Memorial Day

Today is a day set aside to remember the sacrifice of our military men and women who upheld the ideal of freedom for those left behind.

My grandfather was a veteran of WWII. He got off the boat in Europe and immediately was sent to what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. He was a Purple Heart recipient but would not talk about his experiences until just a few years before he died. He may not have given his life, but the impact of the war was with him for the rest of his life.

May our nation remain free...free from governmental tyranny, free to worship as we see fit, free to speak our thoughts, free to choose what is best for ourselves and our families.

May God bless the USA

Note: I designed, pieced and quilted this quilt a few years back and my soldier husband claimed it as his own.

Design Wall on my birthday :)

This is on my design wall. The beginnings of a baby quilt in the cheating half hexagon pattern. THIS style I might even finish :)

Since I have all my brights out for making the Picnic Quilt blocks for a swap, I decided to try this out with the juvenile brights and some others that jumped under the rotary cutter. It is kind of fun, and out of my ordinary choice for blocks.

I am thinking of making one of these for me out of a Jelly Roll that I picked up in Paducah...but wanted to try it out from my stash first :) Two nephews are anxiously awaiting the birth of children, so this can go to one of them. The other will most likely get the quilt that I started a while back from swap blocks. 

I'll just have to finish piecing this one and load them up on my frame :)

For more design wall inspiration visit the Patchwork Times blog.

And yes, it is my birthday today...hoping it doesn't rain!

Obnoxious Fabric Swaps

I mentioned earlier that I host Obnoxious Fabric Swaps on the About.com quilting forum. Today I finished up swapping out 619 obnoxious 10" squares. Some of the fabrics are more obnoxious than others, btw.

My method? I sit in the middle of the floor with all of the piles of fabric arrayed around me. I start counting and mixing on the floor right in front of me and mark off the swappers on my spreadsheet. It keeps me somewhat organized!

This round we had monkeys, bugs, fish, turtles, LOTS of florals, cats, skulls, Halloween prints, odd what-was-the-designer-thinking prints and some that just looked like they were no longer welcome in someone's stash (there were some really nice ones, IMO).

I contributed these four fabrics. Cats, Classic Horror Flicks, Camo Freaked Out Faces and Underthings...and yes, I purchased them specifically for this swap!

I do have some other fabric that I need to remember to set aside for the next round...in the fall. Once I forget...

Design Wall Monday ~ May 24

these are blocks for the Avignon Picnic Quilt shown in the Moda Bake Shop (love that blog!). I'm taking part in a swap of these blocks using White or WOW with brights...now I need to see if we are allowed to use novelties...I forgot to check before I started making blocks!

I have five S blocks and five Z blocks finished and a bunch more ready to sew up :) They go REALLY fast!

I definitely will not have some of these blocks next to each other in a finished quilt, but since it is for a swap, it will be way more scrappy when I sew the final top together :)

BTW, they are all bright fabrics. The image on your monitor may vary from the actual quilt :P

for more design wall inspiration visit Patchwork Times

The story of my biggest quilt (so far) & Blogger's Quilt Festival

this quilt was a long time in the process. I fell in love with the pattern in a magazine (Love of Quilting Summer '05 ?) but set it aside as something I couldn't do right then.

I knew that when I got around to making it, wanted to do it in different colors. The colors in the magazine were very pretty, but I wanted to make it mine, not just like the magazine. So I kept it on the back burner of my mind for a long while.

One day, while fabric shopping with my mom, my sister and and aunt or two, some fabric talked to me and I realized I wanted to make it in off white, red and blue scrappy. I went home with a bunch of FQs and bought more everywhere I looked...

I adapted the pattern as I really wasn't excited about the various little stars that Judy Martin had designed into the Jewel of the Prairie pattern. I made them all the same and then I cut back one turn on my Snail's Trail blocks from her pattern as well. Simplifying patterns sometimes helps me finish them :)

I worked diligently on the blocks and even worked harder at matching my points than I had ever done before. I loved what was happening under the foot of my machine! When I moved all the furniture to the edges of the room to lay out my top I just had to stare at it - it was HUGE! It is King Size - glad I have my trusty Voyager or it still might not be quilted!

Then the dilemma of how to quilt it. I'm still pretty uncomfortable with coming up with these elaborate quilting designs that are winning all the big shows. AND I really would like to use it on my bed (still haven't gotten up the nerve), so I didn't want it so heavily quilted that it would be uncomfortable to sleep under. So, I went with one of my favorite freemotion designs, the spiral. I felt this made the quilt sing...so I named it The Stars Sing.

I still need to get up enough nerve to put it on my bed. What if it gets ruined by The Boybarian jumping on top of it without taking his shoes off? What if it catches on the swirl detail on the bed and rips? Maybe come winter I'll put this one on...we'll see what My Army Guy says :)


To see MANY, MANY lovely quilts check out Amy's Creative Side Blogger's Quilt Festival:

Here You Go - the field of the Mystery Quilt

While waiting for the kiddos at their dental appointments, I was putting the last touches on Clue #6 and a man sat next to me and said "Flowers!"

Oh, good...the flowers are obvious in the field of the quilt, that makes me happy. If no one else saw what I saw, I'd be disappointed!

My quilt is slightly different from the Mystery Quilt as I used 9" blocks in my quilt and wrote the clues for 12" blocks. After making a gazillion of one piece (well, more like 72) I didn't think all of my guild members would have followed along as it was a tedious process. Changing to 12" blocks meant that (except for borders) no one made more than 40 of any one unit :)

SO the picture shows 9" blocks in the arrangement for the 12" blocks. I have mine set up as 7 rows of 5...but my design wall is too tiny to show that here.

Now I need to work on the final clue and finish my quilt top :)

Design Wall Monday ~ May 17

on my design wall are blocks for the mystery quilt that I have designed for my fellow guild members. I can not show what I have on my wall because I am ahead of them...so here is a peek at some of the units that they were to make earlier... Imagine a whole bunch of ??? blocks in these fabrics - very pretty IMO.

I have worked on other things this week...this top is totally done - I'm loving the batiks...wish you could see it in person, my picture just doesn't do it justice (and playing with photoshop was only frustrating me). It almost glows...the dark is a deep purple, btw. The other colors are glowing jewels set with amethyst. I used unbleached muslin and a yellow for the background fabrics.

For more design wall inspiration check out Patchwork Times.

Winding down the school year

I am burned out with the school year. It is so hard to motivate the students to finish up those last few things when I feel like moving on into summer mode, too! We would love to be waving good-bye to the year :)

The children each have a research paper to finish up. Princess Sunshine is on track, but The Boybarian takes SO much prodding to get any work done on his *sigh* Maybe next year I will choose his topic AND his resources. He keeps checking these HUGE tomes out of the library and finds it hard to find pertinent information in the quick bursts he gives to taking notes (think he'll learn?).

AND we have to put portfolios together AND get the evaluations done AND get it turned it AND get an affidavit together for next year. This is the time of year I really don't like the homeschool burden in PA

I'd rather dig into NEXT year than finish up this year.

Oh I wish I could show you!

I passed Clue #5 out to my guild members on Wednesday evening and I am fired up about my quilt...So I have all the blocks done and am working diligently on the borders...

I want to show you what is on my design wall as I think it is just beautiful...but I can't as I have some web savvy guild members who would find it and jump ahead of the clues *sigh*

So, here is one of the units they sew together in Clue #5 of the Waiting for Spring Mystery Quilt.

Someday I will share the whole quilt - I'm thinking it is beautiful and Princess Sunshine agrees. The Boybarian not so much...but it may be he is being contrary ;)

Design Wall Monday: May 3, 2010

The Glory in Scraps blocks are still up on my design wall. I have not done anything with them, just looked at them and moved on to other things. I just haven't felt like digging for the triangles that I need to finish off the other blocks...I know where the HSTs are, but not sure about the triangles.

I did play with the quilt kit I purchased in Paducah. I love the fabrics (I'm a batik fan) but I'm still not sure about piecing curves. Maybe I shouldn't have started out with 3" blocks?

I have 14 more blocks to make and then it will be a nice little quilt :) Maybe not for much more than my enjoyment as I'm not sure how well the seams will all match up!

For more design wall inspiration visit Patchwork Times.