Winner and what a weekend

The winner of the ebook Create your own improv quilts by Rayna Gillman goes too

Charlotta

I have sent your email address to Rayna and she will send you your copy. Congrtulations!

The roofers came Friday afternoon since it was sunny out and tore out my old, broken gutter guards and replace them with Gutter Brush. There is no way I was climbing up on the roof to do this! While they were up there they found the rubber flashing around my waste vent pipe was in horrible condition.

They told me the rubber flashing needs replace about every 10 - 12 years; mine was going on 14 1/2! They fixed it

The guys also took pictures of my turtle vents and showed me that all three of them have been damaged by either birds or maybe a raccoon. They will get me new ones and replace those. I will be all set for winter!

I spent a lot of time trying to get the living room and two bedrooms cleared out for the flooring guy coming today. Friday my brother came over and the kitchen and master bathroom are now full of furniture. What a mess!

The worst part is I pulled my lower back and then I really was moving slow. I didn't get everything done that I needed to do. The floor sanding guy said he would help me slide the mattress into the kitchen when he comes today. We will have to put up plastic barricades, take down curtains, and I still need to finish a repair on the wood floor. Today my back feels better, but I am sore from my neck to my lower back. When it is time to move the furniture back, I am going to call someone to do that. I don't know who yet; maybe two guys and a truck even though I just need the two guys.

I did get two pillow cases made for a friend of my brother. Yes, the design is not all going in the same direction. I thought I had it right when I pinned it. Oh well.

I have no idea what it is going to be like living thru this floor refinishing, but it can't be any worse than remodeling I have been thru in the past. I have a feeling it is going to take weeks to get the house back together. I will post pictures tomorrow of the before.

Last chance for blog tour and giveaway

Today is the last day to comment on my post yesterday and all the other participants for a chance to win an ebook of Rayna Gillman's new book

Meantime, I made two double batches of Martha Stewart's French butter cookies. For the second double batch I used almond extract and made them rectangular. I plan on dipping part of the cookie in either white or milk chocolate and then chopped almonds. I had decided I am going to make a variety of shortbread slice and bake cookies this year to make life easier this Xmas. I can freeze the rolled dough and then just slice them when I need to bake them. I will next make several batches of toasted pecan shortbread sandies and almond butter balls. I need to find a chocolate shortbread cookie recipe to round out this group.

I did get seven rows of blocks sewn together on the second pink step zig zag quilt.

This weekend is all about getting the rest of the furniture out of the living room and bedrooms for the floor sanding guy on Monday and getting things set up in the lower level where I will be living next week. My studio is on the lower level so I can just roll out of bed and head 10 steps to the studio!

Have a great weekend!

Blog tour and giveaway!

Today is my turn on Rayna Gillman's blog tour. Besides this being the first time a quilt of mine was in a published book, this is my first blog tour!

Rayna Gillman https://rgillman.wixsite.com/studio78/blog has a new book out titled Create your own improv quilts.

Rayna's book is a very informative and inspirational! She takes the fear out of improv piecing and guides through the process of how to get started. The book is packed with lots of how to photos and quilts that make you want to drop everything and head to the studio! The book is written in such a way it is like Rayna is talking to only you. Take a look at the table of contents and one of many quilts show in the book.

Rayna had contacted me over a year ago about my quilt. I was very suprised and of course jumped at the chance to be included. I have followed her blog for years and was thrilled that she even knew I existed! Rayna then asked me to be part of the blog tour giveaway and of course I said yes! Here is the page in the book that my quilt is on.

I had made the quilt using the leftover pieces from this 75" x 84" quilt. I had hand dyed the blue and green fabric and it was too pretty to just toss into the scrap bin or thrown away.

I was also surprised to see that there were peeks of my quilt used on the author's page and resource page! Talk about a rush of excitement!

So now the secret that I have had to keep for over a year is revealed. You have until December 8, 2017, to sign up at each blog stop for a chance to win an ebook copy of Rayna’s wonderful book!


Friday, November 10

C&T Blog

http://www.ctpub.com/blog/create-your-own-improv-quilts-blog-tour-kickoff/


Monday, November 13

Cindy Grisdela

https://www.cindygrisdela.com/blog


Wednesday, November 15

Teri Lucas, Generation Q Magazine

https://terificreations.com/


Tuesday, November 21

Desiree Habicht

http://www.desireehabicht.com/blog


Tuesday, November 28

Victoria Findlay Wolfe

https://vfwquilts.com/


Thursday, November 30

Trisch Price

www.hadleystreetquilts.com


Tuesday, December 5

Melissa Shields

www.quiltingroomwithmel.com/


Thursday, December 7

Patty Altier

http://pattythequiltlady.blogspot.com

It's done

I finished the scarf I had been knitting for awhile and wore it today. One more thing done!

Knitting and Blog tour giveaway

It is suppose to get cold later on this week so I thought I needed to work on getting this scarf finished. I don't have much more to do.

Rayna Gillman has a new book out titled Create your own improv quilts.

It is a very informative and inspirational read, and one of my quilts was used in the book! Rayna asked me to be part of the blog tour giveaway and of course I said yes! The blog tour has begun and you have until December 8, 2017 to sign up at each blog stop for a chance to win an ebook copy of Rayna’s wonderful book! I will post on December 7 my quilt that was part of the book. This is the first time a quilt of mine has been in a book so I am over the moon excited and grateful to Rayna.



Friday, November 10

C&T Blog

http://www.ctpub.com/blog/create-your-own-improv-quilts-blog-tour-kickoff/


Monday, November 13

Cindy Grisdela

https://www.cindygrisdela.com/blog


Wednesday, November 15

Teri Lucas, Generation Q Magazine

https://terificreations.com/


Tuesday, November 21

Desiree Habicht

http://www.desireehabicht.com/blog


Tuesday, November 28

Victoria Findlay Wolfe

https://vfwquilts.com/


Thursday, November 30

Trisch Price

www.hadleystreetquilts.com


Tuesday, December 5

Melissa Shields

www.quiltingroomwithmel.com/


Thursday, December 7

Patty Altier

http://pattythequiltlady.blogspot.com

21st finish for 2017

Another baby quilt done! This one turned out 36 1/4" x 48". I used one of my pieced together with scraps batts, quilted it with Signature quilting thread, and used pieced together soft white backing scraps. I call this a step zig zag design since it looks like stair steps. I have two more step zig zag quilt tops to sew the blocks together and quilt before I will be done with my pink phase.

I ended up getting seven baby quilt sized batts made from my pile of scraps. There were two pieces of batting that were already the right size. I am set for batts for the next eight baby quilts.

While I was digging around in my fabric storage room, I found a hunk off batting that must have been the end of a roll. There are several yards so I have more for baby quilts!

Here is my pile of backing scraps. I plan on piecing together what I can and use it for the baby quilts. I would prefer to have a print for the back, but it is what it is.

I spent all day Saturday clearing out one of the bedrooms. The floor sanding guy is coming the 11th and I have to get everything out of two bedrooms and the living room. I lost track of how many trips I made carrying clothes, framed items, and furniture to the lower level of the house. I have a donate pile of clothes that I will drop off today. I still have some furniture that needs move.

another b-day present and batting scraps

My brother, SIL, and nephew came over last night to deliver a sewing project for my nephew. They had a birthday present for me! I was a beautiful wooden incense box with incense.

A couple of years ago they gave me this Buda incense burner, so now I am all set!

I was so tired when I finally got home from work. I had been out in the rain helping move gladiators (cones) around before and when the concrete truck showed up for setting the posts for a fence for the site. Dragging those gladiators was hard work. The rubber base is heavy - 13 to 15 pounds - and moving as many as I did I could feel it in my shoulders and back. I then had to play traffic cop since the truck block the sightline for parents pulling out of the parking lot. Oh, the concrete truck showed up right before school let out. Great timing - not!

I had sorted out the batting by color and size. I found two pieces that were the right size for baby quilts already.

I use stitch 13a on my machine to sew the batting together rather than a regular zig zag stitch which can cause a ridge to form.

I now have five pieces of batting for baby quilts - the two that were the right size already and three more I stitched together with pieces.

I have another one laid out that is eight pieces of batting I will have to sew together

This is what I have left of the white batting. I will try and get one more made out of these

Next I will sew together the natural batting scraps.

I didn't get to take a half day vacation Wednesday or Thursday because of the fencing contractors on site, but they don't work Friday's so I plan on making it a long weekend and take that half day today.

Have a great weekend!