All Decked Out: April 2011

The Royal Wedding

Thursday, April 28, 2011 5 Comments »

I'll admit that many here on the this side of the pond have gone batty over The Royal Wedding. My sister is actually going to a neighborhood party to watch the DVR'd version; tiaras and gloves are de rigueur.

With Andrew and Kate's nuptials in mind, Nancy (from NJ, not Nancy, Near Philadelphia) posted the following on FB today, and we've been having a wicked good time with it.

In honor of the big wedding on Friday, find your royal wedding guest name. Start with either Lord or Lady. Your first name is one of your grandparents' names. Your surname is the name of your first pet, double-barreled with the name of the street you grew up on. Let's do this! Post yours here. Then cut & paste it into your status.

Well, this isn't Facebook, so you're not going to cut & paste it into your status, but you can join the fun by proclaiming your royal name. In the mean time, I've got to go practice my royal wave.

Cordially,

Lady Beatrice Anthony-Chelten

Admit it!

Monday, April 11, 2011 3 Comments »

Don't you wish you could wear a shirt shirt like this to work on Mondays?

A C.O.W. Moment

Thursday, April 07, 2011 11 Comments »

I need a sanity check. I'm having a C.O.W. moment. Nancy introduced me to the C.O.W. concept quite some time ago, and I really identified. Nothing of global importance today, but here's what's got me in a cranky-pants mood.

I order a lot of fabric on line. A lot. I have a few favorite sources, am open to ordering from etsy shops, and love giving my business to home-grown businesses. I'll admit I'm spoiled by the fast service most of those sources provide: Fatquarter Shop has my fabric in my hands 3-4 days after I've ordered it, as does Fabricworm, The Old Country Store, Canton Village Quiltworks, Z and S Fabrics, Missouri Star Quilt Co. and a whole slew of others.

I ordered a half yard of fabric on Monday from a new-to-me on line store. I needed enough of one of the CW Tribute fabrics to fix some blocks that finished too small. The fabric is hard to find, however a search let me to a very nice on-line store that had it in stock. While I was prowling around the site, I also found a book about the history, care and feeding of the iconic Singer Featherweight 221. I ordered that as well. While I was in shopping mode, I also placed an order with Missouri Star.

Today I checked on both orders. The one from MS is being delivered tomorrow; the one from the other source isn't even shipping out until tomorrow. Ugh. I was hoping to get those blocks fixed this weekend. The economy is tough. Don't you think great customer service would entice a customer to do repeat business with you, and the opposite would drive that customer away? If you want repeat business, why does it take you 5 days to get a small order out the door?

Am I off base, or is this a legit mooo? When you order quilting supplies on line, what's your expectation?

Moving Right Along

Tuesday, April 05, 2011 6 Comments »

I celebrated a rather significant birthday a few weeks ago, and a dear friend gave me this wonderful Jim Shore angel. She's a quilting angel, no less. I am torn between finding a place for her in the family room and making her home in my sewing room. I think the sewing room. She will remind me of all of the quilting angels in my life and provide calm amidst the Civil War quilt storm. And she has all the colors I love! Thanks, Jan. I'm blessed to have you as a friend!

The center medallion of the CWT quilt is done. It's rather large, at 36", so that gives you some sense of what the size of the finished quilt will be.

Here is the center, up on the design wall, with some of the surrounding blocks. I discovered that the blocks with all of the teeny tiny HSTs are a mite short, so I need to put a very thin border around them to size them up -- maybe you can see the two on the top row where I did just that. For someone who was never really into CW fabrics until a year ago, I'm certainly knee-deep now. Thanks, Nance!

I'm going to give this quilt a rest for a few days and work on some burp cloths for baby Alma. Momma Kate's birthday is on Friday, and that's what she says she wants. Guess I'll dig into my happiest girlie fabrics and get to work. We want baby Alma to be pretty, not spitty.

Marching Along

Saturday, April 02, 2011 3 Comments »

There is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm almost ready to tackle the block for Month #11 of the Civil War Tribute quilt, and it hasn't been easy going. After Month #7 (Vicksburg), which was the set of 8 blocks containing 468 HSTs, Month #8 was more or less a piece of cake. This one commemorates the Battle of Gettysburg, and is a variation of a Hearth & Home block. The requirement was four 12" (finished) blocks.

The blocks for months 9 & 10 were the blocks that caused a personal meltdown at our March retreat. I was frustrated, to put it mildly. The wonderful woman who lead our BOM class, Gina Gempesaw, was kind enough to send me a couple of tutorials that made all the difference. The blocks were still buggers to make. Although I am not an expert, I can now handle Y seams, partial seaming and a center, set-in square. Phew!

Month #9, commemorating the Chickamauga Campaign, and based on a Forget Me Not block. There's a 12" (finished) block & one that finishes at 18"

And in remembrance of the Battle of the Wilderness, Month #10, with one 12" and one 18" block based on the Whirligig pattern.

It looks as though I am homeward bound on this quilt. I still need to do the large center medallion (month 11) and the border (month 12). I haven't counted the HSTs needed for both of those, but have a feeling that they make the Vicksburg block look like child's play. The $20 I spent on this Triangle Magic program is one of the best investments I've made. If you do a lot of repetitive HSTs, you might want to check it out.

Back to battles!