Wowed 'em at Show and Tell!

I'm always teased when I have lots of projects for Guild show and tell, and last Tuesday was no exception. I had my five recently assembled quilt tops; fortunately, Claire also brought lots of finished quilt tops, too. So, that meant there were two of us to pick on.

Our current president, Cheryl, likes to launch the meetings with a survey, or something to think about. At next meeting, it's going to be true confessions . . . how many projects in progress, how many quilt tops ready to be quilted. I needed to pull all of mine out anyway, so I started the count. I have 48 bed sized quilt tops ready to be quilted. I sorted that stack into those to be hand-quilted, and those to be machine quilted by Viki in exchange for hand-knit socks. Those two stacks came to 30 for Viki, and 18 for myself. This count, of course, includes only those that are actually ready to be quilted. I laid four tops aside to be donated as charity quilts; there are about half a dozen that I probably won't quilt, but I still have some emotional attachment or something . . . I just can't let them go . . . yet! Hey, Viki . . . do you need about 150 pairs of socks?

Over the weekend, I worked on my Bonnie Hunter mystery (#4), Double Delight. I have about 40 square-in-a-square units to trim, and then 4 million nine-patches to make to finish that one. Also, pulled out a project from a mystery taught in 2006, by my dear friend, Laura. She was teaching the class at a now gone shop called, "Sew Creative" . . . and Roseanna and I decided to sign up to surprise her. We had a great day, but I put the quilt top away, and haven't gone back to it. Pulling it out gave me an opportunity to remember a fun-time spent with Laura and Roseanna . . . and I have all the blocks sewn, ready to press and assemble. I'm fiddling with the outer border, which will be a vine; picking up an idea from the background fabric, the flowers will be red hearts. I was trying to locate a green in my stash for the vine and leaves, when some minor inspirational nag in the back of my mind suggested making the leaves from scraps . . . my green drawer is just about to overflow again. So, I guess that means I only need to locate a suitable green to be the vine.

My other sit and sew project is a Bonnie Hunter (can you tell I'm a fan) pattern using Kab-net Wax paper as a foundation, and "strings" to make blocks. (Strings are narrow strips, though I have used mostly 1 inch, 1 1/2 inch and 2-inch. I don't know why I am obsessed with big quilts, but I'm planning to make about another 18 ten-inch blocks, before putting this project on the completed flimsy side bar! This is a kind of funny one, because it started with another's scraps. Linda G. had a shoe-box full of strips, and was making piano key borders. She finished her project and was going to throw the shoe-box in the trash! My heart nearly stopped . . . I grabbed the box, and started my string blocks, adding some from my stash, too. My DSIL, Jan, also used some of them . . . adding from my stash . . . oh, well, I have plenty to spare! Any way, I suggested passing the box around, and I need to pass it on to the next player who made the call, Ginny.

Not neglecting my knitting, I am nearing the heel on the second Jaywalker sock for Viki, and plodding away at my SFS pair, too. For no brainer knitting in the car, I launched a pair for myself in Cat Bordhi's classic pattern, using some Debra Norville sock yarn with aqua, lime green, and a mottled reddish brown and white . . . it's really cute, not as disgusting as it sounds!

Grandson and his buddy, Trevor, will be my shadows on Saturday . . . Grandpa will be working the auction, and I'm going to get the boys started with a penny book, the beginnings of a coin collection. They want to go to the auction, too. Grandson really likes to help put the chairs and tables away after the sale . . . it doesn't hurt that Grandpa usually finds a couple dollars in his pocket for Drew, too.

Pictures up next, double dog promise!