Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Rainy Day Blues

The rain is our Winter here in Far Northern California. I live down too low to get snow, although every once in a blue moon we'll get a half an inch or so. That hasn't happened for about 7yrs though. But our mountains are covered with the beautiful white stuff. And just looking at it makes me want to snuggle under a quilt or two.

I am in the process of making a window quilt. Our house is small, so there isn't much room for wall quilts. I need a new curtain on this particular window anyway, so why not make it a quilt! Then I have a cover for my window from the cool air trying to come in AND make a pretty for the 'wall'. I wont quilt this, just 'tack' it every so often, so it gets done and on the window, instead of getting put away with all my other quilt tops.

The round robins we are doing on the forum and coming along so nicely. I love seeing what borders people are putting on these. And the Gals doing the Easter bunny swaps are having fun deciding how they are going to decorate their fabric egg blocks.

We are also getting our charity quilts under way for this year. We've decided to cut back a few months, so that we have time to catch up. The quilt tops tend to pile up as they are all voluteer's doing the quilting and they only have so much time to devote to these. I so enjoy looking thru the albums though, and seeing all the pretty quilts we make for the three groups we donate them to.

Well that's all the news from my rainy part of the world. I hope all your machines are stitching nicely, and pretty things are being made.

Till next time.

Dorian

Saturday, January 9, 2010

To make a resolution...or not...

Here's hoping you all had a wonderful Holiday season. Now is the time that people start thinking about resolutions. I've never been a resolution type gal myself...but yesterday I was sitting on my bed contemplating all the beautiful quilt tops I have. And I started thinking that maybe it's time to make a resolution to get them all quilted.

I have ELEVEN tops that need quilting! I am not a machine quilter. I own two sewing machines and they are both about 100 yrs old. I love sewing with these machines. They are strong and built to last! But I've never been good at actually quilting on them. Piecing yes, quilting no. And besides that, I enjoy hand quilting. I can sit and rest my weary bod and do something useful at the same time. The problem is, this past year I've had a lot of physical problems, and they are not letting me do much hand quilting. Hence, a bunch of tops...as I just can't resist testing Jess's beautiful quilt patterns!

I took all my tops and laid them out one by one on the bed. And I've decided that I love each and every one of them. The next one always seem to be my 'favorite'. And I have tons of ideas as to color for making these quilts all over again. The patterns are fabulous! So what's a girl to do?.....Go on making more tops, and hope one day I can quilt them all!! LOL

We have a new swap starting on the forum. An Easter one, full of colorful fabric eggs and chocolate bunnies http://www.thequiltandneedle.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1371&posts=9&start=1 We would love for you to join us.

The Round robin is also off to a good start. I've finished my first border already...I am weeks early!....but it's so much fun. I just couldn't have this darling medallion sitting around without doing something with it. We have 3 different groups going, 6 or 7 people in each group. You can visit our albums and see the medallions and follow along with their progress here: http://www.thequiltandneedle.com/forums/photos/photo-main.asp

Our Round robin we completed last year is one of my quilt tops I was admiring yesterday. I am considering making a window quilt out of it...to cover our window in the living room. Then not only would I have a heavy curtain to keep the cold out...but it would be a beautiful quilt on the wall to admire too....decisions, decisions...make a resolution to get these beauties quilted...or just going on making more to add to the pile! ...maybe a little of both... :)

Happy quilting to you all.

Dorian