Which one?

After giving it some thought, I went back and played a little more with my nine-patch designs some more. I thought maybe it would look better if I swapped out the placement of the rows. Here is the way I last posted this quilt design.

And this is after I switched it around. This way makes the light blue grid look complete. Which is better?

Anxious to see the son

My computer has been acting up for the last several weeks. I am so frustrated I often feel like throwing it againt the wall. Sometimes it will start up and run fine. But more often than not, it will decide not to run some of my programs. This includes (but is not limited to) my browsers and e-mail programs, effectively cutting me off from my favorite computer activites. Sigh.



I have been trying to resolve this problem, but so far without success. The good news is, my computer wiz son will be coming home from college for the summer in a week. I am hopeful that he will be able to figure out what is wrong. My fear is that I will need to completely reinstall everything. I have been frantically searching for installation cd's for all of my programs just in case. A couple vital ones seem to have disappeared including my anti-virus program and Microsoft Office. Have I mentioned how frustrated I am? Hurry home, Kyle. I need your help!



I haven't had time to do much quilting lately. Friday was strip club again at my local quilt shop. I spent the time putting the blocks together from last month's quilt. I just can't decide if I want to add borders to it or leave it as is. No new picture, as it looks pretty much like it did here, just sewn together.



I have been playing a little bit with my EQ software, since it will still usually load up. I have a bunch of nine patch blocks that I want to put into a quilt. The blocks are all different colors-very scrappy. I will share a few of the settings I have played with since I have no other nice quilty pics to share.

This one is just a grid like design. I like how the blocks are sort of framed in or linked togther.

This is the same layout with a different look. With this one, I just played with the color placement of the alternate blocks to create the diagonal stripes.

And with this one I went in a totally different direction. I grouped the nine patched differently and changed the alternate block. I don't know which one I like best.

Tourist season?

We have had a couple unexpected guests around here for the the past week or so. They are neither invited nor welcome as far as my husband is concerned. I have found them to be quite entertaining. They seem to have quite a fondness for our family swimming pool.

I think they may be lost. Sure hope they move on soon.

Time to check in

This may be my final check in for the quiltathon this weekend. I didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked, but it sure felt good to do a bit of sewing. But, I am feeling a bit tired, so I think I am hanging it up for the day.

There were a few distractions along the way.

My daughter dropped by both days to work on her wedding invitations. Can't get upset about that- they should have been in the mail a couple weeks ago.

She did sort of take over my sewing space in the process. But, in her defense, I do have my own sewing room. And I chose to sew at the dining room table instead.

Still, I managed to complete all of the blocks I need for the quilt. Aren't they pretty?

Here's a better view of them in all their glory on my design wall. I like how this one is shaping up.

But I think I will wait to stitch them together. This one is going to take a lot of concentration getting all the blocks facing the correct direction. Plus there will be about a million seams to match up. Yuck!

Perhaps I will practice first with these extra blocks. I think this could be a cute little topper.

And hey, did you notice my new ironing board cover? I stole the idea from Lisa Boyer at Dorky Homemade Quilts. She posted hers a while back and I had been itching to cover mine ever since.

Trying for another day of Quiltathon

Yesterday I managed to finish all the blocks for my current quilt. But most of them still need to be pressed. So I will start my second day of quiltathon by doing that. Then I will get to go play with the block layout on my design wall. With any luck, I will have a quilt top before the day is done. :)

What?! Quit staring at me and go away. I'm busy!

That's my sewing basket that I take to quilt class every month. Get out of there, Sadie! Why are you so obsessed with my basket? Maybe we should have a looksy.

Oh, I should have known. You can smell the treats I keep in there for Oscar, the resident dog at my local quilt shop. I suppose you can have one of those. Spoiled rotten dog!

Who blabbed?

Ok, so Imade it to my first check in point without too many interruptions. But I want to know blabbed about my sewing day?! I was just starting to make Flo (my spiffy featherweight sewing machine) hum when my daughter showed up. She needs to use our computer and printer to print off her wedding invitations. She is getting married in June. My bet is that she will need help setting the printer up correctly. Guess who will have to help?

I have finished all of one type of block for my Tisket A Tasket quilt. And I have everything ready to go to assemble the other blocks. With some luck, I will have all my blocks completed today.

It's a quiltathon weekend

Judy is hosting another quiltathon weekend over at Patchwork Times. And since I have done so very little quilting lately, I have decided I will try to spend my day in my sewing room. Shhhhhhhhh, don't tell my family, or they will start popping out of the woodwork finding things to distract me. I will check in later on with a progress report. I think I will be working on the March strip club project. I only have a few of the blocks finished so far.

Wish I had time to sew

For those of you who check my blog regularly, I apologize. I know I have not posted much lately. The thing is, I just haven't had time to do any quilting. And what I had accomplished I had to keep secret until today. The voting period is over for the quilt challenge I participated in, so now I can share it with you. I shared the link to the forum where it was posted in my last post.
My quilt was number one.

I call it Turtle Moons.

It was inspired by a quilt made by Jane Sassaman that was featured on a Fons and Porter show. Her quilt was called Suns and Moons, and features layers of circles and rings. I was intrigued by the techinique and wanted to give it try. And this was what I ended up with. It was alot of fun to make and I like the end result.

Challenge quilts are posted

I am currently participating in an on-line quilt challenge through Quilts Your Way forums. Each participant was sent a fat eighth of the same fabric and we needed to use it in a 20 inch quilt. The deadline to send in a photo of the finished quilt was April 1st . All fourteen quilt pictures are now posted. Forum members will be given a chance to vote for their favorite.



You can see the quilts here and here. It amazes me how different they all are. I can't tell you which is mine until after the voting is done. But some of you who know me well may be able to figure it out.



The only other quilting I have accomplished lately is my monthly strip club projects. And that is the whole sad truth. And I hate to admit it, but after last month's class plus a day spent at the store's open sewing event, I still do not have even one block for the March quilt completed. Not that I wasn't busy working! I don't want you to think I spent the entire time just goofing off and socializing. I was working hard-really!