Another block finished...

One more finished. This one didn't take long at all. I should have another one finished by the end of today. That is if I would ever get off this computer an get that needle back in my hands.









Jessi left yesterday morning to go back to collage. We had such a great time while she was here. A lot of talking and laughing and teasing Grandpa.
Her last night she made us her famous stuffed crust pizza and OMGosh it was fantastic.
She definitely IS a pizza makin' fool. HAHAHA
Gosh I miss her already.... and she's only been gone one day.

One more finished.....

Here is one more needle-turn block done.... three more to go.
I've been able to sit and stitch while Jessi is here. The best of both worlds to be able to chat and giggle with her while she is here and also stitch on these blocks so I can get my quilt finished.

I have decided that I need to get back to my back-basting applique' method so I can get better results on placement of pieces. On this block I chose to try the freezer paper template...cut out the shape..... and then place the pieces on the background. I don't like the results I got. I do much better with back-basting then cutting around the stitching to give me the applique' shape. It exactly matches the pattern and I'm much happier with the results. :0)

So for today.... be happy! There is much to smile about.

Delicious .....

Aren't these just luscious? Within two days after I got back home I had these fantastic fabrics delivered to my door from Suzanne. Now I'm sitting here just admiring them and my mind is spinning with all kinds of different patterns I want to make. The trick will be to settle down and focus on just one pattern at a time.

I think I'll go refold my stash so I will have more room....

Guild block.....

Our guild is sharing what they're calling a "Pizza box" project this year.
Those of us who wanted to take part in this had to come up with patterns for 12 months and provide the fabric with instructions for the blocks we want made. Kinda like a BOM. Our patterns....our fabric choices.... our quilt.
Everything is put into a Pizza box (clean of course) heehee.
Then each month at our meeting we exchange our boxes and make one of the blocks in that box. At the end of the year we will all have a quilt made by 11 other gals in our guild.

This month I got to do the block for the the gal that has all her block patterns foundation pieced. She has them designated and Easy - Medium - Harder.
Since I love to paper-piece I chose one of the harder patterns and left the easier ones for some of the other unsure-of-themselves-girls.

Here it is finished and it measures 6.5 square.



This is a crop of just the tree and all the little pieces. I can't wait to see how she will set these together. I do know that she doesn't make large quilts.... always miniatures.

It was a lot of fun and got me enthused in paper-piecing again.

We're back home.....

and I'm plumb tuckered out. Now we have to get all our stuff put back where it belongs and a bit of cleaning to do.
Temps are supposed to be in the low 80's today so I may take the book out to the patio. I grabbed a Wally Lamb book (I Know This Much is True) from Deb while we were there and started reading on the way home. It sure made the time pass quickly.

I'm amazed at how soon Spring is popping out all over. It seems very early this year. I just hope we don't get a really hard freeze and kill the tender growth.

Well.... I'm off to grab a bite to eat and then to start my day.
Here's a bit of my sunshine

Moving process...

Ok I'm exhasted!! Being here to help Deb move into the new house is very very hard work. Don & I both told her that we sure hope this will be the last move for them or else they are on their own. hahaha
Of course we say that every time....but this time I mean it.

Things are coming along nicely. We still have a lot of pictures to hang and a wall to paint and some minor furniture to re-arrange..... and a junk room with a LOT of boxes left to unpack yet.... but the main floor is almost finished.

This is the first chance I've had to post anything at all. We just yesterday got the new desk in the office .... so I thought I'd take a minute this morning to update here.
But I hear some stirring in the kitchen so I'd best be seeing what she is doing.
Who knows when I'll have another minute to post.
Have a great day all!!

Finished top so far.....

The blocks and sashings are all together now. They should have been done yesterday but I had a min-migrain hit so I didn't do much sewing.
I am tickled that it has turned out so nice. I really do like it and I thought this would now be ready for the borders.
However.....
I have changed my mind after looking at it laying here on my floor.
It's not big enough!!!
I have to make 4 more blocks.
This top is just too square and I really don't like square quilts. (unless they hang on a wall)
See.......

Four more blocks would make it fit a bed much nicer don't you think?
soooooooo........
Back to EQ to pick out more patterns.
And a lot more needle-turn applique' coming up in my future.

Today I think I'll go ahead and cut the additional sashings and get them sewn together so I won't forget what I've learned about them.
Like how many it takes!! heehee
And this will give me plenty of time to think about the borders too.
Any suggestions???

Still making sashing....

Ok Susanne, I may be able to sew from EQ.... but I have a really hard time with the math that I have to do after the designing. :(
It helps a lot if I'd count the pieces right. Sheesh!!
I missed counting a dozen sashing strips. OMGosh!!
That's a LOT!
12!!!
How could I have missed that many???
Well I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder!! heehee

I now have my third row together (it's lookin' good) .... so today I'll be preping the rest of the sashing and getting them sewn together. I'll post another pic later when the blocks are all done.
Then I'll just have to make my mind up about the border. I have a simple strip border already designed .... but ..... I always think....hummmm what if????

I wish I knew if there was a way to respond to comments personally. But I'm pretty sure that unless you have your email enabled I can't "reply" directly to you.
So I'll just do it here.
Mary, Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Jacquie ... Thanks girl! :)
Crispy. Yes I do love EQ. In fact.... every single quilt I make goes into EQ first before a stitch is taken. Even if I have a pattern I still like to play with it and see if I can tweek it around just a bit. Glad you liked my place. Come back anytime.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Sashing plan...

The last few days I've been cutting and sewing the sashings and squaring up all the blocks for "Dee's" Baltimore.
I designed the quilt layout in EQ6.
When I was ready to cut the sashing I started with the star points and cut all of them out by using the printed templete.
Then I did the same thing with the muslim strips and then sewed the points on.
The sashing measures 3.5" x 12.5".
It took me a day and a half just to get them finished.
If I knew then what I know now I would have used my Tri-Rec ruler for the points. But I was too far into it before I thought of them. And since I'd already cut my red I didn't want to waste it. But I do think I made things a lot harder doing it the way I did.
Oh well...live and learn.

I thought I had all of the applique' blocks finished.
When I was ironing and squaring up..... I was missing one.
I still have the last one in my sewing basket. Waiting!
I had layed it aside and completly forgot to finish it.
So ..... looks like I'm going to have some handwork for awhile as I watch tv at night.

Here's a sneek peek at just two of the blocks on my design wall.
I've laid out all the blocks on my floor and OMGosh it is going to be sooooo pretty.
Thanks again Dee for the patterns.

Quilting this baby will be a whole 'nother story......

I've been playing...

Last year I bought these cute little mini wall hanging kits (12 month BOM).
The patterns are from Patch Abilities and the kits were put together and sold through Quilters Delight in Holdrege. Each month's design is just soooo cute and when I saw them I just HAD to have them.
I brought them home and that's as far as I got with them. Sheesh!!
I've had them sitting in one of my drawers all this time.... so yesterday I decided to get started on one of them. They measure 6" x 21".
I figure it will qualify for one of my UFO's completed this month. I did a blanket stitch machine applique' using black thread. So easy!!
I'll probably do a few more while I'm in the mood.