Show-n-tell Saturday!

I am so excited to get to show this with all of you!!! This week I finished up my last block for my 1930's BOM from last year's Quilt Club!!!

Nora has really taken a liking to playing with the buttons and has even requested to go in the sewing room and "play buttons" the past two mornings before breakfast even!!! ;) So, needless to say that was very helpful in having time to sew during the day!

Here is my little "Jackson" sitting in front of the quilt just now. He's our "first child," a miniature schnauzer. For the first time in the 8 years of having him... we shaved him naked for the summer. Funny thing is, that we can tell he feels so much better b/c lately he has been acting like he's 5 years younger! :c)

Just to give you a recap I will post a photo of the 1st half of my 1930's BOM quilt (which is still pinned to the wall upstairs) of months January - June and then under it a photo of what I took today - the 2nd half of the quilt months July thru December. This should give us a preview of what the quilt will look like after I sew the two halfs together ;c) This week, I also got a good start to using up all my scraps for a 1" finished piano key boarder to go around the outside. Not sure about the corners - maybe make some more sawtooth star blocks? since they were used thruout the quilt so much as fillers... here is a photo of my piano keys strips so far. I was working on some chinese coins for Mary and that gave me the idea to do this :)the quilt store had a different final boarder on their quilt. The kit I received included the fabric for it and it would also be a good way to use up scraps, but I have always admired piano key boarders and wanted to do one... I will still do an inner boarder of the white like they did - then add my scrappy piano keys. Here is a photo of their finished quilt. (turned to the side... the right is the top of the quilt starting with Jan at the far right corner) As you can see, only some of my 12" blocks look like theirs (same fabrics.) For the most part, on all the sawtooth stars I did differnt fabrics than what they provided me with in my monthly kit b/c I think it is much easier to use Eleanor Burn's Flying Geese Rulers than to cut squares into triangles then resew them and have to use 1/8" measurements. Also in my monthly 12" blocks I choose all together different fabrics for Jan, June, & September..... and if you look closely, you will see that I changed the block patterns for the paper pieced star for July and also Y-seam star December. My blocks for those months aren't even close to what they used!

The last block for December (on the right) is called Mississippi Star. I found it while surfing Judy Martin's website and looking thru her photo gallery. She writes: "Mississippi Star is a versatile star that can achieve different looks depending on how you color it. With this coloring the dark blue star points look like they are gripping the center square. It's a block I put into a picture frame in order to display it." -Judy Martin

It wasn't difficult to figure out - just a little math and I knew what sizes to cut everything. I only wish I had been able to use higher contrasting fabrics like she did in hers....in the same color family...... and if I remake the block someday the darkest fabric will be like hers to create that woven effect. Here is a photo of her block.

I know my 30's BOM is a very busy quilt and for most who see it will just view it as a lot of mumbo-jumbo but for me I have loved it ever since I first saw it hanging in the quilt store. It just reminds me of my grandmother, "Momma Newt's" quilts and how she would have used up scraps to make herself a quilt....so that is what prompted me to want to do this one.

The BOM Quilt in the store is machine quilted with just a big overall meander I guess you call it type of quilting....and I will probably have the same done for mine since it is already so busy. I need what ever is the cheapest way to get it quilted. :c) I am really hoping my Daddy sends me my usual $100 bill with my birthday card this year, b/c I am planning on putting that towards having it machine quilted as my birthday gift to myself!

I hope the next photo I post of this project will be of the finished top with the piano keys attached! I hope Nora wants to play with the buttons some more this week - b/c the count down for the twins C-section on or around June 7th is only 19 more days!!!! and I have to have this done before then!!!

Also soon, I hope to post details about the FQ Bingo Game we are playing over at the quilter's board on HGTV. Today was day 30 of calling 2 numbers per day.... I have a feeling we will know next week who the lucky winner/s are of the 1600 FQ's in the jackpot!!! :c)

Happy Weekend everyone! ~Bonnie

A Fabric Photo Session!

(warning long - but lots of photos)

Well, last week – Nora FOUND the missing “good” Digital Camera!!!! Yippee! Hooray! It had been missing since January and I had nearly accepted that I would never see it again.

I've used our old camera a handful of times since we lost the good one but it just wasn’t the same. It is our very old Digital camera about 8 years old… and RARELY works when you need it too – 8 out of 10 times when you want to take a photo, it just gives you an “E18” message on screen when you turn it on… and never retracts the lenses part when you shut it off. We took it to the zoo last month but every photo that I was able to take (about 10 all day) was too blury to consider printing. :(

Since January, my husband has been ticked off that I lost the "good one" that he said he would not be buying a new one until Christmas…. I think it was more of a threat than anything. Come on… with twins arriving in June...??...he would have bought a new one… But now he doesn’t have to! :P

Where WAS IT???? you ask? Well last Monday Nora and I were in the sewing room. She was playing as usual - under the bed in that room and I could hear her talking – saying “my camera…. MYYYY camRA! Nora’s click camera!” and I thought to myself could it be??? So rather than ask, “Nora do you have a camera and her say no and leave it under there… (remember I am 27 weeks pregnant with twins and not exactly very bendable to go looking under the bed myself…) so I coaxed her out by saying “Come on Nora, lets go downstairs and get some jellybeans!” and sure enough – she came out from under the bed with the GOOD DIGITAL CAMERA!!!

It still had battery power so I took her photo! OK, so moving on to the real reason I am posting and called it “Fabric Photo Session”. ;P I know I have not posted in a while but it isn’t b/c I have not been busy b/c I have! And I now have PHOTOS to show you!

Last year I joined my first ever LQS BOM and dropped the ball mid way thru. I have already shown you the 1st six months of the quilt all sewn together. My first time to miss a BOM meeting last year was in July – b/c we were in KY the first week - for the 4th celebration – which my hometown hast the LARGEST in the whole state each year – but that is another post, another time. ;) When I returned and picked up the kit it had an 8 pointed star with “Y” seams and I had missed the demo! I have never done a "Y" seam before and so this is what got me behind!!! urgh :P

I went to the August BOM meeting, but didn’t have anything for show-n-tell. Then missed September b/c we were in KY again for David’s 10th high school reunion… and then it didn’t help that in October I got Pink Eye and missed that meeting then I also missed November b/c I FORGOT about it!!! Urgh! I did go to the last meeting in December to get the finishing kit – in hopes that one day I would catch up…

So my new goal that I posted a few weeks ago = is to finish piecing this quilt before the twins arrive. I had 6 more blocks to make so if I make on each week and stay on track and give myself 2 weeks to finish up the border then I should have it completed by the end of April!!! I plan to send it off to be quilted on a longarm as a Birthday gift to myself – part of that expense sponsored by my dad’s generous $100 he gives me each year for my Birthday. :c) So here it is April 1st and I have stayed on target so far – and at this point only have 2 more 24” blocks to go!!! :) I don't have a "design wall" - I just pin everything to the wall inbetween the bedroom door and closet door for now.
So where is the 8 point star with the Y seams in that photo above???? Maybe you looked for it but didn't see it... well that is B/C I just discovered that "DUAH, this is MY quilt and I can chage it if I want to!" - so I subsituted another block instead!!! :P (in the photo above I used the 12" block on the far left in the bottom row instead of a Y seam 8 point star.)
One of the last 3 blocks is laying on the desk infornt of the quilt. Here is a close up of that one already made.

...and here in the photo below is what I worked on today (Sunday) while David and Nora were working in the yard - setting together this 12.5" bear's paw - I think that is what it's called?
Each of the 24" blocks has a 12" block within them and I start with those first. Then for the "finishing kit" it calls for FIVE 6" sawtooth stars and THIRTY-FIVE 2" squares! I will be working on these this week.
and finally another thing I have been working on... - it is the beginning of a new month and you know what that means - NOODLES!!! I host a monthly noodle swap on the HGTV quilter's board and March's theme was 1930's! I am only waiting on 1 more person (((hoping her package arrives tomrorow))) and then this week I will swap them all out and get them returned to the other noodle heads :P
Here is my dining room in total CHAOS - Yesterday, I began spreading out the noodle buffet on the table. This was about 1/2 way thru the process......
there is something special in all those mail crates along the floor and under the table (which you can't see) - over 1300 FQ's for the 2nd Annual FQ Bingo on the HGTV board. That is how I got the nickname "Bingo~Bonnie" :c) but I will post more about that later this week. - Don't let me forget to tell you all about it! ;)
...and here is a better sneak peak of the noodle varitey! I love being the hostess and getting to be the FIRST to see them and pick the ones I want! :c) These are the ones I selected to keep (13 sets of 6) arranged by color family.


Well I have more photos to share - but it is going on 9pm and I MUST get Nora upstairs and to bed. I am so thankful that Blogger let me upload all my photos today! :) Yeah!
Enjoy the Fabric Photo Session - more to come later. ;c) ~Bonnie

another UFO - actualy the 1st to be completed this year!

Well here is another UFO I suppose... or at least one I DO Plan to work on and finish this year!

I started this last year (Jan 2006) and the blocks are half done! All of the A blocks for two quilts have been made... and all last year I was planning to get the B blcoks made so that I could finishup these two tops! - but something else kept coming up and pushing this project asside! My RR became 1st priority over any of my own projects... another reason I will never do another RR!

I fell in love with the 1930's fabrics in the fall of 2005 when I saw this pattern shown in the December issue of the Better Homes and Garden's Quilting Magazine. At the time I had just signed up to participate in a 1930's noodle swap on the HGTV.com quilter's board. So I thought this would be a perfect pattern to use them on!!!

Also my friend Tracie from GA ws planning a trip to visit me in TX for January '06 - so we both swapped 30's noodles to get a larger variety to make these quilts for our little retreat project ;c)

But in the magazine the pattern called for 2" strips - and I was confortable just adding 1/2" to the sizes so that our 2.5" noodles would work... but halfway thru the cutting of the white fabric we each realized that we were not both doing the same... she was going strictly by the directions in the magazine although we had already talked about changing it to suit our needs... so all the white strips had to be cut to match....

So to make a long story short - we realized we are different when it comes to patterns. I'm the type that tweeks it as I go - and most times skips around and if I know a short cut will use it. Where as my friend is the type that has to follow step by step exactly as they are printed and no other way.

Needless to say the project didn't even get to the sewing stage and she was so frusterated that she refused to take any of the fabrics home with her when she left - "you can have it - if I take it home it will never get done b/c it is so messed up" she said.

So after she left I began making the A blocks and soon got all of them done for both our tops. They don't look so bad all together do they?

The B blocks look the same but have a whtie center and go from there... Oh and all those centers are a little larger in our quilt than in the magazine... but oh well! I think they look nice!

Tracie's birthday is December 23rd and ever since I have known her she has talked about how she hates having a Christmas Birthday - that she never receives anything special... so last eyar I really wanted to get the top done and quitled for her to give to her as her gift! Wouldn't that be special? But like I said, other obligations kept pushing those B blcoks to the back burner adn finally off the stove!

I have never even shared that I have a quilting blog with Tracie for this very reason!!! I wanted to be able to post here photos and prgress on this project as I went along. So I have never told my own best quilting frined about my blog so that I wouldn't spoil the suprise. She still knows nothing about it and over a year later she has never even asked once about the Square Deal quilt or if I ever workedon it again so if I am able to work on those B blocks again this year - it just may get done and given to her this year for her Birthday in December! :)

Right now my current project is finishing up the last 6 blocks to my 1930s BOM from last year's Quilt Club at the LQS. Above is a photo of the 1st 6 months sewn together. My goal is to complete 1 of the 24" blocks each week... and then spend 2 weeks completing the pieced boarder. So far this is the 2nd week and I am on target. :) If all goes well, I will have the top completed by the end of April (plenty of time before the twins arrive) and for my Birthday gift to myself I will use the money I get each year from my Daddy and pay to have it quilted!


Then I will get focused on those B Blocks!!! :c) and get Tracie's quilt set together and have it quilted in time for her Birthday in December!!!

I think I may have an idea for the RR

Today David, Nora & I went to IHOP for pancakes - Nora's favorite :) and just across the street is the Quilt Store so I took along my Round Robin to ask the store ladies for their professional opinions on what to add to my project. They helped me come up with my "game plan" once before.


I was fully prepared to buy some more of the batik fabric - if they had it - thinking I would use this in my round - or else something else that would go with the quilt top but after about 15-20 minutes of talking with two of the women who work in the store, I walked out without making a purchase! I can't believe I didn't buy anything. LOL And my shopper card only needed one more $5 punch mark to earn me a $25 store credit!


They didn't have the batik fabric but maybe I found it on line??? It is hard to tell but I am thinking this is it from Hancock's of Paducah? Looks dark in their photo - but if it was the exact same I would order it for sure and use it. What do you think? A match? or Not?
http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/item--i-H-C-245-238--m-02_12.html

Ok - so here is the idea the ladies at the Quilt Shop suggested. Since these RR's travel around with a scrap bag and nothing in this RR's bag is a large enough piece to use exclusively - why not make a scrappy boarder running around the entire top? Like what the quilter did in the outside boarder of this 1930's quilt. ???Not sure but at least that would be super easy to do and I would be able to get it done quickly which is good b/c I didn't receive it until late and the last exchange date is quickly approaching....


I will think it over and see. What are your thoughts???


Oh and I must mention too that the 1930's quilt above was last years Quilt Club BOM that I participated in. I have all of the months Jan-June done and sewn together. However July - Dec have not been touched yet. :( I didn't sign up for this year's - I don't need to go starting anything new until I finish this one and if I get the 6 blocks pieced before the babies arrive I will have accomplished quite a task! I am hoping so - so that I can pay to have it machine quilted as my Birthday gift come July :c) We'll see... Happy Weekend everyone ~Bonnie


Gratitude’s:
1) David taking Nora to wash her hands at IHOP without me having to ask him.
2) A fun time at the park with Nora and watching her play with her Daddy.
3) Going thru the carwash and listening to Nora get so excited at the water and soap ;)