Houston

We are back from Houston. My first and probably last time. What a blast! So many vendors, anything you want at your fingertips; fabric, notions, comfy shoes, machines, cabinets, more fabric, pain relief for anywhere on your body. (I could have used that after the first day) Walking on cement for 3 days is quite painful.  Wore my Crocs, my feet were very comfy, but the rest of the body, not so much. 

There were a lot of quilts, but not quite what I expected. Many were art quilts, some which were painted.  Some were Ohhhhhhhhh AAAAAHHHHHHH and some were "what is it and why is it here?"  I'm not really the artsy type. They had some of the Hoffman Challenge quilts. The quilts done with thread only were beautiful. Optical Illusions are fascinating to me. 

I purchased a new Janome 6600 and the Martelli cutting matt and rotary cutter with its rulers. All of that stuff is yet to arrive as it will be shipped in several weeks or so. I kept the stuff I brought home to a minimum. Some FQs,  some batiks, a couple half yard pieces, a few patterns and a few notions.  Everything fit into my carry on.  Even the delicious fudge. 

It was a great time but as always, it was great to be home and in my own bed last night. 

 

Magic Stars

Our weather this weekend was cold, windy and snowy.  The snow was supposed to stop yesterday afternoon, but somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature. This is the snow still coming down last night. 

I spent the weekend cutting out blocks from a book by Nancy Johnson-Srebro called Magic Stars. I got one put together. They use a lot of background fabric but I like how they come together. I got 10 cut out, each block has different measurements so it was time consuming. Here's the one I did finish. It wasn't my intention to make so many but I wanted to try out the different blocks.  I'm sure the snow hasn't given up yet, so there will be more snow days to work on them. 

Tropical Twist

Math-----------my nemesis.  While assembling my Tropical Twist I decided it was a row short. I counted, recounted, still could not figure out where I went wrong. I had as many pieces as in the directions........... how could I be short? After adding another row of blocks,  I realized, I wasn't a row short, now I had an extra row. The Tropical Twist turned out very nice. 

Here's the center with the correct number of rows. :-)))) The purples worked well with the blues and greens. 

Tropical Twist -------- with help---or not

I've been working on Bonnie Hunter's Tropical Twist from the recent issue of Quiltmaker magazine. As you can see, my work space is shrinking by the day. I'm now reduced to the kitchen counters for my fabrics and the kitchen table to cut pieces. 

I got a few blocks put together and it's quite pretty. I'm hoping to get the rest assembled tomorrow on Quiltville's Superbowl Blue Horizons sew in. I've got a lot of blue and purple in the Tropical Twist. 

Double Delight Mystery

TA-DA!!!!!!!!!!! I finished the square in a square blocks for Bonnie Hunter's NYE Day mystery. Who would have thought that these pieces would 

Make into this block! I've still got most of the 9 patches to make, but this is a very pretty quilt. Bonnie has another great pattern to share. 

Mosaic Tiles Christmas Mystery

I finished the center of my Mosaic Tiles Mystery this evening. I'm not sure what kind of borders I'm going to do yet. 

I've also pulled fabric for Bonnie Hunter's new New Years Mystery, Double Delight. I'm not for sure on these fabrics yet, until I find something I like better, this is what I'm going with.  If you want to join or follow along, check out Bonnie's blog http://quiltville.blogspot.com or her web site www.quiltville.com. 

Happy New Year

Updated Mystery Choices

There was a suggestion that I use a brown with my fabrics rather than the light cream. I wasn't sure I had just a brown. Brown is plain, brown is dull, and wearing brown has always reminded me that I looked like I worked for UPS. (I didn't work for them.) But that's what brown was to me. 

I managed to find a piece of Michael Miller's Krystal in a dark brown that might work. I've included it with the other colors. I must say, I do like it, but I am hoping it won't blend with the focus fabric, but not knowing what the pattern is, it's going to be a real 'mystery'.  

It's been snowing since Saturday night. The plow boys are earning their money this season so far. They were here twice on Fri, again on Sat, Sun morning and I heard them again around 3am trying to plow out the drifts that had accumulated on Sunday. I'm glad I wasn't in the cab with them.  I'm sure it was blue by the time they were finished. The drifts were high, heavy and the ice on the uphill drive makes it almost impossible unless you have chains. The job usually takes about 20 min.  I could hear the tires still spinning in the driveway around 4am when I drifted back to sleep in my nice warm cozy bed under my down quilt.  It's still very very cold and not expected to warm up any time soon.  It will be a white Christmas for sure. 

Merry Christmas!

New Mystery Colors

These are the new colors I've decided on for the Christmas Mystery. My dark wasn't dark enough to make much contrast. 

And Mz Mouse is in her usual position when I'm at the computer. No wonder I can't type! I hope she's comfy.  

BINDINGS SHARON SCHAMBERS WAY

After watching Sharon Schambers video on how to do bindings,  I wasn't sold on the glue and spray starch. 

I was in the process of making puppy blankets that just needed bindings. I tried Sharon's method with the glue and spray starch.  I followed each step except the hand stitching on the back. I was really impressed with how much better the corners were on the first try.   

My stitching isn't the best, these are just puppy blankets,  but the corners turned out much better on the first try. I'm sold on the glue and spray starch.  I'll use it on my next binding. 

A NEW MYSTERY

These are my choices of fabrics to use for the upcoming Christmas Mystery. I will probably not be working on the Christmas Day mystery until Christmas night if I get home earlier enough. 

The one I don't use for the Christmas Mystery, I will use for the New Years Eve Mystery. This is the first year I've done the Christmas and NYE mysteries. 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. 

THE TECHNIQUE

This is one of the first quilt classes  I took at the LQS.  It's a 3-D Attic Window.  It doesn't show up well because all my colors sorta 'blend' into each other.  It's a couch quilt so it gets lots of wear and washings. 

I just grabbed some fabric from my stash that looked like it would go together. I had no idea what I was doing or how to chose fabric.  I was new to classes and quilting, the instructor was so kind.  She spent half of the first class explaining color, using those green and red things to show how the colors would blend  and how to choose fabrics that would work best.  I didn't know it wasn't part of the class.  When she finished, she asked if I wanted to look for something in the store that would make the windows stand out rather than blend with the background. 

That's when I said, "I'm here to learn the technique, I'm not really concerned about the color."  I can only imagine what she was thinking to herself, but she was very gracious and we have been friends since then. I've taken many classes from her since then and she lets me know my color choices have gotten 'so much better!' 

RED SKY AT NIGHT by Judy Martin

This is a Judy Martin pattern from her book Yes! You Can Make Stunning Quilts from Simple Patterns.  It took me several weeks to figure out Judy's method of assembly. I'm not following her method, I'm strip piecing instead of sewing each piece together to make the strip. There are almost 140 strip sets to assemble before you can start to put them together. I've got 22 done so far.

I've seen the quilt finished and it's beautiful. It looks complicated, but if I follow the directions to assemble it, I'm hoping it will turn out just like the picture. Unless I've assemble one of the strips incorrectly.  :-)). This is for sure a long term project for me.