TULIPS & MULTIPYING SCRAPS

 I spent this past week finishing up the last of my guild's quilt show boutique items that will be sold during the show.  The show is in January, but we do a great deal of early prep and I wanted to get my contributions out of the way.  Now I can get on to some fun projects for myself.

The last two runner and the fabric was fun.  Could not resist the tomatoes and strawberries fabric.  These last two compete my contributions to the show.  Yes, 72 table runners, 16 table toppers, and 40 zipper pouches.  

Last week I started working with my Tulip & Vine pattern by Sherri McConnell and a fun fat quarters set.  A second fat quarter set in greens finally arrived and I was able to finish off these two 8.5 by 17.5 blocks. These are fun to make.  Not sure if I am going to just do a table runner or a full quilt yet with them.

I also pulled out some left over scraps and I am playing with using them up and moving them out of the scrap bin and on to the charity group with a quilt top and bindings.  I had hoped to rid myself of them, but find that even after getting these 25 blocks finished up I still have an awful lot of fabric still left.  Back to the drawing with this idea I guess.  I am convinced scraps multiple at night when you turn out the lights and leave the sewing room.  

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SPRING PROJECTS

We finally have spring here, lovely weather in the 80's.  Now can leave the front door open with just the screen door.  Zoey are little yorkie can now get back to work being Neighborhood Watch.  No one is allowed on her street and if they have a dog with them she makes sure she barks at them vigorously to move them along out of site. 

 

I purchased a really large fat quarter set of Americana from Connecting Threads, plus some yardage of green recently.  I have been working on a good deal of items for my guild's quilt show boutique and I am finally finished with that chore and plan to make something for myself.  

I have these two patterns but have not decided which one I will use.  The Tulip & Vine quilt and maybe the runner with the Flower Shoppe pattern.  I might even dig around in some of my old patterns and books and see what happens.  

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WONKY HEARTS

A crazy week again. Lots of fussing with the dishwasher.  It kept coming up with an error E15  which means it is leaking.  Service man out twice can't find the problem, but will not wash the dishes either without flooding the house.  It is only 5 years old and go figure the purchased plan ran out in February.  So yes, had to purchase a new one.  Needless to say I did not get a lot done, other than washing dishes by hand.  

I am still making a few table runners for my guild's January quilt show boutique.  This runner was fabric that was in a scrap bin I was given to sort through.  It is 13 by 28 inches.  I found the wiggly pattern of the fabric interesting.  And the fabric is cut on the straight of grain, the fabric lines are wonky.

I have lots of rulers, in fact I am an admitted tools hoarder.  This little beauty has been in a drawer for years, never used it until I decided to quilt that heart runner.

I am not a free motion quilter, just have never been able to get it.  I use the serpentine stitch for small items on my sewing machine with variegated thread.  Normally I will do straight lines but the wonky lines on this runner just did not seem to look like it would work well at all.  So I figured just to try out that ruler.

The result really looks great.  I plan to remember this trick.

These last two quilts on my agenda are ready to do the handwork on the bindings for my charity group.  This process is that last step for completing them.  They were pieced by someone, quilted by another person and then handed out to others like myself to finish the binding.  The perfect evening TV watching chore.

      

  

   

THE ELEMENTS QUILT AND ROCK GARDENS

 I have been back into the sewing room a bit this week.  We are still doing a major overhaul of the garden.  I have been cutting donated yardage into 1/4 up to 3 and 4 yards of fabric and pricing it for the guild's quilt show as well.  My quilter finished my elements quilt so I want to get the binding on it.  

I love the elements fabric in this quilt, lots of different fabrics went into it.

The back with typewriter keys seemed perfect for it.  

The major part of the backyard garden overhaul is finished.  We carted 2,800 pounds of rock into the planter areas and now the tomatoes, bell peppers, and spinach are in planters with a drip watering system.  We live in a drought area of California and many of us have converted from lawns to rock gardens.  We are only allowed two days a week watering in the fall and winter and three in the summer months.  Neighbors with lawns water bills can easily mount up to $600 a month and higher in summer months as our temperatures often get into the 100's and last summer often up to 110 and one day 115.  Looking forward to lots of fun veggies this summer.  

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