Just a nice day

I had a nice productive Saturday quilt-wise, even though I didn't do any sewing.

Meet Gandalf, my Proto Stitch Wizard.

After getting my hair cut I drove about 80 miles north on I-5 to the SW Washington longarm group meeting in Centralia. Due to my schedule I'd not been to a meeting since early August. I spent part of August, all of September and most of October quilting a king size customer quilt that was giving me fits. I was tired of quilting when I finally got that monster done, as I spent more time ripping out my errors than actually quilting (I'm still new at this and constantly learning). I did a couple charity quilts but hadn't touched the machine since early December. It needed some maintenance done, and I'm still not at all comfortable with the mechanical demands of a longarm. I needed something to get me excited about quilting again, and hoped the meeting would do that. I'm happy to say "mission accomplished". I came back with renewed enthusiasm. The maintenance that needed doing turned out to be very easy to do. Now I'm all ready to tackle the customer quilt that's been half pinned on the machine since early December (thank goodness my friend Sue is in no hurry at all to get that quilt back).

After dinner I went back to pressing more of the fabrics I pretreated Friday night. This is always a very sobering experience - it makes it VERY easy to swear off shopping for awhile - especially when I'm trying to find room on the shelves for the new additions. Unfortunately the feeling never lasts nearly long enough! I told my husband the next time I tell him I'm ordering fabrics for him to give me for my birthday or Christmas he needs to tell me "No!"

I'm trying to keep some of them separate this time, with the new Jo Morton fabrics in one stack and the Jane Austen fabrics in another. I'll share why in another post.
I shook out all the fabrics still waiting for washing - they were still in neat piles (more or less) from the shops - and separated them by color. When spread over the floor of the hall it looks like they've been multiplying when we were asleep. I couldn't possibly have this many new fabrics, could I? While I was pressing them my husband said "someone has made a nest here". I turned around and there was Shadow, nestled in the middle of the stack. It's impossible to be mad at him when he's so darn cute!

Back to our regularly scheduled program ....

of sharing my quiltmaking.

I'll start with Sunday's purchases. My list said "plaids and stripes for borders and backgrounds" and that was it. I had two quilts in particular that I was buying for, but I'm always on the lookout for good plaids and stripes to add to the stash. As you can see in the picture I found lots of them. I did cave in and get one fat quarter bundle - a collection of old Brannock and Patek jacquard weave fabrics. (Did I spell that correctly? I don't think so!) I'm a sucker for fabrics tied up with ribbon - but it was 50% off so I figured that made it OK, right?

Notice to all you bright color lovers - you're going to think my purchases are UGLY - but I love them!I couldn't get Shadow the dog to move so I just took the picture with him in it. These fabrics were added to the stuff already waiting to be washed, ironed and put into the stash - fabrics that dear hubby gave me for Christmas plus other things I couldn't resist. Discovering Z&S Fabrics online played havoc with my resolution to buy no more "I know I'll need this someday" fabrics. I used to be safe as long as I stayed away from quilt shops - not any more. These days for Christmas and my birthday I just order what I want, hand him the unopened box to him to wrap, and then wait until the special day to see the fabrics in person. He loves it because he doesn't have to shop, and I love it because I can justify getting the fabrics want that way. (I'm SO bad!) So here are two more pictures of "stash additions waiting to be washed".

My current project is finishing my Jan Patek mystery quilt. I have all the blocks done - you can see them waiting to be set together. I like to put finished blocks on a skirt hanger in the closet as it keeps them from getting wrinkled and lost.Currently I'm cutting out all the stashing strips, which are many different lengths and widths because the blocks are many different sizes. Three of the sashing strips need stars appliquéd onto them, which is the last appliqué I need to do for this quilt. These are setting on my big board. I don't know how I ever managed without the big board. My very sweet son-in-law made it for me for Christmas a couple years ago.

I still have lots of sashing strips to cut, but have my little quilt group meeting tonight so will be appliquéing stars instead. Thought you might like to see my makeshift cutting table. It's the closet door sitting on top of two crudely made (by me) wooden risers, which in turn sit on top of a bunch of plastic cubes that I've had for over 30 years. It's tall enough so I don't ever have a backache from cutting, and it's big enough for a big project. I love it!

This is my third post for today - I think that's probably more than enough!