color...

I am a huge fan of color.. Once I painted our master bedroom a color called lipstick...it was so bright that my girls called it whorehouse pink...  I did finally paint over that color, but it's only because we put the house up for sale and I wasn't sure how it would appeal to the masses...lol  Of course I also painted over the navy blue in the dining room ...I did however draw the line at removing the black and white checkerboard kitchen floor and when we sold the house, the buyers did mention they loved it...

The last two days, I have been playing with these...

The St Louis Modern Quilt Guild challenge isn't due until June but I am a procrastinator and if I don't have it done early, I will be up the night before the meeting attempting to throw something together.  I thought I had a plan and then on Sunday when hubby and I were driving home we got to talking about it.  His thought was I should cut each charm in half and somehow sew the points together...  I tried to explain about the 1/4 " seam allowance, but he said "well, you can do anything, it won't be a problem".  Well, he's wrong. I can't sew points together, but he got me thinking and I did decide my design... so yesterday and today I have been cutting and sewing and cutting and sewing some more...  I now have the majority of the quilt finished, but I need a background color and can't decide between white and black.  We can only use solids except for the binding where apparently we are allowed to go crazy with print...  So if you had a stack of rainbow solids would you use black? or white? for a background...

My thoughts...

• white is fresh
• white looks a lot like snow and I am sick of snow already
• would black look "too Amish" with the brights
• would gray look better?
• how long can I procrastinate...

AND the biggest incentive of the challenge?  If you don't bring a finished quilt to the June meeting..and finished means quilted AND bound...you have to pay the guild back for the charms...to the tune of $10.  That would hurt...

Nancy

On my design wall...

I just finished a BOM which the local quilt shop called "First Saturday".  I think they changed the name to suck us Non-BOM people in..  So what did I do??  Joined another BOM. The little bird sucked me in, so I am blaming him. At least she calls it as it is..It's one block a month...in redwork...  I just finished block 1 for January.. 

Even if you don't want to join in, you should go over to Little Miss Shabby and look at her block.  She is doing it with little 2 1/2 inch squares surrounding the block.  I being a smart ass, decided to start the redwork on a gray Kona and then I couldn't find a line of fabric for the squares..and believe me I have googled gray with red, red with gray, looked on Etsy, at all the online shops I could find and nothing, nada.. So if you are a designer of fabric, please think of red and gray as your next palette.. I would be eternally grateful..

click over to her blog and look on the right side bar for the pattern

 So yesterday found me at Hobby Lobby looking for a background for another secret project (which I found!) and as I was leaving, this little black polka dot on dark gray jumped in front of me..and screamed..and I bought 3 yards... I really like it..

behind the BOM is my Modern Quilt Guild Challenge fabric

I decided to work ahead and get all my blocks cut and sewn into rows.  By the time the last block comes out, I will be ready to add the side sashing and be done.. Doesn't that sound like a great plan?  Let's hope it works..

On other news, we got snow...not just some snow...we got SOME SNOW!!!

that's the son shoveling

Officially we have 8 inches... Our yard  has a bad habit of drifting so there are some places where we have around 20 inches...  ridiculous...and now the son is trying to get to work.  It took our daughter 3 hours to get to work this morning...  OMG... I just peeked out the front door..  Our son was shoveling the driveway and it looks like he stopped at the end of the truck.  The bottom 1/3 of the driveway is still full of snow!!  WTH!!
Guess he will be finishing that up when he gets home..  do I warn him? or just let him find out then?  hm...

We have to get out tomorrow by 9am.  I have a dentist appointment and it's not one I can cancel.  I lost a big chunk of my front tooth yesterday.  Apparently the potato chips were stale? 

So guess it's back to the sewing room... and I'm taking the iPad with me so the son can text me that he got to work safe and sound...

Nancy

First Challenge...

chal·lenge   /ˈtʃælɪndʒ/ Show Spelled [chal-inj] noun, verb, -lenged, -leng·ing, adjective

1.  a call or summons to engage in any contest, as of skill, strength, etc.

2.  a call to fight, as a battle, a duel, etc.

3.  a difficulty in a job or undertaking that is stimulating to one engaged in it.

My new (and most favorite) quilt guild has issued us a challenge.  We have the best president ever. She was given a hint to contact Robert Kaufman Fabrics.  The company sent us enough of these charm packs for each due paying member of the guild.  In return, we just need to give permission to use photographs of our work on their blog should they decide to honor us with a post.  So, our president has issued a challenge. 

As with any challenge there are rules..

Finished item must be able to hang on wall.  So no purses, bowls, clothing, etc.

Finished item must be between 120"-180" in perimeter.

We must use at least 21 of the charm squares.

Item MUST be quilted and bound.

We can add 1 or 2 other SOLID fabrics.  

Finish date is June 11th.

If we don't finish by June 11th, we have to pay the guild $10 for the charm pack.  That right there is a major incentive ...

 Oy vey... this IS a challenge for me.  I have been playing around with my markers and graph paper for a few days now and might have an idea.  It needs tweaking, but I think I like it...  

Want a sneak peak?

photo doctored by picnik.com

What? You thought I was actually going to let you see my sketch??  I don't think so.  I think even this photo shows a bit too  much.  I will promise to show some sneak peaks in the future and I might even show a good photo before June 11th...but don't hold your breath. 

Right now there is no judging or prizes, but that could change by June 11th...  Who knows, maybe Robert Kaufman himself will fly in to judge...crazier things have happened .. There IS a real live Robert Kaufman, RIGHT??

Nancy

done...

So most of you liked choice number 2, except for that one that just doesn't feel the PURE love...lol  She is in my guild and the swap so I guess I know who won't go home with my pincushion..  I finished both of them and have them all safely packed in plastic so they don't get dirty...

Why two?  Because the first one doesn't work..  Now a pin cushion has no moving parts, so you are probably wondering how could it not work?   The darker one on the bottom is the first one I made.  Deco weight fabric x 2 plus an iron on stabilizer means pins won't go through. hm... so I made the top one with PURE cotton with the deco weight patch and NO iron on stabilizer and I love it even better...  I think I will give it as a twosome...  We will celebrate the oops as Jamie would say...

Nancy

swap decisions...

My chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild announced a pin cushion swap for next meeting...  Rules are simple..
Modern fabrics, handmade and I guess that's it..  So why is it so hard for me to make a decision?

I cleaned up the sewing room this morning and then pulled three sets of fabrics...

Can you help me choose?

I like them all, but am particularly attracted to choice 2....  I think because it's a heavier decorator weight and might make a good pin cushion...


I got the borders on the charity quilt the other day...  I tried to take a nice photo outside but the temp is 10F and the wind is gusting at about 40 mph... You can imagine how that worked out.  Lucky I didn't have to chase the thing down the street..   So here is my son holding it up in the entryway...

I put a nice blue scrappy border on it..and it is now folded and ready for the guild meeting in a week or so..(nope, just checked...guild meeting is this MONDAY)...it just creeps up on me every month...

Back to the sewing room...

Nancy

let's get back to sewing...

I was driving down the street and stopped and rang the doorbell...  She stood there at the door and welcomed me into the house...  As I followed down a long hallway, I wondered where we were heading, but kept my mouth shut.  We crouched down and went through a very small door and on the other side was a long porch.  It was filled with tables and we sat down.  A man brought us drinks and she stared at me...
I wondered what she was going to tell me.  I hadn't spoken to her for more than 10 years.   She had her knitting sitting next to her and she asked me one question...

Why aren't you sewing?

Then I woke up.

For the first time, I had dreamed of my maternal grandmother.  She passed away May 3rd of 2001.  For the last year or so she suffered from Alzheimer's and was mute.   I thought about this dream all day while I was running my errands.  Going to Lowe's to give them the final measurements for the counter top, picking up meds at the pharmacy and remembering to buy milk and forgetting to get dog biscuits.

My grandmother was a seamstress.  She made many of our dresses and most of my prom and homecoming outfits.  After we grew too old for her sewing she started crocheting and knitting.  She would make afghans and I have the last one she ever made.  Yes, there are a few skipped stitches but I wouldn't trade it for anything...

Late this afternoon I thought about her words to me in that dream...so I headed up to the sewing room and
sewed 12 blocks together to finish a quilt top, then I got the borders cut and I hope to have those put on tonight.

I feel much better and I think grandma would approve...

Nancy