Gracie's Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

I finished this one last night and am so happy with the results. Sometimes, you just have to go with your gut and that's what I did. I spent way too many hours thinking about how I could do a custom job on this quilt and in the end, it didn't need custom.



Hobbs 80/20 batting, PermaCore mother goose thread and Fay Feathers panto from Lorien Quilting.

A Little Help Here????

I loaded this last week and started quilting it.
I was doing ruler work, straight lines from the corners to the center of each block, and SID around the circles/partial circles and then I was planning to use the Circle Lord to make a couple concentric circles/partial circles inside them.



The backing is a rust color and I had a white bobbin in the attach the batting to the backing and I forgot all about it until the machine beeped at me remind me that my bobbin was low. It was at that moment that I remembered that I had white thread in the bobbin. YIKES.....I spent hours Sunday taking out all the stitching.

Most of the quilt is not like that first corner though, it's more like these photos.




Without a zillion stops and starts, there's a lot of backtracking to get that kind of quilting done. Any ideas about other quilting ideas???

Jeff and Dané

Jeff and Dané were in Indiana yesterday and the family all got to see them at Julie and Jim's. They are just back from Aruba and weren't too happy with our current weather. It was so good to see them and get a chance to visit with family I don't see often enough.



Pictured above are:
Andrew with my IPhone (which he loves)
Jeff and Dané (dressed for the weather)
Andrew and the IPhone
Grandson Tony and his girlfriend Kelsey (aren't they just the cutest couple)
Andrew (ready for just about anything. Do you think he has seen me wearing my glasses like that a little too much?)
Grandpa Jack with Andrew and Elizabeth

Nickel Quilt

I've started my first nickel quilt this week and I sure do like how it's turning out. They are still in pieces...Four patches and half-square triangles because I will want to do some re-arranging, I'm sure. I picked out all bright fabrics and lots of tone-on-tones from my nickel stash. The background fabrics are al WOWs. In addition to last years guild nickel swap, I was in an online one several years ago and have quite an accumulation.

Mabel Has Company!

I received a batting order today and look how it fills up Mabel's room.
Some of them will be picked up by other longarmers in the area and the rest will go to our storage unit.





Yes, Gracie, that's your quilt ready to be loaded.

Hand Binding to do!, Valentine's Day, and a Block of the Month

I finished quilting this little baby quilt yesterday and the binding is ready to hand stitch. Maybe tonight watching the olympics.



My valentine got me some over the knee socks and they sure are cozy! I wear a short nightgown most nights and he thinks my legs look cold. Thanks Honey!!! I got him a gift card for Culver's because he has a Butterburger every Saturday and Sunday for lunch.



A local Quilt shop is hosting a 1930's Block of the Month and today I stitched my January and February blocks. If you make a miniature block, your name goes into the drawing an extra time, so I made those also. They will make a cute doll or baby quilt.



Here's a Block of the Month Pet Peeve of mine:
This has happened to me before at another LQS. The salvage and fold edges are both on the lines of the mat. Just look at the waste on both sides. Of course, if I didn't care that the cuts were on-grain it wouldn't matter, but I usually take pride in making my cuts straight across the grain of the fabric. I did have plenty of fabric for these and they turned out very nice, so I guess I'll quit belly-aching.

Stashbusting 2010 - #6

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 5 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 1.25 yard
Fabric Used Year to Date - 15.75 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 10.75 yards

I didn't get much sewing done, but got a lot of cutting done in preparation to the upcoming retreat.