I have an excuse….

I knew time was flying by and that I had been neglecting my blog; 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!

I’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!

I 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.  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!