A Quilting "Have You Ever"?

I loved this idea from Shelina's blog and want to play along...   The things in bold are what I've done.  Play along if you dare!

Have You Ever?
1. Taken a quilting class
2. Paper pieced
3. Hand quilted
4. Hand pieced
5. Created your own pattern
6. Published a pattern in a magazine or book
7. Gone on a quilting retreat
8. Gone to a quilting convention
9. Met someone who wrote a quilting book
10 combined your quilting with some other craft
11. Done any three dimensional quilting - like fabric origami
12. Made something using Thimbleberries fabric
13. Made something using batiks
14. Dyed your own fabric
15. Made a landscape hanging
16 Made a New York Beauty quilt
17 Made a baby quilt
18 Made a wall hanging
19 Made a journal quilt
20 Submitted your journal quilt for viewing
21 Made a fabric postcard
22 Made a artistic trading card (ATC)
23 Exchanged artistic trading cards
24. Mailed your own postcard
25. Made a lap quilt
26 Made a twin size quilt
27 Made a full size quilt
28 Made a queen size quilt
29 Made a king size quilt
30 Donated a quilt to charity
31 Sent a quilt out to a quilter
32 Thrown away a UFO
33 Given away a UFO
34 Cut up a UFO and made something else with it
35 Ripped fabric instead of cutting it
36 Made a quilt exactly like the pattern, with no changes whatsoever
37 Done any Sashiko
38 Quilted your own quilt
39 Did free motion quilting
40 Put any embroidery or beads on your quilt
41 Given away your quilt to a stranger
42 Swapped fabric
43 swapped blocks
44 participated in a round robin
45 participated in an ostritch round robin
46 kept a journal about your quilting
47 written a letter to someone who made an antique quilt
49 kept a blog about your quilting
50 participated in a gift exchange
51 sent a quilting random act of kindness
52 joined a newsgroup about quilting
53 made a quilt using a pattern from quilterscache
54 joined an online block of the month
55 made a block of the month quilt
56 subscribed to a fabric of the month club
57 bought fabric at an online store
58 bought fabric from ebay
59 own more than one sewing machine
60 have a room dedicated solely to sewing
61 hide a fabric purchase
62 finished making a holiday gift before July
63 spent more than $200 in one quilt shopping trip
64 made a quilt using a book from the library
65 worked with someone else to make a quilt
66. joined a quilt guild
67 become president of a quilt guild
68 taught a quilting class
69 helped someone else get the quilting bug
70 taught a child to sew
71 made a Dear Jane block
72 Made a miniature quilt
73 watch QNN - quilters news network
73 subscribe to a quilting magazine from your own country
74 subscribe to a quilting magazine from another country
75 buy fabric from another country
76 swapped completed quilts with someone else
77 asked for quilting help online
78 gone to a quilt shop to ask for quilting help
79 bought fabric at a local quilt shop
80 traveled more than 100 miles to go to a quilt shop
81 used nontraditional fabric for a quilt - something other than cotton or flannel

82 made a quilt using instructions given to you on a blog
83 make comments on someone's quilting blog
84 meet a quilter in person after only having talked online
85 had a quilting retreat in your home
86 own quilting software
87 made a quilt you designed on your quilting software
88 done any quilt research - history, interviewing quilters, etc.
89 had any quilt related subject published anywhere
90 donated a quilt to a museum
91 bought a quilt from a thrift store
92 made a quilt using fabric from a thrift store
93 made a quilt using photos
94 made a pastel quilt
95 made a quilt using brights
96 made a quilt using ethnic fabric from another country - African, Asian, etc.
97 made a quilt using leftover blocks from other quilts
98 had your quilt in a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, TV, etc.
99. submitted your quilt to a quilt show
100. won any ribbons with your quilts
101 had more finished quilts than UFOs
102 made a quilt using reproduction fabrics
103 took a break from quilting that was longer than a year
104 made money with your quilting
105 had a job in the fabric / quilting industry

Over 1/4!!!

I'm making real progress on my Red Monster binding - I've finished one entire long edge of the quilt, more than 1/4 done!  Woo hoo!  I think I can, I think I can!  My hands and fingers ache from the hand stitching, though.  I will get a little break tonight as I need to take my little ghouls out trick-or-treating and probably won't get a chance to work on the binding.  I'm pretty confident, though, that I will finish the binding in time to take the quilt with me to retreat on November 8.  Stay tuned!

Oh and I've discovered I really DON'T need to baste down the binding, that it stitches down just perfectly without that extra added step.  What a time-saver!  Who knew???

Checking the calendar...

NO, NO, NO, it's way too early to be scraping ice off my windshield, but scrape I did this morning.  Ugh.  At least I finally found a nice warm winter coat this weekend, but I'm still not ready for this weather!

I picked up the Red Monster quilt from the longarm lady this weekend.  OMG, the quilt is gorgeous!  I tried taking a photo, but it really did not do the quilting justice.  This close-up kind of shows what she did - an all over clamshell pattern.  The quilting is dense and just lovely.  I machine sewed the binding on and began the arduous task of handstitching last night.  I hope I can stay motivated to finish this - I only have 2 weeks!

A productive weekend!

I got the blocks finished for my Anniversary Stars quilt.  They are not sewn together in rows, mind you, but they are finished!  As my daughter remarked "That's a big quilt!" but I am happy to report that all of it fits on my design wall - yay!

I also seem to have revived my quilting enthusiasm!  I had 4 packages of Moda Sonnet charm squares, and was pondering what to do with them.  I ended up paging through my favorite quilt books - the Around the Block series by Judy Hopkins - and found a block that will work well with the charm squares.  I made 2 blocks and like the way they look so far.

I will need to order some more background fabric, as my local shop was sold out when I went to get more yardage yesterday, but this one is well on the way and will be one of the projects I take on my retreat in early November.

We're IN!!!!!!

I got the email yesterday confirming our work and room assignments for the quilt retreat in November.  It's always 'hold your breath' time because there are always more applicants than spots available, but we're in!  YAY!

Now to figure out which projects I'm going to bring!

Design wall expansion

Which leads to quilting productivity!  Yesterday I did something I'd been meaning to do for a while now.  I expanded the flannel on my design wall to reach the ceiling so I would have more room to lay out blocks.  All the quilts I've made in recent months have been too big for the current space I had, so I had to make each quilt in at least 2 sections - not fun.  The current expanded wall will now fit the size of most of the quilts I seem to make, though it is a little hard for my 5'3" self to get the blocks way up there close to the ceiling!

It did, however, lead me to feel more inspired about my Anniversary Stars quilt.  I finished the star blocks for two more rows, and also laid out 2 additional rows of stars.  So now I only have one final row of stars to lay out, then to sew those 3 rows of blocks, and then I will be able to start sewing finished blocks together!  Woo hoo!  I think this one may be finished SOON!

I'm trying!!!

Last night I sewed two Anniversary Stars blocks, and one incredibly ugly-looking purple plum pincushion, but I didn't enjoy a moment of it.  What's wrong with me?

Need to stop by the store and get something to stuff the pincushion - maybe it will look better when it's filled.  Stay tuned!

Not a stitch

My quilting malaise hasn't lifted at all, in fact, I think it has gotten worse!  I did get my mess of fabrics that I am hoping to take to retreat all measured and put away, so the mess has cleared.  I still can't get back in the rhythm of sewing blocks, though.

I cut out 3 fruit-shaped pincushions out of some pretty hand-dyed wool that I purchased.  I am kind of stuck on how to sew them together, though, as the instructions are not at all clear.  <sigh>

I did get an email that my retreat registration has been received and they are working on room and work table assignments, so I'm thinking that means I am in?  I certainly hope so - that would do a lot to get me out of my funk, I'm sure!

Mystery package and a big mess!

In Saturday's mail I received a package from Z&S Fabrics.  I had recently placed an order for some Moda Spencer Museum prints, but my order was sent complete, so I was quite curious what this package contained.  Imagine my surprise when I opened it to find this package of 10 Michael Miller fat quarters, plus a $25 gift certificate!

I spent a couple of hours trying to ponder who might have sent me this lovely gift, or wondering if it was just a mistake and they had mailed me someone else's order... well, the fat quarters, maybe, but not a gift certificate with MY NAME on it!

When my husband finally got off the computer, I went to their website and discovered that they were sending this lovely prize to one customer every week in September just for placing an order.  So I guess I won!  Lucky, lucky me!

As for the big mess - my creativity and quilt progress has been stymied by this huge mess in my sewing room.  I'm trying to get stuff ready to take to my retreat in November (there is a sewing room sales area where you can 'recycle' stuff you no longer want).  So I've pulled fabrics and need to sort and measure.  Yes, this is only PART of what I will be taking.  Shameful, I know, but my tastes change or it's something I ordered off the Internet that did not meet my expectations in person.  One gal's trash is another's treasure, after all!  There certainly is a lot of treasure here!