Over the Rainbow

When I was growing up, the Wizard of Oz was my very favorite movie.  I can remember gluing myself to the TV for the annual showing of the classic.  It seemed no matter how old I was or how many times I saw that movie, that witch scared the crap out of me.  I can probably recite all of Dorothy's lines.  "I'm Dorothy Gale, from Kansas."

So, when a local quilt shop went out of business about four years ago, I bought up all of the Quilting Treasures line of Wizard of Oz fabric they had.  They didn't have everything in the entire line, but it was quite a bit.  Approximately 2 or 3 different panels and about 12 yards of other coordinating fabrics.  I had hit the mother lode!! 

I brought home my treasure of childhood memories and put it all together in my big bin marked "kits" to make later.  Okay, it was much later.  I pulled out the fabric, looked it over and decided now was the time to do something with my stash.  I looked online for patterns as most collections come with patterns and found that I either didn't have one fabric or not another.  I could have hit myself with a broom.  So, the only thing to do was just wing it. 

I gathered the panels and cut the panel into the pictures that I definitely wanted in my quilt.  Then, I added some basic blocks that fit my theme, such as snails trail, nine patch walk, and Kansas trouble.  The quilt grew, and grew, and grew.  If I only had a brain, I would have thought it through more carefully.  Suddenly I had a queen-sized quilt. 

I put the large panel blocks that I had together in story order.  Added some sashing strips and borders and suddenly there was my movie.  I loved it.  The problem was I had fabric left over that I also loved and didn't know what to do with it.  It seemed silly to make a bag and not have it with the quilt.  I couldn't carry that huge quilt around with the bag.  Then, after that enormous project, I summoned my courage to make . . .

Pillow shams!! The shams do not match, but I felt this was part of my "wing it" theory.  I love how it turned out.  I so wanted to use the rest of the fabric because I didn't have the heart to part with it. 

It now lays in Annie's room (homage to AnnMarie) where I am quite sure that Copper will probably lay amongst its poppies and sleep. 

Now that I have quilted across her face, that witch doesn't seem quite so scary.  (Actually, she stopped be scary when I found out she was Cora in the Maxwell House commercials that were on TV in the 70's.)

There's No Place Like Home

By the way, if you haven't seen the movie in a while, give your self a treat and sit down and watch it.  It really is a wonderful classic.

UFO's

No, not the "Close Encouters of the Third Kind".  All my quilting friends know exactly what a UFO is . . . those UnFinished Objects.  How many are in your closet?  I'm not telling.  But, I did finish a couple from a quilting retreat I went to at Piece by Piece in FEBRUARY!!  Let's see . . . February, March -- yeah, seven months ago!!  I thought I should get them finished before starting two more projects at the retreat this weekend. 

TOO MANY SNAILS

Too Many Snails from the Hooked on Three Colors book was the first one I had done.  I love the look of this quilt and have never done the snail's trail block before.  I got that out of my system and probably won't make another snail's trail block again.  Why?  Trimming, trimming and more trimming.  Unless you mark each triangle you add perfectly to your block you have the inevitable trimming to make sure that this block stays square.  If you don't mind trimming, then by all means snail away!!  

This quilt is going to be set aside for a special friend for Christmas.  I'm not saying who in case my special friend reads this.  Could it be you????

MINUS ORANGE

Strange name for a quilt.  Let me explain.  This is a simple borgello quilt (sew strips of fabric together into rows; sew the bottom row to the top row, right sides together to make a tube; cut the tube into sections; use seam ripper to open tube and sew in order desired).  I had all my strips sewn together in sets and had cut all my sections.  I was happily sewing away when Kathy looked under the table and said "whose orange strip is this?"  Yes, it was mine.  Dropped it on the floor.  Didn't make it in the strip sets.  Didn't make it in the quilt.  Lots and lots of expletives.  More expletives.  Potty mouth quilter.  So, this quilt is actually 2 1/2 inches too small on all sides.  Kathy and Brenda love looking at this quilt as asking me, "Isn't something missing?"  I think I should give it to one of them for their birthday.  Smartypants.

Another quilt retreat weekend will hopefully yield two more projects.  Hopefully in less than 7 months.  I have a really, really good excuse for being behind. 

Find out what it is in a post soon to be called "My Sister and I".  I am very excited about this project, and will be happy to share it with you soon.