Thursday - Not Much Going On

Well, all, not much action going on here in Wisconsin. The weather finally got warm (we're supposed to get above freezing today) and there's slush everywhere.

Tuesday night I went to a class on long arm machine quilting. I wasn't too surprised about what I learned, but it was rather anticlimatic. I guess I'm looking for something that doesn't exist yet: a quilting machine that will quilt the entire top without having to forward the fabric and can have continuous all over quilting. Like diagonals, etc. I'll use my $20 rental credit one of these days, probably on the Bento Box quilt when I get the top all done.

I have a blue and pink queen sized Trip Around the World top that I completed before Thanksgiving. I had hopes of quilting it myself on a rental machine, but after the class I've determined that I don't want to use it to learn on. The LQS gave me a name of a local lady (no shipping cost!) who does really good machine quilting and I'm taking the quilt top over to her house on Saturday.

Last night I didn't get any quilting done. I feel a little bit guilty, but I'm a big fan of the TV show "Lost" and last night was the season premiere. Its one of those shows that you really can't sit and listen to (and who can do 100% listening when the machine is whirring away) and miss the visuals. So I veg'ed in front of the TV watching Lost and enjoying myself. DD was playing on the computer in the other room (she's very active in Webkinz) so I just sat there watching my show.

Tonight I plan to finishing the quilting on the flagstone quilt and at least get the binding sewn on so I can do the hand work this weekend. Yes, I'm already thinking about the weekend and not focusing on what I have to do today.

Laurel

Need Advise Fast....

Okay, friends and family, I need some advise. I sewed all the blocks together for my Bento Box quilt and now its time for the border. I'm not much for borders, DO NOT want to do a pieced border, just something simple. I went to look at my blue fabrics again to choose the border and I caught a piece of Christmas fabric out of the corner of my eye. So, here are the pictures, do you like the blue border or the red one?

I also thought about putting the red and the blue together (red first, blue outside) for a double border, but I don't know if I have enough blue.

Thanks for any and all advise.

Laurel

Saturday Noon

Okay, I got the additional three boxes done. Here's the final layout I decided on.

DD was picked up an hour ago to go to the YMCA with a friend for a few hours, so I'll continue to make progress.

Now to sew the blocks together!

Laurel

Saturday.... Yeah!

Its the weekend at last. This has been a very tough week between Arctic cold weather and my car problems. But its early Saturday morning, I've already taken the dog out (okay, I let the dog out and waited by the door until she was ready to come back in), DD is still asleep (and probably will be for 2 more hours), and its finally getting light out. Looks like we got more snow last night, so later on I'll have to go out and snowblow, again.

Here's a pic I took of a proposed layout of the bento box quilt I started. I think I'll make 3 more "boxes" today and have a 9 block quilt. I laid this out in the dark (I don't have good light in my living room) the other night, so I'll take another look at it in the full daylight hours.

My border fabric for my flagstone quilt finally came in so I'll be adding the borders to that this weekend, too. I want to get that all done today so I can take it to church tomorrow to layout and pin baste the layers. I don't have a big table at home, so unless its small enough to tape to my glass coffee table, I take my quilts to church where they have big tables set up in the classrooms. And after nearly everyone is gone, I pin baste my quilt. Usually doesn't take more than about 30-40 minutes. Of course, DD is usually impatient all that time, but I'll have her bring a book to read while I'm doing that.

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and keeping warm.

Laurel