Spring

Here it is spring, and I have absolutely no desire to clean my house.  I see that as a good thing.  Spring cleaning was never really a tradition at our house when I was a kid.  We lived in California when I was growing up (still do), and so the house was kept clean and open year round.  No need to open everything up and air it out, clean it out after a long winter, I guess.  While I suppose it could use a good cleaning, I just don't have the desire to do it myself.  It is what it is.

I do have the desire to organize things more, however.  So today I started working on that a little.  Putting projects together that were scattered about with bits here and bits there.  Perhaps I'll finish that up tomorrow.

I'm a little sad that I didn't win the contest at Quilting Gallery Blog last week.  Don't want anyone to misunderstand, but I really thought I might have a chance with this one.  Oh well, that's life and the nature of such things.  I'll get over it.

I entered again this week's contest, we'll see how we do.  Update - Didn't win this second contest either but I'm not disappointed - my entry wasn't very good and I didn't think I had a chance.  I did get some votes tho - that's something - more than I was even expecting, which is cool.

Excited to get my new Mah Jong card today, I can't wait to start playing with it on April 1st.  Which is a good thing because I left my old one at the game today and won't get it back until next Monday.  Sadly, I will have to play with no card on Thursday as we don't officially start with the new cards until Friday.  My timing sucks, lol.

Well... back to quilting my summer quilt... At least it should be done in time to hang for summer.

New Projects, Old Issues

Why, oh why, am I starting new projects with so many UFOs hanging over my head?  Yet here I am - with new beginnings.  First, I agreed to be part of an exchange of blocks last September.  I finally got the blocks back from the other gals, and put mine together.

The quilt was designed by Susan Claire (www.susanclaire.com).  Eight friends and I decided to do ours as an exchange, dividing the quilt into 9 sections.  I chose to put mine on a very dark grey background.  The others opted for a very light grey.  I like the way it looks on the dark better - but that's just me.  I sashed and assembled the blocks and put borders on this week (took 3 days!).  But now I have yet again another flimsy that needs to be quilted.

My mini-group decided to make a series of seasonal quilts from a book by Vicki Schweitzer.  We decided to start with summer so we'd have plenty of time to finish the quilt and enjoy it for the season we made it for.  (If we'd started with spring it would have been at least half over before we got to hang the quilts).  The top went much faster than I expected it to - I guess I'm getting better at machine applique (I don't do hand applique at all... tried it - not my cup of tea).  I modified the pattern a little, but this is it - again, not quilted yet...

I really need to get through my pile of tops and start actually QUILTING.  Meanwhile my longarm sits gathering dust in the family room.  I'm surprised my husband hasn't blown a gasket by now - though he does hint from time to time about how much I spent on it and that I'm not using it.  Nudge nudge nudge.... *cries*... I wish I could get over being intimidated by it all.

Winning

I hate to steal Charlie Sheen's favorite phrase, but lately that's what I've been doing.

I entered a contest at Quiltmaker Magazine to win one of their '100 blocks from today's top designers'.  I just got an email saying I won one of the blocks.  I also entered to win a piece of hand painted fabric from Mickey Lawler (at www.skydyes.com).  I won that too!... I feel like it's time to go buy a lottery ticket!  hmmmm...

Anyway - it feels good to win something.

Looking forward to going to a quilting retreat in May... Should be fun!  I organize this retreat once a year in Ramona - we all go stay in a resort and sew and play for 4-5 days.  I get to make up goodie bags for everyone, and find quilting games to play, make up a simple project for people who want to make something little as a memento of the retreat... it's all good fun.  And this year I don't have to cook - other people have volunteered to do the cooking!  (another win for me?) 

I made three postcards for exchanges at postcardpizzazz yahoo group.  And I finished them early, so they will be off in tomorrow's mail!  Usually I'm late finishing things.  Maybe this new timeliness is the best win of all - now to just keep it up!

My postcards:  The first is a picture of a sailing vessel my husband snapped in Tortola on our recent Caribbean vacation.  The second is for a black & white with one other color exchange.  The artwork isn't original, but coloring it and making it into a fabric postcard was hard work nonetheless.