Still sewing...not much progress

I got sidetracked a bit today. My computer anti-virus software did a scan today and found a Trojan horse. I have no idea where I got it from, but I am determined not to spread it. So, I dropped everything to take care of that problem. The infected file is gone and the problem is solved. Here's the current view of my wall.

It is pretty quiet in my sewing room. But sounds from the rest of the house are filtering in. My dog, Sadie is snoring; asleep in the doorway. And my son and a couple of his friends are talking and laughing upstairs. I sure hope they don't start looking for food. I really need to take a trip to the grocery store. But that will have to wait until tomorrow. This is my day. And now, back to sewing.

Oh no, It's snowing..... :(

I'm back with some more pics and today's game plan. It is cold here in Michigan, and we are getting a light snowfall. In fact, I believe snow is in the forecast for the entire week. Bummer. I am really much more of a summer type of person.

I promised in the last post to share the completed top from yesterday.What do you think? I am really happy with it. If you look closely, you will notice that I am previewing my options for the binding. On the left is my original intention- the yellow; and on the right is the checkerboard print. I think I will stick with the yellow.

Also, I have a finish to report! I finally got the baby quilt done. I got the binding all stitched down and it is ready to go. :D Bring on the grand baby!!! I'm ready now.

So, what's on the agenda for today? This for starters. The pieces are all cut and ready to go. Hopefully I won't feel the need to deviate from the design on this one.

And when I feel the need to relax with my feet up, I will work on finishing up this quilt. I have the binding about halfway stitched down and I have decided that I will not go to sleep tonight before it is done. I think I started this one back in 2000, so it is time to finish it.

Update of yesterday's progress

I feel the need to apologize for the lack of photos yesterday. I got so caught up in getting something done that I forgot to come back and add some in. So, I will get us caught up as far as I can. I need some better lighting conditions before I can take photos of the most complete progress.

About the swap blocks I am working with this weekend. I used to participate with a couple of MSN quilting groups. And I did quite a few block swaps with my on-line friends. However, I made very few quilts from the blocks I swapped. So I have blocks for at least seven quilts sitting around my sewing space. And I have at least three quilt tops made up of swap blocks that need to be finished. Mind you, I am just counting what I can think of from memory; there could very likely be more. Anyways, I came to the realization that I needed to get off-line and into my sewing room to finish some quilts.

These are the blocks I have chosen to work with this weekend.

I played around on EQ and came settled on a couple setting ideas for my blocks and this is what I decided on.

This is for the group of blocks on the left of the block photo I showed above. The greyish looking border is supposed to be a black/white check, but it is not reading as such in the picture.

And this is for the other group of blocks I have in the first photo.

Of course, even the best of plans sometimes need to be tweaked. And that is exactly what I have to do with my first quilt top. Once I was ready to put on the final border, I wasn't happy with the effect I was getting from either of two fabrics that I could have used. Here is what I had.

I felt the top fabric (the large checker board) was too busy and the bottom fabric was too greyed out looking. So I went back to EQ and made a small change in design. I will show the completed top in my next post.

Stitching Away the Day

Time for an update! I have one top finished and am ready to cut the setting pieces and borders for the next top. I will post photos later today.

It's that time again!

That's right, it's another quilt-a-thon weekend hosted by the lovely Judy L. over at Patchwork
Times. :D And I am actually able to participate this weekend, as my hubby is off in pursuit of some fresh venison.
I have a few projects in mind to work on, but first I have to take a quick trip to my local quilt shop. I spent last evening working on a couple layouts for some swap blocks that have been sitting around my sewing room far too long. Unfortunately, when I went through my stash, I didn't have enough of any fabric that would work with my intended design. So I am off for a quick purchase before I can proceed.

The sky is falling

Ok, maybe not the sky, but have you seen the gas prices lately? They have dropped so much these past few weeks! I filled up tonight for $2.04/gallon. Wowee!! I sure hope prices stay down for a while. At the pump next to mine, a man had a trailer attatched to the back of his truck. The trailer had at least a dozen 5-gallon sized gas containers on it and he was filling them all up.

I have completed the quilting on the baby lonestar, but I seem to have misplaced the binding strips for it. So, I will have to run out tomorrow for some fabric before I meet with my quilting group. I should have a picture of the completed quilt before the end of the weekend. :D

Election Day

For those of us who are citizens of the USA, today is election day. It is a privilege I take seriously. I voted around 10:30 this morning and was the 495th ballot cast in my precinct. The line took about thirty minutes to pass through; that is probably the longest line I have ever encountered to vote around here. I hope if you are a registered voter, that you too will cast your vote. That right is one of the things that makes the USA so great.

What's new?

Not much, really. I am having a hard time believing it is already November. I have done very little quilting. Yesterday I did manage to make it to open sewing at a local quilt shop. And I am happy to say I finally completed this top.

I have also decided on how I will quilt the baby lonestar quilt, so hopeully I will manage to quilt it today. Dare I hope to get the binding on as well?

Today marks my 23rd wedding anniversary. Hubby and I went out yesterday to celebrate, and today he is out hunting. Do I feel slighted? Nah! In honor of the occasion, I have decided to share the most recent photo of the two of us. It was taken Friday night. It has been many years since we had dressed up for halloween but we were invited to a party, so we decided to have some fun with it.