My Baby Graduates this Year

My third and youngest child graduates from high school this year. It's also our 25th wedding anniversary three weeks later so it's a milestone year. Brad is following in his sister's footsteps and graduating as valedictorian (how did we get so lucky?) and will be going onto college majoring in agriculture/plant breeding. Doug and I graduated together from the same high school as the kids in the top ten, but we can't remember ever speaking a word to each other and we had a class of 93 students! We met again five years later, courtesy of my sister!

I digress, I stopped in at a little LQS to start collecting fabric for Brad's graduation quilt. We had decided on a log cabin quilt in a "nature" theme. He is an extreme outdoors kid and has studied forestry in 4-H. Little did I know I would walk out of the shop with all the fabric for the quilt including the backing!
Three greens for one side of the log cabin plus the center fabric, ignore my sewing room floor! The carpet was a renmant and is covering concrete!Three browns for the other side of the block along with the center fabric again. Oops this one is blurry, those are pine prints, except the top one which is wheat. The fabrics are in the washer, I will have to replace this photo!The backing. I will be adding a dark green strip and putting the moose piece down the middle and strips on either side of the bear. These are flannel, a request of Brad's since he likes to use my flannel quilt watching TV!

I dug out Amy's graduation quilt photo from 2005. She picked all the fabrics and pattern. I copied it from webshots so it came out small! Amy has already graduated from college and is teaching Jr.High math.
Here is Lisa's from 2006, notice how radically different the color choices are! Smokey the cat loves quilts! Lisa is a college Jr. majoring in Bio Engineering.

I still need to get all my quilt photos off the other computer and onto my thumb drive so I can access them easier.

My other news is there is also a new LQS in my small town of 3,000 people and I also stopped in there and was asked to be featured quilter for March. I am trying to support both shops because I like everybody and I like fabric!

Mini Row Robin starting

I am in a group that is just starting a miniature row robin. I finished my row and will be mailing it off Monday to Virginia. My row measures 3" X 15.5" right now, but will finish at 2.5" X 15". I'm kind of wishing I had made 2" finished baskets but oh well! I am sending along the black and the multi batik. I look forward to working on the other 4 members rows!

Working on another UFO

I set together another set of blocks. They were from a monthly swap group and one was dated 2006. I originally was going to set the with alternate blocks and a pieced border. I finally decided size wise it was going to be big enough with just sashing. The yellow just screamed use me! I will be using that same yellow fabric as a piped border next to a purple binding when ever I get it quilted! Taking a pic on my design wall with a fluorescent light right above isn't the best choice!

A Little Progress

This week I have worked on assembling 18 basket blocks from a monthly block exchange group into a top. I used all my red scraps in the sashings and borders and had to get into my box of reds to cut more. The swap took 18 months, getting one block per month. I underestimated the size and it's just about queen size.
I also put borders on a scrap baby quilt. During Christmas when I was organizing my fabrics I cut up a bunch of bright scraps into 2 1/2" squares. My daughter Lisa wanted to piece something so she got most of it pieced before going back to college. I just had to sew a few more rows and add borders. I finished it up today after the red quilt. I will donate to as of yet undetermined charity after I quilt it.

Finished UFO!

I actually finished a project. It should make Lisa happy, but I have a few more UFO's to get finished to get down to my age! I had a round robin from about 2001 that I loved but was wonky. Too many borders had bias edges and more borders were just being added without measuring through the center. I took off one border and it was the right size for a shower curtain for my new lavender bathroom. I'm thrilled to mark something off my list!

Fabric Shopping

I REALLY needed more fabric. Yeah right! However at 50% off how can one resist? Fortunately I was on a time limit (I am the one that said how long I needed) or I might have purchased more. We were at the Spokane Valley Joann's, it's not even a Super Store, but they still had a different selection than the Joann's in Lewiston and Moscow. The feel of some of this fabric is way better than it used to be and the regular prices are higher too. I am taking after my friend Joanni and showing my purchases!
The red with stars is for American Hero quilts and the polka dot is for my polka dot collection. My daughter Lisa (who is doing the 365 photo thing) likes polka dots and so do I.This is a large scale print I thought would look awesome in a One Block Wonder quilt.I absolutely fell in love with the tiger lily print on the left, my friend Kae Ann did a gorgeous color crayon tiger lily in a class we took (I failed coloring!) and she also had the florist put tiger lilies in a bouquet for me during my surgery this summer. I got the other florals as coordinates for something, I just don't know what!

Road Trip Handwork

Let's just say this hasn't been my favorite week, but things are looking up now. There are so many people in the country losing their jobs and I'm lucky that I don't have to deal with that. The things I have going on seem insignificant in comparison to what is going on in the country right now.

I spent a couple evenings cutting up scraps for a Sister's Choice quilt. I am in a small group that we send out fabric and a pattern monthly and get back a finished block and in turn make a block for others.

I did accomplish some handwork while going to Spokane this weekend for two days to visit my dad in CICU. He is finally better and out of intensive care as of today. I took along a block I had prepared for embroidery from the Winter Wonderland pattern by Crabapple Hill Sitting in a hospital gave me time to work on the block and I finished it today.
On the trip home Doug and Brad were doing more combine shopping and I dug under the seat in the car and found a hand piecing project I hadn't touched for two years or so. I had two blocks done and hand pieced the other three on the trip home and even had time for a nap in the car! I got home and got out the 23 blocks I had done and found out the 5 blocks I had in the car are spinning the wrong way, along with two of the blocks I already had here at home. This is a very long term project I saw years ago in Quilter's Newsletter. Now if I could find the picture of the quilt! I am doing it as a charm quilt, so even though some of the fabrics look alike, each one is different.
These are the spinning the wrong way blocks. Next will be my fabric shopping trip today!

My weekend quilt project

Other than more snow, then rain and melting snow, boring housework and bookkeeping this weekend, I did pretty much make this whole quilt top. It belongs to my friend Deb, and it came to me with a box of fabric, six finished blocks and a pattern. I made six more blocks and did all the setting this weekend. It will be interesting to figure out how to quilt it for her! The pic is taken on my wobbly design wall, it really does have straight edges and hangs well!

New Year's Resolutions (Or Not)

Every year I try to make resolutions and never keep them, so this year I just made suggestions to myself, not resolutions. One suggestion was to get organized in my sewing room. To that end I spent days and days organizing my fabric. It was a major undertaking. I always prewash, but don't press, because I was so far behind in it I figured why bother. Now I will press (but really don't need to purchase fabric for a LONG time) because I have neatly organized boxes containing my quarter yard to one yard cuts.
I also have organized shelves with my project boxes and fabric.Next (well maybe) on my agenda will be tackling my scraps. This is a few of them!I did finish another UFO before the end of December!