Liebster Award

Ok.....I am going to give this a try.  Connie over at  http://adayatatime2.blogspot.com/ did this and she had to find 11 other bloggers to participate and it seems like I am the only one so far to take the jump, so I will try and do it justice.  I don't think I personally know 11 other bloggers that might take it on from my blog, but I will see what I can do, too. 

1. When did you start blogging and what inspired you to blog?
It's just been a couple years  and I had a friend that started blogging and thought it might be fun, but I didn't think I had anything to say until I had a coworker that brought a quilt book back from Hawaii for me and she kept asking if I had made anything yet. (like we all jump right in and make something from every book we buy, right?)  So...I made her a pillow with one applique block on it  just so she would stop asking and blogged about that.  LOL.

2. How did you learn to quilt?

Well, I was tole painting at the time and we were sent to a "quilt shop" (didn't know those existed) to pick up some fabric that was going to be applied to a piece of wood and then we would paint on it.  I walked in and was in awe.  Saw something on the wall that I wanted, but was told that I had to take a class for it.  Of course it was kind of advanced, so I had to take the beginners class first and thus.....tole painting went to the wayside.

3. Do you enjoy cooking?
Sometimes.  I have to be in the mood and then when I am....watch out.  I cook everything under the sun.

4. What is your favorite travel memory?
Oh, that is a hard one.  As a family we love going out west and venturing out in the wilderness on our own...four wheeling and discovering things that are off the beaten path.  I remember insisting that I be let out of the car so I could see what was over the next hill just in case there was a drop off.  LOL. Never was, but it was pretty scary.  Then again, I love being waited on when we are on a cruise.  Ahh....where's "James" when I need him (our waiter). 

5. City or country?
Suburbs.

6. What is your favorite TV program or series?
Hmmmm...there really isn't much on TV, but I like Project Runway, Castle, American Idol, Modern Family and I am sure there are a couple more, but I can't think of them now. 

7. Did you have a part-time job while you were in high school?
Yes, it was a co-op job. I worked as a secretary in a wholesale lawn and garden distributor.

8. How old were you when you learned to knit?
I don't remember the exact age, but my mom taught me embroidery, knitting, crochet, sewing starting at the age of 5 or so. 

9. Tea, coffee, or neither?
I love coffee flavored ice cream, candy, etc, but don't like coffee; so the only other alternative for a good hot drink is tea and my favorite is Lipton Mangosteen and White Peach (either hot or cold). 
 

10. Do you enjoy watching sports?
An emphatic....no.  Oops...of course if it is grandkids, that is a different story.

11. Do you belong to a mini-group?
Yup.....and I talk about the gals frequently on my blog.  Sharon and Nancy. It's pretty "mini", but it suits us just fine. 

Quilty weekend getaway.....

We were down at the farm (Sharon's farm) where we spent Friday through Sunday, eating, chatting and sewing until the wee hours of the night. 

Here are Sharon's accomplishments.

Flying geese.

Then she put together her liberated black/gray/white and red blocks. 

Nancy worked on her long-term, mini log cabins again.

She put together a charity quilt with cute farm animals on the fabric. (So apropos for being down at  the farm)

and she finished this adorable  top, too.

Me?  I got the queen sized  black and white with red quilt top done. (It still needs squaring up and trimming)

 

....and I also put together more of the left over b/w segments, but no sashing inbetween them (no picture).

I got all the strips cut out for my son's wedding quilt. 

and I lined a purse that I knitted and felted some time ago.

 

 

 

The best part of our weekend was having a new quilter with us, Karolina.

She worked diligently on four string blocks.  She sewed her strips, pieced them together, layered it, and used a decorative thread and stitch to quilt it and even started binding it before leaving.

 

She did a beautiful job for her first time out.  

Then on a lighter side, my friends had to poke a little fun at me.  Nancy had bought us each this new "non-skid" gadget  for our foot pedals.  You Velcro your pedal to this and it won't move on you while you are quilting.  Well....leave it to my friends to see that I put mine upside down.  Duh!!!

 

 

 

It was working, so what's the problem!!!  LOL.  Leave it to me. 

 

But we had a great weekend with lots accomplished. 

Bon Voyage.....

Sad to send this off

 



 

It's like sending your firstborn off to college.

 

But then really excited that it will be at AQS's Lancaster Quilt show next month.

 

Also, very excited that I will be there to see it hanging. 

Running out of floor space....

I have been on a roll this weekend and have all my strings sewn together, pressed and then cut into segments.  

Laid out the first 10 rows of B/W's here and randomly spaced red pieces 

Here they are stitched together once I made my decisions. 

Still needed to have these 10 rows on the floor so that I could know where the next set of segments should go along with dispersing the red pieces, too. 

Here are all 20 rows of which the last 10 rows are not stitched just yet.  

I just needed to be able to step away from this to see if the red is evenly spread all over.  I am thinking I am ready to stitch the last 10 rows.  

Next will be to cut the white strips that will go in between each of these rows.  

I am thinking, even though I was complaining about sewing all the strips, that this was a pretty easy project.  

I do still have several segments left over, but not as much as I thought (I thought I would get another two queen sized quilts out of all this), but I may get a lap quilt out of what is left.  Of course, I could make my sashing strips a little wider than the 2" that I am going to make for this one.  We will see.  Once this top is done, I will lay out the segments and see just how many there are.

But for now, I am pretty satisfied with what I have accomplished so far.  

Enjoy the last few hours of your weekend.  

I am going to see strings in my sleep.....

I had a mountain of strings cut.

This pile was organized last night in dark, medium and lights.  Don't know what happened since then.

But I have been stitching away all day. 

This pile is pressed. 

Then I cut some of them into their segments and laid out a few to see how it was going to look. 

So, I have been stitching and stitching and thinking the pile wasn't getting any smaller, but this is where I have ended tonight.

Not too bad, but I have this pile to press tomorrow. 

And here is another look at some of the segments laid out this evening. 

Segments aren't sewn together yet.  I want to make sure there is a good distribution of fabrics before I do the final sewing for each row.  

I swear it took longer to sew them back together than it took for me to cut them.  

Oh well....I made good headway today.  I can't expect miracles.  

There's been no blogging and no quilting......

....and why is that?

Because I have been doing this instead.

Walking in the rain forest.

Walking on the edge of the Caribbean. 

Looking at rainbows.

Gazing at the Atlantic from our window.

Sitting on Luquillo Beach

....and eating lots of Puerto Rican food.

 

 

Then it was back to Michigan....10 degrees.  What a rude awakening!

I did come home and finished cutting all my black and whites into strips for the scrappy B/W quilt that I mentioned in my December 8th post.

 

 

and started piecing some of the strips.

 

 

Ya know...I just had to have my quilting fix. 

 

I didn't take anything with me on our trip, but then again, I probably wouldn't have gotten to any of it anyways as we were pretty busy. 

 

Well, it is back to normal now, so I hope to have a lot more to show in the quilting depart very soon.