More Quilting Than Pins!

I officially have more quilting in the wedding quilt than safety pins, so I am definitely making progress!

Today I was reading an article in The Quilt Life magazine by Meg Cox called "The Global Quilt Quest". The article is about 89 year old Robert James and his quest (which he began with his late wife Ardis) to collect quilts from every country.  Their collection is stored at the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.  (That is on my "places to go" list!)  Bob and Ardis began their quest in the late 1970's and so far they have quilts from 40 countries.  He is frustrated that they don't have more and feels like they're "racing against time to an extent, because a lot of these traditions are no longer practiced."  But he says, "On the other hand, we're way ahead of anybody else."

What fascinated me is that pictured in the article is a quilt made by Jethiben Hathal from India.  Jethiben told them that when they marry, it is usual to receive 25 quilts in the dowry!  Wow!  I will be lucky to get this one done!  I'm not sure what my kids would do with 25 quilts anyway... Probably donate them to the International Quilt Study Center... If they would take them...

Pictured on the right is my gift from the City of Grand Junction today.  I pumped all of my change into that meter,  and was only 20 minutes late getting back to my car.  Too bad all of those extra minutes don't add up from when I got back to my car early!  I propose that they make parking meters so that you can swipe a prepaid car when you park and then when you get back, and it just subtracts the time you "spent".  Then you wouldn't have to mess with all that change or try to find some when you don't have enough.  Maybe they have a suggestion box at City Hall :)

Italian Cream Sodas

I have been working on the wedding quilt, but I don't have much to show in the way of progress. Yesterday I stitched out three of the feathers, which are about 18 inches long, in a relatively short amount of time, only to discover that I stitched them upside down!  It may not have been that noticeable, but it was upside down according to MY plan and I would definitely have noticed EVERY time I looked at the quilt.  So I spent about 5 hours last night unpicking the quilting on those three feathers.  Have you ever unpicked quilting?  My least favorite of all unpicking jobs....

The sunroom is showing more progress than the quilt is.  Here is a crane delivering the drywall.  I have seen all kinds of interesting things.  Today I looked out the window and the drywall worker was walking around on stilts that are about 5 feet long, making him about 11 feet tall!  I tried to sneak a picture but then the plumber walked in and I didn't want to look like a crazy stalker person or anything.  Next time I will just ask him if I can take his picture!
We are also working on wedding party plans so after dinner tonight we went to Gelato Junction to try an Italian Cream Soda, which Jeff wants to serve at the open house.  Yummy!!  Good choice!!

Potential Sewing Rooms

My daughter was able to go on a Parade of Homes in Utah.  She took oodles of pictures and shared them with me.  Here are two pictures each of two rooms that I think would make fabulous sewing rooms!  These houses sounded quite amazing, with exercise rooms, playrooms, bathrooms in each bedroom, so why not a sewing room?  And a large one at that?
Look at the space in this one and imagine setting up all of your equipment here.  Pretty nice!

This one looks smaller, but has plenty of cupboard space to store all that fabric.  They even have a sewing machine on display in this room to plant that seed.  Pretty cute!

Well back to my sewing room and my many projects!  I do not need a bigger space - I just need to start using up some of the stuff I already have!  That will be fun though, not a chore at all :)

Saturday in the City

Yesterday I went to the Saturday in the City club at Hi Fashion where we are busy making the Tula Pink 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.  I'm sorry for the bad photos!  They turned out rather blurry.  Next time I will bring my camera instead of using my phone....
I thought it would be fun to show everyone's blocks though so you can see how different they are turning out.  I've said before that the blocks aren't difficult to make - choosing the fabrics is the hard part for me.  Some of the other ladies made the same comment, but as you can see by these blocks, everyone is doing a great job!

 These are Michelle's.  I told her I'm going to have her start coming over and choosing my fabrics!













These below are mine :)

These would be Dawn's.  I'm trying to remember the order we all sat!

Shanna's

Besides bringing my camera next time, I will write down whose are whose so I can give credit where credit is due!  These blocks are awesome and the quilts are going to be bright, colorful and fun!

I Finally Started!

I finally started machine quilting the wedding quilt!  I don't know why I have been dragging my feet.  Hmmm.... maybe because I've been busy?  I was also stressing over "how" to quilt it.  I started out quilting feathers in the parts that look circular.  Can you see them?  Nope, neither can I.  Once I realized that the quilting is not going to show that much anyway, I loosened up a bit :)  So it's going.  I've had a few glitches here and there, mostly with the bobbin - not sure what's going on there.  I'm using King Tut thread in the bobbin and on top.  Still have a ways to go, but at least I started!

Happy Fourth of July!!

Happy 4th of July!  Have a fun time celebrating our nation's independence.  I feel like I have a lot to be grateful for, living in a land where we are free to make our own choices and follow our own beliefs. I know many have given their lives protecting our country's rights and our freedom and I absolutely appreciate and am thankful for that sacrifice.  I do not want to take anything for granted, yet often we do, just because it is what we're used to!  So today, for me, is a day to pause and remember and be thankful for our wonderful country.  God bless America!!



This wall quilt was made from a kit back when I first started getting in to quilting around 2001.

I hope you all have a wonderful day :)

No Quilting Update.... Sew....

I do not have any quilting news today so I thought I would post a few sunroom pictures.  The work is moving along!  It's pretty exciting!


The roof is done.

The last window is in and they are preparing for the stucco.

A lot of new windows to wash!

On the inside, they've insulated and are ready to drywall.

Pretty nice sized closet.



Now I REALLY need to go work on that quilt .... after I finish the laundry....