Ta Da!

 I worked a good part of Sunday on the Tumbling Block quilt. I decided to make a piano key border, using all the colors in the quilt. Last night, I added a black border to the outer edge and it is a finished top!

I will get a better picture when I take it to the store to hang it up...maybe I can talk someone into holding it up for me!

The innocent looking Conrad wouldn't leave the top alone while I ironed...I had to lock him in the bathroom. Just long enough to iron, that is...

I am also getting ready to go on quilt retreat with friends this weekend. We are going to the same place that we went to last time. Should be lots of fun!

Saturday Twister class and more sewing...

  I love to see the before and after pictures of the Twister quilts.

A few ladies couldn't make yesterday's class, so we will have to wait to see their quilts, but here are a few.

 I love that they are hanging the same way in this one!

She used the Lil Twister, because she is making it for a baby quilt. 

It is turning out so cute! I hope they will all send me pix when they are finished!

I got all the Tumbling Blocks sewn together.... I'm doing the happy dance! Now for some borders.

Is it just me, or does it sometimes seem like time slows down in the middle of the project? Like you might never get it finished? It does for me sometimes. It's not that I don't want to finish, or that I lose interest, but I want it finished so I can go on, I guess.  The Tumbling Blocks have  a lot of seams to match, it seems like you spend more time pinning. I guess if I were making blocks, and then putting them together, it might work out the same as you pin those as you make them. I really like how this is turning out, though, and hope to have a picture to show by tomorrow.

Back to it!

A bit more....

 When I first put this layout on the design wall, I had finished the left edge, but not the right. I wanted to make some more blue blocks for the last full row, so I wasn't sure how it was going to end up. Since I decided to wind the rows back and forth a little, the edges don't turn out even. I hung the design wall in the kitchen over the wallhanging so I could finish planning. I marked each piece with numbered tape so I wouldn't get confused while sewing.

 Here is the final layout with the last seven (two on the left, five on the right.) vertical rows sewn and hung on the design wall. I still need to sew them to the large finished section.

Then I will have to decide if I want borders or not. I know I want to put a black border around it to finish the illusion, but not sure what after that.

What goes with cubes?  Any suggestions?

Our baby is growing!

I can't believe how much Conrad has grown the last few months. I wish I would've taken a pic like this when I first got him, though Smokey probably wouldn't have eaten that close to him in the beginning. Now they spend a part of each day wrestling....with her growling and him leaping. It is pretty funny to watch, though sometimes she seems pretty serious about teaching him a lesson. He has so much energy and many times can't sit still. But he also likes to cuddle, and is very lovable. He is eyeing Smokey right now...she is sleeping peacefully. I had better grab him before he decides to pounce!

Back to the Tumbling Blocks

 I spent a lot of time over the weekend working on the Tumbling Blocks quilt because I am anxious to get it finished. I hadn't worked on it since I posted about it a few weeks ago. I like to sew rows in pairs, then sew the pairs together. That works well for this quilt, with its many long skinny rows. Here are 9 rows sewn into pairs.

 The section on the right is the pairs sewn together. The section on the left is the one I completed earlier. Sewing these together is time consuming since there are lots of seams to pin but it is definitely worth it.

Now I have one large section! 

We twisted the day away...

 last Saturday. The Twister quilt is so much fun, more so when you get a group of ladies together doing it!

 Lots of pretty colors...I hung extra design walls so that everyone could use them to figure out how they wanted to lay out their squares.

 One lady is making hers using 5" squares and the smaller size ruler.

 She is making a baby quilt.

 You can see they are working hard to get the squares put together.

 Next Saturday they will cut with the Twister ruler and we will see some gorgeous pinwheels form!

I can't wait!

Floor pillow

I spent most of Sunday working on this pillow. I have it loosely stuffed since it will have to hang on display  before I teach the class. It will be much cuter stuffed fuller. In fact I wanted to stuff it fuller, just to see, but then I would have to unstuff it. So I didn't.

I was off yesterday, so I spent the morning doing class paperwork (yea, not too exciting, but had to be done), went to the store and got a haircut. I want to get back to sewing the Tumbler Quilt, so hopefully tonight I can do that.

Another new great nephew and Peekaboo Rag quilting time again!

 My niece had her baby Wednesday....she named him Jensen. Isn't he just the cutest baby ever? Now if you think this sounds familiar...like I might have said the same thing in Nov. when my other great nephew was born....then I am here to tell you that even though it seems nearly impossible, our family seems to have gotten 2 of the cutest babies ever born! I'm not sure what the odds are there, but it happened! I think he was posing for this pic!

His cousin, Emerson, came to visit.....guess we know he is growing by leaps and bounds. He is about 6 weeks old now. I think there will be lots of fun times in store for these boys as they grow up together. I have one more niece who is due in May...she just found out she is having a boy as well! 

 I had a full class peekaboo rag quilting again on Saturday. They had their fabric all cut, so we could start in with the sewing, so everyone made good progress.

 Everyone had chosen such pretty fabrics!

 They all promised me that they would stop in so I could see them finished, or send me pix.

The other 4 ladies were playing bashful, so I didn't get their pictures. It was a fun class and everyone got lots accomplished, which is always nice! I will probably be teaching this class one more time, as I have some people on a waiting list. So if you are interested in taking this class, let me know.

I am off today, so plan on getting some more sewing done. I worked on a floor pillow for class yesterday...will post more about that when I get some good pix.

Progress on Tumbling Blocks

 I sewed on 3 different projects on Sunday and the Tumbling Blocks was one of them. I debated sewing together more row pairs, but ended up sewing together the 4 pairs from the day before. If I needed inspiration to keep going, this was it.

I sometimes use my wallhanging in the kitchen as a design wall when sewing rows. I made more of the blue blocks since I know I want a whole row of them. Then I have to get the rest figured out. Back to the design wall!

You really wanted to see another kitty picture, right? I need to take one of Conrad moving around...he has gotten so big!

Sewtastic weekend!

 Here is the Round Robin that is mine to "add to" this month. I wanted to keep to the sewing theme, but couldn't come up with anything related in fabrics. Then I thought about making some spool blocks to go around the edges, but decided on log cabin blocks instead. I have been collecting selvages for a few years so thought it would be a fun addition to her quilt.

 The quilt was about 30.5". I could've made 5" or 6" finished blocks to fit that size, but thought they might look too big. I added a black border to make it 32.5" and made 16, 4" finished blocks so I could add them to the top and bottom. I thought it might be too much to add them to all 4 sides.

I wasn't sure which way to turn them...

 but finally decided on this setting. I hope she likes it.

 We meet on Thursday to swap for the last time. We decided it would be fun to see them each time so we get to appreciate each addition. Here , and here are the ones I have added to...here is mine.
In other quilty news....

 I really wanted an asterisk on my quilty sign, but I thought the ones I made were too big. I had a brainstorm...my sign needed an exclamation point and I could use an asterisk for the period...isn't it cute?

 I think it will be just right! I added it to the end of the second row. I think that it's ready to finish.

I also sewed the 4 pairs of Tumbling Blocks together yesterday. I will get a picture and share later. I want to get a few pairs sewn together each night this week so I can get it finished.

Happy Monday!

Tumbling Blocks progress

I sewed with friends on Tuesday and my first order of business was to get the Tumbling Blocks pieces on the design wall. Originally I planned to just mix the colors up, but after laying out several of the color sets as I cut, I decided I liked the waving rows better. The pattern I am using calls for 11 vertical rows of blocks for the twin, but I decided I wanted it a little wider, so plan to do 13 rows. I have 9 different color groups, so I will need to make more blocks of certain colors. I want to finish out the blue row on the right, that will make 11 rows, then not sure what else. There will be partial rows on the ends and I haven't decided for sure how to do them. This shows clusters of colors on the left side. I am going to fill in around the edges with black.

 I did a little cleaning yesterday, and then spent the rest of the day sewing. I had gotten most of the vertical rows sewn into long strips Tuesday and Wednesday, so after pressing them, I started to sew them into pairs. With a lot of pinning, I have 4 pairs finished.

 Then I had to put it away and work on something else! Hope to get back to it today.

I have my next round robin project to finish this weekend too, as we meet on Thursday. The one I am working on this month has a sewing theme, so I thought a selvage log cabin block might go well. More on that later!

 Conrad was helping me with the selvages...yes that tub really is all selvages.

Smokey just napped.

Spell it out!

 Sandie at Crazy bout Quilts figured out what my letters spelled. A small prize will find it's way to her soon. I have been working on getting it put together. It is in 2 rows now. I was playing around at using an asterisk or two, but they just don''t work...will have to use them somewhere else.

I worked on the Tumbling Blocks quilt Tuesday and Wednesday, sewing the pieces into rows....now have a lot of pressing to do so I can start sewing the rows together.

Conrad is growing more and more each day and getting more mischievous. 

Love those letters!

 All phrases need a few N's, don't you think?

 And a lovely orange H?

 This R is much prettier in real life, coloring is not very good here.

 I don't like this N as well as the first one, but it'll do.

 An old fashioned A....

And a green S to finish off with....any ideas on what my sign says? Remember, there is a little prize for the first one who gets it....you can go back here, here, here and here to see the other letters.