'insert clever line here' . . .

I've run out of different ways to say "Design Wall" so never mind. Instead, perhaps this morning I'll just say . . .

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

Now. On to the design wall (or table or ironing board or whatever).

Saturday I headed over to join our stitcher's group for a Stitch-In Saturday. My goal was to put together my two blocks of the month, which are due Friday. So here are the latest additions to my orange and purple quilt . . .

Block one.


And block two.

And here's how I've decided to set these two . . .

This one definitely looked best in the orange.


And this one is going in the purple.

I need to start thinking of a name for this quilt. It's orange and purple and has batiks mixed in and the purple leafy fabric is Moda's "October," which makes me very happy since I'm definitely an October kind of girl.

Here's my little stitch-in station . . .

Let me introduce you to Kari, our wonderful coordinator!

She was working on getting a quilt pin basted -- it's one she's entering into our fall quilt show!

There was lots of gabbing and sewing and eating. Lots of eating. ;)

Charmaine finished up the block she was working on for a different BOM.

Isn't that pretty?? I love the colors in there with the black and white!

And my friend Kathy is shipping this one off as a gift.

Lucky recipient!

And if you've hung out with me this long, be sure to head on over to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times to see what else is going on in design wall land!

Cheers!

:)

design within reach . . .

Saturday evening I returned home from a long day out and about, and decided I needed to put away the red and pink and white quilted heart that had been adorning my table since February, and work on a more "summery" design.

In less than three hours, this is what I'd come up with!

Even with a cute little back -- I could probably reverse it if I ever felt so inclined! I'm so infatuated with orange right now. It's my color of choice. Why is that?!?

Ta dah! I love what I can accomplish if I put my mind to it. And what's even nicer is that this is an original Design by Denise. LOL! :)

My BOM's are what's on the design table cloth right now. First, here are the two blocks I completed just in the nick of time on Saturday, for a turn in win! (I'm determined to NOT use my Ooops! card this go 'round!)

So now there are ten blocks completed, six to go. I have two sashed and quilted and I need to audition the rest. Well, first I have to decide whether I'm going to do the four corners in the purple, or do the whole thing in the orange (like I'd originally planned). I just think the four corners in the purple would create eye interest.

I do believe that if I go with the purple corner, this block that I finished this weekend will be a purple candidate:

While the other block I finished this weekend will definitely go orange!

Head over to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times to see what other creative genius is flowing in the quilting world!

Last week I watched Sawyer on Thursday, so Kim could run some errands.

He's gotten so big -- he hardly looks like a baby anymore!

He was all about holding that spoon while he ate, too. He held it in his right hand, and ate with his left hand. I wonder if he'll be a lefty or a righty?!?

He loves, loves, *loves* his books! My favorite thing is to sit in the rocker in his room and have him bring me a book and climb into my lap!

Without a doubt -- Neesey heaven.

:)

manic panic . . .

. . . Well, not really. A little, maybe. Maybe I just liked the way those two words sound together. Like a perfect fit!

Speaking of perfect fits, I do have a bit of a dilemma. I *finally* pulled out this months BOM (the one that has to be turned in TOMORROW), and got busy. My hope, at 1:00 this afternoon, was that I could pull it out and have it finished by 3:00, so I could shower and dress for the evening, and catch the store before it closed at 5:00.

No such luck.

Anyway, each month there are two different blocks to piece. One was easy-peasy; I put it together and voila.

The second one has challenged me, because I could make a slight change to how it's put together (we're allowed to do that in this BOM) and change the look a little.

These are the pieces I have, and this is the order they are supposed to be sewn together.

What I'm playing with now is both order & sashing fabric. I really should have started on this earlier, so I'd have time to do this on a design wall Monday or something, when there's the possibility of more people seeing and lending their thoughts! Ah well, my husband said something about procrastination just yesterday . . .

A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance. -- Hunter S. Thompson

I procrastinated in choosing a suitable day to work on my BOM!

I think I know which one I like best. Or at least I've got my top two. I'm just gonna throw this out there and see what I get back!

1

2

3

4

After I pick up tomorrow's kit, there will only be four more blocks (two more months) to go! I've gotten two blocks sashed and quilted.

My goal is to have all the blocks (including the ones I pick up tomorrow) pieces, sashed and ready for quilting before the end of June!

Tonight I'm off to Big Spring Park to watch The NeverEnding Story, with some folks from our church, Ignite City Church. Should be a fun evening!!

Ciao!

:)

what's in a design . . .

I started this "Block of the Quarter" about 15 months ago. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous applique quilt called Spring Flowers. I'm pretty sure I've blogged about it before, but because the kit only comes once every three-four months, I sometimes forget about it.

The kit is offered by Melissa over at Honeybee Fabrics. The pattern itself comes from New Zealand Quilter, and Melissa picks the fabrics to put each block together with. She's done a marvelous job doing that, too! If you've never checked out this magazine, it's worth a look-see.

This quarter the featured block is, "Polyanthus"

Lots and lots of little pieces and stitching! Very sweet. Did I mention that I'm not actually working on this now? I'm saving these kits for later on down the line, when I'm retired and have time to do more serious quilting, but not the money to devote to it!

Be sure to check out Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times to take in lots of quilt eye candy today!

Lots of changes this week; for one, I switched my off day to Tuesday, to accommodate Kim's new schedule at work. So tomorrow will be my Sawyer day. Yay for me!

I'm officially in my countdown-to-Paducah mode. I can hardly wait! I'm not so interested in shopping, though I am bringing a little spending cash. Mostly I can't wait to wander through the miles of beautiful quilts, and take a trip over to the museum! Yes, only twelve days to go!

On a non-quilting note, did anyone besides me get a kick out of that wedding video that went virul? You know, the one where all of a sudden, the entire wedding party breaks out into dancing? T-Mobile has spoofed it ... and the upcoming royal wedding ... and it's a link really worth checking out - right HERE. It made me laugh!

Have a great week - Happy Monday! :)

something in the air . . .

Tuesday night's Stitcher's Group meeting was . . . interesting . . . to say the least! Oh, it all started out innocently enough. Fifteen or so ladies gathered together in the church conference room, chatting and passing around quilt blocks and working on hand work. All of a sudden, a few of the women in the back of the room started coughing violently! Next thing you know, more women are violently coughing -- near choking-sounding! People are fleeing the room! I was sitting up near the entrance, furthest away from the original coughers, and so I thought I was safe . . . and then I felt a slight tickle in my throat, followed by a bit of a burn . . . BAM! I was overcome, too!

You've never seen a room of quilters drop what they're doing and flee so fast in your life! One of the women (who will remain nameless) was showing another her "pepper spray" and accidentally set it off. That tiny little mist of pepper spray was powerful! It even followed us out of the room into the hallway. A lot of the ladies fled to the outdoors. Needless to say, it meant an early evening for most of the group. But a couple of us hardcore quilters blew our noses (which really helped clear the irritation), and stayed put. Including the perpetrator (although partly because we brow-beat her into staying and partly because her ride wasn't ready to leave)! It was a fun, funny night and I laughed a lot.

I actually even managed to get some things done! For example, I learned how to "pop" the seams of my four-patches, so that the center lays flat.

It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but if you look closely, you can see that at the center, the four seams lay in a square, so there's not a huge bulk of fabric at the center. There's some significance to this method, but I'm not ready to share on that yet -- another post.

I also managed to finish quilting my first block of the BOM!

It's nearly impossible to see the quilting in the small photo, which is a shame, because I really love the design! I used a fairly curvy, lot-of-movement design in the center of the block, and then in the sashing, I quilted a simple 2-1/2" square in each corner. I've decided to switch up the quilting in the centers, but stay consistent on the squares in the sashing.

It may be a bit easier to see the quilting from the back. I didn't condense this picture, so if you click on it, it'll give you a bigger photo, and the quilting is a lot more visible. My thinking is that the squares will form their own pattern and really accentuate the more detailed quilting of the centers.

I'm really very pleased with how this turned out, and now I'm anxious to get the sashing on all my completed blocks, so I have some handwork to do when I have my surgery. Hopefully we'll get that scheduled for the first of June -- and I'll want plenty to keep me occupied!

So, to recap: pepper spray and quilters really do NOT mix, although it does make for a lot of laughter and hilarity. I probably would have finished a lot more stitching Tuesday night without the pepper spray -- but this entry wouldn't have been near as fun to share!

Happy Thursday!

:)

design, design, design . . .

Can you believe, after all my procrastination of last month, that I've already got April's blocks finished?!

They are fairly simple; the challenge is keeping points pointy!

Now that they are finished, I can get busy on deciding which fabric I'll sash them in (remembering that only four block will go in the purple).

This one does that neat "disappearing" thing with the corners.

Hmmm....thinking no.

I think I like both of this month's blocks in the orange. I've got the first block nearly quilted. I can't wait to share it!

For more design walls, be sure to check out Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times!

As for me, I'm off to spend a glorious day with my Sawyer!

:)

not too shabby . . .

Every once in a great while, I stumble into a Saturday that doesn't have me going in a million directions. A Saturday in which I can do pretty much as I please. A Saturday like today!

I hit the post office and the grocery story early (relatively speaking) and had the RV tidy and groceries put away before 11:00. That left me mostly the whole afternoon! I did two of my favorite things. Put in an old movie and got into quilting mode!

Movies: Gone With The Wind and Father's Little Dividend. Definitely chick flicks. :)

And while I was uber-productive in the ol' quilting room today, I'm going to just highlight a few things. The first being a few quilting stencils I picked up yesterday, when I picked up my April BOM. These are perfect for the 8" squares that we're doing.

I really like this one. I like the simplicity and the sweet curves.

This one just made me laugh. But it looks FANTASTIC on one of the blocks that I've already completed, so I really just had to get it. (Among other things, like rulers, gadgets, books, and fabric, I'm a stencil-aholic.)

But this one was my absolute favorite find of the day . . .

Isn't that just FUN?!?

Perfect on this very geometric block! Can you see my blue lines? I'm all ready to start lap quilting! I actually prepared two blocks, just in case I start and finish this one before Tuesday (when our Stitcher's group meets for hand sewing), and need something to work on!

I also played around with some 4-patches . . .

This is practice for a bigger project I'll talk about after Tuesday. This will probably end up being a quilt for a certain American Girl doll, who lives in Virginia. I wish the photo did better justice to the colors -- it's really sweet fabric!

And now it's time for this quilty girl to call it a night!

:)

just in the nick of time . . .

I don't know why I'm such a procrastinator. It's not like I haven't known I'd need to turn in these blocks today for a whole month! I guess my weekends have just been *very* busy. And so, this week, I cut all my pieces Wednesday morning, stitched some pieces Wednesday night, and put the blocks together last night. Whew!

But even with very clear instructions and careful highlighting matching fabrics and instructions, I'm afraid my haste caused an error. Pooh.

This block turned out okay.

But on this block, the orange triangle should have in the mirrored corner, up against the purple, facing the same direction as the batik. Because the light fabric comes in the kit each month, I didn't have any to correct my mistake, so I just had to place it where it looked best, and go with it.

But then I put it on the orange sashing . . .

I love the look of this! The orange in the block just blends into the sashing, and makes the block look funky and irregular. I love it!

I'm not so sure about the first block in the orange sashing.

For the first time, I considered the possibility of using the purple/orange/red fabric as sashing for some of the blocks.

I think I like this better, for this particular block. The question then becomes, how many blocks do I put in the purple, and where do I put them?

I think this one looks good either way. But my preference may be in the purple.

Purple in my four corners? I'm thinking I like where this is going.

Decisions, decisions.

:)