One-Day Mystery Solved

Today was fun, but very tiring! I think my shoulders and back are going to go on strike. :) I got up early and started right away on the one-day mystery. It took me awhile to do it, but it was fun and kept me quessing all the way to the end, which I loved! I have the center completely together and just need to add borders. I'll probably cut the fabric for tonight, but I'm not sure if I'll get them sewn on until tomorrow. I heard they had one day mystery last New Years. If they hold another one I will definitely want to participate! I'll try to post a picture in the next day or two.

TGIF!!!!

I am off to a great start for the weekend! I finished my twisted sisters quilt top last night! I made another block for my sampler (pictured here) and I have managed to work on on old UFO which is a log cabin quilt. I am chain piecing the blocks so I sewed on another piece to all of them. Now, I just need to start cleaning up my work station, making sure I have plenty of thread in my bobbin, water in my iron, etc. I want to be totally ready for tomorrow's one day mystery!!!!! I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. :)

Dinosaur Pictures

Well, here they are finally... but they aren't very good pictures though. However, you can still get an idea of what the my son's dinosaur caves quilt looks like. Inside each cave are baby dinosaurs hatching out of their shells, very cute! We also have some cooler weather, thank God!!!

New Fabric....

Still miserably hot! They promise it will be cooler tomorrow!!!
I made the 7th block, called Cats and Mice, for the Autumn Sampler. Yes, I'm skipping around. :) I ordered some more fabric from the same collection and am just waiting for it to come and then I'll start going in order more. I can't wait for it to arrive!
I have class tomorrow and am praying the A/C at the church will be on high. I really want to get a lot done on the twisted sisters since it has been too hot to work on it here at home. I so hope to have the top finished before the mystery quilt on Saturday.

Sizzle, sizzle

Yes, the heat is still hanging on... worse than ever. We aren't expected to get a break until sometime on Wednesday when, God willing, we should get a little rain. I was out back with the kids today and the water hose. I wasn't out but for about 45 mins and have a bit of a burn on my chest and shoulders. I have been anxious to work on something all day and I had to wait until 11:00 at night before it was tolerable to sew. I made the 3rd block of the 140. Here is a computer generated image of it. This block is called Bright Hopes!

Picture Time

Okay, I have pics of the watercolor cross quilt and the first block of the autumn sampler.
It is hotter than yesterday, but I'm hopeful that I'll get something done. I just haven't decided what yet. I'm leaning toward my twisted sisters quilt. And if I can find my little crazy heart I would work on that as well. However, who knows where I have misplaced that little crazy heart! I also want to do another block for the autumn sampler. Oh, too many quilts, too little time, and too much hot weather. :) If only it was Winter and mounds of snow were falling all around and the quilting could actually help me stay warm. Ahhh, that was a nice fantasy!

Even Worse...

It is even hotter today and tomorrow is supposed to be worse. The weather on the news said that tomorrow should be the hottest day in the area in over 6 years! Our house just can't stay cool!
I did manage to finish the binding on the watercolor cross quilt, so it is officially done!!! I hope to post a picture of it here soon.
I haven't worked on anything else though. If it ever cools off enough, I'll get back to work on that twisted sisters quilt and another block for the Autumn Sampler.
I got my Quiltmakers Magazine in the mail the other day and I just love the jack-o-lantern pattern they have. I just have to try and make it for Halloween!!! I love Halloween, the colors, the children in costumes, even the candy. :)

Miserably HOT!!!

It is so miserable here! The heat is unbearable! However, I have managed to get a few things done...
I finished piecing and quilting the watercolor cross quilt and half of the binding is done.
I have each row completed on the twisted sisters quilt and am working on sewing them together.
I have cut and labelled all the pieces for the one-day mystery quilt next weekend. I am so looking forward to that!!!
And the total of participants in the charm swap has doubled! I am really going to enjoy getting the mail this month!
Now, if the heat wave would come to an end, all would be right in my little quilting world.

Shopping

Well, I have to admit that I wasn't productive at all today... unless you want to count shopping. :)
I made the decision to partipate in the One Day Online Mystery.
http://www.planetpatchwork.com/katiedid/
Let me know if you are participating too. I bought a few fabrics for that and will get the rest from my small stash.
I also bought the new Harry Potter book!!!! Of course, it has been so long since I read the previous one that I spent most of the evening reading the last two chapters to remind myself what was going on. Now that I remember, I'm even more excited about reading it!
I'll probably spend the remainder of the night with my hubby. I guess that just means I'll have to be twice as productive tomorrow.

Mosaic No. 3

I worked a bit on both the twisted sisters and the cross quilts. Then I went ahead and did the first block of my Autumn Sampler quilt. It is called Mosaic No. 3 and while I don't have a digital camera or scanner, this is exactly what it looks like...

Productivity!!!

Woohoo!!! I finished my son's dino quilt in the wee hours of the morning, even washed it and dryed it before going to my class. I'll post a pic when I can.
And my ladies were so wonderful in class that I even had time to finish the 10 remaining blocks for my twisted sisters quilt!!! I'm planning on sewing just a bit of the sashing and blocks together tonight, but I need it to cool off a bit more first. It is just too hot again.
I also hope to sew at least one row on my cross quilt and maybe even do the first block in the Autumn sampler (which is what I've decided to call Jennifer Chiaverini's Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.) My husband keeps saying he is going to order some more of the Cross-Country fabric for me, but so far he hasn't. I guess I just need to be patient. I had been planning on doing the blocks in order, but since I only have a limited selection of the fabric collection and plan to get different ones later, it might be best to skip around a bit so that all of the same fabrics aren't located in just one place.

Thank God for the Rain!!!

Thank you, Lord, for bringing the rain! It has been so hot here! Too hot to be very productive. I did manage to finish the 7th month of the mystery quilt, but only one side of the binding for my son's quilt. Now that it is cooler I can work on that binding tonight and the quilt won't feel like it is suffocating me! However, I doubt I'll finish it. I am so slow when it comes to the hand stitching on the binding! Is anyone else out there slow???
The charm square swap is going wonderfully! I have all but one fabric and they are all brilliant! The theme was "floral" and August's theme is "Butterflies". Hmmm... it will be fun to see what arrives.
I had my first class on Wed and will teach again tomorrow... I can't wait! I just love those ladies so much!!!
I hope everyone is set for a wonderful weekend.

Cross-Country Quilting... at Home.

I mentioned that I have been "playing around" with the Cross-Country fabrics and "Sylvia's Bridal Sampler", both by Jennifer Chiaverini.
http://www.elmcreek.net
Well, here is my work in progress. As Jennifer adds new blocks on her blog, I'll be adding them to my virtual quilt, which will eventually come to life once I start working on it. Be sure to click the here to see a close up version!!!

Blog-A-Thon and Update

First of all, I would like to start off with the Blog-A-Thon info...

To help celebrate the paperback release of her most recent mystery novel, THE HALO EFFECT, author and popular lit blogger M. J. Rose is sponsoring the inaugural "GOOD BOOKS/GOOD CAUSE BLOG-A-THON" campaign.For every blog that links to a short animated film advertising THE HALO EFFECT before July 19, M. J. Rose's pledge supporters -- her publisher, agent, family and friends -- will collectively donate $5 to the nonprofit literacy organization, Reading Is Fundamental.Her goal is to have at least 500 blogs link to the site and raise $2500+ for the charity.Here's my link: Learn more about THE HALO EFFECT

And for an update. my son's dinosaur quilt has been basted and quilted. I'm going to start on the binding tonight.
I tried the "Stack-n-wack" techniques on some old fabric that I wasn't fond of. Not too bad, but I don't think I'll be doing much with it. I'm glad that I found how to do it by watching Fons & Porter on PBS instead of paying big money to take a class.
The new class I'm teaching at church is starting this week. I'm so excited! I have a new student, but most are regulars. If they only knew how beautiful this mystery quilt will be!!!!
I've been playing around with the idea of what to use my Cross-Country fat quarters for... then I decided to use them for Jennifer Chiaverini's "Sylvia's Bridal Sampler". However, it is a very big quilt and I'm going to have to purchase a lot more fabric.
I finished cutting all the pieces for my twisted sisters quilt. Now, the next time I go to quilting (but am not teaching), I'll get to work on it.
I have a few more rows on my watercolor cross completed. But I'm not going to work on it anymore until after the dino quilt is binded.

Decision Made!!!!

Thanks to everyone who took a look and gave me their opinion. My hubby and I kept looking at both and neither one really spoke to us. We finally came up with a third version that combined both layouts and that seemed perfect. I am so happy that I can finally continue on with the quilt. Here is a pic of the new layout...

Shopping and spoiled plans...

After a nice visit today at my quilt group, I went shopping for the batting and backing fabric for the dino quilt. It took forever to find the fabric... it was hiding, my hubby actually found it finally. I came home and my sweet hubby agreed that if I layed it all out he would baste it for me. Yippee!!!
I ironed the backing fabrics and sat down to sew them together when, guess what, no peddle! LOL! My wonderful husband left the sewing machine peddle in the car and took off to work. I was also going to sew together a few more rows of the cross quilt tonight. So, my plans were blown to the wind, LOL!
Then I decided to work on my next big issue... deciding the layout of my twisted sisters quilt. I did decide on the binding, but I cannot decide on whether or not to have solid green sashing or yellows squares in the sashing. I sent computer version pics of what it might look like to some friends and got mixed results. I was so hoping for a concensus! So, then I thought I would let the amount of fabric I have decide... if I didn't have enough green to make the sashing solid, then I would go with the yellow squares. Well, I have enough for either choice. So, now I have it laid out all over my living room floor in both ways and I still can't decide!!! I'll see what my hubby thinks when he comes home. I'm posting the pics here, so please help me decide what you think would look best. Just leave a comment for me please. If I can't decide I'll never get this quilt made and it would be the first one I ever made that was for myself!

UFOs

Well, due to storms raining out our 4th of July plans, I thought it would be a good idea to work on a UFO. I decided to work on my watercolor cross quilt. I already have all the pieces cut, so the only thing I need to do is sew it together. I managed 3 rows before my back started screaming at me to stop. But I feel great about getting those few rows done.
You know, it is amazing how much you can actually get done even if you only work for short periods of time. I try to get in an hour of either cutting, sewing, quilting, etc. each day. And more often than not, an hour turns into more. I just can't wait until the fall when things cool off so that I can get even more done!
I also can't wait for the next month of the mystery quilt I'm doing to be revealed... it has already been such a beautiful project that I can't imagine what could possibly come next!