TGIF and a puzzle quilt

I finished cutting out the puzzle pieces last night for a baby quilt I am making. I then worked on a layout. I am using bright colors with some cars, tractors, & sports fabrics so some of the fabrics are pretty busy. I laid it out on a flannel backed tablecloth so I could just fold it up when I was finished. I forgot to take pictures, but will the next time I work on it. This quilt is for my niece's baby boy,  due in Nov.

The Twister quilt and the T-shirt quilt classes meet again tomorrow. I am excited to see how the twister quilts look after being recut and sewn back together and will take lots of pix!

Hi ho Hi ho, it's off to work I go...

Twister class and a baby shower!

 Saturday was the Twister class... 2 ladies got their squares sewn together, so are ready to cut again. Hopefully the others will have theirs all sewn together when we meet next Saturday.

Once you have all of your squares sewn together, and added a border, you cut it up with a special ruler, and sew it all back together again. Sounds crazy, but it works and it's fun to make.

I also taught the T-shirt quilt class later on Saturday. We worked on getting the interfacing on the T-shirts and cutting them to size. I will get some pix when they meet again next Saturday.

 We celebrated the impending birth of my great-nephew with a shower on Sunday....what fun. My sister made this super cute diaper cake. We had to guess how many diapers....what do you think? I guessed 160, there were 163! Dang!

 Here is my niece with the Peas in a Pod quilt my sister made ( I quilted it). She loved it!

My sister, soon to be a grandma! She is due around the middle of November, so we should all get to hold him on Thanksgiving.

I have another niece who is expecting a boy in January, so we will be gathering again soon for her shower. A third niece just announced her 2nd baby is due in May... I will be busy making quilts! I have the first one partially cut, need to get busy!

Sewing those letters together...

I met with friends to quilt on Friday, since I didn't have to work. I thought that would be a great time to figure out the layout for my letters and get some free advice! I tried lots of layouts, but unfortunately I didn't take pix of all of them. I started out with longer rows, so it would've turned out more square, be decided I liked it rectangular better. I left some of the letters bigger/smaller than others, others I evened up. I wanted to use my cat, star, house, girl and some of the asterisks, so they had to fit in too. I was finally happy with this layout, but can't decide on the bottom row.

 I have to use the little girl...she is the cutest thing! I'm just not sure how to do it. I had an extra J and K, my initials, so I thought about using them in the last row. I put a hat on the J, so it fit with the K better.

I have it all sewn together except the last row.  Any ideas?

***If you want to make your own letters, go to Patchery Menagerie!

A new toy to play with....

 I was given the chance to try out My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Suite. I haven't done much scrapbooking as it is fun, but as time consuming as quilting. But I saw an opportunity to put my quilting pictures in attractive settings and I couldn't resist a chance to do some digital picture playing.

I decided to start with some of the pictures from the Windmill Swap. You have many different settings to choose from. There are also free downloads online at My Memories. I started a book for my photos. This book came with lots of pages that you could use to display your pictures. I just let the program put the pictures in the album, just to try it. 

 You can also add your own captions and commentary. Love this digital scrapbooking!

I have only scratched the surface with this software. I will be exploring it more (and sharing) in the next few weeks, and will host a giveaway for My Memories software soon!

Asterisks for the Red Letter Quiltalong

I made some asterisks for my Red Letter Quiltalong alphabet quilt. There was a slight problem with 2 of them....can you find it?I have also made a girl, house, wonky star and kitty, so I think I am ready to try to lay it out.

I have been sneezing and coughing again this week...thought I got rid of this crud a couple weeks ago. I am back on the musinex!

New stuff....good stuff...

Not only did we see some of the most beautiful quilts ever at the AQS show, we got to shop at lots of booths full of fabrics, thread and other quilty goodies. I told myself that I didn't really need any fabric...no new project that needs a "fabric hit", so I would look at other things. 

 I have been wanting ABC 3-D for a long time, so now it is mine, to plan a gorgeous 3d quilt. Not sure which one I will make first, there are 2 that I love.

 I can't wait to try out my 2 new quilting pantographs.

 This one is just so playful....I hope I don't get lost where it crosses over. Have you ever been quilting along, sort of in your own little world and realize that when you reached a crossover, you started going backwards over what you just quilted? Yea, me too...

You probably guessed it already, I couldn't go through all those booths without getting a little fabric...could you?  I thought I showed a lot of restraint, though!

More awesome quilts and a quilted yurt!

 I love the technique that was used to make this quilt. Very similiar to the Spinning Hexagon I made, only she started with squares.

 There was a Sunbonnet Sue exhibit! She was so cute in many nationalities!

This Quilted Yurt from  Scottish artist Linzi Upton was very interesting.

 There were quilts inside and out. She had to commission a new frame be built for the show because it would be too costly to ship the original frame.

 I think she did some lectures and a class or two while in Des Moines. You can read about the yurt on her website. She has a blog there as well.

 Very interesting idea and quilts. She had some help making some of the quilt panels.

 Check out her website and blog...interesting reads!

Hi ho, hi ho it's off to work I go. Monday always seems to find me.