Stolen Moments

Christmas family gatherings will continue for another week for us, so sewing activities come in the form of stolen moments.  Here is some of what I’ve done in the last two weeks.

This ironing pad was a bonus project sheet given to us at one of the Civil War Chronicles Club meetings.  I decided it would be easier to transport than the rigid ironing surface I usually take.  I even had some fabric left over from the iron tote I made a couple of years ago.

My design wall has the start of a Valentine’s Wall Hanging on it.  The design was published in the February 2010 issue of McCall’s Quilting Magazine and is by Judy Block.  I had marked it as a possible project for our quilt club's heart challenge, but ended up submitting a different project.  Since I recently put up a quilt hanger, I hope to make a series of seasonal quilts I can rotate.  The design calls for some additional applique, and I am beginning to prepare flower petals, leaves and stems.   

Also on my design wall are four-patches that will eventually be incorporated into my Jacob’s Ladder borders.

Design Wall Monday – 12/19/2011 and Progress Report on Fixing a Goof

Bob and I spent a couple of days on the Riverwalk in San Antonio last week, celebrating my birthday (belated) and our 34^th anniversary.   We visited with our daughter, ate some wonderful food, explored the old missions, visited a great used book store, spent some time and $ in a quilt shop, cruised along the river after dark, and rode a horse drawn carriage one evening.  In short, we had a wonderful time. 

When we got back, I was relaxed enough to tackle the work needed to correct the mistakes I made on the Civil War Chronicles quilt borders.  The corner designs all align properly now and it is finally a flimsy.  It is so big that there is no place in our house with enough open floor space for it to be properly photographed.

Thank you to those who posted encouraging comments after my post last week.  I appreciated the support for getting past this goof. 

Here is my quilt shop purchase from San Antonio:  a Christmas wall hanging kit and the accompanying book with the design.  I recently made a wall hanger for displaying small quilts and would like to make a series of seasonal projects to rotate on it. 

I’m linking up with Judy Laquidara’s Patchwork Times  site where you can enjoy the work of many quilters.

...'tis the Season

…and the Season certainly has caught up with me.  I thought I would be celebrating the completion of Civil War Chronicles as a flimsy, but alas, as I was posting this photo I discovered that two opposing borders were flipped and the corner design doesn't line up properly.  No big deal.  It's...only...108 inches...to rip out and resew...twice.   I think it would be a really good idea if I set this one aside for a couple of days and concentrate on the joy of the season.  Then I'll carve out some time to plop an audio book in the mp3 player, shut out all distractions, and  deal with fixing the mistake.

Design Wall Monday -- 12/05/2011

Despite some unexpected issues that needed our immediate attention this weekend (clogged clothes dryer, malfunctioning door knob), I did get a little more work done on the corner units for the Civil War Chronicles quilt. 

Two corners are now attached to the center, and two are ready for stitching. 

We are very far behind on getting our Christmas decorations up and I intend to spend a good chunk of the day working on those.  So I’ll be fortunate if I get even one of the two remaining corners on.  I still won’t be finished.  Those 68 Hovering Hawks blocks I posted about endlessly a few weeks ago will then need to be attached as the outer border.

The weather system that brought us some much needed rain is expected to move out later today.  I will miss it.  In the last two weeks, the LCRA gauges closest to our house in town and at the ranch recorded 3.6 and 2.85 inches respectively.  Not enough to refill our lakes, but certainly enough to put some much needed moisture in the ground.  When we made a run to the ranch yesterday to retrieve some tools, we found more water running in the Llano River than we have seen in many months.  We even have puddles in our yard, much to Harley and Chloe’s dismay.

Be sure to check out Patchwork Times for other quilters’ design walls.

The First Corner Piece Fit!

I was so concerned that the corner units for the Civil War Chronicles quilt might not fit, that I decided to add the first one before completing the other three.  It actually went on fairly easily.  I know this is not a good picture, but the project is growing so large, it is a real challenge to get it up on the design wall.  If I take more photographs after the other units are added, I will have to figure something else out.  I think I’ll do smaller projects in 2012!

We had a wonderful rainy day yesterday with accumulations of about .59 inches in town and .32 inches at the ranch for the last 48 hours.  We are hopeful that there will be more, but so far only drizzle. 

Having Fun Alternating Projects

I’ve really been enjoying being moving between projects the last few weeks.  This is the first Jane Stickle block I have done in months.  If you follow the book by Brenda Papadakis, it is block B-7, which she named World Series.

One corner unit of the Civil War Chronicles quilt is complete.  If my piecing is such that I can’t get it to fit on the center, you may never see another post about this quilt again.

I completed eight Jacob’s Ladder blocks at Sit ‘N Sew Tuesday.  Looks like I will need to do some more cutting in order to have enough for 48 blocks.