Day 5 wedding quilt quilting

I wasn't moving very fast when I got home after work last evening. I was just a bit tired. It has been a hard week with focusing on the exercise. I did manage to get block 7 almost quilted.

So this Labor Day weekend will be all about exercising and quilting. Only 90 days until the wedding.

Have a great Labor Day. Be safe and hopefully Issac disapates very soon.

Day 4 wedding quilt quilting

Block 6 of 42 is done. It takes me about an hour to quilt each block. I am using Sulky rayon for the top and a matching cotton from various manufacturers (Star, Connecting Threads Essentials) on the back. The back is an off white and the colored thread adds just a bit more interest to the back which I will show you once I get farther along.

This block is the matching one from the block I showed yesterday with the fabrics in the opposite position. Doing the pair of blocks one right after another makes it easier so I don't forget which color of thread I used.

Day 3 wedding quilt quilting

After I rode my bike indoors for 20 minutes and exercised with Susan for 54 minutes I worked on the qedding quilt. I now have 5 out of 42 blocks done.

I appreciate everyone's encouragement during this time of little sewing and lots of exercise.

Day 2 wedding quilt quilting

I didn't get much quilting done. I only got started on the fifth block.

So what was I doing? Well, I spent another evening with Susan Harris. Who is Susan Harris? Here is her picture

I am on this mission to lose weight before my brother's wedding. I have 94 days. Since walking was out yesterday with the downpour of rain and the heat, I went home and rode my bike for 15 - 20 minutes and then did this exercise tape. I can do all of the tape except for the jumping jacks. I will have to work my way up to those. So after all that I was pooped and pretty darn sweaty! That's the way my life is going to be for the next 94 days. Not very exciting - lots of exercise and some slow progress on the quilting side. We have a three day weekend coming up so I am planning to get a nice chunk of the quilt quilted between walking and spending time with Susan.

Progress on the wedding quilt

Over the weekend I finished the top and got the quilt pin basted. I have four of the 42 blocks quilted.

I went walking on a different path. This one is narrower because no bikes are allowed. Again the water is very low. There is more shade on this path so it is not as hot to walk.

I don't know if I will continue to walk at lunchtime until the weather gets cooler. I was physically sick from walking last week because I get too hot. The humidity has rolled back in and coupled with 80 degrees - forget about it. I will just have to do more in the evening.

MQG meeting and progress on the wedding quilt

There were about 30 women at the meeting last evening. What a great turnout!

We laid out our challenge fabric pieces. They ranged from finished and bound pieces to blocks. I could not get them all in one picture.

I went for my lunchtime walk yesterday. I sure hopes it cools off soon, because for me 84 degrees is too hot to go walking. I can't stand the heat and it really wipes me out. Here is a bench that was calling my name and you can see how low the water is. There were also a bunch of men in orange trucks working on the sewers that run in this area.

Despite attending the MQG meeting I still managed to get five more blocks made for the wedding quilt.

It is going to be a long day today. I still have the headache I went to bed with last night.

Progress on the wedding quilt

I got five more blocks done on the wedding quilt. I am starting to go in a little different direction than what I orginally had in mind, but that's ok. I have a lot more blocks to make so this will evolve.

I went for a walk at lunchtime yesterday. I need to add more exercise to my day. Just doing my exercise tape in the evenings is not getting the weight loss moving fast enough. Down the street from the office is a biking and walking trail. The mileage markers are really goofy so I have no idea how far I walked, but I walked for 43 minutes. The part of the trail is where some locks use to be and here are a couple of pictures I took for your viewing pleasure.

I have to lose some weight before my brother's wedding so if I am not sewing, working, or sleeping I will be exercising. I have 99 days until I get on the plane.

The beginnings of the wedding quilt

Here are the eight blocks I have done so far.

Yes, they are made just like the ones I did for the drum themed quilt, but I plan on adding a twist to the design. You will just have to wait for that! I did go thru my stash and found a few more pieces that might work in this quilt. I plan on making more blocks than I need so I can play around with the overall look. I am not sure what I am totally going for except for a beach inspired look. Right now I think this quilt will end being a low volume piece. I plan on quilting the beegabbers out of it so that will add to the over all look of the final piece.

22nd finish of 2012

I finished the red Olivia quilt this weekend. I need the Olivia quilts for the beginning of October so I am doing good!

Here is the back

I got the border on the drum quilt. I needed to get it off the design wall so I could take pictures of the Olivia quilts and start working on my brother's wedding quilt. So here is the drum quilt top.

Here are better pictures than I had last week of the black Olivia quilt.

So now I am working on the beach inspired quilt for my brother. I will post a picture of what I have done so far tomorrow.

I wa hoping to find the key this weekend, but no luck. They gave me another one so I immediately put on my key chain. I did get the mowing and edging done, but the ground is still too hard to attack the weeds.

This week flew by!

I can't believe it is Friday already! The month of August is going so fast! I worked on the red Olivia quilt last eveing, but I forgot to take a picture of my progress so here is a shot of the whole top.

I plan on getting this quilt done this weekend and after that I am not sure what I might get into. I need to get back to working on the house so I may get into doing a little of that this weekend. If nothing else I need to figure out where I left off and make a list room by room of what needs done. I do need to mow and weed, but that will all depend on the weather. It looks like we are in for some rain this morning.

My brother called and said the conga drum and percussion covers both fit and he was very happy with them. Now I need to make a small cover for a pedal board - for any of you that don't know what that is a pedal board is the device for a guitar player that sits on the floor and when the pedals are pushed they cab make the guitar make different sounds.

Have a great weekend!

Quilting on the red Olivia quilt

I got started last evening on the red Olivia quilt. I must say it is fun to do. I just love the red color.

Now I am driving myself crazy looking for a key I misplaced. It is the key to the office door that was just given to me last week. I ususally am not that careless with things like this. I am not the only one with a key to the front door, but I need to find it.

Some fun stuff!

Connecting Threads had their quiltng thread on sale so I bought a few spools in colors I needed for a few projects. I bought bunches of this thread a couple of years ago when they had a sale that I am still using up so I didn't go crazy.

Glen of http://quiltswissy.blogspot.com read my problem with trying to find enough themed fabric for my piano quilt. She was looking for something else and came across this wonderful piece and mailed it to me. Thank you Glen! She is making a paperweight quilt that and is using a lot of black and white prints so I will be sending her some fabric for her quilt.

Wanda of http://exuberantcolor.blogspot.com sent me these lovely african fabric scraps for my next Obama quilt. Thank you Wanda!

Then I was looking for some Union Jack fabric for the piano quilt. The person that I am making the quilt for is British so I thought it would be fun to add some flag fabric. Do you think I could find any? Not really any that I liked until I found on ebay twaycards www.wendysweldinghats.com. They had fabric that they would make you a welding hat from that was the best Union Jack print. I email them and asked it they had a scrap that I could use for my piano quilt and this is what they sent me. Thank you so much Wendy and Tom! Wendy didn't want any money for the fabric or postage so I promised I would send them a picture of the quilt when it was done so they could see their fabric in it and then find out the famous person it is for. I will be taking apart one of the blocks in the already completed quilt top to add this fabric - it will be easy to do. So if you know anyone who needs a custom welding hat have them check out www.wendysweldnghats.com.

Thanks goodness for internet friends!

21st finish for 2012

It was not in the plans to finish this quilt, but once I got started on it I could not stop! Sorry for the lousy picture. The drum quilt was still on the design wall so I had to take the picture of it laying on the table.

Here is the back. Once I had both tops done I tried to use up all the scraps in the backs. I still have some of this fabric left. I probably will use it up some charity quilts.

I was still on the fence about whether I liked this dotted fabric for the binding, but what the heck - I went with it.

I also got the drum covers done, packed in a box, and dropped off to Fed Ex on Saturday.

Then I finished my MQG piece. I forgot to measure it, but it is only about 10" x 10".

Now I know you are all dying to know if I got the dishes done. Well, I got about 90% of them done. I still have the silverware and four plastic containers to wash.

Yeah-rah, yeah-rah, yeah-rah!

What am I so happy about?

Well, it's Friday.

It's raining.

The fabric arrived! I ordered this on Wednesday afternoon and it's here! I need to make two more covers for my brother this weekend so I can ship them Monday to Cambridge, MA. One cover will be for a set of conga drums with bongos attached to them and the other for another percussion set up. These two covers will use about the same amount of fabric that just one of the last covers I made took so they will be a piece of cake to make.

So this weekend will consist of making the covers, putting the border on the drum quilt top, weeding the flower beds if it doesn't get hot and the rain continues to soften the ground, and washing that pile of dishes in the sink, on top of the stove, on the counters ... holy dirty dishes Batman! And if I don't goof off and work hard I may get started on quilting one of the Olivia quilts or start piecing the wedding quilt for my brother.

Have a great weekend!

MQG piece progress

I got the strips sewn together last night between baking cookies and watching the men's basketball game. Now I just need to get it quilted and bound. I will probably quilt this with lines very close together. I forgot to measure the current size, but for me it is small!

And here are the cookies for the last night of Downtown at Dusk at the museum. They are Martha Stewart's French Butter Cookies. I use raw sugar to roll the logs and it gives the edges a nice crispy bite.

MQG piece progress

I got the small 7" x 7 1/2" print cut and added some white and the gold print I showed yesterday. I have the pieces laid out and now it is time to play with the arrangement.

Last evening was all about gathering up and putting out the recycling, exercising, and throwing a batch of cookie dough together. I always bring cookies to the last Downtown at Dusk at the museum so I made these easy French butter cookies (Martha Stewart) that are a refrigerator slice and bake. They are so good and so easy to make. I made a double batch - you can't have too many of these!

MQG Challenge

I did not get any sewing done last evening - I got busy doing a few chores and watching the men's basketball team win against Argentina. I don't normally watch the NBA - too many overpaid cry babies, but the Olympics seems a more honest reflection of talent. I did get a couple of pieces of fabric pulled for the challenge piece I need to do for this month's MQG meeting. There is not a winner for this challange - this is just an exercise to see what everyone will do with this fabric.

There is a size limit of approx 16" x 16" which is a good thing. I say that because the last time I was in a group challenge that there were no size limits I ended up making this quilt in 2004.

The challenge was to make something that was inspired by a picture in a quilt magazine and use the challenge fabric that you pulled from a brown bag of scraps. The quilt inspiration is obvious - Sandi Cummings - but this was my first venture into improv piecing. The fabric I pulled was a tone on tone cream and a pasley. I ended up dyeing the challenge fabrics - they were just ugly! But anyway, I was the only one who was crazy enough to turn two scraps of fabric into a bed sized quilt! I used silk in the center of the squares. Here are some close up shots.

Here I used the challenge fabrics around this peach silk

Here is the label I put on the back which has a piece of all the different cotton fabrics I used. On the right side of the label is the challenge fabrics before I dyed them and the dyed fabric on either side. I did end up winning this challenge and the prize was two large fabric containers.