Christmas Quilt

With not working on the rental yesterday I actually got a lot done at home. I even did some quilting. I finished this Christmas Quilt made by Lucille. She really does some beautiful work. I also did one quilt with a pantagram, but I do not take pictures of the pantagrams.

Customer's Quilt

This is Margaret O's quilt. Finally it seems like life is getting back to normal. I am working on customer's quilts again. But, I still have a major project underway that I need to finish asap.

My husband and I own a small house that we rent out. Right now we are between renters and I am doing a lot of work on it. This is taking longer than I thought it would. I am priming and painting every room (ceiling, walls and trim) and refinishing all of the wood floors. I have the stain on the floors and will soon be starting the urethane finish. I am done painting the living room and the 2 bedrooms and only have the bathroom and kitchen to paint. I took before pictures so I will post pictures when I am finished. Today I will not be working on the house because I am waiting for the stain to dry completely.

Color Inspiration Everywhere

My life has changed in so many ways since I started quilting. One way that really struck me was that I see things so differently now. I really notice the color of everything around me. When I was slicing peaches and kiwi the other day I was admiring the colors. It is amazing all that quilting has done for my life.

24 Hour Mini Retreat

Typically on Friday nights the 7-Sisters Quilt Guild sews at the firehouse from about 6pm to anywhere from 10pm to 12am. This week we decided to try something different that we might like to do about every quarter. We had a 24 hour mini retreat. The retreat was to go from 4pm Friday to 4pm Saturday (we have to stop at 4pm Saturday because of bingo). I was not able to sew on Saturday because of other things I needed to do. Maybe I can stay 24 hours next time. 

I was able to sew from 4:30pm to 1:00am Friday night. Boy you can get a lot done in 8 hours (1/2 hour for dinner). The first thing I did was complete the baby girl circle quilt I cut out with my Accuquilt GO this week.  Now I am ready to lead the 7-Sisters sew-in on September 18th when we will all be making throw size circle quilts.

The next project I worked on was my center block for the Round Robin Bee. With the Bayside Quilt Guild we are starting a Round Robin Bee. Everyone participating does a center block. Then you pass it on to the next person and they add a border. In 2 months we meet and pass it on to the next person and they add a border. This goes on for 5 borders and then the quilt you get is the one with your center block. Each border round has different requirements; one is triangles, one is squares, one might be applique', etc.. At the first meeting we will decide exactly what our rules will be. My block came from a book called "Flowering Favorites" by Piece O' Cake Designs.

To end my night I cut my fabrics for my circle quilt I will make September 18th. Using the Go makes it a breeze to cut circles. The idea for this quilt came from the magazine Quilts and More, Summer 2010. I adjusted the size so we could use the GO cutter. The pattern called for 6 1/2" circles and 10" squares. I changed to 5" circles and 8 1/2" squares. 

Love my new fabric!

Look what arrived in the mail today. I ordered this fabric from Sew Deerly Loved. I didn't have any turquoise and red and love all that I am seeing on many blogs. I am going to make a circle quilt with this.

Monday I finally got my new sewing machine out of the box. I had to look back on my blog to see when I got it. Can you believe I got it June 24th and just got it out of the box.On Tuesday I used my Accuquilt GO for the first time. That arrived here on August 3rd. I think it is time for me to get back in my groove.

On September 18th, the members of the 7-Sisters Quilt Guild, are each going to be making a circle quilt. I am going to be heading that up so I wanted to get a baby sized one done ahead of time to make sure I know what I am doing. I am using the GO  to cut 5 inch circles. I can not believe the trouble I had. I am cutting the 5 inch circle out of the center of an 8 1/2 inch square. So to start with I lined some up wrong. Then I noticed that it was not cutting right. On every circle I cut one little thread was left uncut. I was very upset with this being my first time using the GO. So I got out another die and tried it and it worked fine. Luckily I got the circle die at the local JoAnn's so I took it back and exchanged it. The new one works great! I am hoping to have most of the baby quilt together for Friday night.  

I AM BACK

August has flown by and it has been a busy month, but very little quilting. My family went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for vacation. It turned out to be an eventful week. On the way there we heard from son #2 that his plans had changed and he was joining us for vacation. When we arrived we heard the great news that one of our nephews and his wife are pregnant with their first child. On the third day my sister-in-law received news that her sister-in-law (who has cancer) was in the hospital and not doing well. On Wednesday son #2 hurt his foot playing Frisbee in the ocean. We found out when we got home that it is broken. On Thursday we found out that SNL's SNL was to be sent home and have hospice come in. All-in-all it was a pretty good week and it was great spending time with family.

Daughter and Great-niece

We could see the wild horses from our deck. Here is a mare and her new foal. We were told that the baby was born just the night before during a thunder storm.

One early morning when I was out walking with son#1 we saw this sting ray. Son #1 is now officially grown up. He is out of college, working full time, bought a house and lives about 2 hours from home. It was so nice to be able to get up early in the mornings and spend time with him.

My family.

Lou's President's Quilt

After 8 years of diligently serving as the president of the 7 Sisters Quilt Guild we finally made Lou a quilt. Somehow we were able to keep this a total surprise. A lot of thought went in to this quilt and each block has a special meaning to Lou's life. We were all so happy with how thrilled she was with the quilt.

Cheryl is pointing out each block to Lou.

Lou with her sister Patti.