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Hi Everyone!

I have some thoughts and other things to catch you all up with. 

First, the skating costume arrived, fit like a glove, and was loved by the 7 year old.  Also, she reports that it is very comfy.  (Comfort was waaay off my radar, so that is a bonus.)  I'm excited because we are probably going to be able to see her perform!  We leave Saturday to travel 6 states over to visit our daughter, my parents, and sister's families.  We will be all eating turkey together on the big day.  I'm pretty excited!  I will post pictures of the skater.

Second, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to do Bonnie Hunter's mystery that starts later this month.  If so, I'm not using her colors, but my own.  I'm standing by with the fabrics.  In a related note, our speaker at quilt guild last week said that her Lowes was all out of the paint sample cards that Bonnie recommended!  I did Roll, Roll Cotton Bole, but I didn't do Orca Bay.  Are any of you planning to do the new one?

Third, I went to Michaels craft store today.  It was all Kim's fault.  Do you read Kim's Big Quilting Adventure?  She found these awesome red and white polkadot poinsettias there and I decided I needed some.  Let me just say right now that I need Christmas decorations like I need a hole in my head, but they are so cute!  (click on the link to see a picture.)  She found bushes of them but all I could find at my store were large, single blooms on tall stems, so I was able to resist.  Then I was looking at garlands, and even got a cart, but when I was filling it, I had a moment of clarity and put everything back!  Whew!  It was close!

Four, our fall color is absolutely splendid!  I can't resist sharing a photo that I took on Monday.

Have a great day!!
JoAnne

I finished!

My goal for the day was to finish my version of Roll Roll Cotton Boll, the latest mystery quilt from quiltville.com --and I did!  Since I live in Hawaii, and people like to visit Hawaii in the winter, I had company or was traveling myself for the holidays, from mid November (when the mystery started) until the second week of February, I wasn't able to work on the mystery with everyone else.  That was okay, since I wanted to change the pink/green/brown colorway to my preferred, er, patriotic scheme.  Bonnie warned that if you wanted to make a change, you must have 5 colors, so the typical red, white, blue wouldn't work.  I did red, medium blue, navy blue, neutral, and gold.  I was working away, enjoying myself until I had only 6 of the pieced blocks and most of the string blocks left.  I had laid out a corner of how the quilt would work and for some reason I lost my motivation.  I picked  it up and put the pieces in a bag and worked on postcards for two weeks. 

I don't like to leave things unfinished, though, so I got it back out and started working.  It took two days, and at first, it was a bit tedious again, but pretty soon I got going. Yesterday was the day to finish!   In the morning, I was able to get all the blocks together with no mistakes!  Whoo hoo!  I usually always turn something wonky when I'm setting blocks on point.  After lunch, it was on to borders.  I had already pieced the outer borders, but needed to cut strips for the inner border. 

Well, that should have been easy, and was, until I had sewn one on to the first side and discovered that the second side strip wasn't quite right.  I thought I could cut another one and use that wrong one for the top or bottom, but then realized I didn't have enough strips and I didn't have any more of that fabric!  Stymied!  Would I have to go out to a shop and try to find something?  Order something?  Not be able to finish?  I gave my stash a half-hearted seach, not expecting to find anything but unearthed a Thimbleberries gold I forgot I had!  Yes!  I started over with the strips.  I think I lost an hour, but pushed on. 

I had the inner border on and then needed to fiddle with things.  Bonnie said that the inner border may have to be adjusted in order to get the pieced border to fit--it all depends on seam allowances and accuracy, etc.  Isn't trying to match a quilt to a border much more difficult than fitting a border to a quilt?!  It is for me, plus it was more difficult with a diagonally pieced border.  At any rate, I got it to work, sewed on the first 2 and then it was time for supper.  We went to my favorite Mongolian BBQ--it is on an open lanai next to the channel for Pearl Harbor--just gorgeous.  Afterwards, I got the other 2 strips sewn on, added the corners, and was done!

DH took me out to eat for supper and even my fortune wanted me to finish this quilt today!

Here is the finished, queen-sized quilt top!

A closeup to see my color choices a bit better

What will I do today?  Probably tidy things up again and then, who knows?!  I have a few possible USOs (Un Started Objects) to choose from. 

Aloha,

JoAnne