Hot!

 I thought Oregon was supposed to be rainy and cool...boy, did I think wrong.

It didn't get to 107 today but it did reach 103. I'm not a big fan of the heat, I have a huge picture of ice water in the refrigerator, a fan on in every room, and the air conditioner set low.

Joanne, the Quilts for Kids project coordinator, gets a lot of donated fabric, yarn, and other stuff. She puts everything out and expects, with some exceptions, for the items to be returned as finished blankets and quilts to be distribution to a number of local children's agencies. Every time I go to a meeting, I swear I'm not going to bring anything home, but I'm a sucker for other people's UFOs.

I'm not sure what the person was making but there were six very nicely made table toppers / placemats (??) at 18 x 24 inches. I think I going to put them together into a single quilt top.

There was just one 12 inch basket block. Again, nicely made. I have an idea how to make it bigger but not sure if I want to, I may just border it.

This is 16 inches and had a handful of yo-yos and stems with it. I don't know what the original plan was or what I will do with it.

I finished all of my Aunt Daisy square-in-a-square blocks and put together the guild community service quilt.

I just finished piecing the top a few minutes ago. It is made from fabric that was donated to the guild.  I'll pick up batting and a back at the next guild meeting and quilt it sometime in the near future.

I think it's time for some ice cream.

Random

 The last two weeks I've used a random number generator to determine which quilt top goes on the Moxie next - yes, I have enough tops to make using a random number generator useful. Last week it was #3 the fall string leaves.

I love how this quilt turned out. It's a little on the large size for a table runner 25 x 50 inches, so maybe a wall hanging. I quilted wonky oak leaves in the border with a variegated thread, in the ditch (using my in the ditch ruler), stippling in the block background, and spikes in the leaves. In person, the colors are really rich.

This week was #17 the Winnie the Pooh panel.

I haven't decided if I'm going to play and do a bunch of different designs or just get it done with an all over design.

You would think I would have made a dent in the quilt tops, but I haven't, I really need to stop picking up new tops from the guild and Quilts for Kids.

I think I'm going to take a break from quilting tops and get some piecing done. I haven't touched my July UFO yet, and I'm behind on my Aunt Daisy units. 

I laid out the units I have finished. OMG, I'm in love. Even once I get all the units pieced making the blocks is going to take some time. The blocks will be 28 inches finished with 49 units in each block. I'm making the king size which is made from 16 blocks. Yikes.

Quilting and Blogging

 Sometimes I wonder if I would sew / quilt as much as I do if I didn't blog. There are a lot of Sunday afternoon panic attacks and a mad rush around here to do SOMETHING before my Monday evening blog post.

Case in point...the birdie quilt I loaded almost two weeks ago. It took two more days before I braved using my rulers in the banners...okay, that wasn't too bad. I decided to meander all the open space (hurt my brain trying to decide on something more unique). I got about a foot into the first pass and the thread broke. I decided I was done for the day. Then a few days later came the Sunday panic attack. I told Bella, that I need to at least finish the meandering so I can show some progress. Meandering is quick. So, then I thought, okay, let's do the house roofs. That's where I stopped yesterday.

Today I told Bella that I would get at least one house finished.

Six houses later it's all done except for the binding...which I never made. It will probably be scrappy leftovers.

Playing with rulers was interesting. My lines aren't evenly spaced but for my first attempt I think it's pretty good. Three of the houses were longer than the reach of Moxie with the ruler base attached. I had to baste the sides and bottom before I could work on the houses. Then there was a long of scrolling up and down as I completed the quilting one house at a time. Lots of learning and new experiences.

Stuff

 I've done quilty stuff but not much actual quilting.

Laid out the guild community service quilt on the design bed...my phone camera has really been washing out colors lately - strange.

Loaded a quilt to the Moxie...three days ago. I want to play with my new rulers in the banners and houses but I have no idea what to put in all that open space, so I just go into the room and stare at it for a while every day. 

July's UFO Challenge number is 4. I started this quilt over a year ago when I was visiting Donna - haven't touched it since. The pattern has a weird method to make the semi-hourglass blocks. The blocks are about half done. It shouldn't take long to finish them.

I did get 20 out of 80 square-in-a-square blocks made. Paper piecing is definitely the easy way to make these blocks.

It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow (it is summer - right?). So hopefully I'll make some progress on something.

Busy Week

 Last week was busy! Or maybe I should say busy for me. Aside from some yardwork, housework, and driving a friend to the hospital for hand surgery (at 7 a.m.) I also attended a Handi Quilter 3-day hands on longarm quilting event. OMG - it was intense, very informative, and wonderful! Very hands on. The experience levels of the other participants varied from no machine quilting at all to experienced long arm quilters. I was probably in the middle.

Other than a session on the Handi Quilter Pro Stitcher (which I skipped), the event covered long arm machine quilting basics, different types of feet, free motion quilting including basic shapes, gridwork, backgrounds and fillers. AND (insert happy dance) ruler work safety and basics. I love using rulers! I can't wait to load my next quilt.

I did manage to get some work done on a few projects. I did some sewing and cutting on a guild community service quilt.

This is going to be a very scrappy quilt. The blocks are about half done.

The June Aunt Daisy sew-a-long unit is square-in-a-square.  I need to make 80. Not my favorite block so I'm going to paper piece it. Everything is cut out and ready to go - 

I also finished up two folded star pin cushions (colors are kinda washed out it the picture). One for the long arm and one to put next to my sewing machine...hmmm should have made a third one as I currently have two sewing machines set up. These are fun and easy to make - deciding on fabric takes the longest.

June UFO Challenge

 Have you noticed I haven't mentioned my June UFO Challenge project? Last June it was the ornament walling hanging, the ornament wall hanging came up again this June. Hmmm, I've decided I really don't want to make it. I have one finished, I really don't need a second one and don't feel like making it as a possible Xmas gift...soooo, I kitted everything up with a few process notes and took it to my guild meeting today. The person who chairs our quilt show country store grabbed it. She is hoping someone in the guild will finish it to sell or, if not, they will sell the kit at the show. Win win and out of my house. Wonder if I have others lurking in the closets that I could donate.

So far I'm five for five...five finished quilt tops in five weeks. Four on the Moxie. This week's quilt started out like this:

I picked this top up at a Quilts for Kids meeting. It was about 25 x 43 inches. Kinda small. Cute but needed something more. So I added more fabric to the sides (love love love the bug fabric given to me by Angela) then did an all over design using a variegated thread.

Not the best lighting for the picture. I hate quilting with variegated threads (never got the tension 100% perfect and the thread kept breaking) but I think it was the perfect choice for this quilt. This was so fun to quilt. The colorful stripe back and stripe binding put the icing on the cake. 

I'm not sure I'll be able to load and quilt a top this week. I have three days of Handi Quilter classes this week - including a ruler class (so excited!!!). So may be a bit quilted out to actually quilt something.

Finished!

 I started quilting this back in January. I've avoided finishing it for three reasons (1) the horrible hi-loft poly batting, (2) didn't know what else to quilt, and (3) I wanted to use the Juki to finish quilting it. So this week I bit the bullet. It was easier using the Juki but it was still a wrestling match. Initially my thread kept breaking, so I loosened the tension and very very slowing quilted through those very bulking seams.

I'm not sure if I won or not.

This will be a very warm quilt, the back is a very soft flannel. It finished about 44 inches square and will be donated this Friday to Kiwanis Quilts for Kids.