Wednesday, March 23, 2011

March Madness

March is the perfect month for quilting - for three reasons. First, there is curling. Second, there is basketball. And third, there is retreats. In a perfect world, one can go to a retreat in March and watch either curling or basketball on the TV. Now, given that I'm in Canada, curling is a better bet, but ..... the retreat I went on had no TV. No internet. Not even cell phone service.

We were at the Circle Square Ranch south of Austin. It was the worst weekend so far this year for travel. We had snow, then more snow, then blowing snow on top of snow. Most of the others got there on Friday, but I didn't make it until Saturday.

You can see why.

11 03 13 circle square drive

That was the good road. Our main highway was closed, so I had driven from Winnipeg on the secondary highway, then up a provincial road and onto what is generously called an access road. There was at least once when I was wishing I was a tractor.
(And me hearing my brother's voice in my head, "You know, Karen, if you leave the road and rollover, all that stuff in your car isn't tied down and it will go flying." Thanks John. Here's me driving with my hands firmly on the steering wheel with visions of cartwheeling ironing boards and sewing machines in an endless loop through my brain.

Wonderful weekend, though. I didn't get much done, but I started on the mystery quilt:

11 03 12 workstation

And here is what it looks like now. I can't decide whether to put on another border, so I'm letting it sit for a bit.

11 03 19 mystery centre complete

Now. Onwards and upwards to finishing the Newspaper Pinwheels quilt. More about that later.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Baptism

You know what I like about a "heads up"? When I get one. Which I didn't last weekend. On Friday, an innocuous e-mail arrived with an "oops - we have a baptism on Sunday." A boy. I had been working for a girl, thinking we wouldn't have a baptism until Easter Saturday.

The KISS principle can be applied to quilting - no half-square triangles, no matching. I stole the idea from Easy Quilts (the quilt is called Sunny Days) and used Winnie the Pooh fabrics to make it work for a one year old boy.

And yes, Virginia, there was a quilt.

11 03 06 Six - complete

All quilted, all bound. I hope they enjoy it.