Long overdue

Since my sister is coming to visit for the retreat, I felt the need (and deadline) to finish some of her projects.  I try as hard as I can to finish things in a timely fashion, but that is rare.  I did manage to quilt 2 of the 5 quilts of hers that I have here.  The other one is a tree skirt and I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it.  I am ready to load number 3 of hers.  I won't get it quilted before the retreat, but at least it will be staring at me.

I used Signature brights for the thread and the pantograph is Ebb & flow.  I love the texture it gives.

Check this one off

This is a tag team quilt.  I used leftover binding strips for the quilt center, Eleanor did the applique, I did the borders and quilting.  I am moving it back to Eleanor for the binding.  I tried some new to me things with the quilting.  I had a lot of fun quilting this one.  It will be donated to Cameron Hospital.

 Eleanor does such beautiful applique.  So smooth and precise.

One more sleep until I leave for Shipshewana.  I hope to have everything packed tonight.

Swoon

I was just loving this pattern when by Camille first introduced it.  I convinced myself that it was just the colors I was in love with.  Each block is 24" big- not exactly my style, but I am starting to really love those big pieces.  I received a patriotic quilt recently in those colors.  Think the official quilt block name is Dutch Rose, but Swoon sounds exciting.  Customer wanted something with stars since it was for a soldier. 

Wouldn't this quilt look great in those Denise Schmidt prints I picked up over the weekend.  I contemplated cutting it out, then I remembered the stack of UFOs and I just dreamed about it.

What I am working On

Actually I have been doing more shopping than sewing or quilting.  I did manage to get one twister runner sewn together and finish quilting a baby quilt.

On the shopping note, these are my purchases from 2 quilt shops.  I think I did well.  the pile isn't too large!

 The problem is we didn't stop at just 2 quilt shops.  We went to Joan's too.  All the red tag fabrics were half off.  I hit the Denyse Schmidt mother load.  These were all the prints I found in the clearance.  You had to see the look on the faces of the other shopper when my cart arrived at the cutting table.  They were all praying that I had a number after them!!  I had the nicest fabric cutter.  She told me it didn't matter if she cut 30 bolts for me, or 1 bolt for 30 customers.  It was her job to cut fabric.


I decided to see how it looked with the other DS fabrics I already had.  I wish I could have found a stray bolt of the blue/green dots, but I think those are all  long gone.  I kept putting those few maroon bolts back, but I am glad I went ahead and purchased them.  the look nice with all the other fabrics in small quantities.

It was a glorious day shopping with friends.  No stashbusting was done this week.

Never a Dull Moment

 I managed to get all my wraps made to feed the eighth grade football team.  I arrived home from the game to this!  Don't they look delicious!

 And This!

 And this! Teamwork.

They did an amazing job.  So very proud of them for working together and not making too much of a mess.  I am not talking a few cookies- 90+

They are all bagged and ready to go to the volley for a cure game tonight.  It has been a crazy, crazy week in my household.  Only 2 more weeks left of fall sports.

Anticipation

Perhaps anticipation is the big appeal for me to order fabric online.  Well ordering from Hancock's of Paducah gives you plenty of time to think about it.  My order just arrived today that I placed on 9/23.  I realize that isn't really very long, but the wait was simply killing me.

Remember when I was deciding on a border for this plus quilt.  Eleanor suggested the fabric pictured....except I have less than a fat quarter.  I think what makes this fabric work is the large amount of white.  I looked for something similar in my resource  center, but I didn't find anything.

I spotted these two pieces online.  They are mostly white with some grey and a little yellow.  What do you think of these?

I am undecided.  I really need to hang them on the design wall to get the full view.

 No order would be complete without a few "incidentals".  The Black/Red/White is for my twister quilt border (planning ahead).  I didn't have a single piece of fabric with both black and red in it.

There are a few more things that came in my envelope, but I can't show them. They are prizes for the upcoming Christmas party.

Sewcial Day

A sewcial day always helps the mood of the week.  Sunday was a beautiful day at the library with friends.  

Sharon, Judy, and Sandy were busy concentrating on cutting out a Spicy Spiral table topper.

 Ruth was working on binding, while Barb knitted and Judy cut out a new project.

 Char spent the whole day trimming stray threads from her quilts so she could get ready to quilt them

Nancy, well she worked on multiple things.  She sews FAST!  She arranged the pieces for a twister tree.  It is the cutest pattern designed by Rose Pohlar of Pohlar Fabrics.  She managed to get her squares sewn together and several other things too.

Tina worked on cutting out her project for the Shipse retreat, and Angie work on cutting out a couple of projects also.

For me, I cut out the twister blocks of my large twister quilt.  This is part of the quilt hanging on the design wall.  When the quilt was in squares, I thought it looked sort of like a team spirit quilt.  Now that I have the blocks cut again, I like it better.

I also put the borders on these 4 table runners so they are ready to be cut with the twister tool.

I think I will be ready for the Shipshe retreat later this month.