Orange Crush No Borders

Well here is one of the OC quilts. If I do another Mystery I will remember to not be quite so scrappy. I also managed to put the white four patch rows in the wrong direction. But at least I was consistent in putting all of them in the wrong direction. I am definitely not doing the pieced border. I want to finish this one and chalk it up to experience! I am thinking of doing a pink border. What do all of you think?

Playin' Catch Up

Well my weekend in Prescott, AZ was just what the doctor ordered. We had a great time. Here is my friend Ceil on the right and me on the left. I look much younger and thinner in my imagination.

This is my friend Ceil on the left with our friend Nancy. Nancy was the designated driver for our trip.

I think that Ceil and I taxed her last nerve, but I swear she had fun also! We shopped for arts and crafts on the courthouse square, antiques in lots of cute little shops and ate lots of good food. Ceil was the official trip photographer, so I will hopefully get some better shots from her. The weather in Prescott was gorgeous. Sunny and in the 70s. It is such a nice change once the weather in Phoenix starts to get hot.

Here is the other member of our traveling group. This is Nancy's skunk. She once made the mistake of telling us that she saw a skunk in the Cul-de-Sac one morning. (she is my across the street neighbor) and we haven't let her forget it. Most of us think it was the other neighbors black and white cat. But ever since then this stuffed skunk appears at the most unlikely of times, like when Ceil and Nancy went into the Walgreen's for ice and water and I was left to watch the car.

And then as luck would have it, there was a Quilt Show in Prescott at the local college. We didn't have a lot of time for it, and Nancy is not a quilter, but we did manage to do a drive by and spend about 30 minutes there while Nancy enjoyed the weather outside. It is amazing how much damage you can do in 30 minutes, but I don't need to tell you girls that.

In my defense, they were on sale. It would have been wrong to leave them there at 25% off. My DS loves the funky monkey prints and I have been wanting the Sandy Gervais Fresh Squeezed for a while now. I have been on rather a buying binge lately. It would probably be a good idea to sew some as well.

More later,

Donna

Another Mistake, (or an Opportunity for Creativity)

This is block 6 in the Quilt-a-Long from Crazy Mom Quilts. Her block is different because she made hers the correct way. See this, this is how she wanted the block to look. What you see below is my version. Now I could say that I am exercising creative juices here, or I could just tell the truth and say that I screwed up the directions again. So out of 6 blocks so far, I have made 4 right and 2 wrong, but I am not going to rip it apart. No one will know but me and all the rest of the bloggers doing this Quilt-a-Long, and you, so please don't tell.







Bonnie has posted the final step in the Orange Crush Mystery Quilt. I have one of mine partially laid out on the design wall. I am still not too sure about these quilts. I may not do the scrappy borders. I may take the lazy way out and just add a resting strip and a non-pieced border. That option is sounding better by the minute.

This is the baby quilt that I mentioned in my last post. I like how the inside turned out. It is a package of charm squares from Moda's Simplicity. The border is from my stash. I may pull it off and buy some of Simplicity yardage instead to finish the quilt. It is OK this way, but I think it could be a lot better. Can you tell that I am not liking anything today?

I am heading out in the morning with a couple of girlfriends for a weekend in Prescott, AZ, away from the heat. Maybe that will make me less grumpy. There is a quilt show there this weekend, although we are just going to get away from the DHs and DDs and DSs. I will try to remember to take some pics along the way. We will see if we make it to the quilt show.

Now I am off to DS baseball game.

Donna

Have you ever wondered...

... why no one ever thinks mom gets tired too. My family was scattered to the four winds all weekend. You know how it is with teenagers; work, baseball, the mall, cheer practice, graduation party, etc. So mom stayed home today to make everyone a nice dinner and do the laundry for DS and DD. They were very appreciative and also very exhausted. By the time I turned around everyone had eaten and gone to bed, including DH! How is that for gratitude? I looked at all those dishes and leftovers and that's when I thought good thing mom never gets tired!

Anyway I feel better after venting that. I did get lots of piecing done this weekend. I finished the Step 5 blocks for the second OC quilt I am making. This one is less scrappy, and so far I like it better. I am looking forward to Step 6 to see how the border will pull it together.




I have had the experience before of not being thrilled with a quilt, only to have the resting strip and border(s) make a huge difference. I like the bright blue with the pinks.

I did block 5 in the Quilt-a-Long from Crazy Mom Quilts Blog. I think this quilt is going to turn out to be really neat. I finished all of the 12 setting blocks too.

Believe it or not I pieced a small baby quilt also for a shower on the 14th of June. I will post a picture tomorrow if I can get one of the sleepy heads to hold it up for me. I tried to take a pic of it lying on the floor, but it did not turn out well. The baby shower is for a friend who is remarried and having a little girl. Her sons are teenagers now. She has lots more energy and patience than me!

Have a good Monday. Thanks for listening.

Donna

Orange Crush Step 5

Well it doesn't represent my best moment as a quilter, but I did find some fabric in my stash that works colorwise with the pinwheel blocks.

One thing I have discovered through this mystery is that I don't buy a lot of fabric that reads as solid. I tried to stay true to the challenge and shop from my stash however. These are the album blocks and the corner pieces. It will be a mishmosh of pinks, so we will see how it all turns out. They look better in the picture than in person.

I did manage to buy a few more fat quarters this weekend in between baseball games. They were on sale and I really could not pass them up.

Quilt-a-Long

Well since my OC Step 5 blocks look awful with the other blocks I am going back to the drawing board on these. I need to shop in the stash for a better color combo.

But in the meantime here are the first four weeks of the Quilt-a-Long from Crazy Mom Quilts blog. This is a fun blog and she really makes some neat quilts. The first block is the setting block. There will be 12 of these and then 13 different star blocks. Mine are all purple and yellows from my stash. So far only one mistake on the last block below. The star points were supposed to be different fabrics from each other. But I think it looks ok as is. This is a very low stress quiltalong and should be a pretty quilt when completed. The setting blocks will offer a lot of space to practice machine quilting.

Have a good holiday. I am off to watch DS play baseball all day.

Donna

Look What I Got!!

Well so much for stashbusting. Does it seem like everyone is having fabric sales? Everywhere I go there is fabric screaming to be purchased and brought to a new home. I have decided to try and finish some UFOs and bring in some back up players for new UFOs.

I found this yardage on sale for $4 and $5 a yard. Could not pass that up! None of them were purchased with a purpose except the purple and yellow floral on the bottom. I thought maybe that would go with my Quilt-a-Long, but not sure after I brought it home. But don't they all look pretty. Not all together though, at least I don't think so.

And then I saw this great stack of fat quarters.

I just love how they are folded so that it looks different from either side. This is a great LQS that has lots of reproduction, novelties, brights and thirties types of fabric. It is called Zoe's Trunk. They do not have an online shop. These are so fun to look at. I will unwrap them, but not until I have admired them like this for a few weeks. Is anyone else weird like that?? I couldn't bust it open right away if I had to.

I am really anxious for Step 5 of the OC Mystery.

Thats all for now. Have a great day.

Donna