Help! I'm buried!

Well, not really, but I feel like it. Does anyone else need more than 24 hours in a day? And require no sleep? Boy--I guess I just have way too many ideas to get everything done that I would like! Besides teaching classes, I've been getting new class samples and a schedule for next year done. I love teaching, but this part makes gives me anxiety attacks at getting everything done for an Open House at the end of the year. AND doing other things to boot. After I got back from Houston, I was on a quilting high and decided on what classes I was going to teach at my Studio from Jan. to May and I cut and cut and cut out LOTS of kits. Talk about a Stashbuster! I will have to add them up and add it to my Stashbusting list and get on Judy's list.

Then we went to SC for Thanksgiving with my parents. We got some baking done--some Dutch pastries that I was having a hard time making. I'm so excited--it's my favorite Christmas treat! I even talked hubby into doing the crazy Black Friday shopping! And we got most of it done. I have it all wrapped, and what I didn't get, I ordered on Cyber Monday and finished it up. I love Amazon--they had everything I wanted and couldn't find in the stores--at the same prices AND FREE shipping! And I got it all yesterday and today! So, I'm done! Which is a good thing, because two days after we got home, my friend from the Netherlands arrived. She's still here and leaves on Monday. I put all my Christmas decorations up and the tree up so she could see how the Americans decorate for the Holidays. Since she's a quilter, we've spent some time sewing as well. So, I've been working on class samples. Here's the Bargello--8+ yards, busted from the Stash (minimum length in stash, 2 years up to 11 years!)

This is the BQ quilt by Debbie Bowles--it looks great with lots of different novelty fabrics, etc. A great beginners quilt--and a FAST fun one for quilter's with experience. About 6 yards total busted from my stash!

The next one is inspired by Leanne's 360 calendar quilt. I don't think I could do a little journal everyday..so I'm going to do one per week and then frame each week's with 2" squares. I will write in some and maybe embroider in others and maybe applique in some too. The original layout I came up with had all the blocks being vertical and I would need 54 total. So I was going to have an 'introductory' block and then a 'finishing' one. But now that I've been playing around with it, I think it might look good with some going horizontal and others vertical. We'll see, it will be a work in progress. And I used 22 Fat 1/8's for the blocks--and ?? for the background.

This is a Salt Water Taffy block--it looks so fun in bright pastels, like Salt Water Taffy--but I've seen this one done in Christmas colors and Halloween colors too. About 6 yards released from Stash!

Dear Jane and others progress

It seems like I can either sew or blog, but have a hard time doing both! I've been super inspired by being surrounded by quilts in Houston to come home and sew! Well, that plus a few deadlines! LOL I did get my DJ block done while in Houston, but didn't get it posted. And then I got last week's done on Sat. night about 11 PM--just under our self-imposed deadline! The first one is H4 ane the second one is H5. It takes my total pieces to 1902. I thought that sounded like a lot, but there are over 5300 pieces total, I believe, or close to it. Which means I'm not even halfway! :(

These blocks are for my Friday night quilt group exchange. We swap blocks every year and this year decided to do the Monkey Wrench (or Churn Dash), but about half the group is very traditional and the other half tend to lean towards the more bright, contemporary quilts. So the solution was this....We got to choose what colors we liked and whether we wanted it pieced Traditional style or "Liberated", like above. Here are 3 out of 4 sets of the 'liberated' blocks I've made so far. We had to make 4 blocks per person (that's how many you could get out of 2 FQ's). I've also been working on a quilt to hang in my Living room....one day it will get done. I just hope it gets to hang a while before I decide to change the colors again! LOL I'm going to use a Poppy fabric on the borders and pulled all my basket colors from that print.

And this is on my daily sewing list (I also am doing the Calendar quilt...from Pat Sloan's website where you add one new piece of fabric per day, a Scrappy Diamond Star, one Heartstring block, and one of the blocks for a class sample I'm making). This is a scrappy Flying Geese, all cut out of my scraps!I've been also very busy at cutting out 'kits' for myself for making class samples. I have tested one block per quilt to make sure it all works right. I cut out 7 quilts last week, ALL out of stash! Yee haw! Two of the quilts required at least 8 yards of fabric total. I shocked myself in that I was able to pull out enough fabric for a Bargello quilt (that required 12 different fabrics). My stash STILL does not look like it's been even touched. Okay, it's been touched, because it's a mess, but no dent in the fabric!

I'm also did a customer quilt last week (I really don't do that much--only if someone wants it meandered). The longarmers around here get so backed up at this time of year, that once in a while I'll pitch in and help out a student. But I'll gladly leave that business to the longarmers! I don't know how they do it! I'm also doing a commissioned quilt for a lady who has a total of 12 siblings in her family and they wanted a memory quilt to give to their mother. I had to put 30 pictures on fabric and somehow standardize the block. I got it cut out last night. My goal it to have it pieced by the day's end, quilted by tomorrow night, binding on by Wednesday night and deliver it by Thursday. I know, I dream a lot! I act as if I don't have anything else to do. So..with that, I better get off and go start sewing! LOL Have a great day!

Houston Quilt Festival

Wow--what a whirlwind trip! I just got back from attending the Houston International Quilt Festival and I am beat! It was extra special this year as my good friend, Ted Storm (yes, she is a woman with an unusual nickname) won the Master Award for Traditional Artistry. "Spring of Desire"Her quilt was completely done by hand, all the lined applique, mirrors and 3/8" cross-hatch grid quilting! Congratulations Ted! And congratulations to all the other winners as well. Such wonderful, talented people out there. Hollis Chatelain won Best of Show with her painted and quilted rendition of Archbishop Tutu surrounded by children all with a purple hue as seen to her in a dream. I'd show a picture, but there are going to plenty around shortly of her beautiful quilt. Ted brought an entourage from the Netherlands (7, including her) and I brought 6 of my friends--so it was a lot of fun sharing our love of quilting, American style, with the Dutch crew.

We also showed them how to 'let loose' and have a little fun too! We wore kitty ear headbands (and I even added whiskers, a nose and LOOONG eyelashes) for Halloween, how to have a pajama party and have Show and Tell! How else are you going to know what you NEED to go back and buy the next day? LOL It was too much fun and went by way too quick. I'll show more quilt show pictures when I get the names lined up with the correct photos! :)