Home sweet home....

Well....the quilt I've been working on for this past 6 months is finally finished and found it's new home at my Aunt Luanne's house. It looks GREAT!!!
We quilters know that sometimes it feels like "giving birth" when we finally finish a quilt. Only this time, it found a home with my Aunt.
It always feels so good to finally be able to send it in the mail and imagine the excitement when the box arrives and they get to open it! I couldn't be there this time, but I could picture it.
I'm so glad that I was able to make her wish come true for a new quilt on her bed. (That puppy looks like he's going to enjoy it too!)
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Chirp, Chirp,
Robin

It's been slow...but steady.

Hi there,

I don't have any pictures to share, but still wanted to make a progress report on my Aunt Luanne's quilt I've been working on.

I'm happy to report that the quilting is finished and I'm sewing the binding. This is the by far, the biggest quilt I've ever made and it took me 3 hours to quilt it on the long-arm.

It's not going as fast as I had wanted, but I've been out of town the last two weekends and busy with work and getting ready for Christmas!

But I'm hoping to have it finished and off in the mail next week!!!!

Meantime, here are a few pictures of what I've been doing:

Last weekend, my youngest daughter, Corin, finished her first marathon at the Sacramento International Marathon. It was an awesome experience and I'm so glad I was able to be there.

Here she is looking strong at mile 20!

Finish line!!! Her time was 4:54:38


Her sister Erin finished her first marathon in Portland, Oregon on Oct 9, 2011.
Her time was 5:04:??


Here I am with my beautiful girls the day before the race.


And here I am 70 lbs lighter and feel'n great!!!

(I think it's about time to get some smaller jeans, those are looking pretty baggy!)

I LOVE Weight Watchers!

Well, I'll keep plugging along and get that quilt to my Aunt just as fast as my little fingers can sew the 400+ inches of binding!

Chirp, chirp,

Robin

Border Story....

It's always so exciting when you get to the point in a quilt where the borders go on. This weekend at "Pieceful Days" in Ferndale, I was able to finish putting the borders on the quilt I'm making for my Aunt Luanne. Next step, get it quilted.....

Last border (there are three) going on.
Voila!!!!! The top is finished!!!
You can see how big it is because it took two people holding it sideways to see it.

Chirp, chirp,

Robin

My own "Runaround Bag"...

I'm in love with the web-site, "Pintrest"! (Warning: It can be adictive!)
Yesterday I found a really cute purse idea and decided to buy the pattern from Anna Graham at Noodlehead. Then this morning I went to work using some super cute fabric I bought from Fabric.com. I was going to make some PJ pants out of it until I found out it was heavy curtain fabric instead of quilting fabric. Oh well...It made a super cute one of a kind purse.



Just thought I would share.



Chirp, Chirp,



Robin

It's on the Design Board!!!

As any quilter can tell you, the day you get your quilt to the point it can go up on the design board, it's a red letter day!!! I think it's going to look GREAT!!!! Just wait until it has the boarders and gets quilted, it's going to be a STUNNER!!!
Still plugg'n along......stay tuned!

Chirp, chirp,
Robin

Making progress....

I haven't had much time to quilt in the past few months, but I finally was able to make a huge dent in the quilt I'm making for my Aunt Luanne. I know she must think I'm REALLY slow when it comes to getting it done, but I've found that it's best to have the time to concentrate on a project so you don't mess it up.
Well that time finally came when I was able to go to Willow Creek for the weekend and sew with friends. We really had a great time! And I made lots of progress. I was able to square up all the half-square triangles and cut them into 3" segments and then rearrange them into the order I needed them for the block.
Then sew....sew....sew... and sew some more.

Now I'm putting all the blocks together and then I can put them up on the design wall and sew the top together. It's looking really good and I know it's going to turn out great!



Anyway....that's the progress report.

Chirp, Chirp,



Robin

Progress.....

Well, I was able to start on my Aunt Luanne's quilt this last weekend. We had a quilting get-together in Ferndale on Friday and Saturday. Had a great time and was able to get going on the quilt. Here's what I did:

First, cut 8 - 10 inch squares from each of the 5 colors of maroon she picked.
Here they are.

Next cut 40- 10 inch squares of the gray background fabric.

Then, you have to draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of all 40 squares.

Pair them up with one of the maroon squares and pin them together.

Next, sew a 1/4" on each side of the drawn line.

Here they all are sewn and ready to cut apart.

Yep, you guessed it, here they all are cut apart.

Next, over to the ironing board to press them open.

Here they are all organized and pressed.

I forgot to take pictures of when I was cutting those triangle blocks into thirds, rearranging them and then sewing them all back together again. I'll try to remember next time I sew on them.

It takes 4 of those "half-square triangle" blocks to make one of these big 17" blocks that will make up the quilt.

We quilters really are crazy to cut up perfectly good fabric and then sew it back together again!

I did find one thing out:

You can't take a block that was originally a 4 1/2" block and double it and have it come out the same. It just doesn't work.

I think it's going to look great, but it doesn't look the way I thought it would.

Anyway, I got 4 out of the 20 large blocks done this weekend and now I just have to find the time to do the rest. It might be a while, but I know it's making progress!

Chirp, Chirp,

Robin

Birth of a quilt....

My Aunt Luanne contacted me after seeing a quilt that I made for my Mom and asked if I would be willing to make her a quilt. "Of course I would!" I told her the best thing to do would be to let me figure out how much fabric she would need and then she could shop for it herself. Well, the other day I got this fabric in the mail. She wanted maroon and grey. I told her that "one man's maroon is another man's purple" so it was good that she picked out the fabric. I think she did a great job!

Here is the quilt I'm making:

She saw my pattern called: Windcatcher Charms and liked it, so I just tweeked it a bit and came up with this 87"X 103" version.

Right now my son and his wife and our grandson, Kellen are visiting, so I'm not going to be able to start it right away, but I'm going to post my progress here on my blog so she can see.

As you can see, we are having a great time! Time with Kellen is so precious that quilting will just have to wait!

Chirp, Chirp,

Robin

Catching up!

I'm sure anyone that has ever read my blog and checked back to see what was going on said, "WHAT THE HECK!!!" Why hasn't Robin posted to her blog since Nov of last year!
What can I say?! The word "Slacker" comes to mind.
Oh well.....life has a funny way of just marching on, blog or no blog!
I'm just going to post a few things that have been happening. Nothing exciting, but at least it's not the same old post from last year!

I bought a new car this month. Isn't it cute!


We lost at good friend in the quilting world this month. Lori Dinsmore fought a good fight against the cancer they discovered in January. She will be missed by all of us that knew her!


Since January, I've joined Weight Watcher's again. I've lost 40 pounds and have started riding my bike to work.

Kellen is almost three now and LOVES the movie, "Cars".

I sent him a t-shirt for Easter.

He also broke his arm....AGAIN!!!

He's such a little trouper through it all.

"Doesn't EVERYONE get to have a cool red cast?!"

He's our little "Super Hero"!


Here he is wearing the hat that Oppa (Grandpa) gave him.
He's getting ready to visit Humboldt County in style!


In December, I got to fly to Las Vegas to my sister's and spend Christmas with my parents.

It had been since before I was married that I got to spend a Christmas with them.

Here's a picture of me before losing 40 lbs.

Hopefully it won't be 6 months before I blog again!!!

Chirp, Chirp,

Robin