Queen of the UFOs reports news from the Coast!

Yep - royalty here.  It was a surprise since I didn't notice any post about that rat ... errr Lady in Waiting above me having a finish!  BUT I was just Queen for a Day.  Anyone else old enough to remember that game show??  I finished my stay robin project.  insert royal wave here!!

It all started with an abandoned paper-less paper piecing Mariner's Compass.  I had an idea and I'm so excited that the block is no longer languishing in a corner, unfinished and out of mind!

My Brookings Guild started a 'stay robin' in the fall.  We had done a round robin last year ... and the stay robin went well too.

Start with a block. Then we followed the month assignments that were drawn from a hat!
1.  Applique - for me it was the machine appliqued light house.



2. Paper piecing - I made the sailboat and the 5pointed star in the corners.
3. Words - a perfect pick for me, I was going to add the poem at this time anyway.

If ever you lived by the ocean, if ever you lived by the sea,
when you return inland, your spirit will have been set free.
if ever you've heard the sea gulls, the waves, a foghorn, the winds,
then you've heard the song of the ocean and the peace it sends.

This poem is a paraphrasing of the anonymous poem "If ever you lived on an island"

4. Triangles - always a favorite of mine.
5. Strip piecing - checkerboard made with this GREAT Japanese shirting that has crabs.  I found it at Britex in San Francisco and spent the big money to buy enough to give me the anchor 'dots' on the selvedge too!!

I knew I wanted to add top and bottom borders - it was almost square but not!

My friend S made these awesome machine embroidery vintage nautical motifs and they are perfect!  I'm thrilled to have them in my project.  And even more thrilled to have another set on a brighter blue-white fabrics to make a bed sized quilt with!

The back is my unique (?) combination of 4 anchor fabrics and 1 abstract nautical-looking fabric.  All of which were being saved for some special project for way too long!!  They will make me smile everytime I see the back of this quilt.  So worth it!!

Sorry for the crooked pictures ... I thought I was holding the camera straight!!

The eclipse was in heavy fog here in Brookings.  So maybe next time???  LOL!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day!  To all those women who nurture children - your own or others'!  We all know 'aunts' who are the best moms!!

On the quilting front - I'm working hard on the 'stay robin'.  The top is finished, the back is made, the batting is cut ... now, should I mark it before or after basting?!  It needs to be done in 11 days!  I hate last minute deadlines - yet, here I am!!  My own darn fault!  BUT I like how it's turning out.  Pictures next week.

Six days in a row of sunshine - a 2012 record - NOT an exaggeration!  It's amazing how a week without rain can change your whole attitude.  A spring in your step, not just trudging from one place to the next! And low tide was wonderfully civil this week - minus tides during 9-5 hours.  Good walking excuse.

That being said - the wind changed dramatically an hour ago and now the fog is rolling through.  Not looking good for grilling out steak and baked sweet potato for Mom's Day dinner!! 

The power of praising the weather - can change it for the worse in a flash!!!  LOL! Darn!!

Oh Dear! Nothing to report here!

All that sewing I thought I'd get done this week ... nada!!  In fact, my sewing machine isn't even set up again after my glorious retreat last week.  But that should change tomorrow. 

I'm working on the last borders of my 'stay-robin'.  I signed it up for the Quilt Show Memorial Day weekend and it wasn't finished yet.  I hardly ever do that - been burned out too many times!  If you know what I mean.  BUT I was sure I would work on it at retreat.  And I would have, but then Miss S of Tidewater gave me a set of wonderful old-fashioned nautical machine embroidered motifs.  Trust me when I say - these are simply gorgeous!  The set I first received were on a 'bluish-white' background.  Nothing that could blend in with my usual 'beige-ings' backgrounds used in the stay-robin.  So, clever girl that she is, she mailed me another set on beige-ing background to use in my final border.

I've laid out the blocks and searched the books for a good border that will blend them into my wall quilt.  I've narrowed it down - a little math and some trimming will happen.  And I hope to have the piecing finished by Friday - which gives me two weeks for quilting and binding.  Fingers crossed!

The stay-robin was started last fall which, Thank the Lord, makes it also an UFO!  I'm number FOUR Lady in Waiting on the UFO Queen list!  Headed to the top with a bullet!! So a finish is required pronto.  This little project will fulfill all the requirements AND be ready for the show, if all goes as planned.

I've been a little crazed this week.  My Mom is in the hospital back in Nebraska.  She's been there since Wednesday, that long of a stay is unusual in this day and age.  My sister took her to a Dr's appointment, he took one look at her and put her in the hospital.  What was wrong hasn't been made clear to us.  Some ongoing lung infection, perhaps.  Nothing has been proclaimed healed, but she's stronger and looking better now.  She'll be going home tomorrow and hopefully be on her way to a full recovery from whatever.

Too crazed to sew or concentrate on anything - I've been having fun playing with Pinterest - oh yeah!  And reading the book club selection for this month.  Madame Toussaud by Michelle Morin.  Have you read it?  I'm not a big fan of historical fiction, but I'm happy to say that this book was very good.  Easy to read and a compelling story.  I'll be interested to see what the other gals think of it.

And then I got off my [hmmm, shall we say 'chair'] and cleaned out closets.  I have a trunk load of donation ready for tomorrow.  Three loads of wash today and a walk ends this weekend.
 
We've had three days in a row of sun this week - a new 2012 record, I'm sure.  Yes, that is probably exaggerating, but not by much.  And three days of sun make us forget everything in the past - all is well in the world.  Hopefully next week will bring pictures of projects worked on!  Keep your fingers crossed.