A quick peak

Here is just a quick peak at the lovely quilting on the Thimbleberries quilt that I picked up on Thursday from the quilter. Good job Carli! These leaves are fairly large - about 4 inches across and follow the verticle rows of the quilt.

When I get the binding on this week, I'll show the whole quilt. It's a belated wedding gift for my daughter and her new husband, but since she doesn't read my blog it will still most likely be a total surprise.

Ready for some binding

I picked up 2 quilts from my talented machine quilter this afternoon. It was so exciting! Carli did a lovely job on both. One was my "frosty" blue and white quilt that I've posted some progress photos of - and I had her just do a large meander all over. The other quilt is one I made for the newlyweds and that one is quilted with a very pretty pattern that follows the long lines of the quilt.

Now I need to add binding and labels to both. I'll post some photos soon.

Selvages ROCK!

Today is my first day back to work full time since my surgery. I'm working from home this morning, and then heading to a school for the afternoon to work with them on the paperwork needed for being nominated as a Blue Ribbon School. I needed a quick break, so here I am posting to my blog. Shame on me!

I've always loved the selvage edges of fabrics - partly for the little circles that identify individual colors used in the design, and partly for the writing. But until last summer I never did anything with them - other than trim them off and throw them away.

What a waste!! Last summer I saw a couple of cute projects made using selvages sewn onto muslin. So - I've been saving my selvages since early June and have quite a collection that continues to grow of course. I make sure to leave a sliver of fabric along the selvage edge when I trim them off.

On Saturday afternoon I got distracted from my other sewing project - and this block is the result. I sewed rows of selvages onto a 8.5" square of muslin. Then I squared the whole thing up again to 8.5". I really like the results and think this will be a great little project to work on when I don't have much time.

Not sure what I'll do with them yet, but some ideas are bouncing around in my head. A bag maybe, or even a quilt. Maybe I'll make some of them different sizes too. Possibilities are endless.

If anyone has selvages they want to get rid of, just let me know. I'll gladly pay the postage.

Snow again and again

This was the view from my kitchen today, and yesterday - and probably again tomorrow. We've had about 4 inches of wet, sloppy snow. It does look pretty on the trees, but I do wish the sun would shine.

It was a good day to stay inside and do laundry, finish a book I was reading, and do a little quilting. It took quite awhile, but I got all of the pieces cut for my friends' block exchange (see earlier post) and then sewed one more block. Only 11 more to go.

Quilting friends block exchange

Our little quilting group of friends is working on another project to raffle for a charity. This time the finished quilt will go to a scholarship program for the local high school. Many of the women in this group are educators, school board members, and definitely parents. So this seems like a great choice.

Several of the ladies went shopping together and picked out a focus fabric that we'll all use. We each got 1 yard of this focus fabric. It is a turquoise floral from the Wildflowers line. Like the Christmas project, each of the 12 of us will make 13 blocks (12 inches finished size). The 13th set of blocks will become the raffle quilt. And each of us will have 1 block from each lady in the group to make a quilt of our own. As with the other projects we've done, we also have the fun of getting together to assemble the top and do the quilting.

Here is my block. One down - 12 more to make. I hope to have some of them done this weekend.

Another Engagement

My older daughter got engaged back in October. One of her best friends from college is a professional photographer and they got some of the first photos back from him yesterday. They are a handsome couple - in my opinion of course!

The BIG DAY is coming quickly - at the end of April. She has a dress fitting tomorrow, and I had planned to be there. However - we have another winter storm moving in so I probably won't be able to make the 75 mile trip. Bummer!

Sunday sewing

Not the best photo for showing off my Kansas Trouble block - for our 2010 Saturday Sampler. I love this block in spite of all of the little pieces involved. I've chosen the pink and brown color way for this year's sampler projects. And unlike previous years, this time we have all of the fabric for the whole year provided in the first month, along with a photo of the finished blocks. That is kind of fun too - guessing which one will be next.

I'm still working on the hand quilting for my valentine runner, and have about 3/4 of the quilting done. I may be able to finish it today if I keep at it. I have a cute pink and white diagonal stripe to use for the binding.

I've added a couple of photos below to show my process. Since I'm only quilting in the white areas, I'm marking it with a purple disappearing pen. I love these pens, except for when I'm working on darker fabrics. I use a snap together plastic frame. This one is only about 11" square, but I have a larger one too. I love having the ability to smooth out the layers as I move the quilt around in the frame - which helps keep all of the layers nice and flat with no ripples.