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.

Movie review, mean dog & more UFO's. Geez Louise!

This past Monday we went to see Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. DH liked it. Me... not so much. It was very dark and mostly an action flic, with some mystery around black magic thrown in. I get to pick the next movie, thank goodness. It will be light and airy and humorous. With hugs & kisses thrown in for good measure.


Sure, she LOOKS innocent enough. The monster head-butted me this afternoon - I saw stars. She accidently-on-purpose dropped her Binky which she whips around like a cowboy with his pistol. I bent down to grab it and win the game. But somebody (dog body) likes to play rough and went for it at the same time. ooooohhh, ouch.



Here she is hoping a piece of carrot will hop off the counter and into her mouth. Eternal optimist.

I have a sweet customer who loves to make scrap quilts. We got chatting one day and I (kiddingly) said I should send her home with a bag of MY scraps. Hah! She took me up on it. The dark one still needs a border, but good gosh-a-mighty, how nice was that? However - that adds another TWO quilts to my UFO list. aarghhh.

TWO words for 2010

I completed a worksheet with all the horrible questions (the soul searching kind, such as In what ways do you NOT embody this word?) that helped me choose... REALLY choose my words.

SPARK - it makes me think innovation, clean, clear, light, fun, warmth.

FOCUS - this is word # 2. It makes me think follow-through, completion, resolution, perseverance.

How am I doing so far? Well, we rang in the New Year with a clean kitchen floor and clean bathrooms. I completed new shower curtain number one. Today I will FOCUS and complete the London Shade to match. I will light a SPARK under my butt to accomplish that.

Yeah - we'll see how this goes, eh?