Today is the 4th of July 5K and town festival in the little town that my parents and sister's family live in. My son, husband, sister and niece all ran the 5K this morning in the crazy, record breaking heat that the middle section of the country is experiencing. Everyone survived and we have made it back to Grams' house and the air conditioning!
June's UFO was my spiderweb blocks from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville page. I had no delusions of having a finished quilt by the end of the month - but I think I made good progress. I was able to piece 10 star blocks - so that will make two completed rows!
My 11 year old son has already laid claim to this quilt as his future couch quilt!
I also made my self put the binding on my 2011 guild mystery quilt in time to take it to the monthly guild meeting. I love the colors in this quilt.
I spent four days quilting my black and white block of the month quilt. It took longer than expected because of I wasn't thinking clearly - I pieced the back out of 14" squares to save myself from buying 6 more yards of fabric. All those seams combined with TONS of seams on the front make for lots of thread breakage. I also decided to free-hand a different design in each of the three outer borders. I was very glad to get that one done - now it is sitting there waiting for the binding. I can hear Nina snickering all the way down here in Alabama!
Wednesday morning as me and the kids were getting ready to leave the house to run errands, have lunch, and go see Madagascar 3, the phone rang. It was a lady whose quilts I have quilted before. She had two quilts ready for me to quilt for her granddaughters. She lives on the far opposite corner of town from me so she gladly met us at Target. When I asked when she needed them done, she said she would like to have them by the 5th. We were leaving town on the 29th and not coming back until the 4th - so I told her I would do my best, but I wasn't making any promises. Late Wednesday afternoon, I started pinning the first quilt on - with the help of Ian. Ian only hung in there for about 10 minutes - mainly because the lady had sent sheets for the backings - and the thick seams were a booger to pin through. I made myself get up Thursday morning and get them both finished up. Ian stayed with me most of the day, just talking about whatever popped into his head. We discussed the difference between banks and credit unions, the fires in Colorado, going to Papa's house, and accelerated 6th grade math. He did help me pin on the second quilt and was amazed at how much quicker it is to unpin a quilt than to pin it on in the first place! The lady was thrilled to get them back so quickly - and I was glad to have some spending money in my pocket!
July's UFO is my birthday blocks from our guild birthday group last year. The blocks are all made and I have the backing fabric - so I just need to get the top put together and get it quilted. I should be able to completely finish it this month!
Yes, today is my birthday and I have made an executive decision that nothing I eat today has any calories. So far I have enjoyed chocolate chip cookies for breakfast and steak and fried rice from the Japanese steak house. Hmmm.... wondering what yumminess I can have for dinner!
I have finished up a couple of baby quilts this past week. This first one was a comissioned quilt. I had to cut back the number of quilts I was making for the new babies at church to one per family - otherwise I would have no time for my own quilting! But this mama REALLY wanted a quilt - so the daddy hired me to make the quilt. He bought the supplies and my part of the gift was making it. She loved it! Baby James should arrive tomorrow - unless he decides to listen to my advice and come today!
This next baby quilt is for another family at church. This is for baby number 3 but they started worshiping with us after they had the first two. I just love this color blue! Quick and easy!
My June UFO for Judy's 2012 UFO Challenge is to work on my spiderweb quilt. Last night I decided to get busy! I was able to cut out enough yellow points for 16 blocks. And then I realized I did not have a glue stick! Lucky for me, I have a neighbor who is able to fulfill all my strange requests! Can of black beans? Sure! Saltine crackers? Check! Swiffer duster? Sure - a whole box in her car - to dust her car dash board. Children's Tylenol? Of course. Glue stick? Yes! Can you tell that she is much more organized than I am? I am still trying to figure out why she keeps me around! Anyway - I was able to get some star points glued on and start sewing. I started with 12 inch squares and cut them in half. Bonnie's directions use a 8.5 inch square. When Ian saw me working on this this afternoon, he asked who it was for. I said "me!" He asked that I not make it too big or too girly so we can use it on the couch. He really liked that scraps from his quilts are in this block - can you see the soccer fabric and the Gator fabric? And notice the rooster in the bottom left corner? That is in honor of my mom!
I am setting a goal of making one star block a day - this should take maybe an hour. Friday me and two quilting friends are celebrating my birthday with a pedicure, lunch, and an afternoon of sewing. Maybe I can lure them into helping me!
At about 4 p.m. yesterday (May 31st) I decided I really wanted to finish my assigned UFO for May. It should have been a simple thing to have done earlier - all this UFO needed was to be quilted. So yesterday afternoon I dug out the top and the backing and got to work. When it came time to pin it on to the quilting machine, my daughter was amazingly helpful and was willing for me to show her how to help me pin it on. It goes so much quicker when two people are pinning.
I got another boost in finishing it because hubby was late in coming home - extra time to work on it! I finished the last three passes before going to bed last night. All that is left to do is the binding - my (least) favorite part. I'll post a full picture when the binding is done.
June's UFO is working on the string blocks for another spiderweb quilt. There is no way this one will get finished this month but hopefully some progress can be made!
Thanks again, Judy, for inspiring us to finish up these old UFO's.
