"Aunt Millie's Garden" Bite #6

The Aunt Millie's Garden meets at Intown Quilters once a month on a Saturday. You can find class information by clicking here. I have now appliqued the 6th block out of 12. I am taking a break to learn about my new machine. Bernina classes are at the Atlanta Sewing Center.

One more Millie (#6 for me)

I have been messing around cleaning my office and trying to quilt, so I haven't gotten much done except for organizing. Oh, I remember how I have spent my weekend: Andy went to Texas for a family reunion (his Dad's side), so I cleaned his room. I found his W-2, so I am thinking he has yet to file his taxes. Also, Adam went out of town (camping with friends), so I am dog sitting Dubsley (aka The Big Brown Monster). My dogs are not thrilled with the visitor, so we have had to watch for skirmishes. Meanwhile Rescued Wren is doing fabulous, and not causing any trouble. I let her roam the house last night instead of closing her up in the bathroom. No problem! I have chosen the colors for my next Millie bite. I thought the kitty face would be a touch of whimsy to add to the quilt at the time we added Wren to our lives.

Aunt Millie's Flower Garden Progress

I am still chewing away at the Millie blocks. It is slow going, and I get distracted often. Tomorrow I go back to work after a week's vacation. Work is the greatest distraction of all. Students are starting back after their break, so it will be amazing busy in the computer labs where I work.

Atlanta Shop Hop, Tiny Circles and Aunt Millie

The weather has been just dreadful for the Greater Atlanta Shop Hop. Thursday I didn't get started until after 1:00 p.m., but I managed to get to Intown Quilters, Patrick's, and Sweet Home Quilt Co. I loved all three stops, but I have to tell you about Patrick's. The farthest point east on our tour of shops, Patrick's is in an old country store in Covington. They have everything from boots and jeans to candy and quilt fabric. I would have loved to spend more time there, but we had to get a move on. Sweet Home Quilt Co. is in an old home in the historic area of Conyers. It is a charming store with tons of fabric; they even had plenty of Miss Jump's Scrapbag fabric from Moda.

On Friday I got an even later start. The weather cleared up, so at 3:00 p.m. I hopped in the car for the ride to Marietta. Being a stubborn person, I decided to ignore advice to take the freeway. It took 2 hours to go the 30 miles, and when I got there Iwas totally lost. Here is what happened: I stopped to fill up with gas at a QT. A workman in a truck told me to go back to GA400, then 285 and then up 75. Did I do it? Oh, heck no. I did not want to use the freeway, so I drove a little farther into LOST and stopped at a Starbuck's. I don't know why I would think 3 young dudes of varios races would be better navigators than a working dude in a truck, but I did. They were not. A call to the store straightened me out. So I hit Tiny Stitches and Little Quilts on Friday. The wonderful woman who waited on me at Little Quilts said to tell my mother "hello" for them. She met Mom in Houston some years ago. I purchased the fabric for the Nantucket Basket at Little Quilts but had gotten the pattern (sorry no link to it) the day before as a freebie from one of the other shops. The other two pictures are from the project I am working on today. My 4th block from Aunt Millie's Flower Garden requires very small circles, so I am doing them assembly line style using Perfect Circles by Karen Kay Buckley. I did circles on the other blocks the traditional way. Trust me, you need Perfect Circles. Don't be stubborn like me.

Colorful Millie Block

I like the brighter blocks I've made better than the purple ones, but I have so much purple fabric, it is hard not to do purple again. I concentrated on getting some more pink this time. Here is my trial flower. I will have plenty of stitching to do during Dancing with the Stars! See the "Millie" pattern at C & T Publishing.

More Millie

I think I need a Millie break. The block on the left is the first one I did, and the block on the right is the one I just finished. That makes a total of 4 completed blocks out of 12. I am not thrilled with the last one; I think I had a "values" issue. It would have helped if I had used the design wall before I stitched instead of when I finished stitching. I have never used a "value finder;" if they are helpful, I need to purchase one.

Colors for next Millie block

While I was listening for the school closure list last night, I cut out the pieces for my next Millie block. Mom had sent me more purples, so I made full use of them. The shiny piece under the cut-out flower pieces is the upholstery vinyl (or quilter's vinyl) used to set the pieces in place. Of course you have to slide them under the plastic template! I was just laying them out to see what they'd look like. I had to move the whole thing so I could use my cutting table this morning. When I tried to moved it, I spilled it all over the floor. I couldn't find some of the pieces; they had fallen in the trash can! I found a sheet of glass previously used in a picture frame, so I reassembled the design, and moved it into the dining room table with the help of the glass.

I hadn't read the instructions for preparation for my Thursday workshop thoroughly. We need to bring pre-quilted cotton with cotton batting and backing to make the overnight bag. I already had pre-quilted fabric I wanted to use, but I don't know the fabric content, so it is good we have a snow day off from school so I can create my pre-quilted cotton for the bag.

Sunday Blogger

It looks like I am a Sunday blogger. Since I started working on Aunt Millie's Garden, I have been obsessively hand appliqueing on weekends, and not accomplishing much more than one slow block at a time. So I must apologize for my infrequent updates to the blog. There just isn't much new at my house in the way of quilting. HOWEVER, this Thursday I am attending a class at the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo at the Gwinnett Center, and Saturday I take two more classes. Then Sunday our Atlanta Unity quilters group meets and we will get a new installment for our mystery quilts. So stay in touch. If I am not too tired next Sunday, I should have lots of great stuff to share!