I had a pretty good weekend even with company distracting me. I finished the quilt on the machine. I measured to square it up for the binding and was surprised to see it didn't need any squaring at all. I'll save the binding to do later.



Here is a close up of the quilting.



Saturday I helped my sister in law cut out the pieces for her next quilt. She drew out a small design on paper and I did the math so she would know what to cut. While she was cutting her fabrics I went looking for inspiration for a leader and ender project.

I looked through my printed internet patterns...



and through my books.....


before deciding I wouldn't choose a pattern right now. I don't really need to create another UFO or PIG right now. All I really need are some leaders and enders. I can decide what to do with them later.
Sunday before my grandaughter arrived I finished piecing this top together. It was supposed to be a step by step Backward pieced design to put onto my helpful hints blog. When my computer was crashed I lost the direction pictures. So I guess I have to start another one.... smile.



I started it several weeks ago. I thought if I finished it up I could use it as a window quilt in the archway between my studio and kitchen. It would replace these curtains.



That top is scheduled for machine time during my next in house retreat.... maybe.... whenever that might be. It has to be sometime before the cold weather arrives though.

Next I began to cut some fabric into 2 inch strips. I was planning to cut them again into 2 inch squares for leaders and enders when I started thinking about what leaders and enders are supposed to be. No rules exist to say leaders and enders must be tiny pieces of fabric. Nothing anywhere says they can't be long strips.


My leaders and enders are going to be long strips for awhile. See... all cut and ready to start using. I'll decide what to do with them when the time comes. The strips can become just about any kind of design. They don't have to be four patches or nine patches.



I never did get around to the other projects I wanted to complete over the weekend. Maybe I should think about scheduling another in house retreat pretty soon.

Last night I finally had some tomatoes from my vines. These are cherry and yellow pear. Something is killing the plants so I'm not sure I will get anymore.



Ok, time for me to get my day started..... a quilt on the machine is calling me.

The eight to what quilt

Some may remember several months ago I took several red 8 inch squares and several 8 inch light squares and sliced and sewed until I got finished half square blocks that looked like it was made from 2 inch squares. Yesterday I finished the quilting on it. I will do the binding later today but first I have a t-shirt quilt to finish and get onto the machine.

To see the steps please visit my webshots album here. Look for the album called testing technique.


I hope the quilting shows up for you to see. I did a feather (again) in the border. I did leaves in the sashing. I did a flower design and line dancing in the blocks.


This is the back side showing the flower design of the blocks.


Another view of the block from the front.


This morning I tried my best to figure out what is ailing my computer again. I seem to be out of memory (pentium 4 processor) but not being computer literate I'm not sure. I want to start putting my hints and tips and ten to what quilt patterns into another blog pretty soon. I can't do that if I can't save the photos to include in the blog. Today after work I will delete out as many photos as I can to make more room.

I suspect some of my problems are caused by so many different photo sorting softwares added as I got new cameras, printers, etc. Each one wants to the THE one to use but none of them want to play nicely together. I guess a call to one of the nerd herd is in order after the holidays. But gee....they are so expensive! It probably would be cheaper to just get another computer.

Quilts and Quilting

Wow! Its working again!!! Thank you to the nice person from blog land who answered my cry for help. You made a little old lady very happy today.

So here is today's finished quilt. It was 95 x 122. I'm very happy he wanted the Circle Lord Baptist fans on it.



In between searching all over blogger for answers; I took breaks to cut on fabrics in order to vent my frustrations. I got out some of my string blocks and trimmed them up to 6 x 9. Now I have to find a quilt design I like to use them in. This is before trimming.

This is after trimming.


This is after separating them into strips going horizontal and strips going vertical.


Now that all the internet stuff is taken care of maybe I can get back to normal. I will be gone all day tomorrow and probably Friday too. I wanted to get all this straightened out first. I will be at the Kentucky State Fair looking at all the quilts entered that I quilted. It will probably be the last time I get a chance to see them up close and personal.

Organizing mood again

These are pictures of the quilts I finished this week. These are three of my five fair entries for this year. I actually got them all finished for a change. Usually I don’t. I did feel a little guilty about not working on customer quilts. But hey, sometimes I just gotta do something that makes me happy or else I won’t be happy working on customer quilts. Being unhappy always leads to problems. I was also sick in bed two days this week. I don’t know what was wrong, just that I felt awful and had a stuffy head. It was probably the high pollution count the last few days.

I’m in an organizing mood again. I’ve let my quilting stuff take over the house again so it is time for reorganizing. I started with the computer which is loaded with photos and moving very slow.

I tried moving my quilt pictures off the computer and onto a CD. It didn’t work. I haven’t a clue why? Do I need to do something to a CD before it can accept stuff? I keep getting a message that the disks are not usable. I did have a new CD drive put into the computer a few weeks ago. This is the first time I tried to use it. I also bought CDs that say rewriteable. But, do they need to be formatted or something to work?

Sunday is my day for shopping. Today I’m going to look at some organizing things. I don’t plan to buy anything just look for ideas. I don’t buy organizing items because someone says I should. I look for ideas then keep them in mind as I start sorting through what it is I want to organize.

Ok, enough post writing, my organizing genes are telling me to go do something useful.

Charity quilts?

Have you been wondering what I’ve done this week? Here are the pictures from this week….














Ok, blogger is still not letting me move the pictures around as before. It has all this html jibberish instead of pictures so there isn't any way for me to know for sure which one is which. The last of the five memory quilts are finished and gone. There is a pink whole cloth quilt brought to me to quilt after it was already bound. There are pictures of the hugs and kisses quilt I am making for the fair. It is on the machine right now. There is a customer quilt top I finished.

Friday I managed to find time between quilts for phoning financial planners. I can never figure out if they are planners or advisors. Anyway, I stayed on the phone half the day; most said “so you’re a quilter, nice hobby” or something similar. I did find the perfect planner for my daughter. I’m anxious to see how those two will work together.

Three of the planners talked with me a long time by phone. All three of them said the same thing…. Stay where I am for now. Fix up the house first. Save money for a down payment to move.

Even if people were buying houses in this area; my house would not sell in its present condition. This week I will be calling to get estimates on repairing the damage to the exterior and then vinyl siding. I do hate paying for estimates though. I believe estimates should be free.

The overhead lights in my studio have quit working. I replaced the bulbs but it seems the ballast has gone bad in both so they need to be replaced. This limits the hours I can work to only daylight hours for now. Calls to electricians for estimates on electrical work are going to be done this week too. This means more payments for estimates. There goes the savings again….

I’ve been asked by Farnsley-Moorman Landing to create an art/pictorial quilt they can auction next spring during the Mayor’s Derby Brunch. Actually, I’ve been asked by six different charities if I would donate an art/pictorial quilt for them to auction.

This is very flattering and certainly would get me recognition around this area. There are a lot of important people attending these auctions. Many of them could become potential customers in the future.

I had to really think hard about all the requests for charity quilts though. Giving to charity is something I do regularly. I work it into my budget. I have my favorite charity the same as other people do. So… if I were giving cash instead of art quilts would I donate to those charities? Hmmm….If I convert the hours needed to create an art quilt into income dollars then add the cost of fabrics and utilities; no, I can’t afford to give that much of my income to six different charities. Charity does not keep a roof over my head or food on the table. Phone calls to say NO are in order this week too.

Now that these decisions have been made I think its time to get off the computer and get ready for a day of shopping. If I don’t buy groceries I won’t be eating. My daughter will be here in about an hour, got to get my shopping list together.