Big Ten Quilt 09

Today was the day we put the Big Ten quilt together. I spent about 4 hours last night making the quarter square triangle units for today. Thank God I did that! It made out day sooo much easier! Not to say that there was any ripping out (I was the first one to do that!) but it was a little more stressful than usual. Matching points...nuff said! I like how the blocks turned out though. We did an Ohio star. WE decided that we will make 2 each year until we all have one. (one for the raffle and one for a keeper). Since Yuki is leaving after this year we decided this one would be hers. You see all of us at Robin's house here: LTW, Judith, Robin and Yuki (not me since I was taking the photo). See the star in the background? I made that! We met up at Robin's house at 8am to begin. She is an excellent cook so she had quiche and stuff ready for our breakfast. YUMMY!!


You can see our progress here. I appliqued all the middles and also all the emblems around the Bit Ten block. There is Judith and Yuki making the binding (which I had all cut for them, along with all the borders!!)



Here is what we had waiting for us when we finished. Wine and a beautiful spread of food. Thanks, Robin! (She even sent left overs home with us!)

Robin made these for Lizzy and Me for our birthdays! LTW is August 19 and I am July 11. (so mark that down!)

Here are the finished quilt tops! YEAH us!!! Juditn, Robin, LTW and me. Yuki was taking the picture. Hope your enjoyed our wonderful quilting day!

Tomorrow LTW and I are going to Checkers to shop (we are taking our friend Pauline too). So I should have some really great stuff to show you!

Oh and BTW, we told DD's friend about the bat so she doesn't have to *wonder* about her friend's parents strange bedroom habits! Just thought you might like to know.

Sunday Night Wrap Up

I am thinking I will start a Sunday Night Wrap up with anything I didn't get a chance to blog about during the week. What do you think? First up. I received this pattern I had ordered. It is a disappearing 9 patch and I saw it done up in Neptune fabric line here and it was so awesome, I just have to make one too. Second of all I received this fabulous fabric in the mail this week. I am thinking owls. Maybe Snowy White owl? Another choice is to use snowflake fabric for her. Opinions?

The next thing I didn't get a chance to blog about was some gifts some of my friends have given me recently. My friend Ruth Ann was not around for my birthday. Some nerve going on vacation when it was my 50th but whatever. She got me this adorable bag and note book. Excellent, another notebook for to do lists. Good thing too as the other 2 I have are almost full! Thanks Ruth Ann! You are such a sweetie!!

Next up is LTW. She stopped by last week and brought me this adorable bat pattern. Eat your heart out Diane. These bats are too cute!

Then LTW just *happened* to see this adorable b&w cat fabric that she felt I just *had to have*. I think she was right! I could see using this with one cat colored in using that colored pencil technique. Wouldn't that be fun? She also snatched up this cute Halloween panel. I think it must have been the gigantic cat. He is the cutest and LTW is the BEST!! (Shhhh don't say anything but her birthday is on the 19th!! I'm gonna have to get her something great!)


We had a family gathering on Saturday. It took the entire day and night. We got up, I made food, we left and drove for 2 hours and got there around 2pm. I have no idea what time it was when we finally got home, but it was dark. I actually never looked at a clock (and I had a few adult beverages so I really didn't care, except that nothing was getting done that night, I'm just sayin'.)

That means I had to make up for it today. YIKES! I had to finish sewing around the NW cat logo for the center of the NW block. Remember the Penn State Logo? I thought that was a pain, welll, let me tell you that's because I hadn't done this one yet! I have one more to go but it is with LTW and I will get it back tomorrow. GREAT! When will this end? Oh yeah, next Sunday when we get together and make the quilt.

As I was preparing the little logos to go on the Big Ten block I had this sinking feeling that I may have appliqued the "W" on backwards. I guess you should trust your gut cuz, sure enough, I had to re-do that one too. Makes me a little mad at Wisconsin, why can't your W go either way??

So I made another 2 of those and began putting the Big Ten block together. I usually make this block because all the logos have to be appliqued around the block. The fun just never ends with this quilt. I'm wondering, if I have done all this pre work does that mean on assembly day I get to supervise and drink wine? Probably not! *sigh* Anyway, I finally got the points right, and the block assembled and the logos fused and stitched around and just the sashing left. No big deal huh? WRONG. Since we are making 2 of each block I had to end up cutting 2 more sashing strips. No big deal you say? It's only one block you say? Well, all the other kits needed 2 more strips cut for them too. I finally got the entire block finished around 9pm and I had been working on all of this since around noonish. I even forgot to eat dinner!

I'm really happy with how this block came out though. I was thinking that we will have 22 blocks to make on Sunday (I have 2 of this one done) I wonder if I should make all the QST units and trim them so we just have to assemble the "9 patch" units and sash. There are 5 of us and 3 are relatively new to all this. I am just beginning to panic about getting my owls finished. I thought you might like to see Mosen sleeping in the IKEA bag full of the Big Ten fabrics, Goofball!!

I think I mentioned that my MIL's mother passed away on Friday. The funeral is going to be Tuesday so I will be going to that with the family. Please keep my MIL and her family in your prayers. Even though her mum was 96 it still hurts to lose her! I hope you all have a productive and fun filled week! I appreciate you stopping by and leaving some comments. Kind of makes it all seem worthwhile! XOXO

Big Ten Quilt 09

I got up early this am to press and trim the centers for the Big Ten quilt. I thought I would show you what I am talking about. My friend, Robin, designed the logos to fit into a 5.5" square. I get all the fun of tracing, fusing, cutting, fusing and appliquing and pressing and trimming! WHEW! This is how the "Big Ten" block came out. Now you may be asking "Why did she make a Big Ten block when 10 logs would make a fine quilt?" My answer? Look closely at the Beg Ten logo. See anything ? Look really, really hard at the "T". Yep, there is an "11" because there are actually 11 schools in the Big Ten! You can't make as wonderful a quilt with 11 blocks, hence the Bit Ten block.


This is the school they added. Penn State and this is their logo, the Nittny Lion. Let me tell you what a pain he is to stitch around. My most hated one to do! He came out fairly well though.

The Iowa Hawkeye is the second most hated and I put a quarter by him so you can see that the blocks are not really that big. I like how he came out too.


The kits are complete all I need is Ohio, Illinois and Northwestern to be embroidered and I am ready for the sew-a-thon to make 2 of these quilts at Robin's house in 2 weeks.

I really want to work on the owls but we will see how that goes since we are heading to see DD this afternoon.

I hope you all have a productive weekend too! I'm getting close to my 400th post, can you believe it? I am planning on some kind of giveaway to celebrate so stay tuned. Probably won't happen until after the Bunny Hill giveaway, but maybe I will have to see how busy I am!

Meet Happy

I had Quilt-Till-You-Wilt today at the church so I brought, what else? The owls. I managed to get all 4 happy owls cut out and I actually got 2 fused to the background. Unfortunately the color of the background didn't show up very well, it is kind of washed out but it is a spooktacular green!


There are 2 versions of Happy. I will be making 4 of him 2 each way. Which way do you like best??

I got all the stitching done around the centers of the Big Ten blocks except for Northwestern as LTW needs to embroider the cat and then I will put the "N" around it and do the stitching that way. The most difficult is always the Nittany Lion of Penn State. I really hate going around that one, but they are done! YEAH!!

At 7:47 tomorrow morning my sweet baby girl (DD2) turns 21!! I always thought it fitting that she was born at that time with her daddy being a pilot and all.

Hopefully I will be able to get all the rest of the owls fused tomorrow before we go to take said DD out for dinner to celebrate her big day!

Wild and Wacky Wednesday

Yesterday was a roller coaster of a day. It began well enough. I had a busy day at work and everything worked out well which is unusual when it is so packed. Then I went home, dun, dun dunnnnnn...

The beginning of the evening was GREAT! Look what came in the mail for me from Anne Sutton's personal stash!



She told me that after reading what I wrote (about looking for this fabric) that she has some in her secret stash and so would send me a yard. What a wonderful lady, THANK YOU SO MUCH, ANNE!!!

Then came the event that panicked me. I have been saving some money for something and a HUGE chunk of it was missing!!! I looked everywhere. I am not sure whether I misplaced it or if, during our graduation party, someone took it, or a friend of the kids took it. I am just SICK over it (it was THAT much money, over $1000). I am still holding out hope that I somehow misplaced it or put it in a "safe" place that I am just not remembering. Please pray for me to St. Anthony (patron saint of lost stuff) that he will help me to find it. That's all I am going to say about it for now or I will begin to panic again.

It was quilting night at CHV so I had to get my stuff together and get going. "Breathe, Pam, just breathe and go to quilting, you can do it." So I got my stuff together and went. It was probably the best thing I could have done. I didn't talk about the money and I just focused on my owls. I managed to get the fusible fused to the owl fabrics for 2 of the owls, one set of 4 owls cut out and one owl of another set cut out. I didn't think to take photos of the first one (Sleepy) but he is all cut out and ready to fuse to the backgrounds. I got one of Grumpy cut out and it is not fused down but it looks like this:



I am pleased with how he turned out. I liked the sleepy one too but as I said I forgot to take pics of him. I am planning to work on them tonight so will show you more tomorrow or so.

My DF Pauline is in the swap with me too and she is making crows. Last week at CHV I drew crows/ravens for her and here is a sneak peek at 2 of her blocks. She has a couple of other designs too that aren't done yet but these are awesome. she doesn't have a blog so I asked her if I could put them on mine. I think this one is my favorite. I like how the feet curl into the eye socket.


The second one is a variation on the first.
Can you believe this one? She paper pieced the bit on the bottom of the block. *Over achiever!!*



So there you have a sneak peek at our Spooktacular Swap blocks. I think they are coming out very well. Our other friend, Sharon, has spiders so I think we will be helping her with those soon.

As I said in a previous post, I have also been working on the Big Ten blocks for the center of each of the blocks. This is what my sewing table looks like at the moment, covered with Big Ten kits.



They are all fused and now I need to stitch around them all. There are 11 schools in the Big Ten so we added the "Big Ten" block too. We are making 2 quilts each time until the 5 of us each have a quilt for ourselves too. That means I have 22 blocks to stitch around. I will have 12 owls to do at the same time. The BT blocks need to be finished by Aug 29 and the owls need to be arriving at Jane's on Sept 1st!

Wait, can someone please add a few more days to August?

WOWZA

I can't believe all the wonderful comments on the last post! All my comments go to my gmail and then to my phone and the phone has been chiming away! There are too many comments for me to respond to individually so thank you everyone for leaving nice comments and for following my blog too. I do hope you will be back after the drawing. Anne has posted about it in her blog now too so if you didn't make it over there to leave her a comment please take a minute to let her know how much we all appreciate her generosity too!

What have you all been working on over the weekend? I really wanted to work on my owls but got really side tracked by the World Champoinship swimming on Saturday. A friend of my daughter's swam in the 200 free (probably other things too but I didn't watch today, I recorded it for later so I could get something done!)She placed 2nd and broke the American record! Not too shabby I think. I don't know how their relays did but will look it up and let you know later. I have posted about Allison before when she swam in the Olympics. She is a really nice girl and we are all so proud of her!

I looked up Allison's 400 free and she placed 4th in that. Then she swam in the 2 X 200 relay and that took second place!!

So what did I work on all day today? Well it is that time again. Time for the annual Pathology quilt raffle and so time for the Big Ten quilt to re-surface. This time the blocks will be an Ohio Star. I had to cut out the "kits" for each of the blocks. We are making 2 quilts this year too. I suggested that since it would be awkward if one of the people making this quilt were to win in why not do 2 each year until we all have our own? So the first one is going to Yuki since she will be going back to Japan before we make the one for next year. As I was cutting I thought maybe it would be nice for the person receiving the quilt to also choose the block. (I'd like to say cut the kits and applique the centers but I suspect I would be over ruled) What do you think? If you were going to receive the quilt would you want to choose the block?
Since I don't have any pictures of this wonderful process, I will leave you with a photo that DD2 took in the Galapagos Islands of a Blue Footed Booby. They are only found in the GI and this one had a chick. I have TONS of GI photos on my flicker account if you are interested. It is a beautiful place and I will share more later.

It's that time of year again!!

What time of year you ask?  Why time for the U of M department of Pathology quilt raffle!!  I am showing you some photos in the Cardiovascular center of how we had them up and displayed on Thursday and Friday.

If you go to the department's website you will be able to view each quilt in full view and up close.  Those photos are so much better than mine!  The beautiful lone star was made by my friend, Robin and you should see the quilting LTW did on it!
My friend's Yuki and Judith made this sampler and LTW quilted each block differently!
This lighthouse quilt has light houses from Michigan cross stitched on each block.
The one on the far left was done by a woman who's boyfriend had a liver transplant and was so grateful!  It is a beautiful quilt.  See the green and white one?  That is the Spartan quilt!
These 2 are just awesome!  The Christmas one has lots of embellishments including a cameo on her blouse and earrings on her ears!  The kids one on the right was  BOM from a quilt shop in Saline.  It is simply a stunning quilt!!
Here is the Big Ten quilt that was a joint effort between me and 4 other women.  I appliqued all the centers and cut the blocks into "kits".  Then we all got together one afternoon and made the top and we gave it to LTW (who also made some of the blocks), so it was a very productive afternoon!  The big M string quilt you have all seen on my blog in the past.  The U of M fight song was quilted into the quilt!!  the little Jack-O-Lantern is a Buggy Barn design and just as cute as can be!
If you are interested in purchasing tickets they are $1 each or $5 for 6 tickets.  You can go to the Pathology web page and fill out and print out tickets.  You can send them to me in the mail.  The money goes to patient families at the U of M that are identified as being in need by the social work department.  If you are interested, please send me an email for my mailing address and I can tell you who to make checks to.  Each quilt has a number assigned to it and you choose which number you want your ticket to be for, one number per ticket.  So it is like 43 little raffles!!

In this economy every dollar counts to help those less fortunate than we are!  C'mon you know you want to help, and maybe win a beautiful quilt in the process!! (Maybe one I made!!)

Big Ten Quilt 2008

It was that time of year again.  Time for us to gather and work on our BIG Ten quilt for the U of M quilt raffle.  We gathered at Robin's house (she is in the blue holding up the Purdue block).  You see from left to right after Robin, LTW, me and Judith.  (Yuki was taking the photo!)  That was our group this year.  If you remember I had all the blocks make up in kits so it made things much easier to put the whole thing together.  I think it took us about 3 hours to put the entire top together.  Robin fed us breakfast as we were all there at 9am on Sunday morning.
Here you can see out rows all finished before being assembled into the finished top.
As you can see here *I* am still working on the borders.  They all put their machines away and made me put both sets of borders on the quilt.  They got out the wine and were having some before I was even finished!
Here is what the finished top looked like.  I will have more and better pictures once it is back from LTW.
They let me have a few sips of wine while they were whipping me to finish! LOL.
All in all it was a wonderful day.  Once we finished Robin had made a wonderful spread for us for lunch too.  I am looking forward to doing this again next year!  Having the kits ready sure made it easier and less stressful for everyone.

Big Ten Fabric and Potential Swap

I forgot to tell you....Liz's link is now active!!!  She is adding things all the time but go and check it out!!

I had to go to the LQS on Monday looking for border fabric for the Big Ten quilt and I found it!  There on the left.  The amazing blue one!  Well, while I was there I thought I really needed (needed, mind you) to look and see what other Big Ten colors they had.  We always struggle to get the right colors and I had the "kits" with me so I could actually match the colors to the focus fabrics.  I got yellow for U of M and Iowa, red for Wisconsin and Red for OSU.

More red, for Indiana, orange for Illinois, green for MSU and gray for OSU.  
I still need some colors but this was a nice start!  I shopped at Threads and Treasures where the owner, Kay Atkins, is so nice and friendly and gives you a 25% discount if you buy 1/2yard cuts (or more).  I can't find the website right now (not sure they have one) but if you are ever in Belleville Michigan stop in and tell her I sent you!

I am considering hosting a swap.   I have to take a picture of the quilt top to show you before I post all about it though.  It would involve you guys having partners to swap with and me sending you all a pattern that involves using 5 yards of different fabric to make.  What do you think?  Would anyone be up for a 1 yard focus fabric swap?  The quilt is adorable and quick.  If there is no interest I will drop it.  My CL's will be doing this challenge after Christmas (they are too stressed out to do it before Christmas and the craft show).  

Quilting with the CL's

I had quilting with the CL's last night and they were so good to me, as always!  I was looking for a red and white dot to use for the binding on the Chubby Chicks quilt and Ruth Ann was going out so since she wasn't sure which size I wanted she bought 3 different sizes!!  I love them.  The one I had in my minds eye was the one on the top, the Minnie Mouse one.  Won't that be cute??
Then Charlotte is making these adorable scissor holders.  I bought 2 for Christmas gifts but will most likely buy more for some additional presents.  We will be selling these at the Christmas Sale at the church in December.  They have 3 pockets so you have a place for your large, and small scissors and then a place for a small ruler.  
Charlotte also found this fabric and thought of me, so she bought me a half a yard and gave it to me just because she likes me!  Wow, I am so blessed to have such wonderful, generous friends 

= )
In case you all forgot what the blocks for Karen and Cory's Anniversary block look like here is one of the 20 I have finished so far, only 22 more to do!!
I took some photos of the fabrics I bought yesterday for the BTQ and will post those tomorrow with a photo of the 5 yard quilt top that LTW has made for an example.  TTFN!!

What did I do all weekend?

It turned out to be a crazy busy weekend,. DD1 decided to come home for the weekend as she had a dr appointment on Monday. She arrived home Sat am. I made all kinds of "tailgate" foods and we ate and watched the MSU game. Of course there was laundry as well, what were you thinking? I *never* just sit, and I bet none of you do either! Saturday night I sewed a little bit on the blocks for Karen and Cory's quilt (I bet you all forgot about that one, huh?) I also traced all the owls and cut out all the little owl parts. I read my book and look who kept me company the entire time!
Mosen was more than happy to take my place once I got up.
I had sent away for the "Creepy Squirrel" that I saw on Kim's blog and here he is in all his glorious creepyness. Don't you just love him?
Sunday morning was great. I got up and worked on the fourth block in the Designer Sampler BOM. It turned out quite nicely I think.
I also mansaged to get another orphan star done and finished the Big Ten block of applique. I had to applique all the school symbols around the block and put the sashings on. Then we had the doctor appointment for DD. Poor DD she is having a difficult time with that time of the month. She experiences so much pain she often is incapacitated, so off to the dr. Well, said dr is having her come back on Monday next week for blood work and an ultrasound (transvaginal) so we will see how she does. They want to rule out ovarian cysts before any hormonal therapy.

I gave LTW my quilting plan for the M string quilt and she didn't expire. Then I gave her my quilting plan for the Witch's Pantry. All she said is :"You don't want it for this Halloween do you?" Well with as much work as it is all I have to say is "DUH!" If anyone can do what I asked she can. I can't wait to show you what I planned. LTW has my crude drawing so we will see how it goes. I have my friend, Robin print out a picture of the quilt and lighten it up and then draw how I want it quilted. This way I can give it to LTW and she can make it happen. I did forget to talk about thread with her but I know she will ask before she begins.

I had to stop by the LQS to get border fabric for the Big Ten quilt. They should never let me shop alone! I did manage to get the border fabirc as well as several other fabrics for the BTQ next year. Now we are only lacking a few and we won't have to scramble as much.

Then I had quilting with the CL's tonight. I sewed the binding on the St Pat's donation quilt in hopes that someone would hand sew it down. Luckily Dian agreed to do that for me. Thanks, Dian! LTW shared a pattern with me this week and I decided to make it into a challenge for the ladies. Everyone needs to bring in 1 yard of a focus fabric and I will put them in brown bags. Each person that wants to participate can take a bag, and using 4 other fabrics make a quilt. If they like it they can keep it, if not they can donate it. I think we will have a party at the end and show and tell. *AFTER Christmas!*

Well, that's all for tonight.