Run for your lives ... !

... Anaconda on the loose! Today I began quilting my string quilt. This morning found me sandwiching it on the basement floor. You know, tape it down, stretch it tight, sandwich it flat. That sounded like such a good idea, oh my. My body parts are so stiff and sore! Obviously that technique is meant for people who are in much better shape than I am. At least I didn't have to call my husband down there to help me off the floor!

The quilt is so large and heavy that I've decided to just stitch in a ditch on the seams. I may try quilting an interesting design on the borders though. We'll see how much energy I have when I get that far.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to finish quilting it this week and that means I won't meet my goal of one string project finish a week. I guess I'll just have to do two next week!

Our 30th. wedding anniversary & a giveaway!

Today is our 30th. wedding anniversary! My husband and I spent the weekend in Kansas City and managed to leave town yesterday before the road conditions deteriorated. We browsed through antique malls, bookstores, ate some of our favorite food and enjoyed being with each other. Hope that wasn't too much excitement for you all!

I think our anniversary is a great reason to have a giveaway of some of my string projects. They're starting to accumulate and I'd like to share with someone! (Please let me share!) I'm sure there will be some chocolate involved too. Sometime tomorrow, I will post details and a photo of the giveaway items so check back then.

While we were in Kansas City, I purchased a new quilting book by Elsie M. Campbell titled, "String Quilts". No surprise, I'm so very tempted to start a few new string projects! She'll be coming to speak at Wichita's Prairie Quilt Guild in April. Maybe I can finish them by then!?!

Please save me from myself as I'm supposed to be finishing up the embroidery on my crazy quilt wallhanging before the PQG's quilt show in June. The stitching is done on the front but I decided to also embroider a wild and crazy bush/flowers/bugs/whatever strikes my fancy on the back. Why? Just because I wanted to, that's why!

Anyway, I'm planning to enter the crazy quilt in the judged portion of the show. It won a blue ribbon in the Kansas State Fair this fall and now we will see what a professional quilt judge thinks of it.

The photo shows just 1/4 of the front of the crazy quilt. It's machine pieced and hand embroidered. It has great sentimental value to me because of what was happening in our lives while I was stitching on this quilt. Perhaps I will share that story with you another time!

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for the giveaway details. Please!

Here it is!

Here's a photo of my string quilt so far. I made 24 blocks for it today but have decided it needs one more row of 6 to make it long enough. I'd like to add borders but don't know what kind of fabric yet. I found 3 yards of bright pink in my "resource center" that I'll probably use as backing.

If you click on the photo, you'll be able to see the colors better. Lots of old fabric in it, some from the 80's. It hard for me to sew with the dusty mauves that were popular back then! For some reason, I've sewn the blocks together in columns (usually sew together by the row) and will sew it all together on Saturday.