Working on another UFO

Thanks for the comments about my Mom. She had her cataract surgery this morning and did fine. She's resting quietly today because she's a little woozy from the medication they gave her and I worked some on another UFO.

I'm not as organized as some other members of our group with my scraps but when I'm cutting for a scrap quilt I do try to think ahead 2 or 3 quilts and cut for more than one at a time. Before leaving home Saturday, I grabbed my blue and green strips that have been waiting to be made into a donation quilt.

The strips I'm using have been picked over a couple times and so far I'm not liking the combination as well as I thought I would. I'm just using a simple 2 rail fence pattern like this one made from the leftovers of a quilt I made for Becky (Chris' fiance).

I'm back in Virginia/What I'm reading

I flew back to Mom's on Saturday and for the last few days I've visited with Mom and my sister.

Ann has been working on a wall-hanging that she wasn't completely happy with so we looked through Mom's books and found some additional applique to add to it. She finished the wall-hanging before she left for home today and seemed to be happy with it now.

Mom has cataract surgery tomorrow so we'll be up and out of the house early. When we get back I hope to get to work on another UFO I brought with me.

The latest books I've read:

Angels Fall by Nora Roberts
Break No Bones: A Temperance Brennan Novel by Kathy Reichs
Vanishing Point by Marcia Muller

I liked the novels by Reichs and Muller and I was disappointed in the Nora Roberts one. I don't expect a lot from Nora Roberts - usually just an light entertaining read but this one was just OK.

Just one more post before I get off the computer

I finally caught up, visited everyone's blogs and just have to post one more picture.

Patti posted several pictures of scrap quilts on her blog, I have many of the same books and loved them all. I also have a quilt made for me by my Mom from one of the patterns she showed. It goes perfectly over the quilt on my guest bed.

By the way, the quilt on this bed is the same color scheme as the wedding quilt that I'm not going to post a picture of - yet.

Challenges

All these challenges going on this month have got me thinking. I'm already on minimal buying for fabric - mainly just backgrounds and borders when needed for a specific project but I read that someone added books to their challenge. Now that's one I can stand to participate in.

Cher and Hanne have also made personal challenges so I'll jump in too. Right now the two hardest things for me are limiting my quilt book purchases and NOT beginning new projects (I've got a set of fat quarters sitting on my cutting table just calling my name).

So my personal challenge for August will be to not purchase any quilt books and to not start any new projects. If it goes well I may even extend it into September. I think I'm going to go move those fat quarters - hopefully out of sight will be out of mind.

Help

I finished quilting the wedding quilt today and it's off the machine and trimmed. Just have to bind it and make a label and that will be one more thing checked off my list.

Next up is a top my Aunt Nancy sent me to quilt. I'm going to quilt feather wreaths in the plain blocks but I'm not sure what to do in the borders. I'm thinking about feathers - I'd like to quilt half the feather in the dark and half in the light in two of them but there are 4 borders. What would I put in the other two? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Another 10 miles and progress on Chris' quilt

To respond to recent comments about my hiking, I'm still preparing for the Breast Cancer 3 day walk in October so regardless of the weather I feel I have to be out there *training*. It's tough with the heat and humidity but I drink LOTS of water.

Keith has been out of town since Monday morning and was waiting for me today when I got in from another 10 mile hike. He took me to dinner at one of my favorite places - PF Chang's - and because it was unexpected it was especially nice!

I've only got about 1/4 of the quilting left on the Wedding Quilt - this pantograph is taking a little longer than usual but I like how it's looking.

I won't post a picture of the quilt so it will be somewhat of a surprise but Chris does know the color scheme - scrappy red/beige - and the pattern - double 4 patch - so I'll post my EQ5 drawing of the quilt. You'll have to image the quilt as scrappy and the lights ranging from cream to tan. I like quilts without borders and this one doesn't have one. To see this in green - check out Mom's version that I quilted for her a month or so ago.

Yesterday

Yesterday I loaded Chris' wedding quilt on the longarm and started quilting it. It's a scrappy red/beige double four patch - the reds were from Mom's stash and the beiges from mine. I'm using a pantograph called Rhapsody - its the pantograph I decided not to use on the Butterfly quilt.

I washed and dried 4 of the 9 donation quilts that will go to both project Linus and the Ronald McDonald House this month.

I also shipped Mom's 2 quilts back to her along with another quilt pattern and some books.

And finally, I had a wonderful 2 hour massage!

Today I'll work some on Chris' wedding quilt and do a 10 mile hike.

Honeybee

I had a lot of comments on Mom's Honeybee so I thought I would post the book I found the pattern in. I bought my copy at Joann's but it's been a while and I had a hard time locating it online but finally found it on the site Alibris. I did look and couldn't find it at the usual sites - Amazon, B&N, or even the Leisure Arts or Oxmoor site.

Great American Quilts Book Nine

What I'm reading

I finished Twisted by Jonathan Kellerman a couple weeks ago. He's another one of my favorite authors and while I like his books that feature Alex Delaware better than the ones featuring Petra Connor I did enjoy this book.

I also just read Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs. It's probably not the best one she's written but I still enjoyed it. I've watched a couple episodes of the TV show Bones since I last read one of these and it's funny, the actress from the show was how I pictured the main character while I was reading this book. Has anyone else who reads these books seen the TV show?

Someone commented a while back about not enjoying one of the books I'd blogged about. It was one in a series and probably not the best one at that. I really enjoy reading about the same characters so I frequently find myself reading what I consider series books. It's rare that I think they are all great and it's not unusual for a series to get stale - for example, Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, and even Tom Clancy. When that happens I stop buying every book they write and pick and choose more carefully which ones I'll read. Even with that I think I'm more tolerant of a mediocre book if it has characters that I like in it.

Guild

Friday I went to my guild meeting where Sally Collins was the guest lecturer. Her work is quite impressive and she went out of her way to not be judgmental but she really preaches perfection in quilting. Not something I aspire to. While I'm not an advocate of sloppy work I don't get overly concerned about imperfections. I think that I make pretty nice quilts and as long as I'm learning new techniques and improving as I go along I'm happy.

One of the things that I really enjoy about the guild are the lectures from nationally know quilters. I haven't taken any of the classes - they don't particularly interest me but I love the lectures and seeing all the quilts they bring to show.

Done!

I should meander more quilts - this went fast. The colors in the picture are more true than the one I posted this morning. It's quilted with a maroon thread that blended with the fabric so you see texture not the thread.

Laura's quilt

Today I'm loading and quilting the top Mom made for Laura (my youngest sister's daughter) who is heading off to Virginia Tech this fall. I'm just going to do a simple all over meander on it - quick and easy!

The color in the picture is a little off - It's maroon and 2 shades of orange. The lighter one looks yellow in the picture but it's orange.

It's a McCall's pattern but I couldn't find the magazine with the quilt in it so I worked it up in EQ5.

Stash Quilt blog ring

It looks like the ring is still down.

Luckily, I have bloglines set up but for those that manage to get to this site - check your browser history - that should hold the blog sites you typically visit OR you can go into the comment sections on your own blog . By clicking on the links you can travel to the profile of the person commenting and from there to their blog. Just a couple ways to get to your favorite blogs even with the ring down.

Mom's Honeybee Quilt

I finished quilting Mom's top today and got it unloaded and trimmed. It's all ready to ship back to her but I'll wait until I quilt the top she made for my niece and send them both back together.

Books to Read (or not)

I finished reading Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan. I have to repost about this book because when I posted initially I was enjoying the book.

Now having read the entire book, I would not recommend it. I found the beginning different but interesting, the middle was horrible - very difficult to get through, and the end was OK.

I did continue to struggle through the book because I wanted to see what was going to happen to the characters.

Heading home

My brother is back from his vacation and I'm heading home tomorrow.

It's about a 10 hour drive and I will be driving PAST Mary Jo's in Gastonia WITHOUT stopping. How's that for dedication to stashbusting?

Name Change

My oldest son Chris was 6 when Keith and I got married and for years he talked about changing his name to Johnson. He emailed me yesterday that it's done - he is now Chris Johnson. He decided to go ahead and make the change official before his wedding in October and that will certainly make it easier on Becky - now she'll just change her name once.

I worried some that my Adam (my younger son) would be upset but he says he doesn't mind. He doesn't feel any need to change his name but said if he did he wouldn't change it to Johnson. He'd choose McLaughlin - my maiden name. Being born on the day after St. Patrick's day, he has a strong affection for his Irish roots.

Both boys still see their father but have a wonderful relationship with Keith and in Adam's words feel he is their *real dad*.

I remembered

Couldn't sleep last night and lying in bed I finally remembered the other book I just finished - Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver. Glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't remember.

Laurie commented she likes the Elm Creek books by Jennifer Chiaverini and Janet Evanovich. I've missed a couple of the Elm Creek series but like both of these authors.

Cynthia's reading Deadly Kisses by Brenda Joyce - a good romance is my book of choice for a bubble bath. I'd read other ones by Joyce but haven't read this one so I'll have to put it on my list.

Eileen's book group is reading Secret Lives of Bees next and she also reads Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovitch, and James Patterson. I read a lot of Patterson too and usually like his books.

****
Laurie also asked how I was doing on my weight loss. I haven't been back to Weight Watchers for 4 weeks because I've been out of town on my regular meeting day. According to my scales my weight loss is about 30 lbs but I haven't lost any in a couple weeks. Too much traveling and I haven't been as strict. I'm OK with that and I could easily live with my weight now but it would be nice to lose a few more pounds so maybe when things settle back down I'll start to lose again.

I am going for another hike this morning so even with all the travel I'm keeping up with my walking/hiking.

A visit to the bookstore

It's been two weeks - longer than I usually go without my B&N fix so this afternoon I spent a couple hours browsing through books and magazines. I bought the new Quilter's Newsletter special edition 9-patch Quilts and a handful of books.

I've been reading a couple older Nora Roberts books - you know the kind - no thought involved just a quick mindless read. I'm also about halfway through Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan. I enjoy her books and while this one is somewhat different I'm really liking it too.

I finished Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag last week. I'd mentioned in a previous post that I was reading it and got a kick out of it being set in Minneapolis.

I know I finished something else last week but I can't remember what it was. Does anyone else read so much that they have trouble remembering which books they just finished? It's not that I wouldn't remember the story if I had the book in my hand - I just can't remember what book I was reading. Very sad.

More progress

Mom finished another top today

I pieced a quick strippie quilt to donate yesterday so now I've finished a couple tops since I've been here at Mom's.

While I was out hiking 10 miles today, Mom finished piecing this top. Cute isn't it? It's from the book Growing up with Quilts.

Tonight I'm helping her go through her magazines and ripping out the patterns she wants to keep. I found that having mine in a binder makes them more usable and I don't have keep the rest of the magazines.