Busy day

The last 3 weeks i have been recouperating from gallbladder surgery and spent most of my days on the couch or in the recliner.  it was sooooo boring.

Today i hit the ground running since i got up at 7am....it is now 8pm and i am just slowing down.

Today's agenda included:

...eye doctor appointment at 9am
...stopped at yard sale across street from eye doc
...went to SubWay for brunch (it was 10:30....can you call that lunch?  LOL)
...stopped at WalMart to return some stuff and brought different stuff home.
...stopped at pharmacy to refill prescription
...filled truck with gas (at $3.07 a gallon...woohoo!)
...bought a scratcher lottery ticket for $2 and won $2   woopee LOL

...about noon went to the studio:
...finished quilting what was on the frame
...embroidered 2 pocket pets for new quilt
...put entry on blog for last quilt

...about 3:30 went to town with hubby to pre-yard sale
...bought 2 bookcases

...came home:
...baked apple pie from granny smith apples from our trees
...did 2 loads laundry
...pieced 4 blocks for next quilt top

Now i think i am going to sit for a bit and chill. but while i am sitting, i will turn the 2 pocket pets right side out and stuff them. i may be in bed before midnight tonight.

I think i am getting better.

Blue Gems on Point

This selvage quilt is from a pattern in Karen Griska's book...Quilts from the Selvage Edge.  i think this is the third of her patterns i have made. a great book if you are at all interested in selvage quilting. 

This is just the top...no quilting yet. I pulled all my blue fabrics that i had no other use for and cut out 10" squares for the foundations. after adding selvages, i trimmed them down to 9.5"   i think i might have showed you the first 4 rows....this is how it looked originally.

But i decided that looked too messy and disorganized. so i took all those blocks apart and sorted them by foundation fabrics to see what i actually had. then i decided to put them together so the same fabrics surrounded the little diamonds of selvages. better, i think. This navy blue polka dot made my eyes cross while stitching.

I really like this one of the sea scene.

I tried to plan them out so the same color blocks would not be next to each other. it is still busy...that is the way of selvage quilts...but in a 'controlled' busy way. LOL

This top didn't need borders...it is already 90 x 108" and kind of heavy. i will keep it for our bed. 

The thing i like about selvage quilts is that it doesn't matter if points don't match up...normally they won't...selvages can be any width unless you choose them not to be. i love the scrappiness of it all.

My blue selvage box was stuffed to overflowing and after all this.....i still have half a box left....enough for at least one more quilt....maybe 2.

So now it goes to marinade in the to be quilted cabinet. but it has to come out and be quilted by February so i can take it to a talk i am giving on selvage quilts.

Hope you like it.

1600 ?? inches in Pink

Remember the pattern to make an easy strip quilt with jelly rolls? i made a couple of them and then decided i didn't need jelly rolls....i could cut my own strips and do the same thing. i don't know why my brain keeps thinking i can do these things....except that sometimes it really works out.

So, i pulled all my pink girl fabrics and cut 4" strips.  i had carousel horses (sorry for the blurry pic)...photography is not my forte'. LOL

And i had cupcakes

And some princess fabric...

And some plain pink thrown in for good measure. i forgot that i cut them 4" wide instead of the usual 2.5"....so my 1600 inches....maybe 2000 inches...LOL....made me a quilt of unusual proportions.  sigh!! 

What to do.....so after some deliberation....i just cut it in half. hahahaha   so, now i have 2 pink strip quilts basically the same. this one got quilted up on Wednesday and i put the binding on it yesterday. i meant to show you yesterday but the day just got away from me.

This is about 55 x 65".  i found a piece of pink felt in my stash that was the (almost) right size. i had to add a couple of strips of muslin to the sides so i would have something to clamp to while quilting.

I just did a pretty large meander on it. and if you have been here long at all...you know about my lack of planning. LOL   while i am meandering along...i'm thinking to myself....felt.....hmmmm, when you wash wool in really hot water it shrinks all to hell and you have "felted" wool.  would this felt shrink and become a doll baby quilt with a really wrinkly top side?  shucks!!   so, tonight i am going to throw it in the washer on hot water and see what happens. we shall see tomorrow what i show you....a baby quilt  or a wrinkly teen size quilt. only time will tell.  i hope i didn't waste my time on this. it may become a dog quilt. LOL

The first pic of the back is a better representation of the color. i found this piece in a yard sale some time ago...like maybe 2 or 3 years. i remember the woman said she was making halloween costumes. she had lots of fabrics left over and some of them came home with me.

I have the second half of this on my frame now. i am quilting it a bit better and have muslin on the back of it....so i think it will be ok.

Results tomorrow. LOL

Flowery Charm Baby Quilt

I spent 4 hours at the studio yesterday and got this quilted up. it's baby size (45x60) and it shouldn't have taken that long...but i wanted to quit halfway through but made myself finish it. then i went home and took a nap. LOL

It's a pattern from Elizabeth Hartman on her blog at http://www.ohfranson.com/ . this is the third quilt i've made with this pattern. quick and easy. just some charm squares (5") with some of them cut in half.

I had a piece of pink flannel just the right size to fit the back. in fact, i had to sew strips of muslin on the sides so i would have a place to put the clamps. and there was just 3" left at the bottom. worked out well. the flannel came from Wilma at http://www.christianlanequilters.com/

The panto i used was Whimsey by Norma Sharp. King Tut on the top....a variegated tan and brown and pink Masterpiece on the bottom.

So, one more out of the quilting cabinet. i hope to do another today....or at least start it.

Wish me luck!

#11 UFO Challenge with JudyL

For the month of September the UFO Challenge quilt was #11. mine was a blue and yellow Take 5 pattern that was pieced by the church ladies.

This was some fabric that i donated to the church some time ago. in fact, i had cut all the pieces out with my AccuQuilt machine and gave them the directions and a picture of how to put it together.

They brought it back several months ago....without the borders. no one knew how to put on the borders. their usual style is to embroider blocks and give them to me to assemble and quilt for them.

This was quilted with a floral template from Quiltazoid...quick and easy. but it lived on the frame for 3 or 4 weeks. i started it before my surgery and just now got back to finishing it up.

Usually we just put muslin on the backs of their quilts but this time i wanted to change it up. i had some fabric that had yellow and blue in it and i had enough to piece a back. so the back on this one is...

Chickens...or are those roosters.  whatever. LOL

The lady that picked it up liked it and said she wanted to hang it in her kitchen. LOL  this is queen size so she better have a large kitchen.

I'm trying to push them out of their embroidered blocks trench but don't know if it will work or not.

But anyway....it got 9 yards of chicken fabric out of my stash and got my September UFO Challenge quilt done....and i am happy with that.

Yummy Kona cotton FQs

The other day i got a package in the mail......27 new Kona cotton colors.....in FQs. it was like a rainbow in my mailbox.

Marmalade Fabrics has these yummy FQs....in fact, you can buy any amount you want....i just like the fat quarters.  they add new colors to their inventory each month. i hadn't bought any since June and this is all the new colors that got in since then.

I now have all 140 of the Konas they have in their inventory.

If you like Kona Cottons you might want to go check them out. you get 10% cash back (as a coupon code) every time you reach $100 spent. their shipping is soooo fast....they sent me an email one day that it was shipped....and i got the package the next day.   their customer service is top notch and they are very nice to deal with.  oh...and their FQs of these are just $1.95

I believe Kona has about 250 colors now so i am collecting them all...a few at a time. i think i willl use these in several applique quilts that i have been wanting to start. but it will be hard to cut into them.....they are so very luscious.

My fantasy garden

Since my real garden this year was a dismal failure.....i made a fantasy garden.....where all the veggies that you plant grow big and tall and no bugs eat them. it rains sufficintly to water them nicely and the sun cooperates and finishes the job.

I have 12 different veggies and they all look scrumptious.

I have a rooster to scratch around for bugs, a scarecrow to scare away the rabbits and a birdhouse.

Now it just needs to be quilted up. perhaps by next growing season....then i can just hang my fantasy garden and forget about the weeds out in the real garden patch.

Did you garden this year?  did you have any success?

Released!

I had doctor appointments yesterday to get checked over and see if i'll live. LOL

The first was just the regular MD who is trying to get my blood pressure down. he changed the meds once again..the 3rd change in about a year. none of the others worked. i have taken this new one before and it didn't work then....so i have no illusions that it will work now, either.

He gripes at me about my weight....and i am losing ... slowly. since the last month i was there....i lost 7 pounds. he never says a word about that. just keeps saying...No Salt!!   and i don't salt things...never have. i even had fries the other day without salt.

So i shall continue to try and eat right and lose weight and hopefully give up these pills.

Then in the afternoon i saw the surgeon from the gall bladder surgery. he says i am good to go. YEA!!!  still can't lift anything over 10 pounds for 3 more weeks. but i am a bit more mobile...so that is good. i even drove going over there and didn't need a chauffeur. LOL

So now i can stop spending all my time here...

And here...

And get out to the studio more. i might even quilt some today or tomorrow.

But while chilling the last week and doing some piecing at the house ... here...

I did get a bit accomplished. i have 3 rows finished on my Diamonds and Rails quilt top from Mary Johnson's pattern. see it at  www.maryquilts.com   she has great patterns that are easy and fun. this pic is actually showing the top sideways...picture it with the rails going horizontally...just cock your head over. LOL

This is a great pattern to use up a bunch of stash. i am using 11" blocks. they go quickly.

I've also been piecing a top with my blue selvages. i have 4 rows done on it.

I have been mixing it up but not sure that is what i should be doing. i cut a bunch of blue fabrics to use as foundations that i wanted to get rid of. see those little diamonds that come together in the middles?  i'm wondering if i should put those blocks together so the fabric around them are all the same. what do you think? once i got a few rows put together and looked at it .... it looked pretty 'messy' to me. and it's not really toooo much trouble to take the blocks back apart and resew them. although i usually don't take something apart and redo it....i think i should here.

So...what do you think????   should i re-do it and put the same colors and patterns together to have a little more cohesiveness in the backgrounds?

Oh, and i bought myself a present....hahahahaha    last week when i went with my sister to some thrift stores i found this star and loved it. i purposely left my money in the truck that day so i wouldn't buy anything. but i thought about it all week and since we were going by the store on the way to the appointment with the surgeon....i ran in and got it. i'm glad it was still there.

It's about 2 foot across. most of these that i have seen have been metal. i'm thinking this is made of wood...or perhaps they just covered the metal ...don't know. there is a backing that is a piece of some kind of board. i love the burlap covering and the leather strips. it feels like there might be a batting of some type under the burlap.

Here...take a closer look

Isn't it great? it's not heavy...and will hang at the Duck. and the price was only $30 so i think i did good. and now i can quit thinking about it.

I won't tell you about the great china cabinet that i saw yesterday for a steal with beautiful old fashioned wavy glass doors and glass shelves with curvy edges on them. sigh!

Jump back in

I have had all the sit down and lay down i can stand. today i am going to the studio. it may just be for a few hours but i am going to do SOMETHING....even if it's wrong. i cannot stand to lay around any more.

I actually slept laying down last night....and slept all night....and got up feeling ok.  tonight i think i will try sleeping in my bed. it is rather high and i couldn't get up there before....and i might need a stepstool tonight....but i think i am ready for a somewhat normal existence.

So, today i will go and play with fabric for a bit.....perhaps push my longarm around a little.....and see how it works.

I cannot be immobile any longer.

And tomorrow is class day......i am looking forward to that, too.

Stay tuned to see how it all works out.

Trying to be good

I am home from my gallbladder surgery on Monday...actually came home Tuesday....and am trying to be good and not overdo it.

If you know me...you know that is hard for me.

I can now get up out of the chair a bit easier without holding my stomach and grimacing. my sis came down to check on me and brought me some yogurt and fruit to eat. yesterday we just hung out because it was raining all day.

But today we decided to drive to the next town and check out a couple of new thrift stores. i took a cane as an aid in walking. i didn't have much trouble walking about but getting in and out of her truck was troublesome. it is somewhat tall and i have short legs so after struggling with that 2 or 3 times i was sort of hurting.

By the time we got back home and stopped at the studio i was ready for a pain pill. i guess between bouncing around in the truck and getting in and out i had enough for the day. i had some pretty intense pain for a bit....felt like cramps....man, that hurt. but i took a pain pill and a 2 hour nap and woke up feeling much better.

Tomorrow is an eye doctor appointment....so, i'll be traveling those same roads. but it should be easier.

I've been basically moving from my recliner to my chair in the kitchen where i am doing some piecing on a blue selvage quilt top. i actually laid on the couch tonight to watch Project Runway and managed to get up off the couch without hurting myself. progress is being made.

Hopefully in a couple more days it will be even easier and i can go play at the studio for a bit. navigating those stairs over there today was misery so i figure a couple more days will be better.

I hate being bored and not able to do what i want to do. forced relaxation and R&R is not for me. LOL   and hours of TV watching is not my favorite thing, either. but i still have weeks of taking it easy so i guess i better get used to it. think i'll get out some markers and do a bit of zentangling.....i haven't done any of it in a while.

I have to see if i can use my AccuQuilt machine. i have diamonds to cut.

Gonna go chill for a while and read and then off to bed.

Later

Aunt Sophie's Summer Sunflowers

This is my monochromatic (green) challenge quilt for September. naturally it has selvages. it's about 96x106".  it's going to live on my couch.

I have lots and lots of sunflower fabrics....courtesy of Aunt Sophie. so in this quilt i tried to use those up .... hahahahahahaha.....there are still yards left. but i used sunflowers in the triangles in all the blocks; in the sashings and cornerstones; in the border; and, in the binding...5 different sunflower fabrics.  everything else is selvages.  

I still have many, many more green selvages so there will be more greeen selvage quilts some day. and another sunflower quilt one day, too.

Aunt Sophie grew sunflowers in her yard so i am assuming that is why she bought this fabric. perhaps she was going to make herself a quilt with it.

Come to think of it....i don't think Aunt Sophie had a quilt on her own bed that she made....she was too busy making for everyone else.

The back is a muslin. i used a Quiltazoid pattern to quilt it. Glide olivey green thread for the top and a light spring green for the bottom.

And, contrary to my usual practice....this time i even made a label. the quilt said it had to have one. i know Aunt Sophie would have been quite amused at the selvage idea. she never cut the selvages off of her quilts....you see them in her blocks...little holes and sometimes the white part. LOL

I think Aunt Sophie would have liked it.

Dragons, rectangles, selvages and AccuQuilt

The Charmed Dragons top got quilted yesterday and i put the binding on today.

This used up 99 charms (5" squares) and several yards of the dragon fabric for sashing and border. adding the backing and binding and i used almost 9 yards here. great stash busting.

All the charms had gold going through them so i used gold Glide thread on the top and black So Fine on the bottom.

I'm glad i had enough of this Asian fabric for the back. it just seemed to go together. it was a favorite piece of mine but it finally had to get used. what good does it do when we just save our favorite fabrics? except we get to look at them a lot. i would take it out and want to use it...but couldn't cut it up. so now i am happy....it is in one piece for the backing and that is better.

The other top that i quilted yesterday was this one. i call it Rectangles Make Squares.  how simple is this pattern. .... put 2 rectangles together to make a square....put them in rows....switching direction every time....viola'    a quilt top.

I vaugely remember picking these fabrics out and piecing them together....it's been a long time. finally it got quilted.

It's mainly red and greens but it seems to go well together.

The backing is something that has been around for a while, too. i had to sew 3 pieces together to make it work.  but that took 3.5 more yards out of the stash. i'm getting a bit creative in using up fabric and have decided backs don't have to match fronts.

Although the idea has been a long time coming...LOL....i am using my fabric also as foundations for selvage quilts. you never see the foundation but i would rather use old fabric and get rid of it than to use new muslin. i can put that muslin to a better use for backings. i am so determined to get rid of old fabric...i am on a mission.

Today i cut up 7.25 yards of various blue fabrics .... making 10" blocks....to use as a base for a selvage quilt. i'm making one out of Karen Griska's book Quilts From the Selvage Edge. i love that book....i have made several of her quilts.

And i had to order an AccuQuilt die today for a diamond. i found a very cool contemporary pattern from Mary Johnson.... http://www.maryquilts.com/   it has diamond blocks and rail fence blocks and i'm gonna make it. LOL   in fact, gonna go cut some strips of fabrics right now.

See you later.

Halloween is Purple!

I'll bet you thought of Halloween as orange and black.... and it is.... but it is also purple and lime green.

The ghoulies are lime green. LOL  i had this piece of Halloween fabric with ghoulies on it and it just begged to go with the purple selvages. this turned out 66" square. purple masterpiece thread on top and grey so fine on the bottom. quiltazoid pattern.

This little guy is cooking up something lime green. i'll bet it's a skin conditioner....LOL

Who knows what the fate is of this little guy in the jar.

Here are the spell books. there's a 'good' spell book and a 'bad' spell book. i'll bet the good spell book has a love potion or something in it. the bad spell book probably puts warts on your nose. hope the chubby mouse in the cage gets a good spell. check out the eyeballs in the jar....and the little spiders.

The wizard is checking out a book while the little mouse is munching on cheese. for his sake, i hope it's a good spell. have you noticed the little spiders in all the blocks. i think they are so cute.

I ran out of selvages as i was putting together the first border....so part of it is plain purple.

The sashing selvages are sewn onto foundations first. i used some old red fabric i wanted to get rid of. i sewed them on a piece 4"x9" and then trimmed them down to 3.5" x 8.5" .  some selvages are wider than others or crooked....doesn't matter to me. never met a selvage i didn't like.

Here is the back. it is a bluish-green stripe that came from  www.christianlanequilters.com    when they had their end of bolt sale.

That was the end of the purple selvages. now i have to decide what color to do next. i have white, black, brown, red, blue, green and pink. which color should i do next?   you decide and i'll do it.  majority rules.

Do you save selvages?  what do you do with them?