A little bit of autumn

The days are shorter already and nights longer. Temps are cooling slightly. I made pumpkin spice muffins and Friday Night high school football is in full swing. See that gorgeous Maple leaf quilt in the bleachers? I have been watching college football on Saturdays in between my chores and quilting. AND this year I have a Fantasy football team that is public as well as one with some of my family. Sooo much fun. I am playing my husband this week. We aren’t competitive or anything. So far, I am losing terribly.

Work has been weird. I am so glad I have creative endeavors to balance it all out! The Zentangle drawings have helped me survive several long all day meetings and trainings.  I am hoping during this time of great change that it will all work out that I don’t have to commute to another office 2 days a week. Overall, I am not going all over like I was in the summer to cover other offices because they hired staff so I am able to have a life again. It has been worse.

 

 

The blue and yellow quilt is on the long arm frame and made by a Quilter in my quilt group. The fox is going to be a little taggie blanket for a expected grandbaby in a couple of weeks. This is the fabrics that will be the outer borders. I am sewing different textured tags in between the red and white borders. It will be backed with minkee. I have enough white minkee to bind it too. It is a texure “lovie” type of quilt for a newborn.

It’s nice to be home for the weekend. We have the last Highland games next weekend and then the season is over. I expect starting in November I will be home and long arming tons for the holidays. The cooler weather reminds everyone to get their quilts done for gifts.

Vicki

 

 

Block swap

I paper pieced this string block to make a 12.5 inch block for my HelloBlockSwap exchange on Ello. I will mail it over the weekend when it isn’t raining! I love how easy it was to use up little strings left from my City Sampler.  I printed the paper piecing foundation off my Electric Quilter 6 program, love it so much!

After a really terrible start to Renfest last weekend with a torrential downpour , the Highland games went. I sat in the truck and knitted, worked on my podcast and dried out until the games started. My husband had the best time. He tied for first in WOB ! They did a keg toss and a 50 pound hammer throw for fun. It was pretty cool.

Then Sunday we went to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. I took video most of this day but I have a few pictures. Edison’s lab is a really cool place. Love everything about the Village. I went with my parents, my son and his girlfriend and my husband. My dad wanted to see the partial round house there especially. I have been here several times and last time was about 7 years ago, I think. But it never gets old for me. We may go back for the holidays if we can get a ticket.  It is soooo cool. They have Model T’s you can ride, historic buildings and living history stuff going on all over. I think I like it even more than Colonial Williamsburg, maybe that’s my Michigan bias.

Work has been much more back to it’s normal pace so I am getting some quilting done. I have not been to the gym yet but I have fallen twice this week. My middle ears must be flared up…. hope it’s allergies and not the plague that is circulating the office.

Home this weekend, so I expect to get the house clean, and several finishes under my belt. And football and gym and… wait there are only 24 hours in a day!

Vicki

 

 

 

Podcast #2 Show Notes

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/nb5r2-62cbf5?from=yiiadmin“>Listen to Podcast Here!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A series of fall pictures from the past couple of years showing you where I live and some of our fav place to travel to with in a hour of home.

My First Class had this as a final product circa 1986

Part of the 100 blocks in my Tula Pink City Sampler

And a few Highland games pic so you get an idea of what it is all about, I to about 8-10 a year with my husband in the Midwest. We did go to Scotland once, that’s another story.

 

Another item mentioned in the Pod cast is the Quick Curve Ruler

 

Here is a post earlier about RenFest

 

 

Leave a comment about what you think about my beginner class ideas and any thing else mentioned in the podcast! .

 

love those borders

 

 

This morning was a perfect 45 degrees and up to 70. The days are getting shorter, nights longer and autumn is definitely in the air. No frost yet but I think it will be a couple of weeks off. I am so happy because I am not built for heat. My longarm is upstairs and it gets pretty hot even with central air conditioning.

 

I have been working on this really big king sized quilt for a couple of weeks a row at at a time. I made each border have a different stitch, the sashing was different and the block all different stitches. The first time I had big borders to try this on and it worked out! The back shows the stitching. It is a pretty quilt and I love the colors. I am thinking the customer will be happy. From this big quilt to three small shams. They feel like instant gratification!

 

 

This is a preview of a block I am making for a block exchange. This string block was requested. I didn’t like the tutorials on line so I printed a paper pieced foundation. I love it, nice way to use up the little strings left from my Tula Pink City Sampler. Oh yeah I finished all 100 blocks! I will post about that later.

Pretty happy my work is slowing down to a more normal pace. I have less commuting to far flung offices. We have 2 more highland games this season. Next month a grandbaby is coming and a trip to see the baby and the older sisters is planned. I have been to Friday night football games for our local schools and enjoying fantasy football. I am not overly bored, note sarcasm. No gym this week due to a knee injury. I am hoping to resume that next week to get back on track for healthy living. 3 new microbrew pubs/restaurants in town is not good for my diet.

I am contemplating my next big quilt project but think I am going to do smaller ones till after my travels are over.

Vicki

 

Relaxing

 

Getting the fall décor and quilts out! Pumpkin spice muffins will be made. Domestic engineer and quilting is the plan this weekend. I will be watching football. I have a Fantasy team for the first time in years. I LOVE football. When September rolls around and the new school year starts it feels like new year to me. Seasonal changes are beginning and I am starting new things up an finishing things, too. Stay tuned for more on that!

This quilt Name was changed to Michigan, My Michigan. I entered into MQX Springfield, Ill show in October. AND IT GOT IN! I am primping it, adding a hanging sleeve and label to it to prep it for the show.  It is a modern representational quilt of what Michigan is to me, can you guess? I hope you see forests, northern lights, the north star, roads for cars and tourists the Great Lakes with logs in it for the lumbering days and windmills with farmlands .

So many exciting things happen in September, I started my podcast…. link to the show is in the sidebar. Leave comments to let me know what you think!

Vicki

show notes- my first podcast

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/s3565-62764a

Click on the link to listen.

The mosaic has my first quilts , the little double wedding ring, a sampler that I made by hand mostly in a class and the pinwheel quilt that nearly was thrown out. The next picture is some tatting I was working on.

https://mycreativecorner3.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/learning-to-quilt/

I will have to find a pic of the first project, the lone star… I will put it up later in show notes!

 

I found it my lone star pic!

 

Vicki

a little fun

This weekend was the Michigan RenFest. I enjoyed the day immensely. I was able to see all the shows I wanted and see all the shops. I rained so I ducked into the truck. I was able to see my husband compete in the Highland games and I saw friends. I love all the shops there and it really feels like a day in a Fairy Village or Faire. I didn’t wear my skirt but I did wear my vest and tartan. The weather concerned me and I didn’t want to ruin  the skirt. I have some good ideas to jazz up the skirt with layers. I may have it ready buy Sept 17th when we go again for Irish Weekend and they have a Highland Games. Wanna see my husband throw a perfect caber? go to my Instagram account on the side bar for the video.

Today I have a few chores to do and mostly get a king sized quilt on my frame. I have already started working on my last 20 blocks of 100 in my Tula Pink City Sampler. Quiltmaker Magazines 100 block testing pattern cycle has one left and I feel like I will be assembling several tops from these test blocks. Weddings next year and graduations. I have lots of quilts to long arm and I am thrilled.

 

I keep stretching my sore legs and ankles… 13,000 steps in a day for me is a lot! I need to go to festivals more often, lol

Vicki