Wednesday Randomness

Well, so much for cool Fall weather. The last couple days had been too hot here in southern CA. When I picked up the kiddos from school yesterday, my car registered the outside temperature to be at 100 degrees. It is another warm day today, then it will cool down by the weekend in the low 70s... yeah... lol I sounded like a weatherman don't I?

My DD, Mandy, didn't have class till evening, so we went out to JoAnn's to get some ideas for Halloween costumes. We didn't stayed too long (had to pick up kiddos) and decided to come back this weekend for the Columbus Day sales. But.... I did managed to find a book on Mariner's Compass by Judy Mathieson.... used my 40% off coupon. :-)

Then, when we got home.... look what is in the mail... Bonnie Hunter's new book, Scraps & Shirtails: Reuse, Re-Purpose, Recycle! The Art of Quilting Green ... :-D

Two wonderful books to stir and to fill my brain with more wonderful quilts to make.

Also, I received a postcard from Brigitte yesterday but forgot to share ... thanking me for the Crazy BAg from Linda's Bag Swap.

Wow! What a great quilt and a great idea to print the photo onto postcard cardstock!

Things that I worked on today ....

Secret Santa Swap -

Since it a secret, I very well can't show you my project... but the project came from this magazine. Half-way done with this one... I really need to get a move on with this project. Deadline is November 1??

The Center Pinwheel -

Not something that I did today, but I worked on this for the last few days. It's the Center Pinwheel of Pinwheels and Posies BOM. This block is the last block of the series that was released last month. For this month, it's time to put everything together. I'm hoping to find sometimes this weekend to do that.

Calico Garden

I was distracted last night so only quilted one 9-patch. I'm hoping to get more done tonight. With that in mind, I'll end this post here.

Thank you everyone for the lovely comments on my CG. I'm putting this quilt on top of the list to get it done.... sew I must go off and quilt, quilt, quilt. :D

Calico Garden

Do you watch Dancing with the Stars?

I do.... I L-O-V-E watching this show.

Usually, I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but when I do, I like to have some kinds of handwork on hands to work on. Well, I could hand piece those Dear Jane blocks that I haven't worked on forever ... which, incidentally, I am wayyyy behind than the rest of the DJ group.

Likewise, there is another project that I haven't touched forever.... my Calico Garden quilt. I am in the process of hand quilting this crib sized quilt. My goal at the beginning of the year was to finish this quilt, and here we are.... it's October.... I'm still not done. :-(

The pattern came from this book.... Enduring Grace, Quilts from the Shelburne Museum Collection. Calico Garden was made by Florence Peto in 1952.


My CG quilt top is hand appliqued and hand pieced. The appliqued blocks are tiny, 3" finished. The nine patches also finished at 3".

The quilt was started in October 2004; it took me a whole year to complete the top (see below). Then, it took me almost another year to work up the nerves to get it basted and started the quilting.

Unfortunately, I hurt my hand shortly after that, and the quilt ended up on the shelf.

I am determined to get this quilt done ... hopefully, by the end of this year or beginning of next year. Please do feel free to cheer me on, I think I need it. lol





By the way, I should mentioned that there is A LOT of quilting that goes on in this quilt. I have quilted around each appliques and the broderie persed swags. There are still the 1/2" cross hatchings in the background and 9-patches to do.
But.... OY VEY.... there are way too many seams to quilt through.

While watching Dancing With the Stars tonight, I quilted through 5 nine-patches. I'm looking forward to tomorrow night Result show and getting a few more patches done. :-)

This photo was taken after the top is done... no quilting on it yet.