I confess, I frequently leave comments on blog giveaways in the hopes of winning! Then I finally did win Cindy Shake's patterns from Judy's Painted Threads blog. Besides the patterns, there was a wonderful postcard of a portion of Judy's work.
Maybe one day I'll take the plunge and do a painted fabric quilt.
Today I need to get busy on the Kyoto quilt, and get ready to head to CO. I know, the Kyoto quilt doesn't need to be done, but it's what I'd rather do instead of getting ready!
Happy Holidays!
What? No sunrise or sunset pictures? I was beginning to feel like The Little Prince who could just adjust his chair to see sunsets. I'm afraid I'd get nothing else done.
But I have been in the sewing room during the daylight hours. Got two more of the tops donated by someone who works with Dr. Kaufman finished up.
In the interest of blogging about the process, here's what I'm working on now. It's Pat's "Kyoto" quilt for a friend's daughter who has been working/living in Japan.
I'm using Mandarin Garden, another new panto from my shopping spree at the NM longarm meeting. It's quite dense, but easier than the Silly Snowmen. I've learned that crossovers are where I tend to get lost following the design, and get turned around.
So far, so good, though I've only done one pass on it. I still want to master the Snowmen, but I'll do it as a whole cloth.
I need to get all my longarming done this week. It'll be a long while before I get back after Christmas, but I'm sure twins will be keep amply occupied. Today's agenda includes holiday treat making with Lindsay.
I keep thinking I've taken enough pictures of the sunrise, but then I get another morning like this:
To the west there were lines of dark clouds. I think the mountains aren't done with snow yet. I just hope the weather cooperates for going to Colorado. Dale hasn't driven much since his shoulder surgery, and that's fine as long as there's no snow on the roads.
We went from our colorful morning and evening skies to this:
That's a lot of grayness, but we desperately need the moisture. We bundled up and walked to the post office, and it wasn't too bad without any appreciable wind.
I'm sure we'll be back to spectacular winter sunrises and sunsets in a few days. The advantages of not living in the northern states where once it starts, it lasts until the spring thaw.
Now back to the sewing room. I'm waiting for my baseboard heater to get it a little warmer out there.
I scored a lot of new pantos at the longarm meeting weekend before last. I really wanted to try Silly Snowmen. It looked challenging, and indeed it was.
I think if I had kept at it (like anything else) I would have gotten more comfortable. I used a pinwale corduroy that was donated to Pat and I from an about.com forum member, Marje. It's great for backings, and no trouble at all to quilt through.
I may try again, using all of the different snowmen designs. I wanted to get this last quilt done so that I could get it delivered today, so I just did the snowmen on the top and bottom, and filled in the middle with a much easier snowflake panto. I still really like it, and like all things, it will probably just take practice to do the design justice.
It's always great to having sewing company, and Pat is definitely good at getting stuff done. When she was quilting, I was binding. When she was piecing, I was quilting, and we were just rolling them off the production line! We did take plenty of eating breaks, though I must confess to fixing store bought pasta on Sunday since we were too busy for me to stop and make raviolis. We all survived. Pat brought the most wonderful chocolates, that one of the AZ retreat hostess' husband makes. I'm not easily impressed, but these were divine!
Pat took home three quilts which will go to her niece who volunteers with Susan G. Kommen for the Cure. Two were very similar, and the third had a wonderful border with AZ cacti. I "custom" quilted that one, and Pat did a panto on the other two. "Custom" is a relative term when applied to my quilting though. It's best viewed with a little perspective, and not scrutinized too closely.
This is the other fishy quilt from donated blocks. I did Dave Hudson's Sea Turtles pantograph. It's a great panto, and I've used it a number of times. I was lucky to score a bunch of pantos from Dave at our last longarm meeting. I'm looking forward to trying them all.
I had finished this one before Pat arrived. It's nice to have her to hold quilts up, since it's still a bit of work for Dale's recovering shoulder. He's six weeks out from his rotator cuff repair and so sure, he must be cured! Pat put together this quilt from a kit, and used the backing fabric to extend it. It was supposed to be a wall hanging, but I'm sure some teenager would love it.
Carolyn donated this finished black and white beauty from a previous year's AZ retreat lotto blocks. It's great to have generous friends!
This is one of two "fishy" quilts I had finished quilting. I put the donated blocks together at the last Bear Cabin retreat, and got the binding done while Pat was quilting. The other is in the washer.
Sunrise!
Sunset!
I just don't tire of looking at winter skies. The little dot in the top picture is Venus. We got a telescope, and with it some software that makes identifying things in the sky much easier.
Pat is coming for a long weekend of quilting. As usual I've procrastinated cleaning and cooking, and generally getting ready for company until the last minute. Pat's not really company, she's more like family, and so is already familiar with my faults.
I finished Lindsay's advent calendar and delivered it to her Saturday after the longarm meeting. We'll see how many more I get done for this holiday season!
