Shopped til I Dropped

Hello hello from sunny northern California - where it is 68 beautiful degrees and a beautiful blue sky - for those of you in the snowy regions, come visit!!!!

This little quilt got claimed by George, who thinks a quilt on a blanket, on a leather couch, might just nearly be soft enough for his creature comfort!

This morning I went on my shopping spree!!! It was great fun... there was a sale at Eddie's Quilting Bee - it was Eddie's birthday, and everything was 30% off!

I had a great time - found some beautiful fabrics, some neat notions - and met some great quilters - we all examined everyone else's purchases and envied every single piece of fabric... I also got some of that great mesh to make some bags... now need to find a good pattern!

Here's my booty!

I'm looking forward to processing the fabric... I know some people don't wash, but I do - every single piece - washed, ironed, and folded. It may sound like a lot of work to those who don't like to prewash, I really enjoy it... and love to see it on my shelf afterward!

Merry Christmas to everyone... thank you, DH... I love you for thinking of such a thoughtful and fun gift for me.

Happy Quilting,

Kate

IT'S A SHOPPING SPREEEEEEEEEE

I'm soooo excited...........
Do you remember the show SuperMarket Sweep???






Teams of two got a fixed time, usually 3 min or so, to run madly around the supermarket and buy the most high-value items they could fill their cart with... turkeys, hams, caviar... and the one with the highest value of the stuff WON!!!! I love love loved that show, and always wanted to be a contestant...


Well - my DDDDDH has given me a SuperMarket Sweep in the quilt shop! It was a Christmas present, and I get to spend whatever I want... (and take all the time I want , too! - can you imagine having to race around the quilt shop??? how funny)

I saved it til I saw a sale - one of the LQS is having a 30% sale off on Saturday...


He did this last year - I shopped and shopped, and then did not even see the total - it just went on his credit card... how totally delightful!!!

I'M GOING ON SATURDAY!!!! I CAN NOT WAIT... THIS IS GONNA BE SO SO FUN.

Happy Quilting,

Kate

An Alternative to Drinking and Gambling????

Hi all... I'm still sewing away on Bonnie Hunter's "Roll, Roll, Cotton Bowl" quilt - somehow I must have miscounted, and came up short of 'parts' - so am sewing a few more units to finish up - maybe this weekend.

Meanwhile, I have been coloring on this design... inspired by a wool quilt from the 1880s that is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The original quilt was made by a soldier!!

I don't really know how big this will get - I just keep taping on more graph paper as it grows... but I'm having lots of fun...



In the article about the original quilt, it said that during the 1880s, soldiers were encouraged to take up quilting AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO DRINKING AND GAMBLING!!!!!

NOW I KNOW WHY WE QUILT!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Kate

MY ISN'T THIS BETTER!

Well hello fellow quilters from places both snowy and not:

Like lots of us, I've been working on Bonnie Hunter's Roll, Roll Cotton Bowl...

You may remember my post about this block:



After seeing how the green did NOT provide sufficient contrast, I changed to this color combination:

'no problem', said I - I only need to make another SIX HUNDRED HST's, and unsew about ten blocks, and sew them again - all the way to the center block... NO PROBLEM.... EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK....

But now it's starting to come together................

I absolutely love the way the colors play, especially the orange and the red...

in short - I absolutely love it.......

and only have another 300 HST'S to go............

thanks, Bonnie, for a fabulous mystery quilt.

Kate

THIS IS MAD MAD FUN!!!

Well - life sometimes just give you a real good laugh!!!!

Remember, a few blogs ago - I offered this fabric for a giveaway?


I loved it when I bought it, but then just couldn't figure out what to do with it, and obviously, it has to end up with just the right person - not something you send out on a charity quilt, given people's varying sensitivities...

The 'deal' on the giveaway was that my DH was going to pick the comment with the most interesting plan to use the fabric!

So - Marjorie , of Applique Addict - http://appliqueaddict.blogspot.com/
won by sending in a comment that she would use the fabric to make a shirt for her DH, who rides a skull-themed Harley!!

Well - Marjorie does NOT procrastinate - and here's the shirt:




ISN'T IT JUST WAY COOL ???? iT'S A TRUE PARTY SHIRT...

AND - another fun twist... Marjorie wants to send the 'remainders' to someone else on the comment list - they will make great fussy-cut pieces to mix in with other fabrics... as you see here:

So - I asked DH to choose - and he picked Victoria of Bumblebeans, Inc. - who said she had a partly-finished Day of the Dead quilt that needed to be finished!

Well, Victoria - these lovely party-goers are yours! Please send me an address... I will send you an email from your post...

Thanks, Marjie - for being such a fun sport on this giveaway!..

I think this is the only photo of a man with a beer that has been posted on my blog!!

Parties to All,
Kate

Block Makover

WHY DO I KEEP HAVING TO LEARN THIS LESSON OVER AND OVER?????

AAAAARGGGGH

So - I chose my colors for the Bonnie Hunter Mystery, and decided to try to use mid-range colors in blue, coral, and celery - sounds lovely and gentle, doesn't it? Well, it turns out mostly washed out, especially the celery - egad!!! it looks like celery tastes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



So - a bit of unsewing, and I found this piece of bricky, smoky red that surprising plays well with the coral colors... and boom - shazam - this appears!



Unfortunately I made a lot of these blocks before I bowed to the inevitable .... so now there's lots of unsewing to do...

note to self: IT'S ABOUT CONTRAST.... CONTRAST.... CONTRAST

Happy ripping to me! Happy quilting to everyone else!

Kate

How's this for a Hat?

Happy Happy New Year to you all...

On NYE, DH and a friend and I went to see "Beach Blanket Babylon", a musical spoof/parady in San Francisco... it is famous for outrageous hats, great music, and wonderful parodies of politicians and public figures. We laughed until we all about split, all while enjoying champagne and chocolates - yummy yummy!

It has been the most most most wonderful holiday season at my house... great meals,

wonderful gifts, and fun moments... I am sad to see it end, but tomorrow the quilting professor returns to the university to my 'day job'... all in all a fabulous job in itself, but oh the sweetness of the holiday vacation!

On Friday we went for a hike to Muir Woods, a stand of giant Redwood trees near San Francisco, some up to 2,000 years old... that means these trees were born in the 9th century... amazing... here are some highlights...

As you can see, my camera just couldn't take it all in!

And, of course, these is always quilting... I finished this happy top of strings... I have been trying to use up my strings.... and this came out - I like it's enthusiasm...it will become a charity quilt when sandwiched and quilted. (ooh crap, I just saw that the bottom right corner block is inserted wrong - geez, why don't you see these things before you take the photo???? no, I am not going to unsew the border and fix it - will just pretend it's not like that - - lol)

I hope you all have had as wonderful a holiday as I have - - and that your New Year will be fabulous!!!!

Kate