An (un)Important Quilting Update!

I am not sure what the hell happened, but I seem to have completely lost most of the month of August this year.  Actually I think I missed most of the whole damn summer!  How the hell did it get to be September already?  I have too many things that still have to be done before it gets cold, I am not ready for September yet! 

Since I am quickly running out of favorable outdoor weather I have spent the last two days trying to get all of the quilt tops I have finished paired up with backs and batting so that I can get them quilted this Fall.  So far I have 5 ready to be pinned, and two more that I broke down and just bought backing fabric for because they are huge and beautiful and I didn't want to screw them up with a crappy pieced backing.  So, whenever that fabric shows up I will be able to pin those two quilts as well.

This is one of the big ones that I bought a back for, it is a queen sized one and will probably be available for sale before Christmas (so start saving now!):

This one I already had a piece of fabric to fit the back, it is a large lap quilt size I think:

 And then this one I pieced a back for, it is also a large lap quilt size I think, maybe a twin size:

I have another bunch of tops that are not quite finished that I am trying to complete as well so that I can get them pinned before the cold weather hits. Here are a couple I am finishing now:

The yellow one will be a queen size once the borders are on, I haven't determined the borders yet for the pink one, so I don't know what it will end up.  These, and the two brown and green ones above are all from the Serendipity Series that I started last Fall, made entirely from my own hand dyed fabrics and a few beautiful batik fabrics.  I have two or three more of these started, but I don't think they will get finished this year.

 I pin all my quilts in our front driveway (we have two and don't use the second one for cars, so it can be kept relatively clean), and its always tricky to find a day with no wind,  that is not too hot or too cold, and when it won't rain for at least four hours.  Then comes the fun part of spreading out all the layers and crawling around on my hands and knees on the concrete, straightening, and then pinning the layers together with hundreds of little safety pins.  Yep, it is exactly as much fun as it sounds.  I am working towards being able to do it up on tables eventually, but I still need a couple more tables, so for now, the concrete is my best friend.

I am trying to get all these quilts done so that I can try to sell them.  So if you happen to want one, you can let me know.  They will not be cheap, but I will try to be as reasonable as possible.  I don't live in China and I can't afford to make a quilt and sell it for $30 like Walmart.  The fabric alone costs way more than that!  Not to mention the batting inside, and the thread.  And my time has value.  I don't expect to make a lot of money from them, but I am not giving them away anymore.  I learned that lesson already.  I hope to have most of them done before Thanksgiving, but I may not meet that goal.  I will get as many of them done as quickly as I can, while giving each of them the love and care that they deserve.  There are a whole bunch more in the works that I don't have pictures of as well.  I have three very pretty floral lap quilts ready to pin, and all those strip quilts I was working on this summer are just waiting on borders to finish them off.

So now you know why Mother has been only posting in fits and spurts lately.  I do try to write for an hour or so each day, but most of it hasn't been fit to print.  I am not sure this one is either, but your are getting it anyway.  And, since I have bored you to tears with all of this dribble, I will offer those of you who made it this far, a small token of appeasement, in the form of ... more quilts!  These two I already have pinned and ready for quilting, I am just waiting for the weather to cool off enough to have all of that fabric in my lap for hours at a time!  So here you go, enjoy:

"Jungle Stones"

"Oriental Dreams"