Some of these are water spotted from the rain or a bit past their time - I wanted to include them anyway.
Sunday I started my friend Kathi's quilt. I thought I could finish it in one day - wrong! I spent about 6-8 hours on it Sunday, then finished in three more hours on Monday afternoon. I'm so glad to have this done - Kathi is so glad to have it back - and I'm happy to say she liked what I did to it very much. I was very relieved - Asian just isn't my thing when it comes to quilting, so I really didn't know what to do. I was right - the quilt started talking to me as soon as I started doing the anchoring stitch-in-the-ditch.
Monday morning I watched Joseph while his dad took his mom to physical therapy and a doctor appointment. I needed to head north to Momma Made It in Longview to pick up 80 more "opportunity quilt" tickets for a guild fundraiser. I'd unexpectedly sold 140 tickets in about 10 minutes - a huge surprise! - and all I had was 60 tickets. Of course, I can never go to Momma Made It without spending money, and this was no exception. I'm making sure Joseph feels very 
comfortable in a quilt store LOL! I didn't take a picture of the new fabrics - rats!
pinks of azaleas. And the trees are so beautiful - the crab apple in the front yard and the apple and cherry in the back yard. I ran all over taking pictures. The beauty of the macro setting is that most of the time the weeds don't creep into the pictures! I can't get down on my knees right now to weed, so we are having a neighbor boy clean out all the beds and move some plants for us. Then I'll have him put down new bark dust and plant other flowers for me. I can hardly wait for it to be finished!
Gratitudes:
Weigh in was this morning at Weight Watchers. I'd tracked very carefully this week - making sure I wrote down everything that went into my mouth even when I didn't want to, including the half dozen french fries I stole from Joseph when I took him out to lunch on Monday.
morning. 3.2 pounds down! That's half of what I gained the three weeks before. The other 3 pound loss I attribute to not eating much while I was sick, causing a false weight loss, that went away as soon as I started eating again. I did have a considerable splurge at Applebee's Thursday night - a Long Island ice tea, a half rack of baby back ribs, and the bartender's signature "chocolate milk" for dessert. That totaled a LOT of points, but I wrote every one of them down on my tracking sheet. It took almost every one of the extra 35 points I get each week, but it was worth it. And I've ridden 30 minutes a day on the stationary bike during ball games - every day this week! If I can do that every day from now until next meeting I should see another drop in weight next week. So overall I'm happy with the progress.
First of all - I've been wandering regularly into the quilting room, where my friend Kathi's quilt has been pinned to Gandalf for several weeks. This is a beautiful quilt - but not my style at all. I'm having a really terrible time figuring out what to do, and for once the quilt isn't really talking to me. It must be done by Tuesday, so it better start talking soon! Tomorrow I'll stabilize it by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks and outlining the appliqué. I've got my fingers crossed that it'll start talking a blue streak once I start working on it.
Secondly - I reached the point where I had to stop long enough to prewash my fabric purchases. I tend to toss fabrics in baskets when they arrive in the mail or from the store. When there are just too many - the baskets are overflowing, the lid doesn't fit on the big one, and there are fabrics stacked on top of the lid too - I decide I need to take care of them. This 
happens about twice a year. Foolish, because I can't use any of them until they are prewashed, but that's just the way I operate. So Thursday morning I started washing and pressing. Seems to take forever when I wait this long. I have only two stacks left to press - fat eights and fat quarters on the ironing board and bigger pieces 
on the recliner. On the table is what I've finished. Doesn't look like much for two days of work, does it? I've been catching up on recorded TV shows while working, so I guess that's a plus.
She watches a lot of the Food Network, and told me the two best shows for learning things are The Barefoot Contessa (who's on a total of 12 times a week!) and America's Test Kitchens on OPB. So I set myself up with a "season pass" to both shows on our DVR, and started watching the recordings on Thursday. I've already learned a great deal - I hope it sticks! I tried a few new things for dinner yesterday, and was happy with the results. When I saw that our tax refund had been deposited I took a trip to Barnes and Noble to choose myself some new cookbooks. And I've started doing research in p[reparation to buying a new grill - what we have now is an old, cheap grill that doesn't do anything well except for hot dogs and hamburgers. My goal is to do at least 90% of the cooking outside this summer!
I have a bunch of monthly projects that need to stay current, and the only one I've worked on so far in April is Jan Patek's 2009 mystery quilt. So the last two days I spent making blocks for my North Star Quilters $1 BOM. (You can see the 
posts I've done about this quilt by clicking here.)
20-25 fabrics before I made the March blocks. I wasn't that happy with the March blocks either, so before I made April's I added a bunch more fabrics (see all the real oldies I added? Hopefully I can use up some of these!) I think I have a great selection now - except I need more blues. I have lots of blues in my stash, but not 
that many light blues, and most of the ones I have have a greyed look to them because they are from that "mauve and greyed blue period" that occurred in the very late 70's and early 80's. Hmmm . . . maybe I still need to shop a little?
And a couple of the blocks are a bit too light with no contrast - I need to fix those also. Not sure if I'll remake these or just make new ones and put the others into the orphan bin.
new way I learned to do appliqué. (If you didn't read my post about this method check out the third tutorial listed on my left side bar.) I'm sure I'm taking less time with each block than before, and I can see for this method much better with these aging eyes.
Today I prepped the February and March "blocks" for Jan Patek's 2009 mystery quilt. They aren't actually blocks - instead they are four triangles that will set the center block on point. Here's another appliqué hint for you. Notice I've not yet cut the square into triangles. I will do that after I finish the appliqué. That will avoid the chance of stretching that long bias edge during the appliqué. As long as you fold the square diagonally, and can visualize a 1/4" seam allowance on each side of that line, you should have no trouble placing your appliqué pieces correctly. Jan's already posted the April block on her website, so I imagine that one will come in the mail soon. I'm determined to be caught up by the end of the month.
Saturday morning was Jo's Little Women's club meeting. I enjoyed it very much, and adore the final addition to the quilt. I'm eager to get this finished also - I'd love to take a finished quilt - quilted and bound even - to club next month. The picture I'm sewing is our group leader's quilt. Isn't it simply spectacular?
Jeremy, Chelsea and the girls came yesterday afternoon for an early Easter celebration, and also so Jeremy could do some work on the computer. Lily has certainly changed a lot since the last time we saw her on March 21st. Her personality is really developing now - she's a sunny, happy little girl. It was so easy to get some good pictures of her. Sophie is another story - she doesn't respond well to a camera these days. I couldn't get her to look at the camera or smile. About the time she would cooperate, it was so fleeting that it was gone by the time the shutter 
was fully pushed. She is SO active - getting her to sit still for more than a minute is a near impossibility.
Yesterday the missing kit fabric for the "Love Is" top arrived in the mail. Tonight I found time to finish the top. It didn't take long at all, since all the appliqué was finished. When I allowed myself to sign up for Jan Patek's mini quilt club at the end of last year I promised myself that these projects would be finished tops shortly after they arrived, as I didn't want to add anything else to my HSY list. This is the third little quilt kit I've received, and so far I'm on track.
Last night I finished the center block on Jan Patek's 2009 mystery quilt. There's just something about houses in quilts that I really love - especially this block. I love the fabrics she chose, I love that TALL chimney and the very slightly wonky windows. Which still need the panes stitched - I guess it isn't done after all!
Most likely I shouldn't start a new project. I have lots of projects going now - just check my left sidebar. But since I've made such great progress on my UFO's I figure it's OK. Even if it isn't OK I'm going to do it anyway LOL!
backgrounds. I'm doing my quilt in different colors then Alma Allen did in this picture. It's a big quilt with big blocks - 28" square. The applique should be easy and fast. I might even try doing it by machine!
This one was so very fast to applique. At least it would have been if I'd placed the pieces correctly. When I went to trim the center to size I realized the flower pot was too far to the right, hanging almost an inch into the fabric that needed to be trimmed off. So I took it off, moved it, and restitched it. I fussy cut a daisy from a brown fabric for bunny's eye - click on the picture to see it. If I tried I could probably get it finished before Easter, but I've decided not to. I want to hand quilt this little mini - maybe with a big stitch - and I don't want to rush.
The Valentine quilt arrived at the end of January. I stuck it in a drawer at the time, bringing it out a couple days ago when I was almost finished with the Feathered Star appliqué blocks. It went together very quickly, and I'd have a finished top by now except for the fact that the kit was short one fabric. Glad I started it now while they still have the fabric!
I decided to start the Easter quilt that arrived a couple days ago while waiting for the little fabric package to arrive. This one will be VERY fast - simple appliqué with big pieces. It will be so much fun to have all these little quilts to decorate with next year!
The center of the Girl Gang feathered star is finished, and I'm very pleased with it. The next step is to trim up the edges as I used oversized triangles, and then add the top and bottom border. That step should go very quickly. Then all that remains is four large, heavily appliquéd borders. Those will take awhile!