This one was fast!

Round 3 is a "Plain Jane" round - at least that's what our instructor calls it. It's used to create a visual break and a place for the eyes to rest, as well as a chance to "correct" the size of the piece so far. Finished measurement after this round is 36".

"Round 4" - from class 5 - isn't a round at all. She obviously figures everyone needs some time to catch up. This round consists of four 6" blocks that provide the "cornerstones" for the next border. I'm doing four Ohio stars with chintz centers. "Round 5", which is the round we received instructions for on Thursday night, will complete this fourth border. I'm leaning toward doing dark flying geese with light backgrounds, though there are several other blocks to choose from. Choices, choices - I may eventually decide I need to make three different medallions!

Before I can choose the fabrics for the geese I need to refold my fabrics so I can find them again. They suffered a lot making this so far, and are in a giant heap on my cutting table instead of a nice stack. It's pretty hard to see what I've got at this point, so taking time to straighten up is definitely going to be the next "order of the day".

Round 2

I am having so much fun with this medallion that I don't want to do anything else - including sleeping or eating! Or going to work - but that goes without saying, right? We got more beautiful fabric in our class packets last night. I wasn't able to finish the second round in time for class so I was able to use some of the new fabrics in it. I just finished stitching it to the center. I did hour glass blocks because I had so many quarter square triangles left over from making the center. I also thought it was a nice way to echo the same shape. I should be able to catch up now before the next class. The next border to go on is a narrow stop border, then a 6" border with something different for the cornerstones. Once I finish that border I will be all caught up. Of course I have WAY more fabric than I need for this quilt top, so I'm thinking I may start a second and even a third medallion. There are so many neat options each month to choose from for the borders.

Tomorrow I'll be sewing for "Quilt Pink" all day. We should be able to put together two tops and backs by 4:00 p.m. tomorrow. There are two of us longarmers in the guild, so we will each quilt one. They are providing what sounds like a yummy lunch for us. I'm hoping to remember the camera so I can take some pictures to post tomorrow night.

Is there anyone else that's doing something special for Quilt Pink day?

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Gratitudes:

1. Cool evenings
2. Wispy morning fog that speaks loudly of fall
3. Penne pasta and Italian sausage for dinner
4. Color printers
5. Quilt history books

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Another round completed!

My husband has open house tonight at the high school where he teaches so I'm all alone without a need to cook dinner. So I've been working on my medallion since I got home from work at 4:00. Round 2 is now done. I love it! I chose a simple row of pieced squares because the other choices - appliquéd scallops, sawtooth, and square in a square - looked a little too complicated to be right next to my more complicated center. I'm sure enjoying working with these reproduction fabrics!

I choose the chintz that came in my first kit for the very center - here is the excerpt from "my dear husband's letter" that talks about it: "My old friend Hobbs had a bit of chintz on the shelf I thought might suit that quilt you spoke of making to grace our own bed. Mr. Hobbs kindly gave it me for less than usually, but it still came dear. Pleaseacceptt this little bit of gift from your loving husband whilst you stitch that quilt to warm our bed once I return." After reading that how could I not feature that in my quilt.

Some of the other fabrics in the center came from my dear sister Hope who wrote, "Your husband told me you begin a quilt. Myself thought perhaps you would care for some from my piecebag to put into your new quilt. Sarah sends some from her new dress - the light one with the flower and other bits." Every month our kit includes a letter from a relative, with family news as well as a bit of information about the fabric that's included. This gives us a tiny bit of an idea what it must have been like back in those early days of the United States after the revolutionary war. This is so much fun!

I hope to get at least one or two more rounds on tonight so I have a nice start to share at class tomorrow night.

I also included a few pictures of fall decorations at our house. These were taken last year - I won't have time to put them out this year until Sunday.

Thank you, everyone, for hoping I start feeling better. Today was much better - no dizzyness and not much headache. My main problem is dust mites - but if I cleaned as much as the doctor said was needed to eliminate that problem I'd have time to do nothiing but clean! I'd rather quilt and tough it out with the sinuses!

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Gratitudes:

1. The chance to take such a wonderful class from Eileen.
2. Reproduction fabrics
3. Leaves beginning to turn with a marvelous blue sky as the background.
4. Lemon for my diet pepsi
5. Scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for a fast easy dinner

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I have a center!

After a couple false starts and stitching then ripping then stitching some more and ripping some more, I finally finished the center block for my pre-1830's medallion quilt. For those of you who are recent readers, I talked a lot about this class in my next post after the first class last February. The class is taught by AQS certified quilt appraiser and quilt historian Eileen Trestain. Since Thursday will be our seventh session (out of 11) I'm a little late getting started, but I hope to make good progress from now on. I have so many period fabrics to choose from it was hard deciding what I wanted to use, so finally I just started pulling from the stack at random. I knew I wanted to put the chintz "sent to me by my husband" when he was up north visiting family. I can hardly wait to put on the next rounds. For each round we have at least 3-6 different choices of appropriate designs. We are learning so much interesting stuff about life in those times. This has been one of the best classes I've ever taken.

I came home before noon as I was suffering dizzyness and severe sinus pain from allergies. Laid down on the bed to try to read the work I brought home, and immediately fell asleep. After sleeping for a couple hours the dizzyness was gone but the severe sinus pain is still there. Allergies are so wonderful! I need to head to bed for a good sleep, as I have a class to teach tomorrow morning at work. At least it's a short class.

A short, quick post

I'm really tired this morning because I had so much trouble going to sleep last night. Our son and daughter-in-law came up to show us the latest ultrasound, and tell us they are having a girl. I'm really thrilled - I wanted so much for this baby to be a girl. That means a granddaughter next February and a grandson sometime next year when the adoption is complete. I'm sure my husband is thrilled but he never shows any emotion - other the other hand I'm just floating on cloud 9!

Finally got all the summer decorations put away yesterday afternoon. The cleaning folks come today so I'll start putting out fall stuff after work today. I go all out for fall - I have more fall stuff than any other season except for Christmas. I've put up pictures of the two fall quilts I've finished. The first is an old Country Threads pattern. The second is a class sample for a Precision Piecing class that I used to teach in the early 1990's at Daisy Kingdom. I love this quilt. The border fabric is a copy of an early reproduction print - it was the "theme" fabric that I chose all the other colors from. It's now on the back of the couch in the living room.

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Gratitudes:

1. Healthy mom and granddaughter to come.
2. Time with family
3. Ultrasound
4. I won Phase 10 dice - I hardly ever win any games!
5. Good books to read

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Customer quilt finished

And it's the last one I have here. Not sure whether I should now try to do one of my own or not. Seems like every time I get the last customer quilt done I get in another couple within a week. Guess I shouldn't complain, as they help me make the machine payments.

I forgot all about showing you my newest pincushion - I guess because I don't use it. It sits in the window of my sewing room. I posted a picture of it back in January or February but I'm sure many of you weren't reading my blog back then. This is a "make do". Our foremothers in the 18th and 19th centuries made something new out of things that were broken because they were too precious to throw away. This is made from a candlestick. The fabrics are silks such as would have been used for clothing in the early 1800's. I made this in the early 19th century medallion class that I'm taking. I finally found a center that really grabbed me, thanks to the museum pictures posted by Mismatched Quilter. I'd not started my quilt because I was waiting for inspiration for the center. Thanks Katie - I'm ready to start now! Good thing as we've already had six of our 11 class sessions!

One more pincushion, trash and a block

I have lots of pincushions, tins and pin boxes upstairs in my longarm room, but most of them aren't at all interesting - just containers of big yellow-headed pins I use to pin quilts to the machine leaders. Only one is at all interesting, so I'll talk a little about it.

I made the eggplant from craft felt years and years ago when felt was thick and rich feeling compared to the paper thin stuff you find now. The pattern was from an old McCalls Needlework and Crafts magazine - anyone besides me remember those? I started buying them when I was about 12. I made very few things from their patterns, but spent many long hours drooling over page after page of wonderful things. I bought every issue and saved every one until sometime in my 30's. I imagine this pattern was from the mid-1960's. I made the first eggplant after we were married in 1969, and wore it out so I had to make another, which is also starting to show it's age. These pincushions were called "vegetable pillows", and there was also a bunch of celery, an onion, a tomato, a carrot and others. I made the celery for the neighbor across the street within a year or two after we moved into the neighborhood. Wish I still had the patterns - they would be great in felted wool.

I guess someone asked about trash, too, as several bloggers have posted pictures of theirs. You don't find much in my trash in the way of fabric scraps since I save crumbs and cut the rest into squares, bricks and triangles. I use tissue containers for my trash - they work wonderfully! Downstairs I have one on my cutting table, one at the sewing machine, and one on the ironing board. Upstairs I have one by my bobbin winder, one at each end of the longarm table at both the front and back of the table and one on my Pfaff cabinet. We have lots of them because we both suffer from allergies, and they are so easy to toss - box and all - when they become full.

Yesterday I finished the prep on the remaining two appliqué blocks for Heirloom Stitches, and finished the stitching on the small 6" block. Then I sewed the borders onto the auction quilt for Northwest Medical Teams so I can finish my appliqué where it overlaps the quilt body from the border. I cut into crumbs the scraps from the two months' of Heirloom Stitches blocks. Doesn't sound like that much now that it's written down, but it felt like a full, busy day! Today I have the baby quilt to quilt for a customer, and then I'll make the binding for Broken Dishes. Hopefully I can get it machine stitched onto the quilt today so I can do the handstitching while watching the last week of Mariners baseball for this year.

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Gratitudes:

1. Homemade sourdough bread
2. A perfect day of beautiful fall weather
3. The housecleaners that come every other week - the best gift I've ever given myself
4. Jim Shore figures for fall
5. A basket of gourds and Indian corn

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Much better!

A block called "Blossom and Berries" looks much better with the berries, don't you think? Can't believe I forgot about them and thought the block was finished!

This completes all the installments that I've received. Supposedly it's through August, but since I didn't get this block until August 31st, I'm taking the liberty of calling it the September block. Especially since September is rapidly drawing to a close and I've not received that installment in the mail yet. A picture has been up on her site for most of the month. It looks like three very easy blocks to complete this time - one appliqué and two pieced. You can see a picture of them here, as well as a picture of her newest Halloween quilt. I absolutely adore this new quilt called "Trick or Treat". I want so badly to get the kit - usually the only way to get her patterns - but I'm going to be good and not order it. That's a quick saving of $85! I'll just cross my fingers that eventually she puts the pattern for this one in a book.

I retrieved the rest of the blocks from the closet where they are hanging clipped to a skirt hanger, and laid them out of the floor to get a picture. I really like the way this quilt is looking! Of course I have no idea how they are going to be stitched together - there are still four more months installments to come. The quilt is called "Posies and Points" - clever name, don't you think?

Saturday morning

I know you are all waiting to hear my decision. No, I am not going to Quilt Expo. I'd pretty much decided that before I asked what everyone else would do, but I was very curious to see your answers to that question. Very interesting - they were all over the board. Lots of great ideas and recommendations. Thank you so much for all your input.

After all these years of collecting fabric, patterns, books and other quilty things, I know the only thing that works for me is to stay away. It would be different if I had very little extra money and knew I HAD to control my spending, but since I have a well paying job that is not the case. It is incredibly easy for me to rationalize any purchase when I know I can afford it if I want it. I really don't mind not going. The whole purpose of the Expo is the vendors - the quilt show is minor and secondary to the shopping. I always find the Hoffman Challenge to be fun to see, but since Hoffman fabrics no longer appeal to me I get no inspiration from the quilts. There are always other quilts I enjoy looking at, but I've rarely seen one in the style of quilting that I am currently doing. So it doesn't bother me to miss the show. Besides, I already have enough inspiration in my collections of books and patterns to last several quilters lifetimes. And I have lots and lots of quilty things to do at home this weekend. I can take the $8 I'd have to spend on parking and the $5.50 entry fee and buy myself a goodie and coffee at Starbucks before I head out for my 9:30 haircut app't.

Love seeing everyone's pincushions - thanks, Evelyn, for such a great sharing idea! I started gathering mine together for a picture and was totally surprised at how many there were. In this picture you see only the downstairs pincushions, which doesn't include the several boxes and tins I also keep pins in. (I'll share the upstairs ones later.) The yellow one is made from fabric with paper dolls on it. One Tangled Threads meeting two of the members announced they had a project for us to do that evening. They'd bought fabric that meant something special to each of us - I loved paper dolls as a child - and did a bit of preliminary cutting and stitching. That evening we finished the pincusions and each took home a treasure. I love this one, which lives by my featherweight. I don't remember where I got the turtle that lives by my ironing board. The blue wrist one is left over from my clothing construction days, and holds an eclectic collection of needles. The tiny thumb pincusion lives in my appliqué basket and holds short appliqué pins. The wool flower was a gift from an outgoing board president to the members of her board in my North Star guild. The strawberry I made as a program project one night at North Star guild. The project was led by the friend that I bought the hand dyed wool from that I'm using in Warm Nights. I don't use the last two for anything but decoration.

I was going to rejoice about finishing the September block for the Jan Patek mystery, but after downloading the photo and renaming it "Blossom and Berries" I realized I've not yet sewn on the berries! They are all prepped and waiting in my appliqué basket. I'll finish during the baseball game today, then I'll collect all the blocks so far and take a picture of them together to post, as I've not done that for awhile.

Better get dressed - don't want to be late for the haircut!

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Gratitudes:

1. Pumpkin Spice lattés
2. Pumpkin and cream cheese muffins
3. Starbucks - no surprise there!
4. Helpful, encouraging internet friends
5. Jeans and flannel shirts

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A dilemma . . .

What would you do? Curious minds want to know.

The Portland Quilt Expo starts today and runs through Saturday. This huge vendor mall and quilt show is held every September at the Expo Center in Portland, Oregon. The show consists of one of the traveling Hoffman Challenges plus a themed show of quilts by local quilters. It's always a wonderful show. Then there is the vendor mall - dozens of booths by quilt shops all around the country and vendors showing the newest gadgets for our obsession. I love going. I've gone almost every year. But I always spend a considerable amount of money every year.

So I'm trying to decide whether or not I should go. My daughter says go if I just see the show and not set foot in the vendor mall. Can't do that - they are all in the same huge room. I could go and leave my money, checkbook and credit card at home, but I know myself better than that. I don't have that kind of will power. Besides, my favorite shops would have no trouble letting me take stuff home and then call them with my credit card number. (I know it by heart anyway, from all the online ordering I've done.) My husbands only comment was "remember, everything you spend delays your retirement that much longer".

Right now I'm leaning toward staying home and sewing instead of going. My common sense side currently has the upper hand. But the other side is right there behind whispering "you'll be REALLY sorry if you don't go. You can go and just look at the new books. Would a spending spree really be that bad? You DESERVE this!" My common sense side is replying " you know yourself well enough to know that if you go you will spend money - you have no will power at all when it comes to quilting."

What would you do? Would you stay at home or go? I know what the right answer for me should be, but I'm really struggling with it.