Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Week In Review

Oops... don't tell me I haven't posted in almost a week. Shame on me! But I have my excuses! ;)

Thursday: I discovered a new blog. Nope, not quilty related at all, but I took a peek at her archives and was suckered into reading 21 months posting. She has 7 kids and a very good sense of humor. One of my favorite incidents was when she was watering her flowers and one of her boys came up and said, "You don't need to water those flowers, I peed on them." I laughed so hard that I was crying. And when I tried to tell my husband about it I lost my breath and fell backwards on the couch laughing. :)

Friday: Finished reading The Big Yellow House archives. Had dinner, went to in-laws for my husband's TV shows and I used that time to remove Kabnet wax paper from almost 50 string blocks. Great TV activity, since you don't really need to look at what you're doing.

Saturday: The local Guild's quilt show. Yes, I decided to sign up for the guild. Give it a shot and see what happens! I also took over 200 pictures. I didn't even know that my camera was capable of holding so many! :)

Up first is a Wonky New York Beauty. I never have been drawn to this pattern, but seeing it wonky was really pleasing to my eyes!


I think I fell in love with this quilt just because of all the greenness. Plus, it looks like a great stashbuster pattern!


What a nice twist on Hawaiian Applique. Meow, Meow to you too! :)


I voted this quilt as the Best Wallhanging Applique. I love the very realistic shadowing of the girls on the water. But ahh... don't plan on trying this kind of stuff myself. :)


Seeing this quilt made me hungry! I think was officially called "5 a day". Yeah, if stores carried their fruits and veggies that pretty, I'd be buying lots more! :)


Great kiddie design - log cabins sure can offer many twists and possibilities!


And of course, us quilters always need our therapy. :)


The very best part of the show for me was gettin to try out a HQ Sixteen longarm quilting machine. I played with it for a few minutes before I looked at the quilts and then I spent another 20 minutes at the end of the show playing with it some more. It is SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! I couldn't believe how easy it was to opperate the machine. Press a button on the handles and you're off. I spent a large part of my time free-motioning with it. Hearts, stars, meanders, stippling and even a sunflower. I couldn't not believe how much fun it was! And yes, I remembered to blink. :) I even tried a stencil - did ok, and a panto - I sucked. :) It felt like I was trying to write from two feet away using the laser. But free-motioning was the best! I came home looking like I won a million dollars. I could not stop smiling. :)

This was my very first time every using a long arm or even using a machine on a frame. It was stitch regulated - I wasn't sure how much I'd want a SR, but after trying it out, ohh yeah, gotta get me one. ;) The other thing is that I felt limited with the length of the machine. So now I know that I will want to be looking at a machine with at least 20" of throat space. Check back in 10 years and I might have a set up then. ;) Gotta do a few other things first... like get a house and some moo-lah for the machine. :P

Sunday: I went to Tombstone and checked out the art gallery that was having a display of quilts. I also turned in my information to see about having a quilt or two displayed there. They'll contact me in December! D'oh. And I gave them my current address and I know I'm going to be moving in June. Gotta love mail forwarding. :)

Monday: Turned out waaaaaaaaaay busier than I ever expected. I put away laundry, did dishes, ran to the post office, cleaned out the shower, cooked homemade pizza and graded for about 4 hours on articles. My husband found out that his grades are due this Friday, and not next Friday like he thought. So oops, been rushing to get all the grading done and entered in the computer. He likes me grading the articles because I've been doing it all this time and I'm mean. :) Yup, I mark them off when they deserve it. The kids are getting better about filling the whole page and such, but they're always trying to find more loopholes! The latest thing is not attaching the full newspaper article. It'll say "continued on A4" and when you look for the A4 part... not there! Hmmph. So I mark them off. :)

Tuesday: Been a nice lazy day. I didn't sleep well, my back was misbehaving and my tummy was hurting. All I've done is pull out pork chops for dinner, cut up some fabric for a Birthday Block and spent too many hours on the computer. :P

Tomorrow is also my first guild meeting... hope that goes well! Heck, I hope I wake up in time. I am not a morning person. :)

Leah

3 comments:

Finn said...

Hi Leah, love the pictures you took...you did a great job! I giggled at you "didn't know"..LOL..my camera beeps at me when I hit 70 pictures..200 is alot!
I like something about each one you posted today..such fun, and such good work!! That applique is amazing!
Your experience on the machine sounded very interesting...is there a brand name, or did I just miss it? I know very little about quilting machines, but you sure make it sound like fun and not too hard.
Sorry about the tummy and back..hope it's all better soon. Hugs, Finn *VBS*

Laurie Ann said...

I want to see the string blocks! Good to have you back, I've been wondering what you were up to! Thanks for sharing the pics, there are some great quilts there. Last year my DH and I were visiting his folks in Tucson and we went to Toombstone and that quilt show was going on. We looked around and voted. It was fun. My fave was the Kratchner caves. Have you been there?

Anonymous said...

I just love that log cabin lion - what creative talent that quilter has. Love your string blocks - I keep meaning to try some of those. So many ideas - not enough sewing time :) Thanks for sharing.