Mini shop hop

Well yesterday turned into a mini shophop...imagine that!!! Sharon and I met my Mom for lunch then we went to Michaels, Starbucks and Books-a-Million. My Mom seemed to be doing great. She looked really pretty and healthy. Then Sharon and I went to the quilt shops, four in all. The first picture shows more red and white (or off white) fabrics for my Nearly Insane quilt. The second picture is two more of my red and white beauties.

I was a little bit disappointed because I had decided to buy one of those new layer cakes in Prairie Paisley by Moda. I know I waited too long on this but I just couldn't decided on this fabric. I love it but I didn't know what I wanted to make out of it and I didn't want a bunch of this fabric in my stash. Well needless to say I didn't get a layer cake and I couldn't bring myself to buy a fat quarter of each fabric in the line. When gas is $4 a gallon it does make a difference in the budget.

Well I'd better get ready for work. Jay will be home this evening ... yeah!!! I miss his presence...lol.

Ranette

Goodnight

I usually post in the morning but I was at the computer checking email and decided to post tonight. It was a busy day...work, making siggie blocks, making a cake, errands and finally to top it all off an evening with my quilt group!

Tomorrow Sharon and I are going to Oklahoma City and we'll meet my Mom for lunch and then we'll stop by 2 or 3 quilt shops and Target and maybe Sam's.

I'm so tired I can hardly type....I'm off to bed...goodnight.

ranette

Rainy day

I woke up at 3:30am with a torrential downpour and a very loud thunderstorm going on. My husband left for Chicago at 4am, only they missed their flight. We are about 1 1/2 hours from the airport and something went wrong with the van. He's supposed to leave this evening....we'll see. Oh I forgot to mention that they should have left at 6pm Sunday evening but the flight was cancelled. Poor guy he's worn out and worried about missing the conference!

I've finished 2 more of my Red and White blocks as you can see. I might do another one this evening and then work on my new packet of DJ blocks. I've only got 3 blocks to go and then I'll be done with Row J. Yeah!!! I just realized that I don't have any pics of my Dear Jane on my blog. I'll try to put some up this week although there are hundreds of quilts that look just about like mine but I don't care if mine is a copycat....I LOVE IT!!! My next one will be different...maybe! Sometimes the really creative quilters out there bug me a little. I like being a traditional quilter and some of the quilts that they think are art, I don't care for at all.
Enough for today I guess....you know I'm getting quite talkative on this blog :0)

Ranette

Nearly Insane in Red & White

Here are pics of my Nearly Insane blocks to date. To say that I love making these blocks is an understatement! I found the book several years ago and there are no instructions really so I just put it on the back burner. Then 18 months ago I started my Baby Jane quilt. My tiny piecing and paper piecing skills improved by leaps and bounds. I kept googling Nearly Insane quilts and stumbled on Hanne's blog and her red and white quilt spoke to me like no other quilt ever has really. So I started my own, thank you Hanne for the color scheme!

Yesterday I tried to start a big block quilt and just couldn't do it, so I put it away and made another of the red and white beauties. Also I only have 6 months left on my Dear Jane BOM from Stitchin Heaven. I am current right now and I hope to stay that way through the fall when my life gets so much busier. I have an appointment with my longarm quilter for January 09 for that quilt. I hope to have the Red & White done before then.

Also a big Happy 50th Birthday to my wonderful hubby! He is an amazing man, husband and father. I love you Jay!

Ranette

Quilt show

The quilt show in Tulsa was really very nice. I didn't take my camera...I always forget! I saw one Civil War era repro made in red, green and yellow that was hand pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted (stitching was perfect and every 1/2") that I just loved and would love to own. Note that I didn't say that I would love to make it...lol...I know my limitations and hand quilting is NOT fun for me. I tried out several longarm quilting machines with Gammill being my favorite, of course. Someday.....

Anyway here is a picture of a quilt that I made for a friend a few years ago. I didn't get a good picture of it (a trend with me). She seemed to like it.

Ranette

Time

I wish I had more time in every day. I'll bet everyone does though. I know that summer just began but when I look at the calendar for June, July and August, there just isn't enough time to get everything done that I want to do. Oh well I guess I'll just make the best of it!

I'm off to Tulsa with Sharon and Kathy for a Quilt Show and a couple of quilt shops today! Yeah! I haven't been anywhere for such a long time...it will be fun.

Emily and Kara are both at Wakarusa this weekend. Kara went up Wednesday with Christin. You can read all about it here www.wakarusa.com/. Tess is staying with Allie this weekend so she'll be entertained. Maybe I'll get to sew tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Ranette

Finished UFO!!!

I finished my oldest UFO....my youngest daughters baby quilt! Can you believe it?!? I started it 15 years ago and it's hand quilted....I do NOT hand quilt so this quilt lanquished in a bag for all of this time. Now don't get me wrong I've made several large quilts for this child but alas not the baby quilt until yesterday and I just decided to DO IT!!!

This is a slightly terrible picture. My hubby was the only person awake to hold the quilt and he was in the bathroom getting ready for work, so I made him hold it. LOL