Finished Quilt and More 60 BoS

Remember 60 BoS squares 10 - 34 I blogged about last week? Well, here are the final results. :) I quilted it last week and bound it over the 4th of July weekend. This quilt is all ready for donation, giveaway, or keeping for myself. lol. I haven't decided yet. :)

I am still working on my 60 BoS as well. Here are blocks 35 - 42. Eventually this will be another baby quilt.

More 60 Blocks of Summer

Last week and over the weekend I completed blocks 10 - 34 for my 60 BoS. I used more of my scraps from Heather. This quilt is 50"x50". Which, I guess, is a pretty odd size. But I figure it can be a lap quilt, a toddler quilt, or a picnic quilt. Wouldn't it make an adorable picnic quilt? I may have a give away for the finished quilt. That's still paying it forward, isn't it? :)

Next thing is to get these quilt tops on my frame and get them quilted up.

Yesterday I also tackled Oh, Fransson's pocket potholder tutorial. My friend Jim had gifted me with the groovy vintage fabric that was used as the block's centers. I've been waiting for the perfect project for that fabric. Don't they make cute potholders? I haven't finished the project though. Last night I went to bind them and discovered they're too thick for my sewing machine. lol. I'm going to try using one of my vintage machines later, but last night I was so frustrated that I just stopped. If I had followed her instructions exactly it might not have been a problem, but I used insulbrite instead of canvas, and I think it made the potholders way too thick. I could just leave the "pocket" off and make them into regular potholders. What do you think?

60 Blocks of Summer and Paying it Forward

I decided that with all my "free time" I'd play along with some other insane Flickr-ites and challenge myself to "60 Blocks of Summer". That is - to make 60 quilt blocks, basically one a day, between June 16th and September 3rd.

Yesterday I was afraid that I was already falling behind because it was June 18th (day 3) and I still had nothing. So, I broke out a box of scraps that Heather of A la Mode Fabric had gifted me with. I had promised Heather to make some things to be donated with those scraps, and since I'd already raided a couple of the scraps for my own projects, I thought it was time to use the scraps as I had originally intended. But, hey, with gorgeous scraps like these; who could blame me for wanting to keep some for myself? :)

I'm feeling pretty good about yesterday's accomplishments. I completed quilt blocks 1-9 for the 60 BoS and got most of a quilt top finished to be donated to Project Linus.

I was going to use the 60 BoS to push me to finish the Halloween spiderweb quilt I've started, but I think I'll focus instead on quilt blocks for donation.

With all that yesterday I also pulled the pressure cooker out of my pantry. I bought the thing years ago and never used it. As exciting as a new toy is, I was also afraid of it. Partially because of the 15 psi, even though it's a modern pressure cooker with a release valve and everything, but mainly because I'd never used one. Fear of not really understanding it stopped me. So, I checked out a cook book from the library and tackled the unknown. The recipe I chose was Dilly Mustard Chicken. The chicken meat came out wonderfully, moist and falling off the bone. But the recipe was a little bland. Now that I conquered the unknown I'm ready to dive back in!

One More Square

OK, I was going to get my Mod Bento Box squares in the mail on Friday, but then I decided to make just one more square. lol. What a great excuse for fabric shopping! A couple of the girls at work told me about a quilting shop in the area that I was unaware of, so I found my way over there on Friday afternoon. It carried pretty traditional fabrics. Though I did find a couple of things I liked. :)

Here is the extra block I made:

And, here are the four quarters I'm keeping for myself:

I Joined a Swap

I joined a swap and I'm very excited about it!

Jessica of Give it a Go is hosting a Mod Bento Box Swap using Film in the Fridge's Modified Bento Box block tutorial.

I've made 12 large blocks using her tutorial which will be cut down into 4 smaller blocks each. At this point though I'm hating having to chop my blocks up.

I'm loving these blocks and I hope that my fellow swappies love them as well. :)

New Project

We all know I've got a million things going on at once. I really should be working on finishing the summer picnic quilt I started with Jim last fall. I've got quilt tops that need to be quilted. But, I've started a new project. This one's been on my mind for a year. A Halloween spiderweb quilt. I love Halloween novelty fabric almost as much as I love Christmas novelty fabric! Here's the beginning. I've got one done - probably about 35 to go, lmao.

You might have noticed I haven't posted in like a month. Bran and I went on a cruise the end of last month and I was swamped with work the week before we left. We had a good time on the cruise, we went with a couple friends of ours and cruised from Ft. Lauderdale to Grand Cayman, Honduras, Mexico, then the Bahamas. It was a blast. Here's a photo of the four of us.

When we got home I was swamped with work once again. Last week I was scheduled to train two customers one here and one in Texas. While I was in Corpus Christi to train the second scheduled customer our project manager called and asked me to stay to train another customer in Corpus Christi. This was OK with me as I was staying for the weekend anyways. I lived in Corpus for 7 years with my ex-husband, so it was nice to see the old gang, sans the ex-husband. He's living in Houston now. :) He and I are on good terms, he just wasn't in the area to join us.

I miss being on vacation and seeing my old Corpus Christi friends, but now I'm finally back home and working on my own projects.

Busy

I've been so busy the last two weeks that I haven't had a chance to rest. Not that it's a bad thing...I'm just ragged around the edges. :)

Here's what's taken up so much of my time recently: the New Orleans Civic Symphony had two concerts last week and the Tulane Symphony has a performance Thursday night. This means the hour drive to New Orleans for rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and performances. I also did a wedding gig in the French Quarter on Friday. I love it though. :)

I also finished the "Spring in the 70's" quilt. Though a friend told me I should call it "Psychotic 70's". lol. All that's left to do is wash the quilt to bring out the crinkly goodness and then gift it to the recipient. I'm not sure I want to gift it now though, I've secretly begun to love it. I might make myself one, but use vintage linens instead of the Kaffe Fassett.

If anyone is interested - each patch in the giant nine patch squares are 4" finished (so the nine patch blocks are 12" finished), the sashing is 2" finished, and the border is 6" finished. The finished quilt is 66"x80". It was a quick and easy quilt top to put together and I'm loving the results. :)