Surprise visit

So my weekend didn't go exactly as planned, but that's okay because we had surprise visitors! Our oldest daughter Emily and her boyfriend, Joe decided they needed to get away from college life and have a nice, relaxing weekend.

 

They both carry a full load at Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas. Joe is in Architecture School and Emily is working on an Clinical Laboratory Science degree (she was Chemical Eng, but she switched). They left almost 2 hours ago and I think they had a restful and relaxing weekend. I also think that they were full as I cooked several big meals for them. Geez Emily hasn't been gone that long and I already miss her, but we'll see her again in a few weeks during spring break.

As far as quilting goes let's just say that I'm not so fond of sewing strip sets anymore. I think that's why I like sampler quilts because you always have something different to work on. Here's a peek at my progress so far

 

another view

 

And I'm no where near finished with all of the nine patches I have to make for this quilt....but I have heard my sewing machine "hum" a little.

Well I'm off to get ready for the Oscars.

4 degrees of separation...

It's a small world when you're a quilter. Yesterday I walked in to the local quilt store that I had only visited one other time, last November mind you and the owner who is a friend of a friend said hi Ranette and proceeded to introduce me to another customer, Susan, who is working on a Dear Jane. Well Susan and I visited and talked about the Dear Jane quilt, she is just starting and I have finished mine. Several times during our conversation she repeated my name and finally she made note that Ranette isn't a very common name and I said no, not really. Well it seems that a friend of a friend of hers in California had told her friend in an email about a quilter in Stillwater named Ranette that blogs....really small world isn't it?!?! So take that Kevin Bacon, no "Six Degrees of Separation" for me.



Oh and to the quilter in California who reads my blog....Hi there! ;o)

I'm off today and after I take the doggies to the groomer, I'm going to clean a little and sew a lot! I'm itchin to stitch. I think I'm going to start a new quilt that shouldn't take very long to put together. I've been doing a bunch of applique and I love it but I really need to hear the hum of my sewing machine.

TGIF!!!

Sad day...

 

My Aunt Anita died last week and so my hubby and I went to Colorado Springs, Colorado for her funeral. I only show a picture of the cemetery to show what a cold February 14th it was. It was also beautiful in a surreal sort of a way. The trees were covered in a heavy frost and light snow covered everything. I think it was about 10 degrees and very, very cold. Anita was my Dad's only sibling and she was six years younger than him. Dad has been gone for 11 months today....very sad time.

We left on Friday and the trip took about 11 hours and I did accomplish some "quilting". The first two pictures are of blocks from the applique class that I took in January. I am really liking this and my skills are steadily improving, I think.

 

 

Here is the latest finished block from my Moms basket quilt.

 

I also have another applique block and another basket block prepped for stitching. Oh and this afternoon I made a Nearly Insane block for the bow I'm doing. Whew...I think I'm getting more done than I thought. I really am itching to start a quilt though. I'm talking cutting, piecing and making an entire quilt. I think I just might do that this weekend, we'll see.

Sorry for the boring post...I'm just a little blah right now and sleepy.

Goodnight!

Tornadoes in February???

 

Was it just in the last week or two that I was complaining about cold weather??? Well now I'm complaining about tornadoes. I want the snow and cold back....waaaaaa

Oklahoma had a fairly major outbreak of bad weather yesterday afternoon. I heard 5 fairly large tornadoes "touched" down. In southern Oklahoma they've reported 8 deaths so far. Homes and businesses were destroyed in Oklahoma City and Edmond. The sirens went off here for about 45 minutes, but nothing touched down. Thank God.
I had planned to come home and sew (because it calms me) and instead I was picking up kids and rescuing dogs. The hail was awful, some of the largest I've seen in years.

I'd really like winter to stick around for a few more weeks...Oh and I pulled that picture from the internet. I'm not one of those people that enjoy chasing the bad weather, I'd rather hide.

Complete quilting chaos!!!

What a day we had here yesterday!!! Three of my quilty friends and I decided to start a pumpkin quilt (can't think of the name of it right now) so we'd have it ready by Fall of 2009. Kathy showed up early and we got right down to business, drawing and cutting and prepping blocks for machine applique. Sharon came a little later offering cookies but couldn't stay...she had other things going this weekend.
Paulette showed up around noon and we got her up to speed pretty quickly. Look at this mess...

 

 

Oh and Paulette went and picked up Bella, her puppy and my daughter Kara dropped Shia off (we're puppy sitting this weekend) and with Baron (my dog), we had three four legged friends running around having a ball. We had a terrific day and I for one enjoyed every minute of it. I think it helped me get my mojo back, which had been running just a little bit low for a while now.

I did manage to make this Nearly Insane block last week.

 

It was a booger!!! I'm not sure it's right, but it looks fine to me and finished is better than perfect!!

Oh, hubby and I watched The Secret Life of Bees last night. I LOVED it...he even liked it, although he did say it was a "chick flick". The book by Sue Monk Kidd has been one of my favorites for years now. I didn't care for her second book, The Mermaid Chair as much though. I just googled Sue and saw that she has a couple of other books now. I'll have to check those out.

The weekend here in Oklahoma is going to be warm and windy. It feels more like April right now than February 7th. We might get thunderstorms as well. I don't care much for the thunder part but we need the rain right now. I'm off to straighten up my quilting area...things just kind of exploded in there yesterday...lol

Super Bowl Sunday

Is everyone enjoying the Super Bowl??? I know that I am because it's another chance to eat and sew, which are my favorite things! I decided to start working on another BOM that I've been receiving for about 4 months now. It's the Just Plain Nuts quilt by Liz Lois. I'm not going to mention the store that I've been buying this from because I'm not terribly thrilled with them. The quilt is a reproduction of a 19th century quilt and I love it (of course). There are no instructions in the book so I decided to draft these blocks into EQ6, which is something that I've never done before. Here are the first two blocks

 

 

How exciting is it that I can draw these blocks and then print out the foundation paper to piece them...woohoo!!! I'm going to try and draw block three in just a minute. I know that many of you out there are computer geniuses and use EQ all of the time, but I have always struggled to use this kind of software. I think it's because I get extremely bored reading the book and listening to the voice of someone demonstrating how to do something instead of doing it myself, puts me to sleep. I do think I'll go back and watch some of the videos someday...it's just that I'd rather be making a quilt!

Here's a picture of a little Amish block that I made the other day. It finishes at 2.5 inches.

 

Isn't it just the cutest little thing you've ever seen. I could really get into the miniature blocks. The only thing is they take longer than making a 12 inch block, so you can't really plan to make a large quilt with them unless you're compulsive obsessive ;o)

Well enjoy the second half of the game! Go Quilting!!!

different BOM's

 

The top photo is the 8th block from the flower baskets quilt bom that I've been making for my Mom. I've posted about them before so you can look back and see the link if you want to. I think I've only got 3 more baskets to make, but I'm not sure. The colors are very vibrant and I am doing the buttonhole stitch method of applique with mostly silk thread.

The second picture is my Diawabo Houses from Pinwheels in New York. As you can see I'm almost finished. Next month is the last shipment and it's the borders. This is a totally different kind of quilt than I usually do, but I've had so much fun with the Diawabo fabrics. They are so hard to find around here, so I accumulated a small stash last year at the Road2California Quilt Show. That's where I signed up for this BOM as well.

Today was another snow day for the kids and we decided it was best not to open the store this morning. That way nobody can slip and fall and break who knows what in the parking lot. Business would be slow anyway. The only problem is that my paycheck will be small and that means the fabric budget suffers...lol I'll keep finishing up stuff here then!

When you have a "free" day are you stingy with your time. I am getting things done around the house, but I make a deal with myself that I'll work for 30 minutes and then sew for an hour. Sounds fair to me, right?!?!

Well my break is over....back to the salt mines, I mean sewing machine! ;o)