Office and Factory Fun

As I mentioned in my last post, I got an opportunity to fly out to Nebraska and visit AccuQuilt headquarters.  I am sure some of you remember the Barn Quilt contest and unveiling.  They still have the Winner and runner up displayed on the building. 

The "bike" in the lower right belongs to Tim the Harley Quilter - CFO of AccuQuilt.

There are lots of quilts inside the office area.  Just look:

There were more, but I didnt' get to take pictures of them all.  

I met some nice people too. Carolyn and Tim were in the hallway. 

Steve Nabity was smiling as he showed me the quilt he made. (look on the floor behind him - I do believe I see a GO! cutter. )

And outside I saw Lee Nakamoto and Tim - the Harley Quilter - someone (not me!) had left Tim a surprise on his bike. Lee apparently thought it was pretty funny!

It was....some lady left a lipstick kiss on his mirror. So he puckered up for an "onscreen kiss" 

I don't know if you can see the lipstick in the  mirror...but trust me it is there. 

I had fun!  I also saw inside the factory but I was too busy looking to take any pictures. Silly me!

Getting more done

I have gotten a good bit done on my scrappy, No Rules quilt. This is probably NOT the layout I will use. But it shows the progress I have made and all the work I have completed so far.

Okay here are the pictures:
From one side:


Then the other:


There is a big variety of fabric in there. I think I see some Kaffe Fassett - or is that Martha Negley mums? They both use such vivid colors and y'all know I love some vivid color. There are also pieces from a Connecting Threads line or two (or three?) I have pieces of old shirts in it. Bits from just about every other project I have ever done - if there was a scrap I saved it is probably in here. Plus, those orphan, and experimental blocks now have a home.

Since I will do this "quilt as you go" fashion, there will be some sashing and borders. I am as yet undecided what I will use for that. Batik? Solids? another print? And what oh what will I back it with??? Stay tuned and we will find out. I am sure I will be as surprised as you are.

Big and Scrappy

I am still working on that surprise quilt and I expect I will be for a while yet. I thought I would show you some blocks for another section of the quilt.

First is the HUGE block. I just kept adding pieces to this until it was large enough. It is 18.5 and will finish out at 18 inches. This means that I will be doing lots of work in multiples of NINE.


(you can click on these pictures to go to my Flickr photos and see them larger)

I decided to be "less ambitious" (ha ha) and just make 9.5 squares. After all, I have a square ruler in that size. It makes life easier. PLUS the string squares are also that size so it will all fit together for a really "busy" patchwork quilt.

So here are a couple of 18.5 blocks made from the smaller units.



As you probably noticed, there are some smaller blocks incorporated into the units. There is a paper-pieced tulip block that I messed up on. Hey it works fine in this!
There is also some curved piecing that was made just playing around. I cut it down. Don't be surprised if the other pieces of it show up later.

To photograph these I made a temporary "design wall" by hanging some batting over a door. That is why my squares don't look square. I promise that they are. But even if they aren't -wonky is definitely allowed in this quilt.

This is a NO RULES quilt and it is a lot of fun. You should try it. If you do, let me know and be sure you post a picture of it somewhere so I can see it.