September & October Goals

The September goals were all completed . . by the skin of my teeth! It's almost October 1 already!

Piece Top for Mrs. Cook - I actually ended up adding borders to a top that was almost already completed.

Quilt top for Mrs. Cook - Got it quilted and the binding is sewn on by machine, waiting for the hand work to be done.

Piece Top for Mrs. Gunter - Another one that I had almost finished and finally completed.

Quilt Payton's Top - Binding is on, handwork needs to be done.

Quilt X's and O's Top - Quilted and the binding is sewn on by machine, waiting for hand work.

Quilt Top for Mrs. Gunter - Quilted and the binding is sewn on by machine, waiting for hand work.

Piece October Quilt for an Hour Top - Done!

Piece Randy's Top - Done!

Quilt Randy's Top - Done and the binding is sewn on by machine, waiting for hand work.

Quilt October Quilt for an Hour Top - Done and the binding is sewn on by machine, waiting for hand work.

For the October goals, there's lots of machine quilting to do for customers this month so my own personal goals, while they appear to be many, can be done pretty quickly.

Bind Quilt #17 - This is a quilt for the book and just the hand work remains.

Bind Quilt #18 - Same as #17.

Bind Quilt #19 - Same as #17.

Bind Quilt #20 - Same as #17.

Bind Leaf Quilt - This is going to a friend so I need to get it finished while it's still Fall!

Bind Randy's Quilt - This is for the wrecker driver.

Piece November Quilt for an Hour Quilt - Can't wait to make this quilt.

Quilt November Quilt for an Hour Quilt - I believe this will be a gift for a friend.

Piece Brown T-T 9 Patch - A project for American Quilter that is due December 1.

I work so much better if I have a list so . . there's my list!

Judy L.

September & October Goals

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/september-october-goals.html

My Week .. in a Nutshell!

My life is so simple and usually slow but this has been a busy week. Monday was my annual physical. I suppose no one enjoys this but it has to be done so . . it's done! Tuesday I had to go have bloodwork which revealed that my iron levels are low. Don't know why but I'm now taking iron. Not to mention that they are over $1.25/pill with insurance but they make me SICK!! The doctor said keep taking them so I'm still taking them but if I still feel this bad next week, they're history.

Then yesterday was the annual mammogram. Either I've gotten used to them or they don't hurt as bad as they used to. This is the one time of the year I'm thankful to be a size AAA! :)

I hate (really, really hate) getting dressed up and going out to business dinners and I had to do it twice this week and almost had to do it three times! Vince's company had something going on and oh, I thought of every excuse in the book to keep from going. I really didn't feel good but I went and I survived.

Next week I have to go to the dentist! While I'm on a roll, I might as well have needles stuck under my fingernails. Why is all this having to be done at once? And, the dog has to go to the vet for his annual next week too.

OK, enough whining from me. I needed a little "lift me up" so I dug this piece of fabric out of my stash and I'm making the purple and lime leaf quilt that I wanted to make. I got it started but I had to put it aside and get some quilting for customers done. But, first I'm quilting the first leaf quilt. It's going to be a gift for a friend and I love how it's turning out. Had hoped to get it finished tonight but that's not going to happen. Maybe tomorrow. It's on my September goals list so I'd better get it done tomorrow!

Judy L.

My Week .. in a Nutshell!

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/my-week-in-nutshell.html

Ready for the October Quilt for an Hour Project?

Here's the project for October. Everyone ready? Once this top is quilted, it will be hard to see where each block ends. When I design quilts, one of my main goals is to create quilts where the blocks blend.

Here's a little mini lesson on how I blend blocks. Remember you can click on the image to get a larger view.

This is all my opinion - maybe right, maybe wrong. And, it doesn't it mean that if you do yours different, mine looks any better or worse than yours, ok?

Suppose you want to make this October quilt. I hope you all want to make it! :) Suppose you want to use tan or ecru on ecru stash fabrics for the background. The picture on the left is the EQ drawing with different tans used but with a specific fabric used for the background in each individual block - different background fabrics used in different blocks. In my opinion, it's kinda choppy and there's no blending.

Suppose you decide to do some planning and you use one background fabric for one leaf block (same background fabric for each block but different background fabrics in different blocks). And, for the alternating block, you use the same fabric in all the centers but you use the same background fabric for the edges of the alternating block that will be used in the neighboring leaf block. By using these bright colors, do you see what I'm talking about?


On the right is a drawing where this concept was used. Does this one look more interesting or . . is it just in my own mind? I guess I get really excited about blending the blocks because I hate going to a quilt shop and seeing the patterns and realizing without really scrutinizing the design, that it's two simple blocks and I can easily make that quilt without purchasing the pattern!

And last, here's an idea how this same quilt would look if you used scraps where I have the same brown. I drew this out using the same fabric in the whole block but you could easily just mix and match however you choose.

Maybe the main thing we can learn from this little lesson is that no matter how you make it, the quilt is going to be beautiful. There are as many ways to put together quilts as there are quilters. Some of the quilts that I've made that I thought were awful were the ones others loved and some I thought were so fantastic, I could tell from the expression of my friends that they weren't nearly so impressed.

So, have fun and don't stress too much about colors, points, or other issues

Thanks to all who wrote me about the roof. The roofer was here early yesterday morning. Two strips of ridge vent and just a handful of shingles had to be replaced. Vince will repaint my ceiling soon. It makes me want to scream every time I look up and see that water damage on my ceiling. That's the kind of things that bugs me tremendously. But, it could have been a lot worse and I am thankful it was not.

Judy L.

Ready for the October Quilt for an Hour Project?

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/ready-for-october-quilt-for-hour.html

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

This is what I see looking out my back door. It's just a rain cloud and no serious storms are predicted but . . look what I see when I look at my kitchen ceiling! I looked up at the ceiling and hoped it was a shadow from a lamp in the living room but . . it's a water stain.

The storm Friday night blew off a good size piece of my ridge vent. Chad got in the attic to see if he could do something from in there but the hole is huge.

I'm betting every roofer in this town is going to be busy for the next few weeks so here's Chad up on the roof trying to do what he can to minimize the leaks. Keep your fingers crossed that we have no more water damage.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/rain-rain-go-away.html

Peach French Toast & Taco Soup Recipes

I should have taken a picture before we ate but I didn't think about it. Here are the recipes I mentioned yesterday.

Overnight Peach French Toast
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick butter
2 T. water
1 - 29 oz. can sliced peaches, drained
12 slices day old French bread, sliced 3/4" thick
5 eggs
1-1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Ground cinnamon

Bring water, brown sugar and butter to a boil. Remove from heat and pour into a 9 x 13 greased baking dish. After the brown sugar/butter mixture has cooled a bit, add the sliced peaches. Place the bread slices on top.

Mix the eggs, milk and vanilla. Pour over the bread. Cover and place in the fridge overnight.

Remove from fridge and leave sitting on counter for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake an additional 30 - 35 minutes. Can be served with whipped cream and/or maple syrup.

Taco Soup

This is one of those recipes that I've adapted to our own tastes. We love frozen corn so I put more corn than most recipes call for. DH doesn't like kidney beans so I use black beans. Also, with the ground meat, this sounds gross but I boil mine first, then drain it, let it cool, crumble it and brown it with a little oil. I like my ground meat in soups/stews to be real crumbly with no big chunks.

2 lb. ground meat, browned and drained
16 oz. frozen corn
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 - 2 cans crushed tomatoes (depending on your preference)
1 can chicken broth
1 cup water
1 package Taco seasoning mix
1 package Ranch dressing mix

Dump everything in the crockpot and cook 8 - 10 hours on low. Add more water if necessary to get the consistency desired.

We serve it with grated cheese and tortilla chips. I add a spoonful of sour cream to my bowl also.

Judy L.

Peach French Toast & Taco Soup Recipes

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/peach-french-toast-taco-soup-recipes.html

What Color Goes with Gray?

What color would you put with these two grays? I am using the light gray as the background and the darker gray as an accent and border and I need a bunch of little nine patches. I could use a bunch of pinks and lavendars or I could use reds but I think the reds kinda overpower the gray.

If I wanted to make the nine patches scrappy, what colors would I use? What colors would I avoid with the gray? Yellows? Oranges?

Should I not use the grays? Come to think of it, I don't see a lot of gray in quilts. Do you?

Did we ever have a storm last night! Chad was at work. Vince was at home. I was at the studio sewing up a storm (no pun intended!). About 6, Vince called to ask me he heard the tornado sirens. He can barely hear them from out in the country but I can always hear them in town. I stopped sewing, went to the door and yes, the tornado sirens were going off. Turned the TV on and we were about to get nailed. I wasn't even paying attention and I'm usually so aware of the weather since I'm such a chicken. The sirens hardly stopped sounding for well over an hour. There was no way I was leaving in the midst of it to go home to the the basement but I was truly scared. Chad called from work and he was even a bit nervous about what he should be doing. The winds and lightning would calm for a few minutes and then fire up again. About 7:30, the electricity went off. Great! My car is in the garage and I had to get Chad from work at 9. I know there's a way to open the garage door by pulling a cord to disconnect it from the motor or something but I surely didn't want to get involved with that since I manage to break the door at least quarterly just by pushing the button.

Within about 10 minutes, the electricity had gone off at home too so Vince decided to come to town. I was able to take his truck to get Chad. It was well after midnight when the electricity came back on. Thankfully, we have a gas water heater and we were all able to take showers by candle light and get to bed.

It's been a bit stormy off and on today too but I think the worst is past us now.

Chad has his driving school today so the speeding ticket is officially off his record. In Kentucky, once a year you can go to driving school and get one ticket per year removed from your record. Of course, I have never had to do that! :) For Chad, I think a monthly erasing of the tickets would work much better than annually. We will see if he can make it longer than 2 weeks without a ticket this time.

Judy L.

What Color Goes with Gray?

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-color-goes-with-gray.html

Boring Quilter

Several quilters have posted pictures of neat and interesting pin cushions that they use. I'm so boring! Here's what I use. The one on the right is a plain Jane probably Wal-Mart magnetic pin holder with the fine glass head pins that I love. It sits beside my sewing machine. The one on the left is a lid to a pounce pad container and it holds the flower head pins that I use at the longarm. Now you know that I have boring pin cushions!

Sometimes I think I'm the luckiest person I know and sometimes I think I've just gotten darned good at making lemonade out of lemons or improvising.

Hobby Lobby has their 40% off coupon this week (they have it just about every other week) so I decided to get backing fabric for my Leaf Season quilt. I found this perfect leaf fabric. Oh, it's so perfect .. don't you think? But there was only 4 yards - not quite enough for a 75" x 95" quilt. I looked around and kept coming back to that fabric. The lady told me she could see if she could get more from another store. Nope, I want to quilt it tomorrow! Then I was over in the Christmas fabric (for no particular reason) and I found this tone on tone tan fabric. I thought maybe that would work and there was plenty of that. Walked by the leaf fabric one more time, just hoping I had miscounted and there was more fabric than I thought and I realized they match perfectly. The two fabrics are part of a collection and the tone on tone is exactly the same as the leaf background so that works! I can piece the backing. Oh, but the 40% off coupon is only good for one item and this would be two. This fabric was $8/yard. The nice lady just added the yardage together and wrote it up as one so I got the discount.

And, Taco Bell (my favorite reastaurant) is right there by Hobby Lobby so I treated myself to dinner out.

I got a lot of quilting done on a customer quilt today and I can finish it in the morning and by the time the leaf backing fabric is washed and dried, I should be ready to load it all and quilt it.

Judy L.

Boring Quilter

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/boring-quilter.html

My Color

Yep, I think this little test has me pegged correctly!

Judy L.

You Are Grass Green

Down to earth and a bit of a hippie, you are very into nature and the outdoors. You accept the world and people as they are. You don't try to change things. You are also very comfortable with yourself, flaws and all. Optimistic about the future, you feel like life is always getting better.

What Color Green Are You?

My Color

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/my-color.html

Terrific Tuesday!

This morning the weather was just fabulous. It stayed in the low 60's til well after lunch. Chad was up early and the turkey frying by 6:30. It turned out great! I can't wait to hear how his presentation went.

The plan was to get him to school at 9:30 and come home and sew but this weather just invigorates me. I opened the windows and had the radio going as loud as I thought I could get by with without the neighbors complaining. Ughh . . city living! Anyway, Willie's Place on XM 13 is my favorite channel and I can't listen to that with Vince or Chad around. They hate that old country music. Speaking of Willie, I read on the KPLC web page yesterday that Mr. Nelson and his entourage were stopped on I-10 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana this weekend and seems they were smoking some of that funny weed and had some mushrooms. Not good!

Anyway, I decided to make a couple of loaves of bread, then decided to make Patty's Amish Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. YUMMM! I guess it's ok to have sweet rolls for dinner since I had fried turkey for breakfast. Tomorrow I'll start a new diet. :)

And, tomorrow I'll work on those customer quilts that I was supposed to work on today.

Judy L.

Terrific Tuesday!

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/terrific-tuesday.html

You have Spoken!

I think every single one of you who commented thought the first quilt I made was not too holiday looking so I'll go ahead and quilt it for Randy. I had not used the backing yet so whichever top I decided to use, it would have the tow trucks on the back. I still have to make something for his wife. My dad had originally asked me to make his wife a quilt. Then, somehow he decided he the quilt was for Randy. I'll come up with something . . some time soon.

From about 7:30 a.m. til about 6:30 p.m., except for an hour or two when I met my friend, Becky, for lunch and went to Home Depot for peanut oil, I have been revamping my Patchwork Times website. I did get the Christmas Tree quilt directions posted but I wouldn't recommend anyone rushing to start making it til I go over it again. My brain is overdosed on html right now and I'm not going to try to check it tonight . . and probably not for the rest of this week. Customer quilts are waiting. If anyone looks at the web page and sees errors, I'd appreciate your telling me.

Nothing else interesting to report . . no pictures, no nothing! :(

Judy L.

You have Spoken!

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/you-have-spoken.html

Turkey Hunting

No, I haven't gone out in the woods looking for a turkey but they are hard to find in stores around here in September. Chad is giving a speech on how to do something and as he usually does, he makes it difficult. He's giving his speech on how to fry a turkey so he (WE) will get up at 5:30 Tuesday morning so he can fry his turkey, then I will bring it to school at the designated time. The grocery stores around here didn't have their turkeys yet and we were about to give up but I found one at Wal-Mart this evening. Solved that potential problem!


I finished the top I was making for the wrecker driver but I just think it looks too much like Christmas. I really like it. I had planned to quilt it using Baptist Fans but I see where feathers would look really good in those background areas. Dad told me last week that Randy's favorite color is green. I was pretty shocked since I hadn't known that when I started this top and the backing I found with the old tow trucks is green. I started another quilt for him that will have green but not red so it won't look so much like Christmas. Here's the blocks I have done so far.



And, here's what the whole quilt should look like. Thoughts?



Judy L.

Turkey Hunting

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/turkey-hunting.html

One Hour Quilt pictures

I've added more pictures from the One Hour project last month. Be sure to look at Mary's. She set her blocks differently and they look so neat. Amazing what you can do to change the look of a simple block.

Judy

One Hour Quilt pictures

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/one-hour-quilt-pictures.html

October Quilt for an Hour Project

I had hoped to get this top quilted before showing it here but that obviously didn't happen. I have a really neat idea for quilting it. Do you love it? Doesn't it look like Fall? This one is set with 7 blocks across and 9 blocks up and down and the finished measurements are 78" x 96". That's a little big maybe for some but with a 5 block x 7 block setting, the finished size is 60" x 78".

Anyone want to do this one? I think when it's quilted, it will be really hard to tell where each block ends and I love those kinds of quilts.

I've spent the last two days sewing and working on my new web page. Web pages just blow my mind. I just don't get it! Try as I might, I can screw the same page up over and over and over again. It's so frustrating for me. But, I have most of the kinks worked out . .maybe!

You can take a look at the new web page if you dare. The plan is to post free patterns there. This one is called Leaf Season and it is there. There are probably tons of goofy errors over there now but I've put four patterns up, translating them between .pdf and Word documents to html so I will be very surprised if there's a single page without major errors. I will get it all right eventually (and I welcome your pointing out any mistakes you find!) but I've looked at this enough for today.

I'm hoping that you all find the html documents quicker and easier to follow than the .pdf documents. If not, don't tell me today .. after I've spent an entire day messing with changing them all. :(

I'm getting off the computer and going to work on binding!

Judy L.

October Quilt for an Hour Project

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/october-quilt-for-hour-project.html

Everyday Activities

I feel so boring! I'm not bored but I can't think of a single interesting thing about which to report to my blogging friends. Terrible? Not really. I've had a marvelous day!

Before 8 a.m., my doorbell rang. Considering that my doorbell rings about twice a year (and that's when the school kids are selling stuff), I was quite surprised. Went to the door and a nice man was there. Of course, Speck was chomping at the door trying to attack. The man asked if we owned property on 1389. Yes . . Vince is out of town and I'm thinking .. great, what's happened out there. It was the water company and they needed a right-of-way signed. I thought it was funny that he tracked us down at the house in town. Guess that's the advantage (or disadvantage) of no one else in this town (probably this state) having the same last name we have. That was easily solved.

Chad and I had lunch at Olive Garden. He got out of school a bit before noon and was off today. The food was good and we had a good visit.

It's nice and cool. The windows are all open. I love Fall. I'll actually be glad to have a freeze so these darned tomatoes will stop. I pick tomatoes every day and I can't eat them all, the neighbors are supplied, I've canned all I need for winter and I hate letting them go to waste.

The afternoon was spent sewing on the October "Quilt for an Hour" project. It's looking good! Maybe tomorrow I'll be far enough along to show you a picture.

Judy L.

Everyday Activities

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/everyday-activities.html

Still Binding . .

I have absolutely nothing exciting to share except that I've spent every spare moment binding. Yesterday, I did the handwork on one quilt that was about 75 x 90, did another one that was about 50 x 65, and did one that was about 80 x 95 but it already had three sides done.

So, that's 4 down and I'm not counting how many left to go!

Today was a rainy day so it was nice to sit on the sofa and do the binding on another quilt, occasionally looking up to watch the rain fall. I had the radio on the oldies, Vince is out of town, Chad had school and then work so I had almost the entire day to myself.

My biggest challenge today was trying to convince Speck that he will not melt. He is definitely a fair weather dog and it's a struggle to get him to go out on a rainy day . . even if the rain has stopped and the concrete is wet, he has no intention of getting his dainty (NOT) little feet wet!

I will take tomorrow off from binding because my shoulder hurts. Old age is not being kind to my hip, knee and shoulder joints.

Judy L.

Still Binding . .

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/still-binding.html

Stitching the Binding

Not only does the stash of fabric seem to be taking over my life, but the pile of tops waiting to be quilted and the pile of quilts waiting for binding is also out of control. This stack of quilts all have the binding sewn on by machine but are waiting for the handwork to be done. That's 14 quilts! I've been working really hard on the stack of "to be quilted" and I think there are only about 12 quilts in that stack now. That's huge progress.

Have any of you ever used this little tool? It's kinda neat. I don't use it often but got it out today since I plan to spend at least this entire week working on binding. You load these little clamp things up in the little plastic shooter and then just clamp the binding down. Works on the same concept as using the hair clips. It's made and/or sold by Martelli.

Judy L.

Stitching the Binding

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/stitching-binding.html

September 11

A few days ago Chad and I were talking and he said he still remembers exactly where he was and what he was doing when he got the news of the first plane hitting the World Trade Tower. He was 13 at the time. I told him he would always remember and it's up to his generation to tell their kids and grandkids about it, the feelings that we had that day and the days afterwards, the changes that have occurred for us Americans and others around the world following September 11, 2001.

Oh, how I wish America could be a country united, knowing that "united we stand, divided we fall" but there seems to be so much more division rather than unison in our land. Please do not interpret this as an invitation to let me know which side is right and which side is wrong . . do not want to hear it today! I want to be an American . . not a partisan!

We all have stories of what we were doing/where we were when we got the news. Here's mine:

I had finished doing a bit of morning chores and had gone downstairs to quilt. I turned on the TV to watch Simply Quilts. I had seen that episode so after a few minutes, I switched over to MSNBC which was my channel of choice in those days. Almost at the exact moment I switched, they were getting news of the first plane hitting. I immediately called Vince and told him. His first words were "it's a terrorist attack". I couldn't believe he would say that! My rose colored glasses again! I jumped all over him for being so negative and always waiting for something bad to happen. He asked me what I thought it might have been and I told him I thought a plane just got off course or something.

Then the second plane hit and I called him again. He was so sure it was a terrorist attack and by this time I was angry with him. He again asked me what other explanation I had. I was sure that the radar was all screwed up and the planes didn't know where else to go.

By the time the plane hit the Pentagon and I called him the third time, I was apologizing because even with my rosey view of the world, I had to accept that American had been attacked by terrorists. By the time news came of the 4th plane crashing in PA, I wanted Vince to come home from work, I wanted to go get Chad at school . . I just wanted my family right there with me. Of course, Vince had no intention of coming home from work and he talked me out of going to school to get Chad, although Chad later told me that he was surprised I didn't come get him. He said many parents did come get their kids and knowing me, he figured I'd have been the first one there.

Yes, our world is a different place from what it was on September 10, 2001. I suppose the world isn't really a different place because the plans were under way and the bad people were here but I surely see it is a different place from what I saw on September 10.

I will never forget . .

Judy L.

September 11

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/september-11.html

Do You Finish Them All?

Have you ever started a quilt and realized right off that you weren't going to like it? Did you finish it? Did you stick it aside and feel guilty that it wasn't finished? Did you pretend it didn't exist? Did you give it away as a UFO and let someone else finish it?

This is a quilt that I started a couple of years ago and soon realized it had WAY too many HST's, even for a quilter like me who uses HST's in almost every project. It was a stash quilt so I perservered and finished it and it sat for months (like . . maybe 18 months!)

Yesterday as I finished up a customer quilt, I wasn't quite ready to stop so I thought . . I'll dig out that pink and brown top and do the Baptist Fans on it. Loaded it and then I remembered I wanted to try these curvy feathers as an overall design.

Ughhh . . when you start quilting something, you have to keep on! I made one pass across this quilt and realized I did not like doing those. Those thoughts ran through my head . . take it off and throw it all in the trash! But, then I would be wasting backing and batting also, so once again I perservered. I really didn't put a lot of effort into it because I thought it was going to be so ugly. The main problems were (well, the problems I care to discuss here!) that I was using pink 40 weight cotton thread and every little "cross over the spine" or fat feather or skinny feather stands out like a sore thumb on the brown fabric. Had I used a 50 weight thread, it would have been so much better and had I taken my time, it would have been a lot better. I was just aggravated that it wasn't turning out good and I was tired . . should never have started quilting it late.

When I took it off the machine, expecting the back to be *awful*, I was pleasantly surprised. For my first time to try this, I don't think it turned out too bad.

I was outside trying to get the pictures before the storm got here and look who flew right in front of my camera. I thought it was a falling leaf and kept waiting for it to float on off. I wish I'd realized it was a hummingbird sooner so I could have zoomed in and gotten a better picture of it.

Judy L.

Do You Finish Them All?

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/do-you-finish-them-all.html

More Baptist Fans

The more I use the Baptist Fans template from Circle Lord, the more I love it. Today was spent quilting a customer's quilt using the BF and I don't show customer quilts here but I did get two more of my quilts done yesterday. Do you get tired of seeing the same quilts over and over? I'm so happy to share the tops here once I've finished piecing them and then I want to show them again after they're quilted. So, if you're tired of seeing this top, I'm sorry. I do love it though! And, I cannot keep a secret. I showed it to Vince and you'll never guess what he said. I like it . . it looks nautical! Nautical? I'm not so sure about that but . . it's done except for the binding and I may show it again after it's bound because I'll probably forget that I've already shown it here a dozen times!






The second one I quilted is one I made as a test for a QOV mystery a year or so ago. There will be a somewhat different (easier) version in the book. One of the teachers from last year who is waiting for a quilt likes blue so I think this one might go to her.

I have at least two more quilts to do using the BF template so I'm going to try to get one of those loaded tonight.

Judy L.

More Baptist Fans

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/more-baptist-fans.html

Giant Step Forward

This may not seem like a huge step to experienced stash quilters but it was a big step for me. This is the backing I used for the quilt I made for my niece's third daughter. See that cat print in the middle? I've had that piece of fabric for at least four years and I like it a lot. Don't ask me why . . I don't really like cats but it just seemed like the perfect fabric to have in my stash. I only had about 1-1/4 yards of it but I never could use it. Last night as I was looking to the stash to provide a backing for Payton's quilt, this cat print kept jumping out at me. NO! I couldn't use that because if I ever need it, it wouldn't be there. I was almost to the point of using muslin for her backing and then I reasoned with myself. The cat print makes a perfect backing for a quilt for a 3 year old and it was a great match with the leftover border fabric from the front of the quilt, which is also going to be binding, which I'd like to get the rest of this out of my stash. So, before I could talk myself out of it, I framed that cat print with the turquoise fabric and used it! I'm so glad I did.

When I started out making the quilts for the girls, I made Taylor's first and she likes hot pink. I thought her quilt was so pretty. Then I made Katlin's. Her favorite color is purple and I really love her quilt. Payton's is actually an extra that was made from a pattern I was testing, the colors are just a bit . . bright? weird? I don't know but I like it. Anyway, it's only 48" x 60" but I figured I'd give it to her and when she decides what her favorite color will be, I'll make her another quilt.

My favorite flower has finally decided to bloom. When I was at mom's, I think it was about July 20 that I noticed her ginger lilies were were just about to bloom. The bloom never opened up before I had to leave. I am surprised that we are 1-1/2 months behind them in our blooming season but at least I'll get a few blooms before frost. These smell so good and are so very white. I just love them! They multiply like crazy but I have to keep mine in pots. They wouldn't make it through winter here. Can't wait to live somewhere so they will grow in the ground. When they're in full bloom, mom's entire back yard smells like ginger lilies!

While I was trying to decide about a quilt to make for one of Chad's teachers (there are three teachers from his senior year in HS who didn't get quilts last year because I was too busy to get them made), I remembered several tops that are almost ready except for borders. This is a Stack & Whack® that was finished except for the outer border. Added that and got it quilted. The binding was already made so I'll try to get that on today. One down/two to go!

Judy L.

Giant Step Forward

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/giant-step-forward.html

Quilters are SEW Nice!

Blogger is driving me nuts!!! Seems as though many of you cannot leave comments. I know you're having problems but I surely can't do anything about it. I'm posting the same things on my other blog which is will go directly to the new WordPress blog. We (my friend is doing all the work and I'm quietly watching) are not finished with that site yet. Some of you may not see photos on that blog and I'm not sure how to fix that. My friend is going to be gone next week and I don't want to bother her but we'll get everything fixed soon. I'm really sorry for all the confusion and hassle but I will get my blog *perfect* soon!

Suze from over at The Thread and I and I had been e-mailing during the Quilt for an Hour project and I mentioned that I wanted to get back into knitting and I'd love to try to make socks. She offered to send me the stuff to get started but I told her I would get it . she didn't need to do it. Well, she promptly packed up a little package with a pattern, needles and yarn and surprised me. I've never made socks and it looks like it takes 2 hands and 2 feet to handle all these needles! She even sent me a link that has instructional videos online.

Thanks Suze! I'm really excited to get started. I almost fell asleep last night with the laptop in the bed watching one of the videos.

And, Vicky over at LA Quilter has been sending me fat quarter packets and kits and gifts for years. Last year, she sent me a bundle of 1/4 yards of Caryl Fallert's fabric that looks hand dyed. It has been perfect for the project I've been working on this weekend.

Thanks Vicky! I've had so much fun with this yummy fabric!

Besides sewing a little today, I've cooked three meals (weekends keep me in the kitchen!) and spent about 3 hours working in the yard. It's nice and cool but that was still hard work. I think I'll be in bed early tonight!

Judy L.

Quilters are SEW Nice!

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/quilters-are-sew-nice.html

Lots of Sewing on Saturday

About the 36 yards of fabric that I bought yesterday, you all almost made me feel guilty but I need to explain (translate: make excuses). I normally go to the quilt shop once a month to pick up and deliver quilts. When I went last month, that was during the August Fabric Diet so I bought nothing. I may not go back in October because I'm hoping to get back to Louisiana then. I almost had no fabric that was good for backgrounds so . . I needed this fabric! :)

And, I make 3 or 4 quilt tops each month so I really do go through a lot of fabric.

Vince pretty much watched football games all day, Chad worked and other than fixing breakfast and lunch, and a couple of loads of laundry and other minor housekeeping chores, I spent the day sewing. I find that working from the stash, especially doing quilts that need variety, I make such a mess! I am pretty messy anyway but I seem to be making more of a mess than usual.

Yesterday I came up with the plan for the October Quilt for an Hour project. I love it and I hope you will too. You can't see it yet -- at least not til mid-September. I'd like to have it all quilted before I show it to you. I have the quilting idea in my head.

It was for this project that I was pulling fabrics this morning. These squares are used in the top - how's this for a tease?

Last night I got all the backgrounds washed, dried and ironed and got the purples washed and dried but didn't get them ironed. Look who I found all wrapped up in my purples as I was trying to get them pressed.

Judy L.

Lots of Sewing on Saturday

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/lots-of-sewing-on-saturday.html

Successful Trip to Quilt Shop

They probably look dark in the picture but here's 36 yards of purples and backgrounds. I ran out of $$ before I got to the blues and reds .. will have to save those for the next trip. Going to get them all washed and I'll be ready to start a new project! :)

Judy L.

Successful Trip to Quilt Shop

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/successful-trip-to-quilt-shop.html

August is History!

September is here and I am surely glad to flip that August calendar over and reveal a new month. The "No Fabric in August" challenge is over and guess where I'm headed today! Yes, to the quilt shop - Village Mercantile in Boonville, IN. Vince is off today and we're going over there and then to Evansville to eat a fish sandwich at Culver's. We don't have a Culver's here but we're getting one some time after the first of the year.

What am I going to buy? The purpose of the trip is to deliver quilts that were quilted and pick up more to be quilted but I am going to buy some fabric. I need backgrounds! I love small prints (not calico) instead of solids for backgrounds. I might add a few reds since I used so many recently. I need purples but Betty doesn't have a great stock of purple. I'm going to have to talk to her about that! I could use a few blues too. There's no telling what I'll get. With Vince there watching and if the new Bernina foot has arrived, I may not get as much as I'd normally get but . . we'll see.

Judy L.

August is History!

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/2006/09/august-is-history.html