Linky Tuesday—December 10th

Progress is being made on the Quilter’s Scrapbook.  The color in these blocks is amazing.  The colors were  so dull when this was going together.  The prominent color seemed to be beige & olive.  As I dove further into the stash the variety started to come out, and after deciding on the blue fabric for the borders any blue/turquoise/purple that I came across went into the blocks.

The border colors are being cut and will show up soon.  Some manhandling of the blocks was required yesterday.  Those small squares along with my imperfect 1/4” don’t always go together.  With a little starch, some steam and borders cut to the exact size, those imperfect blocks that were warped and not looking very square, look great.  Sure if you look hard you will see a parallelogram instead of a square every now and then, but I can live with that.

On the home front, MJJR played 2 games of basketball last night.  The game was 30 minutes away.  This is happening at least 2 nights a week.  DH left yesterday and returns tonight.  Lola comes home after finals on Friday. 

Sunday DH and I went over to Buffalo Wild Wings for one last get together with the co-workers.  We were stuck on the I-80 bridge over the Mississippi River for at least 40 minutes.  An accident backed up traffic, we were 30 minutes late for our own party!  The ladies waited.  Thank you ladies.  The weather was bad, a few didn’t make it…I was glad NOT to be driving.

Back to the bridge…the bridge design is the same as the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed a few years back.  Since the collapse of that bridge, this bridge has under went numerous repairs.  The latest set of repairs were on the side we were stuck on…with paint still present about “No Vehicles” right where we were sitting.  The large semi’s going fast from the other direction & the length of the span across the river at this point, make the bridge rock and roll as you sit and watch not only the ice on the river but the tug boat that ran aground last week.  Did I mention that I wasn’t driving.  Had me a drink immediately upon arriving at BWW’s.

Off to pick up some chicken broth, making a soup similar to Olive Garden's, Zuppa Toscana.  Great for a chilly day on the bluffs of the river.

Stop down river and see the other links at Connie's Quilting by the River.

Just Another Quilter

December 9th-Design Wall Monday

The Quilter’s Scrapbook is coming along nicely.  The blocks are done and the white is cut.  Sashing is getting pinned on.  The blue is picked out.  The accent fabric has narrowed to 2 fabrics. 
The green in the top of the photo or the peach down in the bottom.  Either piece will look nice.  I have votes for both.  The color is pretty close in the photo…the blue is just slightly darker.


The green has a little more warmth than the picture and the blue is darker below.

Please vote for which one you like.  Tomorrow is probably the day for cutting the accent color.

Please stop over and see other Design Wall’s at Judy L.’s Patchwork Times.

Linky Tuesday

Today is Linky Tuesday at Connie’s Freemotion by the River.  Stop by and see what projects are happening.
My Quilter’s Scrapbook is coming along nicely.  The piles of strips made up of 10 - 1 1/2” squares are getting smaller.  Here is the current view.

The colors are amazing.  Each of these need at least 2 more rows.  I found the blue fabric in the stash.  There is adequate yardage and it needs to come out of the stash.  It was an impulse buy, binding for a quilt, it didn’t go. It is neat fabric.  Stop back and watch the progress my on Canuck Quilter’s new pattern. 
Today is the local guild’s Christmas Potluck.  I am taking some Chicken salad and crackers.  Also on today’s agenda, label on the Christmas Traditions Quilt, and making Saltine Toffee Cookies for the Traditions sale.  This recipe is one of my go to recipes for sweet treats.  The ingredients are items found in the average kitchen: butter, brown sugar, saltines, chocolate chips and optional nuts.  Total kitchen time: 10 minutes or less.  My kind of recipe.

Have a good day, 
Just Another Quilter

Design Wall Monday

Canuck Quilter was looking for someone to test her new pattern “The Quilter’s Scrapbook” before it goes on sale.  This design is awesome with great sashing around simple postage stamp blocks.   I volunteered to take the pattern for a test run. 
My design wall is on my thread holder right now.  There are 1200 small 1 1/2” squares to make up all those postage stamp blocks.  This has been great to get some of the smaller scraps out of the stash.  My scrap project in the past was working with 1 1/4” x 2” scraps.  So as I am cutting up and sewing for “The Quilter’s Scrapbook”, I have also been cutting the leftovers for my other project.  If the scraps can’t fit into one of these projects then it IS garbage.

Each of these piles is a block for “The Quilter’s Scrapbook”.   My piles currently count at 9, only 3 more blocks…300 more 1 1/2” squares.  Each stack of fabrics tend to have similar fabrics in them, so I want to make sure that all the stacks are done before sewing the strips together.  If those loud fabrics aren’t evenly distributed it might be noticeable.  Some of the later squares have been leftovers from Lola’s college quilt, these additions are LOUD.
In other news, the benefit for my former co-worker went great last night.  The profit was over $7000 and the quilt went to another co-worker.  She really wanted the quilt and bid $300 right off the bat.  She won and is planning on redecorating her room to go with the quilt.  It is so nice for the quilt to go to a home where it will be loved. 
Today I pick up the Christmas Traditions quilt.  It needs a label before Saturday.
Stop over and see other design walls at Judy L.’s Patchwork Times.
Just Another Quilter

Lola’s Quilt and leftovers

Over the summer, the quilts for the high school graduates were completed.  Lola’s quilt was finished up about 5 miles from moving in.  Pictures were not taken after the quilting was complete. 

She brought it home for the Thanksgiving break.  There was a string on the back that her toe caught on….a “toe picker”.  Sometimes these are extra large stitches from not having a stitch regulator.  This one is from a couple stitches that looked like they popped and the back thread was still intact.  The quilting motifs include meandering in the strip piecing, why take the time if it will not show.  All of the outside purple is “Baptist Fans”.  These are fairly small.  The inner purple diamonds are from a pattern found in “Heirloom Machine Quilting” by Harriet Hargrave, page 161.   The pattern was slightly altered to fit in the allotted space.   The back is an orange flannel batik.

On Wednesday was MJJR’s birthday.  Over the years, her birthday dinner is either turkey, leftover turkey, turkey potpie or some other turkey dish.  For her birthday she requested crab legs for Thanksgiving dinner. 

Our leftovers might be slim pickings….they will be gone by tomorrow.  It was just the 4 of us for Thanksgiving dinner so it was no big deal not to do much cooking.  We went for a ride last night.  Not really shopping…dropped a couple pictures off for framing….more realistically…..we people watched at the 3 Wal-marts in our area, Best Buy and the people waiting to get in at Old Navy. 

And the Winner is!

I drew a name this morning. 

Yesterday after I left my last day of work….I did a little Christmas shopping, had my nails done, did a little Christmas shopping research, went out to dinner, watched 2 basketball games about 20 minutes from where I was at, arrived back home at least 45 minutes later and dropped dead from tiredness.
So this morning I drew the name… and the winner is….

1. 

   Along the PerkiomenNovember 18, 2013 at 1:24 PM

   Congratulations on the change in your life, hoping you find a fulfilling way to use your education!

The email is sent and the package is awaiting postage.

Just Another Quilter

Linky Tuesday

Well, today is my last day of work.  I have a giveaway going on to be drawn tonight.  Stop over and put in an entry.

Currently I am working on testing a pattern for a long time blog buddy, Canuck Quilter.  I just love how her sashing turns the simplicity of a postage stamp block into an amazing quilt.

I started yesterday I worked on all those postage stamp size squares. I have enough for 4 blocks so far!

Stop over to Connie's blog and check out others on her Linky Tuesday blog post.

Just Another Quilter