No Ducks Allowed

I am sorry that I haven't been blogging. For the past two weeks I have been battling vertigo. Talk about the world spinning by. The first week I was in bed and then later I was able to move to the recliner. After ten days of no quilting I was willing to put up with anything to get my quilt fix.

A local quilt shop has a mystery quilt club that is similar to a block of the month program only we don't know what the finished quilt will look like. It has a theme and it runs from July through June of the next year. This past years theme was 30's prints. This is very successful for the shop because they have over 500 people sign up. Many techniques are used to build skills and introduce new notions.

I liked all that was done except for one large red work embroidery block that was a duck. I hated the embroidery and I hated that duck. I came to think of the project as that Dumb Duck quilt.

Later when three small red work blocks were assigned I chose to applique the blocks instead of embroider them. When the final quilt was shown I decided that I was going to do something else. Here is the shops version.

First of all the duck had to go. With some graph paper I figured out a new layout. It used less blocks but it needed some fillers here and there. I finished the top and then I found that I could quilt on my large machine without much dizziness.

My head stays still while my arms move. So the top is quilted and bound. I call it No Ducks Allowed. Another bonus is that it is different from the other 500 plus quilts out there.

I didn't count the fabric that came in because it went right back out but I did use 4 1/2 yds for the backing and binding.

I am slowly getting better. I notice more on a week to week basis other than day by day. Thank goodness I can quilt.

Blast from the Past

Lately I have been going through my old stored stuff to make room for my daughter to move back home. The economic downturn is hitting here too. Combining two households is forcing me to go through boxes of stuff that have been around for way too long.

One of the boxes I found had quilting items from when I started quilting almost 30 years ago. At that time we did not have rotary cutters and rulers. There were very few books and copiers were expensive and not too reliable. As I was sorting I came across about 30+ envelopes that I had made up templates for blocks from cereal boxes.

On some of the envelopes I had drawn the block and listed the block size.

There were a couple that were applique blocks.

I must admit that I am so glad to have rotary cutters and rulers that are so accurate and easy to use.

Know what I did with these antiques? They all went into the round file. No need for them now.

The Last in Line?

I think I must be the last one on earth to try the cute butterflies that have been flying around for about a year now. In June I went on a formal shop hop and for driving 312 miles (round trip) and visiting 13 shops I was awarded a small charm pack of Cherry Fizz. I had 22 or 23 squares. In considering what to do with it I remembered this great tutorial by Mrs. Schmenkman for charm squares of 5".

I chose the best 20 and used some light pink solid leftover from Ashcroft #1 and 2. Here are the 20 blocks sewn together.  It was a donation small quilt for our quilt guild to auction off. A good friend ended up with it so I know it will have a good home. Here it is quilted. Too bad you can't see the little butterflies quilted into the border.

I am considering doing a large quilt with my brights and a black solid. We shall see.