Monday, November 26, 2012

Oh yes, I've been busy

Thanksgiving sort of shook up the routine, but I've been working away on my projects.

All the blocks for the third design-your-own are finished and ready to be made into a top.



Blocks for a group quilt. This will be cool with stripped sashing. It's all batiks.


The inside of Prisma is put together. Ready for the first border, and the outer border, which is more strata.


Slowly but surely. Plugging away at the in-process pile. The holidays are upon us, but hopefully I can still keep plugging away at the stack.

Thanksgiving at "the crik" was fun, as always. Burgers on the grill, and a turkey, and family/friends. How could it be bad? I hope yours was as much fun as ours.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Fun, and progress

I'm still playing with a number of different projects. Gosh it's fun to work this way! No boredom. Even the not-so-fun parts of quilting are easier to take when I know I only have to do a little of it before I can jump into the next thing. (Note: this doesn't work for people who get over-angst'ed by having more than one project going at a time.)

I finished the last of the "big" Safari blocks (4 shown here). Now I can put this top together. I'm still thinking it's going to need something else. Buttons? Some applique? I'll know more when I see the whole thing put together.
 More Scrap-o-lator blocks. I'm really enjoying these, even when they get wonkified. I have 11 so far. The pattern calls for 91, but I don't want to make a quilt that large so I'll need only 72. I see more than one of these quilts in my future. Such a fun way to use scraps!
 More blocks from the third design-your-own quilt. This one has a Halloween theme.
 I got more of Prisma put together. I still don't like that upper left corner. I think the purple shouldn't be broken up with that yellow; the purple should be a straight line. What do you think?
 The lower left corner got put together.
 I found these pieces while digging through more STUFF. (I have a lot of stuff). The first pic is of parts made in my class with Jean Wells at Empty Spools earlier this year. I think I'm ready to make a couple of small works from them.
 The triangles were made in Gwen Marston's class (also at Empty Spools earlier this year). They have potential ... I'm not sure what yet, but I like them.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Finding Stuff

I took a deep breath and dove into the Closet of the Great Unknown Projects the other day. I was looking for one specific project, and (oh snap, what a surprise!) found others I'd forgotten about. I've been having such fun just playing. Work a little on one, a little on the next. Never bored that way. Here's what I've been up to.

Prisma is still in pieces -



but not as many ...
The upper left corner is together. I'm not sure it'll stay that way, but for now at least there's progress.



I've made more of the big Safari blocks



Oh looky! I found some New York Beauty blocks. Playtime!


I actually went looking for this Tree of Life. I started it years and years ago and decided to get to work on it again.

Well. I got one more row added.


There's no real pattern, so I'm guessing on a lot of the parts. That upper left corner presents a challenge, so who knows what will happen, but it's still fun to play with.


Speaking of fun - I started making some Scrap-o-lator blocks (from the book of the same name, by Dianne Springer). Wow, what a blast these are!

Here's the last of my recent shop-hop stash



And here's my Crate and Barrel booty


Yep, that impromptu shop hop (which included Crate & Barrel, and Ikea) was not one of my least expensive weekends. Fun anyway.

And that's what I've found. Can't wait to see what I do next.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Design-your-own Blocks Finished

The last of the title blocks - the double-4-patches - are finished. They are soooo pink-and-gray in this pic, but they are purple and pale blue.


Another set of blocks done. Seriously - I need to start putting them together soon.

I've started sewing the Prisma together, but not before making 2 more strata sets (I needed more green). It's fun to be working on a simple project and a complex project at the same time: I don't get bored.

Here are the first pics of adding-to-the-stash that occurred during the impromptu shop-hop:



Yummy stuff, indeed! Is that all of it? HAHAHAHAHA!!! Heck no.

A few more pics from the quilt show:
Adorable skirt made from selvedges. Hanging in the Hoffman Challenge.



 Love the positive/negative of this one












Wait till you see the close ups of THIS one!




 Yep ... the whole thing is beaded. She like it so much she made it twice! Autumn and Spring.



I'm no photographer, but at least you get some sense of the workmanship in these quilts. Fabulous!! Still more to come on another day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

More Blocks, and the World Quilt Show

Whew, what a crazy long weekend! We did an impromptu shop hop. We also included Ikea and Crate & Barrel in our hopping. We wandered the state, changing directions on a whim, deciding where - or even if - to stop for the night towards late afternoon. What fun that was!  My credit card didn't completely melt, but it's looking a little bendy. Pics of the new stuff later.

Here's my progress for yesterday - more blocks for the design-your-own. I used the "wrong" side of the starry fabric on some of the HST blocks. What the heck - I paid for both sides.

Half-square triangle blocks and 9-patches

The World Quilt Show (West Palm Beach, Florida) was wonderful, as always. Here are a few pics of the quilts that impressed me most. Some of them are for the quilting rather than the quilt. Wow, there was a lot of quilting on some of them!

















More pics of the show tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!