Going to England!

I got an email this morning from my good friend Siobhan inviting me to England for the quilt festival in Malvern this weekend. So long story short, I've got my train tickets booked and I'm leaving Wednesday morning, woohoo!

Getting over to visit Siobhan has been on my to-do list, but I'm just terrible at organizing anything. This worked out well, to do it almost last minute and luckily my husband is in town to be with the kitties.

The goofy thing was how hard it was for us to call each other. This is my phone number as you'd dial it from the states, and here's my cellphone if you were calling in Paris... Wikipedia did come through though and I figured out how to dial the U.K. and drop the initial zero etc... It's been four years since I've seen Sio (not to mention my sweetie, Brownie), so this is going to be excellent.

Siobhan and I will be going to the Malvern festival on Friday. Anyone else going? If you see us there, definitely say hello. I'll even wear the same blue shirt I'm wearing in my profile photo.

Yesterday I managed to spill tea all over my computer keyboard, which was bad enough, and the electrical transformer. eek. Got it unplugged before anything fried (fingers crossed) and I'm using the laptop right now.

I hardly have any photos on here (and yes, I know I need to backup photos more frequently) but I do have pics of the Moda Jelly Roll I'm using for my 9-Patches. It's the Citrus roll:


Isn't it gorgeous? I added darker blue and purple, but otherwise this is the color scheme of my current blocks. I have to give a big shout out to Moda Customer Service. I sent an email asking what colors where used in this so that I could buy more and I got a reply the very next day. Thanks, Barbara!

Giant Spider Invasion

Uh oh, what is that behind the trees?


Eek, a giant spider.


Okay, okay, it's just a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois titled Maman. I'd actually seen it before at the Tate Modern, but it was so much more fun to see it at the Jardin des Tuileries.

That's the Louvre on the right.

Isn't it cool? I sooo wanted to break the rules and walk on the grass so that I could take great photos from underneath it. I just couldn't do it.

Doesn't Paris look gorgeous with the sunshine and flowers?

Blue or Orange?

I mail ordered fabric and tried one of the new ones with the Margarita Quilt center. I was soo convinced that was the fabric that I went ahead and ordered another couple of yards of it. But then I pulled up the pictures on Picasa and hated how it looked. I know photos aren't accurate, but sometimes they shrink things up just right and allow me to see things that I just didn't notice in person.

I'm now thinking 9" border (I just really like the idea of a big border) with no inner border (which actually means the borders will be different sizes since the center isn't a real square OR I have to whack off those extra bits of orange I sewed on when two of the strips came out longer).

Anyway, I've ruled out spotty border (sorry to all of those who were fans of that one. don't worry, it will show up again). Here's the blue:

And now compare with the newer orange fabric.

Closer:

oh man, I'm thinking blue again. Siobhan, I hope you're still planning that visit - I need some help here. Meanwhile Pokey attacks - I don't think she likes this quilt at all...

Sorry to confuse you with all the activity here. The Margarita Quilt has the center finished - those are 3"ish finished blocks - and you see the auditions above for the border. Meanwhile I have loads of blocks for another one or two or three quilts. Something new has appeared, what could it be?

I'm still focused on making them. Someday I'll make a decision and start sewing them together, but not yet.

Spotty Border?

Yesterday I had such a wonderful day. I sewed in the morning and then went out for a 3-hour photo safari. Most of those photos will get deleted (I love digital) but still need to do a lot of sorting.

Here's Pokey stealing my seat:

This is what I'm thinking of doing with the Margarita Quilt. I bought this spotty fabric because I LOVE it and thought it would be fun for a lap quilt. Instead it might end up here, with a yellow inner border first:

I'm not sure if it's too busy but I do know it's much more exciting than the quieter border I was initially auditioning. Hmm, although now that I look at the blue border I have to say it's calling to me as well. It does make the quilt dark though, and I wanted it more Florida brights....

This is a close-up, just so you can see it, but I would definitely use the yellow, rather than the orange:

Yeah, this one might still be saved for the lap quilt. I talked myself out of it while doing this post. That blue border looked more Florida-y.

Okay, gorgeous day again (woohoo, I feel happy) so I need to get sewing and then figure out my next expedition.

Mixing it Up

During the last week I've made loads more 9-patches, both the little and the big, far more than are pictured here. This is an idea of what they might look like if I jumble them up together:

This layout is fun, but I prefer the small blocks surrounded by the bigger ones like I showed you in the last quilty post. Still not ready to sew them together yet. I have more blocks I want to make and I'm just not ready to commit.

I started some free-pieced letters, but my heart just wasn't in it. Don't know why, but I am just obsessed with these 9-Patches. I like playing with the colors and the contrasts and just sewing straight lines. Very soothing. I'm going to keep making more of them until I'm sick of them. I might end up with many quilts or maybe just a whopper of a king-sized quilt.

In more quiltiness, check out the fun quilt A Few Scraps Christine just finished. She's a Gwen Marston- Anna Williams-loving quilter after my own heart.

Applique n Patch Quilting Rose Marie recently finished her fantastic winter quilt. There are three parts to the quilt's story, start here. She has put so much thought and work into making this her very own wonderful quilt, no one else could have made it. It's amazing.

Threadbender Marsha has excellent tutorials for making squiggles and wild squiggles. It is such a fun technique and before you say, oh but I could never do that, check out the amazing quilts her class of teenagers have done using this technique, here and here. And I love the colors Lisa used here.

The last couple of days have been absolutely glorious here. Mid 70's and sunshine - made a world of difference in my mood.

My sweetie and I watched the first couple of discs of The Tudors, but don't know that I'll order more. Feels like Dallas or another nighttime soap opera but with more sexual content and cooler costumes. I don't feel emotionally attached to it.

On the other hand, I just rewatched The Dresden Files and I do love that one. You got mysteries, the supernatural and a lot of fun. I so wish it hadn't been cancelled. I've also started with Homicide: Life on the Street and I'm not sure about that one. Not nearly as good as The Wire (how could it be?) but I'm enjoying the cast.

One of the French channels is running 30 Rock with an english language option (woohoo!) and I find myself liking that one more and more - I'm no longer watching it just because I'm desperate for tv. Alec Baldwin is such a hoot, how is it he hasn't had more comedy roles?