What do you think?

I mentioned a few days ago that I am getting started again on a UFO Cathedral Window Quilt. Instead of using muslin for the background of the quilt I am using navy and I have enough together that I can start thinking about what to use as the window 'panes'. I am leaning toward yellows - including prints with white, blue and green but I also think it could look really great with neutrals, or brights, or ? What do you all think? And if I need more little squares of whatever palette I choose, would anyone be interested in swapping some little squares so I can make this a charm quilt. At this point I don't know how big this quilt will end up so not sure how many little squares I will be needing but I just wanted to send out some 'feelers' into the quilty world. I am waiting with bated breath.

Pretty Mini

If you have heard the weather reports for the Pacific Northwest the last week or so you might wonder if it was October and not August! We are getting a bit more rain in these here parts for this time of year than usual. On the one hand - I don't have to paint, but on the other hand (she had a wart! - I know, bad joke but one my dad used to use all the time -ooops! I shouldn't have said that because now I remember that he has been gone for 16 years today and I am welling up!)... on the other hand, I can't paint and that last side of the house is not the prettiest. It started out yellow but we tried one green color last fall to protect the new siding and didn't like it and I also tested another of the greens we didn't like on that side. So, like I said, it isn't pretty! I am hoping for a nice September!

Mini quilt received - August 2008
Originally uploaded by lucysquilts

Yesterday I did get several hours of mowing in with Miss Lucy in her carrier. Got rid of all those 'pretty' yellow flowers on about half of the grass (read weeds). Today while Lucy got prettied up I took care of some things at the church and on the way home I found a package in the mailbox! It came all the way from Lori in Florida and held this pretty little quilt. Isn't it great!?!?!

We are heading out tomorrow to see the grandbabies (and their parents and uncle) for the weekend. We are taking five whole days! I plan to take the laptop and camera so I might get a chance to post some pictures and thoughts!

Six and one-half

That's how many hours I painted today to get the second coat of green on both ends of the house. Don't need to update the pictures because really it doesn't look much different than it did yesterday afternoon. Now I have the last long side to do but the rain is supposed to return tomorrow according to the weather people. So maybe Tuesday I will be back out there.

cooperative weather

It was a bit cool when I started this morning but things warmed up and after 5 hours of painting I had finished the first coat on the north end of the house and did the whole first coat on this, the south end of the house. It is looking good even with just the one coat and green slopped on the trim. I hope tomorrow I can get another coat on at least one side and maybe the second one also. Then I just have the long east side left but there are lots of windows and doors on that side and it is lower like the finished west side.

This evening will involve lots of hand sewing and some TV!

Going Green

Here is the little quiltlet I received from Jane in Australia for Doll Quilt Swap 4. Isn't it beautiful?! It is all Japanese fabrics that her brother brought her. Thank you again Jane!

The weather is finally warming/drying out a bit so I was able to paint for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon and hope to get out there fairly early this morning. I should be able to finish the first coat on one end of the house and then move on to the next side. I should have the end finished this weekend along with a stretch of the front side of the house. They are predicting more rain for this week so we shall see how much painting gets done.

On the up side, the weather has allowed me to get the quilting done on the baby quilt and I am now embroidering all the ropes holding all those balloons to their baskets. I am over half done but there are a lot of balloons/baskets on that there quilt!

Yesterday I also got a center block from the SFRR2 that is begging for its first border so I will need to look at doing that soon. I might sneak it in between finishing the baby quilt and working in earnest on the SIL quilt.

Minis delivered

The second of my July Mini Quilts and the first of my August Mini Quilts were received in the last couple of days.

The July quilt sent to Jen(aka hedgehogquilts) was supposed to incorporate triangles. I used some half-square triangle leftovers from some of my Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop 2007 blocks to make some little pinwheels. I put this together during the two weeks at my daughter's house. When little Layden saw it he said 'Cool! Trees!" And nothing would convince him that they were pinwheels and not trees! I do have to admit that the big one sort of looks like a palm tree. For the back of the little quilt I used the WWQSH2007 focus fabric which features scenes from western Washington.


This is the little quilt I sent to Beth (aka maddieandme1). It was for the August hand-sewn group of mini quilts. I have been wanting to do some cathedral window projects so thought this was the perfect opportunity. I have always wanted to do one that used prints/colors for the background and neutrals for the window panes and this is how it turned out. It has inspired me to get moving on one of my UFOs. I ended up taking all of the machine work I had done from before out and pressed the squares. I am now doing it all by hand and I find it all comes together more precisely. I also discovered that pressing the seams open helps a lot. I haven't gotten too far yet but it will be my new long term project now that the Ludvina's Legacy top is together. I am thinking that the window panes will be charm squares but not sure if they will be one color range or just anything. Thoughts?

Yesterday I pulled out the baby quilt and got started on the embroidery of the name, date, etc. We had so many phone calls for the business though that I only got about 2/3 done with that little bit of hand work! I finished it up this morning and plan to get it basted and maybe machine quilted yet today. If I get the binding on before craft night tonight that will be my handwork while we chat. I also need to embroider the ropes between the baskets and the balloons but thought it would be easier to do the machine quilting if they weren't in the way.

Empty Nest Again

The grandson and son are gone again. It was so fun having him here and getting spend so much time with him. On Saturday we took him to Bremerton's Waterfront Park with all the fountains and the ferry coming in. Lots of fun! Then we did some garage sales. He got lots of 'new' toys including this great tractor! I didn't get much done other than cuddling and playing but that was way more important than anything else ever could be!

The painting is paused right now because of the weather. It has been too hot to paint and now they are talking about rain this week so I guess I will have to find other things to occupy my time!