Eat, Quilt, and Be Merry!

I can't wait.  This time next week I will be knee deep in quilting some tops that are way overdue for attention.  I'm heading back to Chicago on Monday to enjoy the generosity of my friend, MacQuilt, and spend a few days playing with Sadie, her Gammill.

I currently have seven tops (actually I have more than that but let's be realistic -- how much can I really get done) that are stacked with batting and backing and waiting to be pushed in the car bright and early on Monday.  With a little luck, I'll get six of them quilted and one will stay in Chicago for Mom22smartchix to quilt for me.  It needs a bit more than I can give it.

In addition, I will be meeting up with friends to catch up (one of whom I haven't seen since I retired in early Sept).  I needed more social time but I am keenly aware of the fish analogy about company and the G8 Summit coming to Chicago at the end of my visit seems like a good time to head home with tops to bind. Hopefully, lots of tops to bind.

Going with me are:

 Orca Bay -- which is heavy and I'll be glad to get turned into a quilt and off the floor.

Paperweight -- which will have a few challenges -- not the least of which is almost every seam is bias to bias and no border to control it.

 

Oak Park Beauty -- which is done in very non-traditional NY Beauty colors.  They are normally lots of mediums and darks or more recently, incredible brights and batiks.  Not this one.  It's a Moda top all the way and mostly from the same line.  I love it.  The feel is very different.  The plan with the huge borders is to end up with scallops.  We'll see.  This is the one that I'd like some custom quilting on and it will be staying for a longer visit.  Otherwise, it's all over pattern by me. The teal strip you see is a flange which complicates all over quilting as you can't (shouldn't) quilt over it.  Not my problem!  Ha!

Dollies are done and ready to be quilted.  I fell in love with this border fabric and went back and bought the rest of the bolt at $3.50 a yard (Benartex).  It will make a great backing or go in a quilt (or two).  It goes with almost everything.  We'll see how it quilts up.

The easiest/fastest baby quilt in the world got done this weekend and I'm hoping to get some stippling done on it and have it ready soon.  Baby JM is here so it's time.  I have enough fabric left over to do a duplicate for a soon-to-be-baby in Montana and that one will have to be quilted on my Bernina.  I could get the second one done before I go and I have the backing -- just not sure if I have the mojo.

There are two more quilts going (Village and Waffle) which I haven't posted about.  We'll see how they look when the quilting is done.

Wish me luck (I'll be taking lots of Diet Coke and Advil to supplement my activities!).  I hope you're finding time to finish a few things along the way!  Jan