A little more done

Accomplishments! After a few boring days and no sewing progress, I got some more done. I've finished all the donation blocks for the 2013 guild quilt.

I finished the last set of blocks for the design-your-own quilt  double 9-patches.

Now all the blocks are made for this one and I can get to the designing part. Here are all the blocks:

The idea is to make a bunch of each, then have fun arranging until you have something you like. Keeping similar (but varied) backgrounds adds more interest to the quilt.

I finished all the little blocks for Safari ...

...and made one big block to show you what they'll look like.

(No, the seams don't match - they're not suppose to.) Can't wait to see what this one will look like when it's all pieced. I think it will need something else - maybe a little applique or embellishment (or both). We'll see! It's really fun to make things that have no predetermination of what they'll look like when they're finished.

Today was sew-in day at the local quilt shop: I was able to finish the borders on the rest of the jelly-roll-race/1600 charity quilts. I'm glad to have them done!

I made it to a Triple D (Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives) restaurant last week - Metro Diner here in Jacksonville.  Then there was a show yesterday featuring Zia, in Santa Fe, NM - another one to add to my list! I was there this spring. I'm heading to the Mancuso World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach this weekend and will hopefully hit Havana Hideout and can add that one to my list. It'll be fun to see how many of the places I can add to my list over the next few years.

I tried a new recipe, too - Ann Burrell's Asian pork tenderloin. It's really good. And easy. I recommend giving it a try.

That's it for the non-boring parts. Thanks for stopping by!

It was a good day

I sure did get a lot of STUFF done today. The last week has been pretty productive, come to think of it.

For starters, there are the charity quilts I'm doing for our guild. Did I pick up one kit? Two? Noooooooo. I had to pick up FIVE! They are Jelly Roll Race/1600/Potato Chip quilts,

so they're easy to sew, but they look really awful without borders. (This one looks pretty awful even WITH the border! Maybe I'll add some yellow fused stars.) At least that's my opinion. So - all the tops are made (my friend Nelda sewed one for me), borders are on 3 of them, and the borders are cut for the other two. The bindings for all are also cut. I want to turn these in to go to the next guildie, who will quilt them, at our meeting next week.

While checking my stash for borders for those JRRs, I ran across 2 other almost-tops that I picked up at a quilt sale function to also turn into charity quilts. I got those borders/bindings cut as well and maybe I'll also be able to get those done by the meeting. (I'll tell you a secret: I'm thinking about keeping them & going ahead & quilting them myself, but don't tell anyone else.)

These are some of the blocks for our guild's 2013 donation quilt:

I'm doing 8 of these blocks (they go pretty quick), and got a few more done today. I have 6 made - should be easy to finish the other two by the meeting. There's a star block that will alternate with these blocks: the quilt is gonna be great!

I got some more Safari blocks done today, as well:

These are also easy-peasy. I guess I shouldn't call them a block YET (4 of these littles will be put together to make a big): I guess they're still just block parts. At any rate, I got more of them done. 

I'm also working on old projects that have been cut and ready to sew for who-knows-how-many-years. (Hey, I really PLANNED for my retirement!!) These are blocks for a design-your-own quilt from a M'liss Rae Hawley book. 

I'm working on the blocks a little at a time so I don't get bored. Won't it be fun to see how these turn out? I still have about 4 other blocks to make for this "mystery". Oh, and of course there's not just ONE "kit" cut - there are three. Honestly, I never seem to be able to do just ONE of anything; it's a personality defect.

So, you can see it was a productive day! Yay!  Here are a few random pics just to show what I've been up to lately:

Earlier this month, the three travelers (I'm in the middle) headed across the pond to Paris and Florence for 12 days. We ended up being there 13 days because we missed a connection & had to spend an extra night in Paris (oh darn) on the way home.

This is one of the many pics I took from the top of ....

....this.  Gorgeous view, huh?

Here's just a few of the things offered in the central market in Florence

Meat

Porcini mushrooms (I brought home 3 bags!)

Pasta of ever shape and color imaginable (I brought home penis pasta for Nelda)

More meat. Prosciutto:yum!

Parts of critters I never wanted to know about, much less see

I loved the trip, but was glad to get home and do a little sewing. I made a bunch of these sweet blocks.

 

I also made Ann Burrell's Bolognese sauce, but added one of those bags of porcini mushrooms. It's very yum!

Then I spent a long weekend at beautiful Epworth-by-the-Sea (St. Simon's Island, Georgia) with the Camden Quilt Guild. It's beautiful here.

So that's what I've been up to. I'll post some more random pics of France and Italy over the next few weeks since I didn't bother to blog while I was there!

Thanks for stopping by.