Wednesday, May 14, 2008

ACTUAL QUILTING CONTENT

Hi everyone, I actually got some quilting things done. My mini group made a quilt together. I brought the diamonds home and put in the setting blocks. Of course, I finished it the evening before I was due to take it to a friend who is going to put on the borders. Since it was 11pm and I had to get up for work a few hours later, this is the professional shot I took of my part of the finished top. After working on miniatures, this was a fabric wielding task for me. But the setting blocks went in with no problems, and I enjoyed the process, and learned a lot. Next comes the 1 1/2" setting blocks for my mini... we will see how much I will enjoy the process after that one.
A couple of years ago, I found a quilt kit at a vendor and I loved the fabric. I only bought the kit because I liked the fabric which is taupe, I guess. It's kind of brown, kind of grey with a touch of blue. So I had several fat quarters and larger cuts of the 'taupe' and 2 1/2" strips of assorted creams. What to do? Believe it or not, this color is odd enough that it was difficult finding other fabrics that I could add to the collection. I even went to THE DOORMOUSE and I only found 3 fabrics. One of them is the fabric the blocks are on, that I am going to use as setting blocks, and the darker fabric that I'm going to use for the border. So I decided to do a couple of small quilts with the fabric. The blocks are 3" Ohio Star blocks. I think I will make monkey wrenches with the rest.

When in Paducah, I saw a ruler block at a vendor. It was 6 1/2" square. perfect for holding the small rulers by my sewing machine. I asked my husband to make one for me. When he brought me 2 of the big one's, I started to think that I made a mistake asking him, and I should have just paid the ten dollars and bought the small one that I wanted to start with. But, he finally understood what I wanted and did a small one. Turns out, the bigger ones are perfect. the wider one is great for my longer rulers, and the other one is good for my medium rulers. Right now they are perfect on my temporary cutting area on the end of my ironing station. My cutting table has a stack of stuff sitting on it.

Finally, I am putting this picture in because that way I can delete it from my blog photo file. When I was a teenager, I volunteered as a candystriper in the hospital that I now work at.When I look back, I'm amazed at what we did for nothing. We fed patients (always grossed me out for some reason) made beds, ran errands for the staff. Anyway, I put in nearly 1000 hours before I graduated high school and went to college. It is our hospital's 100th anniversary, and they have a display cabinet set up. I donated the pins I was awarded for service. One is a "Teenage Hospital Volunteer" pin, and the other is the "Nightingale Lamp Award". It looks like a little oil lamp with little candy stripes. I didn't figure that my kids would care one way or the other about these items, so they will be on display at the hospital where I have spent a large portion of my life. We don't have candystripers anymore. The only volunteers we have are older people that are very helpful to us. Kids just don't work for nothing anymore. It's a shame. I got a lot out of it.


Have a great day everyone!! Get lots of quilting done!

3 comments:

floribunda said...

I always sort of wanted to be a candy striper but the reality of being around all those sick people grossed me out... and my dad was a doctor and he discouraged me -- not exactly sure why! Maybe he knew how hard the girls actually worked.

Shelina said...

That's a big jump from going from a lonestar to miniature blocks. I'm doing that too - from 12 inch blocks to a dear jane. It requires quite a shift.

Brenda said...

I keep contemplating doing another star quilt; they are so pretty. Somehow another project grabs my attention. I love the kinda of brown,grey and blue fabric plus the accent color they look really sharp together. Have a great day quilting.

Brenda