Pictures of Red and Aqua

Here is the straight cross arrangement, boring.

A little more interesting set on point

Getting closer with the addition of the yellow. This is not the final arrangement. I have lots more blocks but I do think the yellow makes it more interesting. You should know, the colors in the photo's are not "true". They really look better together than this. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Red & Aqua Progress

For many months I have been planning on making an orange, aqua and gray quilt. I had some of each of the colors and planned on collecting a few more before actually beginning the quilt. But then....on Flickr there have been so many gorgeous red, aqua and white quilts that I decided to change my color scheme. It always seems like I have a lot of red scraps, and I had some old aqua, plus some newer so this meant I didn't have to collect any more fat quarters.

I did not have a particular pattern in mind but I have been attracted to crosses lately so I started out with that premise. I was going to make a cross quilt. I did 50 some odd squares, not enough for a complete quilt but at least I could get them on the design wall and get a feel for it. Guess what? I found it boring! Blah, yuck, yawn! How can red and aqua be boring? But it is. I then decided that if I turned them, making them "x's" rather than crosses and aligned them diagonally that I might like them better. I did but still not what I was looking for. So now I'm working on yellow "O" blocks. Quite frankly I would rather put this quilt in it's plastic storage box and store it in the closet. I don't think I am ever going to love it but after making a UFO list (partial! I was afraid what the whole list would look like) for the UFO challenge I decided I could not afford to put this one away.

I'll keep you posted...love it or not, my goal is to have the top done by the end of the month.

Enjoy the "nasty" weather. Perfect for quilting!

p.s. I would be sharing photo's but after being away from blogging for so long I have to retrain myself on how to insert them. Soon!

This will touch you

I found this through another quilting website. Sometimes we need to remember how fortunate we are. Especially this time of year when we are remembering things to be thankful for.

http://allthingshendrick.blogspot.com/2010/10/reality-is-weighty-thing.html

Tomorrow...I am going to sew and I promise to share some photo's and happier thoughts.

Toni

Machine Repair

Having to have your favorite machine in the repair shop really makes you appreciate what you have. I've only been without it since Wednesday but it seems like forever. Don't get me wrong! My old machine gets the job done but I have to work harder at it. It just doesn't move as smoothly. I have to pay more attention to make certain I maintain my 1/4" seam allowance and it's amazing how warm the light bulb gets! But of course I would have a real problem not sewing every day. I'm grateful that I have a backup.

I've decided I would finish one quilt top on my old machine and as I've been wanting to do something with aqua, red and white, that is what I am doing. I was inspired by the Crossed Paths Quilt you can see at www:redpepperquilts.com.

It is raining lightly here so I think I will go into my room and enjoy some guilt free sewing.

Enjoy your day!
Toni

p.s. You will notice I've been playing around with blogger. I still have a long way to go on getting it to do things I want it to do!

Oh My Goodness!

I'm really into the quilting world again. Thanks to all the wonderful blogs out there! I'll give specific credit in another post. I've been productive but have not been taking care of older quilt tops, not yet quilts. I'm now involved in a UFO Challenge, beginning in January, which forced me to go through my UFO's (too many to list!) and chose ten to finish this next year. Wish me luck! The fun part is the moderator will, each month, give you a random number from 1 to 10 and that is the quilt you will (with good intent!) finish that month. Obviously you have to assign numbers, 1-10, to each of your unfinished projects. I also found there are 3 tops from the '80ies that I will not bother finishing. Freeing up more room for finished quilts or more quilt tops.

Annnnd, I have joined two virtual quilting bees for 2011. Those will be fun!

It's amazing how our tastes change! I have several (is several 3-5?)tops that are reproduction, '30ies style fabric that I will finish but I am pretty much done with '30ies. Give me bright, lots of white now! Of course I expect next year to bring other changes in taste!

My newer sewing machine (10 years old) is going into the shop tomorrow. Just when I got really enthused about machine quilting! So today I'm back to using my back up machine...now about 35 years old. It certainly is noisier, slower and doesn't have as many options (no needle down? what?) but at least it will allow me to indulge my sewing addiction, until I get my favorite, Tamara is her name, a play on the word "tomorroa', back.

I hope your "addiction" brings you as much pleasure as mine does.

Toni

ReStart?

Maybe, just maybe, I'm thinking about blogging again. Maybe more pictures, less verbiage? Let's see what happens. Not today tho'. Hubby coming home after 6 weeks of hunting. Hugs!

GOOD BYE 2009!

Where does the time go? I haven't written much lately. It's not that I don't think about quilting every day but I just get caught up in other things. One detriment to my blog is that I am an avid reader. I devour books. I get into a book and hate to put it down. Luckily my hunny is a reader too. It is not unusual for us to spend the day, each ensconced on our own piece of furniture, woodstove keeping the house warm, reading and dozing the day away. Maybe not as good for us as taking a walk but certainly better for our imaginations then watching TV all day.

Secondly, I've not mentioned it much, as everyone thinks we are already nuts to have 4 dogs, we added a fifth dog, we got a German Shepherd puppy in October. That means confine or supervise all the time. My mother always said "God was smart when he made Mothers young". I now know this applies to getting a puppy as well as babies. She is a lot of work! This may not be the last dog in my life but it certainly will be the last puppy. I keep saying "in two years she will be aristocratic and willing to lay around with us." Keep your fingers crossed! In the meantime, it's watch, supervise, train, dog classes, etc, etc. As I was drying her off the other day; bigger dog, longer coat, longer tail; I told her "I should have gotten a Doberman".

The pictures above are my last two quilt tops for 2009. The stripped top is a donation for a charity and the second has no immediate purpose but I finished it last night...before midnight! Seeing the picture now I'm thinking "I could have done a better job pressing" but it's done. I've not kept track of the quilts/tops I've made this year but I just saw a "mosaic" on another blog showing all their projects. I'm going to play around on the computer and see if I can learn to do the same, then I will show all of 2009 projects.

I am able to report, and believe me this is a record, from Sept 2009 through December 2009, I am only up 2 yards of fabric in my stash. I know that idea was to decrease the number of yards...I'll get there! Still a goal for 2010.

I hope you all have high hopes for the New Year and this new decade.

Love and Hugs to All!
Toni