check in/meeting

Finally!   It seems like I have been done nothing but binding lately but the last of the donation quilts is finished up.  Woohoo.  I packed up 6 quilts that I had made and sent them off to Wrap Them in Love headquarters yesterday afternoon.  You may not realize just how rare it is for this armoire not to have something quilty on top of it.  It either needs quilted, or bound, or labeled and it is not always MY quilts either.  Yeah, there are about 26 in the closet that need to be delivered somewhere but they are not piled up in plain site.  I am kind of caught up----though that is illusionary since I know there are three donation tops that I will quilt for others at the church.  Three more that either go to Friendship Quilters or Wrap 'Em are hanging in the closet.

To fill the box I added two of my personal quilts.  You know how you sometimes make a quilt just to try the technique?  Other times, you make a quilt to play with fabrics that you have in your stash, play with that combination of colors.  Doesn't mean that I have to keep it necessarily.  I need the storage room more than I "need" either of the barely used quilts.  One I had displayed on the wall for a couple months.  The other maybe used a couple times on the bed on an especially cold night.   I have others that will do the same thing.  Off came the personal label and on went the WTIL one instead. 

The last one to bind was this modified Prairie Window so here is the glamour shot.  It would go in the washer right after to get the  quilt markings out.

At the meeting the other day, Marilyn was wondering how she might cut up some Scooby Doo yardage for a quilt for her youngest grandson.  I said "you might want to consider NOT cutting it up at all.  How about something like this?"  and I pull out the quilt that I was binding.  We took a few quick measurements for the center panel and she was off and running.  LOL, she could have made it easier on herself piecing it had she treated the side panels like long triple rail sections and the corners as big Puss in the Corner blocks.  I think she might have done it that way except that she did not have all the yardage she needed with her.

Here are two others that were turned in at the meeting.  Silly me went off without my camera so I had to take the pictures once I was home.  I missed a lot of fun pictures that I would have shared too.

Bev's Watermelon 2 

How she had time to finish this up with all the holiday sewing she has been doing!  She had another Christmas quilt to pin---a neat folded pinwheel idea that she shared with us.  Another quilt was a commissioned quilt in black and white with skull fabric, of all things!  She said someone from out of state had begged her to make the quilt.

I had my machine with me to try that folded pinwheel technique but went off without the fabric I had cut for this purpose.  I have not tried it yet.  I found out that my Jem was sewing less than ideally anyway.  Tension a little messed up and when all else fails, change your needle!

Teresa's Flannel Rag quilt.   Pretty, huh?  Some of the flannel is from our donation bin and it is my belief that the print piece was some my mom passed on to us.  Leftovers from some gowns she had made for my grandmother, I think with additional fabrics from Teresa.  She made a couple of pink rag quilts this year for Breast Cancer fund raisers.  She had also made a black and white rag quilt that will be going to her school chum Gene's Ogden House project (at risk teens) but I do not have a picture of it.

 In addition, Beverly was able to use the cutting ruler that I had rigged up for her to use with the scaled down Twister wreath base.  A misunderstanding in directions led to this but we were able to find a way to make it work!  Actually it was kind of cute that way.  She had taken Marilyn's hint about quilting it with buttons and raided her momma's button box.  For that reason she thought one of her granddaughter's would appreciate the vintage feel---and having some of her great-grandma's things included in it.  Beverly said that she might be keeping the re-sized version for herself.

Teresa's sister Judy shared her first quilt---and I would have loved to share that with you.  Not sure of the pattern name she has used but they used a lot of tone on tone in it.  Lovely!  She and Teresa had made a batting and backing run before the meeting.  Hopefully I will get a picture of it once it is done.

Lois had a couple of tops to pin as well.  We had thought that a friend of Bev and Teresa's might be coming so we could help her with some binding questions she had but the friend was not feeling well.  Maybe next time.  I know that Aline was home re-working a border on a quilt her sister had made that I will be quilting for her.  Brenda was not letting a broken but surgically repaired left ankle hold her down and was sewing on her BQ top.   She had broken the right one in the past and had kept the wheel chair and crutches.  

Work on the kitchen cabinets are proceeding.  The green matches fairly closely to the green below the chair rail that is one three walls of the kitchen.  My curtains and appliance covers are a different shade of green but I am not likely to ever want to re-make either of those.

Actually I now have two of the doors back on as of about 15 minutes ago but I took these on Tuesday afternoon.   He had been a busy boy while I was at quilt group, rolling the rest of the wall mounted stuff with a little touch up still needed.  The doors are up over the cups and glasses as well as the plates and bowl cupboards.

He has not done any painting on the small doors about the stove and fridge---no bonding primer or the green.  When I posted this on facebook, my SIL asked if he was going to go the bottom cupboards as well.  Yes, that is the plan in case you were wondering.  Long drawn out process especially since the outside weather has not been exactly conducive to putting them stuff out on the saw horses.  Things are migrating back to the fridge top so he better step it up, LOL.

Now for my upcoming plans---first, this room has got to be straightened up before I can get any cutting done!  My desk top is shrinking with little piles of stuff eating up work space.   The projects I would like to address have not changed but just got shunted aside while I dealt with the quilt stack in the other room.  I find that making a list like this helps clarify what I want to do and more importantly, holds me a bit accountable. 

• Harvest banner to cut and sew---modifying the pattern so it is a sew and then cut proposition
• Sew Tons of Black Challenge piece----may do that at the sew-in date Saturday.  I do not think I am going tomorrow or I would be out in the kitchen baking cookies now instead of pecking at this keyboard. 
• Allison's Christmas Tree Skirt and keep the fabric out to work on my version of the Oxmoor House Christmas quilt

 AND bind my Christmas Patience Corner when it arrives from Norma.    She has done such a lovely job on the quilting and sent me pictures of it the other night showing it draped over her long arm machine as well as a closeup shot.   I asked her if I could post them here as there is no way for me to get as good a picture of it even if is not trimmed or bound yet in this shot.  Can you tell I am excited about this??  I've got the binding seamed but not pressed.   Add that to the list, LOL.

 And sew it goes-------best make this stuff happen!