Two Very Cool Things!

I have made reservations for the Paducah show...and Lucy is coming!! We are staying at Big Bear Resort..it's a little bit out of Paducah, but we have rented a little 1 bedroom cottage, it has a living area and a little kitchen...FUN FUN FUN! So that fun is for April, 2007....

The second very cool thing...there is a BIG quilter's retreat here that goes all out. It's kind of spendy and I haven't gone before. I was contacted and asked if I would like to be the official massage therapist for the retreat..a personal invitation! I said I would, if I could be guaranteed enough clients to cover the cost of my lodgings.

I just heard back that several people have paid their registration, and my fee for the massage on the form, and so I get to go to the retreat EXPENSES PAID! A little massage work on the side, and the rest of the time I get to spend quilting with everyone else. How cool is that?! The massages I have reserved so far will cover the cost of a little cottage room all to myself. It is Feb 22nd to 25th. So I have that in the works.

The third cool thing, okay so I didn't mention that in the title...this past weekend was the MS-150 ride for Multiple Sclerosis. With your help we raised over $2060.00 to fight MS. I had a great time working on the cyclists saturday and sunday. I was SO BEAT by the time I was done, but it was so worth while. I mean, what's better than guys in spandex bike shorts? :cÞ No really, it was wonderful, uplifting, and most of all FUN.

I haven't had time to work on my blue/neutral quilt....and it's driving me crazy. I have so many customers to finish quilts for and the pressure is ON. So...That pile of 1/2 sq triangles are going to have to sit there at the machine table for just a while longer while I get caught up on stuff. Life gets in the way, you know?!

Bonnie

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Thursday.....it's cool and the windows are open!

Oh, I am SO enjoying this cooler weather. You are probably tired of hearing it...but when you have been without it so long, you just embrace it like a lost friend!

Yesterday it poured and poured...that was NOT fun to drive in, but today, it is overcast, very green....nice gentle breeze..and I have the windows open letting some fresh air in here. It's nice when the a/c stops running 24/7 and I don't have to breathe processed air! This real stuff with lower humidity is great!

It's been a crazy week so far so I haven't gotten as far as I would have liked to with my power sewing. I spent some time this morning, and I have gone as far as I can. Now I have the job of 180 1/2 sq triangle squares ahead of me, so that needs some concetrated time before I see any more 'real' progress on this thing.

I have to laugh...you guys! I didn't show you my ironing board so you could say how much you like it, or don't like it! It's an IRONING BOARD! :cD Is it supposed to match every quilt I press on it? It was cheap, I needed a new one, and walmart had this one. I kind of liked the barn red plaid with the chickens :c) However, my ironing board is NOT part of my interior decorating and I don't think it has to match anything, and it is okay with me if it clashes with some things that I sew ;c)

Are you getting the idea of these blocks yet? Do they look like the beginnings of a star to you? :c)

And I couldn't resist taking a picture of Oscar as he auditioned the pile of blue strips. I think he approved!

Bonnie

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Tuesday, feeling almost like fall!

You can't believe what a break it is when it starts to be a bit cool and less humid in the mornings in South Carolina! It's been GORGEOUS the past few days...yes! Come on FALL!

With fall brings the desire to pull out the crockpot for some wonderful soups that simmer all day long, whole wheat bread dough rising in the bowl, and hot cereal for breakfast with brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins and milk...comfort food!

I just can't cook like this in the summer...it's usually too hot to even want to drink hot tea in the mornings. Once school starts and things settle in, I hanker for my tea pot and the smell of tea steeping as well.

I have another little picture for you! Let's see..what have I done so far? 90 hour glass units....turning 1/2 of them into puss in the corner type blocks....and now..180 flying geese units! Some quilts just require building one block at a time so you can match colors and get things just so. Other quilts...like this one...just call for what I refer to as POWER SEWING! Figure out how many units you need, and just chain them through the machine in mile long strings of pieces. THIS is that kind of quilt!

Now that I've finished the fying geese units, I need to make 180 1/2 square triangle squares, blue and neutral. It's a daunting task, but with power sewing, books on CD, or music from XM radio 70's channel blaring, I can get it done in no time!

I finished the binding/hanging sleeve on Weed Whacker last night at guild meeting and showed it for show and tell. It was a hit :c)

Bonnie

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Lazy Sunday

I worked Saturday (yesterday) doing massage, and after I got home I was just beat...I did finish a customer's quilt that has to be delivered to guild meeting in Aiken tomorrow, but no time to play with my own fabric!

Today I treated myself to a LONG Sunday nap. Sundays were meant for napping I think. I just need it to catch up and recharge myself for the next week coming, and if I don't get my Sunday afternoon nap, I'm just not a happy girl!

I've been playing a bit this afternoon with my pieces. Want another sneak preview? Here you go! Remember those two piles of 2.5" strips? (See below) The idea is that you can make this whole quilt from 2.5" strips. If you have also been cutting scraps down into bricks (2.5" X 4.5") and squares (2.5") you can use those too......but with the use of the companion angle ruler, and the easy angle ruler, both by EZ, and a regular rotory ruler, you can cut all the pieces for this quilt from 2.5" strips :c)

Some of the steps could be simplified if you were to speed piece with long strips and rotory cut across panels, but sometimes I like to just chain feed individual pieces and pairs through and get more variety in my piecing instead of having sections that all look the same because you used long strips to create them, you know what I mean?

Anyway....stay tuned...keep guessing...I'm back to sewing!

Bonnie

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WHATTHEHECK!???

Did you ever have a moment like this? Ive been chainpiecing scrappy blue hourglass blocks.....took my long chain to the ironing board....and lo, and behold..this block's seam had THREE layers instead of 2! I guess this is what happens when I'm still chain piecing past midnight :c)

As for what I'm making? I'm not tellin! :c) You'll have to wait and see! I pulled out all the blue and neutral 2.5" strips into two piles and I've got PLANS!!

Bonnie

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Quilter, Quilter, Quite Contrary....

Quilter, Quilter, Quite Contrary,
How much does your fabric weigh?!?

I am spending the afternoon MOVING my fabric cabinets from one side of the
room to the other. :c|

My quilting room is above my garage, the size of a 2 car garage, and the
wall where my cabinets *WERE* was above the garage door below.

I noticed a week or so ago that my floor felt "slightly slanty" and moving
some stuff out of the way, saw that the floor had dipped down away from teh
wall. There is about a 1" gap BELOW the baseboard and where the floor now
resides. I don't know what it will take to fix this. I didn't think that
cabinets against an outside wall would be too much unsupported weight.

Up against a wall SHOULD be able to bear weight....but...this is above the
garage door area, so there are less beams in the middle going from ground up
to the second level, so maybe it can't support as much weight.

Moving all this fabric has been a CHORE, and it makes me realize more to
what extent my fabric obsession has taken. I can't sew it fast enough! Even
though I have been basically NO BUY for 2 1/2 years now....it doesn't
deplete fast enough for me to make a dent on any of the shelves..especially
since I love scrap quilts so much and tend to go to those bins and the FQ's
first.

If there is anything that makes a quilter take stock and take notice and
pledge to SEW SEW SEW instead of "oh, a sale, let's go fabric shopping
because this coupon is burning a hole in my pocket" it's having to MOVE the
stash and the cabinets, even across the room.

Paralyzed by the stash?? You bet!

Bonnie

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Weed Whacker Pattern Up!!

I have added the directions for "Weed Whacker!" to my website!

There are no pics of the finished quilt yet....I'm quilting the last border, and then will start the binding! I'll add more pics to the page when I have the quilt finished...but in the mean time, there is no reason why you can't get started on your blocks!

I also wanted to thank all who have pledged to the Multipe Sclerosis Society's MS-150 ride! Thanks to your pledges we have raised $1,685.00 to help find a cure for MS! We couldn't do it without you. You are terrific!

The ride is in 2 weeks, September 16th and 17th. DH is riding, and I'm doing massage on the riders for the 2 days of the ride. If you haven't pledged yet and would still like to contribute, all the information is on the Quiltville page.

Bonnie

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And Now She's Quilting!

I've got to head to the massage office in a bit, but I wanted to share some pics of the quilting on weedwhacker....I'm doing a whirlygig feather thing in the whacker blades....and since the border was inspired by an amish joseph's coat quilt...curling amish feathers are going in the border. If it was a solid border, I'd echo them or fill in the other spaces, but the stitching is mostly lost in the busy fabrics anyway..still I think you can see it since I took the pics with the flash off :c)

I'm using a fuscia thread in the dark areas...and a varigated pastel in the lights. It's a superior varigated and it is ANYTHINTG but superior. It breaks and breaks! :c( I've messed with tension and everything..changed needle....it quilts fine with the solid fuscia, but this superior is (*&@#$(*&$&!

Bonnie

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And She Kept On Piecing......

I tried to do two plain borders...honest I did! I got the first one on, fine....I used a black on black check for the inner border...It really set off the center I thought, but nothing that I laid outside that black border had enough color for the rest of the quilt!

So..back to the sewing machine. I'm not crazy about piano key borders...but I always wanted to try an angled strip border, like the ones on an amish style "Joseph's Coat" quilt. I wanted to limit the bias as much as possible, so I cut mine with a 60 degree angle instead of a 45 degree angle....and I used up a gazillion more strips, though you wouldn't know it by looking in the bin.

I have come to realise that looking in my strip bins is like dealing with another night of "left over casserole" from the fridge. It's time to start slicing into some yardage to spice up the mix a bit. I have a lot of red/blue/purple/black..but bright colors like yellows and oranges and lime greens or hot pinks etc...I think I've used them all up!


After finishing the top I came to the same conclusion with the back. I didn't really WANT to piece a back! But...I didn't have anything that really went well enough, or that I had enough of to use as a whole backing..I would have had to piece anyway. I had remaining black and grey squares from piecing my ocean waves back, and I had left over pink/coral squares from piecing my spider web back, so I only had to cut a few more to have enough to piece this back...checkerboard fashion....grey/black/pink. :c)

This quilt really IS a scrapbuster!

Bonnie

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