Busy busy... Liza Minnelli tonite

I haven't updated in a while as I was busy doing a big update to my quilt guild's website. We introduced a new Challenge and Block of the Month for the year and presented over 200 quilts to the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation. We sure do have a strong talented giving group in this guild. Check it out: www.coastalquilters.org.

I have been studying and pondering the pattern cutting and drafting directions on the next two Quilters Palette blocks - the Best of All block and the Roman Holiday block. The Best block pattern kind of interweaves the fabric you choose and let me tell you, I thought I was in an Art and Geometry class both at the same time. I will say right now that I was confused at every turn as I cut my fabrics. The confusion was about which block would be which color and what size and where did it go. There are a lot of pieces. I finally have it cut out, but left a swath of rejected 'cuts' behind. I just don't easily visualize fabric selections in a given complex block. I don't have any photos yet as I wearily left it behind last nite to go make dinner and calm my feeble mind and deal with the heat outside and inside. Here is Annie's block that she demonstrated in her video chat this week. Mine will look different. I really like her color choices, but then, she is the expert!

Next, I drafted the Roman Holiday block which will be paper pieced. That went fine, my pattern pieces are all cut and ready to go. Can't face my fabric choices yet as I have to deal with the Best block and get it completed. My DS Leslie took my Janome 6600 in for its first ever cleaning (after two years of use) and I get it back today, so I will be sewing that mischievous block with a newly tuned machine. Yea!

My other news: Leslie and I are going to the Chumash Casino to see Liza Minnelli tonite!! I'm really looking forward to this, as her name was on my top-ten-see-them-perform bucket list. Of course, it requires me to enter the casino and I'm not so delighted about that, because when I leave I will smell like a bucket of cigarette ashes! They try to clear the air in there, but it doesn't work all that well. Will I drop a coin in the slots? Heck no, I'm going to Long Beach next week for the Quilt Festival and need every penny I have to stay right there in my wallet.