Ladybugs ... How fun!

I spent Saturday at a local library ... but I wasn't looking as books.  A local quilting group holds a class about 4 times a year, and for $5 you get to spend the day with other quilters and let creativity reign. 

The pattern this time was Lady Bug Playground (free to download from http://konabay.com/quilting-fabric/category/Complimentary_Patterns.html).  What a cute, fun pattern.  Yes, we all chose very different colors.  But that's part of the fun when a group of quilters.

Do I plan to follow pattern exactly?  Of course not!  And you shouldn't be suprised either.  According to the pattern, the finished quilt is 50" wide ... I decided that I wanted mine to be a bit wider, so my quilt will use 12 blocks instead of 8.  I found a great focus fabric and the rest is history, at least for this quilt. 

No, my colors are not traditional, but aren't the ladybugs adorable?

Time Still Flies!!

I can hardly believe that it's been more than 10 days since I last updated Quilters Off Center ... there is just so much going on right now!

1.  The Celestial Waltz quilt is finished!  Well, it needs a label, but that's it (and I hope to get that done tonight).  A picture will be coming soon.  The winning ticket will be drawn May 19, 2012 ... Can't wait to see who the lucky winner will be!

2.  My version of Key Lime Pie will be finished tonight also ... label included.  It's official name is "Berrylicious".  I am trying to get a good picture ... two of the colors are close, and they play nicely with each other.  Pictures are another story.

3.  I will be making two quilts for 4-H clubs to raffle.  One will find a home in Southeast Ohio, the other in Northwest Ohio ... can't wait to get those started!

4.  Saturday, oh what fun I'm planning to have!  A new quilting friend asked me to go with her to a one day class near home ... the blocks are fairly large and should go together easily which is always a good thing.  And I found the cutest fabric for my starting point ... lady bugs!  The fact that the background is an aqua totally made my day.  Can't wait to post pictures!

Where does time go?

I was going to spend a weekend in hiding, to catch up on some quilting projects ... it was a nice thought.  I did get one quilt top completed - just the top though.  OK, I did get the backings done for the brick quilts.  I also discovered that the lasagna quilt tops need to be about 12" longer ... so ...  Sigh!  

I did get to spend some time with my Mom this weekend though, so that kind of made up for not getting caught up as much as I wanted to.  One day, I will be caught up completely ... maybe ;)

Julie and I spent 2 hours on the phone last night.  She called and I was sitting around watching TV, surfing on my ipad and just relaxing.  She was sewing...does that surprise anyone????

So i got up and went into the sewing room and started on the last few quarters of that darn hunter's star quilt...yep...it has a new name...DARN HUNTER'S STAR...I would use stronger language, but...

So i got the middle's sewn together...correctly this time...and the medium large triangles.  I have just the dark triangles left.  that should take long.  then I will press and square these quarter blocks and sew four of them together to make a finished box...I will have six of the finished blocks.

I will win against that DARN HUNTER'S STAR quilt.

Encourge a Friend

Well ... I've been experiencing a lack of drive to work on projects lately.  So I called June.  It was wonderful!!  We chatted for a couple of hours.  And better yet, we were both sewing while we talked.  Talk about soothing!  I got to catch up with her, and we both made some progress on our projects ... it just doesn't get much better than that.

Have you ever woken up in the middle of night and decided to quilt.  well at 12:30 am I got up and decided I would work on my Hunter's Star quilt.  I have the final 24 quarters cut out and the middle half of each half of the quarter block done.  My next step was to sew the two halves together. So I turn on the Tv, found this old channel METv.  It plays really old shows, Mary Tyler Moore, Quantum Leap...stuff like that.  So i'm watching and happily sewing.  When I started pressing the seams, I think, something isn't quite right.  Oh No!  I had sewn these two pieces together backwards.  So reverse stitching began...24 seams....oh no...so maybe it wasn't a good idea to sew at 12:30 am..:(

Let me tell you this Hunter's Star quilt is out to get me.  Can quilts be possessed? 

It has been nothing but trouble.  I can't tell you how many times I've cut wrong, sewed wrong or ironed wrong.  The latest is that I ran out of the dark fabric and I'm not sure I have enough of the medium fabric to do a border.  I wanted this to be a king sized quilt and I only have 36 full HS blocks.  So that leaves a huge border.  If I have enough of the medium border I will do two large borders of light and a small border of medium in between.  It looks good on EQ...so it has to look good finished...right????

How do pattern designers do it when they don't know how the finished product will look?  How do they know how much fabric they'll need.   And if you're like me and let the quilt decide the borders, how do you ever know how much fabric you need for the border.  I have so much to learn!

I recently joined an online quiltbee and recently one of the participants sent out this link for a BOM.  http://www.lecienusa.com/?blockofmonth/  Check it out.  The quilt is beautiful.  They already have several months worth of patterns out there. 

Happy Quilting...or reverse stitching if you're me!

Happy Sampler

 Just a quick update on the Sampler class I'm taking at Millstream.  I have two of the three Week 1 blocks done for "Happy", none for "Winter" ... yet.  Thirteen Squares is pictured first, then A Dandy.  I have to finish cutting the pieces to makes the Salem blocks, hopefully tonight.