Finish 5 By The End of July

Thanks to Peg's challenge I finished 6 projects by the end of July. There are still a few hours left in the month, but I seriously doubt that I will have another finish. What a great idea this was Peg! Thanks so much. There are about 80 participants, so you should click over there and check them out.

More Circle Lord

I got home from Rossville Quilts at 7:30 and loaded this Quilt of Valor from Kathy. I tried the fan part of the FanClam tamplate and it worked like a dream. Except, the first couple of rows, my top thread shreaded and broke, twice! I changed my needle and it ran perfectly. I can see that I will be getting my moneys worth with this template.





And the back........I love this backing. Wouldn't it make a great One block wonder?

Just a Peek and July blocks

Here's just a peek at something I finished yesterday. It's on its way to the recipient and as soon as it has been received, I can show you more. But for now this is all I can reveal.



Last night I finished my blocks for the Rossville Quilts block of the month. We actually had to do 2 blocks this month. This first one is the one they gave us directions for.



And the second block was our choice. We had to make a block using some of the fabric line (Kansas Troubles). The blocks will be displayed for a competition. We could use a pattern or create one of our own. I chose to use a variation of an oak leaf from the leaf pile pantograph and machine appliqued them to a nine-patch background with a little acorn in the middle.

Back From the Fair & A Finish

I picked up my quilts yesterday and my little blue ribbons. Some of my friends, Viki, Helen and dianna, had pretty sweepstakes ribbons on theirs. I always look forward to the judges comments and I know from previous experience that our judges like bias binding and I don't always make bias binding, so I was expecting that one.
At least they still had ribbons to give out. The sweepstakes ribbons are pinned on the quilts, but the other ones are handed out when you pick up your entry. 2 years ago they ran out of blue ribbons..........now tell me, how can that happen?


I embroidered a label for the Watermelon Hearts yesterday and finished the binding. I really love this quilt!

The Last Popcorn

(at least for a little while)
This one was already destined for the Popcorn pantograph. It's Mary Anns, it measures 100 x 116 and she calls it the Blue & White Monster. When I finished it today, I called her and said, "The monster has been tamed!" She came right over and picked it up. Next up for me is some more circle lord stuff, but not today, my feet hurt!



There's a bag giveaway at the Blue Angels Blog, so be sure to stop by and sign up. It would make a great bag to take to the grocery. I keep meaning to make some grocery bags, but I haven't had the time. Seems like that would be a great stashbuster also.........hmmmm. I might have to pull some fabric for that.

Popcorn

Here's another one done with Popcorn.
This is the second tessellation quilt that Marty made. I used the Popcorn pantograph, PermaCore White thread and Soft n Crafty Poly batting.





After I finished, I sewed on the binding of the Watermelon hearts and then started the hand stitching while watching a new TV program, "Fear Itself" What a strange show that was, but I watched the entire hour. It reminded me of the movie The Stepford Wives.

This past past week we participated in the Nielson Ratings Survey. We have a booklet by each TV and must log who, what and when we watch. The TV in our bedroom is only on for 15-30 minutes in the morning so we can catch up on the news of the day. The one in the spare bedroom hasn't been used this week. The set in the quilting studio has been on some each day, usually either local news, the Food Network Challenge, or HGTV. The one in the living room is on in the evenings, tuned to the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, AMC, TLC or primetime on one of the 3 major networks. The TV in my sewing room has only been on to watch videotaped episodes of Dr. Phil. I tape him during the week and then have a DR. Phil marathon on the weekend, while sewing.
I think they will discover that we are pretty boring TV watchers.

Another UFO Finished

I put the label on this one and finished stitching down the binding last night on this one that was a quilt shop mystery quilt from about 3 years ago. I made it for Dan and it's now hanging by his recliner.

I may just finish more than 5 by the end of July!

My First Circle Lord Quilt

I quilted this baby quilt tonight using the Swirls template. It was really quite easy to line it up for the next pass. There are a few places where the backtrack isn't in line, but with the white thread it isn't too bad. The batting is Quilters Dream Poly and the thread is PermaCore white.

I didn't write down the time on the machine when I started, but with all the practice last night and this quilt, my total stitching time is just a little over an hour. I have a book that I write down the ending run time from the machine each time I finish a quilt. I'm not really sure why, but I have done it for a year now.





More photos in my webshots album here.
Gotta go cut some binding for this one.

More Circle Lord Playing

Here is what I bought:




And what I have done so far:

Circle Lord

Well, UPS came today right after I got home from work. We unpacked the boxes, I got a glass of wine and read the instructions. Then set to work with the assembly. By 8:00, Dan had dinner ready and I had some pictures to email to Michael at Circle Lord along with a thank you for a great product.
These are my first attempts.



It is quite an amazing tool!

Our neighbor, Don, even came over to try it out, along with dan.

Soccer with Popcorn Anyone?

I quilted this last one of Caroles yesterday using the Popcorn panto, PermaCore Topaz Gold thread and Warm & Natural batting. A very cute quilt, for her grandson, I think. The gold thread really looks good on this one. I was looking for a sports theme panto, and thought about just doing random soccer balls, but decided to use this one because I think soccer ball would have a lot of backtracking.

QOV Pillowcases

One of my favorite blog reads, Alycia is coordinating an effort to make and distribute 400 Quilts of Valor.
What a lofty goal that is. I remember how much work it was when I made 15 quilts for the soldiers in my son's section when they returned from Iraq.
I have a couple QOVs to send but thought that I could whip up some pillowcases for her and this is what I accomplished yesterday.

Stashbusting Report - 7/21/08

Fabric Added This Week - 2 yard (Skydive Fabric)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 47.625 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 16.5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 245.625 yards

YEAR TO DATE TOTAL: 198

I'm well on my way to a YTD net of 200! Making pillowcases yesterday really jumped my numbers up!

Happy Birthday Mabel!

I can't believe I've had my Gammill for a year already.

To celebrate the occasion I have placed an order for a Circle Lord and some templates. Tuesday can't come soon enough for me.

I'm off to see the movie Mamma Mia. Have a great Sunday!

Edited: 6:30pm Great Movie! If you get a chance, go see it.

Burger Queen and My Latest Quilting

Here are my step 3 blocks for the Stashbusters Burger Queen Mystery.........nothing new, huh? They look just like Step 2 except they are 6 inch instead of nine and twelve inch.



On to the quilting:

Carole's Romantic Strips is what I'm calling this one. I used the Tea Rose Panto, Mother Goose PermaCore thread and Hobbls 80/20 batting. The shots of the back do not do it justice, as it is a very pretty quilt, front and back.







Marty's Tessellation Roosters looks pretty striking when you see the whole thing. This one is Jacobean panto, Camel PermaCore thread and Soft and Crafty poly batting.




Now I'm going back to work on my new One Block Wonder quilt.

Another Work Surprise

You may remember last week when I posted about what a great company I work for. Well, this week's Free Lunch Friday was Arni's Pizza. If you have never had Arni's Pizza, you are missing a real treat. It has a thin crust and is just delicious. Perople that move away from her always want to go to Arni's when they come back for a visit. The conference room table was full, from one end to the other with large pizzas--any kind you could possibly want. I just had 2 pieces - one BBQ and one BBQ Chicken. The real treat came after lunch...........

Leo delivered one of these little lunch box/6-pack coolers with our new logo to each and every one of us. Inside were 4 cans of soda (mine was Diet Coke, my favorite) and the package you see in the center.


What's in that package, you ask?


Well, these 2 bacon wrapped, black angus filets!!

So, when I got home Dan fired up the grill, picked some green beans from the garden, made a salad.


It sure was yummy!! Thank you Leo for a wonderful dinner.


I got a quilt loaded and got a good start on it, using the Tea Rose panto, while dinner was cooking.

Another Jacobean

I finally got a chance to load a quilt last night. This one is Martys and it is a tessellation, using a 5 yard bundle picked up at a quilt show. Really cute and the poly batting gives the quilting a lot of definition. It was 9pm when I finished, so I don't have a shot of the entire quilt, but here are a couple shots. The panto is Jacobean, the thread is PermaCore Camel and the batting is Soft & Crafty poly.

Going to the Fair!

This morning I'm taking 2 quillts to the county fair, Catch a Spinning Star, and Bow Ties. Last year I didn't enter any, but the year before I entered 3 of them.

Here's a funny about that year:
I received great comments on all of them, but they weren't eligible for any sweepstakes awards because they were without labels. I went home and made labels for all three of them and sewed them on so that I could take them to the state fair the next day. I told the check-in lady about the labels and she said, "Well, we really don't want labels on them, but if they have labels we will cover them up." Sheesh, oh well, at least they now have labels. As do the ones I'm taking today.

Wish me luck!

Burger Queen - Have It Your way!

That's the name of the Stashbuster's Yahoo Group new mystery quilt. I printed off the fabric requirements and the first clue last week but hadn't made any attempt to pull fabrics. Last night while blog-surfing, I came across Candace's oh-so cute blocks for Clue #1. They are so pretty. I decided to use up some more of my greens for this one and I have a BUNCH of the background fabric to use up.

Here's my Clue #1 Blocks - 5 each of 12" and 9"
We get to choose what block we want to make (hence, the Have It Your Way), but have to remember that they will be 3"-12". I chose a nine patch, as did several others.

More UFO's finished

This first one I finished on the way to Julie's Friday afternoon. It's all ready for Ashlyn's little baby girl who is due next month.



This one doesn't have a home yet. I got one similar to this to quilt a few months ago and while I was quilting it, I decided that I wanted to make one also. I knew that I had leftover fabric from a Gwen Marsten Liberated Strings bright quilt. The front looks like a great baby quilt, but maybe I shouldn't have used the black on the back??? Oh well, it's finished now. I think one of the names for this pattern is Happy Squares.

Baby Idol

One of our radio stations, Country 100.5 WWKI, is sponsoring a Baby Idol contest and my grandson Andrew is a contestant. The voting is on cuteness only and there are some real cuties there, but as a grandma, of course I think he's the cutest.

If you want to vote for him, go here. You have to submit your name and address info and his number is 5124.

Stashbusting Report - 7/14/08

Fabric Added This Week - 1 yard (Cloud Fabric)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 45.625 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 2 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 229.125 yards

YEAR TO DATE TOTAL: 183.5

Orange Crush With a Twist of Lime

That's what I'm going to call this Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt.


I finally assembled the center of the top today, after putting it aside for quite a while. I didn't follow the color directions for using scrappy colors for all the nine patches and half nine patches. Instead, I used burgandy and brown scraps. Once I started putting the blocks together, I didn't care much for it and that's why it got buried for a while. It's growing on me now and Dan really likes it, or at least he says that he does.

I think I will do a narrow lime green border, some leftover half nine patches along with some burgandy for the second border and finish it off with the orange.

That's about all the stitching I got done this weekend as Dottie came over on Saturday to get help with a wallet and Janet was here today quilting this signature quilt made by Carole A, which will be given to Judy D on Wednesday.

Round Robin

Here is the round robin I finished this week. The 2 side borders are what I added. This round was titled Seminole or Southwest Piecing. I hope Cindy likes it. Her turkey is just about the cutest turkey that I've ever seen. The last round of these round robins will be done by the owner and we will have 2 months to complete it before the unveiling at our monthly dinner.

The "Jeff's Here!" Party

Julie and Jim hosted a party at their house on Friday for family and Jeff's friends. It was so nice to see old friends who live less than a mile from us, but we never see then unless Jeff is home. The hightlight of the evening was getting to meet his girlfriend, Dané. I hope we will be spending much more time with this lovely young lady.

Here's the good looking couple (hope it's OK that I grabbed this photo, because I didn't even take my camera out of the house.)

We left at a reasonable 10PM for the one hour drive home. I understand that some stayed well after that, which may have made for a long drive to North Carolina on Saturday. Love you Jeff!

Here's Andrew posing for a shot......


... before he took the camera and tried it out for himself.