Happy Monday to You

Happy Monday,
 Hey! I have another quilt loaded on my long arm machine! YAY!! I got it loaded yesterday and started quilting on it right away. It is a customers quilt and it is quilting right along.

Also on the agenda this week is that Rag quilt. It seems as soon as I put it down, I stop. So on my breaks from the long arm, (gotta stretch my neck and back), I am going to work on it as well.  I am standing tall at the ironing board, pressing the binding and getting it ready to be attached. The chiropractor says I slouch. :-(   So Stand Tall!!!

I thought I would include the tutorial that I used to make this cute pillow top.

 This is the one I made at the retreat that matches the rag quilt I have been working on.
A scrappy quilt is on my list of quilts to do and this would be a great tutorial to use to make the blocks.

I hope your having a Happy Monday. It's always a good day when we get some sewing done.

Thanks for stopping by.

WINNER!

YAY!!! We have a winner and this was easy because she is the only who posted a comment. Michelle Hudak COME ON DOWN>>>>    :)  Michelle, I will shoot you an email to get your mailing address to get those fat quarters off to you ASAP.
Thanks for stopping by.

75th Blog post and Giveaway.

Hi Everyone,
  I hope your weekend was a good one in spite of the storms that blew across the Midwest. I had a really great quilting weekend.

I am sorry to post this so late. I wanted to get it out yesterday but was busy getting my taxes done. I know, talk about putting off until the last minute, right?

I went to a retreat this past weekend in Grinnell, Iowa at the Cornerstone Quilt shop. Here I am with the owner, Lee Plisch. She is an excellent quilter and hosted a wonderful retreat.

Thanks Lee for a great weekend.

The retreat was $20 a day which included lunch and snacks. You could stay in town at the motel for a reduced rate but I went home to take care of my dogs each night.
The room we were in was big. There was a lot of table space and good lighting. I didn't have to leave my machine for meals and if I did need a break I could stroll upstairs and shop to my hearts content. What more could this quilty girl ask for.

There were 2 break out sessions, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The Friday session was on how to make Cathedral Windows. They were very cute and the technique seemed very easy to do. The session on Saturday was on fabric painting. That was very interesting and looked like it would be a lot of fun to learn. The shop is offering a 4 hour class in May so I decided to signed up.

 Good food, new friends, beautiful fabric and quilts was exactly what this lagging quilter (and blogger) needed to get re-inspired.

Here are some pictures of what I finished up this weekend.

This is a rag quilt that a friend of mine asked me to put together for her. All that is left to do is the binding and clip all the seams.

I made this pillow top out of the scraps. The flash on my camera brightened it up.

I finally got one of my Quilt for Kids tops pieced and ready to be quilted. I have one more to do.

This is a pillow case I made which is more of a king sized case and I may have to cut it down a bit.

And now>>>> Drum roll please>>>>

I finally got my niece's quilt top done!!!! Boy oh Boy am I glad this is done. It is a Judy Martin pattern and I have learned that if you don't cut it out accurately you WILL have trouble. Needless to say, I don't think I cut it out right and had a lot of trouble getting it to go together. I may have to take a class on her technique. At least for now it is done and ready to be quilted.

YAY!!

Here was my sewing space and I sure was comfy.

Here is a quilt pattern by Moda that my daughter asked me to make for her. I picked up some fabric for it at Lee's shop. The reds on top are from a collection called "Apple of My Eye". 

 

I loved them so much that I purchased a fat quarter pack to give away in honor of my 75th blog. Aren't they pretty.

Post a comment to enter your name into the drawing for this lovely fat quarter pack. 

I will draw a name on Friday and post it on Saturday. 

I hope you have a blessed week and
Thanks for stopping by.

WIP - Let's get busy

Works In Progress
I don't know about you but I have too many WIP to justify starting any new projects. (There are so many more projects I want to do)

Most of my WIP are big and only 1/2 completed so finishing them up in a weeks time is not feasible with the schedule I have now.
I have to work out a plan that will allow me to take bites out of these projects that will eventually lead to completion without me always feeling overwhelmed.

It seems I start something, work on it for awhile, see something else I want to make, get started on that and so on.

I am sure there is a psychiatric term for this affiction. Adult ADD? CQCPD? Compulsive Quilt Change Project Disorder?

My solution?
I am still working this out in my mind but here is one idea....

For those projects that are still in the piecing stages - work 1 block a week. I think I can manage that.
I have 4 quilts I can think of right now in this stage that I want to get done.
4 blocks is manageable, 16 blocks a month is a little overwhelming though.
These blocks range in size from 6" to 16"'s so 4-6" doesn't seem enough and 4-16" could be ok or a lot depending on what the day brings on.

I work 3rd shift during the week so I rarely see family or friends during the week and my weekends are spent juggling all of them. Nuff said. I CAN do this.
Or maybe I will work on 2 piecing projects and one long arm quilting project a week. Hummm.

In an ideal world I wouldn't have an outside job and would sew to my hearts content.

Oh well, I appreciate the times I do have to quilt and sew, and I love the feeling of a job well done. I would love to hear how you manage the quilting time in your busy life.
I am leaving you with 2  pictures of projects on my design board that I will be working to get finished.

Thanks for stopping by.