What Has Possessed Me?!?

Bonus Triangles. That's what!

I have a huge box of bonus triangles to trim up...and I've put it off and put it off, but you know how it goes...eventually they niggle at me enough that I have to put them into something.

I spent yesterday afternoon with the Lifetime Movie Network on "True Story Thursday" and squared, de-dog-earred, pressed, and started piecing this border together. It's what I call an "EXTREME" border, but I am loving how it is going to turn out.

The hard part? I'm not sure how it's going to turn the corners....I'm just going on it and I figure I'll deal with it when I get there. Maybe not the smartest move, but there you have it. I'll piece it longer that the quilt center, and then figure what I need to do as far as spacer border to build up the quilt center to make my pieced border fit. Sound insane? probably.

The issue is...it's an on point quilt center (Can't show it to you yet! It's for next book! Nanananana!) SO to get the math right, I figured out that the border needs to be an on-point setting too, as this is. So...we will see how it works out!

I'm wishing I had been leader/endering this all along! AND...I am hoping it really helps deplete all these bonus squares that have added up over various projects (not to mention being gifted to me by students who didn't want to be bothered with them LOL!)

It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside. This afternoon I'd really like to take one of the dogs down to Salem Lake and walk/jog/hike the trails around the lake. I'm thinking it will be even busier down there tomorrow with everyone wanting to catch some rays and air, and I leave early Sunday morning for Michigan, so it's today or bust....

Lunch, Mashers, & Molesters??

Yes, I know this is a picture of "Aunt Bee" and I put her here for a reason!

You know how they have told us all our lives not to judge a book by its cover? The same goes for quilters...no matter what age we are...you just can't judge it, it may surprise you in delightful ways!

I met so many people in Baton Rouge, but I want to share with you the most HILARIOUS out of the blue moment that happened to have the whole room roaring!

I wish I could introduce you to Mary Kate. A delightful southern lady, quite proper, warm, easy with a smile, fun to talk to, and really, it would be easy to judge her as someone reserved and proper. Her age was timeless to me, but I'm thinking she could be anywhere from late 70's to early 80s if a day.

I asked her how long her hair was when it was unpinned, as she wore it in a very "Aunt Bee" style bun. As I age, I have imagined myself quite the same way.....letting my hair go its own natural grey, and just winding it up at the back of my head and pinning it, rather than going fashionably short and/or permed in an "old lady" style. I smiled with delight when she said she could sit on the ends of it when it is unwound, and I imagined her brushing it in the evenings before bed. Just lovely.

Now..imagine me....with my little speech as we were getting ready to go to lunch "Ladies, it's lunch time, and you are welcome to stay or go. Our lunch break will go from 11:30 until 1pm. If you stay, there needs to be at least 2 people left in the room for your safety, so if you are the only one left, you need to go too..." (These were there symposium rules, not mine.)

Mary Kate got this look on her face and said...."What if I don't want to go? Doesn't anyone trust me to stay here? They think I'm going to steal something?"

We explained that it was for her own safety, that what if some man came in to MOLEST her??

And....here it comes....She got this DELIGHTED look on her face.....spread a big wide grin with eyes twinking....waggled her eyebrows and said "OOOOOOOOOHHHH....REEEEAAALLLLY??????" Like it was the best idea she had heard of in a long time....LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!

All at once she had turned from Aunt Bee into Blanche Devereaux of The Golden Girls! LOL!

We just all cracked up laughing...it was a real depends moment. And I knew right then and there that there was no age difference between Mary Kate and myself. No matter the age of the packaging, we are the same silly girls inside that we have been at EVERY age.

This will have me laughing for a LONG LONG TIME!

Lunch Bunch

If you are on our Quiltville facebook fan page, you've already seen this pic...but I'm posting it here anyway!

Lisa and Karen and I had the most FUN lunch at Mooney's Mediterranean Grill!

I showed up first...sat at an outside table waiting for the others to arrive. It was a bit chilly, but a good place to wait. And a few minutes later, here came Lisa...I saw her a block away...she was wearing the exact same shade of green as me! How funny!

Lisa ran off inside the restaurant and I stayed to wait for Karen...and...who is that walking up the block....in the EXACT SAME SHADE OF GREEN as Lisa and me? LOL!

We couldn't have planned it better, and we laughed even more when we walked inside only to see that the walls inside the restaurant were painted the same shade of pea green! You know that commercial where the lady with depression is disapearing into her sofa? This was the happy version...I imagined a picture of us against that wall, and nothing but our faces and hands really visible. So Karen pulled out her camera and we got an employee to snap a picture of us...don't we just look so Decorator Enhanced? :cD

Lunch was amazing...I fell in love with Falafel sandwiches in Paris, and who would guess that there are really good ones here in Winston Salem too?

And look at this COOKIE!! We broke it into 3 pieces..and Karen even shared some of her part with the lady at the next table, who was laughing and enjoying our antics too.

I tell ya...silly girlfriends are the best medicine! I love these girls...I can't wait until we can do this again!

Wool or Cotton, Wool or Cotton?!

I've loaded a little crumbs sampler in the quilting machine to quickly machine baste it so I can start hand quilting on it Sunday on my trip to Michigan!

The back is on...pinned to the backing roller and the take up leader. The top is pinned to it's roller....

And I'm sitting here paralyzed by my inability to hurry up and make a decision!

I love hand quilting with hobbs organic, or the quilter's dream cotton in the lightest loft. I also love quilting with the hobbs wool....I just ordered a brand new roll and it isn't even out of its plastic yet.

I don't have any small enough pieces of anything that will fit this quilt..I have to cut a piece from a roll..but the question remains...do I want cotton? OR WOOL!??

I might just have to flip a coin....I love the look of that cotton, and the quilt is big enough that the wool will give it a nice vintage looking loft and the quilting detail shows really well....I JUST CAN'T DECIDE!!

PS.....I decided on the cotton! I love quilting with wool, but I got to thinking that I'm going to be quilting this through the hot months. Have you ever sat in the SOUTH with wool in your lap in August? It ain't pretty... :cD Cotton it is!

In A Bind....

SO...since DH is out of town for the week, I had all these grandiose plans of how I was going to get so much SEW MUCH done, right?

I felt like yesterday was just in slow motion the whole day! But still, at the end of the day when I tallied it up, I had accomplished SOME things.

I went to Sam's club to pick up my new glasses which I love....other than the fact that the prescription is a bit stronger and the placement of the bifocal (no lines) seems to be a bit different than on my other pair. This is going to take some getting used to. And because they are completely rimless, I just see screw holes where the nose piece goes across and it's driving me a bit batty! I was told to never fear, that after a few days my brain will shut off that there are even screw holes there. I'm hoping she is right!

I made a run to the bank....

I stocked up on groceries....

I put groceries away...

I did two loads of laundry....

I took care of all the book orders that had stacked up for a week...

I ran said book orders to the post office before closing time....

And the rest of the day went by in a blur of "I'm too tired to move, I think I'll just read blogs on the computer for a while.." and then it was dinner time.

I did get out of my dead funk in the evening, put on the Law & Order channel (USA) and proceeded to do some block piecing for a quilt that's going in the next book. It's all greens/reds/burgundies/raspberry pink it's going to be pretty :c)

AND...tada....I put bindings on the two little small quilts that I finished this last trip. I took the last stitches on the leader/ender 9 patch thing on the plane between Houston and Dulles :c) That one has the gold binding to match the cornerstones. The other crazy orphan one, the one I'm calling Kindred Souls...I couldn't decide, so I did a scrappy red and threw one wild pink/red in there for good measure. I found a small strip left of the "Lucky Cow" fabric and put that in there too for fun!

Today I am on my way to the gym to work out with my trainer, and then I have a designated girls lunch date down town Winston with Karen and Lisa! Whoot! So I'll have to hurry home, shower, put on something green (don't want them pinching me) and head out again.

Do you think TONIGHT I'll get to start sewing these bindings down? Maybe...just maybe....

Leader/Ender Nines...

I think this top was pieced at a sew-day at my friend Mary's house last year..or was it farther back than that?

I love traveling with little things that I can hand quilt. For one....they keep me warm on the plane! Second, small quilts are a faster finish than a big quilt is, and of course more portable and gives me that sense of accomplishment.

I also tease my students that having something in my hands to work on while sitting through a guild business meeting before I give my presentation helps calm my nerves. And you know what? It does. I also love how working on a hand quilting project can be a conversation starter as I sit in airports or on planes. So many people come to look and see what I'm working on, and tell me stories of quilters and quilts that have come through their lives.

I also tell the students that having a project in my hands keeps me from wrassling one of them out of their seats and hijacking their machine due to piecing envy! *LOL* It's just a good thing all around...

And really...I might get 15 minutes here or there, or maybe 1/2 hour or more...but it never comes in BIG long spurts of time, yet still..the stitches I put in STAY there, and eventually I have something to show for these little gathered bits of time.

I've quilted this little guy through the squares on the diagonal in one direction. It would be twice as much work to cross hatch it..and these are 1.5" leader/ender squares, so they finish at 1". Do I really want to do a 1" cross hatch? Only in some place that it is going to show and this is such a busy little ditty that I don't think it will be noticeable.

I've got just 2 sides left to do.....I wonder how long that will take? I'm already thinking of the next little "traveling size" top that I have on hand that is ripe for basting before I fly off to Grand Rapids Michigan on Sunday! Gotta have that on the "to do" list for this coming week.

I think with this shot you can see the diagonal quilting lines. I am using a chalk pencil to freehand mark the fans in the border...I'm using black thread on black fabric and I just can't see where I'm going without having a white line to give me some contrast, and helps me see where my stitches are.

A Quilt Finish!

While traveling and in between teaching.....I've FINALLY finished the quilting on this orphan block quilt!

You know..I love how it feels when you are pushing to get that last stretch of border completed...oh so close...the adrenaline kicks in and....(yeah, I know that those who aren't quilters are probably wondering what the heck that is about...but...;c) )

Here it is on my bed in the hotel room in all it's untrimmed unbound glory!

There is just such a wild array of fabrics in this, and I especially love working on things when students can come and take a look. Many want to know how I hand quilt..which finger gets the thimble, why I like using a hoop, what size of needles I like, what brand, etc. What kind of thread....they even like to feel the callouses on my "under" fingers! (And yes, the best way to keep those under fingers calloused is to keep quilting at least 15 minutes a day if at all possible, just to keep them tough!)

I didn't know what to call this quilt, but as I finished that homestretch, I came up to a piece of Laurel Birch favorite fabric that had words on it. I believe the whole phrase was "Kindred Spirits, Kindred Souls" But the piece is missing the first Kindred...only part of the Spirits shows, but Kindred Souls is still visible.

AHA! So the quilt has it's name....Kindred souls. We'll get it trimmed up and get that binding on when I get it home.

Another little bitty thang only needs 2 borders finished too....I'm quilting baptist fans in that border, and we'll see how far it can get as I travel home.

Facebook Interactive Fan Page!

I've been told I need to have a "FAN PAGE" for Quiltville on facebook!

You can get to it here!

I've really enjoyed having a facebook page, and it has been a great way to connect with family and friends, but it was getting a bit overwhelming with lots of people I didn't really know....and I made a choice to keep my own personal facebook page just for people I know in "real life".

At the same time, I want a place that is interactive where you can post photos and post and update and follow along in your own feed, so this Quiltville fan page will do the job nicely I think!

Come along, click to join as a fan.....see you there!

Crown Point Indiana: Texas Braid Workshop!

Calling Indiana Quilters!

I'm going to be with the Heritage Quilters in Crown Point Indiana March 30-31. I was just told there are still openings in the TEXAS BRAID workshop on the 31st! I'd love to meet you, so come out and sew!

If you are interested, please contact Marilyn Robertson for more info. I don't know all the nitty gritty details, but she can help you out.

The pattern is from my book Adventures with Leaders & Enders, and the book is required for the class. I will have books there with me. You can find the class supply list here. Everything is cut from 2" strips...you just need lots of scraps, and some yardage of whatever you want to use for your accent cornerstones.

Hoping to see you in Crown Point!

Louisiana Highlights...

So, here I am, Sunday night.....I've been here since Wednesday and it's been such a cram packed adventure that I haven't been able to even gather my thoughts into a coherent stream that would make sense to anyone...

How is it that it can take 9 hours to fly somewhere it would take me 12 to drive? It boggles the mind...but I keep telling myself, that I was able to sit back, relax, hand quilt, listen to tunes I love on my ipod, and even sleep a bit....and though I was pretty tuckered out upon my arrival in Baton Rouge, I think that DRIVING is a lot more exhausting.

But let me tell you, from the people at the airport who watched my bags while I found out about my cab to the conference center, to the cab driver himself....and everyone I have dealt with this whole time...Baton Rouge is a place I would be HAPPY to return to!

The weather has been lovely, as you can tell by these pictures...I just had to capture it...while I have been here the past few days, the bradford pears have blossomed into popcorn! LOVE IT!!

I have been able to walk every day.....I figured out a route that takes me between 3.5 and 4 miles. This morning it didn't happen due to the crazy time change, but since class ended early and we were out of the classroom by 4pm..I took a long one this afternoon late...it feels so GOOD to be OUTSIDE.

I was really excited to see lots of familiar faces from when I taught in Houma a couple years ago, and other people I've met in my quilting journey. One friend Mary..now lives in NYC, and we have crossed paths every few years..she brought a picture of a group of us together at Houston Quilt Festival about 10 to 12 years ago! Oh my goodness...I looked at that picture....saw myself at that age, and wonder what the heck has happened in the years between then ....and now! A couple years doesn't make such a big difference, but when you do it in leaps by 10?? Wow. What a wild ride this life is, huh?

One of the biggest highlights was finally getting to be with Judy Laquidara face to face! Do you know that we have known each other at LEAST 15 years? We've emailed, we've talked on the phone..we've hit the same guilds and know lots of the same people, but never in the same place at the same time. Her mom and she roomed right next to me, so it was fun to share meals and talk face to face. We had a great time. I'll be seeing Judy again in October in Shipshewana...can't wait!

There is more to write....but I've got to get packed. I'm being picked up by yellow cab at 7:30am....and yep...it's going to be another long day. Baton Rouge to Houston, to Washington/Dulles, to Greensboro NC.

It will be good to be home!

I sewed :c)

Not a whole lot...but I have this quilt kitted up and that makes it really easy for me to pull a handful of block parts and just sew for a bit!

A lot of the time I only like to cut out a few blocks at a time and not commit myself too soon to a whole project - - - who knows what inspiration could come along and have me running off in a different direction? I like to keep my "options open" so to speak!

But when I am traveling with a machine it helps to do all the cutting ahead of time on some things so that you don't have to bring "as much" stuff.

When I was sewing with Lisa, Karen, and Leann a couple Sundays ago at our "in town" retreat day at Lisa's office...Lisa had forgotten some of what she needed for the one project, but luckily had an "EMERGENCY" project with her! I never termed mine this way, but yes....having something cut out and ready to go is great when something like this happens.

I hope to sew more on this one this afternoon, but I think there is a matinee movie in the plans for today...

That said...does this happen in YOUR house? This WAS a bowl of trail mix! Now? It is a bowl of salty raisins! LOL!!! Guess who doesn't like raisins and saved them for me? Hint..his initials are DH! :cÞ That's okay. Salty raisins are the best part of trail mix anyway!

Lazy Saturday Afternoon.....

Must Have:

Bigelow Vanilla Chai Tea. Big Mug. Sweetened with a bit of splenda.....

Lovely. Just sayin.

Emmy Demands Attention!

Hi All!

Yes, I know...I know....I'm a delinquent blogger! But if I described to you the past 10 days..you'd understand WHY! Really....come for a little bit of a time line with me and see....

Tues, Feb 23: Surgery
Thurs, Feb 24: Drive to Peach Tree City, GA....dinner and a lecture/trunkshow that night.
Fri, Feb 25: All Day Starstruck Workshop
Sat, Feb 26: All Day Sister's Choice Workshop

Sun, Feb 27: 2 lecture/trunkshows and book signings at Tiny Stitches in Marietta

Drive to Lake Oconee, GA after leaving Marietta...over 100 mile drive...get there close to 10pm at night...

Mon, Mar 1: All Day Sister's Choice Workshop
Tue, Mar 2: Lecture/Trunkshow/Luncheon/book signing at guild meeting
Weds, Mar 3: All Day Pineapple Blossom Workshop

I got home about midnight on Thursday! Yesterday...was Friday....I had to be up to be at an eye doc appt at 8:30. I grocery shopped, I ran errands, I did the banking, I came home and took a NAP!

(I was so out of it Friday, that all I could manage for dinner was leftover Domino's pizza from before my drive home on Thursday!)

That puts me to today......really the first time I've had a chance to sit at the computer...and there is so much I should be doing, but about all I've been able to catch up with is the laundry....and ran some other errands this morning. I'm going to update my desktop PC to Windows 7....in hopes that I can get things like Block Base and EQ5 or 6 to WORK...I can't get anything installed on this desktop, it keeps giving me 432 errors. It's a last resort.....if this doesn't work, I'm going back to XP and staying there. I am really ticked off at operating systems that make our valuable quilter's software INCOMPATIBLE!!

I took 3 quilts to BIND with me on this past trip, and I'm happy to say that I have 2 of them done, one of them 3/4 the way done. I'm tired of binding. I want to be PIECING! So..maybe tonight. We'll see.

Last night I was such a zombie that all I could do was put on some CSI and spent the evening trimming up some square in a square variation blocks for a future project...remember doing that with the units from Double Delight? I was not delighted to have to do those again, but it really makes for nice units.

So...I have here a couple pics of a kitty who is being VERY stand offish! I was talking to a friend about Tabbies since we both love them and have them. When you are a grey tabby lover, nothing but grey tabbies will do :c)

This is Emmy Lou,also known as Lulu Bee, or Pissy Weezie...Can you see the distinctive "M" on her forehead? It always looks like she is scowling at you. She also has discovered within the past month or so this new favorite hiding spot...She is very much a loner, and doesn't like any of the other cats or dogs around, so she has gone up as high as she can go, to the top of the bedroom tv armoir...She actually knocked the silk plant OFF the stack of quilts....just to make room for her princess and the pea act...

Emmy also has the distinctive circle bullseye on her sides...and really funny coloring...it's like she was going for designer muted colors or something..her tummy is buff..and her grey is very soft and smokey colored..It goes right along with her personality of wanting to blend into the background and not be out loud and out front :c) I will say tho...since I got home Thursday night, she's been purring and pestering and wanting attention. I think she missed me... :c)

That Checkerboard Border......

I'm not concentrating well enough to want to work on those 40s blocks after all. I decided instead to finish the quilt that was on the machine, get the binding on it..and spend the afternoon with my feet up in the recliner binding to the "Lifetime Movie Network." Always good for a "man hater" chick flick! *LOL* I happen to like movies...I don't like sit-coms with canned laughter, and a movie can take up to 2 hours of my time, where those 30 minute jobs leave me playing with the remote trying to find something else to watch way too often!

SO..the quilt is done, and as I was trimming it I thought I'd see if I could get you some pics......of the border...and what I did to the BACK! Because --- I pieced WAY too much border! I don't know what I was thinking, but I just kept piecing and piecing and before I knew it...I could have circled the house with this border!

This is going around a quilt I set "on point"...AND YOU KNOW what happens to even measurements when you put a quilt on point? They are no longer even! They are 1.414'd into oblivion. So this is when I take a clue from antique quilts and just go to lobbing them off where they need to be lobbed. The spacer border helped with that. Actually, the number of squares worked on the lengthwise borders, but the top and bottom end with like 1/3 of a square...so be it! :cD

The fun part was taking some left over reds and piecing them into a back with the checkerboard remains put in there as a spacer. Look...MORE COW FABRIC! I swear that has to be the end of it, but those cows have been lucky for me, so I'm happy to put them in the back of one of these quilts for Scraps & Shirttails II....This was the last hunk, so if there are any others, they are in the strip bins, or the pre-cut square bins.

That big red check reminds me of picnics :c) (Please bring on picnic weather...it's SNOWING here in NC TODAY!!)

I really like the leafy design for the quilting. I needed something with a fairly small repeat because the units in the border and the quilt front are small...so scale was important to me with this one. That said...it probably took me 20+ pre wound bobbins to quilt this thing!

I'm now going to attempt to get the binding on.....and then do the hand stitching this afternoon. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Post Surgery...

Thanks for all the well wishes....it really was much of a non-event. It would have BEEN a non-event except for the need for anesthesia, which I hate at all costs....

I also hate IV's....because I have rolling veins and it just plain hurts and I'm a big baby. So there.

I remember walking down the hall to the OR with the nurse (Male, of course...oh jeez...why can't we have female nurses for female procedures?) and I remember thinking to myself "Gee, there are a LOT of people in this OR...)as I climbed up on the table....

I was strapped in, strapped down....My arms straight out to the sides of me. I remember the anesthesia guy putting an oxygen tube in front of my nose and turning it on...wrapping the tube behind my ears.

I remember him telling me that they were going to get me drowsy and he started the IV drip, and it felt very strangely cold going in my arm. I thought to myself, "Boy could be nice if they could just warm that up...." And that was the last I remember!

I have no recollection of ANYTHING....just waking up in the recovery room sitting in a recliner with my feet up and someone talking to me. How I got there? I have no clue! If I said something stupid, I don't remember! I guess that is the blessing of anesthesia....

The curse of anesthesia is that I fight nausea for the rest of the day. Upon coming home, I tried to settle my tummy with some tea and toast and went to bed. I slept 5 hours...ate some more..went back to bed....

This morning the only thing I'm feeling is tired (probably from too much sleeping!) and my throat is sore (probably from that forced oxygen thing and dryness)but other than that, I think I'm good to go.

I'm just puttering today....getting things ready for leaving for Georgia tomorrow! The guys are going to do the heavy lifting of the quilt duffel bags and boxes of books into the car.

I think it's a good day to pull out those blocks I was working on over the weekend! I have this idea to take these vintage 1940s fabrics that have been sitting around for too long and combine them with the recycled fabrics....and more of that plain muslin and come up with something that REALLY looks 1940s vintage, not REPRO or RETRO...but real... ;c)

Quick Post....

Things to be grateful for:

Sunny Saturday Morning :cD

90 Minute massage for ME :cD

Clean house.

Clean Quilting Studio.

Laundry Done.

Quilt on the Quilting machine.

Salad with poppy-seed dressing for lunch!

Matinee Movie!

Life is most definitely leaning towards good!