Crummy mood, but hope is just around the corner!

This is one of the 5 or 6 Contrary Wife quilts that I've done over the last year or so (I think this is the second completed one, I've since completed one more quilt and two or three more tops,all in different settings). My family has been loving these quilts and complaining that they have all been getting donated, so I've decided to make a queen/king size one for my own bed, with 7.5 inch blocks instead of 9 inch blocks. I've been working on the red triangles, other than that, no quilting is happening.

Things have been hectic here. Thing One is busy with her summer activities (dance camp, girl scout camp, dance classes, doctors appointments, etc), my Mom has been sick so I've not been getting my day off with no kids, and my house is a mess. I'm having problems with one of my cats peeing and pooping everywhere but the litter box and it is driving me nuts. I'm having problems with some things that need to be fixed around the house, and I'm just plain stressed. Plus I haven't been sleeping well at all for the last couple of weeks. Overall, I've just been plain miserable and not feeling like doing anything.

I'm just hoping that I can get in a better mood before next week...I'm going on what I hope will be a fun roadtrip! About 5 or 6 weeks ago, I saw an ad in a quilt magazine for the Minnesota Statewide Shop Hop, and I commented to DH about how big a deal it must be (88 shops!) and he blurted out that I should go, it would be fun. So hey, I'm no dummy...I'll take him up on an offer like that! LOL. Thing One and I are off to Minneapolis for a long weekend next week, and I'm getting excited about it. I'm not sure how many shops we'll get to, but it should be fun no matter what. It will be good for me to get away from here (and a break from Thing Two will do wonders for me, I think).

Upcoming Show Information

Here is some information on twp upcoming shows (I am a member of both these guilds)...anyone who will be in the Connecticut area is welcome to attend.


First, The Greater Hartford Quilt Guild show is in Vernon, CT. August 18/19.

Secondly, Shoreline Quilters is hving a show in Clinton, CT on August 4/5.

Vermont Quilt Festival II

Here are a few more of the quilts that caught my eye at the Vermont Quilt Festival a few weeks ago.

This Civil War Sampler Quilt reminded me very much of the orphan block quilts I've been seeing on many of the blogs recently. Finn has been gathering pictures of this sort of quilt here if you are interested in joining in on the fun. I plan to play with my orphans soon (If I ever finish cleaning the sewing room/classroom/familyroom/playroom




I loved this antique quilt, such fun! This is one of those quilts where you wish you could go back in time and speak to the quiltmaker and ask her "WHY did you do that?" Its a good reminder to me that different is good, you don't have to do matchy matchy stuff, and to have more fun!



I admired this one for a long time. I like the pattern a lot, but the colors really make it sing. At first I thought there was curved piecing in the stars, but there isn't. Its pretty neat.



This is made of all tiny squares. Every time I walked by this one, there was a crowd gathered looking at it. I believe this was the quiltmakers first quilt!! I wish I knew where my show book went to check the description again.



This one is another made of all tiny squares. Thing One was also very impressed with this one, both because of the tiny squares and also because she was so surprised that it doesn't look like a picture up close, but from far away it does.

Vermont Quilt Festival I

I recently visited the Vermont Quilt Festival. I've only gone to this show for the last three years (how did I not know about it before that?). Now it is on my MUST do list!

This quilt was the Best Of Show. This is beautiful, but simple...the kind of quilt people who aren't total obsessive compulsives could make. So many times the Best Of Show winners are quilts that I look at and thing "I'd never have the patience to even try that!". This one on the other hand is a type of quilt that even I would take a stab at making. I wouldn't be a successful, but I wouldn't be totally intimidated, you know what I mean? I think that the quilt on Nicole's blog is the same one.




This peacock quilt is the one I voted for as Viewer's Choice.




This one with the dog on the quilt was Thing One's vote for Viewer's Choice.

Rock Of Ages Quarry

A couple of weeks ago, we visited the Rock of Ages Quarry in Barre, Vermont with Thing One and Thing Two. Usually when we go to touristy places on vacation, I am underwhelmed and not that impressed. Rock of Ages was a place that really impressed me. This granite quarry is one of the largest ones in the US (or the world?). We went on a little tour around the visitors center, and we were able to use a sand blasting machine they have to make our own little granite plaque with a rubber stencil. Very cool. After we did that, we saw the inside of the shop where they carve, polish, cut and engrave the granite into memorial stones, benches, cornerstones, etc. The place is HUGE, and loud. Finally, we got on a bus and rode up the hill to an overlook area where we could see the quarry itself. You can see how big it is in the pictures, supposedly there is enough granite in there for them to cut stone for something ike 4500 years.

When you drive around town, there are a ton of statues and buildings with unbelievable amounts of granite. But the neat thing (and don't think I'm being morbid here) is Hope Cemetary...I've never seen so many interesting intricate memorials and crypts in a cemetary in my life. There is one shaped like a soccer ball, one is a car, an airplane, some are engraved with 18 wheeler truchs, many figures of angels and people, etc. It was really amazing.

Like I said, I'm not usually impressed by 'touristy' things that we do on vacation, but I thought this was amazing. Definitely worth a trip. Never mind that after we left Barre, we went up to Burlington for the Vermont Quilt Festival. I'll share some of that in another post!!

Double Challenge Quilt

During the last guild year (which ended in June), one of our challenges was to make a quilt using some sort of cheater panel or fabric. I had a lot of ideas but couldn't decide what to do, but back in probably January, Ann on the Sunshine Quilters Yahoo Group offered up a challenge for that group: She'd send us a piece of 'toy block' fabric, and we were to make either a quilt or 12" blocks to send back to her which would be donated to Wrap A Smile. Of course since I could kill two birds with one stone, I just had to do it.

I shared a picture of my fabrics back when I started here.

As usual, I waited until the last minute to finish before I showed this project at my guild meeting. Because of the pink borders, it is somewhat more girly than I would have prefered, but I'm pleased with the finished project.

Some Finishes

Here are a few of my recent finishes. These are all eventually going to be donated somewhere.


This quilt is made up of half square triangles. I like that it is off center. I just decided one day to make some triangles from some charm squares I had. I've got enough left to make another quilt like this.



Another crumb quilt. This time, I set them in horizontal rows.



This one is cat fabrics donated by someone in my guild. I used Judy Hopkin's Block Aid Mystery pattern for this (She provides this pattern as a 3 party mystery if you are doing community service projects). I've used this pattern a number of times in the past.



This one is another crumb quilt. I wanted to add a little something different to this one to give it some extra pizazz. But I miscalculated and didn't have enough border fabrics to finish it off, and had to improvise. In the end, I'm glad it worke out like it did, and I'm very happy with it. Notice that the binding is a totally different yellow because of yet another oops!

Been away for far too long!

Oh my, more than a month since I last blogged....Things have been crazy hectic around here with end of school stuff and now summer stuff. I've been far away from my internet connection for a long time, but I have in fact been sewing quite a bit. I've got about 11 finishes since my last post, which I hope to share with you over the next few days.

Today however, I am sharing a not-quite finished project. Thing One is going to a birthday party for one of her friends this weekend (an ice-skating party, this should be very interesting as Thing One has never skated before, and did I mention she is in an aircast with a ligament injury this week?). I found this cute dance fabric and saw a nice looking easy tote bag pattern, and so I made this tote bag for the birthday girl. I still need to sew the handles onto the body of the bag, but then I will stick a Webkins into the totebag and the birthday girl will be pleased,I am sure. The pattern takes three FQs and a half-yard of lining fabric (though you have a fair amount left over after you are done). The pattern is from Terry Atkinson's new book "Happy Hour"