Barn Quilt: making some progress  I ususally do not make things that are brown. Brown is kind of boring to me. I really like bright colors.  However, I must make the dirt part of my barn quilt and decided on some different shades of brown, some on the sandy side. I am string piecing them, and hot dang, they are looking nice!  I have the blue sky part all done, and the roof cut out.  The barn is the next part after the dirt.  Only six weeks left before the quilt show.  I have to make 4 - 6 more blocks for my dirt part.   Good night!

Emmett’s annual Valley of Plenty Quilt Show June 14^th through the 16^th at the Emmett  Junior High School, 301 E. 4^th St. in Emmett, Idaho.  I just want to ge the word out.  My goodness, I love going to quilt shows and I seem to miss several every year.  This has got to change. 

Elverta is my savior!  Working on three projects. One is on the sly, so I cannot post any photos of it, but it is really taking shape, now that my dear friend, Elverta, had me over to her place, so I could work on it.  Wow, that was a terrific sentence. Meanwhile, at Elverta's last Tuesday, I discovered that in my haste, the week before, I made a major error. I did not re-adjust my needle position after the demo I had done. UH OH!  My seams were the wrong width! cuss cuss cuss and throw up my hands and cuss cuss and "Save me Elerverta!!" Alas, woe is me!  After a few minutes I simmered down and pulled my head out.  Elverta made me feel better, and I was able to determine the breadth of the damage and we started ripping.  Then Elverta ripped and I sewed the correct seam allowance and 3 hours later we had not only fixed the damage but made some further progress.  I felt much better when I left her house.  Elverta is my savior.  hmm. good blog post heading.
  Meanwhile, I am also working on my Christmas wallhanging and Elverta's Jungle Quilt and a barn quilt.  Hmmm . . . that makes four projects at once.  The photo is of Merlinda The Ninja Quilt Dominator enjoying Elverta's Jungle Quilt.

Summer Fun Quilt is done!  That is the fourth and final name of this quilt. I saved my end-of-the-line binding scraps then cut one 7" inch piece and two 3" pieces, then combined them with four 3"X3" squares and made blocks.  I picked all my primary colors to go with this lovely flecked white fabric, I picked up at Cindy's Quilt Shop in Caldwell, ID.  I did not choose the border fabric until I had all the blocks pieced together. Then I found my border fabric at my new favorite quilt shop! I had an appointment to use the long arm quilt machine at the Bluebird on Saturday, April 28, and I managed to run out at 9 pm on Thursday evening and find the backing fabric, which I brought straight home and threw in the wash so I could get it ready Friday night for my Saturday appointment.  I used the backing fabric as the binding also, because it is just so smashing next to that sharp navy blue.  Oh, I forgot to mention that the strips in the crosses are 1 3/4" wide.  That is helpful to know if you want to try a couple blocks.

Quilting at the Monastary was great!! I made some new friends, got a little quilting done, got to see what everyone else was into, discovered my new favorite quilt shop, made a fabric box, checked out some demos, and every meal was gluten free.  Sometimes something happens that I just have to run with . . . crazy me!  My roommate/table buddy quickly decide the orange batik she had was not going to be in her quilt, so she gave me the unwanted, rejected parts (one block with a quarter circle on it and he rest of her uncut orange).  I thought the purple looked like a planet, so I dubbed my creation, "The Planet Ruth Bag."  The planet Ruth lies in the Orange Galaxy.  The bag holds 2 medium quilts and a wallhanging.  I will be adding a link soon to share my adventures on the quilting retreat.  These things take time, especially since I don't know how to do that yet, but I am determined.

Tomorrow: Quilting Retreat.  This is my first quilting retreat. I have put a couple of things to work on in a bag, but I do not know if that is enough. My design wall is a flannel quilt mounted on our family room wall.  It has my crosses project on it, and on top of the crosses project is a barn project. I have all these cross blocks that just need squared up and pieced together, then they will be a quilt top.  I will have to take a photo of it, so I know the placement arrangement of the barn quilt I am working on, then I can take the barn off, to get to the crosses. Okay. I am going to do that and get this crosses project going. I am actually going to name it, Count Your Blessings.

      The Quilting Retreat is taking place at the monestary in Jerome, Idaho. I have heard nothing but positive comments on the experiences of others.  I will post a report with photos when I return.

This is my new Japanese bag I used all last week to carry my camera and umbrella in to work. The first one I made is a little bigger and holds alot of stuff. I cut it from a remnant that measured 13.5" X 40.5". It only took me 10 minutes to make. There are only two seams that are 13.5" long each.