Monday, February 21, 2011

A Winner and Other Happenings


The winner of my birthday giveaway is Regan of Floating on a Quilted Cloud. Congratulations you young thing! Regan just turned 49 on the 15th. Email me with your address so I can get your package in the mail. Thanks to all of you who left comments. It is nice to know people are reading my blog. I wish everyone could win!


I’m working on these pineapple blocks and plan on doing a detailed post later in the week.


Barb of Fun with Barb asked for a close up of my string quilt. I had trouble with the tension and you can see the top thread popping out on the back in some places. Even though I was using the same thread (YLI 40/3 ply for machine quilting) on the top and bottom I had to reduce the top tension to 2. It is such a scrappy quilt and reducing the tension helped and I get really impatient fiddling with things like that so I just decided to live with it. I love this backing fabric. I only paid $3.50 a yard for it at a going out of business sale. I hate to see quilt shops go out of business, but I do like getting a deal!


I’m also hand sewing the binding down on the snowball/9patch quilt. It feels like it is taking forever - haven’t done a big quilt like this in a long time. Penny making herself comfortable and me talking on the phone with my sister in California isn't helping the process!

Before Thursday I need to take a photo of my sewing room to post. It looks much better than it did when I posted photos in January. It isn’t painted yet, but my son is coming home for a while and he likes to sleep on the futon in the basement (which is my sewing room) with his dog and both of ours. It’s quite shocking when I open the door in the morning. I’ll have to start using lavender water in my iron again! Anyway, I don’t know if or when the room will get painted so I want to show you the progress I did make on it.

I’m also not keeping up with the Barbara Brackman Civil War block of the week.  I don’t know if I’ll go back to it. I do enjoy seeing the blocks others are making. While I'm confessing - I also haven’t worked on any of the 3 projects I wrote about in this post.  I just haven’t felt inspired to. My rationalization for starting the pineapple quilt is that 1) I was really itching to start something new 2) when I finish the snowball/9patch I will have 4 finishes for the year 3) it is using up scraps and I don’t need to buy any fabric for it 4) it was my birthday week. Those are good enough reasons for me!

Snowdrops - a sign of spring!

5 comments:

  1. Who needs a reason to start a new project??, but having a birthday is one of the best! Congratulations to Regan. I have a big quilt to bind and I am procrastinating even starting!! Thank you for the signs of spring!

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  2. Boy are those snowdrops a welcomed sight! Thanks!

    And thanks for the giveaway! This is my first win ever! I'm feeling so lucky! Thanks!

    Your quilting on the string quilt is great, gives it great dimension.....didn't even notice the off tension....we are always so critical of our own work.....it's truly great! Enjoy it!

    And the pineapple blocks are awesome....love the colors popping! Fun fun fun!

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  3. Congratulations to Regan, it is always fun to receive a surprise in the mail.
    If you are close to having 4 finishes this early in the year then you can do whatever you want. That's very impressive. I too have fallen behind with the BB Civil War blocks but I will continue with them in my own time.

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  4. Thanks for the close up - I think it looks great.
    I love pineapple block. Are you using a special ruler?

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  5. Your quilting is terrific on the string quilt. I always love a bargain on the backing- too cute!

    Love your new project. I always think that block looks so complex.

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