Two Tops Finished

This is my accomplishment for this AM. I listed the above 2 tops on eBay. There is a link on the left sidebar if you'd like to take a peek or take them home!!

My other goal this AM is to make a tote bag for my flute, stand, etc., to cart back and forth to church tomorrow. It is a simple pattern, but I hope to jazz it up just a bit. I really like the fabric I picked for the body of the bag. Tune in later for a (hopefully) picture of the finished bag.

~Joan

Carolina Crossroads ~ Installment 6

Yes--third post for today.

I thought these blocks deserved their own post. I try to limit a post to one subject.

These are some of my Carolina Crossroads large blocks (Ohio Star), corner triangles, and side setting triangles. I am most definitely NOT trying to figure out the pattern. Just wanted to put some up on the design wall to get a picture. My accent color is BLACK.

~Joan

Improved Kitchen View

Here is the view of my kitchen from the refrigerator. No--I don't usually hang out around there. In fact, DD3 took this picture for me (I was busy sewing unit 6 of the Carolina Crossroads quilt). Here are 3 of my children busy on their schoolwork (unaware that the picture was being taken). You can see here where my quilt hanger is in the kitchen and my stunning red walls. When we bought this house, the kitchen walls were this red color.

The room you're seeing in the above picture was actually the formal dining room, and it was BRIGHT yellow. We removed the wall between them, and I liked the dark red walls in the kitchen, so I painted the whole room that same color.




Here is a close-up of the finished quilt. You can't see the lovely texture that comes from hand quilting and then washing/drying, but it's there. I think I can look at this quilt for some time. One other nice thing about its location is that it doesn't get direct sunlight. I already have another kit planned for this same space, but I can take my time.

Back to unit 6!! Whoo-hoo!

~Joan

I Spy Wonky Feathers

Here's my first attempt at "wonky feathers" as Dawn Ramirez calls them. I did this in an all-over freehand pattern on my latest I Spy quilt. I used variegated primary thread. This was done on my regular sewing machine.

I was so impressed with my work. Then my DH came into the sewing room, and I was just gushing with self-pride. He said he likes plain stippling better. Whooooosh...that's the air being let out of my balloon! My oldest DD was with him and said she thought it was "cool", so that helped my ego a bit.

Here's another view. I think these are just so neat. To top off the evening, I washed and dried my Hearthside Memories, and it now hangs in the place of honor in my kitchen. I am using a brass curtain rod with leaves on the ends for that quilt place. I separately bought two little brass hooks for the rod to rest in. The ones that came with the curtain rod would have had it too far from the wall. Love those red walls!!

~Joan

Fabric Buying Will Power?? Hahahaha...

One of my errands in the land far, far away yesterday was to stop at Mary Jo's Cloth Store and get ONE piece of fabric for binding for a customer's quilt. I am trying to be good financially and resist the temptation to buy things that I don't need. I was so good at MJ's...I got exactly what I went for and one item I was looking for but didn't expect to find. I purchased the binding fabric, a simple thimble (less than $1), a hera marker, one small spool of hand quilting thread and a piece of fabric to make a tote bag for carrying my flute, flute stand, music, Bible and other paraphernalia to church. How could I resist the thousands of bolts at Mary Jo's, you might ask?? Well, it's because I knew this was coming...59.6 pounds of fabric bliss!



Monday I had ordered 2 bolts of cream, 4 bolts of blue and 3 bolts of red. All Thimbleberries. It is to beef up my patriotic colors as that is the next big holiday. Let me tell you, my blue department was a shame. Only 4 bolts that didn't even complement each other! Is that sad or what?? I know you understand.

I just finished the binding, hanging sleeve, and LABEL (that's noteworthy for me) on my Hearthside Memories. Now it's in the washer. I hope to put it up tonight. Cross that one off the list.

Just this AM I made a list of all my current projects. Some haven't even been cut yet, some are ongoing block sets like the double pinwheels I showed earlier. A couple are being hand quilted, some are just tops waiting for a good machine quilting mood to strike (I do a lot of my machine quilting in Jan and Feb because eBay sales are slower, so there's hope!). The list wasn't as big as I thought it was. It was good to get it on paper and see what I SHOULD do next. There wasn't any schoolwork, laundry, grocery shopping or meals on the list, so it was fun to pick something, LOL!

~Joan, off to admire my new bolts of fabric...

Awww, You Shouldn't Have!

This is what I've been doing between laundry, math lessons, meals, sewing room clean-up, piano lesson, and life today. I have a stack of 25-patch blocks that I've been waiting to make into a quilt top. I couldn't decide if I wanted to give this to someone as a gift or sell it. I looked at the bank account...it's for sale! I'll be listing it on eBay after I finish the bottom corner, LOL! I also am selling a quilt top that is my "broken leftover dishes" pattern. Still need to put borders on that.

Kairle over at Happy Valley Quilter gave me an award. It's the "you make my day" award. I am so honored. Bonnie stiff-armed me into starting a blog (yes, I'm still blaming her). But I've met so many nice quilters! I've really enjoyed journaling progress or the lack thereof on my quilt projects. It's fun to go back and see what has been finished. But I digress. I am supposed to "choose up to 10 people whose blog brings you happiness & inspiration and makes you feel happy about Blogland."

Here are a couple I always find uplifting and often inspiring...

~Patty at Morning Ramble. She has a positive view of life and inspires me to be a better person.

~Lucy at Quilting with the Past. I love seeing Lucy's projects and her house.

~Bonnie at Quiltville.com. Is there anyone on quilting blogland that doesn't know Bonnie? One of my favorite recent memories is spending an evening with her in SC.

~Mary at Making Scrap Quilts from Stash. A beautiful long arm quilter that primarily quilts for charity and is always coming up with lovely quilts from strings.

~Kairle at Happy Valley Quilter. Last but not least, one of my favorite blogs. I want to be one of her daughters so she'll make my favorite cookies. I always enjoy emailing Kairle.

Take care,
~Joan

Meet You at Cracker Barrel

My DH had to go to a lunch meeting with his boss in a nearby town. They met at Cracker Barrel. I dropped him off then did some errands of my own. After lunch at a drive-thru at McD's for me, I sat on the porch of Cracker Barrel to hand quilt until his meeting was finished, or so I thought.

I only got to stitch about an inch. So many people stopped by to ooh and aah over my quilt (Hearthside Memories). I thought I might get it finished, but I barely made any progress. I gave my email address to 3 ladies. One wants a raffle quilt made, the other one wants one for herself.

The third woman was lunching with a friend. They were signing to each other and then looked my way. I thought one of the women was a deaf woman I met in the same city last year, so I signed, "Have I met you before?" She wasn't the person I thought she was, but that didn't stop her from talking to me for 20 minutes or so. She studied every inch of my quilt in the meantime.

Needless to say, my husband's boss was suprised to come out and see me signing to 2 deaf ladies. Let people surprise you...you never know what they know!

~Joan