Red shoes & roller derby

It has been over a week without any sewing. However, on Saturday I went with Laura to her dress fitting, went with my husband to be measured for his wedding suit, shopped for bridesmaid's gifts, bought some red shoes, and went to roller derby.

Actually I was hoping to find a dress that I like better than what I already bought. But either the dresses were long, full of too many beads and baubles, or didn't come in "short and fat". So discouraging. But I did let Laura talk me into buying these red shoes to go with the black dress/red jacket. Payless for $28 - so I'm not out a ton of money if I decide they are just too uncomfortable.

Following the shopping hubbie and I stopped to visit some friends before heading to roller derby. The Sioux Falls Roller Dollz beat (whupped, stomped) the Rushmore Rollerz. Laura was glad her dad finally got to see her skate.

I Need Help With Borders

I need some help with borders on my frosty project. I have the blocks all put together with a dark blue narrow border that will finish at 1.5". But I can't decide what to do for outside borders. As you can see, Sammy is checking it out - but didn't have any bright ideas either.

Should I just put a medium blue solid border all around? A white border all around? Seems a little boring.

Borders at just the top and bottom with dark framing? Add some snowflake applique to these borders?

I'm looking for some ideas that will make this quilt really pop. I have plenty of fabric left to play with - so . . . anyone have any suggestions for me?

My Frosty Blocks Are Ready

My frosty blocks are all done - 48 of them - and ready to be sewn together. The last 4 got done this afternoon. Then I laid them out on my living room floor because my design wall isn't big enough for them all.

Besides, this way I could look at them with a critical eye every time I walked through the room. After rearranging them a few times, I pinned them into stacks by row. I'm so tempted to take them down to my basement sewing room right now and start working.

Hopefully tomorrow evening I can get the rows sewn together. The 2 borders are cut and ready. I'm hoping to have the top done in time to take it to Show 'n Tell at Saturday Sampler this weekend.

What do you think? Should I put a fuzzy, cuddley backing on it or not?

Christmas Raffle Quilt

Just a quick post. It is all done except for a label on the back! My photo isn't the best, but it does show all of the blocks made by the 12 different gals working on this project.

It will go on display in about a week (after the City Council approves the raffle) in a local shop and raffle tickets will be sold. The plan is to draw the winner right before Christmas and the money is going to a local breast cancer foundation.

Everyone involved feels proud to make a small contribution to cause close to our hearts.

Indian Summer - in November?

It was a gorgeous 75 degree sunny day today! We had winter most of the month of October, and now we are getting warm days again. Very weird, but I'll take it. And I did take it - OFF. I left my office at noon today.

Had lunch with my oldest daughter and then both of us went to visit my mother-in-law in her assisted living apartment. My MIL had asked me to take her to a 4:00 doctor appointment, so we spent most of the afternoon visiting before going to the appointment. We even got her to go outside and sit on the patio to enjoy the beautiful weather. I think the sunshine and fresh air were enjoyable for her. I know they were for me. And I know my MIL enjoyed having her granddaughter there this afternoon.

Handwork is relaxing

Marilyn brought our raffle quilt over to my office this afternoon so that I can work on hand stitching the binding down. I only got a quarter of the way around it this evening while watching Survivor and then got distracted watching the news on the tragedy at Ft Hood. My niece's husband is assigned to Ft Hood, so we have them in our prayers.

Once the binding on this quilt is done, I'll pass it along so someone else will put a label on it. But I'll try to remember to snap a photo before I give it up. We really want this quilt ready to go by this next week. Since it's a Christmas quilt it will be good to display it for interested "ticket buyers" as long as possible before the actual holiday.

This makes me want to get my set of blocks put together too. But I've promised myself that I won't start another quilt top until my frosty quilt is put together. Promises are hard to keep sometimes.

Sunday quilting

I joined Pam and Marilyn at Sylvia's house this afternoon to work on quilting our Christmas Challenge quilt so it's ready for the raffle in the next couple of weeks. We quilted it with an all over holly leaf design using "Christmasy" variegated thread. Very pretty! This is the quilt made with 12 blocks from 12 different friends, all using the same holly fabric in the block. The raffle money from this one will also go toward a local breast cancer foundation.

Pam was also working on the binding for 2 quilts she is making for grandkids. Her grandson wanted DOTS - lots of dots. So she has been collecting dotted fabric along with just a couple of stripes to add some contrast. The binding is striped. This quilt turned out so FUN - and will be really cuddly because it has a red minkee back. Her grandson is going to love it.