Design Wall Monday Nov 15

Before I say anything about quilts, I have to get the important stuff out of the way. I've been keeping a secret, mostly, for the last 6 weeks. And it has been a terribly difficult secret to keep. But, I've been given permission, now, to share it, and shout it from the rooftops. Here it comes: WE ARE GOING TO BE GRANDPARENTS!!!! YIPPEE, YAHOO, WOOHOO!!!!!! There, it's out, and I no longer feel like I'm going to burst. The lovely couple doing this are our wonderful son, Noel, and our even more wonderful, since she has to do all the work growing the baby, daughter-in-law, Laurie.  I'm walking around with a permanent grin on my face, doing happy dances. Cute fabrics, and baby clothes, and toys, and all the fun stuff, while someone else, namely Laurie, does all the hard work of growing and having the baby. Between her Mom and myself, I suspect we are going to drive Laurie just a little tiny bit crazy. Laurie's Mom, Jan, is a knitter, so, when we were all together over Thanksgiving, back in October, which is when they told us, Jan and I made a pact. She would knit to her heart's content for this coming baby, and I would sew to my heart's content. Like I said, we are probably going to drive Laurie crazy, but, it is so much fun. Anyway, to quilting stuff. I have, on my design wall, the almost complete layout of the Block of the Month I've been doing, designed by Shannon of Pieceful Kwilter I am so pleased with the way this quilt is turning out. She is going to be sponsoring another one, and I think I will definitely be doing it. I know it isn't on my goals list for this month, but I'm doing well enough with it to be able to add something else in.  And now, join me over ay Judy's Patchwork Times to browse through other inspirational design walls.

Another finish

I have my Mac computer back, and all seems to be well with it. While I was unable to post pictures or anything, I managed to get my Connect the Dots quilt, designed by Judy Laquidara finished. I exercised considerable self discipline, while is not at all one of my strengths, and worked on it, without starting anything else, until it was finished. The last border went on last evening. I must confess that stating goals publicly here is helping with the self discipline thing, and I really like the feeling of accomplishment from actually finishing stuff. So far, off my goal list, is Evelyn's cross stitch quilt, which I didn't manage to get a picture of. This quilt was on that list, so it can be crossed off, and I have 2 of my own small quilts off the machine, and quilted, and waiting to be trimmed and bound. Not bad, considering it isn't the middle of the month yet. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I have 15 of the Pineapple quilt along blocks sewn together as well. But now, I must sign off and get ready for work.

My Mac has to go to the Mac hospital

I am totally not impressed. My MacBook has quit on me. It won't turn on. I am currently usingmy old dinosaur laptop, so I am, at least, not totally cut off. But, Idon't know howmuch picture uploading,and stuff like that, that I'll be able to do, until it can be fixed. I hope it can be fixed. I'll have to take it in tomorrow, before I go to work, and, hopefully,have a diagnosis sometime next week. And,ofcourse,itis past the warranty date. (sigh)

When all else fails, read the instructions

After supper, I came upstairs and started to work on clue #3 from Judy's mystery. It was going really well, and I got all of the pieces done that needed to be sewn today, so that I could start to put the blocks together. That's when I hit a snag. I put all the elements together, looked at it, and couldn't figure out why it didn't look the way it was supposed to look. Then it hit me. I had pieced the small 4 patches in the wrong direction. They are supposed to look like the top picture, with the brown going diagonally through the block. I have all of them, except this one that I just re-did, pieced like the second picture. All of them, 34 of them, all pieced wrong. ARRRRGGGGG!!!! So, I am spending the rest of my evening, taking all these blocks apart, so that I can put them back together properly. (sigh)

Quilting Tuesday

Judy posted clue #3  on her website today, so I'm going to play with that today. I've managed to get Evelyn's cross stitch baby quilt done today, except for sewing in the ends. That's #1 off the November goal list. I'll get a pic of it, as soon as the ends are sewn it. Right now, it's looking a bit shaggy. Charlene's quilt is waiting to have the ends sewn in, as well. Maybe later tonight I'll put on a movie, and blitz finishing off all those loose ends. My least favourite part of doing a custom quilt job, and the job I can easily procrastinate. So, I don't have a picture of that one yet, either. Supper is done, except for clean up, so I'm going to go do that, and then go play with Judy's quilt block instructions.

November goals

Looking back at my October goals post, I have all, except 2 done. The embroidery for the raggedy quilt is still outstanding, and I haven't finished Evelyn's cross stitch baby quilt yet, although it is loaded onto the machine. So, that will be done in the next day, or 2. So, as it has been a quite successful experiment in writing down goals to work towards, I will do it again.

1. Finish Evelyn's quilt (brought forward from October)
2. Finish Christmas gifts. I love giving, and receiving home made gifts. They speak directly from the heart.
3. Sew together the rest of the Pineapple nine patch blocks.
4. Do the units for Judy's mystery as the steps are posted.
5. Quilt at least 2 of my finished quilt tops.
6. Finish the applique on the 4th, which is the last, of the Cactus Rose blocks
7. Start the border paper pieced units for Cactus Rose

Design Wall Monday Nov 1

Wow! I can't believe it is November, already. On my design wall today, are a couple of things. I am doing Judy's mystery so, I've put my progress so far, up on the wall. Also, I participated in a Card Trick swap with an online group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cdnquiltswappers/  and I've put those blocks up, just to study and get a feel for them. I have a couple of ideas of how I want to put them together, and I've posted a picture here, of one of the ideas. If I do this one, though, I'll either have to make more blocks, since I only have 12, and I think I'd probably do plain triangles around the outside, Go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times to see more inspiring design walls