Shop Hopping and Quiltathon(ing)

I've suffered a recurrence of the nasty crud again this past week. Was off work for three days and have done very, very little stitching this week. I'm finally feeling a bit human again and just in time! It's the Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop this weekend, well, actually it started on Thursday but I did have to show up at work some this week. Anyway, I can't make it to all 12 shops but tomorrow I'm going to go to one that I've never seen and one of my favorites, plus my local shop and maybe one more depending on how the traffic is tomorrow. If I feel up to it I may hit a few on the north side of Atlanta on Sunday. Depends on how much my credit cards are screaming!

Then I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend catching up on my stitching as part of this weekend's Quiltathon! Check it out, it sounds like fun!

Handpiecing

Cough, cough...I've been down with the viral crud since Saturday and haven't felt like doing much of anything. Thank goodness I had some hand work to do so when I wasn't napping I was attempting to watch TV (had to watch NASCAR!) and piece on English paper pieced hexagons using a charm pack of the Merrimack Collection by Judie Rothermel and the New England Quilt Museum. I had started this as something to piece while riding the shuttle to and from the office and on my lunch break so it was all prepped and waiting. I don't know what I'm going to eventually do with this but will probably add some more fabrics and just keep going until I get enough flowers for the size I want, whatever that may be! Here are the ones I've done so far and the second picture shows the back of one so you can see how I basted the fabric to a hexagon shape (1" hexagon from Paper Pieces)




And here is my second project for the last few days. I've been cutting out the pieces for my Inklingo project that I won on Tilde's blog (see previous post). And I've also begun piecing a few. This is so simple and wonderful to have the cutting and sewing lines already printed on the back of the fabric...it's perfect for when one is not feeling well and can't think straight!


That's all for now, I hope to get back to my machine piecing projects soon!

It's a Great Mail Day

I won! Tilde had an Inklingo Fat Tuesday Giveaway and I was the lucky winner. Today my squishy arrived all the way from Denmark!

Here's the bag that I pulled out of my mailbox when I came home from work this evening. And here is what was inside!



A wonderful little kit to handpiece a little quilt, everything but thread and I think I can certainly come up with that! And a sample block made by Tilde herself. And the perfect tin to carry everything around. It's just the right size for carrying to work. This will be perfect to work on while I'm riding the shuttle to and from the office. Oh, and Roxanne needles are my favorites as well.



And just look at this fabric! Isn't it gorgeous. I've really been drawn to these deep red and black reproduction fabrics lately. And the browns are perfect as well.


Here is the back of Tilde's lovely little sample block. Her work is so neat and pressed so nicely! You can also just make out the lines printed on the fabric using the Inklingo with the cutting and sewing lines. I've wanted to try this product since it first came out but just haven't gotten around to ordering any since my printer is not so good. And now I get to make a lovely little quilt with it thanks to Tilde!


This was a wonderful treat to come home to on such a cold, windy day. Thank you so much Tilde!

Woof Part II

Just a quick post...Uno the beagle won Westminster!!! I love beagles and I had picked this one to win. Yeah!!!!

Woof! Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...


Miss Peaches could care less...she's just glad it's over.

Woof Woof!

These are the two days of the year when my kitties disown me. It's Westminster! I just love watching the Westminster Kennel Club dog show from Madison Square Garden in New York. Shhh...don't tell the kitties but I love dogs. We had dogs when I was growing up, any cats around were barn cats and not ones for cuddling. I always had a puppy, usually of some indeterminant breed but we did once have a purebred beagle and my last dog was a purebred chow. Her name was Cinnamon and she was beautiful. (What is it with me and food names for my pets???)

Anyway, since I can't have a dog now I must settle with watching all the beautiful breeds at Westminster. Someday I'll have my dream country farmhouse with plenty of room for the kitties and a pup or two...and a front porch swing and all the time in the world just to quilt!

And speaking of quilting, updates on the Carolina Crossroads and Scrappy Bargello - the third panel of the bargello is almost done and the strips for the last panel are being pieced. In between piecing those strips I'm also working on the CC as a leader/ender project. It is slow going but I will get there. The plan is to have the top done before the next mystery begins in April.

When I've been bored with those two I've also been using up a Jelly Roll from my stash - Victorian Decadence by April Cornell, has been pieced into a Boxed Squares top. I just need to add borders and can't decide on what colors to use. I think perhaps the very pale yellow and deep purple for the last border. What do you think? Here is a picture (too dark! I need to work on this photography thing!)



Woof!

I'm on a roll...the second panel for the bargello was finished tonight and pieced to the first panel. See poor quality picture below! At least Sweetie is tall enough to hold it up for me but the bottom wanted to curl around so you can't get a good shot. It really is straight, just curling in at the bottom. Probably would have helped to press it first! Oh well...



This is turning out bigger than I thought it would. I have a lot of 4 patch leader/enders that I think I might use in a border for this. It just feels so good to be creating again...it's been too long.

Thanks for stopping by!

I couldn't stand it. My scrappy strips were just whining and crying, begging to be completed. So, I gave up and completed one panel for my scrappy bargello and here are the pictures to prove it!





This is one panel, top to bottom picture equals left to right on the panel. I really need to clear some space on a wall so I can pin things up for pictures!

I can't do the other one tonight, my eyes are just too tired. Despite my misgivings I think I'm really enjoying this quilt. I rarely machine piece and even more rare is it for me to strip piece. This quilt and the Carolina Crossroads have really taken me out of my comfort zone.

And speaking of comfort zones...don't you wish you could relax like this?



Miss Peaches really has the art of relaxing down pat.

Progress on the scrappy bargello is going slow. I got started later in the day than I had planned and I can't sit at the machine for long periods so I have 2 sets of 32 strips sewn together - see picture below (sorry about the bad picture quality) - they need to be pressed and then sewn into a tube, then cut apart...etc. Sometimes I think I'm slower at the machine than by hand!



Since the big game is about to start, I think I'll settle down with some hand sewing so I can watch the commercials! If it gets really boring I can always go back to sewing strips on the machine.

Wow, time flies when you are having fun - NOT! Work has been quite stressful for the last couple of weeks. I've been trying to get some quilting in but haven't felt like blogging at all thus the long time between posts. I have been sewing and have almost completely pieced a top from a jelly roll in my stash. I'll hopefully have some photos to post tomorrow or the next day. I also stopped working on my Carolina Crossroads because I felt my greens just weren't scrappy enough. Now I have more greens ready to add and plan on getting that top done soon too.

But, tomorrow is the Super Bowl and guess what I'll be doing? Nope, not watching football (much)...will watch the ads but I'll be participating in a bowl of another kind. It is the Quiltvillechat groups "Bargellow Bowl"!



Strips are cut yesterday and all I gotta do Sunday is sew! So, I'll be back with updates as I work on my scrappy bargello quilt!