Red and White

Decided on a layout for my Tree of Life blocks after completing 4 of the blocks. I will make 4 more that will be placed in the corners and add sashing between them. I am getting pretty excited about this quilt.

Then I started on my blocks for Just Takes 2 mystery quilt. These are a combination of blocks from both set one and set two. 

I am trying my hand at Redwork for the first time. What started out as a cold moved into my chest and a cough later this week. I figured it would be a good time to take it easy with some handwork. So far it's not looking too good :0( Tried it with a hoop, without, with a stabiliser, without... first one has become a practice piece. Will try again, later. Pushing the button on the camera is about all the energy I have for today. Best to burn a day and get to feeling better.

Sure so miss checking the CW blog for a new block on Saturday mornings. Barbara Brackman did post more pictures of finished tops today. Check them out here

UFOs and design wall Monday

After last weeks news that sent me into outer space, I am working on my UFOs!!! :0) As much as I want to start on Just Takes 2, I set a goal of finishing a UFO first.

This is one quilt I worked on over the weekend. It started from HST pieces that were cut away triangles from Snowball blocks on my red and white quilt (pictured below). Made last year and, yes, it's on my UFO list too. This will be a small quilt with Tree of Life blocks. Posted this for Design Wall Monday on Patchwork Times

Tree of Life blocks

Red and White quilt with snowball blocks

Second is a UFO that is FINISHED!!! It's #5 from my UFO list also on Judy's blog and her 2012 UFO Challenge . "Connected Friends" is a quilt I made in 2004 from charms swapped with online friends. Quilted last week, now the binding is done and I added a sleeve. It will hang on a wall in my studio to remind me of online friends!

Connected Friends

Plus... these are squares that I use for leaders and enders when chain piecing. These are for a postage stamp quilt in the making...

Set up two more quilts for my Quilting 101 classes. With 3 on the calendar at Cathy's these fill the calendar to the middle of the year.

I think I did enough to fulfil my goal so I'm off to start a new UFO! lol
Happy Quilting and have a great week!

3 of my CW blocks to be published!

Block 12 ~ Louisiana

Block 26 ~ Barbara Frietchie Star

Block 50 ~ Grapes of Wrath

I am so excited!!! I received an email from Barbara Brackman asking to include 3 of my Civil War blocks in her upcoming book!!! 

 The three blocks above are the ones Barbara selected. 

She is including blocks from several quilters in our Circle of Friends. 

Two examples of color and fabrics per block pattern.

This absolutely made my day, week... possibly my year! American Homestead and Quilting Bear Gal both posted that they too have blocks selected so I know I'm not dreaming!!! lol pinch! pinch! I imagine a couple of the Australian girls were included, especially Kookaburra calling. Her blocks all included flowers and were gorgeous. Everyone that participated came up with beautiful blocks!

Update: quiltminstrel also has blocks chosen! So modest she doesn't mention it until the very end of her post along with pics of her CW blocks. Lots of eye candy before you get there! Congratulations Merilyn!  Well deserved

I returned my permission form. The biggest decision was whether to use my real name or moonbear. I choose my real name but no one will know it's me! lol

Now it's going to be forever before the book comes out in 2013!!! The book's title will be "Civil War Blocks" by Barbara Brackman. 

Great Long Weekend!

Quilted two of my UFOs.
Here is NYD Mystery Chips 'n Strips. Quilted an all over feather with a feather border. Have the inner border to do yet. The binding will be pieced with the deep red around the corners and one of the dark fabrics along the sides. This quilt top and the binding is completely made of scraps and left over strips!!!

...and Connected Friends quilted with an all over meander with stars panto. This quilt is scrappy too because it's made from swapped charms all Celestial fabrics!

Quilted these on Friday and then got a call from my best friend Sally about coming down from Tahoe to visit us for the weekend! Yipee!! Shopped, watched football, got caught up with the latest and eating out. Michael made us a great home cooked meal on Sunday. We went to antique stores and Sally got to meet Brandie at 8th and Main. We had the best weekend!!!

It's very noisy this morning, we have a tree crew cutting down Privet trees along one side of the property along our driveway. It's an invasive tree here in Northern California with dark purple berries that make a mess. When the Wax Wings (100 at a time) come through to munch on the berries it "rains" purple bird poop. It's terrible!!! Other than loosing a little summer shade, my truck and I are not going to miss them at all!

Off to take mom to a doctor's appointment and then back to some quilting this afternoon. Next up is binding and making labels. My quilting class was postponed to this Thursday but I am good to go for that. Oh, and last week I picked up my white fabric for Just Takes 2. I had planned to wash and treat the reds to get started over the weekend but had way too much fun with Sally!

Have a wonderful and quilty week!
Jo

New Year's Day Mystery Quilt

Tweeked the New Year's Day Mystery quilt so it took longer to finish the top. I finished it this morning. It's called Chips 'n Strips. Here are some pics:

Chips 'n Strips NYD Mystery quilt

I ended up with extra blocks so I added another row. That changed the border sizes. Because it is a mystery quilt, the borders were already cut. So, I changed the border cornerstones. Original plan were for nine patch corners. Michael had  the great idea to add more squares to the nine patch in order to lengthen the outer border strips. It worked! I love how much he has learned about quilting just hanging out with me! The square in the inner border was in the original plan and the added squares simply changed the entire corner to a 16 patch!

Close up of corner

I am happy with how it turned out. Always a challenge to pull fabrics for a mystery. They don't always turn out. Last years NYD Mystery was UGLY! lol

Just went to Planet Patchwork's website to show you the original quilt but they have taken it down already. Oh well. I am pretty much done with them. There are lots of other great projects waiting to happen!

Busy week. Wednesday was my Block of the Month meetings, one at 10am and a second at 6pm at Cathy's. We did block #5 Jacobs Ladder. It's fun to see everyone doing the same sampler quilt in totally different fabrics.

Thursday was Annie's Star Guild meeting. We had a wonderful speaker, trunk show and workshop by Alethea Ballard of Maverick Quilts. She was a really fun speaker. I did not sign up for her workshop on Friday but dropped by at the end of the day to see quilts made by members. Wow!!! Really fun quilts. She invited me to stay for the last of her class. She has a whole different way to look at fabrics and how to cut them up for borders. Really kewl.

Friday I had to finish FMQing my sample quilt for my next Quilting 101 class. Cathy's had a Checkers Demo Day on Saturday morning and we wanted to get the class sample up for everyone to see. Was up late on Friday but I got it finished! Hung it up on Saturday and stayed for the demo. Lots of new rulers and gadgets. I picked up a couple of books, one ruler, a template and some fun gizmos. One is a suction handle. I bought a medium size for my HST cutting template. Also a tool for FMQ. Can't wait to use it. There were fabric paints, die cutters... all sorts of fun toys to play with!
This is the gripper. I will be able to cut HST faster and safer!
These are the fabric guides for FMQ. 2 sizes. Will get back to you on these once I use them. They look like they could be good for machine appliqué as well. Will see.

Fun week! Now on to my UFO challenge quilt #5 which is my Friendship stars quilt. I updated my 2012 UFO challenge post with pictures of my quilt tops. Click here to go to the post :0)

Happy Quilting! Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Off to a good start

"Whatever you do on New Year's Day ... you do for the rest of the year"

this according to Vicky's mother ;0) and if it's true, I am off to a good start! 

Most New Year's Day for the past couple of years I've done a NYD Mystery quilt with Planet Patchwork. It's a great way to spend New Year's morning quilting while watching the Rose Parade on TV... EXCEPT this year the Rose Parade will be tomorrow! Why? Because Jan 1st is on Sunday this year... according to Wikapedia some good old boys way back when made a pack with God that if He never made it rain on the Rose Parade that the parade would never be held on a Sunday. Another reason given was they were afraid it would scare the horses with buggies hitched outside the many churches on Colorado Boulevard along the parade route.

Just not the same without the parade, altho I did enjoy the football games. Yea Forty Niners! I finished half of my Mystery quilt and decided to finish the other half tomorrow morning while the parade is on. So we end up with two New Years Days this year! Not too bad!

So far I like the Mystery quilt and how it's turning out. I will post a picture of the top tomorrow when it's complete. Sorry, no pic! This will be the last year I do their Mysteries. Mistakes as usual and I ended up with too many blocks and pieces. So I decided to change the layout, which led to a redesign of the corner blocks because now the border pieces are too short. Drat, now it really is a UFO, not even the top is finished. Bye bye Planet Patchwork...

2012 UFO Challenge ~ Judy posted Quilt # 5 for January. Yippee for me as my #5 is a quilt top ready for quilting and binding.  Friendship Stars is a top made from star fabrics I swapped in a Celestial Star Swap that Luna Lisa hosted while we were members of AAQMB.  

Speaking of UFOs, I am off to a good start getting new ones started. lol Besides the Mystery quilt I am working on today, I saw a post on the Civil War site by Terry about a new quilt project called "Just takes 2" I held off to sign up because I wanted this year to be about finishing quilts and FMQ. But I gave in! :0) Besides, it will give me something to do for next year's UFO list. AND... it's a red and white quilt. Check it out, I put up a button on by side bar. 

A closing thought about Resolutions... I only like to make one: Quilt! Having said that, here is a list I'd like to share, emailed yesterday from a wonderful quilt shop in Georgetown, Texas called Poppy Quilt and Sew:

2012 New Year's Resolutions
- Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the   ultimate anti-depressant.
- Eat more food that grows on trees and plants, and eat less that is manufactured.
- Drink green tea, and plenty of water.
- Don't take yourself too seriously, no one else does.
- Make peace with your past, so you don't spoil the present. What other people
  think of you is none of your business. Forgive everyone for everything.
- No one is in charge of your happiness, but you.
- Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: 

" I am thankful for ______________. Today I accomplished ________________"
- Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed, after all you have many friends that share the love of quilting with you. You can also share your talents with those around you, whether making a quilt, or teaching someone to quilt. 

Happy quilting in 2012!