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.

Good Morning All,
I am in my studio today working on my long arm. I am sewing feathers actually. I can't believe how fearful I have been about starting these. No, they are not perfect but I really do have to start somewhere, so I just jumped right in. 

I am taking a break to post this blog and a few pictures of my studio. I did get the floor all stripped. Looks kind of Yukky right now. 

The walls are all painted and I bought a new cabinet for fabric storage. I am thinking about getting a new sewing table from Ikea. I got the idea from here and I think I could make it work in here. Still just thinking about it though.

Here is my long arm. Then right across from it is my ironing board, with the design board on the wall next to it. I made the design board out of a 4x8 piece of fiber board that I got from Menards. I had them cut it in half - 2 pieces 4x4, then I covered them with batting. 

Seems to be working so far, though I only have one of them up on the wall. I haven't decided where I want to put the other one.

Well, I better get back to my machine. I am on a roll so I can't quit.


Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great day.

Crocheted Lacey Afghan

Good morning all,
 This afghan has been in my WIP box for a long time and now I can finally mark it Done! YAY!!!

I finished my afghan while listening to a book on tape called Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. It is an EXCELLENT Book and I highly recommend it. I checked mine out from the public library.


Onto quilting>>>>
It seems I have had a "sewing block" lately. Really it has been going on for weeks, soon to be stretching into months. I walk into my sewing room, look around and walk back out. Does anyone ever have this happen to them??  How did you get over it and get back to it? I know "Just do it!" but that doesn't seem to be working here. Maybe my room needs some inspiration. I don't know. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

I do love listening to books on tape while sewing but don't have any room for my CD player. HHmmmm, probably need to do some more rearranging. I suppose I will go back in there and take another look around. :)

Anyways, Thanks for stopping by.
I hope you are getting some of your WIP's knocked off your list too.

The blahs

Hello everyone,
 What can I say... The blog is bogging down. I haven't been in my sewing room in weeks. :( Would love to hear what you are working on.

It is cold here in Iowa today with winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour. How's that for a weather report.

Random thoughts: I have been reading other bloggers to get inspired.... projects are calling my name.....my neck hurts, going to a chiropractor on Friday.... Internet finally came back up today. YAY!!!

Anyways, I hope you all are sewing along.
Thanks for stopping by,

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year Dear Friends,

2011 is over and it is time to move on. (Don't look back to those incomplete resolutions of last year)  :)

Just to catch you up a little, the walls in my studio are all painted, the floor is stripped down to the concrete ( I can't decide on the kind of flooring to put in) and now I am working on organizing all of my fabric and books. I am slow to say the least.
Have I been sewing lately? Heck YES!!!
A few months ago a friend asked me to make a rag quilt out of some fabric she had purchased. Being the brave soul that I am (having never made a rag quilt), I said Yes, I would.
Sew>>> I set out to research Rag Quilts and found lots of info about them on the internet. They seemed pretty easy (and are) so I made 3 baby quilts before moving on to tackle this project. I haven't any pictures of this one but when I finish I will post pictures.
I still have oodles of WIPs and lots of ideas for new projects.
Since I last posted, My husbands oldest daughter got married in October. She had a beautiful wedding and the are happily doing their married life.
Christmas was quiet around here. We will be celebrating with family this weekend, January 7th and I can't wait to see all of the grandkids. (You too MOM!)
I hope all of you who follow this had a wonderful holiday season. I am looking forward to a great and productive New Year.
Thanks for stopping by and God Bless,