a quick check in

I know it has been forever since I have posted, but I just wanted to touch base here and let you know that I am still alive and quilting. School has become busy, busy, busy.  We are in labs 2 or 3 times a week and that means trips to the grocery store.  The good thing is, last week we made focaccia bread for the first time and it turned out pretty good.  They had never made a yeast bread before.   I had never made that recipe and it was good, but needs some tweeking before we make it again. 

The good news is volleyball is over for me for the year, unless there are playoff games they call and ask me to work.  One of the basketball coaches wants me to keep his books, but I haven't told him yes yet.  I keep putting it off and thank goodness he didn't ask on Friday. 

This week we were in the lab today - didn't go great, burned cookies, yucky brownies - just not a good day to bake I guess.  Tomorrow we are serving lunch for 24.  Then on Wednesday we are serving finger food for a series of meetings held here at our school.  We made some mini muffins for that today.  Tomorrow will be extremely busy!! 

I have been working on quilts.  I even have the pictures to post, but I killed my computer.  Thank goodness our tech person here was able to save everything to one of her computers and I am hoping our computer class can find the problem and fix my machine.  I am going to have to make the trip to Best Buy in Midland to look at getting a laptop.  Too bad our Best Buy here isn't open yet.  Well, gotta go put the cooled muffins and cookies that made it up for the night.  I may work some more on my hexagon quilt top this evening since I can't play games on my computer!  (by the way, I am writing this at school which is why I don't have any pictures)

Whisper and Retreat

Last posting I talked about my whisper quilt.  Even though I have to top completed, I still haven't had the time to quilt it.  I really need to get on that since I have to have it finished in 13 days.  I will share with you a little bit of the quilt I got from Kathy. 

Then I will share part of my quilt. 

Sorry, that is all you get to see at this time.  I shouldn't even be showing that much, but I couldn't keep it all a secret, now could I?  Last weekend was the Ogallala Ceta Canyon Retreat and my friends Kathy and Gerri and I headed out on Friday making the long trek to our getaway.  Of course I planned on getting away much, much earlier than we did, but I really overslept and then I wasn't completely packed and the car wasn't clean and well, let's just say about 2 hours later than planned, Kathy and I were on our way.  Which, it turned out was not a bad thing since Gerri was leaving about the same time we were and we got to meet up in Lamesa.  However, the quilt store there was closed.  Neither one of them have ever been to that store since she has been closed every single time they are with me and we stop there.  I, on the other hand, have stopped there quite a bit.  She has great prices on her fabric and some wonderful  new and clearance items.  I seem to always find a few things to purchase.  Next time we will have to call ahead of our trip and make sure she will be open when we get there.  Too bad we didn't do it this time. 

Since that quit store was closed, we headed on up to Lubbock to the Bernina store - yes, we purchased a few things - and then Sugarbaker's for an early lunch - okay, since I was running late, yada yada yada, it was about lunchtime.  Gerri went to Sugarbaker's and ate first.  When we called to find out where she was, she had already ordered and we were already purchasing so we both stayed where we were.  Then we swapped.  Lunch was good as always, but the Italian Cream Cake was exceptional!!  Since we were already in Lubbock and not going to make it to Ceta by 10 - hah - we decided to schlep on over to Rachel's.  yes, we all found goodies and whatnots there, too.  We enjoyed sitting at the counter getting our fabric cut and chatting with the employees. Then off to Plainview for a Sonic drink and a stop at the Wal-mart.  I know, we have a Wal-mart here, but you know how you have those last minute items you forgot and this is the last stop along the way to pick up any of those items.  We shopped and found some wonderful things that we just had to have - S'MORE GOLDFISH!!!  Have you tried them.  YUM!! 

Now a few more hours and we are at Ceta Canyon.  It looks like we are some of the last to arrive.  There is a table for two and Kathy and I grab that one.  Gerrie had already put her stuff down on a table with another friend, Pam.  It wasn't right next to us, but we don't usually sit really close together anyway.  We need an excuse every once in a while to get up and move and not sitting close is our excuse.  Here is a picture of Kathy with her winning challenge quilt.  The Challenge was to make a small quilt with a "Calendar Holiday".  She chose Johnny Appleseed's birthday.  Yes, it's on her calendar.  Maxine doesn't celebrate it on my calendar, though.  I loved her use of a pair of jeans with a hole it that she used to make Johnny's jeans with a knee hole.  It was very clever and I was so proud of her when her quilt won. 

This is one of the quilts I worked on while there.  Like I have said before, I have been wanting to make one of these interlocking crosses quilts for quite some time.  I have read about them on the blogs for over a year now and I finally decided to just draw one up and make it.  This is some of the fabric that I was cutting and cutting the last couple of weeks.  This quilt is made up of 4 1/2 inch squares.  196 squares to be exact!!  I can't believe there are that many squares, but there are.  It went together really fast.  Much faster than I thought it would.  It would have been faster if toward the end I hadn't sewn some of the rows together wrong and then had to take then out and  sew them back together correctly.  I really like this quilt and plan on making one or two more.  I thought I was giving it for a baby gift, but I think I might just keep this one all to myself.  At least for now.  Anyway, it's not quited and may not be for a few years the way things go around here. 



Quilt top Done!

I am still cutting fabric.  However, I took some time out to work on my Whisper Quilt this weekend.  I can't show any pictures - one, because I am at school and don't have my camera with me and two, because it is a secret!  That's why it is called a whisper quilt.  This is how it all started.  In April at the Ogallala Quilt Festival, I saw a display from a quilt group out of New Mexico called "Whisper Quilts".  (Or it could have been Gossip Quilts or something else entirely, but for this purpose I am calling it Whisper Quilts)  The premise is you have a group (4 - 8 people) (we had two groups of four) and person number one gets a picture from a magazine (we had my sister in Arkansas pick the pictures, seal them in an envelope and mail them to me and I handed them to the first person in each group)  The first person makes a quilt based on their interpretation of the picture. (they only have one month)  They then send their quilt on to the second person who makes a quilt based on their interpretation of person # 1's quilt. They give # 1 their quilt back and they pass their quilt on to # 3 and so on and so on.  You only get to see the quilt from the person in front of you.  Only the first person gets to see the original picture.  When everyone has had a chance to make their quilt (must be finished - quilted and bound), everyone brings their quilt to display.  There are only 3 people in our group this time and 4 people in our second group because we wanted to get this done before the holidays.  We will display our quilts in October. 

I am so excited!  I have my Whisper quilt top finished!!  I only need to quilt and bind it before the 15th of October.  I can't believe how fast it all came together for me.  I would love to do another one - and may - someday.

Scrap Organization and Blocks

This past week I have been reading blogs whenever I have gotten the chance.  Which hasn't been very often.  I have a few blogs that I read first and then if I have more time I go a little deeper on my list.  This weekend, I had a bit of that free time and was going through my list and one block really, really caught my eye.  I got to this blog in a round about way.  So, let me give credit to the blogs - I was reading up on what Quilt Dad is doing when I noticed that during October there is going to be a Quilt-Uberfest.  I picked a random name off that list, Amy Logsiger - October 5th and went to her blog, Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts. Wow, I have been to this blog before.  I have always liked what she has done and I don't know why I didn't have it bookmarked.  Reading through, I came upon her posting about the Japanese + and X blocks.  I was transfixed.  I love this block.  I need to make this block.   I clicked on a link that led me to another link and now, I can't tell you where I found the tutorial on this block.  I have tried to backtrack - I had to backtrack to even write this posting, saved it, looked, write, saved it, looked, etc.  Just so I could bring you all the information I could, but alas, this is it.  I made four blocks yesterday and put them up on my design wall.  I sewed them together already and think I will make it into a pillow. 

Even though I really like this and it uses up my scraps, I think I need to have a lighter "background" like in the ones on the flicker group. I think it is from here that I followed links to the tutorial, but I can't figure out which magic website got me there. 

Last week, or the week before, I made a 15 minute play block for the basics quilt.  I just hope it's not too late to get it to Victoria for her quilt.  It has been hanging out on my wall ever since it was finished.  I need to go over to 15 minutes and see the rules/guidelines for this one and send it off. 

This is what I have been up to the last week in that extra free time.  Cutting fabric. I am getting ready to go to the Ogallala Ceta Canyon retreat.  I plan on working on my quilt for the retreat my friend Kathy and I put on each year. 

This is my year to teach and I designed the block below.  You can read more about this block here.  Since it is made up of lots of scraps, I have been cutting my fabric into squares.  You can see my boxes for a few of the sizes on the cutting station.  I have squares from 5 inches to 1 inch.  I don't know what I am going to do with the one inch blocks, but I will do something.  They have been talking to me all day and I am thinking 9 patch or something like that.  A 9 patch block made with 1 inch squares would only measure 1 1/2 inches!!  That is crazy.  I may just have to make it and play with my other size squares.  However, that is in the future.  For now, I need to get this quilt made. 

 



Just Organizational Stuff

I have added another shelving unit to my quilt studio.  I had to move the ironing board out to put the shelf in and now I don't know where to put the ironing board!  This shelving unit isn't as large as the other three or as tall.  I am not sure it will hold everything I need it to, but I will keep it until it crashes down.  In the clearing out process, I have started going through a box of quilting stuff that has been sitting by the ironing board for several years now.  I have discovered some round robin quilt tops from over 10 years ago when I was part of an online quilt chat group.  I have also come across several orphan blocks, more quilt tops, some batik blocks that I really, really like and can kind of remember making.  There are 8 of those blocks.  Five of the blocks are put together from 4 separate paper piece blocks and the other 3 are the log cabin style.  I just need to make one block in a log cabin style to have a nice wall hanging or center section of a larger quilt.  I will try to get a picture of them this week so you can see. 

I have spent the evening and parts of this long weekend cutting fabric (okay, and being really, really, lazy and playing games on the computer, too).   I need to clear out some boxes and put all my squares in them to get more organized.  I already have boxes that have strips - 2 1/2", 1 3/4" and 1 1/2" - all in separate boxes.  I also have a tub (larger than a box) of multi-size strips.  Right now I use my tub to make spiderweb blocks.  Now that I type this, I need to get back to this sometime in the near future.  I also have separate boxes of 2 1/2" squares and 5" squares that also includes some charm packs.  I have a little, bitty, box (it's actually a recipe box) for my 2 inch squares.  I have squares cut from 1 1/2" to 5".  I went on a retreat a few years back where the teacher told how she cuts her fat quarters into squares and strips getting them ready for later use.  Since then, I have been trying to get some of my larger fabric scraps and random fabric in fat quarters and 1/2 yards cut up ready for scrap quilt use.  I am trying to clear out some of my older and  ugly fabrics.  Well, I just wanted to put something down here since it's been over a week since I posted.  I will try to get a few pictures up here on Wednesday.  I need to get back on a system both here and in real life. 

Liberated logs and baskets

I have been wondering and trying to decide what and how I was going to  teach my scholarship class at Ogallala this year.  I took two classes from Gwen Marston - Liberated log cabins and Liberated Baskets.  When I was discussing this with my mother, she came up with the wonderful idea of using the log cabins for the basket.  ding, ding, ding we have a winner!!!   I made two log cabins with orange strips (different fabrics in each) and made one yellow cabin.  These were all from the scrap pile that I use to make "fabric" with for my intuition quilt.  I pulled some brown fabric from a stack of fabric that has finally graduated from the pile by the sofa and made it up the stairs and into my quilt studio.  I had thought I was going to use it for squares in the 6 inch square swap from a couple of weeks ago and decided that I didn't want a solid brown.  It's no really solid, but kind of muddled.  I used a different teal fabric for the handles on each of the baskets and sashed it with a brown/orange/yellow/green fabric that for some reason I really, really like.  (I have been on a brown/orange kick for a little over a year now).  I was going to make the border a large strip of that fabric, but decided that it needed a kick.  So, I went through my teal drawer and pulled a fabric that has little bitty silver strips in it.  The selvage says the fabric was made in 1999 so it is a bit on the old side, but I am so glad that I have it because it works perfectly here.  Now to decide how to quilt this baby.  I want to have a completed quilt for my project instead of just a top like last year.   Now that I think about it, the year before I had three - count them - three completed (that means quilted and bound!!)  quilts for my solids class.  Last years wasn't quilted because I couldn't decide . . . . okay, I won't lie, it wasn't quilted because most of my tops aren't quilted. 

See What I Won!!

When I have time, I participate in the Le Petite Challenge over at A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion.  My goal was to participate every month, but some months I am a lot more busy than others so that hasn't happened.  However, last month I found some time to make the schnibble entitled "George".  It was a monkey wrench quilt and since that is one of my favorite all time quilt blocks, I knew I had to make it.  I immediately ordered the pattern from Quilt Taffy and started looking around at all the charm packs I have acquired in the last couple of years (began picking those up last year for the schnibble challenge with the same two blogs).  I found a couple that I wanted to explore the possibilities of background fabrics that might work with them (and also what I had on hand since I definitely didn't have time to go to a store).  I found two that I kept going back and forth on and decided to wait another day before making that decision.  I put it all aside and worked on a block for 15 Minutes Play.  That's when I found it.  The "George" pattern.  I already had it!!  I could start on this immediately if I wanted and I so wanted to do that.  I picked up the one fabric that was in the lead (in my head - it wasn't an actual race to see who could be made into a quilt) and started cutting.  I cut, I sewed and I finished it in plenty of time to enter it into the parade, but then life got busy and at the  last minute - after checking the blogs to see if the parade had already started, I e-mailed it to Sinta at Pink Pincushion. 

It's not the best picture, I know, but it was taken quite late at night.  (or, it could be I am a horrible photographer)  I really like that I used a darker blue fabric for my background.  It makes everything else stand out.  The inside of the wrenches are a variety of blue fabrics from the charm pack.  What all this rambling and going on is all about is . . . everyone that entered that parade won!!  I couldn't believe it.  This quilt (okay, top only) didn't win the big prize, but since there weren't very many that entered that month, Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co (who designs the Schnibbles patterns and this quilt) decided that they were all winners and wanted to award us with a layer cake.  YEA!!! 

My package arrived this week, but having a full week of inservice has slowed me down a bit and I didn't get pictures made of the prize until now.  I was really shocked when I received my mailing.  I was a little on the fat side for a single layer cake and the reason for that was . . . it was two layer cakes and a pincushion kit!!  BINGO!!  What a great package to open. 

This first one is Strawberry Fields by Fig Tree and Company

The second one is Maison De Garance by French General

Both are Moda Layer Cakes

This last one is an absolutely adorable snowman pincushion by Primitive Gatherings and designed by Lisa Bongean.  It will finish only 4 1/2" X 5 1/2" and includes everything but the threads to do the embroidery and blanket stitch and the sand to fill it.  (I will also need some kind of fusible, but I have that) 

Needless to say that I was very, very excited about my package and want to say a big THANK YOU to Sinta and Sherri for hosting and coming up with such great challenges and a huge, huge THANK YOU to Carrie for providing prizes each month and especially for this past month.  thank you.