A Touch of Spring

The pansies are just beautiful this year and my lilies are getting green, green, green.  The daffodils are growing, all of the groundcovers are just beautiful, but the poor tulips...don't think they are going to make it.  We are supposed to have 90 degree weather by Sunday!

Making Lemonade

out of lemons with lemons. 

I have started X-Rated, the Schnibbles quilt by Miss Rosie.  I think I know why she called it that, lol.  At least those are the kind of words I used.  I was so frustrated in trying to keep the rows straight when I was laying it out......

I went to Home Depot, bought a piece of PURPLE insulation board, had them cut it in two pieces, a five foot and a 3 foot  (48 inches wide) and proceeded to use my good old duct tape and some leftover batting and make myself a design wall for this size quilt.

Doesn't look real good, but it sure works well!!  portable and not expensive!  The best kind!!! Oh, and don't laugh to much, it is really pretty neat.  One of these days when I have a whole "pretty" piece of flannel, which I think works better for design walls than batting, I will make it look better maybe. :)

See how nicely the quilt pieces go on this?  

I was able to turn the board so I could check the placement of the colors.  Not too good of a color choice for this pattern, not enough contrast, and the LQS didn't have the light gray that goes with this collection. So I chose the white, which washes out the colors I think, and that is what I am using. 

The great thing about this size "design wall" is I can put it up right beside my sewing machine and pick up the pieces straight off of the surface without moving.  Works great!  Maybe, just maybe, I will get this sucker together without messing it up.

Also managed to get my Kaffe BOM started.  This is what it is supposed to look like when it is finished.

This is the first month.  I am machine appliquéing it and am going to try to keep up.  Hah!  Wish me luck on doing that.

Will get back to my Luna Notte baskets next week I hope, and hopefully, the Market Baskets.  Check out Judy's blog to see what other people have managed to get done lately.

A Little Quilting Going On

My heart goes out to all of the people affected by the Tsunami.  Such a dreadful thing to happen and I certainly hope the situation in Japan gets better fast for all of our sakes.

I did do a little quilting this weekend.  My quilt room is still not together and I can't find things but I did manage to get enough of it organized to get some of my Market Baskets made.  I also managed to get all of the handles cut out and ready to go.  I have over a hundred of these darlings to make in 4 different sizes, lol, so I started on the small ones...it gives me a feeling of accomplishment. :)

 I am using 3 different backgrounds to keep it interesting.  I managed to get 17 of the 58 4 inch baskets done out of one background.  Check on Sharie's progress, she is probably further along than I am.  This is all I will probably get done this month, but at least I have  it started.

This is the center of my Luna Notte quilt finished and waiting on the borders.  You can see some of them on the ladder on the right.  I am adding multiple borders and am going to miter the corners so I am procrastinating lol.  However, I am going to work on that some this week hopefully.

This is a portion of the Christmas stockings that a friend and I are making for the local guild for a giveaway.  She did the embroidery and I did the "sizzix thing" (sp?) and now she is going to put fur tops on and sew them up.  They will be beautimous!

Here are some photos of my quilting room.  When the floor was pulled up we found some mold so the floor had to be treated and then we had to wait a week for everthing to get dry and then the new floor had to be put in and then the "movers" had to come back and put everything back in place.  That is why you see all of the stickers on the containers.  It did not all go back in the room.  I ended up with two huge boxes full of backings that are now in another bedroom.  I will show you pics of that "fabric storage" when I get it finished. 

My new ironing table, repurposed from a maple chopping block Aud had made 20 years ago and we no longer have room for in the kitchen.  It works great and takes up less room.  My daughter helped me staple the ironing fabric to the table surface and it was so hard the staples didn't go in very far.  Being the mother of two little girls she just happened to bring "tiger" duct tape which we used to help keep the staples from ripping my fingers when I move the table around and to make the ends look a little better, hah!  lol....it makes me giggle.

From the doorway

Left side of room

closet areas

Be sure you check out Judy's Place to see what other people are doing.  Hope everyone has a great week!

Is It Over?

Is this past winter really over for this area?  I have lilies pushing up through the mulch and pansies blooming.  Not sure what happened to all of those tulips I planted.  Haven't seen hide or hair of them yet.  I have a feeling they are not going to make it.

Things have been a little off around here since Christmas and I am hoping that spring will give Aud and I both a little "get up and go".

I made a "pact" to start on a Basket Quilt in February with Sharie.  Then life stepped in, with a huge "gotcha" laugh and said, no, no, no, you have to wait awhile.  So it has been a while and I am hoping life will hide long enough to allow me to get a little caught up in my quilting.

I have collected batiks for several years, and these boxes represent the "smaller" pieces I have.  All I can say to this is I had no idea I had this many, lol.

Of course I have to make the quilt at least queen size  so I got out the glue and made some copies and made my pattern larger.  Lots of baskets!

This is the selection I came up with, who knows, it may change.  The lights are the background, and the handles are the green in the bottom right hand corner.  I am going to "try" to do them one block a week, and even as I say this, I know it isn't going to happen.  However, I am going to try. 

I guess this is my design wall this week.  Visit Judy at Patchwork Place for links to what others are doing.