A shoppin' we will go

Today Heart to Heart Quilt Shop in Trussville (AL) was having an anniversary sale.  Jane had offered to drive and could take 5 including herself.  We had agreed to meet at 9:30 at our usual spot and took off.

All was going well till we got hung up on Chalkville Mtn. Road near downtown Trussville but a train stopped on the tracks.  Finally when almost all the cars ahead of us had done a three point turnaround and went back around we figured that the locals must know another route.  Sure enough----the next street down had an overpass OVER the stopped train.  (That stinkin' train was STILL stopped in the same position when we were coming back home!!)  That detour told us that the Chocolate Biscuit was probably not open as we did not see a single car in the lot at 11 a.m.  We went to Applebee's for lunch near the quilt shop instead  before we even went shopping. Crossing Chalkville Mtn. Road or turn left onto it can be a real nightmare as there is too much traffic on a far too narrow road.    We immediately ran into a bunch of quilters we knew from Calhoun County too.

The shop had everything marked down at least 30%----so that meant the fat quarters I got were 30% off.  Then there were a few shelves of 50% off with minimum 1 yard cuts and table with 75% off as well as a spot where you could stuff everything you wanted into a small bag ( the size they use for patterns) for 5 bucks as long as you could close the seal.

So what are you looking at here? Above,  Popsicle Sticks ammunition.  I pulled the fabric bin of teals out last night.   I had a pretty good idea that I needed to concentrate on some lighter fabrics for the strips set stratas on our run today.  Darks and mediums are pretty well covered.  I can pull the purples, pinks and green bins out but basically I was going with the colors in that Amelia by Me & My Sister  I had gotten as part of my Christmas present from DJ.   The thumbnails on the link will show most of the included fabrics in the jelly roll.  Once I took the tie off I can't get it rolled back up like they had it , LOL.

You will also see my over stuffed pattern bag above as well, next to the jelly roll.  Here is what I had
stuffed in it.  The pale green is quilt cut aways as I was allowed to remove the batting that was sewn to it.  Turquoise gingham---about a fat's worth.  A few pieces of lime green that might work for some short strips. The pinkish piece and the blue print yardage are about a half yard wide!!  Score.

A closeup of my purchases.  Fats in the first row and yards in the 2nd.    On sale, more bang for my Christmas spending money----THX DJ!

Since I had to buy more than I really needed for this project and obviously I have stuff in my stash to use as well I have a feeling that this will move on to other alternate quilts.   I have Ring Around pattern  from Four Paws Quilting that would be a good choice---scroll down the page a bit.

On the way home we had a choice about which route to take.  Both would end up at the same spot in the middle of Ragland on AL 144.  I don't think anyone was on a  "deadline" to get home so that helped too.  One of the gals is in the process of making two commissioned baby quilts for a woman with twin daughters.  She apparently needs to arrange for someone to machine stipple them in "pink variegated thread" according to the mama.  We had talked about the reasonable machine quilting prices at Ashville House Quilt Shop.   When we left Trussville traveling through the back roads, we said we could go thru Ashville on the way home.   Two of the girls had not been there before and would know their way over, should they decide to have Pat quilt them for her.

At first we were not sure they were open as they were doing some roofing and repair work outside.  It being Friday she normally would be open but we are talking about a holiday weekend.  But the workmen assured us that the shop was open.  We just needed to use a different entrance into the house/shop. The stop actually turned out to be good idea as Lois had been looking for horse fabric for another sort of commissioned piece---and Pat had some, while Heart to Heart did not.  I picked up that pink piece on top with the needle and thread on it and the light purple fat quarters at Ashville House.

Once I got home I finished putting the Christmas decorations back up with DJ pitching in to help haul the boxes in and out from the shed.  It is amazing how quickly that stuff can get packed up when it takes a good part of the day to put it out!  So we are now in the snowman decorating phase for a couple of months, LOL.

Tomorrow I am back to quilting----personal project this time and a small one at that.  Closer to one last finish for 2011??  I'm pokey with binding so I am guessing not but an early finish for 2012 may be more possible!

I wish all the best for you in 2012--------

Thursday check in

 I am happy to report that I finished up the last of the 6 donation quilts today.    When I snapped the picture I was working on the diagonal grid I had marked through the string blocks on a top that Aline had pieced.  Now it is completed with binding and label attached.  Woohoo!

To celebrate I am headed over to Trussville tomorrow for a day out with a few of the girls.  I think we are going to the Chocolate Biscuit for lunch at the tea room .  The main reason for the trip is going to Heart to Heart Quilt Shop as they are having an anniversary sale.

Here is Skyler keeping me company in his perch this afternoon.  At least he was not hoping up on the sewing table and just staring at me like he was this morning.  Uh, a little hard to quilt that way but perhaps that was his point,  LOL.

My plan for this evening is to see where I have some holes in my stash for the upcoming "Popsicle Sticks" for Norma's bday par-tay.  Even with a Jelly Roll with 40 strips I will need about 3 times that for get it to full/queen.  I don't want a lot of yardage but a few fats might help.  See what is on sale tomorrow.

I still have "Give Thanks" Button Up  (last seen HERE)  to quilt but it will wait till the weekend.  Then I am going to sew to my hearts content.   I intend to get going on my adapted Oxmoor House Christmas quilt so that is probably what I will work on in coming weeks.  ( EQ Sketch of it) at the link.  I am already tired of having to move the holiday fabric tote around but said I would not put it back till the blocks were done, after all.  Hold me to it!

Lois has been busy!

Today was sort of a bonus day meeting for my quilt group. Normally we put the meetings on hold till we get past the holiday season, meaning that we meet the 2nd Tuesday of November and lay off for two months starting again in January. Oh, we meet to have the Christmas party in early December but it is not quite the same thing. Lois had some quilts to pin and wondered if anyone might be available to help and asked if we could meet on our normal 4th Tuesday. I've got the key so as long as I can be there, come on ahead.

I took my camera but should have checked the battery life before I packed it. DJ STILL had to hold quilts up once I got home, LOL. You will be able to tell what a busy girl Lois has been in 2011 as all the quilts I am going to show you are hers! Plus we pinned 5 more of her tops and re-pinned one that had been pinned a little cockeyed that I had started last week. Luckily Jane came along to help us and we whizzed thru the job in plenty of time to go out to lunch on our way back home.   She also took the 3 I had quilted to do the hand finishing.  THX!!!  Janet also stopped by for a bit but declined the lunch invite.

I am not entirely sure of some of the names/patterns on these quilts.  I'll just label them the same thing I did on the quilt document that will go to Wrap Them In Love headquarters along with pictures to be included on the gallery pages.  Ellen allows us to donate our quilts locally if we chose and we do so under their umbrella.
ED NOTE:  Lois called me last night with the proper names of two of these.  I'll edit the captions accordingly

Hovering Hawks

Vestibule or Evening Star

                                                 Chiclets or sometimes called Split Nine Patch

4 patch X---Bonnie Hunter pattern in Quiltmaker magazine

Same as above---but with darker sashing

Nine patch on point with red corner flippies.  Proper name was "Prince Charming"

Unless I messed this up again--this is "Tossed Nine Patch".  This used charmed squares and I think might be the name of the Eleanor Burns method pattern.

Faux Log Cabin 1.  The more I look at this though I think she used a more quarter or half log cabin block.  Faux Log Cabin is normally pieced with all the pieces running vertically.  This has lights that run horizontally.  It ends up looking the same perhaps but the piecing is different.

Disappearing Nine Patch.  I love what she did with the sashing bits!

Faux Log Cabin 2---Lois said there was less delineation between darks and mediums on this one.

And lastly, what it looks like in my bedroom.  If  I have counted correctly there are 31 quilts for me to deliver to a local concern----and soon!  I know that there is one more out there that is only out for label application.  Once I get that one picked up, I will take them.  (Ignore the floor--someone needs to vacuum, LOL)

And sew it goes.  I need to cut some binding before I get back to the remaining 3 in MY stack.   Next thing I know it will be time to fix dinner.  This day is going fast!

Monday check in

No picture this time out.  Nothing much has changed on my design wall other than I added a block that Aline made me for Christmas----it may end up in the adapted Oxmoor House quilt though.  I already took my quilt bag with camera in it out to the car (so I don't forget it----again!!!)   for tomorrow's meeting.

I took the weekend off from anything in the creative department.   I had some cooking to do to get ready for Christmas dinner so that took quilting's place.  DJ and I did our gift exchange on Saturday evening as is our tradition and then watched "It's a Wonderful Life".  Last night we watched the DVD I  had gotten him of the 2011 World Series.  Still gives me goosebumps when I think back over that last 6 weeks of the Cardinals season!

Today it is back down to earth----grocery errands, laundry and such.  DJ tried to run a few errands of his own but found out the lab was closed for his standing monthly blood test as is the bank and post office.  The library WAS open though, LOL.  No wonder we get messed up about what day it is when all weekend seemed like Sunday.

We just took down the Christmas tree though.  Poor DJ was getting tired of scolding Skyler on a nightly basis to leave the branches, needles, ornaments alone.  Even if he shut the lights off, Skyler would persist.  That's okay.  We put it up a lot sooner than he would have liked anyway.  I'll wait a few more days to switch over to the winter/snowman theme.

I did get two of Linda C's donation quilts done last week---not the one that will need to be re-pinned but two others.  I am going to set up to start on a 3rd and see how far I get.   With any luck I can turn it over to one of the gals to do the binding detail.  I have two more in the stack to go and mostly likely, will add the one that just needs zoom lines after we meet tomorrow.  I had hoped to have these ALL gone by now so I could sew something fun but looks like it will have to wait.    I will definitely be ready for a reward project once this pile is done.  My friend Norma is off this week so it would not take her too much to convince me to follow her down some quilting or piecing path, LOL.  I'm game if she is!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas-------

Happy Holidays

This is an older picture but it will still work.  The reason for the Season.  Since this was taken, I can tell that one of the lost sheep has returned to the flock, LOL.  These days I handi-tac the two little sheep down to keep them from the kitty paws.  The angel gets the same treatment to protect it from the husband's elbows.

May you have a joyous and peaceful Holiday season.  Safe travels as well.

WIP Weds, wk 51

Technically you could say that I am between projects.

The Christmas Patience Corner expansion is completed.  Yesterday I got the backing all seamed and with DJ's help folded up and put in the box for mailing.  My pal Norma will be quilting it up for me after she does her own.  Actually my quilt contains some of Norma and our pal Cher's fabrics in it so it will be fun to spot them as she quilts mine.   The binding is seamed for it but not pressed.   

I also added some more black solid strips to the one you see rolled on the bolt core.  (Borrowing a trick from my mom there.)  There is one or more of the quilts in this pile of donation quilts that will need it.  I want these quilts finished and not hanging over my head in the new year.  Other quilts to be made, after all.  Other tops to pin too---my own tops.

So what's with the bin of fabrics?  Norma will at some point announce a date for her postponed FAB bday par-tay.  She would like for us to explore Popsicle Sticks from one of our favs Atkinson Designs.  I have a collection of teals and purples that I have been saving for "some project, some day".  The day may have come. At one point I would get one yard of this grouping from the section at the now defunct Quiltmaker's Workshop on each trip I made to Trussville (AL)  and just hoard it.  I would add more fabric that sorta fit in with it as they came along and think "some day I'll find the perfect pattern for these".  OR more like, raid it for another project.  I see a section of  Marble Mate with about a 6 1/2 inch square cut out so I already DID poach a bit for something.    Popsicle Sticks will probably need an infusion of pinks and limey greens, I'm thinking.  I have a little holiday money to spend from the Belles so I will augment this stuff with an Amelia  jelly roll designed by Me & My Sister for Moda.  (Scroll down for the thumbnails)  It is fun fabric for something else if it doesn't work for this.   That stripe might work for binding if I have enough----that is leftover from some donation quilts in the past.   HMMMMMM

In the meantime, I intend to get those donation quilts dealt with and hopefully by years end.  A couple are more or less "zoom" lines so will not take too long.  None of them are mine though I voluteered for one of them---6 total.     The Belles are having a pinning day on Tuesday and I may get some binding volunteers.  Ordinarily we would not be meeting till the 2nd Tuesday in January but some of the girls were free and requested it.  I'll be there as I have the door key, LOL.

This next part is a little gross but Skyler caught a mouse somewhere, sometime last night in the living room. I found it laying on the rug near the coffee table when I got up to feed Skyler. DJ said he heard something out there thumping around just before he was due to get up. Just Skyler playing.  Or worse, he  thought Skyler had managed to finally pull over the Christmas tree but didn't go inspect matters. So here is this limp mouse stretched out on the floor and he barely noticed as he headed out to the kitchen to eat.  I am not going to deal with it!  Skyler is looking at it and about to start pawing at it.   DJ says he was sorry he missed seeing the attack.   What?? I swear he was almost crowing "That's MY boy! Bagged him a mouse" or something. Me, I'm just glad he didn't drag it off to my bed!

I had a couple of errands to run but it is pouring down rain.   Tomorrow it is supposed clear off so I am guessing it might ever I thought was so important may have to wait.   Or not if it slows down a bit.

And there you have it

expansion complete

Expansion blocks, bottom row and side right, all finished up.  Top measures 84 x 96 so should fit my bed fairly well.

I took the picture on DJ's bed so you could see the entire quilt from a slightly different angle than the Dec 2010 "finish".  Had to laugh when I went to put the quilt on the bed though.  Skyler was hiding UNDER the quilt.   I didn't know that till I was removing the pillows from the bed and he started meowing at me.  I waited till he moved to take the pictures but of course, he had to test out the top.

I plan on prepping the backing after supper.  The binding is already cut so I can sew it as well.  Hurray for another "finish!

ED NOTE:  12-20 well, that backing prep didn't quite happen.  Something about laundering, prepping and ironing 9 yards of fabric just  takes all the ambition right out of you.  Guess what is tops on today's goal list, LOL?