Taking a Back Seat

Some of my regular readers will be wondering where I've been lately, and what I've been up to. Well, my fall semester stint at OU-C begins today, and I have been focusing on getting my syllabi prepared! I think you all know the world-class procrastinator I am, so it won't surprise you to learn that I've put these off until the 11th hour.

It's an affliction I'm apparently going to have to accept. If after 35 years in the classroom, I haven't figured it out then I hold out little hope that I ever will.

So once things get adjusted to the new normal of class and papers and such, I must put my quilting aside. *sniff!*

I will show you what is waiting in the wings for my attention when the school year settles down. One of the items on the Ten Things list is about to be checked off. This quilt is the wedding gift quilt. My friend Terry quilted it for me, and now I need to finish it off by getting the binding on.

The mother of the bride (MOB), Cheryl, came over several weeks ago and from the quilt tops I thought the bride might like, MOB selected this one. I made it from a kit back earlier this year with French General fabrics. You can read about it here.

And, I have to also let you know that today my oldest turns 31! YIKES!! How on earth does that happen?? Yes, we just had DD2's birthday on the 17th, and now on the 27th, we have DS's. They are 10 years and 10 days apart in age. I will be in class all afternoon and evening, so the celebrating will wait until tomorrow.

Hang tight, quilter friends. I shall return.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Quilt Tour of Monica's House

I have done a few "quilt tours" before - Sharon's, Kay's, Terry's, Sheryll's. As mentioned previously, I was at Monica's on Monday, and quilts were everywhere!! I thought you might like to take a little tour.

A corner of the basement sewing room.

Wall-hanging in the sewing room.



This was Monica's first quilt. It hangs in the sewing room.

Compare that first quilt to this! Quite an advancement!

Another wall-hanging for the sewing room.

Courthouse Steps.

On Monica's bed.

Many stars with a sawtooth border - I love it.

Simplicity! Quilts don't have to be uber-complex.

Many small pieces; I would consider this uber-complex,
but mostly it's just time-consuming.

On a large family room wall. Very striking.

Gosh, I love this. So simple and scrappy!

Hanging in the family room.

On a ladder near the entrance.

Dining table where we had lunch.
Love the simplicity of the table runner and placemat.

Another striking quilt; this is in the entry.
Monica entered this quilt in the NQA show that was in Columbus in June.
I wrote about it in this post. It's near the end.

Thrown casually over the couch.

Currently under construction. Wool. I've not ventured there, yet. Many quilters are, however.

There's your tour of Monica's quilty house. She definitely has a flair for the primitive-repro-traditional look, doesn't she? I love them, too.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Study in Contrasts

One of the things I find most fascinating about quilts is how a pattern can look so different when made with different fabrics. I have a good example to share with you, although I think the best example is the way our retirement quilts all have their own distinct looks even though all have been made using the same Thimbleberries pattern.

On Monday while I was at Monica's, our hostess was working on this quilt. I do not know the name of it, but she had a pattern and I hope I can get it so that we can document its name and maker.

Big blocks made with big pieces - a nice, fast quilt. She was just whizzing away at them and constructed nearly this entire quilt on Monday.

Now, by coincidence, Cherie, another quilter with us on Monday had the same quilt in her car. Just look at how different hers looks from Monica's.

Cheri's quilt is made with 30's prints. It looks so soft and quaint. Monica's fabrics are largely reproduction/Civil War fabrics. Quite the contrast!

I like the idea of making quilts like this just because you can see such fantastic results so quickly. This pattern might just have to go on a to-do list one of these days!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

HST Borders

I spent the day sewing at Monica's yesterday - my first time there. I've sewn with Monica several other times, at other people's houses, and I've spoken of her here on the blog. I will show you her lovely quilts soon, and I will show you the various things we worked on, as well.

Today, though, it's all about me. Sorry for being so self-absorbed, but I just have to let you see the HST quilt with its borders.

Several recent comments left here have been encouraging me to finish it up without borders. While I definitely liked that idea, it would have just been too small. That would have meant making more blocks and adding on. I was just not in the mood to do more, so borders were a necessity.

I took this border project with me to work on at Monica's, never expecting it to take the biggest part of the day to complete. However, there was a significant amount of measuring and adding involved. I do struggle with numbers, you know, so it was an involved process.

I love how the dark pink stops the active center of the quilt. I did go ahead and use the leftover blocks for the outer border corner squares. I am pleased with that. The leafy outer border picks up just about every color in the center. So I am very satisfied with this quilt top.

Another finish! Yaa! I still have lots of KF scraps that I want to deal with, so I am next going to be cutting out more tumbler/crumbler blocks to stitch up. One way or another, this mess of scraps will be eliminated!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Borders For My HST Quilt

Just finished walking this morning - 5.23 miles! My longest walk yet. One of these days, I will do a post about my walking.

Today, however, I want to quickly just show you the borders I've decided on for the HST quilt. With a trip to Athens later on, I have stuff to get done. So, short and sweet today!

Originally, I'd wanted to go with a yellow-orange inner border, but when I saw this deep pink, I knew I'd love it. I think this will work out very nicely, and I might just get busy on it Monday.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Birthday

Twenty-one years ago on this date, our youngest was born - Emma Jean. She came into the world about 2 weeks early and only weighed 5 lbs. 15 oz. She was an easy birth, but a worrisome pregnancy. I was 35 years old, and the concern for gestational diabetes was high. The doctors watched me like hawks!

Emma has always been my goofball.
Maybe if she sees this she will send me an attractive picture!

 

She has been living in Athens this summer, so we are not with her to celebrate today. We will go to see her tomorrow and take her out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner where she will order a margarita! I think she is looking forward to it.

I spent a good amount of time in the sewing room yesterday making more curtains for her house, and new pillow cases that match the curtains.

 

Remember these two pillow cases I made last August? Well, these pillow cases are being retired, and the new ones match those curtains you saw a few posts back. Click here to re-read the post about the Kaffe pillow cases. Click here to see the new curtains. 

 

 

The new pillow cases. Not nearly as fun as the KF ones, but they do match the room a lot better.

 

 

This is her bedroom here at home. I put the two new curtain panels across the bed, and added the pillows so that you could see the entire "package." I've sent her pics already, and she approves.

 

So tomorrow afternoon we will deliver the birthday goodies. I have a quilting date on Monday, and a family outing on Tuesday. The week is starting off busy!

 

To counter that busy-ness, I am off now to spend an afternoon with a friend at her pool! Ahhh, relaxing!

 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

 

 



A Thing of Beauty

Is a joy forever. That is a well-known poem by John Keats. You can click here if you'd care to read it. Nowhere in the poem is there a mention of a Kaffe Fassett HST quilt, but still...

Even though it still needs borders, I wanted to show you the pictures of my HST quilt. I am so loving it!

I don't know how carefully some of you look at pictures on these blogs, but I will tell you right now that I've discovered not one, but TWO blocks turned the wrong way. Dangit! I had it laid out on the bed and carried them to the machine so carefully!! I will "get the ripper" (there's an inside joke that will make my mother and sister giggle) and correct those wayward blocks.

I turned the bench around the way it is supposed to be (DH moved it when he mowed), but the lighting was better when the sun was behind me. Now the sun is behind the bench and that gives me a shadow. Oh well, it is still a very pretty, lively quilt; I am thrilled with it!

Now I mentioned borders, and frankly, I have not even given that a thought. I suppose at least 2 are called for. I'm thinking yellow and blue. I have some HST blocks left over, so I could use them in the corners. That would be fun. Well, I am off to make some decisions.

Before I close, here's just one more picture of my happy quilt.

Happy Quilting, Friends!