Inspiration Anyone?...Anyone??

That's right. I am asking for inspiration. I know I have a list of things to do but those are "things that must be done". You *know* that is not the fun list, right? Oh it begins innocently enough. The things begin as fun things you want to do and then they turn into "things that must be done". UGH!!!

I have my machine out and it is all serviced and ready to go. I have lots of "things that must be done" quilts I could work on. I just have no desire to do any of them right now. I remember feeling like this last year at this time too.

I did a lot of cleaning and laundry this past weekend, that was good. Should have freed up my Sunday for sewing. Nope, found more cleaning and laundry to do along with grocery shop. I decided I had to do a couple of things so here is what I did in the sewing room.

I found this charm pack given to me by one of my CL's that I adore (thanks RAW!!). I cut it into coins for another coin quilt. I cut the white fabric she had given me to go with it into the borders and then decided that it is too white to go well with these coins. I need to cut some snow. Of course, right? I will use the white eventually when I get something to put it with and it will be all cut and ready to use. I even cut the rest of the white into sashing strips for a second one. There was not enough to get 2 backs cut but I did cut one.


LTW and I had ordered some Kaffe and Phillip Jacobs fabrics from a place I found them on sale. We each ordered half a yard cuts so I cut them all into FQ and bagged up half for LTW. You guessed it, that was the extent of my "quilting" this weekend. How pathetic!

When I leave work today, I will have DD drop me at the gym and work out. I will meet with my team leader for the first time and that should be interesting. I am on the purple team, along with PTM. Then I will ask DD to come and get me and go to the WW meeting. Then home for the evening. DH is home and hopefully will make the turkey breast I left for him to do! He made some fabulous squash soup last night. I just wish he had made more of it! I ate the rest for lunch today. Very low points!! I am anxious to see if I have lost any weight according to the WW scales.

Is anyone else having difficulty getting motivated to quilt? I have lots of ideas. I am working on some embroidery though and have almost gotten another one finished. Will show it to you when it is complete.

I did list another little thing on my ETSY. A vintage compact. Check it out if you get the chance.

Ann Arbor Quilt Guild Quilt Show

In case you didn't know where I was all weekend, I was attending and working the Ann Arbor Quilt show.  I had entered 2 quilts in the show.  All members were allowed to enter 2 quilts in the show.  It was a fun weekend.  I have uploaded all my photos and will begin sharing them with you now.  

I loved this scrappy star and immediately thought of my friend, Robin and her love of HST.  I might actually have to make this one someday.

Now I am not a huge Sun bonnet Sue fan but this quilt was spectacular!  The needle turn applique was excellent and the piecing and hand quilting were awesome too.
I just liked this one.
I thought this was really neat too.  I have a close up of it later.  Can you see the cats in the fabric?
This quilt was so cute.  All about the 12 days of Christmas!  All 12 were cross stitched, I only took a couple of photos.  I would love to know where the pattern for the cross stitch came from as I would consider doing it, that's how much I liked it!
Isn't this swan so cute with her bathing cap on?  I actually ran into the woman with these squares before she had made it into a quilt.  We were both at the quilt shop and she was choosing fabric to make the quilt with.
I just adore Buggy Barn patterns and this one was called Wild Goose Chase.  I love it!
I took these to show Amy at the Calico Cat.  Aren't these cats great?  I like how they have people all over them.  Like Guliver's Travels, kind of.

Every person that entered a quilt was required to work 2 hours at the show.  So on Sunday I was wearing my white glove and walking around and I ran into the woman that made this quilt.  It is entitled, Georgia (her granddaughter) and was from a photo taken while on Beaver Island (where Gwen Marston lives, BTW).  She was very nice and offered to show me how to do this if I was interested.  Uh, duuhhh, of course!
This quilt won the Viewer's choice award.  It was pretty cool.  By Sue Holdiway-Hayes (I hope I spelled that right!, sorry Sue if I didn't)
The rocks were fascinating.
Here is an up close of the cats I was talking about.  They look like they were appliqued on but in reality they are part of the fabric!
I liked this one for it's use of that fabric for the wake.  Too cool!  Check out the nautical flag fabric used in the border!
This is all I have for now.  I have more photos and will post more later.  I was pretty good and did not buy too much.  I will take some photos of what I bought and post those later too.  I bought the panel of Pumpkins Gone Wild and a charm pack to use around the panel, 2 fat quarters, a binding ruler to cut bias binding and some red scaly fabric for a project DD1 and I are thinking about doing.  I will tell you about that later too!  She won't draw what I want until I finish Prismata.  Prismata is a water dragon she drew, I enlarged and chose fabric for but have not made into a quilt...YET.  She doesn't think I will do it but it is on the short list.  She will draw the next one when I finish it.  She drew a series of pond dragons, oh, but wait, I'll show it to you later...

I did manage to get 2 more of the blocks finished for Karen and Cory's quilt.  I also got some laundry done and went to the grocery store.  DH is overnight tonight so I am planning on getting more of the KC blocks done tonight.  I am so ready to be done with that quilt but so nowhere close to actually being finished, *sigh*.

Quilt-A-Thon

I sort of joined in on Judy L's quilt-a-thon this weekend. I could do this because DH drove with DD and her friend to Madison and moved all her stuff home on Fri and Sat.  This left my previously busy weekend more free that I thought! 

 I *need* to get going on that quilt for my sister so here is what I did.  I first finished sewing all the 3 patch units together like this.

Then I sewed them all into 9 patch units like this.
Then they all had to be trimmed (which I HATE doing) like this.
Finally I got to sew the 9 patch units into rows with their white blocks in between like this.  I got 6 of the 13 rows sewn.  Some are even sewn into 2 row units.  I am making progress.  Hallie was lying in this one when I left for work this am.  That should be good.  Calico fur all over it!
It is pretty big so I really doubt if I will put a border on it.  I found some graded purple fabric that I think will make a great binding.  I need to get this done so I can 

1-Sew the binding on TUQ

2-Sew the binding on the U of M quilt (I know, what? it still needs to be done)

3-Make and sew on labels for both 1 and 2 above as well as turn and hand sew above binding down.

4-Cut out the white-on-white squares for the back of the wedding quilt (What was I thinking??) And draw on the 1/4" lines.  One quilt per wedding from now on!  I still need to go and buy the fabric for that too.

5-Cut out the quilt that will go with #4

6-Cut out the blocks for Liz's mom's bear and moose quilts and sew them.

I think I need to stop as I am getting depressed!  I need to clean the house and get ready for DH's BIG 50th birthday on Friday.  I am not sure what we will do yet but he needs something special!