Working on my craziness !!

well I tried to aleviate some of the craziness in my quilting this weekend . . . sewed for most of the weekend and got a whole lot done . . . first . . . I finished the first block in the BOM for the Fat Quarter Shop . . . I really love the colors in this one . . .

my sister-in-law, Sandy, came over for the afternoon on Saturday and we worked on our blocks for the BOM for Quilter's Way . . . the 2 top ones were our homework for this month . . . the 2 bottom ones are from last month . . . it's sort of a mystery sampler . . . and somehow the blocks with the big half-square triangles are going to form the center of the quilt . . . each one is going to be appliqued but we haven't seen the design yet . . .

on Sunday . . . I cut all the strips for the 9-patches for "Birdseye" . . . and managed to make 31 of the 121 needed . . . they came out really good . . . and it was kind of fun and relaxing . . .

'

I also did some EPP . . . made 18 more blocks for my Batik quilt . . . I now have 66 blocks done . . . about 104 needed in total for this quilt . . . I think . . . I might decide to add more depending if it comes out the size I am hoping it will . . . I hope to have all my blocks made before we go to Truro next month for our relaxing long weekend sitting by the ocean . . . I would like to be sewing these blocks together while I sit on the deck and listen to the waves . . . and maybe come home with my quilt just about finished . . .

'

so that was my weekend . . . and I DID NOT START ANYTHING NEW!! . . . but I CAN check some things off that list I made last week . . . yeah ! ! !

'

I had yesterday off and had planned to sew again all day . . . but I have to say . . . it was NOT calling me . . . maybe because of the previous 2 days of sewing so much . . .

Driving Myself "CRAZY" . . .

well . . . I am driving myself crazy . . . I keep flitting from one project to another . . . and keep starting new ones . . . does everyone have this problem . . . LOL !!

I just made a list of JUST the things I want to be doing RIGHT NOW . . . I had no idea how long it was . . . this is by no means my UFO list . . . just the ones I want to be doing NOW . . .

English Paper Piecing . . . my blue and white Seven Sisters quilt . . . my batik Grandmother's Flower Garden . . . my 3" hexagon Christmas stockings (of which I want to make 8) . . . and 2 table runners I want for thank you gifts for 2 special people . . .

Redwork . . . 7 of the Santas for my Christmas quilt (5 are done) . . . 2 Angels for Christmas stockings . . .

Bindings I need to do . . . an EPP quilt (2 sides are done) . . . my "Chocolate" sampler quilt (2 sides are done) . . . a Kitchen wallhanging . . . a baby quilt . . . my "Jewels" sampler quilt . . . and my "Skittles" sampler quilt . . .

BOM's . . . from Quilter's Way - the current month - 2 blocks . . . from Candlelite Quilts - this month and last month - 1 block each . . . from the Fat Quarter Shop . . . this month and last month - 1 block each . . .

AND . . . I need to get going on "Birdseye" for my project with Nicole . . . I did get the fabrics all pressed for this one the other night . . . and I am dying to start it . . . I'm off tomorrow and plan to work on this one a good part of the day . . .

so . . . OH MY . . . what do I work on . . . with this list I will NEVER be bored . . . I hate it when I hear someone say they are BORED . . . not me . . . NEVER ! ! !

("crazy socks" photo courtesy of my daughter-in-law, Isis - thanks sweetie, you have a great eye . . . I love this one!)

Finally Made My Decision !!

I have been trying to decide on a layout for my English Paper Piecing quilt that I'm working on . . . it's a Grandmother's Flower Garden . . . that I plan to call "Night Garden" . . . I'm using batiks . . . and the path is a black with copper water marks . . . almost looks like raindrops at night . . .

I've been trying to decide between the single ring or double ring design . . . and I finally decided to use the single ring . . . even though most of my friends said they liked the double better . . .

in the double ring . . . I was afraid the blue would over power the other colors . . . plus the dips on the sides and the top and bottom are so huge . . . and I didn't want to have to cut blocks in half to fill them in . . . I really don't like that look as much . . .

in the single ring . . . I think the flowers are more dramatic . . . the dips are only one row . . . and I was thinking I would put a row around the entire quilt that looks like a pebble path and use that to fill in the small dips . . . then use the same fabric for my borders . . .

anyway . . . here are the photos . . . the top one is the one I'm doing . . . with a close up in the 2nd photo . . . the 3rd photo is OUT . . . I've already taken the blocks all apart and re-basted them . . . so NO turning back now !!

My First Quilt . . . "oh my"

there's a challenge going around the blogs for us to show our very first quilt . . . oh my . . . talk about UGLY . . . but it was warm !!

I started this quilt in 1989 . . . instruction coming from a friend . . . and it took me until 1994 to finish it . . . by the time I finished it I didn't even like it anymore . . .

it's a California King size . . . the construction isn't anywhere near what I would do today . . . for one thing . . . it's tied . . . yes . . . I said TIED !!

the binding isn't even a separate fabric . . . it's the backing . . . folded forward and over a few times . . . and top stitched . . . yes I said TOP STITCHED !!

I am so thankful to Marybeth Stevenson . . . who told me in 2004 about a Saturday sampler class . . . that was meeting once a month for a year . . . I sure did learn a lot in those classes . . . and it doesn't take me 5 years to finish my quilts now either !!