Monday, May 23, 2011

I have an excuse….

I knew time was flying by and that I had been neglecting my blog;10-minute-block-quilt it’s been an entire month since I last posted…and it’s been because I just have been so busy that I haven’t had time to write it all down!

I finally finished my 10 Minute Block quilt…the one I call my “practice” quilt because I practiced 6 different quilting techniques on each of the blocks.  I really love how the colors worked so well together, especially since all but the border and backing fabric were from my stash.  I convinced a friend of mine to make more of these blocks, to practice the technique, and I will practice quilting on that one, too.  She’s skittish about making the decision about the borders, so I’ll have to add those when I get it back from her.

This quilt was a challenge for me to quilt, because I practiced all free motion or used rulers I’d purchased but haven’t used.  I really want to get out of the rut of thinking I can only do pantographs;  I really like the consistency of a panto, it’s just that I want to develop more confidence in my custom quilting, and the only way to do that is to practice!

DSCF3301I’m working on making enough, and varied, projects that I can have a table at one of the local Saturday markets.  I picked up a roll of strips I’d started stringing together last year when I’d put together several to make  a lasagna quilt.  Being in a hurry, and relying on my newly formed habit of using straight of grain borders, I thought *maybe* I could get away with just sewing the borders on as I went, then cutting them off at the bottom.  Nope.  See these wavy things??  I recently saw something describing them as “friendly”!…and they sure are!  So, no quick and easy quilt to make available here.

In fact, this is so obvious that I decided I really need to write a tutorial to post for future reference, when someone asks “why shouldn’t I just sew on the border and cut it off at the end?”  Needless to say, it’s still on the design wall!

DSCF3371I even got my garden in two weeks ago!  It was a beautiful day and I took a chance in planting my tomatoes, zucchini and cantaloupe, but they are all doing well.  I added a couple of extra feet on either end of the garden and I still have room to plant at least 2 more mounds of….something!  I haven’t quite decided what it should be yet…maybe cucumbers?…but I need to get it finished before it’s too late!

Earlier in the year I thought I was going to teach a class in the upcoming Boise Basin Quilt Show in June.  I started putting together a project for the class, but we won’t have access to actual sewing machines, and I’m not a hand sewist, so the project stalled.  Well, in an attempt to actually clean up the pile of blocks from my cutting counter and the longarm table, I finally started putting some of the blocks together, and collected the rest of my experiments into a bag for later use.  I found a really great border and I can’t wait to get that on (properly this time) so I can get a photo posted.  It’s really quite feminine and very easy!

I finished working on this customer quilt this weekend.DSCF3459  It’s got a purple flannel back and I used a variegated purple and teal thread on it, which really perked it up.  The panto really was able to pull in some of the fullness and it came out beautiful!

I started another customer quilt on Sunday, which is going quite well, and I’m almost finished with it.  I’m loving how the Anne Bright design is coming out and  I can’t wait for my customer to see this one!  Two more in the queue, so there hasn’t been any time to work on my personal projects or Bronco Quilts, of which I have several ideas!

All that, and I still want to sit down at the spinning wheel again and try drafting fibers again, now that I borrowed a couple of books from the library and got some great ideas.

I need more hours in the day!



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