Vacation is over :(

Well, the vacation is over. Taking mom home today and back to work for me. We had a wonderful break... lots of shopping, eating and walking around by the water. The weather wasnt all that warm but comfortable... in the mid 70's mostly. We had one really rainy day so mom hung out in my sewing room... she read cookbooks and I sewed. PERFECT vacation day.

This is the start of the rose quilt (happy blocks from blockcentral). I made every other block... the 4 patches surrounded by white. I have lots of pretty rose fabrics that I wanted to add into this quilt. I received MANY pretty blocks and this is only a small portion of them...most of these have solid fabrics bordering the roses. I have more that will be going into another quilt. 

The other quilt will be for my mom... It will be more floral which I think will be something she'll like. Mom's father grew roses and we've always loved them. She really likes pink and yellow so that will be the main colors in the next quilt. BUT for now, I have to hide this quilt top. I may change my mind and give her this one. Depends on how I decide to border it... Mom is coming for a visit. She lives downstate and gets only a few weeks a year to come up and stay with us. 

Americana Picnic quilt is done :)

The picnic quilt is done... just in time for the festival. This is made from all the 10" squares we swapped on the quilt and needle. You cant see the center patch well but it's part of the Declaration of Independence... I got the "July 4th" part to show along with the words "America".. and some signatures. Love that center one :)

I went to the beach last night while Al worked and finished up sewing the binding down. Still need to add a label. That's Lake Michigan in the background. This is my favorite beach... it's about 4 miles from us. I took the picture early this morning ... later in the day it will be PACKED!

I made a list of UFOs/WIPs (I prefer the latter term) and Im up to 16! YIKES! I really need to get going on these projects. And STILL I browse the quilt magazines for more ideas....

I think I'll add a list to the side of this blog to keep track of my progress... It'll help to keep me working on my wips instead of starting more.

Top of my list is a western quilt for my brother-in-law. I designed it during the winter when we stayed at his house in AZ. I bought MOST of the fabrics and started the center (it's medallion style) and that's as far as I've gotten. I want to be able to give this to him this winter when we head there again.

Sewing up a storm!

I won the "happy blocks" this month on www.blockcentral.com !!!!
These are the ones I made for the swap and now there's going to be more of them making their way to my door... This is going to be such a beautiful quilt. I'm going to make it up for mom for mother's day. Im sure she'll love it.

Not sure what kind of setting I'll use. It looks pretty just as they are so I might not add much. Maybe just a white sashing?.. Maybe not...hmmm

Just have to add the borders on this and I'll be ready to quilt. I cut out the navy border today and then sewed up another one that goes on after that. I'll add them on tomorrow. Glad it's going to be done in time for the festival up here. We do a lot of picnics and hang out at the beach, PLUS we have fireworks at night. Lots of company ..we're always needing extra quilts...

I finished the happy blocks for the August swap, the "my favorite block" for the July swap and now I'll start on a border for the round robin. Im tossing a few ideas around for the round robin... I havent decided which idea will look the best. This is such a fun swap and I plan to do it again. We have a lot of talent on www.thequiltandneedle.com. Check out the album with the pictures of all of the beautiful quilt tops. There's quite a few I would love to hijack :)