NQC .... The Q Stands For Quilters

Several weeks ago as I was perusing Facebook when this page popped up.  I imagine it's because every tap of your finger is logged and catalogued by Facebook, putting ads in your face that match your words. Yeah, they do that.  At any rate, this looked rather interesting, so I opened it up to find the National Quilters Circle and a place to register for this Block Challenge.

Here's how it works:  Give them your email address and once a week they send you a pattern and all the instructions for this quilt, one block per week .... FREE.  Free is always good.  There is a master sheet that lists the fabric requirements and the color suggestions so you can hit the fabric store and purchase whatever is needed.

There are thousands, and I mean THOUSANDS of people online making this quilt.  People from all over the world.  The cool part is that many, if not most, are some of the best quilters around.  If you have a question, they can answer it.

I've never done a quilt like this because they were WAY out of my realm of proficiency, but what a challenge!  I signed up.  I'll post more pictures later, because right off the bat I picked terrible colors.  I saw SO many beautiful examples (everyone posts their blocks when complete) that I asked how they did it.  I got a quick how-to lesson in color that I can't wait to try out.

My first problem was understanding quilteze.  It's a foreign language to me, resulting in my first block being 4" square instead of 4-1/2".  Do over!!!  I went back on-line and asked why.  The wonderful ladies explained I needed a Blok and Lok to square things up, and my seams were too wide.

$100 later (for the entire set) I was blocking and loking like crazy and came out with these amazing points.  My tips are usually cut off completely.  I was getting more and more excited!!

To keep this on the short side (I'll post more later), I'm happy to say I'm going to have a gorgeous quilt that I can't believe I made!!  Actually, I'm going to have TWO quilts because I was so unhappy with the first fabric choices, I went back to the store and picked up the maroon colors you see here.

In the meantime, I finished sewing this one together.  It's a queen size.  Someone was supposed to tell me NOT to make a queen sized quilt again.  Good grief, all that fabric is terrible to deal with, and it's not over yet.  It's off to the quilter, at which time I'll have to sew the binding.  Funny how this bed looks like a twin, but it's a queen.

I spent most of the cool morning replacing the tops of these pop-up sprinklers in an attempt to get the brown spots to disappear.  We shall see how it goes.  Just when I thought I was all done, I discovered I have twelve more in the side yard, so that's what's on my schedule for today.  

My last night on the floor!!  YAY!  I'm pretty sure this pattern will be imprinted in my legs forever.  Although he whimpered for several minutes, the foldable kennel worked pretty well.  There were no accidents, mostly because I removed the water at 8:00 and we made a midnight pitstop in the back yard.  My lovely soft bed ... here I come!!!

After sprinkler duty today, I'll begin the packing process.  Not much to pack except food and shorts.  I also need to figure out where to put my bike ... in the car or the belly of the rig.  Neither have much room for something that big.

So why am I going to Arizona in July?  Because it's there!  June seems to be their hottest month and monsoons start in August.  According to the weather people, the temps have been about the same there (in the foothills) as they are here.  Arizona has cheaper gas, cheaper electricity and critters.  Hopefully I don't spontaneously combust in the 112 degree weather I have to pass through to get there.