It's that time again....

It's time once again for us to pack up and head off to the next great Air Force adventure.  This is move number 16!  The packers will be here in about 10 days, and there are a few things we have to do to prepare before their arrival.  One of those things is take down the longarm...

We're taking this, the "head," in the car with us...

...but these long poles and tables will have to go on the moving van.

And there it is...all ready to go!

I did get a couple baby quilts sewn and quilted before we took the longarm apart.  This is another Quick Strippie from MaryQuilts.  It was so hard to take a good picture of this quilt...the colors don't seem right in this picture....this one is for my son to give to a friend of his that is expecting a little girl.

I backed it with flannel...it was so soft after washing!

  This was another quick one...the nursery colors are elephant grey and mint green.  I hope this fits the bill...but I think it turned out pretty cute.  They want the gender to be a surprise, so hopefully this fits for either a boy or girl.

Not only are we moving in three weeks, I am going on a 6 day quilting retreat next week!  Aaack!  Hopefully I'll have some retreat pictures to share soon!

Happy Birthday Megan

Where has the time gone?  You have grown up so fast!  I miss this little face, but I'm so blessed to have the grown up woman in my life today.  You are amazing...you are accomplishing your dreams and achieving great things!  Your dad and I are proud beyond words.  Although sometimes we miss the little girl that danced around the room, played "little people," and cuddled on the couch while watching Little Mermaid (for the 486th time), we are so excited to see what the future holds for you.  You can do anything!

Love you more than words can say!  Happy Birthday Megan!

Love,

Mom & Dad

Some finishes to share....

Although my life is ramping up on the craziness factor, I have been doing some sewing...some I can share, some are secrets for now.  :)

One reason for the craziness is our upcoming move...the movers will be here in less than 6 weeks, so I'm starting to realize how unprepared I am.  LOL  I also have a quilting retreat in three weeks...it's our annual trip to Indiana.  I'm super excited to go and just get away from thinking about moving for a few days.

I've been working on a few secret projects for retreat, birthdays, and new babies in the family.  I promise I'll take pictures and show you after all the gifts have been received.  :)  

I do have some finishes to share...you've seen these before, but they weren't technically finished without the quilting and binding.  I even put labels on these projects!

This is my Liberty Star quilt...I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!  (Do I say that about every quilt?)  This quilt was from a workshop with Pat Speth and her "Nickel Quilts" books.  I took advantage of the brief sunshine we had this weekend and got a few outdoor pictures....

It looks really wavy in this picture, but it's because the lawn hasn't been mowed all winter and it's growing all crazy...

I love the backing...I had bought it a year or two ago on clearance and knew the perfect quilt would come along to use it on some day.

I also finished the binding on my little Friendship Stars quilt...remember I made this quilt with all the bonus triangles from the Liberty Star quilt?  It has a label, but still needs a hanging sleeve.

I also finished my first Calendar Quilt...this is actually "July," but I think I'll leave it hanging until we pack up.  :)

I also realized I never shared a picture of my finished Scrappy Mountain Majesties quilt.  This is one of Bonnie Hunter's free patterns on her website.  My local sewing group swapped fabrics and started these at retreat back in November.

Love that polka dot backing!  Also another one I picked up on clearance!  I did not add a label yet...I will probably give this as a gift...I just don't know who the recipient is just yet!

There you go!  I love putting those final stitches in the binding and finishing up a quilt!

I may not be blogging much over the next few weeks as we prepare to move and then head out to our new assignment...but I'll try to pop on as much as possible!

The winner...

Congratulations, Dortha!  You are the winner of the Thimbleberries FQ's!!  

dortha

One of the stars has a point going done on the side that should be going up and one going up on side that should be going down. It is reversed. It is still a pretty quilt.

5:25 PM 

I probably should stop pointing the booboo out to every passerby.  I actually like the booboo..it gives the quilt character!

I had these two wallhangings to be quilted and realized they would be okay with the same backing fabric, so quilting them up was cinch.  On the calendar quilt, I outlined the flowers and flowerpot and did swirls over the rest.  For the friendship star I did a meander with tiny loops.  I have the binding sewn to both on the front, just needs the hand sewing part and the hanging sleeves.

Bonus Triangles

I'm sure you remember I took a workshop last year with Bonnie Hunter and learned about bonus triangles and I love 'em!  (You can see a mini tutorial here)  With my recent project, Liberty Star, which was filled with flying geese and perfect for making bonus triangles, I ended up with 160 2" unfinished red/neutral half square triangles!  

After playing with them a little and trying a few different layouts, I decided to make this friendship star quilt.  All I had to add was the 2" center square and sashing, of course.  To be honest, I added the sashing to avoid having to match all those seams!!  LOL  I think it adds a nice touch though... 

(you can click the pictures for a closer view!)

The HST finish at 1.5" and the block finishes at 4.5"...isn't it just adorable??  I love star blocks and this ranks right up with my favorites.

I just love it!

I even like the back...look at all those seams!  It's wonderful that on the flip side of all this chaos such loveliness!  :)  Kind of like my life sometimes...

There is one small "boo-boo" though...can you see it in the pictures above?  I decided to keep it in, because as the saying goes, "Only God makes perfect things."  

I thought we'd have a little fun.  For all of you that find the boo-boo, post a comment.  I'll draw a random name from the correct comments and the winner will receive these fabrics!

They are all Thimbleberries and mostly FQ's, give or take.  Good luck!  (I'll close the comments and draw a name Saturday night)  WE HAVE A WINNER! -- THANKS FOR PLAYING!

A couple of projects to share....

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  It's so exciting to see the sun a little more, feel the temperature warming up just a bit, the trees are budding...all the promises that spring is really going to get here.  Some day.  LOL  I know it does no good to complain about the weather, but I'm really looking forward to the end of cold, dreary days.

I spent the weekend sewing and I got my Liberty Stars quilt top assembled!  I love it!  Hopefully I'll get it quilted in the next couple of weeks.

Since I had all my red, white, and blue "charms" out, I decided to jump into yet another NEW project!  One of the ladies in our guild recently completed all 12 of the Calendar Quilts from this pattern.  They are soooo cute.  I couldn't resist and ordered the pattern last week.

I decided to start with July to put those leftover red, white, and blue fabrics to good use!  Everything is fused, but I still need to do the applique stitch and quilting.

Why start with July, you ask?  Well...to put it simply, we are moving and we'll be settling in to our new house in late June/early July.  What's better for a new house, but a new quilt!  :)

Nickel Quilts

This week our guild hosted Pat Speth of Nickel Quilts fame.  All her books and patterns use 5" squares to make a multitude of quilts.  It's amazing how much you can do with a 5" square!

She doesn't teach a specific quilt at her workshop....rather a technique for a specific unit or units.  From those units, you can chose from any number of quilts to make.  The first workshop was 4 patches and half square triangles.  You can see behind her, all those blocks are made from variations of the 4patch and HST units!

  This quilt is called Heritage Trail made from those two units.  I don't have any pics to share of my progress, because I still haven't decided which quilt I am going to make!  So far, I just have a big pile of 4patches and HSTs!!

This is another layout I like, called Sunny Lanes.

This one is called Northern Lights...I don't think I will choose this option, just wanted to show you how different the same units look, just laid out a bit differently.

The second workshop was "combination units."  It's a HST, but also sort of an hourglass unit.  There are many great projects with this unit!

This is a picture of a quilt I'd like to do one day....called Labor Day Madness.

And also this one....Labor Day Stars.

This is the one I'm working on though...it's called Liberty Star.  It adds flying geese units as well.

 I worked a bit more yesterday on my blocks and have 12 done!  I'm going to do a few more to make a large lap size.  The techniques are really handy and the blocks aren't too difficult to assemble.  The workshops were lots of fun! 

 Have you made any "Nickel Quilts?"  Of course, with the Charm Pack craze the last few years...there are many projects out there using 5" squares nowadays!