Graduation Quilt in Progress

I'm back from Paducah and inspired to do more quilting! This is a work in progress for my daughter who will be graduating in a few weeks. These pieces are actually the borders. The center of the quilt is currently at the high school, where teachers and staff are signing it. She does not know about it yet and I'm hoping she will be pleasantly surprised. I will also have the quilt top at her graduation party for guests to sign.

Paducah was nice. Donna and I drove down on Friday morning. The quilt show was spread out in the expo center and the hotel. It was a LOT of walking! I don't know if it's bigger than Nashville or not. I think I liked Nashville's setup better because everything was in the same place, but Paducah was very nice. I purchased an ergonomically correct rotary cutter that I'm already in love with! My wrists are showing their age with some arthritis, and this cutter really helps ease the pain. Cutting is not one of my favorite parts of quilting to begin with, so anything that makes it easier is a plus to me.

After going to the show, we drove back into Illinois to stay in Marion. Marion is about an hour North of Paducah. This was the closest hotel reservation we could get and we made reservations in December! There were a lot of people at the show, to say the least. Once we were back in Marion, we went to a restaurant called the 20's Hideout. It was all done in a 1920's Chicago gangster theme. Really a neat restaurant. I think my husband would enjoy it.

Some of the vendors of longarm machines had displays set up at the show. I really liked trying out the longarm machines. Some day I hope to be able to afford one. Even if it's a used model, they are very pricey, so it won't be anytime in the near future! But I can dream.

Tomorrow's the Day!

Tomorrow we are going to the quilt show in Paducah Kentucky. I'm excited about our trip. I'm going with my friend Donna, who I went to Nashville with last August. We are leaving early in the morning and plan on spending the night tomorrow night.

I started working on a graduation signature quilt for Johanna. It is 5-1/2" squares, alternating between prints and solids. The signatures will go in the solid squares. I'm planning on making blocks with letters in them to spell her name and numbers to indicate the year. Time is growing short, so I think I'll just send the center part, when it's done, over to the school to have teachers sign. Then I can put the border on it and have it at her graduation party.

April Update

I have been out of the mood to quilt these past couple weeks. I did manage to make Darling Daughter a scrub top for her CNA job. It was out of material with kitty cats on it. She liked it.

Yesterday, Sunday, I had a baby shower to go to. Being the procrastinator that I am, I waited until Saturday to go to the fabric store and purchase some flannel. I lucked out and found a sale at Joann Fabrics on flannel. I made five receiving blankets out of one yard pieces of flannel. All I did was cut the fabric into a square, then turn the edges under and finish.

I also took two pieces of flannel and some light batting and made a very quick quilt. Just stitched and turned, pillowcase style, the flannel and batting. I sewed a few lines from one end to the other and called it good.

So now I need to get back into the swing of things. Just have to motivate myself!