I. Am. On. My. Laptop.

Someone pinch me to make sure I'm awake and not dreaming! My DH said he only slept two hours last night because he was working on my computer. I am so grateful for his technical help (and all the other many ways he helps, too).

DH's father and stepmother will be here any minute, so I'll post some updates later.

~Joan

All-Night Sew Pictures

Here is Susanna at the sew-in night. She finished a twin-sized quilt top (except for borders). Pictures of that later.

The quilts in the class room were all quilted by the owners of the shop. Lovely work.

Here are the first two sawtooth stars for my wall hanging. The pieces for this are much larger than I am used to working with. Usually my squares finish at an inch. These are gigantic!!

Ann is in the black shirt. She and her husband own the quilt shop (a dream job, IMHO). Here I am laying out my 4-patches. A design wall would have been nice, but an empty table worked, too.

By now most of you have probably realized I'm quite the perfectionist when it comes to piecing. I realized (too late) that the stems on my leaf blocks were cut a half inch wider than they were supposed to be. I tried to talk myself into letting it go. Truly--I did! But my first opportunity, I removed the squares with the stems and replaced them with ones of the correct size. We can all sleep well again. I didn't want to look at this quilt for the next twenty years and think, "I should have replaced those stems when it was easy!" every time.

I think we're going to go back the next time she has one of these, which will be June 25. We haven't been piecing so much lately. With summer comes new activities.

Speaking of new activities, we (the girls and I) have been going to the YMCA for water aerobics every AM except Sundays. I went down the tube slide today. Sorry you missed it, because it won't be happening again!

~Joan

Boo Hoo

My computer is not fixed. Evidently it is unfixable.

More disappointing news. My Little Gracie quilt frame cannot support the quilting machine I finally relented to let my husband buy me! Hahaha... Just a wrinkle in the plan.

~Joan

Nearly There

A friend from church said he thinks he can fix my laptop relatively easily. I've been w/o it for nearly two weeks. I have been OK. Going to the YMCA takes up a lot of time, and I've been getting little projects around the house finished.

As soon as I can I will post some more quilt show pics as well as progress on my own projects. That includes two big finishes. I know you can hardly wait!

Pictures Forthcoming

Just an update on our all-night sew. There were only two other ladies sewing besides the shop owner, Ann, Susie, and me. We got there at the same time as the Domino's Pizza delivery man...good timing!!

The evening had its ups and downs. We learned what to bring or leave home next time (for example, I should have brought ALL the pieces for my quilt...grrr...). A caffeinated diet beverage would have added to my evening. All in all it was great.

Susie completely pieced a twin-bed sized charm Thimbleberries quilt top except for the outer two borders. It was a pattern she could sew w/o ever having to press, so she had the pedal to the metal and sewed, sewed, sewed. She was fun and we had a great time together, especially the trip home, the contents thereof which are sworn to secrecy.

I nearly completed my fall quilt top. I have saved the pattern for...TWELVE years. Susie was 3 when I saw it and filed it. I will be spending some time in OH this summer and will be glad to have some hand-quilting projects to work on.

After I finished all I could on that quilt, I sewed nearly all the subunits for batik baby quilt #2, including more HSTs for pinwheels.

My only purchase of the evening was binding for a surprise quilt for someone. Pictures of that after delivery...in a couple of months.

We nearly went to the end of the evening. We stopped sewing and packed up about 11:30. The other ladies left way earlier than that. We didn't want to wear out our welcome.

As a side note, I've been going to the YMCA and doing deep water aerobics. There was no class when I was there today. Two men were doing freestyle laps for the whole 45 minutes I was there. As in Energizer Bunny men. They never even stopped for a breather, to look around, to stand up. I think they might have been Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps. I couldn't say, because I only saw the back 1/10 of them...ever.

~Mermaid Joan

All-Night Sew!!!!!!!

I am giddy with excitement for two reasons...last weekend on the way home from Asheville, my husband and I stopped at a little quilt store. I didn't even know existed until two weeks ago. They are having an all-night sew (their first) tonight. I AM GOING!!! It's from 6 PM until midnight. That's my first reason. The second is like it, namely this...SUSANNA IS GOING WITH ME!!!!!!!!

I cut out two kits last night. One is for a fall wall hanging for my kitchen (I've been wanting to make it for years...ever hear me say that before?). The second is another batik baby quilt. One of the kids said, "You're only taking two things to piece? You're going to be there SIX hours." Good point. Since I've never had the pleasure of sewing for six uninterrupted hours, I have no idea how much I will get done. There is no subcutting in the kits I made to take. Everything is precut. Will it last the six hours?? Oh, gleeeeeeeeee!

~Joan

To My Regular Readers

My computer is locked and the password is unknown. Don't ask. Please come back in a week or so when I can access my laptop. I am on a desk-top in our kitchen writing this. Can't wait to be back!