Quilting Catch Up!

I know, it's kinda late for this post, but we had 3.6" of rain last night in two different storms that came through.  The first was about 10:30 just after we had gone to bed.  BOTH dogs had to come inside.  Kinze retreated to her "safe area" behind the door in the basement and Willow camped out on the floor on the back porch.  The first storm brought some wind and really hard rain.  The second, around 2 am, had lots of thunder and Willow made her way into the bedroom but couldn't jump on the bed because Esme already had that space staked out (and Willow is smart enough to know that a 100 pound dog jumping on the bed in the middle of the night is a good way to get yourself banished outside with all the thunder!).  She settled in on the floor at the foot of the bed during the worst of the storm.  Of course, this meant that Esme was "trapped" on the bed for the rest of the night.  

We got up early and picked most of the rest of the sweet corn, about 8 five gallon buckets, and took 6 of them to Bethany to my parents.  We shucked and brushed it all before lunch and then blanched it and cut it all off for the freezer.  Mom got 25 bags for her freezer.  We should all sleep well tonight.

You may remember this embroidered snowman quilt I was working on.  When I started to sew the blocks together, I realized that the one missing from this photo had been trimmed a quarter inch too short.  So I made a replacement.

The one that was too small will be made into a pillow using the leftover scraps from the quilt.  It was the first thing I quilted yesterday.

Then, I realized there was room to quilt a couple of lady bugs on the same piece of backing, so those were added next.

The lady bugs came from our quilt retreat.  I was in charge of the mystery project.  We had a summertime picnic theme, so the mystery project was a lady bug.  I had cut for 3 separate bugs so that I would have plenty for demonstrating.  

Here are all of the different lady bugs that were made at retreat.  Everyone was given a list of fabric pieces to have cut prior to retreat and then instructions were given hourly to make the project.

After I had the 2 lady bugs quilted, I put the snowman quilt on the same piece of backing (note the red check backing is working for so many projects!).  I am custom quilting this one and am doing so ruler work which makes me reach and bend over the longarm, so I can only do so much at a time.  I'm hoping to get this finished tomorrow.  Then, I think there will be enough backing to throw the last lady bug on the bottom to quilt.

I think the next project to quilt will be the space cats.  This is the second one of these I have made.

I got several things done at retreat.  One was this little mini quilt from scraps of another project.  Here it is laid out on the table prior to sewing together.  It now has a border and more scrap blocks in the border.  

And this is our opportunity (raffle) quilt for this year.  Yes, I am selling tickets.  It is really an amazing quilt.  I made one of each style of block, but I couldn't tell you which ones are mine.

And I know you are missing seeing Esme.  Here she is in one of her favorite places........the stack of towels in the bathroom closet.  We have learned that this will happen if the door doesn't get shut completely.  AND, we've learned to check the closet before shutting the door.

Sorry for the late post and 

TTFN,

Christi