Diamonds and Apples

I finished a wall-hanging today - it is actually leftover from the project I finished last weekend as a shop sample. It was made from a jelly-roll. No, not the pastry! Jelly-rolls are rolled bundles of 2.5 inch strips of fabric from an entire line of fabric. What fun - I love scrap quilts so these are right up my alley as far as quilting goes. I really enjoyed working with the variety, and best of all it saves a ton of time as far as cutting the strips. The original quilt came out beautifully, and I had five diamonds left over, so I made them into a smaller version of the larger quilt. It is only 25 x 44 so it hardly took any time at all to quilt and bind this afternoon.

Didn't it come out pretty? The first quilt used all the same color of sashing, but I didn't have enough, so I used all the other greens left from the first quilt and made a scrappy sashing. It worked out quite well.

Next on my list is a sample I made for a pattern I wrote that didn't come out quite as well as I wanted it too. I ended up re-making the quilt for the pattern, but this one is perfectly acceptable - I just didn't like the lack of contrast. So, I plan to finish that one up tomorrow, and get started on that UFO pile. I need a big sale on batting, though - I'm almost out! We have some great fabrics on sale at the shop for backs so I'm ok there. Once I get the pile at the back of my table quilted it will be time to dive into the drawer again - it got filled up with various shop samples, plus a round robin in progress that I really want to get going on. It feels good to clean up these odds and ends, then I'll be ready for some new creations.

I really think that September would be a good month to make resolutions. It seems like I get energized this time of year as the nights get cooler and the days start to get shorter. Life seems a little less rushed for a while and I have time to think and dream and plan. Right now I am enjoying looking out my window at the trees and the blue sky. I know soon the rain will start and the sky will often be gray and stormy, but now as the summer hangs on it is a beautiful day and I appreciate it!

I am off to pick up some groceries, and maybe some more quilt batting (got to find that sale flyer from the fabric store!).

Getting Ready for the Quilt Show

Yes, I've actually been doing some quilty sewing as I prepare for the big Sand 'N Sea Quilt Show. I have eight entries this year, and would it sound big headed if I say I really do want Hawaiian Star to win best of show? I am so hoping to accomplish that! The only issue is that I have entered several quilts that have fallen into the same category, so I hope I don't end up splitting all my votes up so much that I don't win anything. That would be a shame, and I will have learned my lesson (I hope!).
I was really excited yesterday to see that my picture of Hawaiian Star is now up on Judy Neimeyer's website. They did a wonderful job of editing out the edge of the shelf that was in my original picture! I really need to learn how to do some of that awesome photoshop stuff to make my pictures better myself. Anyway, check out the rest of her website: Quiltworx.com. I think her patterns are terrific, and I'm sure anyone would enjoy making one of her beautiful quilts!
For the quilt show I made this adorable miniature:

Can you guess how big it is? I'll tell you at the end of my post today - I'm pretty sure you will be surprised!
I made a vest for my challenge entry. Actually it's the vest I made in a workshop with Linda Mason that fits the guidelines for the challenge! The rules were that it had to be such and such a size and have a New York Beauty Block. Which my vest features! So it works, and I didn't have to make another quilt to enter into the challenge. I'm thrilled!
Another entry is the string quilt I made last winter for the upcycle contest on Etsy. It got a blue ribbon in the fair this year, which I was really happy about. I think that if it does not sell by this winter that I will use it on my own bed. It's a nice and heavy quilt, perfect for keeping warm on cold nights. I eventually plan to make more of these quilts, my string can in overflowing, but I have so many other projects to work on that it hasn't been a priority this summer.
I've also entered Ruby Tulips, and Where Your Heart Is, and a quilted purse. They will be for sale at the show also, so perhaps I will be able to sell those soon. My cupboard is getting full of finished quilts!
I finally finished Shining Stars! This is a quilt made from blocks made in a block exchange many years ago. I completed the top several years ago when I found a layout in EQ5 that I really liked to set them off. I bought the backing for it a short time later, but it's been sitting in my drawer waiting for my machine quilting skills to catch up with my ideas for the quilting. I decided that there is no time like the present and finally got it quilted. I still need to work on my feathers, but I really like how it came out. It ended up being a lovely quilt - and I am very happy to have finished it up after all this time. It will go for sale also, I have plenty of quilts, but my refrigerator is desparately in need of a replacement. So that is my hope for this quilt!

A little bit about the quilting - I found the perfect blue thread at the quilt shop a couple of weeks ago and bought it. When I got ready to quilt I realized that it was too dark to use on the blocks themselves and the pink squares. So I ended up using pink thread on those sections and the pretty blue thread on the rest, including the black - which it is stunning on!

I did a feather and swirl circle on the blocks, flowes and swirls on the pink and blue, swirls and looks on the black, and just loops on the border. By then I had realized that the thread didn't show up enough to make a feathered border worth all of the work involved. At any rate, it is bound and almost ready to display in the show - I just have to add the label and it is officially finished! Yeah! If you really want to know the miniature quilt is only 4 and 3/4 inches square! It is so small that the tag that will be displayed with it in the show will be bigger that it is. I really is cute, isn't it?

Time to make pancakes for breakfast - have a great weekend!

Another day at work

Sorry for the lag in posts - even though my boss at the quilt shop talked to us about the possibility that we would be working less hours, I find I have been working more hours! This week will be a 20 hour week for me - the norm is 8 - 10 hours. I keep saying it means a better paycheck, but I'm having a bit of a hard time pumping myself up to be at the shop for 8 hours today. Plus that it's the next to last week of summer and I feel like I am neglecting the 13 year old. Well, I suppose we will all get through this, and there really aren't that many 8 hour days left to work in the year. I really do love my job, I just don't like doing anything for more than a few hours (I have a very short attention span!)

I finished all of my bags - they came out really great! I have four of the panels left, so I thought I would make them into nice pillows and take them to Rita and see if she will give me a couple more sample books. Don't you think that would be nice? Then I could make even more bags! What am I thinking? I am also a wee bit compulsive! Sometimes when I get going on something I definitely don't know when to quilt.

This week besides work I am on a mending kick. No, not my own mending, why would I do that? No one pays me to do that - I only do mending when I get something for it. Seriously. I have a perfectly good shirt hanging in my studio. I popped the hem on it when I tried it on after buying it. I just need to sew around the hem so it doesn't fall down when I wash it. It's been there for at least 6 months. It's a long sleeve shirt, though, so I might do it when the leaves start falling so I'll have something new to wear. That's a pretty good incentive. You know how it is when the season changes and you have nothing left to wear!

Spelling laugh of the day - this is a good one! When my friend brought me her mending to do, she also brought a stack of clothes that me or the 13 yo might like. There is a really cut little dress with a criss-cross front. (It even makes me look really thin! But it needs taken up a bit in the shoulders because it shows more of me than anyone other than the husband gets to see.) I looked at the tag - my goodness, she only paid $1.50 for this dress! What an awesome buy! (I never find deals like that, good thing my friends do!) I read the tag a little more - it is labeled as a surplus dress! What they really meant is a surplice dress. Don't these people ever watch What Not To Wear? I don't know if it's as funny to anyone else as it is to me, but I got a really good giggle from that one! There's a big difference - but then again maybe it really is a surplus dress and that is why it only cost $1.50.

I suppose instead of entertaining myself with all of these witty thought I ought to go get ready for work - have a blessed day!