I'm Back! Again...

I'm sorry for yet another long absence, but I had to deal with a suddenly cancelled textbook that I had ordered for this semester. Nothing like having to find a new textbook in less than two weeks. : (   At least you've had some lovely dresses to look at in the meantime.

Anyway, a long time ago I promised you a progress report. And I've made progress! Here's an actual finish.

This is the Black and Blue quilt made from the 7" squares that I received in our color exchanges at the Eureka Springs Guild retreats. I finished the top a little while ago, but I finally got the binding done in the car on our way to Texas for my husband's training trip this summer. Did I mention that I was sewing in the car and made myself car sick? I finished the last stitch just in time to keep from throwing up. Okay, so I won't try that again!

I've also made some progress on my owl wallhanging. I finally finished all of my flowers. Hurray! You can see my earlier, wonky flowers in the first photo. I got better - and straighter - with time. Do you think I should tear these out and try again or leave them as they are?

My completed tree with leaves and flowers. You can see that I've already started on my first complete owl at the bottom.

Callie inspecting my owl. Doesn't Callie have pretty toes?

The orange is actually the inside of the eyes and will be scalloped over the black rims underneath them. You can't see the black in these photos. There will then be black irises on top of the orange. It'll look better - and less creepy - soon, I promise!

Well, we had our bi-monthly Stash Busters meeting earlier this month. Not only did I not bust my stash very much in the last two weeks, but I had to bring a few more fabrics home with me. I just completed a complete revamp of my sewing room quilting studio to give myself more room. I'll have to show you some photos soon. It really looks great! But I need to take the photos quickly before everything goes downhill again.

These fabrics have Callie's belly flop of approval. She insisted on sleeping on the fabrics piled on the floor all night long. Go figure...

Gratuitous kitty photos of Tessie trying out the Tonga Batik quilt that we have on the bed now.

 I think she approves.

And in closing, a photo of some beautiful clouds as they appeared from our front yard last week. We didn't get any much needed rain out of them, but they were lovely to see.

I'll be back soon with some more owl quilt photos and maybe some quilt studio photos if I still have enough light. Those may have to wait until this weekend. Thanks for being patient with me during my absence. Hopefully, I have my school emergencies behind me now! : )

Until later,

Debbi

Misc.

Well, I went back to my owl wallhanging last night. My petals this time actually look really good, if I do say so myself! And I do.  : ) I'll get some photos this weekend and post them. I'm almost finished with binding my Harvest Time quilt. I need to bind my Black and Blue quilt next.

I also finished a girl's baby quilt and Mom quilted it for my this week. That means three quilts in need of or in the process of being bound. Whew!

Final thoughts on Bandit:

Well, I was right about Sinbad missing Bandit. Sinnie slept with me all night last night. He first curled up on my shoulder where I could pet him and reassure him. He then alternately sprawled across my chest, flopped across my throat, and wrapped himself around my knee. For the last couple of months, Sinnie has slept inside the sunroom near the window with Bandit sleeping in his catnip garden on the other side. Sinnie sat in the suroom and saw everything when I brought Bandit home and when my husband took carried him away for burial. I grieve for Bandit and feel sorry for Sinnie.

Good news on the UFO front!

Okay, after several weeks, I finally sewed the label on my hearts quilt. Finished - officially! Now I can finally update my UFO page and my To-Do List on my home page.  : )

And that's not the only news. Are you ready? My Tonga batik quilt has been quilted! Yes, yes, I still need to bind and label it, but it's close be doing done, does that count?

Mom did a fantastic job, as usual. Happy dance! I discovered something about batting, though. I'm used to using Warm and Natural 100% cotton. It's a nice, medium weight batting. This time I needed a king sized batting, which I did not have in my stash. I also need a king for the Red Sea quilt that is at Mom's house as we speak. Well, I found two affordable king sized Hobbs 100% cotton battings, so I bought them. This must be the one that hand quilters use... I have never seen such a thin batting before in my life! The quilt weighs next to nothing and is barely thicker than the original top! My biggest challenge now is to figure out  what width of binding to use. I usually cut a 2" binding to get an even 1/4" per side. I'm thinking maybe

1 1/4"-1 1/2". Anyone have any suggestions? I'll have to practice with some scraps and see what works.

Here is my next good news. Mom also finished quilting my Black and Blue quilt. Can you see the pretty swirls at the top? I love my red stripe! It really pops in all of the blue and black. *Smile*

I have a Dogwood Guild meeting tomorrow, so I won't be home in the morning to get any quilting done. I will probably spend the afternoon in the garden trying to tame back some of the overgrowth and find some of my flowers. I'll give you a hint of what you'll see here tomorrow...

Wild irises. : ) Surrounded by weeds. : (  And yes, all of those white dots you see in the upper background are, indeed, dandelion clocks. Sigh.

I'll meet you here tomorrow and show you some more garden shots.

'Til then...

Debbi

Finished! Plus one!

I finished the Tonga Batik quilt top. Yeah! It's about 92 x 106, so my full-sized guest bed is swamped by it. Please remember that I'm not a professional blogger, so my pictures are not professional quality.

I'm not sure about my choice of inner borders, but they're done now, so they're staying.

 Waaaay too large for my double bed.

This quilt has been sitting in my to-do pile for a year-and-a-half. I finally put on the wide blue border to finish it. It's a black and blue quilt using exchange squares from my friends at the Eureka Springs, AR, guild retreat. I love the way it turned out. When I solve the problems with importing my photos, I'll upload more of this blue quilt.

'Til then...

Debbi