Getting ready for a retreat

Yay! I will be leaving this Friday for a retreat with my fellow Cobbled Court Quilters online group! We all met on author Marie Bostwick's web site. We started with a love of Marie's books, did a few swaps together and last year we had our first retreat with Marie in Connecticut. It worked out so wonderfully that we are doing it again! Marie is a wonderful hostess, showing us around the town her books are based in, sharing herself, signing our books and then just plunking down with the rest of us for some laughing, eating, drinking and sewing! We had 17 of us last year, and I believe we are up to 22 this year!! Tonight I was doing some of the odds and ends to get ready. I made a pillowcase:

We will all make a pillowcase or two and then we donate them to a woman's shelter there. I also made a Jack in the Box block..thanks to Marge and Delaware quilts for so generously allowing us to use your pattern!!:

We are making these blocks and you get one entry for each block you make. I will pull a name and the winner gets to bring all the lovely blocks home! We are all using the same color scheme, so this is going to make a great red white and blue quilt!! I have a bunch of other odds and ends to do to get ready but thought I would share what I have gotten done so far. The hardest thing is going to pick what project(s) I want to bring along. HELP!! lol

Thursday Night Quilt League

Hub tried to convince me that since his golf league was over for the year, my quilt league should be done, also. I told him it wasn't my fault his hobby was seasonal and mine was year round! lol Tonight I finished quilting and got the binding on my Mercy House quilt. Yay!! Feels sooooo good to have a finish. Feels like it's been a while since I experienced one of those. Here is the quilt:

It measures 65 1/2" by 77 1/2". I will get the binding sewn down this weekend and then it will be ready to be delivered. Now, if I can only keep myself from starting anything new and just keep working on some more finishes!!

Lazy Sunday

I am planning on enjoying a lazy Sunday. Hub is outside working on one of the cars and everyone else is working, so it is just Patrick and I inside. At a little over 100 lbs, I can carry him from room to room, but I can't carry him up the stairs (he is as tall as I am), so I can't get up to the sewing room. So, Patrick is plopped on the chaise in the living room and I am next to him on the couch with this:

I went up to the sewing cave and grabbed my rotary cutter, mat and a shoebox full of scraps to cut up. Going to turn some thirtysomething on tv and Patrick and I are going to relax and cut up these scraps. Funny how this little box doesn't look like much scraps, but I have learned there are more in there than you think! lol Not sure what the rest of the day will bring, but off to relax a bit!

Bricks and Stepping Stones

Bricks and Stepping Stones top is all finished. This will be going to an auction for a fundraiser for a Humane Society in Alabama..if my friend wants it. If she doesn't, it will go to Mercy House homeless shelter. I am SO making another one for me. I do love this pattern and it will be hard to give up, but both are great causes. I don't NEED another quilt here..I just WANT it lolol. It is a rainy, blustery day here with winds going up to 50 mph. A good day to stay inside! I have a chicken roasting, most of my housework done for the day, and this top completed. I am taking Bonnie's advice and just relaxing tonight with hub. We will pop Northern Exposure into the dvd player and just chill. I confess that knowing me I will probably do some handquilting while watching, but at least I will be chilling! lol Depending on the day, I am hoping to finish quilting a Mercy House quilt tomorrow. That's the plan anywho..lets see if it really works out! Hope everyone is dry, warm and safe this weekend!!

Quilt League update

Well, I planned on sewing a few of the matchstick units for the blocks, but I got them all done.

It is now 12:40 am, so I am now off to my bath with a good book and then bed. 10 hour day at work tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep!! lol

Thursday Night Quilt League

Wow..did I EVER need some good sewing therapy!! This has been a rough week at work and I have been so busy painting the kitchen and canning garden goodies that I thought I would never see my sewing room again. I find I start getting agitated if I don't spend some time up here. Does that happen to you? I did manage to do some handquilting a few evenings, but the pull to come up to my quilt cave was strong! Tonight I worked on making the 4 patches for the Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt:

There they are...130+ of the little buggers. I am so glad that part is done. Now comes the fun part of putting the blocks together! I think I will get at least a few of them put together tonight..I can't wait to see them! I also got this wallhanging put together:

I know it is a rotten pic, but it IS 11 at night and the light in my sewing room is horrible. This was a kit I bought when I was checking out a new shop in town with Shellie. The stitches from the appliqueing are what quilt it together, which is why you see batting under it already. So, I just need to pick out a backing and get this machine appliqued. I have been avoiding getting back to quilting my Mercy House quilt. I WILL get it done this weekend so I can start quilting up another one to donate to them. Why do I balk at things like this? It isn't hard, it will go by fast..who knows. I just got the letter that the test blocks for Quiltmakers 100 block magazine #5 will be coming to me shortly. I can't believe it is time to start that up again! I am so excited!!!

Wow..that took longer than expected!

The painting the kitchen that is!! There are 6 walls in my kitchen and they took forever. I did get them done, though! I still have to paint the trim and do some touch ups. I love newly painted rooms...they seem so much cleaner! lol I was itching ALL DAY to get up here for the quiltalong, but I just couldn't swing it. Finally at 10:30 tonight, I finally made it up here. I was requested by a friend to make a quilt for a fund raiser for a humane society and I had told her I would try, but couldn't promise anything as the fundraiser is Nov 18th and I already have a LOT on plate that needs to get done. My arms are wayyyyyy too tired from the painting to wrestle with quilting my Mercy House quilt, so I was sitting here trying to think of something I could whip up for the fundraiser. Then it hit me...Bonnie Hunter's Bricks and Stepping Stones. I have looked at that pattern at LEAST a million times because I love it and I remembered that she said it was a great one if you needed a big quilt in a hurry. So, that is what I did tonight..cut out the pieces for that.

Not sure if I will start sewing it right away or wait and bring it to a retreat I am going to the last weekend in October. I still have a TON of 3 and 1/2 in strips so I might have to kit up another one..I am NOT going to want to part with this one!! lol Oh well, it would be for a good cause, right?? So, I am hoping to continue the quiltalong tomorrow night. Then maybe I will actually get something Christmasy done!!

October's Christmas Quiltalong

Well, I will be getting a late start on the quiltalong today as I get to paint the kitchen today. After work this past week I have spackled and sanded the walls, painted the ceiling and painted the windows. That leaves just painting the walls for today. Yay!!! I am probably the only person who has ever brought one of these in to match the paint color:

This will be my accent color and is going on 2 walls and the other walls are going to be an antique white. After that I will be sewing, though I am not sure on what yet. I still have one quilt that is only 1/3 quilted so I really should finish that. I would also like to quilt A Simple Man's Christmas. Can't wait to see what everyone else is up to! I still have a few packages left from my mystery bag of unfinished projects that I purchased a while ago to share. Here is another one: