buying it at a quilt store I don't visit anymore. Generally fat quarters cost around $6.00 at quilt stores here, and this one still had the price tag on it ... and it was $2.50. I'm thinking this one has been sitting around since mid-late 90's. Not sad to see that one go!

Well, that's it from me ... hope you're all having a lovely Easter weekend! x o x

Thursday, April 05, 2007

If the mitt fits ...

Here it is - I finished my first mitt this evening. I'm just so thrilled with it. I've never tried to knit anything where I had to put stitches on waste yarn, and it just wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be.

Do you see that little bit of yarn on the cutting mat? That's all I had left from one ball of yarn. I managed to get one sock and one mitt from a 50g ball of Patonyle. It will be interesting to see if I manage to get the same mileage out of the other ball. I've already got the other sock, but I guess it will come down to how much is wasted when I match up the colour. I want the mitts to be twins if possible.

On a funny note ... I just showed Marty the mitt I'm wearing right now ... and he wondered it I'm trying to emulate Michael Jackson's one glove look. I better knit the other one up quick smart!!

If you would like the pattern, and missed the link the other day, here it is. I made my mitt significantly shorter than the one featured, I wouldn't have had the yarn for anything longer. In the pattern, it also states that it should take around 2 hours to knit up a mitt. I can assure you it took me a good deal longer than that!

Just in case I don't have a chance to post over the weekend, I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy Easter. We'll have a wonderful long weekend, and I hope you all do too!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Bits & Bobs

No lovely quilt pictures to share today, nothing new to see on that front I'm afraid. So instead I thought I'd share a picture of Holly - she's grown so much! She's sleeping on her cat tree here, Marty built it for her (and for Madaline who's completely disinterested) and he's really glad that Holly uses it.

I've been struggling along with my drawing software this evening - I have some ideas in my head for projects I'd like to work on, and I just can't get them out of my head and into something I will remember later. A table runner/topper is what I'm working on, and I have the applique component together, but I just can't remember what I originally had decided for the pieced component. I'm sure I'll remember soon, but it's scary to me how much I can forget and how fast!! I was dreaming this project up at the quilt store today, and by the time I got home, most of the idea had escaped me. I need to get into the habit of carrying a notebook with me I think.

Not much stitching going on here in the past couple of days. I have almost finished the directions and the in-progress samples, so it'll go in the mail directly after Easter. I will work on the last bits and pieces tomorrow afternoon and in any spare time over the long weekend.

I'm also so excited about the blue and cream quilt - and thank you so much for all the enthusiastic responses regarding the border - just love you all to bits! I'd really like to finish that top this month, so I'll make that one of my goals. I didn't even bother to set any goals in March, but this month I'm determined to set a few - I really work best when I set myself goals and deadlines. Otherwise I get distracted so easily ... I'm sure I'm not the only ADD quilter!

Well, that's it from me for today - I'll check in with you all again really soon!

Monday, April 02, 2007

Decisions made!

I have been playing around on the computer to come up with a border I'll be happy with on the blue and cream quilt. My thoughts were initially to have a fabulous blue border for the quilt, and I just don't have enough of any of the right blue fabric to do that.

My next thought was that I could use the same blue and cream blocks I've been making in the final border after adding the Thimbleberries stripe for an inner border to break it up. After thinking about that, I decided not to do it, as the inner border would mess up the graduation of the barn raising pattern going out into the border, and that would really bug me.

So, this is what I've come up with. I think I like it! It's growing on me the more I look at it. The border kind of reminds me of the tiling of the indoor swimming pool at Hearst Castle. I love the colours in that pool - so opulent.

I've started sewing strips together and cutting them apart to make the four patches ... then I'll sew them together to make eight patches and so on. There will likely be nothing left at all in blue and cream in my 2" strip box. So, this quilt is taking a new turn ... and it's still satisfying my urge to stash-bust. How fun!!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails