Ruler talk.....................

I keep surfing looking at quilts, and reading blogs and finding rulers and tricks to make certain pieces easier to cut.  To make making those "hard" blocks easier. You know what I mean?
Every single time I see one of these oh so great rulers I think, hey I made that block! I guess I don't have enough sense to know I need a special ruler to make some cuts lol!
I am very basic on rulers. I still have the same four rulers I got when I started quilting. Ok I did replace one because the numbers had worn off. But here's what I use.....

 6x24 ruler
6x12 ruler
12" square ruler
8 1/2" square ruler

That's it....my whole collection of rulers. Oh wait, I think I have two of the Easy Angle ones somewhere but guess what? I never use them. I find that it's just as easy to use these four rulers to make any block I want.

I see quilters with tons and tons of rulers and I have to wonder if they all actually get used? Or is it just about having them?
I think I'd forget I had them! I know I've done that with the Easy Angle ones.

So what do you use? Do you have a ruler stash? or do you keep them to a bare minimum?

Now I'm NOT being quilt policey or judgemental or anything.....I am just curious.

Almost done!

I worked all day on this and I'm almost done. That's a good feeling! Hopefully today I will get it finished. I need to stitch around the seaweed, scallop the top, and back and quilt it. Not too much more to do.

I also started cutting the pieces for this last night....
http://www.mccallsquilting.com/mccallsquilting/articles/Gosling_Go_Round_FREE_Flying_Geese_Quilt_Block_Pattern

I just LOVE Flying Geese for some reason and right now pinks appeal to me! I was able to pull everything I needed from my stash too! I remember when I first started quilting five short years ago.......I looked at pictures of other quilter's stash and was amazed. I didn't think I'd EVER be able to make a quilt from mine. Now I still can't rival some of those pictures but I can make a quilt from mine! I'm thinking this might be my first quilt to tie......I am not sure though. I can also picture big stitches around all those geese and something in those big pink squares. Isn't it just lovely?

Wall hanging for a friend....

This is the start of a wallhanging I am making for a friend. She wanted bright colors and it is going in her new home at the beach. So I thought an underwater scene would be perfect.
I am out of my comfort zone! I've got the background laid out so far. I have a plan for the rest of it....now I just have to figure out how to put it into action!

It definitely is some stress relief to escape away and work on this......dd's wedding is tomorrow! Family is coming in today! The house looks like a tornado hit it! Sunday I will crash I think.

Wedding dresses are on my mind!

The time is fast approaching! Daughter #2 has her wedding in 2 weeks. I'm finishing up alterations on her dress this week. Let me say right away I am NOT a seamstress. I don't even like making clothes. But....a friend of mine who is marvelous at it is already making daughter #1's dress and I just couldn't ask her to do this too. So I am tackling it.

So we're going from this

to something like this....

The front of it isn't so bad but I have to tackle moving the zipper today and I am  NOT looking forward to that!

And here is my other daughter's dress made by my friend. DD took her a picture and she has copied almost to the letter! Now the front of it is not attached yet....this was the fitting to see if everything was going together right.

I think I'm going to have two beautiful brides this summer!
Some of these are not good pictures....my next cell phone whenever that may be is going to have a GOOD camera!

I also have the plan for the wallhanging for my friend. Here's the fabric for it. It will be an underwater scene and I am completely out of my comfort zone making an art quilt as much as I am altering wedding dresses! But picture sand and seaweed and bright fish swimming against a blue sea.

Just the binding left!

I can't believe the wedding quilt is almost done..and ahead of time! I need to do the binding and wash it. I'm pleased with how it turned out overall. My usual problem is with the back and this one is no different. No matter how well it seems I pin I end up with at least one pucker......But hopefully they will look past that pucker and just see the quilt and the love put into it. oh and excuse my very rough looking chair......that was intended to be my summer project...restoring the whole set but with two weddings this summer it seems those may be pushed off until fall!

TOGA is over for another year....

It was a great weekend if a little  hectic. We got to the church Friday and got set up. Our first class was t-shirt scarves. Guess what I will be making for Christmas gifts this year? Then of course lunch. There always has to be food!
In the afternoon we made thread catchers. Those things are awesome! Do you use one? I'd looked at them  and looked at them and just never took the time to make one. Why did I wait so long?
Then before we knew it it was time to leave for the day. Since we were done with the machines we loaded them up. Now comes the really genius move I made......I left my purse there! We got all the way to the motel to check in before we realized it too. So a mad rush back to the church hoping and praying someone was still there. Thankfully someone was! Needless to say by the time we checked in, ate supper and got back we were tired. We watched some tv and went to bed.
Saturday morning we made the fabric flowers to go on top of the thread catchers. They're really cute! My daughter though did a MUCH better job at making them than I did though! Mine looked kind of windblown.  Then it was time to clean up and head home.
We made it home safely only to discover we had left something.....again! My camera! Thankfully a couple that lives nearby found it and emailed me. I'll be meeting them later this week to get it back.
So no TOGA pictures till then!

But here's one of Miss Calikat this morning.....she was spellchecking for me! Taken with the webcam so not great...but see those earrings at the bottom of the pic? I got those last year at TOGA and wore them all weekend this year!

Camper time!

We're at the camper part of this week. That's what we will be doing most of the summer......going back and forth between weddings and showers and such.
It's rainy today so there is lots of quilting in my plans. Tomorrow is a trip with the camprground owner, her daughter and kids to go gold mining! Kids should love that!