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.

My current project

My first grandchild is expected in early December. Naturally I feel the need to make a baby quilt. Kyle and Crystal have chosen to decorate the baby's room with a classic Pooh theme, so I chose to use colors that will blend with that. The pattern choice was influenced by this quilt that I made for Kyle when he went away to college. Here is my progress so far.

I used the pattern Jelly Stars as the basis to make this quilt, and wow, did it ever go together nicely! I definitely reccomend it. My quilt uses only one star instead of four, and I changed the border to suit the fabric that I had to work with. It is strip pieced and there are no "Y" seams - super simple!

But I am stuck as to how I should quilt it. I am strictly a machine quilter so I need a design that will convert to continuous line quilting easily. I have never tried a feather design, and wouldn't know where to start to do it. Do any of you have any suggestions for me?

Oh, and this will be my next project when the baby quilt is done. So I will be having the same problem again as to how to quilt it.

Where oh Where has this blogger been?

Right here at home, that's where. I just haven't had much to tell you about . Sometimes life just takes you in a different direction, you know? It has been pretty slow on the quilting front around here. I had baby showers to attend for the past two weekends. I did make a quilt to give at one shower, but I did not have the presence of mind to take a photo of it. It was just one made with a pre-printed panel, so really, you didn't miss much.

I have finally finished the nine-patch quilt that has been seen so much on the blog. It will make it's way to it's new home tomorrow. I will be happy to see it go. The guilt for taking so long to finish was really getting to me. And I have soooooo many other things I want to work on, but couldn't until that nine-patch was done.