Happy St. Patrick's Day

Do you guys have any fun plans for the day? Minneapolis has a St. Patrick's Day parade so I'm going to meet Keith downtown around 6PM. Since I have to go to the post office too, I'm going to take my book and head down a little early.

What I won't be doing this afternoon is sewing -- my Elna froze up last night and won't sew a stitch for me. I've got to see if I can find a dealer here and see if it can be fixed and how much it will cost me. The machine is 7+ years old and I've never had any problems with it before. I do have a back up machine - the Janome Gem I bought last year as my carry around machine so at least I won't be without one.


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#3 of 10 quilted

This top was constructed by two male students in a clothing class -- it's not the most precisely constructed quilt and had some challenges but I just love that they chose to make a HeartStrings quilt for their project. It will bring color and warmth into someone's life when it's finished and donated.

I quilted freeform Baptist Fans (NO pantograph, template, or marking -- all freehand); these are really fun and with their random and uneven arcs really suit a string quilt like this.

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Getting a late start

I'm slow starting today but I'm doing well on my *to do* list this month.

• Finish gathering my tax info and get it to the accountant by March 16.
• Quilt 10 tops
  • 1. San's QOV # 2 quilted
    2. Carmen's Zig Zag coins
       
• Piece backings -- at least 2 -- 4 done
  
• Assemble the brown/red/pink Happy Blocks into a top
• Make more QAYG blocks for our HeartStrings Project for Australia -- ONGOING
• Start the 3rd set of Log Cabin String blocks
• Start blocks for a half log cabin (this one may be for Adam if he likes it)
• Finish and mail March postcard and 2 thank you postcards
• Get the stack of finished quilts washed - IN PROGRESS - 2 done
• Catch up on my Here There Everywhere Journal class -- IN PROGRESS -- I have a lot I want to include...this will be ongoing.

I've got a quilt in the wash and am signing off now to load and quilt another top. Luckily Keith has a business dinner tonight so in a few hours I should be down with top #3. Have a great evening.


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What a great day!

We started with a visit to Loring Park -- we drove so Chesty could come with us.

We spent a little time at the dog park.
Came home -- I lost at Scrabble unfortunately but then we spent a little time out on the deck.

Keith grilled kabobs while I cooked some jasmine rice. Just perfect!
Time to eat!

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Almost done with tax prep

I've been sitting in Dunn Brothers drinking coffee and finishing up my tax stuff for the last 3 hours and all that's left is tracking down a couple documents and making copies. I'll be so glad to send this with Keith Monday morning for him to drop at the accountant's on his way to work!

No sewing for me today but I did get two postcards in the mail today. This one for Mom for St. Patrick's Day -- she made a bunch to send out and I'm not sure how she knew this was my favorite!!

I also received Deb's postcard from the MQR exchange. She always uses interesting fibers in her cards.


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Mistakes?

I usually plan for things NOT to turn out just right ... and in this case I had a backup. This is the reject -- Ann jinxed me, I just told her to *press not iron* these little crystals and then I went and messed up my first card.

But 2nd time's the charm ...both of them are in the mail as we speak -- I wonder where they'll end up?
See this tiny insignificant speck ... the moon was shining so bright through my kitchen window tonight that I had to go out and try to get a photo but the camera wouldn't capture what I was seeing, how disappointing.



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More mail!

For those of you interested in the Zig Zag coins - an tutorial was created by Becky for HeartStrings - she made several of them and they were just too cute! Full photos of the quilts I'm working on are always posted AFTER the binding is done - so you'll have to wait a bit to see Carmen's quilt.

I get the best mail! This Twisted Kitty top was sent to me from Deborah to finish and donate as a part of our HeartStrings Happy Block project. Instructions for the twisted Happy Blocks are on my MaryQuilts.com site.


I'm working on my Journal project too but I've got so much I want to include, I'm sure I won't catch up with the rest of the class and I'll be working on this one for a while. Here's the latest page -- I'm still on the Landmarks section of Minneapolis. I'm not sure if parks are technically landmarks -- but I'm including all our favorite spots.

I'm happier with some of these pages than others but for now I'm trying to get them made and will go back and work on some of the ones I'm not so happy with later.



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#2 of 10

A zig zag Chinese Coins pieced by Carmen for Heartstrings and quilted
with Wandering Daisies.

Not quilting...but still progress

I finished and mailed a couple postcards yesterday - this was one of them. I got the idea for these from the Quilting Arts book -- there was a chapter on tile quilts and I thought I could shrink it down to postcard size.

The plan today was to quilt -- I have a small top loaded already but I think I've got a little GI bug so I decided I'd work upstairs where I could sit. I got the Happy blocks assembled into this top, made 4 backings, and pieced a few QAYG blocks for HeartStrings March/April project. Now, I'm going to allow myself to read in front of the fire for a while.


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# 1 of 10 quilted

It's snowing today and I want to go out and play but I'm being a good girl and working my way through my to do list.

#1 of 10 tops is quilted. This one is from San (Gypsy Quilter) and is intended for Alycia's QOV project. I have one more to quilt and then I'll have 3 to send her before her deadline at the end of April.
It's a busy string quilt so I picked up the stars in the border and and just did an easy allover pattern of stars and loops. You'll see a photo of the entire quilt once it's bound.

I used my Chicago mug for my tea this morning. I collect mugs from places I visit and then the memories of my trips stay with me each day as I choose a mug to use. I bought this one because it has the Hancock building and the Ferris Wheel as well as a view of the skyline we saw from the Planetarium.
I'm also making progress on washing finished quilts, there are two done and now I'll load the next top for quilting.


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Here There Everywhere

I'm catching up on the prompts for the new class -- I'm 2 weeks behind so I decided to go for simple. The first part of the class focuses on HERE -- my neighborhood, the places nearby that we frequent, and local attractions.

Today I got the neighborhood pages done. Quilty Bird asked if I print these pages out and the answer is some of them but I haven't really hit upon the best method for displaying them yet. Ideally, I'm looking for a 5x7 photo album so I can keep adding to them but the Christmas Album I had printed at Kodak and I wasn't crazy about how that turned out.



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Time for a list

This one will cross into April since I'm not looking to make myself completely crazy. I'm at home from now until we leave for Dublin so my goal is to have the following done by April 9th.

• Finish gathering my tax info and get it to the accountant by March 16.
  
• Quilt 10 tops
• Piece backings -- at least 2
• Assemble the brown/red/pink Happy Blocks into a top
• Make more QAYG blocks for our HeartStrings Project for Australia
• Start the 3rd set of Log Cabin String blocks
• Start blocks for a half log cabin (this one may be for Adam if he likes it)
• Make my March postcard for our family exchange
  
• Get the stack of finished quilts washed!
• Catch up on my Here There Everywhere Journal class -- I'm now 2 weeks behind.
  

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Home

Poor Chesty has to wait until tomorrow but we're almost home. Chicago
was fun and I hope to get back to visit there again.

Weather woes

Bad weather here in Chicago canceled our flight. We may be able to get
on a later flight but we'll spend the next 4 hours here in the airport
- keep your fingers crossed that flight doesn't get canceled too.

View from the planetarium

Afraid of heights!

I went on the Ferris Wheel anyway. I had to close my eyes but there
wasn't much of a view anyway due to the fog.

The view this morning

Not so great. Rain, thunder - we'll have to think about what we want
to do now.

Champagne at the top of the Hancock building

Playing after lunch

Keith's trying to figure out the camera on his new phone. We're at the
airport heading for Chicago.

Mail!

I had boxes arrive while I was gone and this one arrived this morning from Cheryl. She wrote and asked about donating tops to HeartStrings and this box arrived packed with beautiful tops.

I had to pull them out to look....
I also got a box from Nancy and the Peace by Piece quilters at St. Mary's in CT. They sent 300+ Happy Blocks and a quilt top for me to finish. We'll be assembling blocks at our April sew-in so these will go with me for us to work on there.
And finally, another blow for my stashbusting efforts...I've been running short on fabrics to use for borders so I ordered a bunch of 2 yard cuts from Thousands of Bolts. They have the best prices! I don't feel too guilty about this purchase or the fat quarters at the quilt show last week because I'm getting a lot of piecing done so I'm happy as long as I'm using more than what's coming in.

Today's a catch up day before we leave tomorrow for Chicago. I've been unpacking, doing laundry, catching up on email, going through my other mail, and I did get a top loaded on the longarm. I'm aiming for 10 tops in March but will be getting a late start due to my travels. Wish me luck!


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