Happy Easter!

A lovely Easter to all. Hope you are all enjoying beautiful Spring weather. We don't have to be anywhere until 3:00, and it's an easy appetizer to be made to take with, and load the white chocolate truffle cake we picked up at the bakery into the car with the requisite libations, so I'm pretty much free for a stretch.

Finished up EVERYTHING for the quilt show pieces last night (labels, sleeves, bindings). Have got my first April OPAM finish....

I call this 'Bloomin' Baltimore - a quick trip around the Baltimore block.' This is the Guild challenge quilt for this year's show, and likely to be the only non-art quilt challenge. Admittedly, I've got a long way to go on the art quilt front, so this will have to do.

Click on this to see the tiny stippling I went back and added to the center block yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, the neurotic beagle seemed to think that because the windows were open and the blinds would gently rustle in the breeze, that there was a storm of dire proportion on it's way. This is where he spent his afternoon...in the chihuahua's bed under the sewing table, hyperventilating hot, stinky dog breath on my legs. Note to self....find source of tranquilizers and appropriate dosage for him before we actually do have our first thunderstorm.

Eventually I couldn't take it anymore so I headed downstairs to the office computer to make and print out some quilt labels (so Beagle Bailey here could instead attempt to paw his way through the carpet in the corner next to my desk chair to some imagined safe haven from the nonexistent impending doom of a lovely Spring day). 

Here's the quilt labels I made. I was lazy and just used label templates off the Internet and borders out of MS Word.

As I said,  I've got some free time, so before it gets away from me I'm going to tidy up the studio and spend some quality time with my workbook and EQ 6 software. May as well learn how to use 6 since I just saw in a quilt magazine this morning that 7 is soon to be released (figures!).

I'd love to design a quick table quilt for the Vera's Garden fabric I picked up a few months back. Of course, in addition to playing EQ6 school, I've also got pillowcases/charity quilts/Bernina class next Saturday/quilt show volunteering/Neptune/Kiwi Jubilee/baby quilt/learn to embroider all on my plate for this month. (groan!...oops, forgot income taxes....MAJOR YIKES!)

Sounds like I need to hop on down to the kitchen and refill my coffee cup.

Again, enjoy this beautiful Easter Sunday, and I hope you get to spend quality time with people and things you love today.

Also, if you get a chance, check out the winners and best entries in this year's Washington Post Peeps diorama competition. Fantabulously amusing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/03/29/GA2010032903934.html

Saturday's Late Night Progress

'Wasted' the day shopping. Didn't get to Coldwater Creek, but I expect that my sister managed to do enough damage for the both of us. The hubs was a good sport and spent an heroic amount of time choosing fabric for the embroidered quilt project at the Bernina Swiss event (got a 25% off scratch-off, how could I NOT buy fabric?).

Happily, I picked up an extra foot rack and bobbin rack for my slick Bernina accessory box, and Ron was able to find a patchwork guide for me after a bit of searching. Apparently, no one uses this item, but I am here to tell you, it is great.

It screws into one of the little holes at the base of the machine and you can adjust it from 1/4" and up. I'm using it with the #37 (1/4" foot), and it gives you a bit more guidance than the #57 (1/4" foot with guide) would. The cool thing is you can use it for any other size seam..5/8", 1/2". And, are you ready for this? It cost (drum roll please) $3.57. Get out of town! Genuine Bernina part....best buy of the day.

Almost makes up for the half dozen grocery items we were overcharged for in Walmart today (don't you just hate it when you buy something because the tag on the shelf says it costs $2.50 and you get home and you see on your receipt that it rang up at $2.87? Walmart does that a lot. So does Kohls.

I aided the hubs in the car search today by sending an email to three dealers saying I want this car for a monthly payment of this much at zero APR for this long, and if you've actually got this on the lot, we'll talk. Two have quoted prices so far, a little more than I asked for, but definitely negotiable/workable. And Miss Smarty Pants only gave them email addresses, no phone number, so for the moment, we're under no pressure. It's only Day One of Car Search, so we'll have to see what transpires.

And I did manage to get a bit of sewing done. The top for the Bloomin' Challenge is done except for a very small border (maybe). Thinking about it. Click on it to see more detail in the fabric.

Jen and I are going to my niece's for her baby's Christening brunch tomorrow morning, so no sewing until afternoon.The hubs is driving 3 hours South to golf (he's a maniac), so I'll have nothing better to do than spend the day in the studio with the boys. The goal is to get this piece and the applique piece backed and ready for quilting.

Well, it's 2:00 a.m., so before we turn into pumpkins, Paco and I need to say goodnight. Come out from under the sewing table and say goodnight Paco.

Goodnight Paco.

Faced with Challenge

The 'Bloomin' challenge is coming along nicely. Not an art piece, but certainly an interesting use of the challenge fabric, and (most importantly...) within my comfort zone.

It didn't look like there were a large number of Diamond challenge quilts turned in at the Guild meeting Monday. The 8 best are submitted to AQS, and I wasn't sure I saw 8 in the turn-in pile, which makes me wonder if they all just automatically move on if they met the challenge criteria? (There is no way they could have possibly sent mine, even if it were the only one.). I tried to sneak a peak, but they were all in big Ziploc bags, with the good side folded in. I would have liked to see a couple just to assure myself that I was truly out of my league. Guess I'll have to wait until April, but I'm confident that they are all works of art quilting that I can only aspire to at this point in my limited experience. (And I made a note to find some art quilting classes.)

(I'm watching American Idol while I'm typing/sewing/reading email, and it's painful (second girl contestant). I almost want to turn it off. When the audience is all clapping and cheering, and booing when Randy says the performance was 'excruciating'  it makes me wonder what kind of drugs they inject them with on their way in the door (and where do I sign up).)

So after a couple of hours, I've got this to show for my Challenge efforts:

Yep, got a bit of paper piecing going on tonight. Still need to construct 8 more blocks and then trim them up before bed. I'm on a mission to complete a few things this month. This would be one thing

And I'm hanging this applique in the Guild's quilt show, which means I need to sandwich, back and quilt (and embellish with a few crystals). It's hand applique, from a class I took in my quest for future Baltimore greatness (yeah, that's in line in front of Dear Jane greatness, but still behind Art Quilt greatness).

And just in case I didnt' bite off more than I can comfortably chew, I also entered the convergence quilt. I figured that's the only way I'd actually get it quilted and bound. At least it's sandwiched and pinned, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Well, enough for tonight. I need to get back to work on the paper pieces. Check back tomorrow or Friday to check my progress.