Haste Makes Waste

While hurrying home after errands, a quilt presentation, library book review, K-Mart,  race home before the cable tech guy arrives, and deciding to NOT take a second to  put my camera safely into my big purse, I got out of the car with arms loaded, camera swinging on my arm by it's strap, walked through the garage door, slammed the garage door behind me  ....  on my camera.   DANGGGGG!   I no longer can VIEW anything except a cracked VIEW window.  The good part is that the photos are still there, and it still downloads.  I doubt if Kodak can fix the mess I made of my camera.  8-((   It might have been better if it had been completely trashed, not it's only partially trashed.  I can't review photos, but it DOES still take them and download them.

However, on a happier note, here is Jane's project - isn't this the cutest wall hanging?  The little dimensional triangles are all from scraps she already had.  She says a button will go in each center.  TOOOOO CUTE! 

Here is Jody (Goddess's) Chunky Churndash - she is a prolific quilter, knitter, rancher, calver, babysitter to grandkids, friend, Postmaster, teacher, etc.  She can do anything - rumor has it that she doesn't sleep



Here is a label for our recent donated quilt.  Nancy donated his label, done on her embroidery machine.

 And here is a final photo of the donated quilt.  We even made the newspaper today!!

Thank goodness - we can start working on something else, but I'd like to win this one.  We local quilter/gals  donated the top fabrics, and RSVP paid for the batting, backing, and quilting.  My friend Chell did the beautiful machine quilting.  One of our local quilters, Carol,  has won not just one, but TWO Raffle Quilts in about 2 years!!!  And with just one ticket per quilt!

I know I've shown this before, but wanted photos for posterity!  8-)) 

There  are minor issues with the ribbon corner but we managed to make it look right - only a quilter would ever know there are discrepancies.

Jody is known for her interesting flange type border treatment (below).  Some old person stuck their finger in the photo to show details.  Oh yeah, was that me???  LOL

38 Churn Dash blocks, while Arabic Lattice Blocks are 'cooking'

Sometimes you have to let your blocks 'cook' for a while (Arabic Lattice), so you can look at them, figure what's next, does it need a border? etc. So, with my fingers were itching to do SOMETHING, I decided to use some 1 1/2 in strips and some 2 1/2 inch strips, already cut, to make 'a few' Churndash blocks. (A "few" turned into 38 so far. I think I need 56 for a whole top.) None of the blocks are duplicates -- I LOVE how the colors play with each other. Some are lovely, some not, but all are interesting. If you sometimes feel you are in a rut with your colors, a scrappy block like this is so much fun - pairing up colors you've never used before can result in some lovely surprises. If some are just 'too much' you can always use them as the label! And so far, ALL the fabrics came from my boxes of pre-cut pieces.

These are 6 inch finished blocks and will be alternated with a quarter square of 2 colors.

This is my second Churndash quilt - the first one was hand quilted and I NEVER get tired of looking at the unexpected color combinations on that first one.

A favorite scrappy quilt

An ‘old’ favorite of mine. This pattern/idea came from Bonnie Hunter at www.quiltville.com. (I can't get the link to show?) Bonnie keeps coming up with new, wonderful, quick and scrappy ideas with excellent photos and instructions - I tried briefly to keep up with her -- had to admit defeat -- but did manage to make this cheerful scrappy project, called Chunky Churn Dash.

There are 2 blocks - one is the chunky churn dash, and the adjoining block is the hourglass. Adding an hourglass block between seemingly ordinary blocks makes your quilt appear far more complicated.

Note how different the 2 blocks look, just by changing the values.

I’m sure you’ll recognize these fabrics that have been around a long time. But lucky me, the instructions called for 1 ½ in strips and 2 ½ in squares, and amazingly enough, I already had those pieces cut and ready to go. Talk about good luck!

This top went together in a weekend -- thanks to pre-cut strips, and thanks to adrenaline as I saw it develop into something delightful. I used up a LOT of favorite scraps, and even the border used 1 ½ inch squares, again leftover from the blocks. What I like best is that almost every block is different. I was not fussy about putting colors together - just used light medium and dark in each block. For a pallette, for the most part it was beige, browns, gold, country red, and a few black/white. I greatly enjoyed hand quilting this project, fondly remembering the original purpose of each fabric. Now, when I use it, I study the various combinations of colors that I have in this quilt, and think about those combinations in the next project.

It was too cold to take outside for the photograph. My rocking chair has the most intricate carving on the back rest – one of these days I will trace the pattern onto a quilt!