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.