Monday Morning Design Wall 3/21/2011

What a productive week I had, I quilted all the white sections on the Colorful Album Quilt and I also did the background on my Dresden Plate Quilt!!! Two major sections of two major projects completed and only 100 more to go! I was also able to cut and sew my strips for my Spring Chicks Strip Quilt heading to the Sutter Hospital Cancer Auction in August and I hope to find time this week to sew many blocks of this Irish Chain Quilt. I will say that this goal of finishing up projects will hopefully allow me to organize all my fabrics and clean up my sewing area for better organization. Hope springs eternal!!

My goal next week is to get my bindings on the Dresden Plate Quilt, the Colorful Album Quilt and my brown quilt, I could use a bit of time just sitting watching mindless television and sew. I also want to finish the other sections of the two quilts with the machine quilting. I am encouraged as I don't hate my machine quilting. I guess my rule of taking it slow, stopping when it got to be too much and just one step at a time is working a bit better the trying to get it all done in one day! It is not perfect yet but I will keep working on it.

Monday Morning Design Wall 3/14/2011

Well, I really don't have blocks to post on my wall as my wall is blank and white this week. I have spent the week working on machine quilting a queen size quilt I made maybe 5 to 6 years ago and found when cleaning out my quilting area a couple of weeks ago. I am taking my time, being patient and doing a square or two every night and many on the weekend. I only have 6 left but I have only done the white parts with white thread so I need to work on a simple design that I can handle for the colored parts of each square. I am hoping to finish this quilt so I can put it in my daughter's room for a touch of color when I put in her new bed next week.

Since she sprung it on me only two days ago that she might actually be coming home from school for spring break I am now scrambling to finish the room, get a bed, headboard and new blinds, put all the stuff away and maybe find a rug or lamp!!

Monday Morning Design Wall 3/7/2011

After taking a "Design Wall Break" for the past couple of weeks due to some updating that we were doing to our house, I am back! Here are the two months of blocks for my BOM at in Winters CA and since I loved both of the designs, I am doing two!! I have been very productive over the past two weeks, having to empty out my entire sewing area to put down wood floors in that area, I discovered MANY MANY unfinished projects. Tops that need to be pinned, blocks that were completed and needed to be sewn together and quite a few quilts that need to be quilted. I am hoping to try machine quilting again and my prayer is that I will not hate it. Talking with a friend last month, she said to just let the quilt speak to me and go for it. I am giving that a shot and I will let you know how it turns out. The only drawback is the quilt I started is almost queen size so it is rather large but after spending 4 years waiting to be quilted, I think it is happy to be worked on. So far so good I will say and I am going to take it one day at a time.

Monday Morning Design Wall 2/14/2011

Another week and a few more blocks. I have cut all the "Rings that Dance" blocks for my quilt but did not get all of them sewn this weekend. I have 10 left so I am planning on a busy week!! This quilt is turning out bigger then planned so I may take a few blocks out, make it a bit smaller and make a small wall hanging for my office! I was planning on a black boarder so that makes it much larger. Decisions, decisions. I think I might finish all the blocks and make my decision then.

I have found my pattern for my donation quilt for Sutter Cancer Center for my Spring Chicks strip exchange. Now I think I need to cut some more strips for lights and I have to find a back ground fabric! This will be very scrappy so the neutral is very important. Also, because I don't have enough to do each and every day, I have four quilts that really need to be pinned so I can start quilting them. FOUR!! I am hoping to enter at least two of them in a quilt show in May so I better get cracking. I think I will give up sleep for lent and then, and only then, I may actually get everything done.

Monday Morning Design Wall 2/7/2011

Yeah PACKERS!!! My husband is a happy man and spending the the majority of the day at a quilt class made me a happy camper!! Here are the blocks I made at my class and upon returning home walking into a house full of boys/men screaming at the TV. They claimed to be yelling at me as they were happy I arrived home!! I love these blocks and am looking forward to finishing all 30 or 35!! I had the best weekend and I vow to take more classes. I am a bit bummed as I will be late to my quilt strip exchange tomorrow but I have three boys receiving advancements for Boy Scouts, one Star scout, one Life scout, and one Eagle scout, I think I just need to deal with it and do what I can!! So proud of my kids but really wish they could find the dishwasher!! Boys, it is in the kitchen next to the sink and accepts dirty dishes every day, hour and minute!!

Monday Morning Design Wall 1/31/2011

After spending most of the week suffering from a horrible sore throat and still having to go to work, I did not accomplish as much as I would have liked. Such is poor timing!! Now after not getting sick for years, I finally fell ill a couple of days before a major event at work and just prior to one of my few "Boys and Dad are camping with Boy Scouts" weekends I get. I could have spread quilts on the floor, put fabric everywhere and would not have to worry about cleaning up to cook anything for anybody!! FREEDOM. But no such luck, instead I spent all day Saturday on the couch, nursing a horrible headache, sipping Ginger Ale and praying my throat would allow me to swallow something solid. I still don't have my voice back. Since I was tired of laying around, I decided to put the boarders on my Strip Therapy Mood Swings Quilt top from a couple of weeks ago. It felt good to do something. Next week is Superbowl (GO PACKERS) and as my husband is a huge Packer fan so there will be a lot of football watching!! I will be in Winters California, 20 miles away, at a quilt class until 4:00 so it is a win-win!!

Monday Morning Design Wall 1/24/2011

A very productive weekend working on my 100 Quilt block sampler. These blocks are turning out very well and I think this will turn out to be a nice quilt. I am having a blast making the different blocks and just chosing the fabric for each one. I am still working on handquilting my Green Mystery Quilt, which is coming along beautifully!! I am going to enjoy only working half a day tomorrow since the kids do not have school and work on a few more blocks for my quilt.