I Might Have Been Horsing Around -or What's on the Design Wall in Sept!

It has been a busy summer and my fresh healthy lifestyle has left me longing for more time in the quilt room.  I am feeling healthier and today, I am happier.  The Knotty Quilters had a retreat this last weekend, Sept 8, 9, and 10.  I spent all three days diligently working on my Buggy Barn, Poker Run quilt project.  I got all 12 horse blocks completed.  I had a wonderful time with my quilting buddies, too!  When I will get further on this quilt, has yet to be determined, but the hard part is over, baby!

The pattern is called Poker Run, by Buggy Barn.

What's On The Design Wall in March?

Hey! March is turning out to be a great month.  I got a couple wall hangings completed. I started a Stack n Whack quilt.  I have an orphan block, that is from Rosemary at my other quilt group.  Besides the Knotty Quilters, I belong to the Piecemakers of Idaho.  We have been doing an orphan block swap, where we bring one of our orphan blocks (a block that has no quilt to go into -boo ho), in a sealed paper bag with our name in it, to our meeting.  When we leave the meeting we pick-up a different paper bag and take it home.  We make something out of the block and bring it back two meetings later.  We take turns holding up the thing we made and see if the person recognizes their orphan block in the project, then we give it back to them to keep for ever and ever.  Rosemary's orphan block is on my design wall, upper left. 

It is 18" X 18" and consists of one of my top favorite color schemes, red, white, and blue. I got an 18" pillow form and took it with me to the quilting retreat earlier this month.  A friend said that I needed to add a little more around the edge to make it fit.  Well okay.  I went in my stash, later, and found some good edging fabric, squared up the block and added an inch of the edging fabric.  I sewed the back overlapping pieces, right sides together, then I put the pillow form in it.  The cover was a tad loose, so I laid it flat and pressed the edge down and stitched in-the-ditch all the way around to shrink the pillow cover up a little and add this lovely design feature to the pillow cover.

I figure Rosemary is not looking at my blog, so she will
still be surprised on Wednesday! 

Busy Bee in January and February!

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. I have managed to clean some items off my quilt table, so I could put my dining room chairs up there and give them the Murphy's Oil Soap treatment.  I am putting the whole set on consignment. After I get it all loaded into the pick-up, I can mop the dining room floor and put our new downsized dining room set in there.  Just removing that table extension board, that was in the broom closet, has allowed me to put the broom away and the folding step ladder!  Man! Space is finally finding it's way into our house!  But later today, my buddy and I are going to the Quilt Crossing to sign-up for a class in March and see what they have going on for "Souper Bowl Sunday"  -big sales!  I may have to break down and buy a yard of fabric!  I have a gift card!
     Also, this cleaning out/downsizing business is getting me more organized.  The Knotty Quilters have scheduled the last weekend in February for the Cindy Retreat in Eagle, so I decide to have a mini-retreat at our house for three of my quilting buddies.  Therefore, I have to get this dining set out of here by next weekend! So, on the 15th we will be clutter free in the quilting room!  The new dining set is in there with other dislodged household items!  Here is the old set, ready to go, with Merlinda's approval.

Don't you just love the 70's linoleum?!

Eagle Barn Quilting Retreat This Weekend!

I had surgery on my old left foot, so have recently been out of commission.  But yesterday (Saturday) I drove to Eagle for a retreat with the Knotty Quilters.  I drove into the parking lot, where they left me a space nearest the building, and they all came out an took all my materials into the building by the time I managed to get out of the vehicle.  By the time I got into the building Colette had my sewing machine all hooked up and ready to go! Wow!.  Then around 1:30 we went for lunch at Smokey Mtn Pizza and Pasta, where they have changed the menu again, but they have gluten free French fries!  Yeah! What a dream day! I got another block completed for my Liberated Houses quilt (aka Wonky Houses quilt).  Gotta go, headin' back to Eagle in two minutes for another fun day of quilting magic!