Quilts of Valour and Pillowcases

I took the weekend and caught up on a couple of committments.

Dineke gave me this quilt for the Quilts of Valour program, so it's ready now for her to bind. Quilted with Baptist Fan using the Circle Lord. I love the way she pieced the backing! I used a poofy polyester batting which is not my favorite. QOV has made a good deal with a company who will provide wholesale pricing to the program, so I thought I would try the stuff. I prefer my usual Hobbs batting which is much softer.

This is my Stack 'n Whack from many years ago, finished and going to the Quilts of Valour, along with Dineke's. For this I used large leftover hunks of Hobbs 80/20 batting. Three pieces in all - you can't even tell.

Here is the matching pillowcase.

Since I was making one pillowcase I thought I'd contribute my share to the local quilt shop. Sue's Quilt 'n More has committed 100 pillowcases to the All People Quilt campaign. These will be donated to Hamilton's cancer hospital for patients who have to stay. My pillowcase is flannel. Niiice.

Take Reading 101 before constructing quilt block

I haven't taken a quilting class for a few years. I thought it was time, so I signed up for the $10 quilt at the local quilt shop. I am (I thought) a VERY experienced quilt maker and signed up for the Advanced quilt. I wanted to stretch my skills a bit. It seems I need to take 'reading 101'. I missed the part of instruction where it says to "make 4 of these, then make 4 more of these with the slant going in the opposite direction". Now that I've wrecked the fabric included in the kit, I bought a fat quarter each of the white and the burgundy.

Bad units:

Here is the PROPER layout (after making the correct 'opposite direction' units).

Here is what I sewed. Idiot. Get out the stitch ripper.

Lantern Quilt for class and Quilt Marking

This is the quilt I will be teaching at Morning Out starting on February 23rd.

Here's a little how-to on QUILT MARKING.

Find something that fits the space.

It is not necessary to use up a whole washout marker on each quilt. A few well placed dots will give you a target to aim for. The pennies you save can go in your Make a Martini jar.

If you plan beforehand you can usually figure out some way to make the design continuous. This will make your quilting go much faster and you can enjoy your martini sooner. A little spritz with PLAIN water makes the blue marks disappear. Do not confuse your martini with water. Bad for you AND the quilt.
The outer border was quilted using circle templates. With definitely (!) no martini assistance.

Potty update with pics & today's horoscope

Here is the bad plaid wallpaper in the downstairs potty. The plaid only lines up sporadically and all four rolls came from the same lot number.Here is the London Shade and the matching shower curtain in the ensuite.

All three of the following statements are from my horoscope for today. Should I change my name to Sybil?

try not to let any irrational thoughts or worries bother you too much right now.

your mind could be a little hazy at the moment.

try to remember to listen to the wisdom of your own inner voice.

Wood, Bad Quilt & Batik Quilt

I took some time out from wood chopping (my little hatchet got so hot it was going to melt!) to post pics of Bad Quilt, Bad. It turned out really pretty. As a Longarm Quilter I am a back junkie - I always love the look of the back. This one does not disappoint.I also got this finished up. Lovely batiks with a chain that pops right out. I used the Circle Lord for the motifs on this. It got to be time that I either had to DUST the Christmas decorations or put them away. I opted to put them away and dust them next year. Heh heh. I have the downstairs potty FINISHED. The wallpaper is up but it is Bad wallpaper, BAD. Why did I choose a plaid? Pics in the next post. I also have the upstairs potty FINISHED. The London Shade is hung and looks lovely. I still need to purchase a white-ish shower curtain liner (maybe tomorrow). Pics of this will also be in the next post.

Today's pet peeve: people who promise to do things and don't keep their promise. In spite of being reminded. In spite of causing a little old lady (namely my Mom) some physical discomfort. For a month. Geez - gimme a break. She's 89 and cannot do for herself (or believe me - she would). In cases like this I can only tell myself what goes around comes around. Then I take a deep calming breath and make a martini.

Bad quilt, bad!! And more UFO's.

I lead such an exciting life. Friday night and I'm doing my sales tax remittance. Sheesh. I guess I blew the wad on Wednesday - at guild I won one of the prize draws AND I won the block of the month collection. Oh wait - that means I have another UFO (insert me laughing maniacally). When I came home that night I found my lovely new hand rail installed on the front porch.

Some quilts just don't want to play nice. Here we are with a turned block. The quilt is loaded and half quilted. (can you say aaarrgh!! ?) Yes - I checked this thoroughly before I started and that block was NOT like that. Gremlins.

Pull up a tall chair and pick out the stitching. Stitch it back in by hand.

Ta da - fixed. mutter mutter....

Chores

I want to get back to work on the potties today, but I have to finish up my chores first.