A good day

Isn't this a gorgeous sky? Keith and I went for a long walk this morning to visit the Basilica and Loring Park and then back home to work a bit. I'm almost finished quilting the green double 4 patch quilt and it should be ready to bind tomorrow. We had some afternoon storms and I captured this photo after the rain stopped.

I had a surprise before we left - a flower delivery - a present for my birthday from Keith. I think I confused everyone with a previous post - I'm feeling sorry for myself in advance - my birthday is Monday and that's when he'll be gone.

Finally, I tried some ribbon embroidery tonight for the first time. I'm still fascinated with crazy quilting although I'm only reading about it right now. I decided that I could practice some embroidery on postcards until I had time to start a crazy quilt project. Hopefully I'll improve with some practice!

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Maybe I should listen to Deb more often

I'm not very adventuresome when it comes to using different threads in my longarm. I have a group of threads that work well for me and I'm intolerant of pokies so I hadn't bothered to try the Superior King Tut variegated thread even though Deb raved about how much she loved it. I bought a spool (or two) at MQS and it was just perfect for this UFO.

I've got great tension even with using a beige permacore thread in the bobbin and a variegated green King Tut in the top - no pokies - and the colors in the King Tut thread are really subtle and suit this scrap quilt well.




The pantograph is Lush Leaves from Lorien Quilting.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes...I'm not sure why I'm letting being alone on my birthday get me down - it probably has to do with other things going on in my life right now. On Monday, I think I'll take Jeanne's advice and visit a nearby quilt shop (that I didn't know existed) and treat myself to lunch.


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I can't seem to get it in gear

I should be working but instead, I'm playing with the webcam on the computer, Photoshop, and drinking. Keith should be home in an hour or two - maybe I'll snap out of my funk then.
Of course what I really need is a list.

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Mail call

I showed one of the reusable Target bags on the blog last week and commented how much I liked using resusable bags. Sue wrote and offered to send me one that she made and it arrived today. The bag folds up into the front pocket and it's PRETTY too!

I got a birthday postcard from Mom and a birthday card from Deb....

and a birthday package from Mom. I'm going to wait until Monday to open it - I'm kind of depressed because Keith will be gone on my birthday and I'll be all alone.

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RWB blocks

I've continued to make a few RWB HeartStrings blocks each day. Since I've gotten a lot of questions on the HeartStrings group about the requirements for the blocks and coins sections I went ahead and wrote up and posted some instructions for the RWB blocks and RWB Chinese Coins sections. We're going to continue to collect these until July 4th and will use them to make quilts for wounded soldiers.

And part of this afternoon was spent taking Chesty to the *beauty parlour* for his summer haircut. He looks thinner without his curls doesn't he??

I need to get a quilt loaded on the longarm today or tomorrow and get some quilting done before I head off on another trip. Keith has a meeting in Toronto next week and I'm going to tag along.

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Memorial Day

Tomorrow, I'll work some more on my own personal Memorial Day project - the making of RWB HeartStrings blocks that will be combined with donations from other members into quilts for wounded veterans.

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Sunday Progress report

I haven't been doing Sunday reports recently because there hasn't been much TO report but I'm hoping that trend is changing.

Last week I finished quilting 4 HeartStrings tops and got them shipped off and this week, I quilted Kathy's quilt and got that shipped to her too. I still have HeartStrings tops here needing quilting but I'm back to making progress on them.

I'm also back to using stash with the RWB HeartStrings blocks I'm working on this weekend....all from my string bins with some extra strips cut from stash for variety.

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More family photos

I did work about an hour this afternoon on RWB HeartStrings blocks but most of today was spent with Chris and Keith. We had brunch at Hell's Kitchen and then took the light rail to Minnehaha Falls and walked to Fort Snelling.

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A beautiful day

Chris got here this morning and we spent most of the day outside, walking, biking, and then after a home cooked meal....an evening stroll.

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RWB HeartStrings blocks

Since I needed to do a little rearranging in my sewing room for Chris to sew some RWB HeartStrings blocks with me this weekend, I decided to make a few blocks while I was at it.

This room is still a mess but I think we can work in here. If you'd like to make some blocks with us this Memorial Day weekend you can view the guidelines at the HeartStrings blog.

While I was working upstairs - look who found the quilt I'd folded and set on the chair. Chesty needs his summer haircut but I wasn't able to get him an appointment until Tuesday so he's really curly right now!

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Quilty gifts

No quilting today but did get my errands done and look at the goodies that came in the mail from Deb. I know you can't tell from the photo but the fat quarters are autumn colors, the squares are brown and pink, and the small baggie has an assortment of trims and items to use on postcards.

Thanks Deb!

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Finished

Another item checked off my *to do* list is the quilting on this top belonging to Kathy from HeartStrings. Next to be loaded will be one of my strippie quilts so I can play around a bit.

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Machine vibration

I think I'm closer to solving the vibration issue - I made an adjustment to the front wheels on the machine after speaking to a woman at the Gammill booth which made it a LOT worse. This was a good thing however because it let me know I was on the right path. I made a second adjustment and the vibration is better but still there. I know it's something that occurred during the move because it wasn't there before so I'm hoping with some more tweaking I can get it back to pre-move condition.

Can you see the white clamps in this next photo? This quilt belongs to Kathy, a member of HeartStrings and this morning when I was struggling to get it positioned for quilting - I decided to try out these new clamps from Tomorrow's Heirlooms that I bought at MQS. I usually only do a full float on my really small donation quilts (crib size) and do a partial float on all the others. Who knows, after this I may start doing full floats on all of them.

Here's a peak at the quilting - it's a pantograph called Plumage from Willow Leaf Studio.

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Getting ready for Memorial Day Weekend

I'm planning on piecing some RWB HeartStrings blocks over the Memorial Day weekend that will be used in quilts for wounded soldiers. If anyone is interested in joining me - check out the HeartStrings blog where the block guidelines are posted. Chris will be visiting this weekend and I'm going to have him help sew some blocks.


I love that stores are now selling these reusable shopping bags. This morning I used this Target bag to when I walked downtown to the post office to ship packages for Mom and Deb and to FedEx Kinko's to ship HeartStrings quilts to Nancy. Then I filled it back up at Target and walked home. I probably should have used two bags because it was a little heavy both with the packages and on the return trip.

This table is in my entry way and as you can see - it still needs work. I plan to hang a quilt on the wall behind the table and then arrange my Singer sewing machine and some photos. Maybe next weekend Keith can help me hang the quilt. The photos on the bottom shelf need to be hung too.

I also wanted to mention that I'd bought the photo CD from last year's MQS show and have ordered this year's CD too. The detail shots of the quilts are wonderful and are much better than the photos I took last year. This year I didn't bother to photograph any of the quilts except for the photos of Deb with her 2nd place winning quilt.

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Flower boxes

I know you all will probably be disappointed but I decided since I'm not a gardener, that I'd put potted plants on the deck rather than planting the flower boxes. So here's the first quilt (or maybe it's the 2nd one) on the new deck. This goes back to Nancy and her group along with 4 other quilts to bind and donate.

How bizarre is this?? This photo is horizontal but each time I upload it - it turns itself vertical...blogger must be having a problem.

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The sun is shining

We have a neighborhood party to go to this afternoon but it was too pretty to NOT take the bikes for a short ride. The sun is shining and it's in the mid 50's here so we rode across the river to Boon Island Park.
We found a quiet spot by the river to spread the quilt and sit in the sun for a bit. We've both been traveling the last couple weeks and haven't had much time together.

Isn't this a great view of downtown?

I'm going to try and get some labels made and Kathy's top loaded before we leave for the party.

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I can make a tree but....

Can I make a forest??

I've got the tree blocks laying out on the floor - don't know where the design wall is and not sure I'm going to have room for it anyway. These are entirely too orderly lined up in rows.

So I'll try to add some background fabric around the trees and come up with a more *scattered* arrangement for the blocks.

For those that may not have read the previous posts on my Wonky Trees, this is my project for Tonya's Summer Class.

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