Can't Dent My Stash!

Well, I finished the bullseye top this evening, but can't baste it for quilting till DH clears HIS stuff off MY two long tables in the basement!!! I needed to clear it off the design wall, though, so I could put back up the Lee's Surrender quilt. I found some great border and sashing fabrics at my LQS which is going out of business. All their fabs are 25% off. I need to stop back by and see if there were any interesting grays and blacks for the Snail Trail that I might have missed the other day. I did not even make a dent in my reds' stash!!! I was determined to use only stash for the bullseye top. It doesn't look QUITE this bright in "real life" LOL.
My mini group has definitely decided to make the opportunity quilt for next March's quilt show raffle. We are supposed to bring ideas to our meeting on Thursday. It needs to be something that all skill levels could handle, but interesting, gorgeous, and with great colors. We don't want much, huh? Any ideas? Of course, we have to be respectful of copyright since our guild does earn money on the raffle. The money is used to pay for speakers at our meetings. My thought is to pick a traditional block but put a new spin on it with some great fabrics. We had a pastel quilt this year so I'm thinking we are ready for brights or--my fave--primitive tones. Not many people in my guild are into the prim folk art though. We would like to include as many other members who would be willing to help out. Weather in KC has been delightful today. Mid-seventies, calm, partly sunny. I could handle that the rest of the summer!! We have been inundated with wonderful hummingbirds at the two feeders. Can't seem to get a decent photo of them as they are so incredibly fast. Also showing up at the hummingbirds' feeders (who knew?) are those gorgeous house sparrows, the ones with lots of rosy red on them. They appear to sip--just like the hummingbirds. The hummingbirds are aggressive, but the house sparrows seem downright human-friendly. I have the feeders situated so that I (and the cats) can watch them from the computer. Love the colors of nature's fabric.

Back

I haven't been able to post for a couple of days due to a death in the family and going out of town for the services. My husband's uncle (aged 86) passed away Tuesday. It's always so poignant to see a loving spouse lose her mate after 66 years of marriage. They were good years and they were blessed with three wonderful children and seven grandkids. So sad for the mate left behind. Things like this always make me pause and take stock. On the quilting front very little has been accomplished. I did manage to get one set of the snail's trail up on the wall. I had decided after sewing the first sample block that I just really do not like using templates!!! Bad me. I have become so spoiled to strip cutting and piecing. So I did a little search through my gazillion patterns and directions and came across a very simplified version with all strip cutting---no templates! Yay. This should go much faster. My mini group is discussing doing the opportunity quilt for the guild this year. That adds another huge project to the ever growing list!

EQ5 Fun

I have long been fascinated with Snail Trail quilts. I think it is because they look like they have curved seams when in reality, it's squares and triangles. I worked on drafting my own on graph paper--just because I think that is fun. I always liked geometry in school and that may be one reason why I love quilts so much! I came up with a block that was the size I wanted, then decided to play with it in EQ5. Barbara Brackman has a pattern for Monkey Wrench in Blockbase 2 that can be turned into a Snail Trail just by rotating some blocks. I wish I had more fabrics in the fabric library, but just played around with grey and black. Threw in a little teal (thanks, Jeanne, for that idea!) for accent. Then I decided to make a sample block from the pattern. I have learned to make a sample block to iron out all the bugs! I think it will be a fun quilt to make, but I will definitely have to pay attention!!! This quilt will go to Ryan, my older son. I have made a raggy quilt for DH and a Strippy for my younger son, Brett. It's Ryan's turn! However, DH will get the Lee's Surrender and Brett will get the Jo Morton Scrappy Stars quilt. I am aiming for the three to be done for Christmas. Ambitious, huh???? I also made 8 more bullseye blocks today. Will wait to post photos of those till the top is done. I will be making those blocks into a lap or sofa quilt. Those fuzzy bullseyes will feel good! Here's hoping that Blogger plays nice from now on!

Best Laid Plans

Today's agenda was to (a) go to Tuesday Mornings to purchase a Roman shade for my kitchen door (so I wouldn't have to make one!). They open at 10 (or so I thought) and I knew these shades would sell out fast at $29.95 so I was there at 10. I looked around for the shades and then asked a salesgirl where they were. She replied that she didn't think there were any left. What???? Today is the first day of the sale, how can that be??? Well, they opened at 8 this morning. AARRGH. They didn't have any I liked. Next item (b) was to exchange a hummingbird feeder at Lowe's. Well, they were out of the kind I wanted. Another AARRGH. Decided to come home (c) and start on Son #1's Snail Trail quilt. All the patterns I have are for small blocks and I wanted larger ones--so I will have to draft my own--tomorrow! Okay, I thought, let's do some (d) more free-motion quilting on Spin. What? I only have a small bit of that special Signature variegated thread on the spool--not nearly enough!!!!! Don't want to make another trip out. I just want to sew, darn it. Well, thank goodness for those red bullseyes. Got sixteen of those babies whipped out. They still need to be squared up, but I will wait till I get all of them done, then square to the smallest of the blocks. That's right, they're not all the same size!!!

Bad News, Good News

What a day in bloggerland, huh? I went into my archives to check something and noticed that several of my old photos had been replaced by the dreaded red X in a square thingy. I thought it was ME, but I checked on Blogger help message board and discovered that lots of people were having photo problems. Then I checked archives of some of my daily reads and saw that there were missing photos there too. I decided not to try to post any photos for a few hours--till the problem is hopefully fixed. Apparently my archives photos are back now but you never know... BAD NEWS: One of my favorite local quilt shops is closing. It was quite a shock and I hope that this is not a trend among quilt shops. I've certainly done my part in financial support LOL. Hopefully this closing is due to reasons other than a sluggish market in the quilt industry. GOOD NEWS: The shop is offering all fabrics at 25% off in their liquidation sale. I am on my way out the door to head there ( Liberty) to look for grays, blacks, and an accent color for Son #1's snail trail quilt and to try to find sashing, border, and backing fabric for the Lee's Surrender quilt. These will be bittersweet purchases if I find what I'm looking for.