Getting Back to Normal

Today was an absolutely gorgeous Fall day here in Georgia. Our son is a senior in high school so we did another college visit. We drove about two hours to central Georgia to tour one of the colleges that he is interested in attending. The drive was beautiful. The leaves are finally beginning to look like Fall.  The college visit was a good one. Our son liked this school. He has already applied to his first choice, but needs a back-up plan just in case. The competition is rather fierce at his fist chocie, UGA in Athens.  I worked on binding for our Christmas quilt while we were driving. I love the handwork sewing down binding. This one is close to being finished. I also worked on it when we got home. My husband loves football especially college football. I put clothes washing and sat with him to watch the Georgia/Florida game. Since we are big LSU fans , it didn't matter to us which team won. LSU lost to both teams this year. Guess we would have liked  for both Georgia and Flordia to lose today, but.....   Anyway, I'm almost finished sewing binding on this quilt. That means we will have our first Christmas quilt this year!!! 

It's been nine weeks since my hip replacement surgery. I'm finally beginning to feel normal again. I always felt good, but thinking and doing complex things was a bit difficult. But that has past and I'm thankfully doing most everything. Since my energy level has improved, I'm hoping to do some sewing and blogging this week .

Take care! Hope to be back soon!

And this is fun?

Yesterday was one of those days. For a short period of time, I began to wonder why had I ever begun to quilt. Piecing quilt backs is what did it. Remind me to over-estimate when I need to purchase a quilt back and to Avoid directional fabric.

 The first problem child was the backing for the LSU quilt. I found a great tiger print online. Of course, I ordered it several years ago when I started piecing the top.  I ordered only the amount needed for the back. Yesterday, I decided to use some of the tiger print for my binding. It will make great binding for this top. Of course, now I don't have enough fabric for the back. I pulled some purple from my stash and some of the left-over LSU print. Well, the LSU print is directional. There's where my problem began. I kept sketching the dimensions, playing with my yardage. Finally, I put the quilt on the top of my bed, pieced some backing and just kept adding until I had a big enough back. In spite of all my turmoil, it does look rather nice. I like it! Of course, this took lots longer than I had planned. 

I moved on to the Christmas toile. Several years back, I purchased some flannel when a shop was going out of business.  Of course, this quilt is HUGE, I didn't have enough for the backing. On one of our shop hops, I purchased  some yardage to coordinate with the first piece for the backing. Since both fabrics were flannel and the top is cotton, I washed the flannel fabrics. DUH! They shrunk  lots. Now I don' t have enough fabric. I again sketched the dimensions, put fabric on the floor. Somehow or another it finally lots like it will work. What really worries me, is I had some fabric left-over :) YIKES!  I think I'll bring it with me when I bring the quilts to the long-arm quilter on Saturday.  

At this point, I decided to go to bed and read. LOL!

Stash Busting Report

Finally! I had two quilt tops that just needed borders. Borders are not my favorite thing to do.  Today, I unexpectedly had all day  to sew. I had planned to begin sewing  a rag quilt for a gift due  in late June. I decided to work on the quilts needing borders instead. My stash busting goal this year is to finish at least 12 UFO's.  I was feeling a bit behind on my goal since I had not finished a top in May. Christmas Toile is a big quilt. It needed to be pressed, then borders added. It is DONE!  

My husband requested an LSU (Louisiana State University) quilt. He is passionate about his LSU tigers. I started this top two or three years ago. It was the only LSU fabric that I could find. It's so "boxy".  I didn't like the way top looked. The border fabric that I planned to use looked all wrong. I packed it away. Finally, last fall I took it out again and shopped for border fabrics for the third time. These two fabrics make the quilt. The inner border is a textured black tone-on-tone. The outer border is purple with black squiggly lines. These fabrics look like they belong with this quilt. Thanks, Gretch and Karin for helping me find "the right" fabric. The backings fabric is tiger stripes. It's perfect for this quilt.  DONE!

I still have to piece the backing for both tops. It was on my list for today, but I'm out of time. Maybe, tomorrow....

That makes two UFO's out of plastic containers. Two projects to check off my list of tops to finish. That makes 7 tops finished this year! That's a record for me! Of course, there are still lots and lots of UFO's still needing some TLC.  :}}}

Trying Not to Whine

Pollen. Springtime in Atlanta is magically beautiful. It is my favorite time of year. Pollen in Atlanta is brutal. I've completed the entire allergy/allergist routine for years and years. I'm faithful with medications and indoor environmental controls. This year the pollen just seems to be taking it's toll. Add to the mix that we have four weeks of school left. State testing has been the last two weeks. It's all been draining. Ok. That's out of my system. I have faithfully read blogs this week, but haven't felt up to posting a comment or creating a new post.

This week has been the week of birthdays. Last Saturday, we had our crawfish boil with our dear friends and neighbors, Kathy and George. Kathy is from New Orleans. George is from Meridian. Monday, was my husband's actual birthday. We ordered Chinese and had a semi-party.  Wednesday was our oldest son's birthday. We all went out to eat at a  Mexican restaurant. Thursday was the Spring Band Concert for our youngest son. Saturday was the Spring carnival for my school. My son and I volunteered for a time to help our PTA group. These are the ladies that help me at book fair time. 

Michael, my youngest son, is back from New York City. The high school band takes a trip every two years. They don't bring instruments. It is just a tour/fun trip. He had a blast. The highlight of the trip for him was a visit to the Nintendo World shop. Video games especially all things Nintendo are his passion. He purchased a T-shirt that he proudly wore to school on Monday.  We all have our obsessions. Michael's is videogames. My husband's is cooking/grilling. He owns six bar-b-que pits. Jason, our oldest son, loves music especially gus guitar and music by The Beatles. Of course, my obsession is quilting/fabric/sewing machines. 

The end of the month is closing in on me. I set a goal to finish one quilt a month. I have been working on two projects. Step 2 of Orange Crush and my Christmas Toile quilt. I'm pushing ahead to finish the top for Christmas Toile. I'm sewing the rows together. I've been working on it off and on since November. This will be a big finish. It used quite a bit of fabric. I pinned all the rows last night. I'm hoping to get the top assembled today. It's another busy week with lots of end-of-year activities. Here's hoping I meet my goal.

Have a wonderful, relaxing Sunday!

What's On Your Design Wall?

Here is what's on my design wall:

I've begun putting the blocks for my Christmas Toile quilt on the design wall. I am so glad that I have a place to put quilt tops up to examine. This top has two directional fabrics. On the border pieces, I'll need to "reverse stitch" some of the sections to make the trees go in the right direction. It's not a big deal. I'll take my time getting the blocks right. It's not like I need my Christmas quilt in the next week. This quilt is for our bed. I lusted after it for months. By the time I decided to purchase a kit,I missedd buying fabric because the shop sold out of the line. Finally, located yardage on missingfabrics.com. I've been lucky locating fabric two different times on missingfabrics.com

The following quilts were on my design wall at some time recently. 

They are taking a trip/vacation to P.J.'s to be machine quilted. I've had to stash some cash so that I will be able to bring them home from their excursion. That's Sunshine/Crossed Paths with backing, Floragraphix with dragonfly backing, and Spinning Stars out of Wuthering Heights by Moda. 

National Quilting Day

Happy National Quilting Day!  Yes, it was yesterday, but I was  too occupied with quilty things to blog. I never quite get as much accomplished as I would like, but I am content with my progress. Actually, most of my progress was making decisions and cutting. My plan was to work on my Cross Path quilt. I bought a jelly roll at my local quilt shop, Stitch 'N Quilt and yardage from Melisa at Sweet Home in Conyers. All the blocks were finished and I was putting the blocks on my design wall to arrange them for sewing. The quilt was just not working for me. The fabric that I choose for the background blocks just didn't blend like I wanted. Of course, none of the shops have the entire line for me choose from anymore, so I went online and ordered another background fabric from the fabric line. I think I will like this one better. It really is the fabric I wanted from the beginning.

 Well,  after bagging up this project I pulled out my Christmas Toile blocks. It is getting there.  A couple of more steps and this one will be ready to be put together.  I need to make a couple more flying geese for the border. I think I was anxious to actually begin sewing on this quilt and didn't finish cutting it out like I should. Anyway, it's close to being done and that's good. Here it is almost Easter and I'm working on a Christmas quilt. Well, maybe it will be on our bed this Christmas:)

It was a  fun - reading all the posts on Pat Sloan's blog and Yahoo group. Thanks, Pat for hosting the Online Retreat!!!!!!  

It's beautiful Sunshine here today in the suburbs of Atlanta. Hard to believe that last Saturday, we had snow and that a tornado touched down in downtown Atlanta on Friday evening.  I'm putting the leash on Rusty and we're heading out into the Sunshine. I didn't finish my Sunshine quilt, but we can enjoy the real thing.

Quiltathon

 Judy L. hosted a Quilathon this weekend. Yesterday was spent sewing crumb blocks and learning new techniques (thanks Bonnie) at the quild workshop.  I had hoped to sew last night, but  crashed and burned around 8:00. Because I went to bed so early, I did get up early. I had hoped to spend all day sewing, but had some issues to tend to. I did spend this afternoon in my sewing room. I worked some on my Christmas Toile blocks. I do need to finish sewing these blocks. I made a mistake cutting early on and hope that I have enough of the red fabric. I was lucky to find a Fat Quarter at Stitch 'N Quilt. I'm hoping that will take care of my error if not I'll have to go online and order a yard.  I need to pin more blocks together. I'll probably do that in a bit. I did get some flannel cut for rag quilts. I need to make a rag quilt for a graduation gift in mid June. I have 6 of the fabrics that I need. I went ahead and cut those blocks. I also sewed last weekend on my Crossed Path project. The strips were sewn and needed to be cut. I put a new blade in BIG rotary cutter and have those all nicely sliced. They are ready to be sewn into nine patches. After that, I just need to assemble the rows. I used Moda's Sunshine fabric line. Wow! That fabric talks to me! It was just what I needed as I'm longing for Springtime. Not as much time in the sewing room as I had hopes, but I was happpy the entire time that I was sewing. Thank you Judy for proposing this event!