All Decked Out: March 2011

Cluck Cluck Sprocket

Monday, March 28, 2011 2 Comments »

I saw these in a post from Cluck Cluck Sew, and had to share. What a fun and easy way to use up scraps AND bring a bright little change to your tired winter decorating.

Ms. CCS has a free tutorial and free templates for 3 sizes of these nifty pillers.

Check it out here!

Survey Says!

Sunday, March 20, 2011 1 Comment »

Sandi (Piecemeal Quilter) has an interesting survey on her blog. Take it and you will: (1) find out something about your quilting preferences; and (2) have a chance to win a prize. And while you are there, take a trip through her blog. Sandi is one of the most sharing bloggers I know, and has some amazing tutorials and patterns. Make sure you check out her basket blocks!

DVDs

Sunday, March 20, 2011 3 Comments »

I am addicted to watching DVDs while I sew. I have the tiny TV my daughter used to have in her college bedroom, & a DVD player, set up next to the sewing machine. And now I am addicted to getting my DVDs from Netflix. Currently on my baby TV: the BBC's House of Elliott

If you like Masterpiece Theater & BBC type series, here are a few you might enjoy. All are available on Netflix, and may also be available through your local library.

House of Elliott
Brides of Christ
The Midsomer Murder Series

(singing) Oh Happy Day!

Saturday, March 19, 2011 3 Comments »

We had a marvelous time at our semi-annual retreat last weekend, in Strasburg, PA (near Lancaster). Every time I arrive, my heart is full with the joy of being with my quilting sisters again, and everytime I leave my heart is even more full with what we've shared. Lest you think that this is some sort of religious experience, let me set you straight. It is not. We just have a great time, blow off a considerable amount of irreverent steam, and sew a lot. Nancy describes it better than I ever could here.

My big project for the weekend (other than fabric shopping) was working on The Surrender of Pat, a.k.a. the Civil War Tribute quilt with blocks named after various battles. This time the quilt won, and I was reduced to a twisted mass of I-can't-do-anything-right. Pardon my French, but the directions for those blocks suck like a Hoover. I've since had a block intervention & am back on track. More on that later.

Fortunately, I brought the quilt that was spawned from the 9 patch project, and spent time hand-sewing the binding. It will live on the sofa in my family room.

I am calling the quilt "Just Say Nein", as a reminder that I really don't need to jump on every little project that sounds like a good idea at the time but will surely turn into something I never bargained for.

Nancy also posted a picture of her cat, Bodacious, in something we have dubbed The Croissant Position (related to The Meatloaf Position). It's part of Introductory Feline Yoga, and if done in tandem with another cat, qualifies a Synchonized Sleeping (thanks, Marsha!). Here is my cat, Junior, demonstrating the Inverted Meatloaf and the Jack Knife positions. These are from his Advanced Feline Yoga class.

Un-Civil War

Monday, March 07, 2011 2 Comments »

Last February, I posted that I was embarking on a journey into the unknown: a BOM. It was the Civil War Tribute quilt. I thought it was somewhat ambitious for my skill level, but jumped in anyway. Later that month, I posted about the Fort Sumpter Block I'd completed. I felt purdy darned proud of myself. Piece o' cake!

I kept up with the monthly blocks for a while, but somewhere along about July my interest waned. As Forrest Gump says: "stuff happens". I continued to pick up the monthly blocks, and even went to a few meetings, but all those monthly packages just got put on the back burner.

Now it's a new year. It dawned on me that I had quite a bit on money invested in those monthly packages. Besides, there was another, new and improved Civil War BOM out there that I wanted to do, and I could not -- COULD NOT -- justify starting that one until I'd at least made a honest attempt to finish this one. So here I am, picking things up at Month 7, the block commemorating the Siege of Vicksburg*.

"Siege" is a fairly approppriate term for this block. It's a 12"" (finshed) block, with 46 not-quite 1 1/4" HSTs. Oh, and there are 8 of these blocks needed for the quilt. That's 368 little HSTs. Holy Mississippi!

It's a very nifty block, actually called Barrister's Block. And the niftiness keeps me going. My goal is to get all 8 finished before I go on my quilting retreat this weekend, when I'll be moving on to months 8 & 9, the Battle of Gettyburg and the Chickamauga Campaign. Hopefully Month 10 will not be The Surrender of Pat.

* How is this for a coincidence: my friend Nancy just finished her latest creation, using CW fabrics. She named it Vicksburg, and it is quite lovely.