Quilt order, Finished blocks

Where does the time go. I can't believe my last post was over a week ago! How did that happen!? I think spring plays a major role. I am blaming spring because of all of the gardening and planting I have been spending time on. 

Also, I am the chairperson for my quilt guild's (The Cotton Boll Quilters) first quilt show in many years. I have had a couple of meetings dealing with that recently. We now have a firm date. Our show will open January 12, 2013; and be up until March 2. The show will be at The Art Station in Stone, Mountain, Georgia.  

I finally, finally got all of my square in a square blocks for my Bird Cage quilt trimmed.  I have all of these blocks for 2 different quilts finished and ready to go, but, I have struggled to find time to arrange them so I can sew them together.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to have one of my quilting friends, Eleanor come over to visit for a little while, and I did get to work on the Bird Cage quilt. First I wanted to put all of the blocks up on the design board just for the joy of seeing them spread out in all of their wild and craziness.This was the quilt where I challenged myself to use a bit of everything, Kaffe, batiks, paisleys, plaids, stripes, you name it. It will be interesting to see how all of that variety works together.

I really enjoyed seeing them all up together. It made me want to make a quilt just out of this pattern. I have a had a quilt in my head lately, that is based on a view I saw off of the deck at quilt retreat last year. It was spring time, and the sky was a very clear, strong blue. That blue mixed with the bright green of the new leaves, mixed with the darker greens of the evergreen trees, and all of the browns a greys of the barks; seemed like it would be an interesting color scheme for a quilt. I also wanted something that would evoke the business of all of the textures of all of the different types of leaves. I wish I had my camera with me that day, I had hoped to get a photo when I went back this year, but the atmospheric conditions were not the same. I have been collecting batiks in greens, blues, browns, and greys, all year, anticipating eventually using that color scheme on a quilt.  I wonder if this could be that block for that quilt?

Anyway, back to this quilt. My plan was to do a ring of these small blocks around my large bird cage blocks. I got 2 of 4 done.

I haven't shared with you my biggest news. I got the order from the Etsy customer I have been conversing with the last 2 weeks!

This is the drawing he chose.

I have the red on order. It should be here next week. I was able to find the white locally. So I got it already. This week I washed it and cut the small squares for the HST. I marked them; so when the red gets here, all I have to do is get it washed, get the small squares cut, and start sewing.

That's all I have for now!

Getting Ready for another Retreat-YIPPEE!

     First point: Now that all of my major weaving deadlines are behind me, I hope to be able to make this blog a bit more interesting. How? Well for one thing, I am pretty sure it will be easier to write about making quilts while I am actually making some quilts!

     

      Would you believe it? I am getting ready for another retreat! I love this  time of year. It is a bit decedent that I go to one retreat in February, then another in April, then, yet another in June! I feel a bit guilty about all of this retreating, but only a bit. I justify it by saying that the concentrated sewing time is good for me; and so is the exhilaration you get from being among other quilters, and all of their creativity!  Also, and this is not a minor point; I will see friends that I don't get to see very often.

     So my plan for this retreat is to work on 1) The Bird Cage Quilt.

 

2) The Ellipse quilt.

And 3) The Solid quilt.

     Of course you never know what you will be inspired to work on until you get there, but a girl has got to have a plan; am I right? Why not the kaleidoscope quilt? Because I only have 2 big seams left on the kaleidoscope quilt, and it is finished! So I won't bother carrying it to retreat with me, I will just finish it next week.

     I have been trying to get the above solid quilt blocks as close to finished as I could get them. First I was using them as a leader/ender(Hats off to Bonnie Hunter) while I was working on sewing together my kaleidoscope quilt; and got quite a pile started.

Then I really concentrated on getting the rest sewed.

     Then, they all had to be pressed, so this is where I stand now.

     Just 2 seams to go, and those blocks will be finished; so I will be able to take them to retreat and experiment with different ways of laying them out on the design wall. I have an idea, but I won't be able to show you until I get some of them made.

      Also, this:

 

was not enough triangles, so I am cutting more. I wanted to get the whole units made in time to go to retreat but....

let's face it. That's just not going to happen, so I am just trying to get all of the pieces cut and paired; and I will sew them at retreat.