Chesty

Chesty had his final post-op checkup Tuesday and can return to all his regular activities. To celebrate he went to the Beauty Parlor yesterday - isn't he cute?

Bad luck/good luck

The bad luck is that I had a power outage that killed my computer so I went out yesterday and bought a new CPU and have been setting it up with all my programs. More bad news - I've lost a significant number of files because although I do back them up periodically its been a few months AND right now I can't even find the last backup copy. So having learned my lesson (again) I bought a external hard drive to do routine backups of my computer data.

The good news is that I was quilting at the time of the power outage and my longarm is fine - no damage there. This picture is the quilt I was finishing up at the time. Not my favorite but I had this crayon print that was supposed to have been a border on another quilt but I decided it was too busy. I had hoped that the flying geese would calm this down some.

Bottom line is that it's kind of cute and it's bright so I'm sure some kid will love it. It is donation quilt but I'm not sure where it will go. I still have to bind it but with trying to get my computer up and running again I haven't worked on it today.

My current project

Since I've been home I started working on another UFO. My Mom cut a bunch of strips for me at least 2 years ago for this braid quilt. I no longer intend to do the original quilt I'd planned (that one had applique) but I want to get this one off my list of projects so I'm making the braids and will decide on the finished quilt by the time I'm done.

I'm working on a vertical strippie pattern in EQ5 but I'm just not sure how wide my alternate strips will be and whether I am going to use a light blue or a red fabric as an accent between the braids and strips.

I've got two of these braids completed and I think I'll need 5 for the finished quilt. They're being pieced on the foundation by the yard muslin and I'm hating it. Next time I'm piecing braids without a foundation.

Hopefully, I'll load a top on the longarm today so I'll be working on two UFO's this week.

What I'm reading

WHAT REMAINS
by Carole Radziwill

Sad but I didn't think it was a great book like the review I'd read said.








TURNING ANGEL
by Greg Iles

Good murder mystery - much better than the last one of his I'd read.








A WEDDING IN DECEMBER
by Anita Shreve

Good - I like reading about the relationships in her books.

Some pictures from Boston

My son chastised me for not updating my blog in a couple days so I pulled out the camera to post some pictures from my Boston trip.

My two favorite things about this trip were #1 staying across the harbor from Boston - we had this wonderful view from our hotel window (I've included a picture of the view both during the day and at night) and took a water taxi back and forth into the city and #2 walking the Freedom Trail.

T-shirt quilts

There's been some discussion on T-shirt quilts on the Stashbusters list so I thought I'd post the one I made (my Mom helped with the piecing) for my son Chris for his graduation from college.

I know a lot of people hate these quilts and think they're ugly but I think they can be special for the recipient. Chris was thrilled with his and although it isn't anything fancy it was the quilt HE wanted for graduation.

Walking the Freedom Trail

Most of my day today was spent along the Freedom Trail in Boston. I did NOT go in each site along the trail, my main goal was to walk the Trail and back to the water taxi location to return to my hotel. I did however go into the Paul Revere house and I admit into a Borders I came across while walking. I'm sure that won't surprise those who have been reading my blog and know that reading is a favorite activity for me. I'm feeling a little guilty for making time for the book store while passing up going into some of the sites that make up the Trail but I'd do it again so I guess I'm not too guilty.

After taking a water taxi to Long Wharf I took my first ride on the T. I wanted to visit Trinity Church and go by the Hard Rock Cafe (to pick up a T-shirt for Adam - he collects them) before starting my walk. After picking up the T-shirt, I walked to Boston Commons and began walking.

Tomorrow we head for home.

Traveling

Pam asked do I keep a suitcase packed near the door - the answer is no but I frequently don't get completely unpacked before having to pack for another trip. One of the advantages to having a husband who travels and kids who are grown is the ability to tag along on his trips when I want to. Keith will work while we're here but I'll spend my days exploring the city. I don't mind being on my own while he's working - in fact I really enjoy it.

I brought my small digital camera but can't transfer the photo's to the computer so here is one I took with the phone. The skyline appears more distant in the picture than it actually is. I'm looking forward to taking a water taxi across the harbor tomorrow and spending my day wandering around.

Boston

We're off to Boston in the morning. I'm taking along my knitting and the blocks for my Cathedral Windows but finishing the baby afghan I'm working on will be my priority while I'm gone.

I hope it's not too cold - we've had wonderful weather the last week and I'm already in Spring mode.

Baby Stripes

I've mentioned before that I like to cut out more than one scrap quilt at a time. This top was a quick one to piece from strips cut when I was cutting for the Baby Cabin. I started piecing some blocks on Thursday and Saturday nights and finished the top up today.

Initially I thought I'd do a string quilt but decided that with all the strips the same width that a Roman Stripe would be a better choice. I cut my muslin squares oversized and foundation pieced the strips to half the block and trimmed to size.

The quilt is 38x45.

It's Friday

Thanks for all the comments on the house and yard. I'm beginning to appreciate living in this area more. I'd always viewed our move here as temporary expecting to stay 3-5 years but it's starting to grow on me especially now that we have our mountain getaway nearby. We drove up this afternoon for a quick overnight visit. I can't wait to see the mountains in bloom this spring.

I finished the binding on Adam's jeans quilt on the drive up so I just have to label it and it will be ready to present to him on the 18th. I won't post a final picture now but will wait and take one of Adam with the quilt and post that.

I wrote Wednesday about working in the yard for my Weight Watchers activity points and did the same on Thursday and today. We are having BEAUTIFUL weather and even though yard work is not my favorite I'm enjoying being outside.

Amy has been posting some pictures of quilts from the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival so I thought I would post the quilt I liked the most from the show. I didn't take my camera but my sister Debbie took a bunch of pictures of the quilts and emailed this one to me.

Where I live

I decided to do some yard work today instead of walking to *earn* my weight watchers activity points. Normally slave boy (Adam) would be doing this but since he moved out in November it's left to me to rake all the pine staw out of the mondo grass.

While I was taking a picture of the work I was doing I decided to take some pictures of my daffodils in bloom (near the rocks). From there I figured I'd take some pictures of the house to share with everyone in blogland.

We live in an older neighborhood outside of Atlanta and have a beautiful corner lot. Our living room is on the second floor so between that and living up on the hill we look out over the tree tops NOT the other houses in the neighborhood.

As you can see I have plenty of raking left to do.

Project Linus

Today I took quilts and afghans to the local Project Linus chapter. I had two of each to donate this time. The top pink afghan is crocheted in a shell pattern that is very pretty. The green and yellow quilt alternates a cute cat print block with pinwheel blocks and the blue and pink quilt has a butterfly print in a twisted block setting.

I'm still working on quilting Adam's jeans quilt. I've run into some problems with thread breaking and although I have tried different needles and different threads I'm still having some problems.

I had planned to meander it but the thread kept breaking when I went around a curve so I'm just quilting back and forth across the blocks very SLOWLY. I've only got the final round of black blocks to quilt and then it will be ready for binding.

Back to work

I have a week until my next trip so I'm set to get back to work. I've made good progress on another knitted baby afghan while I was away but didn't work on my Cathedral Windows at all. I need to iron some more of the muslin squares and I'll take both the knitting and the Cathedral Windows with me when I go to Boston next week.

Today I plan on loading Adam's quilt on the longarm and to start piecing on another UFO. I'm just not sure which UFO I'm going to work on next so I'll load Adam's jean quilt first.

What I'm reading

Machine Quilting Guidebook Diane Gaudynski

Can you tell I'm traveling again? I'm getting some reading done since I can't be at home quilting.

I bought this book at the quilt show Wednesday and stayed up last night reading it from cover to cover. Lots of helpful information on machine quilting and some really neat quilting designs. I can't wait to try some of the techniques and designs.

What I'm reading

A Thread of Grace Mary Doria Russell

I love historical fiction and found this book fascinating. Although I've read many books both fiction and non fiction about WW2 I'd never read anything set in Italy during this time period.

The book is a fictional account of Jews and Italians during WW2.

What I'm reading

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson

I enjoy hiking so this book on hiking the Appalachian trail was very interesting to me. I know now I don't want to hike the entire thing but I still plan to do some day hikes on the trail one day.

Just checking in

I'm having a great time visiting with my mom, sister, and aunt. We went to the quilt show yesterday and my sister and I ran back today to shop some more.

I bought a few fat quarter bundles and the new foot for curved piecing - well it's been out a while but I'm just getting it now.

Also bought the new quilt calculator. I've been working on patterns for my aunt and the calculator came in handy for figuring the yardage she needed to purchase.

I get home Sunday so I'll write more then.

Bound and labeled

This one makes 6 UFO's finished this year. Not the best picture but I'm heading out of town first thing in the morning and I still have to pack.

I'll be visiting with my mom, sister, and aunt and going to the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival. While I'm very focused this year on reducing my stash - I will be picking up some fat quarter bundles. They always have great fat quarters at this show.

Butterfly Quilting

Click on the pictures to see the quilting detail

It's done. I quilted a mixture of leaves and butterflies and I guess it looks OK. Once it's bound I'll post a picture of the whole quilt but here are a couple shots of the quilting. You can still see some of my marking on the butterfly picture. I used template plastic to trace the outline of the butterfly and scattered them in the border.

Technically I should do some ditch stitching but I hate to stitch in the ditch on the longarm. It's a donation quilt not a show quilt so I'm going to allow myself to not ditch stitch.

Of course, in case you get the wrong idea - I don't make show quilts. The quilts I make for myself are scrap quilts and I quilt pantographs on them.

If it wasn't for quilting my Mom's quilts I probably wouldn't be able to quilt anything but overall meandering or pantographs. She always seems to make quilts that need something other than pantographs.

Thanks for all the input.