Saturday Summary

This week felt like it went by really fast!  I've been struggling with a bit of lower back pain all week, it really flared up last Saturday so I've been trying to be careful not to make it worse.  A big pillow behind me in my chair in the living room helps, as well as remembering not to stay in one position for too long.  A bit of sitting, a bit of standing and moving, easy stretching and walking are the ticket.  With the Olympics on TV it is hard to remember to get up and move around, though!

The Quiltsy team is having their own kind of Olympic event - we are having a Jelly Roll Race challenge!  More than 36 of our team members have started making a quilt using the Jelly Roll Race pattern.  If you haven't heard of this, check out this video to see how it is done - it's a lot of fun and a super fast way to make a quilt top.  Here is a peak at my top with the backing fabric I am going to use:

Most of this week's sewing time was spent on getting some curtain panels sewn up.  This was a simple job, just 6 panels 130 inches long and one width of fabric.  No lining and the top will be clipped so it was just a matter of folding under 2 inches at the top for a heading.

By Thursday I had a big pile of alterations to work on, so I set myself down and made by way through all of that.  I hemmed three pair of pants, took in a sweatshirt, hemmed a linen dress and replaced zippers in two robes.  Then I rewarded myself with an afternoon of piecing!

Yesterday I went to Bunco - we had a lovely time on Diana's patio and I was a winner!  I got this beautiful teal butterfly Trivet (Pioneer Woman).  It will save me from ruining my lovely orange counter tops by putting hot pans on them.  (make sure you read that last sentence in a sarcastic tone...)  We had a wonderful lunch featuring roasted root veggies that were everyone's favorite dish.  So good!  Sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips, red onions and garlic.  I got the recipe to make for myself later.  After that, I worked on the next border for my feathered star quilt.  

My plan for today is to finish the last pieced border for this quilt so I can quilt it on Sunday.  Next week I'll be working on a slipcover for a chair as well as starting on visor holders.  Plus the Island Batik Seaside Summer Blog hop will be starting!  My fellow ambassador, Adelle, posted about it here.  There will be a giveaway on each blog on their day, plus Island Batik always hosts a big giveaway as well, so make sure you follow along and enter all of them.  You are going to love my quilt...it's a beauty!

Hope you have had a good week, enjoy the Olympics and remember to move your body often as well - we may not be Olympic competitors, but we need to take good care of our bodies so we can do the things we love!

Jelly Roll Challenge Finalist!

I've been holding back from making a general announcement, but thought this might be a good time to share the good news - my quilt is one of the 12 chosen to be published in the new Jelly Roll Challenge book! I was super excited to get an e-mail last month informing me of this great news and I have hardly been able to contain myself. I want to blurt it out to everyone, but at the same time don't want to be overly boastful either.

It all started out with making a sample for the quilt shop using a jelly roll. Sharan always encourages me to make original quilts so that I can write up a pattern and make a little extra money. (always a good thing, right?) So I came up with a cute little quilt using my favorite new roll, and a couple days later at the quilt guild meeting I was presented with a flyer advertising the Jelly Roll Challenge. I went online and discovered that the deadline was a little more than a week away, but since I had my directions written up already decided to go for it! After re-reading the instructions I discovered that I needed a quilt top, not a completed quilt, so I had to remake my design. At that point I may as well tweak it to better fit the quidelines and have a better chance at success - well I guess it worked!

As usual in the course of trying to make my quilt better, I also had a problem and ended up making a third top, but as they say - the third time's the charm.

Here is a teaser of the quilt I made:

I used Nature's Chorus by April Cornell and it is a lovely line of fabrics. The colors are so yummy! In fact they make me think of candy, which is part of the name of the quilt.

Here is the blog post that announces me as one of the winners - they have not yet announced the grand prize winner or the two runner ups, they are waiting until publication, which is not for a few months yet. The top prize is a nice cash award plus an awesome new sewing machine. I keep fantasizing about it, but I hardly dare hope to be the top winner. At the least I'll get two copies of the book and fabric - so that is absolutely fabulous in itself! But I can hardly stand waiting, it's driving me up the wall!

My quilt top got to be sent to England to be professionally quilted - so now I have two quilts that have made trips to England without me! (The other one was the Bear's Paw quilt my daughter took with her when she did a summer project in London.) I would be more glad to fly there to claim it if they'll buy my plane tickets!

Anyway, I am now totally and completely in love with Jelly Rolls and am busy thinking of some new ways to use them. Who knows what I will come up with next - whatever it is I know I will have fun playing, and that is the best part about quilting for me!