Rainbow Rectangles - white top finished, new strips, Mary Ann's quilt, Rainbow Pinwheels top finished

I was up at 5 AM on Friday (9/16)…I just had a lot on my mind and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up to get a bunch of stuff done.  I got my blog entry out (which always takes a lot of time when I have a bunch of pictures), got some work done on the chocolate event, and got a bunch of strips cut for my next quilt.  As I mentioned, I sewed after I got home from the retreat at quilting and I managed to finish the top for my Rainbow Rectangles: 

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that there is a second school in Lancaster that is close to Clinton that I hope to supply quilts to…so I decided that when I make a quilt…I should just start making 2 at a time so that they can be divided between the schools.  I didn’t think of that at first when making the Rainbow Rectangles…but my brain finally woke up and I started to cut strips for a second one:

I’ll have to get some yellow from Jan again….but this time my background will be black: 

Anyway, after all that I just had time to shower and get dressed before my chocolate committee showed up at 9 AM.  We had a delightful meeting, and when everyone left at 10 AM, I called Jan and Pat and we (along with Lisa, Pat’s daughter) headed to Rock Hill for the York County Quilt Show.  They had a nice selection of quilts….and we also saw several from some of the ladies we quilt with every Thursday.  We ran into June & Eileen & Nita (also Thursday quilters) and all decided to go to lunch together after the show.  We ended up at Olive Garden and had a great lunch.  We got home from the quilt show around 3 PM and I read my book for just a bit before Michael got home.  He said “I had a big adventure today” and I couldn’t wait to hear what happened.  He was on the hunt for VELCRO because I am hoping to make handles for “serving bins” (picture when done) for our stint doing concessions at Fort Mill Theatre this coming Sunday.  He tried LOWE’s, but ended up at WALMART to get what he wanted.  As he pulled into the parking lot, he noticed a big back up of people/cars trying to get out and wondered what was going on.  When he got out of the car, he saw the fire trucks and some neighboring guy said that a transformer was about to blow.  He found what he wanted at WALMART, and decided to have a leisurely lunch at Chick-fil-a to give people a chance to clear out.  He won a gift card recently during a golf tournament, so he planned to use that to get a sandwich.  While he was ordering…there was a big boom…and all of the lights went out in the restaurant.  The manager came out and announced that they wouldn’t be able to cook any more food, but distributed what they had available at the time.  He told everyone their lunch was free because the register wouldn’t work to take any money.  When Michael was almost done eating, the lights all came back on, and the manager went around and gave everyone a gift card to thank them for understanding.  So…Michael went into the restaurant with one gift card…had a nice lunch...and ended up leaving with two!  After we were done talking I read my book for a bit and finally felt tired enough to take a nap.  I felt pretty good when I got up at 5:30, although not at all hungry….so I told Michael he could have our ditalini/hamburger leftovers.  He had several programs of his own that he wanted to watch on TV, so he settled in and I headed downstairs to get in a bit of sewing.  I got all of my background strips sewn to all of the colored strips: 

except for the yellow.  Jan didn't really have enough yellow left in her stash, so I think I might have to take a run to Joann’s to get yellow…I need it for this new Rainbow quilt, PLUS I need some for a John Deere quilt a group of us will be working on in the near future.  I think that might be a trip for Sunday morning  :~).  I thought that was a good stopping point, so I did a bit of switching I’ve been wanting to do for awhile.  I always used to have my entire stash on 3’’ by 5’’ cards that I carried with me.  As I got more and more carried away buying fabric, I had to switch over to a much larger basket.  I’ve never been happy with it as it was too deep and also pretty large to shop with.  The good news is, I’ve been sewing up such a storm over the past 1-1/2 years that I can once again fit into the smaller basket (although it IS very tight :~)….YAY!  I went from the right big basket to the left, much smaller basket.

After that switch, I started to work on the straps for the baskets.  Michael bought 3 different colors of baskets, so I thought this rainbow type fabric would work:

At 9 PM I headed upstairs and watched a bit of TV before bed.

 

I mentioned that I finished Mary Ann’s quilt, but never posted a picture of it…I took it to quilting on Thursday and she seemed pleased with it: 

Mary Ann

she wanted waves for her quilting

I believe this is only the second quilt she has ever done and she is progressing at a rapid pace! 

At the retreat, I also finished the project I have been taking every Thursday: 

This is the first quilt top I have completed this year that is large enough for Sterling School….so I am a happy camper and hope to get it quilted quickly.  I have a question....do you guys think this could be a boy's looking quilt?  Or a girl's?  Please let me know...your answers will determine what color I put on for the backing.  I will tell you that I plan to make 2 pillow cases to go with it...one in the red color (with a black top and the rainbow fabric for a band) and same thing using the blue color.  Please vote quickly as I want to get it loaded up soon!