Getting things finished (or at least making progress!)

Many thanks to Cici for filling in for me on the blog last week (I think!).  Fortunately, things are going a little better.  I finally have all of the En Provence blocks that I had to rip apart resewn (some more than twice, unfortunately), and have started putting them on the new design wall I made in my sewing room.  My sewing room is an attic room with sloped ceilings that are pretty low - I don't have to stand on ANYTHING to change a light bulb!  This made creating a design wall a little tricky, but I finally figured out how to do it and told the Hubs, and he had a bracket and rod up in no time.  I purchased a cheap vinyl table cloth and sewed a casing in one end of it and put it on the rod and PRESTO!  Design Wall!  It's at the other end of the attic room between the dormer window that is now a closet, so I get my steps in going back and forth!

You can see that I have 9 of the 16 blocks finished and some of the sashing pieces as well.  I finally counted and each block has 80 pieces.  I will be so glad when this top is done.  I can't wait to hand it off to be quilted and say something like, "I don't want to see this again until August at the earliest.........November might be even better."  I just want to be able to say I got it finished before our December guild meeting so I can scratch it off the list.

The best thing about this is the design wall.  The flannel on the back of the table cloth is great for sticking blocks to.  And if I need to get into the closet, I just slide the table cloth to the side, or can even lift the bar out of the bracket.

Here is the curved log cabin quilt that my mom hand quilted for me.  It's all done now too.  It's going to one of my aunts...............another UFO scratched off the list!

And here is my Happily Scrappily Irish, a Bonnie Hunter pattern.  DH picked this pattern and the blocks come from a 4-patch exchange with my guild last year.  He also picked the borders.  It is beautifully quilted and already on our bed!

Saturday was Worldwide Quilting Day and my guild met at Smith Chapel Church for a carry-in luncheon and to work on our charity quilt projects.  We are making quilts to donate to Great Circle (formerly Butterfield Youth Ranch).  Here are some of the quilts that were worked on.  They are all lovely.

The Hubs celebrated a birthday on Friday (yes, he's a St. Pat baby).  Actually, we kinda celebrated all weekend.  On Thursday evening, I took him to the college production of School House Rock.  He got an AMAZIN' TUBE SMOKER to put on the grill to smoke meats, etc. for his birthday, so Friday, we had the best smoked pork chops ever!  I also took him to see the movie Beauty and the Beast (his choice), and it was wonderful.  The theatre was full and everyone clapped at the end.  Saturday I was quilting during the day, but got home in the afternoon and laid down to take a little nap after putting stuff away.  He came in and asked me to go with him to look at the new ground he's going to farm for someone this year.  So, off we go in the truck.............through all the country roads until I was thoroughly lost.  Then we drove around and around all the fields for awhile looking at drainage, soil, maps, etc...........trust me, it was riveting.  We did find a deer antler though!  I assured the guy he was farming for that this was considered a Saturday night date in our house.  So, on the way home (we came back via the highway), I pulled a Dairy Queen gift card out of my purse and said let's just drive through since it was almost 7 and I had no supper plans started..............see, it really was a date, complete with ice cream sundaes!

On Sunday, I took him to Kansas City to see the Pompeii exhibit at Union Station.  We had lunch out, (we were near JoAnn's, so stopped to use a 60% off coupon to buy backing for a quilt), and then went to the exhibit.  It was amazing.  Then on the way back, we were stopping at Bass Pro, and I pointed out the new Duluth Trading Co. store (for those who aren't familiar with this, it's a catalog that sells tools, outdoor clothing, etc, and the Hubs loves the catalog).  We went in, and he examined every tool (sort of like me in a fabric store!), and then we went to Bass Pro to get the new meat slicer he wanted.  So, all in all, it was more like a birthday weekend than a birthDAY!  
Christi