Sewing & a triathlon

I took Friday off and spent most of it sewing. No finishes yet,but I had lots of fun working on several small things. I made a couple of gift package blocks made with pieced boxes and appliqued ribbons. I pieced these from leftover scraps from my stash.

However, yesterday no time was spent in my sewing room because we did a little road trip. My husband and I drove 90 miles to Yankton to meet Jerilyn & Darin. During the drive down (and home again today) I worked on the blanket stitching around my gift blocks. One is done, and a second one is partially done.

While in Yankton, Darin joined us on Fox Run Golf Course for 18 holes, while Jerilyn relaxed and then went to pick up her registration packet for today's triathlon. She - along with a couple of friends - competed today in her first triathlon! My daughter is much braver than I was at her age. The girls (ages 29-37) all finished with better times than they expected. It was a gorgeous day for swimming a quarter mile (it was about 55 degrees when they hit the water), biking 14 miles along the Missouri River, and then running 5K along the Missouri.

They all were pretty excited - and already planning for next year - following the event. Jerilyn is the short one on the far right.

More from Quilts & Vines 2010

I wanted to share just a couple more photos from this year's Quilts & Vines event at the Strawbale Winery near Sioux Falls.

This beautiful row quilt was one of my favorites because I love red and green. But I also just loved the visual impact of the blocks selected.

The other little quilt was a fun Halloween wall hanging with 4 witches spinning off the center. Isn't it fun how the hats all connect in the center? And I think the choices the quilter made for color was so non-Halloween, but worked perfectly.

Hill City Quilt Show

If you are going to be near the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota next weekend, here is an event you can't miss - The Hill City Quilt Show will be Sept 11-12. Check it out!

http://www.hillcityquiltshow.com/

Then there were 3 . . .

We have loved the back yard of this house from the day we moved in. Our family room has a south wall of mostly windows that looked out onto the back yard. It was guarded by 4 beautiful ash trees about 30 feet tall. However . . . now there are only 3. We had a nasty thunderstorm come through here in the past hour with very high winds. Dave and I stood in the kitchen and watched that tree lean more and more - until it finally just broke off at the ground. It is very depressing to lose one of those, but we are probably lucky it didn't fall on the deck or the house.

Interventions are good things

Our little "Intervention" on Tuesday night was a success, at least for me. Marilyn cut the rest of my strips for my X blocks, while I sewed more strip sets, and put together 8 more blocks.

Pam worked on a table topper called "taco salad" with Sylvia's help. And I made a decision (with everyone's help) on which fabrics to use for the sashing and borders for my Christmas quilt.

This weekend I hope to finish the strip sets and put together more blocks for the X block quilt. Half of the blocks are this pumpkin and black combination and the othe half are dark green and black. Once I have the blocks all done, then I'll have to decide on a layout design.

And since I picked up my pink and white New Wave quilt from the quilter this afternoon, I have a binding to do. I should have some pictures in the next couple of days.

OK - Whose sewing room gets an intervention next week?

UFO Intervention

I had an impromptu lunch with 3 friends on Saturday and we all complained about how unmotivated we had become lately. The lack of motivation centers around UFOs in our sewing rooms. And none of us probably wants to admit how many there might really be!!

We decided we needed an INTERVENTION at each of our houses. I'm first. These ladies are coming to my house tonight to help me tackle one of those UFOs - maybe two. There will be wine involved as a reward for our hard work.

My plan is to finish cutting and sewing the strip sets to finish up my X Block quilt top. Then I plan to ask for some advice on the layout of another quilt top that has blocks, but no definite plan.

MMMM - progress will feel so good!

Blocks 7 & 8

I got in gear this weekend and managed to catch up on my blocks for Saturday Sampler. I hate falling behind on these, because then it becomes very easy to just set them aside permanently. And I'm loving these blocks.

Block #7 is Queen Victoria's Crown. The center went together fast - and then the outer rows took awhile. Too many little triangles. And one of the edges refuses to straighten out with pressing. However, I know that when I sew it onto a sashing it will be OK.

Block #8 is called Arizona. This one was much easier. My only bit of panic is comes with wondering how much of each fabric will be needed to finish the final 4 blocks. One of my pink fabrics has much less left than all of the others. But this is a sampler quilt, so substitution may be OK in the end.