More Marti Michell blocks, a surprise gift and Quilt Rally Day tomorrow.

I worked on two more of my blocks last night. I got one completely finished and it's called Broken Dishes. This is the biggest broken dishes block I have ever made! I worked on the other block and was on the last few pieces and was getting ready to put it all together and noticed I had sewn the outside pieces together wrong. I turned off my machine, grabbed Mr. Ripper and the pieces and came downstairs to unsew. It was quitting time for me. I unsewed the pieces and they are now ready to be sewn properly and the block finished. I try not to ever leave an error in my sewing when I stop. I try to always unsew it and sew it properly or get it ready to be sewn the next time I start. That way I'm not ending on a bad note and I won't forget to correct it when I start sewing again. These blocks are easy blocks with the Marti Michell templates but there are alot of pieces so they take awhile to do...I'll take pics later and today and show you my finished blocks.

I received a nice little gift in the mail yesterday too. Cornfield Quilter sent me a little surprise gift. It was a quilt pattern and it has a star on it. My favorite thing! She sent me this because I'm such a nice person...Actually, that's true, but she sent me this little surprise because I signed up to follow her blog and I was her 100th follower. Thank you so much, I will enjoy this little pattern!

Tomorrow is TAQG Rally Day. For those of you out there that do not live it the big state of Texas...TAQG stands for Texas Association of Quilt Guilds and is an organization made up of Texas Quilt Guilds. These guilds get together once a year in July and have a meeting with a national guest speaker and play all day long. This year's speaker is Cynthia England. She is amazing and I am really looking forward to this. Here's her website. http://www.englanddesign.com. If you haven't seen her work, go check out her site and you will see some of her work. Pictures do not do these beautiful quilts justice. They are so wonderful in person. I first saw her work several years ago when she won Best of Show at the Dallas Quilt Show and I have paid attention ever since. One of these days, I'll do something with her methods.

My electricity just came back on from a spectacular lighting storm and I have been sitting in the dark for 2 hours. I didn't do any sewing or anything tonight. I'll finish my block tomorrow night and show them to you then. Take care and have a great weekend.

Trying to finish projects with some Marti Michell Blocks

I have been trying to finish projects lately and I pulled one out that I have been thinking about. I could have sworn I had done all the blocks on this one but I guess I didn't. I have 3 blocks and some connecter blocks to finish. I did two of those blocks today. I really love the fabric on this and wish I had bought more of this when it was available. I enjoyed working on this BOM last year but was so busy, I didn't get to finish the whole quilt...I am going to finish this one now and get it off my list. Here's the two blocks I cut out and worked on today. These are Marti Michell blocks and go together so well. I used her templates on these and I love them because they are so precise. If you haven't used these before, you have got to try them.

Block 8 - Star of Fortune



Block 9 - Rosette

Saturday Sewing-UFO3-Crazy 8's-Jelly Roll Quilt Along-Thomas Quilt blocks

I finally finished sewing together UFO 3- Dear Blanche Again...this is out of Eleanor Burn's book-Egg Basket Quilts. This is the one I've been trying to sew up all week and was finally able to do it. I think I'll leave this as is without any borders. 121 little blocks all together. These are all Civil War fabric and I really like this little quilt. It will look so good quilted...I can't wait to see it.




Here's a close up of the little blocks:




Then, I sewed together eleven more Crazy Eight blocks. I now have 18 of these. Not sure how many I need but I have alot more leader/ender blocks to sew. I'll eventually lay these out and see where/how they go together. More later...




I made block 6 for the Jelly Rolly Quilt Along...




Last, but not least, I did not sew these today. I made them Wednesday night and these are the last two blocks for this quilt...This is a Marti Michell pattern. I don't remember the name of it but I'll tell you what it is when I start putting it together. I have to make a patch border now for this.






Now, I'm going to the quilt store and to a friend's house to buy a quilting machine...more on this later....

Pictures of some of my latest projects

Ok,I promised you a look at the projects I'm working on. Here's some of them...

This one is the little BOM that I just finished up with. It took all year only because it was a BOM. This could have been done in a few days if you wanted to. The blocks were very easy and fun to do. They are 4 1/2" blocks and covered various techniques...Lots of fun. This one's mine, I might make another one to give away or I have thought about just doing 4 of the blocks and making a really small wallhanging to depict the seasons...we'll see.



Ok, here's the 21 snowball blocks. These are half of the center portion of the Reproduction Quilt I'm doing. It is the exchange quilt I was talking about earlier. 21 more to go....



Ah, here's the full center, all 42 snowballs...Doesn't this look great? Before I started working with reproduction fabrics, my first thought was dull, drab colors, boy, was I wrong? These colors are great and I just love the scrappy look.




Here's a closeup of 4 of the blocks.



Here's one of the tablerunners I just finished putting the finishing touches on the applique...I used to refer to applique as the A word. I've grown a little fonder of it but it's still slow for me...I just love this tablerunner and I'm going to hand quilt this one. I think it will be very pretty when finished completely.





Here's the quick tablerunner I did Monday. I'm going to machine quilt this one and bind it with a Moda Marble Dark Blue. It will be the first one on my kitchen table in January since it reminds me of ice... This is one of the blocks. The middle is fussy cut to show off the compass points...This was very quick and easy to make...






This is the little wallhanging for November showing the cute little pumpkins. I have 12 different small wallhangings from this year. Each month was very traditional and I will be working on these and getting these done quickly...I hope. January is snowmen, February is Hearts, etc...Fun, quick projects make me feel good and feel like I've accomplished something. A quick fix.



Here's my latest block for the BOM I'm working on. This is the Marti Michell quilt I am working on. This is block 9 of 12. Only 3 more to go and the main blocks will be finished. This quilt will be one of the ones on my list to complete in 2010. I want to have this one done so I can see it at least by Christmas....

You can see some of the other blocks and the finished quilt on my other blog...Thomas Quilt

Sewing Like Crazy and Goals for the New Year

I sewed for a little while on Friday and again on Saturday. Monday, I was able to sew all day except for fixing lunch and dinner for the family. I just can't get enough sewing time in lately. I don't even want to go to bed. I haven't felt this way in a long time and I'm sure glad the feeling is back. I guess I was burnt out for awhile but it sure is nice to want to sew again.

I'm trying to finish up some things. I finished a small wallhanging on Monday. It was a BOM from this year. (I almost said last year, oh my, can you tell I'm ready for 2009 to be over?) I will take some pics tonight. I made a table runner also. I have several more of these to make. I have accumulated several kits over the years and I'm going to finish every one of them in 2010. My goal for the year is to finish (quilting and label and binding---all the way) all of my kits, UFO's and all my flimsy's. That is one of my resolutions for the year. I want to see all of my quilts this next year so I can really enjoy them. I'm also going to load up my spare bed and change out the quilts every so often just to enjoy looking at them.

Ok, sorry, I got off the subject. I was supposed to go to tatting last night but the weather was iffy. It was snowing when I got off work and I just went home. I grabbed some Taco Casa on the way home to feed the family. I ate and went straight upstairs for some more bonding with my sewing machine. Oh yeah, I forgot to say I got my Bernina back and so far she's purring like a new machine. Oh my, I sure did miss her but we are getting along just fine now. I made my block for the Thomas quilt. (It's on my other blog-http://thomasquilt2009.blogspot.com/). It is a BOM and we are on block 9. It's a Marti Michell pattern and I'm loving this one. I put together 21 snowball blocks of another BOM I'm working on. This one is one of the 4 quilts I have going that are being made from reproduction fabrics. I have another 21 snowball blocks to put together tonight. I'll take a pic of this one too. I LOVE this one. It is an exchange quilt. I called it a BOM but it really isn't. Five of us ladies from my small group have gotten together and we are doing the quilt off the cover of the Quilt Sampler. I am also working on leaders and enders as I am working on these blocks. I did another small wallhanging last night that was for Fall. It is pumpkins and went together very quickly. I'll show you pics tonight. I'm very busy but I'm loving it. I have a list I'm working by and I'm not getting bored yet. I plan to sew every night this week. I don't even want to go to work but you know how that is...gotta make a living, right. Oh well, back to the grind for now. Til next time....

A Sample of my blocks

Ok, here's the first 5 blocks of the BOM I'm working on. I love these fabrics... I'm not really crazy about templates but I do like the accuracy of them. I would rather do strip piecing but...Marti Michell templates are great. Very accurate...

New blog and new quilt

I have started another blog. No, I am not stopping this one. I started a new one to go along with the new quilt BOM I and several other people will be working on this next year. (Yes, I have completed my 10 items on my list and I will show some of those later this week....)

The new blog is called Thomas Quilt 2009 and is geared around a new Marti Michell pattern BOM that we will be making through Thomas Sewing Center in Mesquite, Tx. We did a Marti Michell quilt last year and it was beautiful. It is the quilt you see when I comment on other people's blogs... Anyway, this is a BOM and is a $5.00 quilt. If you make your block each month and pick your block up on time. The blocks will only cost you the $5.00. New blocks will be available the 2nd Saturday of each month. Yous can click here and see the blog. Come on over and see what we are working on this year. The fabric is called Return to Romance by Willowberry Lane and it is beautiful....If you get a chance check out the fabric. Til next time....

Working on Step 5 of the OC and the Thomas Quilt

I worked on step 5 of the OC last night. I got the blocks about halfway done. I'll work on them again tonight. I noticed on step 5 there's more to it that just 20 blocks. I have more work to do before I can put together...I don't have to work this weekend so hopefully, I can get the quilt together by then.

I am not real crazy about my colors for step 4 but I'm waiting to see how they work in the whole quilt. I don't want to change out 30 blocks just because it's only so-so. I will make up my mind when it's all laid out.

I also made my block for Saturday. Here is a picture of the 7th block for the Thomas quilt. I refer to this as the Thomas quilt because that is where we are doing this BOM. Thomas Sewing Center in Mesquite, Tx. but this is a Marti Michell BOM that we are doing out of Moda fabra, Shang Ra La ? Not sure of the spelling but love the fabric. til next time....

Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown

This is the quilt I worked on and finished at retreat. I was finally able to take a picture so you could see. This was a Marti Michell BOM last year. I really like this quilt and have finally decided what backing to use. I'm going to take this to the longarm quilter this weekend. I was going to hand quilt this one but it is queen size and I want it for my bed in my lifetime! I think I will get this one machine quilted then work on catching up on my sewing. After that, maybe I can quilt some of my own quilts...

Musings and a little sewing

Well, it's getting late and I'm tired but I wanted to write a little something, something before I head for the bed.
I have finished piecing 20 Log Cabin blocks for my Block of the month. These were the "filler" blocks and were the last of the blocks and now I can start putting it all together. I have enjoyed this BOM but I'm not sure I will do another one. This was my first and my last. I am not one of those people that needs a kit or someone else to pick out fabric for them just to pump out a quilt. I don't want to have one of the same quilts that 5000 other people have. I enjoy doing my own thing. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with kits or Block of the Months. I think they are big time savers for alot of people. All I'm saying is that I want to be the one that makes my own kit or my own BOM or do my own thing. I like being different or singing my own out of key song....Anyway, I didn't mean to get on the bandwagon or anything about that, I just wanted to say I am finished with my blocks and can get to the putting together phase of the project....Woo hoo. I do like to see a finished project.
Someone once told me (and I don't remember who it was), if you figure out what kind of quilter you are, you will feel better....What I mean by this is: are you a product person or a process person?....Do you just have to see a finished product or do you enjoy the process? Most of the time, I am both. I am a very obsessive, compulsive person. I really have to stop myself and take time to ENJOY myself. I love piecing a block and seeing it come together. It's like a puzzle. If you can just fit that piece together with that other one, it will fit just right over in that little corner. ANYWAY, I am going to have a finished quilt shortly and I will put up a picture soon. I have to find my camera first....