Time......

Once again, time has blown by and I think I missed it.  I have been very busy for these past two weeks or so.  

I had to work some extra days on some different days of the week to make up for the time I took off to retreat three weekends in a row. What was I thinking!?!

It was time once again for the 5 year colonoscopy.  Not a thing to look forward to, but I am sure glad it is over.  In the past couple of years, four people that I know have been diagnosed with colon cancer, so even though I hate it, I certainly believe in testing.  This one was actually sooooo much easier than the last time.  That last time, I gagged and gagged and almost threw up so many times and ended up throwing out a good portion of the prep.  Mom told me that her doctor had her use Miralax and it did not taste bad at all. So, I looked it up on the Internet and followed the rules I found.  It really was not that bad. No real taste but a bit of saltiness.

Then I had to do my 4 month check up with the doctor, which also involved fasting  blood tests and not eating lunch until about 1:30pm.

My poor body is in survival mode.  It thinks I am starving to death!  No measure of dieting will convince it to let go of a single calorie right now.  It's too bad I can't trick it into thinking I badly need to lose weight.  Oops!  It wouldn't be a trick.  Too bad my body doesn't know that.

Then the washing machine broke.  We spent several days trying to figure it out and finally started searching for a new one.  An amazing thing happened!  It just so happened that our washer broke at the very same time that there was a sale on appliances.  Woohoo! Anyway..... It will be arriving tomorrow.

The garage was a total disaster area.  Guess what!  The washer has to go into the house through the garage.  So, I spent most of Wednesday and some of Thursday rearranging and organizing three lifetimes worth of stuff stored in the garage.  It's a bit more organized but does not take any less space.  What?  Was I hoping that it had shrunk or something?

Then I got a phone call from a lady who was cleaning out her mother's house in preparation for an estate sale.  Her mother is 96 and has moved in with her son somewhere on False River.  Anyway, she had 2 hand quilting frames that she wanted to GIVE away. She really did not want to put them in a dumpster somewhere.  Needless to say, I got the address and was on my way to pick up my windfall.  I now how two different sets of legs along with 4 sets of polls.  One set of legs has two sets of polls of different lengths with wooden gears. The other set of legs has a very long set of polls with metal gears.   It would probably fit a king size bed.  Don't know who I'll find who wants that set, but the other one is ALL MINE!   The last set of polls is really different and I am sure I'll figure them out eventually.  In the picture she sent me, the polls are reversed, but I can take care of that.

Yesterday was our Gulf States Quilting Association meeting in Daphne, AL.  Crazy me!  I got up at 6:00am and showered and got on the road in order to make it there for 10am. Good meeting.  Interesting topics.  Long drive!  On my way home, I stopped at exit 59 (Madisonville/Covington) and got gas and then went to Panera Bread for some dinner before continuing on.  While looking at the menu and trying to decide what to eat, I looked to my left and there was an old square dancing friend who lives over that way somewhere. Judy and Ken Saucer just happened to be in Panera Bread when I stopped in.  I haven't seen them in at least four years!  What a wonderful evening!

Ta Da!

I love it! It came out soooo good! Everybody at the retreat was loving it too.

And to think that before I started, I thought these were ugly fabrics. What was I thinking?

To quote Bonnie Hunter, "There's no such thing as ugly fabric.  You just haven't cut it small enough!"

My Beloved Half Square Triangles

Well, they are all cut and sewn and trimmed and it is finally time to start sewing them together. Woohoo!

Michael Miller is Quilted

I am participating in the Michael Miller Challenge. We got 6 fat quarters and we had to make something quilted (quilt, purse, wall hanging, placemats, whatever).  It is due to be finished and posted online by July 25th.  I finally got mine quilted today.  I really didn't know what to do with it.  And I don't know how good a job I did, but at least it is quilted.  I need to get it bound this weekend at retreat (yes, another one) so that I can get it posted. 

Oops!  I just spotted those chalk lines from when I was playing with ideas.  Oh well. Please ignore them. 

Modern Cotton Robin Reveal

Monday's meeting of our modern quilt guild was the Big Reveal for our Modern Cotton Robin. For more information about the rules, look here.

There were 9 participants.  It was a fabulous time and we had some wonderful final products.

My initial block was a purple wonky star on a green background.  

It was really simple.  I had no idea what to expect, but I was totally blown away. 

Here are the others

    

          

This is the one that I ended up quilting.

Lots more people are ready to participate the next time around.

Curves Lotto Reveal and Giveaway

Monday was the deadline for turning in our Curves Lotto Blocks at our modern quilt guild. There were some really nice blocks. 

What do you think?

   

   

   

 

When we voted, there were several ties so we had to settle for one First
Place (Janet) and two Second Places (Barbara and Jo Paula).



And Jo Paula was the winner of all of the blocks.

Now we'll have to come up with a new idea for the next set of lotto blocks.

Catching some Zs

These are about the only Zs I was catching this weekend.  

Don't you just love this fabric? It was called Cherish Nature.  I bought 20 fat quarters when I was on a trip to Florida about 3 years ago and I never did have anything specific in mind.  This pattern really shows off the contrast between the fabrics and I really do love how it turned out.  Now I have to decide on whether to border it or what.

What a retreat!  And what talented women!

There were some wonderful quilts being worked on while I was there.  Unfortunately I was buried deeply in my precious half square triangles and I didn't take too many pictures.

Here are a couple of the others.

Preparing for Another Retreat

Yes, I know that I have lost my mind.  I just went on a retreat last weekend with a wonderful group of seven women.  Four of those women (including me) are also going back to the retreat house this weekend and four others will be joining us.  It really is a good time.  And what can I say?  I just can't say no.

I spent quite a bit of time today picking fabrics and coming up with designs for quilts to work on at this retreat.  

One quilt will be using a set of fabrics I received as a door prize at last year's Krewe of Quilter's Christmas Party.  I put them together with a background and an accent and I'll be off to the races.  They are not my colors, but I still think that they'll make a nice quilt that somebody will like.  I will just have to find the right somebody.

The other group of fabrics I bought on a trip to Florida about 3 years ago and I have never done anything with them.  They are more along the lines of my taste and will give me a break if I get tired of the other fabrics.  I liked the way my Michael Miller Challenge turned out so I'll be making another quilt along the lines of the Peppermintz Quilt using this fabric.  I think it'll be really nice.

And in between projects, I need to put the binding on my cotton robin quilt, assuming that the one I have does not belong to one of the people with me on retreat.  

I also need to make a President's block for our current president in the Krewe of Quilters.  Each year the members make blocks and we create a quilt for the outgoing president to show our appreciation for all of her hard work.

And I also need to do a lotto block for the modern guild.  It has to be 12 1/2 inches and the theme is curves.  I avoid those like the plague so needless to say, it's been 2 months now and mine is still not done.  It's due on Monday so I guess I had better do it this weekend.

With all that to work on and a great group of women to sew and laugh and eat with, I should not be bored, for sure.  

Modern Cotton Robin

Our modern quilt guild is currently engaged in a cotton robin.  It's kind of like a traveling quilt. Each of three people add on and the fourth person quilts and binds (rules discussed here). It was much more of a challenge that I expected.  Even though our original blocks were modern in nature, it was still a surprise when I opened the box to see what I had to work with.  

My mother and I were both participating, so each round we each got to see two of the quilts.  When it came down to the end, we had seen all but one of the quilts.  We have been having a good time trying to guess whose was whose.  There are only 9 people participating and those people have distinct personalities, so with most of them it was not that difficult to guess.  

This past Monday night I worked on quilting the one that I ended up with.  I spent two hours doing it and I really like the way it turned out.  I used Dream Puff batting so the quilting really stands out.  I hope the owner likes it as much as I do.

We are scheduled to do our reveal on Monday, July 7.  I'll try to take pictures and post them. I'll be curious to see how close we came to guessing whose was whose.  I am pretty sure that everybody had such a good time that we'll be scheduling another one soon.