Signature quilt 2010

Here is what I got done yesterday and today, 30 blocks cut and partially pieced.

This quilt has 1 accent fabrics and 1 theme fabric (not shown).  There are 3 blocks made out of each fabric. More to come tomorrow... I hope.

Signature quilt beginnings

I am going to begin making a signature quilt this week. I made an example block with really bad instructions on it. I may redo it to be more clear.

I have worked at the same school since it opened almost 7 years ago. Now it looks as though I will have to go to a new school next year to teach, due to my lack of seniority and a new school opening.

For this quilt I plan to gather signatures from each of my ESL students and some coworkers.

Tomorrow I am going to my sister's house to cut pieces for the quilt. I am being ambitious though, as I am also taking a quilted jacket project. Regardless, I should have something to show for it by Sunday.

Memory Quilt by mom

Here is the memory quilt that my mom made me for Christmas!

Close ups:
Poppop loved to golf at Hurricane Creek. This was one of his golf shirts from there and a tie, with Mickey golfing.








This is Nana and Poppop's wedding photo and their 50th anniversary photo. Nana and Poppop were married for 54 years before Nana passed away.








Mom made a fan out of several of Poppop's ties.









Poppop was in the Airforce during WWII. He was a mechanic and instructor stationed in Colorado and in Texas. He helped make accurate maps of the Texas Mexico Border by "hanging" out the bomb bay doors with a camera.








This is a picture of the 3 grand kids.
Victoria, me and Michael.






This is a piece of muslin that mom brought to Poppop's funeral. Everyone that came wrote a brief message of farewell to Poppop on the pieces of muslin.








Mom put my wedding photo in the quilt as well, as others that I didn't put in this post.

Ready for Spring

I am ready for winter to be over. The cold is seeping into my bones and affecting my mood. Winter blues stink!!

The good news is that Mom said she is done quilting a memory quilt for me. She gave me the top for Christmas and took it back to quilt. I hope to pick it up on Friday and post pics of it then too!

I hear the house saying, "Clean me!".
I hear the quilts saying, "Make something of me."
I hear the book Atlantis saying, "Read me."
I hear the treadmill saying, "Run on me."
And I hear the TV saying, "Watch me."
I think I need a shrink.
I haven't decided yet which voice I'll listen to tonight.

Fire in Fireplace

Our first fire in the fireplace!

Neon Quilt

I finally forced myself to leave all the cleaning for another day and went into my sewing room. I began this quilt about a month ago at a quilting class. I did a fan once about 10 years ago and now I remember why I haven't done any since. They are a pain in that patooty!
As you can probably see, I have not pieced this top together all the way. I have to do the "handles" on some. Then I am going to have fun squaring these up.

Lessons learned thus far:
1. Never do fans again.
2. Don't store square while folded in half diagonally; it warps them.

I was supposed to do 4 more fans, one for each corner, but I think I like the cross like form of this.

The inspiration of this quilt color scheme is the handle of the fan. The fabric was large circles of kaleidoscope designs. I imagined it would be perfect used this way.
When I finally get it all pieced together, I hope to get Richard Larson to quilt it for me. I imagine that he will be able to recreate some elements of the kaleidoscope design for the background.
Maybe I will finally get up the guts to enter a quilt into a show. Beyond that, I guess I will keep it. I think with the bright colors my kids at school will like to see that not all quilts are old fashioned and "lame". I dream one day of starting a quilting club at school.

New Year

My DH and I discussed getting a Wii for ourselves for Christmas. Then we went to empty out our storage unit and discovered that we have too much China! So we found a china hutch on Ebay instead. I am thrilled with our find...
My DH is not as thrilled that we got a china hutch instead of a Wii.

Next project I MUST do is work on a quilt for some of the walls in the house. Or maybe another table runner for the dining room table. I have been on vacation for 2 weeks and I have not set foot in my sewing room!! That has GOT to be a crime!!