"A day patched with quilting seldom unravels"

Don't you just love that quote? It's so true. I get in my sewing room and it's like going on vacation. Color! Patterns! Soft, cuddly stuff all around! Once I get my quilting 'fix' I can face the day, or, more often, once I'm done with things I HAVE to do, a respite in my sewing room is my reward.

I'm working on my April UFO here. The pins are still in it and you can see the markings I made with white pen. It's a top I finished a couple of years ago with 20 blocks in different rainbow colors of batiks on black. I envisioned quilting it with bright colors of thread to match the blocks but even though I've had quite a number of years of machine quilting practice, really wasn't sure I could pull it off.

With some encouragement from my "best machine-quilter" friend plus the fact that I bought a Janome bobbin case made especially for machine quilting that another friend told me was great, (and that totally fixed my tension problems!!) I have success! I'm very happy with the way it's turning out!

This UFO WILL be done by the end of the month and I'm going to try to take a photo of it that does it justice rather than the rather washed-out version you see here. You'll notice I used a black batting to keep any "bearding" that might occur from a white batting at bay.

Thanks to Judy for the encouragement to finish my big stack of UFOs! See what other quilters are working on at Judy's blog!

Quilt Rush!

Before my report, take 2 minutes to watch this U-tube video, already seen by almost 3 million people, in preparation for next weekend's Royal Nuptials.


The 12th annual "Quilt Rush" shop hop in Northern California is going on as we speak and I'm pleased to say, that for the first time, I completed it!! What fun! If you've never gone on a shop hop before, grab a quilting buddy or your significant other and head off. A few of the shops I'd never been to and, let me tell you, I now know which shop has the best selection of Civil War fabric is AND which shop has the best batik selection. I bought everything on my list and then some! (I like to save up a list so I buy at least a little something in each shop although it is certainly not required). 

Of course, this means my stash report took a hit--although I did make a couple of backs so all is not so bad. I could not resist these fat quarters of "Charlevoix Summer" a 1910-1935 repro by Moda from a shop I like to support that's 80 miles away.


Added this week: 10.75 yards
Used this week: 5.5 yards
Added this year: 80 yards
Used this year: 67 yards
Stash NOT busted: -13 yards
                              HAPPY QUILTING!!