Twisted

A three-year old WIP is now finished!

I started this project with Bonnie during Super Bowl Weekend 2009.  It was sort of a quilt along to use up 2.5" strips.  I had a stack of novelties that needed to be used, so I chopped them up into 2.5" strips and started stitching.

All the blocks were done before the end of the big game.   But when I laid them out all next to each other, it was kind of muddy and really didn't work.  So I grabbed some fresh fabric from the stash and added some sashing and the fun border.   And there it sat in the WIP pile.

I pulled it out again after a machine quilting class with Pam Clarke at MQX 2010.  I wanted to try out her technique on something that would hide my mistakes.  It hides them so well, you can't see the quilting at all!  Here's a glimpse on the back.  I had gotten through about 1/3 of the quilting.  Back to the WIP pile!

A couple of weeks ago, I dug it back out and finished the quilting in a few hours.  Another hour to sew the binding completely by machine and it was ready to show Bonnie during show & tell.

Totally Twisted, 60 X 76", completed April 16, 2012.

Are you wearing red today?

I'll be wearing red today for these cuties. My mother has heart disease which she manages quite well. (This is a 4-year old photo, but the best I had of anyone wearing red. My father loved to wear a red sweater or sweater vest on Christmas, so the Christmas after he died, we all wore red in his memory.)

This week flew by and I'm not sure what I did. Lots of cookie business (so far, so good), a little sewing, and encouraging Julia with a school project (she'd call it nagging). Bill went to DC on the train for the first time. I think he enjoyed the trip, but next week he'll need to fly down for a morning meeting. I dropped him off at our beautiful old train station. It reminded us of college days when I traveled by train from Rochester to Schenectady, NY. There is something more romantic about train travel.

Last year, Bonnie Hunter hosted a quilt along for Super Bowl Weekend called Super Bowl Twist. I put together a top with a big pile of bright novelties and geometrics. It turned out kind of muddy and I wasn't happy with it, so unhappy that I never took its picture. When I signed up for Pat Sloan's Super Bowl weekend party this year, I realized I still had the one from last year to deal with. So I un-sewed and added some skinny sashing. It's better. Still bright and fun, but at least there's a place for your eye to rest and notice the pattern. Since it doesn't twist anymore, I'm going to call it Super Bowl Slant. I need to buy a little more of that orange to finish the left and bottom, then I might add a yellow border (or not) and black binding. I'm not sure if I'll make it to Camp Sloanie this weekend. Maybe Julia will come with me and we can quilt together!


My copy of Bonnie's new book arrived this week! Go buy a copy today!

I'm starting to panic that a week of February is already gone and I didn't finish anything. So much to do, so little time! Here's my list for the next 3 weeks.

• Girl Scout Cookie Sale
• Clean garage to make room for cookies
• Prepare for Quilt Getaway Weekend
• February Star Crazy Blocks
• MQX Charity Challenge
• Year 2000 Scrapbook
• February UFO Challenge- #7 Easy Weave
• Fun with Strips & Strings
  

Disk is Full!

I can't believe we have so many files on our computer that our hard drive is full. Bill has ordered a bigger internal hard drive and knows how to make the switch. (Love him!) I hope it comes soon, because I can't import any new photos or music. It's really cramping my style!

The other thing this week that cramped my style was having teenagers around every afternoon after mid-terms. I do enjoy having Julia and her boyfriend around, but I wasn't free to hang out with Janet as much as usual. We did manage to do some sewing today while the kids baked. Thanks to Bakerella and Betty Crocker, they made these incredible brownies. Yummy!!

We all met at the quilt shop this morning. The kids walked over from school after their last exam, and Janet and I met to buy fabric. I restrained myself and only bought the yard I needed for Lily's border plus a fat quarter for fun. Janet bought Kaffe fabric for a really cool baby quilt for someone she works with. She's a real quilter already and she hasn't even finished her first quilt yet! Planning the next quilt before the first one is done. Sound familiar?

I put the border on Lily's quilt, which you can't see yet because I can't import anything. All I can show you are the blocks. The "bricks" were cut when I cut the strips for the quilt below. And the triangles were leftovers from that quilt, too. The centers of this block were pieced as "leaders and enders." The whole thing was like a bonus quilt. Visit Quiltville if you have no idea what I'm talking about. Bonnie is a genious!
This is my weed whacker quilt made with novely prints, mostly girlie, all from stash. I really enjoyed making this top and using the leftovers for Lily's. I'm looking froward to spending this weekend doing the Super Bowl Twist and burning though more stash.

Ciao,
Tina