I have been pretty lazy tonight...no sewing, or quilting or pattern making....nothing! I did go to Wendy's to learn how to give her cat, Jack, his medicine while she is gone. Her 3 cats will vacation at my house while she vacations in Seattle. Should be interesting to see how my cats will react. Two of her cats are pretty much scaredy-cats, but Jack will be 10 soon and he isn't so scared. He used to live here long ago, so maybe he will remember. He hasn't been here for years, though. That's him in the pic above. Can't remember why he was dressed up, but let me tell you, it wasn't his idea!
A friend told me about a garage sale on Saturday that had fabrics, blocks and patterns, so thought I should go. I had class so ended up going early while they were still setting up. They gladly showed me to the fabrics and I set to business sorting through the piles and boxes. I came across several finished quilt tops, which I showed one of the ladies. She told me they were putting their mom in a care facility, so had to get rid of a lot of stuff. So we talked while I sorted. I found many finished blocks, which she told me her mom liked to make and them later put them together into row quilts. So there were many sets of scrappy blocks. I just kept making piles as I sorted through it all. I eventually found a few fabrics I wanted and about 40 old magazines....yes I am a quilt mag junkie, we all know that! Towards the end as I was rooting through the last box I came across a bunch of pieces and parts to a scrappy Double Wedding Ring quilt. So I piled pieces up and kept sorting. I eventually had a bag full of pieces, so decided I had better get them.
There was one of these..
and two of these.....
I had a lot of fun sorting through all the pieces. I also got the template for the center pieces, though didn't find the one for the oval. I figure I can make a template with one of the ones I have. I realized after I sorted through all the pieces that I left part of it there. There were a bunch of squares sewn together, which I thought went to a different quilt. But now I know better. After I looked closely at the biggest chunk I see I needed those too. But they shouldn't be that hard to make either. This is if in fact I actually do finish it.
There are some of these....
and this.....
and lots of these....as well as some small twosies sewn together.
And this is the greatest part.....3 completed rings. See those squares at the corners where the ovals come together? I left lots of those.
Ahhhhh....isn't it great? Don't know if I will ever put it all together or not, but it will be fun to try.
The daughter of the quilting lady told me she had found some other quilt tops, so she was going to get one ready to quilt and take it when she visited her mom, then they could work on it together. It was fun talking to her and finding out a little about the quilter behind the blocks.
I passed my 10 year anniversary yesterday.....it was not as big as a wedding, or a death, but almost. Yesterday marked 10 years since I quit smoking. When I quit I felt like I was old enough and had smoked so long that it probably wouldn't matter, and who knows, I could still have health problems relating to it. But I am really glad I quit when I did. My husband still smokes so I am around the second hand smoke. I wish he would quit, but I have given up on trying for that. It still has helped me to quit, even if he still smokes. So YEA for me......10 years!!!!
I have been working on the pattern for the Star of Christmas Table Topper. I have it finished I think. I need to look at it tomorrow to be sure. Sometimes I miss something in checking it over the first time. I also used real pictures for the pattern this time, and I am not sure everything shows up like I want. I wasn't sure how to do the illustrations using my program, so thought it would be better this way. I am going to have someone look it over to see if they think it makes sense. It is a fairly easy concept, just sounds complicated when you write it up.
Not sure I want to be thinking of Christmas already!
I have been working on the Christmas Table Topper, and have the top finished. I will take a pic later and post it. I like how it has turned out. It is a different kind of block, not pieced in the same way, but made by starting with a square and chopping it up and putting it back together. Sounds odd, but it turns out nicely. If I wasn't so lazy right now I would go take the pic, but I promise I will later.
Went out to eat with the girls tonight. That was fun and we caught up on all the latest. Hard to believe it is almost time for their trip. They leave next Friday to go see their other sister (my oldest) & husband in Seattle. Should be a fun trip for them.
Not much to talk about. My back has been killing me since Sunday so I finally went to the Dr. today. They xrayed it and said that there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the discs, thank goodness. They think it is the muscle again. This happened about 5 years ago. They sent me to physical therapy. They did a treatment on it that seemed to help a little. It feels better than it has all week, anyway.
I am happy it is Friday. Went out to eat with Wendy and Rachel, we were celebrating Wendy's birthday. They are getting excited about their upcoming trip to Seattle to see Angie.
I am going to Earling tomorrow to visit mom and dad. We are planning on doing some sewing too. Should be fun, I will take some pix to share.
Not much news today. I finished the pattern for the new quilt tonight. My daughter Angie came up with a name for it.....drumroll please.....Whirly Girl. I like it.
The cousin party was fun last night. The guests were greeted by Rachel's dogs all dressed up. It was pretty funny and adorable.
Today I worked on that tessellation quilt. The top is finished. I don't think I will quilt it until after the class, as I still have to write the pattern. I also want to design and make a holiday tablerunner so I can teach that class before the holidays. I like that I was finally able to use my geisha girl fabrics on the borders as I have had them for awhile. I don't know what to name this one, though. Sometimes that is the hardest part for me. I am drawing a blank on this one....maybe it will come to me! Let's hope. Any ideas?
Not much going on today. After work, went out to eat with Wendy. Then got stuff ready for class tomorrow. Rachel is hosting a cousin party tomorrow night, so made a dip and sloppy joes to take to that. I will go for a little while, then leave the partying to them.
Here is a picture of some of the cousins at a recent niece's wedding. Aren't they beautiful?
No classes tonight and I have to admit I have been very lazy. I did fix an easy dinner of burgers and fruit and salad, then pretty much have laid around watching tv all night. Feel sort of guilty, like I should be sewing or something. The tessellation quilt is still unfinished, the asian pieces have gone no farther, the dishes haven't been done......but ya have to take a break once in awhile, right? I am just tired tonight. Smokey is relaxing too.
It has been a busy week. Saturday I taught the Jars & More Jars Tablerunner class. It was great. Everyone had great fabrics for their jars. I will post some pix tomorrow as I haven't loaded them yet. I worked on class stuff Sat night and Sunday, even did a little more sewing on the tessellations quilt. Almost have the blocks done. Monday night the Sampler Club #8 met, they are working on the Stitching for Hours quilt. These ladies were in my first Beginning Quilting classes 5 years ago. They are so much fun. We have done a lot of sewing and gabbing together.
Tonight was the first night for a new Sampler Club group doing the My Little Pretties quilt. They all picked out fun fabrics for this one. 3 of the 5 ladies in class work with me at school. Well, actually one of them retired this past May, so she keeps rubbing that in to us! She is enjoying her time to do what she wants and is planning many new quilts, which is great! It is a fun, gabby group so the time goes by quickly.
I started a new Beginning Quilting class last night. There are 4 ladies who are ready and anxious to learn to quilt so it should be a fun class. They picked out their fabrics last night. Most of them chose kids prints, so they will make up nicely.
I am teaching the Jars & More Jars Tablerunner class tomorrow. It is always fun to see what fabrics people pick out, but it will be more fun tomorrow since they will be filling jars. There are so many possibilities. I have made jar quilts with critters in them, and one with M & Ms in them. I love jar quilts, it's a good reason to collect fabrics everywhere you go!!! You never know, filling 3 jars might inspire them to make a larger jar quilt.
My nephew came down tonight to do some shopping (and bring me a quilt). We went out to dinner and had a nice visit. He leaves soon to spend a semester in Spain and is very excited about it. Hopefully he will be blogging to keep us up to date on what he is doing there. Then I came home and watched a 2 hour episode of Bones. I hadn't watched that show until recently, but it is growing on me.
It has been a good weekend, though I 'm not sure I'm ready to go back to work. Yesterday I started quilting a quilt, which I finished today. Then Jo came over to sew..... she sewed on binding while I cut out pieces for a tessellation quilt. We got plenty of chatting in too!
I had a great day of quliting today. Denise came over about 12:30 and we pretty much sewed all day. She brought a casserole for supper, so we didn't have to do anything but throw it in the oven, put some corn on to boil and cut up some veggies.
She is working on a double wedding ring quilt. As you can see, she was very happy to get her 4th ring finished today and started her 5th. I worked on the tessellation quilt that I want to do for a class. It is an easy quilt-- I finished 16 blocks today. I have 8 more blocks that are partially done, so won't take long. I would like to try this block fading into one another, and may try it if time allows. I think that would be really pretty & interesting, but harder to put together.
