a preview

I had cut this kit way back in February so now it is time to get it to the flimsy stage. My notes got cold and as usual, I had over-cut the number of strips. How many of these actually needed to be sewn up??? I have not made one of these for a while so the memory needed refreshing.

Sewing strip sets is boring! But it is a necessary part of making an original version BQ quilt. (There are now 3 versions). I personally would hate to have to cut and sew each individual piece. I told Norma that as soon as I had on wider piece section done, I was going to make a test block to break things up a bit. The smaller section strips are all stitched while most of the wider ones are just pinned and ready to feed through the machine.

Now, you might be asking "BQ??? What kind of a quilt name is that?" It stands for "Big Quilt" and the pattern has directions for 18 inch finished blocks along this half sized version. In the past with the help of EQ, I have done them even smaller to accommodate whatever focus fabrics that I was using. Pattern source: Maple Island Quilts--scroll about half way down the page or do Ctrl +F and enter "BQ". I have also made the BQ2 version and actually like it a bit more than this one.

This is where I am headed with my top. The picnic themed fabric, I told you, was part of a "Pay It Forward" challenge from Over the Rainbow. The red dot was among some donation fabric that came my way from somewhere. It may well have some poly in it but I am going to use it anyway. The photo is making it look a bit more orange-y than it really is in person.

I think it will be a cute quilt for a boy or girl. That really is all that matter, isn't it?

And sew it goes---------

finished to flimsy

I have been piddling with this off and all afternoon but Prairie Stroll is finished to flimsy. Woohoo!

I cut binding the same as the outer border and then changed my mind and will go with something darker. Pat, you remember that brown Ginny Beyer you sent that was "too ugly to live" or something to that effect. Yep, should be perfect for this!

And here was Skyler while we waited for "Quilt Holder". I had dug his kitty cube out of the closet and he is having the best time with it, sleeping in it and running through it at 90 miles an hour. When I laid the quilt top over the top of it, it was just too, too tempting NOT to crawl under it.

Other than that, it has been a pretty quiet day. A little hand stitching this morning, grilled out for lunch, leftovers for supper and sewing.

And sew it goes-----

WIP Thursday, wk 37

A start of Prairie Stroll---roughly half of it.

In retrospect I wish I had switched the position of the two greens as the Country Threads green with print figures is a little too close in color to the Red Cardinal print (probably an old Hoffman print). Having said that, it does give it sort of "depth" to the block itself. I was NOT going to take it all apart--and that would be what it took--to fix it as the two small squares would not have been in the same position. IIWII, namely a stash quilt from donation fabric.

It is going together pretty quickly since it is just two blocks, every other one rotated in orientation. Either they didn't say or I didn't pay attention (more likely, LOL) but that top bar should have been pressed towards the rest of the block IF you have pressed the smaller rectangles away from the half 4 patch unit. Otherwise, be prepared to re-press or flip seams----ask me how I know!

I will probably get this up to borders today and do a bit more hand stitching on TSP. Meanwhile I'll consider what kit I want to dig into next. Maybe I should just open one of the drawers, dig around and whatever I pull out, is the one? I was able to pick up my Brother after its being gone for about a week for servicing and I would like to check that it is indeed up to snuff. I just opened and pulled----BQ1, it is which if part of the "Pay it Forward Challenge" offered by Over the Rainbow earlier this year.

And sew it goes------thanks for stopping by!

Silly kitty

To bolster my request that these calendar quilt-lets be displayed all together pinned to the same sheet at the quilt show I laid them all out to get a measurement (40 x 60, if anyone is asking, LOL). Before I got the camera out, he had been playing with the bell on the September school house block.

Mind you, he was no where around when I started laying them out on DJ's bedroom floor! He actually left his seat on warm laundry to see what I was doing.

If you are a new reader, all these quilt-lets were my self assigned 2010 "quilt-let of the month" project. Designed by Nancy Halvorsen, featured in her book Calendar Quilts and Stitcheries. It was an evolving project in that I started with applique and then jumped to stitchery instead. I even took a brief detour on the background color for a couple of months, LOL.

Individual pictures would be scattered through out the blog in 2010 but this link will take you to close up shots of the last 5 of them, August through December. See what they look like with out the kitty parked on them, LOL. Yes, of course I was lagging behind, just like I am with the Button Ups this year; it will carry over, for sure. I DO love being able to change out the quilts for the months, holidays or special occasions!

January, HERE

February, HERE

March and April, HERE

May, June, July can be found HERE

OR they are also loaded individually in one of my facebook albums. This public link should take you to it. That might have been easier, in retrospect.
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Onward and upwards-----

I had the best night's sleep in a while last night! House was cool, the room dark and quiet without the sounds of barking dogs and cars to disturb me. Light quilt pulled up. Wonderful. This does not happen often so I can count last night as a blessing. We were pretty much stuck in the mid 50's all day yesterday and into the night. Today looks like more of the same, overcast and cool though they had predicted low 70's----you got to get rid of that cloud cover first.

I plan on a little more stitchery today on TSP. See how far I get-------and sew it goes.

organized much?

In spite of the best of intentions, I got neither sewing or stitching done yesterday. I found myself off on yet another tangent after an off hand comment from Pat and Norma in chat yesterday.

You see, the girls are always complimenting and/or teasing me about my organizational abilities. I am not even sure if that is the right term. I do have a good memory or at least, I USED to have. Sometimes, lately I have my doubts about that. I normally can find what I am looking for in my files or in practice fairly quickly so that might be what impresses them. Who knows?

So what started this latest organizational binge? Well, there are two quilt shows coming up. One of my pals and fellow Belles had asked me last month if I would have any quilts for the Gadsden (AL) Quilt at Falls show. I said "yes" at the time but I didn't get any entry forms from her. I am not a member of this group but because their group is fairly small, Gary opens it up to other quilters in the surrounding area. I usually have something that can be shared. Turns out it is coming up September 23-24th and the deadline for entries is the 13th, like next week Tuesday. You cannot, nor should you, enter the same items twice on this one so my biggest concern was "just what had I had shown there before?"

The other show: Friendship Quilters in Pell City (AL) is November 5-6. I am a guild member and will help with set up. Deadline for entries for this one---this coming Saturday, the 10th. Mostly I have to be sure that my entries have a 4 inch sleeve for bed, twin, laps and 2 inch on the others----plus all labeled or marked in some manner. The hanging system is different than the one Gadsden uses and requires the extra depth, not like a closet rod pole.

YIKES! Why do I always think I have more time than I do when I am procrastinating? Two reasons to get those danged forms filled out. I hate dragging the quilts out just to measure them to fill out these forms and then have to fold them back just right to fit on the quilt rack, in the armoire and the blanket chest. That off hand comment in chat made me wish I had recorded the needed data somewhere so I would not have to go that process every time I needed quilt show entries.

To that end I set up a document. I broke it down into the usual categories of sizes with the name, width, length, whether it had a sleeve (and how big of one) plus where it had been shown. Then I did exactly what I was dreading---dragging them out and measuring. Not ALL the quilts, mind you but the ones I was most likely to enter.

Then I separated them out into which ones would go to what show. Looks like I do have to put on one large bedsized temporary sleeve---again and oddly, I put no label on it either. This is the pile that will go to the Gadsden show already in their own separate pillow case, as required which is marked with my name in some manner. The other envelope is one entries for Pell City that I will run to the post office in a bit.

I'll see Gary on Thursday night to hand deliver the entry forms. I am not sure if I have to fill out a separate form for all 12 of my little Calendar quilt stitcheries or if they can be entered as one. It will be easier for him to see what the heck I am talking about if I just show them to him. Jane thought they could all be pinned to the same sheet on the same rack.

Oh, the other thing I did. I typed up the form for Pell City so I could TYPE in the information. I had done that before with the Gadsden form so I knew it worked well. Trust me, typing is always a good idea. Years of charting as a nurse have made my already somewhat difficult handwriting harder to read. I half print and half cursive, the "n's and m's" looks like " u's or v's"---DJ can't decipher it. UGH! Anymore I am so used to using a keyboard to communicate that I'm rusty. When I botched up three forms trying to fill in the description part, I knew there was an easier way.

LOL, I even entered this one which isn't finished so I would do the honors and quilt it. The "Winter" and "Spring" pieces are going to the same show. "Autumn" is not even started. Oh, I also need to finish that name tag thing next to it in time for the show. Add it to the mental "list".

Today is a cool, damp and drippy day. Tropical Storm Lee dumped about 4.2 inches in our rain gauge. We were under a tornado watch and also flash flood warnings much of the day yesterday. At one point even high wind advisories were in effect though I don't think that was really a problem. Blessedly, the temperature has dropped to the mid 50's over night. I had the window cracked and slept under my light quilt last night. I have been waiting for this for months! The temps in the house finally dropped to something reasonable 70-73 instead of the usual 80 with the a/c on once it hits 81-82. See what I mean by reasonable, LOL? DJ, of course, is "cold" and put on an undershirt and has his throw pulled up over him in the recliner but I am still going to keep my windows open a bit.

Sewing goal for the day: continue the hand work on Pat's bday gift. I probably won't be able to get it all finished today but make a bit of headway anyway. I am hopeful that my Brother will be ready for pick up sometime this week. I want to get back to the Prairie Stroll top tomorrow. It would not matter at this point which machine I use for assembly since the blocks are all done and the quarter inch variances wouldn't matter with little seam matching.

And sew it goes-------

Checking in

Well, I got all my Prairie Stroll blocks done on Thursday (last post), pressed them on Friday morning and there they sit waiting for me, LOL. Sidetracked again.

Pat is the next FAB to have a bday. I knew what I wanted to make and set about doing some of the prep work to get started on it. From here on out it will be "top secret project" (TSP) till her PAR-TAY rolls around next month. Suffice it to say, it contains several elements that I enjoy doing. Big hint there, Pat? That could be ANY quilty thing under the sun.


Anyway, there is a bit of embroidery on TSP so that is what I chose to do this weekend. That's me, chasing after the new, bright and shiny project, LOL. I make no apology for ever doing that as it is what keeps things interesting for me after days of "pedal to the medal" on donation quilts recently. The top will get done, just not this weekend.

Norma and I were chatting on Saturday morning about our quilty plans for the 3 day holiday weekend. I told her we should have thought ahead and picked a pattern and had our own little sew-in as we have done on many occasions, "something fun" that we both were dying to try. LOL, turns out she was itching to start on a Terry Atkinson "Fire Escape" and she had just the stack of fabrics in her stash to pull from. ( I think she was leaning that way after seeing Lois' top on the pinning table on one of my recent posts.) My "duty" was to work on my own bright and shiny TSP and cheer her on as she cut and stitched. She just told me that she has all 10 of her vertical rows done---woohoo! With the extra day off this weekend, she will have that finished to flimsy in no time.

The temps are down in the low 70's and there is plenty of cloud cover today as Tropical Storm Lee spins around down near LA. We are getting some rain, nothing measurable so far. The forecast for the next several days sounds like we are in for far more. I just hope that there are is no tornadic activity along with it. August was extremely dry for us.

Each summer for the last 3 years we have had wave after wave of ants in the house. This year DJ has been dutifully treating the mounds outside. For whatever reason, the ants just did not appear. Not complaining! They tend to dig and make mounds after it rains, and we haven't had any rain. All summer long, we have watched and waited for the other shoe to drop----and all the sudden there they were. A couple days ago I spotted a few by my bathroom sink---teeny tiny, grease ant looking ones. A few in the kitchen sink---a few hours later DJ spotted a pile of something on his bathroom floor near the stool and shower. Ants building a mound of what looks like wood shavings on the vinyl tile floor. I took a picture of it but UGH! Beyond ugh really. I was just sure I would see a pile in mine since we share a plumbing wall but so far no. DJ even went so far as to go down in the crawl space to look yesterday. No sign of them or an entrance point. Man, I hope those things are gone. When I think of how much food we have lost due to ants and the time they zapped out the a/c unit-----I am sick and tired of ants. Stay outside where you belong!

Shown, Skyler is a bit of a mellow mood. I had replenished the catnip in his mouse (DJ named it Mr. Rat) and that has really piqued his interest in playing with it again. His fav play spot is the living room and specifically, on the couch. I have found his toy in all kinds of places in the past few days: in my bathroom, clear up the hallway, at the foot of the bed. I should have "re-nipped" it sooner.

I hope you all have a safe holiday weekend enjoying whatever it is that you chose to do. Till next time------

WIP Thursday

A start----Prairie Stroll.  (The link and information about the pattern source is in a previous post.)  At this point I have 63 blocks chained through.  When I took the picture,  I had started adding the 2nd strip along side the "half 4 patch" unit.  Easy, easy piecing.