I was going to wait to say I had won a give away until after I received the package – but I have had several people congratulate me already so thought I would post about it.
The Fat Quarter Shop has been doing give away’s while they had been at quilt market this past week and I entered into every single one they did plus some on some other sites – I never expect to win but in this case I did – 3 books! At this link of the newsletter the Jolly Jaber they show all the wins. If you scroll on through looking at all the goodies they are giving away you will come to the books – if you look at the books straight down on the left – “Large Block Quilts” “Growing up Modern” and “A Quilting Life” – those are the ones they are sending me!
Does anyone have any of these books and have you enjoyed them – any favorite patterns that you have made from them?
And yes I have been asked how do I win so many give away’s – I don’t know – I enter a lot of them and I guess sitting at the computer more than I should has paid off. The only give away’s I don’t bother to enter are the ones that make you jump through hoops – “like” them on facebook, tweet, “like” 5 other sites on facebook, join this page or that page – forget about it – I just am not going to do all of that – now if all it asks you to do is be their reader (which I usually already am – and to leave a comment on a question they ask – that I do – no to the rest. If you don’t enter you don’t win 
Now if it could just be the darn lottery!!!
I said I was going to concentrate on quilting the Bow Tie Medallion and that is what I am trying to finish right now – I was tempted to start pin basting another quilt and do this or that and then I had to sit back and remind myself to just get something finished!! After all I will want to start a new top soon so I better get one quilted – or two!
Yesterday and last night after working on the quilt off and on at 4 different times of the day and evening I made this much progress - I made more progress after I took that photo so work is progressing well on this last part of the quilt. I’m getting there. Can I be done by June 7th? Not sure if so that will be 7 months – several months longer than I had hoped.
While the news was on instead of picking up the Patchwork of the Crosses like I normally do I picked up my applique block for Floral Fantasy instead and it too has progress made on it I only have a little bit of the red on the left side to finish and I will have 4 of the 13 blocks done – I’m not sure how many border pieces also so this one is far from done.
I was really tempted to pin baste one of two quilts yesterday as I said – I think I will hand quilt big stitches using the perle cotton on Carousel – the large nine patch quilt top that I made last month I think I will machine quilt straight lines – I really wanted to get started on one of them, but I know if I do the stitching on Bow Tie Medallion will move a lot slower – I really want to get it done and get the Red and Green Applique quilt on the frame – as soon as I do that I will get one of the other tops ready also and see what I can get done with before the end of the year.
I have a lot of fabric calling me to get busy using but it is just going to have to wait for a couple more weeks and let me get going on others first.
Yesterday was another stormy day, rained off and on all night leaving us without power for part of Monday night going into Tuesday morning. Then I was off to Little Rock with my sister to pick up her daughter at the airport so I mainly just got some quilting in yesterday morning. Not a lot but every little bit gets me closer to the end. But I ran into an oops moment on the quilt – if you look at the big brown bow tie and see the quilting there and then next photo you will see what I mean – I had some unpicking to do.
Re-drawn out and unpicked – ready to pick back up today now. That is what you get when you don’t look at it closely!
Windham Fabrics has some free download patterns available, I had missed those until someone pointed them out on their blog – I don’t remember where I saw it mentioned. It is always nice to see free patterns you never know when they will work out for what you want.
Lynette Anderson has a couple free download patterns for Christmas at this link.
I am so tired of rain now – it rained almost all day yesterday with just a few short spells when it wasn’t but at least most of the time it wasn’t real bad. Had a good time visiting with my sister and her daughters – Culea is 23 and just finished her first year teaching in the Alaska bush country – very much in the western side of Alaska at a tiny remote village – two days traveling back to Arkansas for part of the summer before she goes back. Her little sister Rhyenne is 10 – 2 weeks older than my granddaughter Cierra – but much smaller! My sister and I are also 13 years apart in age although we had 8 brothers in between us! Culea and Rhyenne have one brother age 21 – yes Rhyenne was a surprise 
I hope to get back to serious quilting today – hope you all have a nice day.
I got the row attached to the bottom of the Patchwork of the Crosses Sunday night and never got around to showing it yesterday – I need to attach all the blocks together for the side of the quilt still to make it 7 rows by 7 rows. What I have so far – the row I attached is at the top – the row to be attached will be on the left side I believe I have to look at an old photo for color placement and see if I am remembering right.
My nephew graduated high school last night so I am sharing a few photos that family will want to see – so bear with me - I went and forgot my camera – all I had was my camera phone, it doesn’t zoom well – here is Roger walking in.
After the ceremony.
His parents – my brother Jeff and wife Greta
For a song before graduation started all the seniors that are in the band took part – Roger with his tuba.
You all remember the two ferns that I wintered over from last summer – I piled fall leaves 2 feet deep all around them, finally this one is looking good – growing new fronds and I do believe give it another month and it will be the size you normally buy at this time of year – I saved $8 to $12 on this 
the other one is a lot slower and I’m not sure if it will ever perk up completely but I’m giving it a chance!
The clematis and roses – looking good – I hope the rain won’t be really heavy.
I hope everyone that reads my blog from near Oklahoma City is alright. It was horrible hearing of that terrible tornado 4 hours west of us – the damage is beyond belief and the amount of people so many children that died is devastating for all. We can all donate to the Red Cross and other charities that we know are ok and donate quilts when called upon, I will have several selected from the stack of finished quilts here at the house and maybe I can get another finished that is in the stack.
by Karen on May 20, 2013
in quilts
Yes that is right the quilts waiting in line to be quilted is getting too big! I started to keep them in a nice box – and really I could probably keep them all in it but I have the backing fabric tucked in bags with two of the quilts and that fills up the box.
So what all is waiting in line – more than I like 
From the left in the bag – the Red and Green Applique with a bag that contains the backing and binding fabric that will be on the frame in a 2 to 4 weeks – the zig zag quilt just needs a couple thin borders and it is done – next to the is the Not So Common Bride which shouldn’t be in this pile either as it is a work in progress which like the zig zag quilt got put in the wrong pile next up is Carousel, then the Scrappy Nine Patch, and then a Pinwheel that I made last year sometime – in the middle is the Red/Cream Dear Jane which I called “Insanity Revisited” quilt with a bag of the backing, binding and thread already picked out.
As I said the Red and Green applique goes on the frame next. At the same time I am quilting that one I will pick out one of the smaller quilts and put it in the hoop. I will possibly quilt two by hand in the hoop one after another. The Dear Jane goes on the frame when the Red and Green comes off of it – ok so that leaves — ok who knows how many – because by then the Patchwork of the Crosses will be done – one hopes anyhow. And round and round we go and we never get caught up because by next year I will have started how many more LOL.
A never ending cycle of stress free fun!!
At least I have the area cleaned back up and organized
I worked on the hand quilting Friday night and finished one section and it was ready to crank down in the morning for more work. I normally spritz the lines out a bit and let it dry overnight and then it is ready the next day for more work. (always remember just spritzing the blue lines out isn’t good enough it still needs to be washed when quilting is done).
I got it cranked down and ready to mark the border areas as I have to make sure to see if the design needs a little adjusting so the corners go right.
I remembered that when I first began this quilt that I barely had to do any adjusting of the stencil pattern to fit this border and it worked out really well. One section of the lines on the side is a little bit longer than the rest but such a small difference that I couldn’t even remember where it was when I settled down to quilt last night.
I think it will move more rapidly now that I am getting so close to the finish – I’m always more anxious to finish and start a new one! It might still be several weeks off though but it will be finished in June for sure!
I was busy with hexagons yesterday – first our Friday morning quilt group meets at 9 AM and I am keeping my plastic storage box handy with all my cut out hexagons for the Diamonds are Forever quilt – everything is in the box ready to grab. It is coming along nicely considering that I am mainly just working on it Fridays and the once a month group that meets the first Thursday night of the month. I now have 61 diamonds finished – way to go – only how many left to go – well I need about 230 of them and then all the white pieces that go with it – one day this quilt will get done! I guess I should have kept track of my time for this one – would be interesting to see how long it takes to finish it – well I can always just figure out how long it takes to make one and multiply right. In fact I might get a book of facts gathered up to keep with it now! I never got around to pressing the ones I made last week so when I got home yesterday I got the two weeks worth pressed and put in the box.
I will be running out of this fabric of course eventually so I will need to start pulling from the stash – the color variety will vary greatly but I think I will stick with small prints – what I have right now are mainly brown, beige, red and blue – but because I need so many this will indeed be a very scrappy quilt. Other fabric I pulled from the stash yesterday to maybe mix in are these–
Work was done on Patchwork of the Crosses as well last evening during the news. Most of the row is now attached to the bottom of the quilt and then when that is done I need to get the row of blocks put together for the side – the blocks are made just not made into a row as of yet.
Now seeing as this blog post is all hexagons of one shape or another – I want you all to check out this blog post from Linda at Gum Valley Patchwork in Australia. This is a special quilt that she made and she has a whole blog post about it which is this link that I am giving you all to check out. Now I think everyone will agree with me that this is a very challenging quilt!!!! I have made two Dear Jane quilts and this one is beyond that level I do believe – what do you think? Do you want to make it 
not I – too many things in the works right now for me! Now maybe if it was 1 inch hexies I would consider it – but what are these 1/4”?
