Whooping It Up

Fall Color Cruise 2007

First, my weekly report:  Nothing in, nothing out still near even on stash use.  That's worth a Whoop Whoop for sure.

On Friday I was whooping it up Big Time!  Take a look at what I picked up from Susan, my longarm quilter.

In 2007 DH and I took a fall quilting cruise From NYC up the northeast coast, around Nova Scotia, and down the St. Lawrence to Montreal.  In advance of the trip I received a square of fall leaf fabric with the challenge to make a block to commemorate the trip.  I entered my block in the competition and guess what.  My block WON!!

Just weeks before, I had attended a Joan Shay lecture and decided to use her 3-D Appli-bond© technique
on the leaves to give them dimension.  The judges, which included Alex Anderson, Joen Wolfram, and Laura Nownes, commented on my overall workmanship.  Oh, My!

Libby's Winning Block

The prize was my pick of the blocks which I had to share with the second place winner.  I chose an assortment of blocks to cover all aspects of the cruise including:

The Date

Holland America "Dam" Ship

New York City - Port of Departure

Fall Leaves

I used Debbie Bowles pattern BQ (for Big Quilt) which is perfect for setting an assortment of disparate blocks.  The top was finished in January 2012; I don't know why I waited so long to get it quilted.

Look at what a great custom quilting job Susan did.

Beautiful Quilting

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday and Judy at Patchwork Times for the Sunday stash report.

Warming up here, but still quilting on.

Friday Finish

Had hoped to have Rock Island Campfires finished -- at least the block portion -- but life got in the way.

Specifically, life in the jury box.  I've known since December that I would be on call for jury duty this week and next; however, one always hopes to either get released altogether or get assigned to a quickie case.  Well, mine was the 9th name called!  It took half a day to seat the jury and the judge had high hopes we'd be finished by the end of the second day.

Nope!  Even though we stayed till 6 last night, we still have to go back today for summation, charge, and deliberation.  It's a really interesting case and I must admit I have whiplash from going back and forth between guilty and not guilty!  It's one of those cases where we are going to have to put sentiment aside and decide specifically on The Law as it is written.

So my Friday finish has nothing to do with quilting, but should be very satisfying, nonetheless.

As to RIC, I'll show my progress to date.

Rock Island Campfires - bottom half

The top two rows are together and off my small design wall.  Still have to remove the papers from row 6 and sash them together.  Then I can complete assembly.  You can see that I settled on hot pink for my cornerstones.  Red was too dull, lime was too close to the small yellow cornerstones, and scrappy looked messy to me.  Besides, I had a stack of 2.5" hot pink strips that "needed" to be used.  (It's kinda my signature color, too.)

I have eliminated two or three colorful borders and have narrowed it down to a selection of black and white options.  One has the hot pink in it and I'm hoping that will be the best choice.  I don't know about you, but my quilt centers have to "tell" me what they need.  I rarely have a border choice in the beginning, and if I do, I don't cut it because nine times out of ten I end up with something else!


And, finally, I have a Whoopy!  Happy to report I'm down 5 pounds from my highest weight around the holidays.  I'm making changes slowly, but it is significant (at least for me) that I am making conscious decisions about what I eat -- or, rather, what I DON'T eat.

I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Go see what she and others are whooping about today.

Keep warm and quilt on.