To finish or not to finish...........................
As I continue looking through boxes and drawers to find which items will be on my "daily list to do" I found this one which was started sometime between 1990 and 1992. It's practically an antique!
I have the 4 sewn blocks, some sewn strip sets, some cut strips, and yardage for the border.

It was my demo sample when I last taught Hidden Wells designed by Mary Ellen Hopkins. I'll have to think about this one, to finish or not............

I finished one more journal cover.

This one is made from leftover pieces from these store samples. It isn't as bright as it looks in this next picture. The fabric was a line that was supposed to look like hand dyes.

If you click on this flower picture and look in the upper left corner you will see a hummingbird. I took 4 photos, 3 where the bird was so blurred you couldn't tell what it was. He was checking out the tall red flowers in one of the pots and then flew off to the green penstemon and it's lavender flowers.

It was another beautiful day yesterday. We haven't had rain all week and now that the Sandwich Fair is coming up next week, they are predicting some rain. If it rains at night that is good because it keeps the dust down from all of the autos in and out on the gravel roads through the fairgrounds. This is the last county fair of the year in IL and it is the largest county fair in the state.

Not a lot of sewing yesterday...................
I made this journal cover out of some leftover strips from another project and then added one of my sample embroideries to it.

The notebooks inside are 5" x 7" and are spiral bound.

I had a wrestling match with my weigela bushes again yesterday. Brush pickup is next week so I have been working at clean up for about 2 weeks. The weigela bushes send up straight shoots that then take off in any direction and spread out with branches. They get all intertwined so when I cut one, it takes a lot of pulling to get it out of the tangled mess. I have thinned the bushes down to about half size and next month will cut down all of the rest of the branches so it can start all over again next year. I'm stiff and sore from all of the pulling and then carrying all of it to the end of the driveway. Enough for this month!

About 4 or 5 years ago these bandanas were available..........
at Hobby Lobby. A friend of mine got some for $1 but I paid a little more when I got mine. They are a very good quality of fabric too. My friend had cut one up with her Strips 'n Curves templates and had it in the sample quilt at a quilt shop advertising her class.
I have encouraged my art quilter friends to play with me at our Sept. meeting in designing a quilt using just these 3 template shapes. I was able to get 4 of each of these from one bandana. This is all that is left after cutting.

I found this batik on sale at equilter.com last year for under $5 a yard. I am going to play with this one now and see what interesting pieces I can cut from it. I have seen a lot of quilts made with similar shapes in magazines, books, and on the Internet. I don't know if they are using Louisa's templates or not. My plan is to cut shapes from a lot of interesting fabrics and then start playing with them on the design wall. I'm sure I will have some pieces to share with the art quilters after I see which ones I will be using.

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I forgot to mention yesterday that my friend said my quilts look a lot different in real life than they do in pictures (and she meant that in a GOOD way, LOL). There is such a depth to some of the quilts because of the fabrics used and they just don't photograph well. I always keep that in mind when looking at other person's quilts on blogs too. I guess that is why quilt shows are so important. You can see the real beauty in person there.

We made it to 3 more shops....................
My friend and her husband lived in this area for several years and moved 4+ hours away 30 years ago. Her husband went to see some of his old friends while we took to the road again yesterday. We travelled 113 miles round trip and went to one shop I had never been to. My friend was on the search for dotted fabrics. I found a few that made it home with me too.
I found a heavier weight fabric just perfect for tote bags with a "go green" theme and one more set of positive/negative prints in black and white.

I can always find a few batiks to round out my collection. The one at the top is really more purple than it looks here.

I just got a fat quarter of this fabric with little girls celebrating color.

It was 2 fun days of catching up each other's lives, eating well, enjoying the beautiful weather, and adding a little perk in the form of fabric. I sent home a gift for her sister who I met 4 years ago and a quilt for herself. I think she was happy.

Here is the info so many of you wanted.............
They are all from the same line: monaluna for Robert Kaufman, Metro Market line.
There were more prints, some with yellow in them but my yellow piece was only a fat quarter and didn't have any words on the selvage. There was a chicken print but they only had it in a sample, the bolt was gone. I may have to research this line on the internet.

My friend and her husband got here around 2:30........

so she and I had time to hop in the car and go to 3 quilt shops. I had researched ahead of time to see which ones were open late on Tues. I got these 3 batiks at the second stop. The one in the middle is the exact color I was looking for to use for the triangle corners on my argyle quilt. It is a nice periwinkle. The other 2 were nice light batiks for my stash.
At the third shop I bought the beaters with the red background to make something for my red kitchen. I couldn't pass up the cherries either.

Today we are going to at least 2 more quilt shops after she looks at my quilts this morning.

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Today is my oldest granddaughter's 22nd birthday. I can remember the day she was born just like it was yesterday. She was the first grandchild too and I made her all kinds of ruffly dresses.

Sorry, just another journal cover...............
A friend I haven't seen for 4 years is coming to visit Wednesday. Since I don't want her to think I live like I do, I am cleaning my house. I had been working the last week or 2 on deep cleaning areas in the basement that haven't been touched for a couple months (before I knew she was coming). Now I am cleaning the main level. Not too much though. Just enough to get by.
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I started this journal cover Sunday night and finished it last night.
The funky block on the front is one I made right after I finished the dot quilt top in Sept. 2006. I made 7 of them but will only use 6 of them on a little wallhanging so I used the extra one here.

I quilted some angle lines on the back to echo the angle lines of piecing on the front.

I have been off from my list schedule because of the stress I went through with my dad's medical problems. I hope I can revise the list and get started again near the end of this week. I am really happy with the progress on all of the things I have worked on while I was following the schedule.