What's up next?

I've been wanting to try Annie's Happy Quilt pattern. So I made a few changes to her pattern and am starting with a 6 1/2" square for the center and 2" frames. The block should finish at a 9". A 4 x 4 setting should give a 36" square quilt for the NICU.

Here's crossing my fingers that it works right!

Deja-vu?

No...you're not seeing double. While I was cutting and sewing 4-patches, I made enough to sew another animal I SPY 4-patch for the NICU.

Why did I start quilting?

Mary Kristin at Krisp Quilts, ask the question, "Why did you start quilting?"

When I was pregnant with my DS in 1990, family and friends embrodiered blocks for a quilt. My work friend, Betty, then assembled the green quilt. It has been his faithful friend for 17 years. Now, I'm afaid to wash it as not too much is holding it together!

Fast forward to 1998, now I'm pregnant with my DD and my MIL organizes an embrodiered quilt for the new baby. Well, we made the blocks but unfortunately, I had moved and Betty had moved and I didn't feel comfortable asking her to make another quilt....can you see where this is going? The blocks sat in MIL's sewing room for two years. Then in 2001, my New Year's resolution was to take a beginner's quilting class and learn to put together my DD's quilt parts! My MIL then promptly put together the pink quilt for DD's 2nd birthday. and me? I've been sewing and quilting ever since.

ps...my MIL has only made two quilts

ps#2...I also wanted to take a Wilton cake decorating class...never did get around to that resolution *smile*!

Baby..it's cold outside!

Yes! I am, too, in the cold zone. It was sooo cold that the kids' school was closed today. That didn't stop my DS from running around and going to the mall! My DD stayed at home, lounging in her pj's...now that's a good day off...in my opinion! DD and I spent a good portion of our day in the sewing room listening to the music of Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Effron and the like and the fruits of my labor:

1. strips cut for the blocks for my queen size log cabin and

2. a flimsy for the local NICU

Each year, the local Wal*Marts have a quilt contest/ show and invite quilters to donate quilts for the NICU. The quilts need to be 36" x 36" and use between 50 - 75% Wal*Mart fabric. I participated in an I SPY exchange last year and knew that most of the animal prints came from Wal*Mart as the exchange hostess said that was okay to use.

What's a girl to do?

I received this 1/2 yard of fabric in an UGLY (?) Fabric Exchange in December at my night guild. It really (in my opinion) is not all that *ugly* but after making about 9 or 10 black and white quilts...I'm not really excited about another! Good thing I have until July 2008 to create something.

Here are some ideas swimming in my head:

1. a Sudoko quilt that everyone is talking about on the Quilted Table yahoo group or

2. a chinese coin string quilt (maybe I could use up some lingering cat fabric) or maybe

3. a Happy Quilt like on Annie's site (sorry...don't know the link) or maybe

4. join in on the Bargello Bowl at http://www.quiltville.blogspot.com/. It would just blend with 128 other fabrics!

Watch this space for further developments!

First Finish January 2008

My first January finish! Yeah!

Seems like it took days and days to finish this backpack for my daughter. Now I can cross this one off my list and move onto piecing some quilts!

This finish feels especially good after all the trouble it gave me...if you know what I mean!

Stashbusting report

Well...seems like life had a way of keeping me busy this past week. I had very little time in the sewing room. Two weeks ago, my day guild started our Quilts of Valor projects and I sewed the twelve stars needed for the quilt and busted 1.5 yards of stash for the background!! The star points and centers were stash from my two partners on the QOV quilt.

Goals for the next week:

1. finish dd backpack

2. cut for strips for log cabin quilt

3. start piecing a donation quilt

Yards busted in January 2008: 1.5 yards

Hey...not alot but at least it is a beginning......right?

re-posted pictures

well...decided to re-post the pictures!

This is quite a steep learning curve I'm on!

Think I'll go to the sewing room and work on a project!

More later!

Lost pictures

Help!

I lost my pictures from this morning's post!

Any ideas on where to find them? or do I need to repost the pictures of my quilts that I sent to Pam?

oops!

OOPS! The Pooh quilt didn't make it to the post along with the two other quickie strippies! guess I need time to learn the ins and outs of bloggerland!

Quilts for Pam

I wanted to share some quilts that I made last year and sent to Pam for her "200 quilts to Mexico" project. Check it out at http://www.pamgwillim.com/ and click on M2M08.

The checkerboard quilt is an adaption of a pattern from a magazine older than I can remember. The 4 patch I spy is a pattern similiar to Bonnie's from http://www.quiltville.com/.

The quick strippie and the string quilt are from MaryJ's http://www.maryquilts.com./

Finally the inside of the Pooh quilt is from http://www.byannie.com/ and I just added borders to get the whole quilt a tad bigger.

Just Starting

Thought I'd give this blogging a whirl...as a place to document and share my quilts and ideas and maybe some life happenings, too.