My DH cross-stitches and knits so I leave those crafts to him. I paint and quilt and he leaves them to me. That way we don't fight over work space :D. He has just knitted a beautiful shawl for each of the new babies and is currently knitting them jackets.

Here's a pic of one of his cross-stitches.

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WOW! I used to cross stitch but, I was not quite that ambitious! My DH has a workshop seperate from the house and he makes cabinets and works with wood. We certainly do not fight for space! I have what was meant to be a single car garage and sometime during the 30 years before we bought the house the room was finished off. It is the room with the most light which suits me wonderfully.

Your room sounds lovely. I had to wait for my kids to grow up and move out before I gained a spare room to turn into my painting/sewing space.

DH has a small shed off the patio where he used to make wood items for my painting classes (I teach decorative art). He also did leadlighting but not so much any more. These days he prefers to be doing something inside after he gets home from work. Old age catching up with us. :p

Hi All,

I'm just stopping by to say hello and let you know I am still working on the 12" PH block quilt... blue, white, yellow daisys. I have 4 of the 5 sections quilted now and should begin that last section this week. Then comes the scary job of putting them all together. Should be easy, right? I hope so.

I started shopping around for a long arm quilting machine. Those things are expensive! I've backed down from the $23,000 Gammill Millineum and am now checking out the $7,000 Pfaff Grand Quilter. The big trouble in deciding is that no shop near us has any of them to try out and see up close. Do any of you have a long arm machine? If so, please tell me what you know. Trying to make a decision is killing me...lol. Of course I could save the $7000 to pay someone else to do my quilting for me. hummmmm

I hope you are all having a great day.

hugs, Jupiter

Hi Jup, I'm no help whatsoever as the only long-arms I have seen belong to professional LAers. They are not really an affordable item over here for most quilters. I just use my domestic machine for quilting.

I do know that many of the U.S. ladies have them for their own personal use, so if you post the question on the main board I think you will have a mountain of information available. There is also the option of the sit-down Sweet Sixteen - somewhere between a DSM and a LA.

Happy shopping.

Good idea, DeeCee. I hadn't thought of looking here for info. But youa re right... where better to find a bunch of quilting experts!

hugs, Jup

Hello, Jupiter, I have been wondering what everyone is busy doing! I wouldn't even know where to start in looking for a LA. I love hearing about those who have them and looooove looking at all the pictures of the work, but, I am content with my DM and what machine quilting I can do on it. I imagine you would get lots of info from the board.

I chose fabric from my stash Monday for the 'star' surrounding the PH blocks and started working on them. I think I told you, DeeCee, that I didn't struggle to the end of all of the PH blocks and I am finishing 15 of the blocks. I like that so far every bit of my PH project is from my stash. It's not time to send any pictures but I will hopefully soon!

Not time to send pics??? Wrong!! It's always time for pics. One of the fabrics you have chosen will do for now.

Jup - how's the LA shopping going?

Ok, you twisted my arm! Here are the blocks I have added the 'star' borders to so far. I will have 15 blocks total and I think I am going to set them into a square setting so I will need one more block. My favorite block is the star-in-a-star-in-a-star. The next decision will be to use black between the squares or use one of the batiks.

Wow that looks fabulous jt. Beeeeeautiful. I think all the blocks look great.

I was going to suggest going with a batik between the squares as, on my monitor, the outer background is coming up as a mottled black but I'm thinking it actually isn't. Can you describe that fabric or post a closer pic of it?