Learning the Art

To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living. 

Henri Frederic Amiel

Well, I have been getting a few things done but obviously not blogging about them.  October started out as it always does with my birthday a few days into it.  This was a big one ending in 0.  My husband and I went to the movies and then did a little shopping for me ;-)  then he left me alone for the evening and went to a football game.  The next day my oldest son hosted our whole family at his house for dinner.  It was really nice for all of us to get together.  With 4 adult children it is hard to make schedules mesh for that to happen.  Soon it will be time for Thanksgiving and hopefully it will happen again.  I'll be hosting that this year.

I finally got a quilt loaded on the longarm and have been quilting it.  I'm planning to get it finished this week.  Here is a peek.

I'm doing a pantograph on it.  This is a charity quilt that has been hanging around for too long.  It is a fun one I think.  I had fun making it last year while I was avoiding the stairs because of knee problems.

I pieced the back and am trying to get the design centered more or less.  I will see how good my planning was soon.  Here is a look at it from underneath. 

And a longer shot.  Homespuns aren't everyone's favorite but these are fun and bright.

I also got my Soul Searching top finished.  Yeah!!! I decided to depart from the pattern and added a row of Black and White strips between the blocks vertically.  

I would have added two rows but it would have made it too long.  That would have been more visually balanced since there are two squares between the colors horizontally.

Here is a view from the other direction.  How do you think it turned out?  Do you like the added rows between?  Should there be two?

I have been doing these blocks each month with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I had big plans at the first of the year to work on 3 projects but I've only made progress on 2.  That's OK.  I think I will just save the other one for next year.  Maybe I can get the 30s print one finished this year.

Linking with:  Design Wall Monday  and  Anything Goes Monday  and  So Scrappy

Celebrate Just Living

Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living! 

Amanda Bradley

It has been a very busy couple of weeks!  I have not had the time or energy to get my thoughts together to write a post.  I hosted not one but two dinners for my family last week and so I had to spend time shopping and cooking.  This week has been filled with a variety of appointments and then two days of Holiday Celebrations with the two quilt groups that I belong to.  I have managed to squeeze in a little Christmas shopping while out running errands but haven't made much of a dent in the lists yet.

Today I am trying to rest a little and get a blog post done.  My husband will be expecting me to cook something too since I've been able to avoid doing that for several nights.

First of all I thought I would share a NEW WINNER for The Quilt Show PRIZE in my recent Giveaway.  Neither of the two names I drew could accept it so I'm hoping this person can.

126.  AbbigailNovember 26, 2013 at 3:36 PM

I like "the Christmas tree round-up. I am not a STAR member of The Quilt Show

Congratulations Abbigail! I hope you enjoy your membership!

I did manage to get a little sewing done this week.  At the Charity bee yesterday we were to bring 9 patch blocks to donate for a quilt.  I made 11 but forgot to take a picture of them.  I had a really bad headache yesterday and was not thinking very straight.  

After the luncheon and a round of Dirty Santa we had our usual sew-in time.  I was able to put together the Take 5 blocks that I had made last month.  Take 5 is a block die from AccuQuilt.  It is a very fast quilt to make.  The blocks got turned about as I was picking them up so the layout was not what I planned but it is together ready to be pressed and quilted. These  purples are almost all out of my stash.  I will be glad when I have used up all the old 80s calicos!  It's not wonderful but it is a FINISH!  Yeah!

I may decide to correct my mistake.  Can you see what happened?

I had one block left over.

I also finished the longarm quilting on two Christmas quilts for a friend last month.  No pictures, sorry.  Now I am hoping to get a couple of mine done before Christmas.  

And what did I win in the Dirty Santa game?

A great Holiday Apron!

Here is a few of the SEVENTEEN QUILTS that showed up yesterday. Some need the binding stitched down.  These quilts will be donated to cancer patients.  I didn't make any of these.  We do a lot of Take 5, Tumbler quilts, String quilts and quilts make of simple squares. Simple and fast so we can make more and more.  The group has donated almost 600 quilts in less than 4 years.

Linking with these wonderful blogs:

Crazy Mom Quilts and Live a Colorful Life and Richard and Tanya Quilt