Blue Portugal Quilt Top Finished!

I am very pleased with my finished quilt top. Blue Portugal. I introduced it here.

I hung it out on the screened porch, so the wind is blowing it a bit, and the sun was shining on the corner.

The only thing I did differently was to miter the border. The border print just seemed to want to lend itself to that.

Here is close up shot, however, I didn't do a very good job of getting the border fully in the shot, did I?

I've been posting for a week or two about my "Kaffe phase," and I thought perhaps I should revisit the terminology. Back a year or so ago, I clarified things here.

Well, next up for me is Economy Blue, another of Kaffe Fassett's patterns. However, it's crunch time for the 4-H project, so Emma has first dibs on the sewing machine.

No Self-Control

Instead of working on the finishing touches for this

I have been obsessed with finishing this

I have absolutely no discipline when I get into a good book. I refuse to tell you how late I stayed up last night finishing this page-turner. But I did it, and I now can get back to work on this

I've only got the borders left to do. I am eager to get to it.

Happy Quilting!

200th Post!

Thow confetti!!

Blow up some balloons!!

Have a piece of cake!!

Make a toast and sip champagne!!

Heck, let's go all out and have some fireworks, too!!

Well, maybe that's just a bit of overkill, but I'm really stoked to realize that this is my 200th blog entry. For a 'chatty cathy' like myself, it was relatively easy. Blathering on about quilting seems to come quite naturally for me. So glad to have all you wonderful readers along for the ride. I've come to be very chummy with a few of you. Several are real life friends, others cyber friends. I appreciate all readers and commenters.

Big doings around here!! DH has left me for a week! I took him to his sister's on Thursday night. Yesterday, Friday, he and Kellie (sister) got on one of these:

And their plane did have a dolphin on it. They ended up here:

In Seattle where they were met by their father, Jim, and their brother, Mike. Jim and Mike had driven cross country on a 2-week long sightseeing tour. The four of them coordinated the trips to meet in Seattle yesterday so that today they could board this today:

Yessiree, they are taking a week-long cruise to Alaska. Won't they have a grand time? At the ship, they are going to meet yet another brother, Eric, and his wife Lisa, her parents Jerry and Marlus, and long-time friends of Jim's, Ed and Liz. So there are 10, total, in their group. I am so glad they are getting a chance to do it.

Since I'm staying here to mind the homefront, I intend to get a number of jobs accomplished in Kevin's absence. I've got plans to clean out and rearrange 2 or 3 of my kitchen cabinets, finish my Blue Portugal quilt top, help DD Emma finish her 4-H project, and straighten up my sewing room. Those are the top priority items. I hope to get a lot of smaller tasks taken care of, too.

So post number 201, hopefully, will be my showing you a finished quilt top of Blue Portugal. Go on with your celebrating. I'm headed out to the grocery, then I'm going to enjoy this absolutely gorgeous summer day!

Quilting Blues at Sharon's

Tuesday had me over at Sharon's to spend a day quilting. We had a lot of catching up to do! The last time we were together, I was finishing Long Road Home and was having sewing machine difficulties. A long holiday weekend thrown in, and we had much to discuss.

Sharon had pulled out a wall hanging that she'd put together awhile back. A beautiful yellow paisley by Anna Griffin was all she needed for a backing, and a WIP (work in progress) will soon become a finish!

She used a charm pack of A Breath of Avignon by American Jane Patterns/Sandy Klop for Moda for this. I have a whole tub full of this line, not as much as my Kaffe tub, but still a nice little stash. I will very soon be digging into it - it's just too irresistable!

This pic is a bit dark, but Sharon was holding it up on the wall where she intends to hang it to see if it fits -- it does! She's added 2 borders, blue and yellow, always pleasing, and always cheerful. I love this!

This is her backing. It is so lusciously beautiful! She found it at a discount store about a month ago, and I agree, she hit the jackpot!

Here is my work for the day. I am working on Blue Portugal from the Kaffe Fassett book, using his fabrics. As I completed each panel, I draped them over the valance at Sharon's patio door. Here all the panels are sewn together with the connecting strips. I love how the sun is shining through making it look almost like a stained glass window!

This shot shows the color of the walls in Sharon's dining room. Aren't they perfect with my quilt? We were draped in blue all day, and it was wonderful.

Here's a shot of the table where we worked, complete with a blue tablecloth and centerpiece.

And across the chair in the corner, Sharon had draped a large piece of Kaffe fabric that I gave her for her birthday a few years back.

A Little Bit of Blue

I just couldn't help myself. I kept thinking about those 2 blue quilts that were all cut out and ready for sewing, and I just had to dive in on one of them. Portugal Blue is under construction, and I am loving how fast the piecing is going.

Two potential blocks are laid out there, with all the smaller units down front. I could just pick 'em up and sew, but I am more inclined to carefully lay them all out on the floor or bed and arrange them into blocks that please my eye. In counting, I discovered that I have enough to make 14 larger blocks, and I only need 12, so there is room for auditioning.

A bonus: My machine is working fine! How does this happen? When I went to JoAnn's yesterday, I had enough sense to buy a couple of spools of blue thread to use on these quilts. I intentionally avoided the larger spools as this was what I was blaming my trouble on.

 Imagine how pleased I was that this "normal" size spool of thread seems to be just what the doctor ordered. No tension problems whatsoever!

Slow, But Steady

I can be so slow sometimes. I guess I am doing a lot of other things, though. We've had a couple of really good dinners this week, I've read a book, walked 3 days in a row, so I suppose it it takes me awhile to get a couple of quilts cut out, it's really no big deal, right?

This is what I am really excited about: 2 blue Kaffe Fassett quilts cut out and ready for the sewing machine. Cool!

This is Blue Portugal.

This is Economy Blue.

Hope to get my machine in for repair today; will soon be starting on these beauties!