Holy Scraps, Batman!

I am overwhelmed…both by generosity and volume!

A nearby quilter is moving and asked if I wanted a box or two of her scraps....she warned me that there was a lot, and I'd be sorry....but I said, yes, I want them!  Of course, I want them!

She called me yesterday to pick up the box of scraps.  The box is from Quilter's Dream, the size that you can get the baby quilt sampler batting packs in.  Once I opened the box and started pawing through it, the contents started to expand and take on a life of its own!

My goal is to sort them by lights and darks.  Medium is not a goal right now.  If there are strips, they will be moved to my newly purchased "strip" bins.  I worked for over a half an hour and I only got as far as about an inch in a 20 gallon Rubbermaid tub.

And there's another box coming next week!

Zippers coming!

Hey…I  just ordered zippers to attach to my longarm leaders from Zipperstop.com and they should be here Tuesday or Wednesday.

I have been waffling back and forth about using Velcro or zippers, had definitely decided on Velcro and then, after a conversation with one of my online quilt buddies, bam, went with zippers.  I’ve never been fully confident that I will be able to attach the leaders straight if I use Velcro, I keep thinking there is going to be a little wiggle that I won’t be able to get out.

I hope I got the right sizes!  Since my leaders are 139” long, I’m getting 3 sets of zippers at 128” to attach to the take-up rollers, and the other half will go onto a canvas leader that is about 6” or so wide.  I’m also going with 90” and 60” lengths for the smaller quilts, based on standard batting sizes.

Oh, and coming from the west coast, it was so fun to hear a real for-real New York accent on the telephone!

Geek alert…

Today I literally spent the entire day on the computer.  For some people that might not be too amazing but since I do computer support all week, I tend to avoid the computer in my free time as much as possible.  However, I just got “in the zone” and ended up knocking off a couple of items from my To Do List.  Not only did I try out new shopping cart software for my site, I also needed to update my husband's website with a photo gallery.

Let me tell you, if you use Joomla for your website and need a a photo gallery component, you've got to try JoomGallery!  I was astounded at  how extremely easy it was to install and how many configuration options were available.  It offered the integrated, full featured, photo gallery I was looking for.

Some configurations took more time to figure out what they affected than others, and, being completely new to the software, it seemed to me that a couple of settings had to be changed in two places and I wasn't sure why, although they were not hard to find.

One item that was not obvious, and undocumented, was how to change the display name of the Gallery page, which needs to be edited in the global Joomla language file.  That information was gleaned from the forum pages, and is new with the introduction of Joomla 1.5.

I'm ecstatic about this component, and highly recommend it!

I’ll reserve my judgment on the shopping cart software until I’ve had time to populate it with data and test it.  So, more to come…

Bronco Quilts – work in progress

I have been very busy this weekend, working on trying to get some Bronco quilts made…and it is taking forever!  I sewed, with a little bit of cutting, on Saturday for about 6 hours, and I only have 28 Nine Patches made…and I need at least 42 for one quilt!  After those are made, then I need to make them “disappear”…into a Disappearing Nine Patch design.  Here’s the prototype:

I may need to reconsider the size of the strips, or the construction method; I know I’m slow but, dang!

I expected to already have two made, working on a queen sized quilt, and fleshing out other designs….too bad it’s all in my mind!

Gizmo’s mouse

I just had to share this picture of Gizmo from tonight!  While Gizmo and I were playing, DH got up from the couch to go into the kitchen and Gizmo stopped playing and started watching The Giver of Food.  So I put his toy on his back and he never even noticed...for at least 10 minutes!

Good news!

OK, I just can NOT hold this back!  I have had a wonderful evening.  First, I finally found the border fabrics for my quilt project and I cannot wait to get started getting this top completed!

Second, I had dinner with a fellow quilter who has offered to help me come up with a pantograph design for my BSU quilts and….SHE….DID…IT!  The design is absolutely fabulous!!

Third, I finally broke down and got myself a replacement alarm clock; now I guess I have no more excuses for waking up late.

Well, this may not seem like exciting news for most, but it's the most excitement I think I'll have the rest of this whole week, I’m sure!

Lover’s Knot

I have been helping a new quilter make a very special quilt for her older sister who is getting married in September.  This ambitious young woman is the daughter of my DH’s best friend, and I am thrilled to be asked to help her.  She has never made a quilt before and wants to make a king sized quilt for the new couple…she’s a woman after my own heart!

She found a version of the lover’s knot pattern to make, which I think is a pretty good beginners pattern; the corner element is a bit of a challenge, but the extra work and patience will really pay off in the end.  I think her sister will be thrilled!  I will be quilting this one, if it can be completed before I start school in the fall, and I am tentatively thinking of a heart pantograph at this point.

I used EQ6 to work up two color schemes of the quilt, and after I did that, I decided I may have to make one for myself!

Which one do you prefer?

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