Mamanance's Quilts

Another Baby Quilt

2011-08-04T23:28:00.000-04:00

I have written earlier about trying to decide on a pattern and fabrics for a baby quilt for our 6th grandchild who is now expected to arrive on September 1. Mom-to-be-again Kristi is scheduled to have a C-section that day. She, her DH and 2 yr old daughter Reilly live only about 10 minutes away from us and are preparing to welcome Emily Ryan Stephens into the world that day, unless Emily decides to come early. Kristi is an elementary teacher and started teacher workdays this week. She will have 3 months of sick leave saved up to take after Emily comes, and is planning to work until the day before she is scheduled for the C-section. More power to her! Hope it works out just like she plans for it.

In the meantime, we have been looking at patterns and fabrics to see what we can come up with. I think we have narrowed the pattern down to Winding Way, with using just 2 fabrics for the main part, with perhaps a 3rd fabric for a narrow inner border, and somehow using the same two fabrics, or maybe just one of them, as the outer border. It needs to go with this nursery set so needs to have lilac, teal and lime green in it. I have bought way more than enough material to possibly use for it, but still we haven't decided on which ones to use. I found some online that I bought to see how they would do, but the main one I wanted to use has a background that won't do - sometimes you just can't tell how the fabric looks by seeing it online. I even called the shop that I ordered it from to confirm that they sent me the right one, but they did. I hope that DD and hubby realize that just because I made the Quilt of Valor quilt in 2 weeks, I won't be making this one in that period of time! I like the Winding Way pattern, but the curves will be tricky. Here are two blocks in that pattern. The one on the left I have sewn together, the one on the right has not been sewn. Here is the other pattern I could use - only one of these "flowers" has been sewn, the rest have not. I would probably want to hand sew this one, and I will hand quilt whatever pattern I end up doing. This uses the Spinning Star template from Come Quilt With Me.com

No decision will be made for the next few days. Dave and I are off to New York to see the Braves play the Mets this weekend with about 30 other members of the Braves 400 Fan Club. We'll be home late Sunday night, then he leaves Tuesday morning for a week in CA with his brother helping him measure for new drapes at hotels in several different parts of the state. That is my brother-in-law's business, Dave is just going along to help out - and maybe see some new sights along the way. I have several things planned for the week so don't expect to get bored at all!

A Quilt of Valor

2011-07-29T23:53:00.000-04:00

Less than 3 weeks ago our guild got a request to make some Quilts of Valor for a group of 30 injured Marines who recently returned from Afghanistan to Camp Lejeune, NC. A week or two before that we had been sent 20 blocks from the Just One Star project that Moda promoted with a request to complete a quilt using them and adding sashing, borders and backing. The gal who got the request and I had both contributed blocks to that project - here are mine - . Moda wanted enough stars to make 100 quilts, using 18 stars per quilt. It is our understanding that they got about 12,000 blocks -- so they have farmed them out to various state organizations for further distribution. I've searched but have not found any information to confirm that number. Also, not sure my guild friend got info about finishing the particular quilt shown on the Moda page. Anyhow, she got permission from the person sending her the blocks for us to use the blocks she received to make a quilt for our specific request.

We scheduled an emergency sew-in for July 13 at our local quilt shop - A Scarlet Thread. There were probably 15-20 of us there during some part of the day - this is out of a guild of 35-40 members - good turnout I'd say. Our plan was to send as many as we could collect by that Friday (July 15) and then send more by today. I did not have any red, white and blue quilts finished, or started, to contribute, but I do have lots of red, white and blue fabrics. For our particular project they were willing to take some that were not those colors, but they did want them to be no longer 70" with a width of 55-65", so I still didn't have anything finished to contribute. On Monday night I started looking for a pattern to use to make one from scratch. I looked at some that had larger blocks, but didn't find anything that struck my fancy. Eventually decided on Bonnie Hunter's Starstruck pattern. I had made a few blocks for another charity quilt using this pattern and really liked how it turned out. Unfortunately, it takes 16 pieces to make one 8" block and I thought I needed to make it 7 rows by 8 rows with one border. Hard to believe now, but I got enough pieces cut to make all those blocks out of my red, white and blue scraps, and to make two blocks to see how I liked the pattern. That is about 900 pieces cut in 2 nights. I must say here that although I am retired, and would therefore appear to have plenty of quilting time, my husband is now also retired and has lots of ideas about things he wants us to be doing - and none of them have anything to do with quilting! So mostly my quilting time comes after dinner and into the wee hours of the morning. Most nights during this project I was up until at least 1:30, and several nights it was 3:00-3:30.

On the Emergency Sew-In Day I managed to get two rows of 7 blocks each sewn together - that was with my being there from 10:30 - 7:00. So, only 1/4 of the blocks done - still lots to do. I let the leader of this project know that I wouldn't have it done by that Friday, but promised I'd get it done before today. After auditioning a single dark blue border I decided to put 2 borders on instead - a narrow red one and a wider dark blue one. That would allow me to only have 7 rows of 6 stars each, so it would take less time to make the 8" blocks. Of course now I have lots of extra pieces cut, but ... so be it.

After staying up several nights til at least 1:30 and sometimes as late as 3:30 I had the top finished, and the backing sewn together, in time to take them to the leader of this project the following Friday, July 22, so she could give it to the guild member who had agreed to do the quilting on it. The quilter was able to give it back to me on Sunday afternoon, and I added the binding, which I had made earlier, stitched down the binding and added the official QOV label by Tuesday night. I also made the required matching pillowcase for it, and washed the quilt, also required by the Quilts of Valor program. Here are pictures of the finished quilt front and back , a close-up of the quilting that was done on it , the pillowcase , and the label .

A word about the pillowcase - it is really pretty easy to make. I followed this pattern on About.com Quilting. It looks really neat when it is done by the special trick with the cuff, and the French seams stitched on the one side and bottom. I used some of one of the reds from the top for the narrow contrasting flange; the cuff is made from the backing material, which is an official QOV fabric. The body of the pillowcase and the inner border may also be official Quilt of Valor fabrics but I can't say for sure - they are definitely patriotic though. The labels can be purchased in panels of several at quilt shops that carry the QOV fabrics. The binding fabric is also patriotic, and may be a QOV fabric. I made it using the continuous bia process described in this video - I love the way striped fabric done this way turn out to be diagonal!

Looks like I am back in my old ways ---

2011-05-30T19:58:00.000-04:00

but here I am posting on my blog. The most important thing that has happened to us in the last couple of months is that WE CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE IN VA LAST WEDNESDAY!! We had it on the market since February 2010, and moved back to GA in late June, so this day has been a long time coming. It had just been 5 weeks before then that we got the call from our agent that a prospective buyer wanted to make an offer, but during some of that time we've been very nervous about it all working out. And we didn't say anything to anyone outside our family because we didn't want to jinx anything. I am now beginning to feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It is really nice to own only one house!

Quilting-wise I don't feel like I've done much, but I have been working some on the handquilting on Allie's quilt . I also now have a design wall of sorts. I am in the process of organizing the closet in my quilting room, and have managed to move the stack of plastic containers that was where I wanted the desgn wall to be. A couple of days ago I hung up a big piece of batting and now have 14 blocks of the Simple Simon quilt on it - this is the one I started in the Stashbusters class at A Scarlet Thread in March.

After seeing the Just One Star project mentioned on Vesuviusmama's blog I decided to make 4 stars for that. They were due to Moda by May 1. Hopefully they accepted mine as I didn't get them mailed until April 29.

Our middle daughter is expecting her second daughter in early September. I made this quilt for Reilly, who is now 21 months old. So now we have started thinking about what to do for new baby. The colors they are using in her room are purple, lime green and teal, using this nursery collection. We went to A Scarlet Thread last week and saw this pattern that she liked - then we noticed it was by the same designer as Reilly's quilt! We also liked this one and are considering a shadow box design or this Spinning Star. Yes, they are quite different, but I am going to try making a few sample blocks of each to help us decide what we like best.

Nephew Eric graduated from high school this past Friday - we went to his graduation and to his folks' house the next day for a big family party. Our 2 GA daughters were there with there families, and DH's two sisters and his brother-in-law, along with all of his brother's family and several from the brother's wife's family. Another Braves game last night - and an exciting win at the end. Our Beach Week is coming up beginning next Saturday. We'll be going back to Hatteras Village in the Outer Banks of NC for the 13th year. This year only our middle daughter and her family will be coming, but we expect to have fun as usual. I'll be taking along the hand-quilting, and perhaps some of the Grandmother's Flower Garden flowers to work on. I only have about 13 whole flowers and 10 halves to make and attach to be finished with the top of that one. When I just now looked back at my older postings to see what I had said about it last, I realized that I've only finished one new flower in the last couple of months, but I've made a lot of white hexagons and attached most of the last ones I've made to the quilt.

Stashbuster Club Report, and Two Aprons

2011-03-23T23:06:00.000-04:00

I didn't go to the Stashbuster Club today expecting to make any purchases, but by the time I left the shop I had 5 new tools: a Wing Clipper, a 12" Quick Quarter II, a Sixth Finger Stiletto, a package of Clover's forked pins, and a 12 1/2" square Creative Grid ruler. You're wondering if I did anything besides buy toys - well, yes I did. I was only one of two students in the class, and the other one works in the shop so was only in the class about 1/2 the time because the employees were busy getting ready for Shop Hop which starts tomorrow morning. But she still got as many blocks done as I did - I know, it's not a race, but still ..........

Here are the 4 blocks I made today. The last 2 are sewn together but not the others. Next time I'll try taking a picture in the daylight, but you can get the idea. I think I will make the rest of the blocks first before deciding which ones to put where. The pattern we used is "Simple Simon" from Stash Pot Pie, which sounded like a computer program that the shop purchased. I've laid the blocks on top of the fabrics I plan to use for the two borders, so you can see that I am alternating the centers that are from those two fabrics. The Y-seam does not seem daunting at all now, so that is good. The blocks finish at 9" - I'm leaning towards making it the larger size - 6 X 7 - instead of 4 X 5, but we'll see.

Now I can show the two aprons that I made recently. One I kept, which I posted a picture of a few days ago, and one I sent to Erin. After last week I thought she could use a little cheering up!

We are probably going to leave tomorrow going back to VA for DH to run in a race on Saturday morning in Charlottesville, with a stop each way in east TN to stay with my mom, unless he decides his cough is too bad for running 10 miles. So, handwork for a few days in the car but no sewing machine.

The Process Pledge ... and the Stashbuster Club

2011-03-23T00:49:00.000-04:00

I've seen The Process Pledge on one of my daughter's blog about her knitting projects and when I ran across it this morning I decided to do it for myself with my quilting. I got the button, which you can now see on the right margin, from Rossie Blog. I like the general idea of blogging about the process, and try to do that some because I think of my blog as a digital diary for myself about my quilting adventures. Here are her thoughts about it and the pledge itself (highlighting is mine):

I have made a process pledge. The goal of the process pledge is to create a new sensibility in quilting blogs where we don’t just show finishes or occasionally confess about our moments of indecision, but chat openly and often about our works in progress, our inspirations, and our moments of decision. I know that many of us are already posting about our thinking on quilts and the processes involved from start to finish, let's do more! And let's post about quilts as we work on them. I want to see more half-done quilts, not just the finished thing with a journal entry about the process.

I think part of the reason I really like the blogs from quilting bees is because a lot of the process gets documented...from original concept, to raw materials, to each block in turn, and often a few drafts of the final layout. It's awesome!

So, without further ado. Here's the process pledge. Take it, shake it, make it yours.

I, ________________, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear. I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.

So, the first thing I'm going to blog about the process of is the Stashbuster Club. I have been going to most of the Busy Needles guild meetings in my new town since August but I've not gotten to know anyone very well. With encouragement from DH, I visited my LQS, A Scarlet Thread, to check out the classes they offer there. The one that appealed the most to me is their Stashbuster Club. It is taught by one of their employees, who is also in the guild, so I signed up for the class. It meets the 4th Wed of each month, so tomorrow is the first meeting for me. Here is the quilt we will be making. . Since it is a "stashbuster" I didn't want to have to buy any fabrics - just wanted to shop my stash. So then you have the question of what fabrics to use. The possibiities included:
1. Christmas - I still have lots of Christmas fabrics, but I am already making the Scrappy Mtn Majesties quilt with some of them
2. Butterflies - I have lots of butterfly fabrics but they all seem to be to big a print to be seen in the fairly small pieces of this quilt
3. Veggies and fruits - turns out I don't have as many as I thought. The small size of this quilt requires 20 7+" squares and I think I want them all to be different
4. Florals - I have a gagillion because I bought a lot to use in my Grandmother's Flower Garden, but I want to have a border that colors inside the quilt can coordinate with and I couldn't find something that I thought worked for that
5. Blues and yellows - my old stand-by colors, but I wanted to try something a bit different
6. Green, blue and purple - I have enough for a border of this fabric from the Eric Carle Very Hungry Caterpillar collection, and I found a bunch of greens and blues and green/blues that I thought would go with it. Also decided on a purple from the same collection as the inner border. As you can see from the sample, these fabrics will look a lot different when all the white gets in there. I still have a difficult time visualizing it, but by this time tomorrow I should be pretty far along with it!

OK, so green/blue/purple - white with little white flowers for background - need 80 3 7/8" blocks for that - cut them last night. Then I looked over the 30+ fabrics that I'd pulled out to go with the border and eliminated all but 20+ - 10 mostly blues and 10-12 green, blue/green or green/purple. Not so sure about what to use for the centers. In the sample the centers of the blocks are the same as the outer border. That might work for some of the blocks in mine, but I don't think there would be enough contrast for some of the others. What about the outer border fabric for some of the centers and the purple inner border fabric for some of the others. I've cut more than 10 of each to take to class, along with some extra fabric of each. Just spent the last 2 hours cutting the 20 big blocks so I think I'm ready to pack up my stuff in the morning. The class is from 10-3, and I may be the only student, or maybe one of two. It is a busy week quilt-wise in ATL - Shop Hop is Thursday - Sunday. I came down from VA for this 2 or 3 years ago and took a bus that one of the shops arranged to do all 11 shops in 2 days. Sadly, this year we are planning to be back in VA for DH to run in a race and we'll be leaving Thursday afternoon, not back home until Sunday or Monday. So no Shop Hop for me this year. One of the reasons I decided to participate in the Stashbuster Club was to meet other quilters - that goal won't be met tomorrow, but I expect I'll get to know Mary, the teacher, a lot better! We will be using a new ruler I've not heard of before - the Flying Geese X4 No Math ruler - sounds good doesn't it? And she will be showing how to make Y seams - something I've done very little of.

Quilts for Japan, an Apron, and Allie's Apple Quilt

2011-03-20T21:08:00.001-04:00

Bonnie Hunter posted yesterday about a way to get some quilts to Japan. One of the comments on that posting was from Beth, who says she is collecting blocks to make a quilt, thinking that blocks might be easier for folks to contribute than whole quilts. Check out Beth's blog to see what she has in mind. I woke up early this morning because DH is volunteering for a race in Atlanta and had to leave home at 5:45 to get there on time. I thought I'd go back to sleep for awhile, but had several quilt projects rolling around in my head so I got up. On the way to the quilting room I checked my email and read Bonnie's blog and saw Beth's comment. So this morning I made these 5 blocks to send to Beth. Hopefully they will blend in with the other blocks she has been promised. She's had about 40 replies so far, and everyone is saying they'll make one or two at least.

Next, I made this tea towel apron. I wear an apron everytime I cook, and though I have several, this one looked fun and quick to do when I saw it at Little Quilts in Marietta a few weeks ago.

A few days ago our daughter who lives in Seattle told us she is moving into an apartment of her own. She's been in Seattle almost 1 1/2 years and has lived in several places but not had an apt of her own. In the spring of '06 she decided to move from the Bay area of SF, where she was a Montessori pre-school teacher, to an organic farm in KY. For the next few years she worked there, and then on 2 different organic farms in the Hudson Valley of NY before moving to Seattle in Nov '09. When she left the Bay area I had been working on a quilt for her - It was the first quilt I started after I retired in June '05, and is hand-pieced, but she told me to put in on the back burner until she had a place she could hang it since it is to be a large wall hanging - or a good-sized throw. Well, now I've decided maybe she is ready for it so I have gotten it off the back burner and have started hand quilting it again. She will be here for a visit in mid-April. Don't think I can have it finished by then, but I'll be working on it. Here is part of the border where I am outlining the individual apples and this is one of the corners where I have a basket to quilt in some way. I have quilted part of the basketweave border, but now can't find the template I used for that, so will have to draw one to finish up that part. In the 6 squares where the appliqued apples are I have done echo quilting - still have 2 of those blocks to do. There is a reason why I made her a quilt with apples on it - read here to see our family connection to apples. I made that webpage after our visit to San Francisco in May '05, where I was able to view Allie making her "real apple" quilt in a window at her art school.

Babysitting, Baseball, Not Much Quilting

2011-03-17T23:01:00.001-04:00

Hard to believe that it has been a month since I wrote a blog entry - falling back into my old ways! Last month I babysat for 3 grands while their mom and dad took a well-deserved trip to NYC. After they went to bed I was able to do some sewing on my Christmas version of Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties that I started at her workshop in VA earlier in the month. I've sewn two rows of blocks together, but not the rows to each other. Here are those two rows at the top and some other blocks that I have tentatively put together. I think I will make it at least 2 more blocks wider than I had originally planned to make it a full size. I've added in some lights that are more patterned than what I started out with, and have to look at it awhile to see if I really like it. I think when I get more blocks sewn together I'll like it better because the two blocks that are mirror images of each other can be more separated.

When I got home from the babysitting I had a packet from Erin that had 4 light background Christmas blocks in it, so I will definitely be adding them to my design. Thanks again Erin!

The day after I got home from the babysitting DH and I drove to FL for a week of Braves spring training games. We saw games in Kissimmee, Ft Myers, 2 at the Braves home ball park at Disney World, and Viera near Cocoa Beach. Also spent time with DH's sister and BIL, one of his cousins and her DH that he hadn't seen in years, one of my cousins and her DH, and my DH's brother and his family who live in the ATL area but just happened to be in FL the same week that we were. Besides 5 games and visiting relatives we had time to spend one day at Universal seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, rode the River Adventure at Jurassic Park, ate dinner at Mel's Drive-in, saw a Mardi Gras parade and a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. You can see more pictures from that week on my Flickr page. Since that time I feel like I've just been catching up on non-quilty things here at home.

I did finally put a hanging sleeve on Celtic Sunrise, a wall hanging I made as a challenge quilt while in the guild in Lexington, so it is now hanging in my quilting room. This pattern is from Quilter's Cache, and is a tribute to my DH's Irish roots. While we were traveling to, from and around FL I worked some more on my Grandmother's Flower Garden hexagons. I still need to make 13 more whole flowers and 10 halves to fill in at the top and bottom of the 5 shorter rows, but after almost 4 years of working on it now and then I can see the end of the piecing. When I finish I will have 95 whole flowers and 10 halves. The centers are the same but the outer rings are different in each one, and all are florals.

I've signed up for the Stashbusters Club at A Scarlet Thread, my LQS, next Wednesday. The quilt for this month is called "Simple Simon" The idea of course is to use some of our stash to make the quilt, so I've got to decide which of my fabrics I want to use for this one - I'll be trying hard to not buy more fabric to make it. And you all know I need another project started!

Quilt Block Choreography and Wonky Log Cabins

2011-02-17T11:25:00.000-05:00

So I am combining two separate topics today - but they are both quilt-related. First, if you have not seen this video you MUST watch it! I don't understand how they do it at all, but I sure have enjoyed watching it. Thanks to Nann for posting it on her Facebook page; I reposted it on mine, and sent the link to my former guild in VA. It is 6 1/2 minutes long and such fun to watch. And the music is not bad either!

Next, I have finished my 3 Wonky Log Cabin blocks for the ALA Biblioquilters project. We are a group of library-related quilters who make quilts that are auctioned or raffled at the American Library Association conferences each summer. I have been donating blocks to this project since I heard about it 3 years or so ago. This year one of the quilts is a T-shirt quilt with library/book themed t-shirts. I donated 3 of ours that we got when we participated in Fun Runs in New Orleans and New York City and in a day of service in New Orleans the summer after Katrina. Another of our quilts this year is another Wonky Log Cabin. We made one last year that I showed in my previous blog entry. This year we are using the colors of pink, brown, teal and green. Here are my 3 blocks for that. I had to go shopping to make these blocks - very few of these fabrics were from my stash. They were fun to do, and I can picture my making more of them. I can see especially putting some randomly on the back of a quilt using some of the scraps from the blocks on the front. These are 4.5", 6.5" and 8.5" blocks. Some are also making 12.5" ones. We are kind of following the directions from Quilt Dad - check it out if you want to make some too.

Bonnie Hunter Workshop Report

2011-02-14T17:40:00.003-05:00

I'm now back home from the fun of a Bonnie Hunter workshop. Bonnie was at my old guild in Lexington, VA - the Rockbridge Pieceworkers Quilt Guild. I drove from south of Atlanta to my mom's house in east TN Thursday, then on into Lexington Friday morning. Met with our realtor, since we still own a house there, then met Bonnie and some of the officers of our guild, and Erin, for dinner. Great conversation flowed and it was soon time to leave to get to the Virginia Horse Center where we were meeting for the evening. After a brief business meeting we had Show and Tell. Erin and I both brought a quilt we'd made using one of Bonnie's patterns. Erin brought her Scrappy Mountain Majesties that she made for her mom. This was the quilt that introduced her to Bonnie a few years back. (I felt honored to get to sleep under this quilt at Erin's house later that evening!) I brought my Orange Crush top - finished as of the day before I left for the trip. Bonnie presented a great trunk show, showing many of the quilts from her books. It was so cool to be able to see them up close and actually touch them. When Bonnie asked for volunteers to fold the quilts after she showed each one Erin and I jumped up - we're too short to hold up big quilts, but we can certainly fold!!

Erin was gracious enough to let me spend the night at her house, and I felt honored to be sleeping in her younger son's bed with her mom's quilt covering me. Thanks Donald for the loan of your bed!

Bonnie's workshop - Scrappy Mountain Majesties - was such fun. Everyone brought different fabrics and it looked like everyone made real progress. Bonnie posted on her blog about our workshop - http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/02/bit-of-lexington.html and here http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/02/scrappy-mountains-in-blue-ridge.html Here are Erin and I in front of Bonnie's large Scrappy Mountain Majesties

I think the one thing that stuck with me the most was Bonnie's idea of what constitutes "neutral." She goes by the background of the fabric, so even if there is a lot of colors on the fabric, if the background is white or pale then she counts it as a neutral. Others may have this idea as well, but I will remember it as hers.

As a result of her idea, I have decided to add more of her version of neutrals to my fabrics for my Christmas version. Here is what I have done so far. and a closer up look at it I'm not sure that I will stick with this design, and I'm sure I will spread out the darks more as I get more done. This is one of the fabrics that I think I should have made be with the print as the light and a dark as the dark. It is a fabric I got from Erin so I'm not sure if I can get more or not. Here are some others that I have pulled from my stash that are Christmas-y but that I had previously thought would be too light to use. It's hard to tell how they are going to look until you sew. slice and sew again. I may have several to go on the back of this quilt!! Here's some of the "new" neutrals I'm thinking of adding, along with some of the darks that I haven't used already. These will certainly give it a different look. I'll have to use a good many of them interspersed with the lighter lights. More to come on this project I'm sure.

Before I continue on this project, or any other, I need to make 3 blocks for the ALA Biblioquilters group. One of the quilts we are making to donate to the American Library Associations silent auction at their annual conference this summer is a wonky log cabin done in pinks, browns, teals and greens. I had to buy some fat quarters for that - couldn't go shopping in my stash for any of it. We made one of the quilts using this tutorial last year, except each of the blocks was monochromatic, so some were blues, some were greens, some were yellows, etc. And the blocks are different sizes - 4.5", 6.5", 8.5" and 12.5". I have volunteered to make one each of the three smaller sizes. More later on the Wonky Log Cabin.

Orange Crush Top Finished -- now on to Scrappy Mountain Majesties

2011-02-09T13:06:00.000-05:00

I finally finished the Orange Crush top late last night so it is ready to take to the Bonnie Hunter workshop this weekend in Lexington. VA. I always seem to delay putting on borders because I think they will cause me problems but I was working under a deadline so I just kept going. The corners are extra units that I had made for the center of the quilt, and the pieces in the middle of each green border were for the corners as Bonnie had originally designed the quilt, but I didn't need them for that with the arrangement of the blocks that I used.

The next question of course is how to quilt it. If I were to do it on my Brother I would just outline the orange and green blocks, and maybe a line thru the light diagonal lines, but I could also get someone to do it on a longarm. It sounds like DH likes it, so it may be one that we actually use. I had no plans for it when I started making it, and of course since it was a mystery quilt I didn't know what it would look like in the end. I was drawn to it in the beginning because of the name - orange crush used to be my favorite soft drink when I was growing up. I bought some of them when I started making this quilt, but it didn't taste as good as I remembered.

After I finished the borders on the Orange Crush last night I started cutting out more 8 1/2" blocks for the Scrappy Mountain Majesties that Bonnie is teaching at the workshop this weekend. She is doing this workshop for the Rockbridge Pieceworkers Quilt Guild, the guild that I belonged to when I lived in Lexington. I was the program co-chair, and arranged for this workshop about 1 1/2 years ago. Even that far out, Bonnie's schedule was pretty well booked, but we were able to get a date in between some of her other trips since we are pretty close to her. So far I have 56 different "darks" that are mostly Christmas fabrics. When I started cutting the "lights" it looked like some of them had slipped into my quilting room without stopping in the laundry room first so I am washing and drying them now. I may be sharing some of what I have with Erin, so I will take all that I have of these fabrics to see what she wants to use. We need 32 of each for a lap size and 66 of each for a full size - guess I'm aiming for something in between. I may decide when I start assembling the blocks that some don't work - but if they don't work on the front they could work on the back - right Bonnie?

Our Frayed Edge Quilt Finished - Now It's "Bonnie Week"

2011-02-06T21:27:00.000-05:00

I managed to get our frayed edge quilt finished - and washed, dried and vacuumed - in time for the guild meeting on Thursday. Here is the front and the back. And as soon as I got home from the meeting we covered up with it on the couch to read a bit - it was a chilly and rainy day here on Thursday. That night we went to see a local production of To Kill a Mockingbird. Friday I tried to catch up on some email and chores, then DD#2, SIL and Reilly came over for dinner - cornbread and minestrone soup made in the crockpot. Don't you love crockpot cooking!

Yesterday we were up early to go to nephew's wrestling regionals - over an hour north of here, but well worth the trip because he won both matches yesterday and is now the heavyweight champion of his AAAA region - way to go Eric! Unfortunately we did not get to see his championship match as we had reservations for the Braves 400 Fan Club Gameboree at the Georgia World Congress Center. It was a fun evening celebrating Bobby Cox, the recently retired Braves' manager.

I say this is "Bonnie Week" because my former guild in Lexington, VA is having Bonnie Hunter give a lecture and workshop this coming Friday and Saturday. She is doing a workshop on the Scrappy Mountain Majesties pattern. I am planning to make mine a Christmas theme, using these and few more fat quarters I picked up at A Scarlet Thread this week. We are to have our fabrics cut into 8 1/2" squares - 32 lights and 32 darks for the lap size, 66 of each for the full size. I'm aiming for at least the lap size, or maybe a bit bigger. I also still need to finish the borders on my Orange Crush top - one of her mystery quilts that I want to show her. And I will be bringing my BargelloBowl quilt - a Bonnie project from 3 Super Bowls ago. I'll be leaving here Thursday to go to my mom's in east TN before going on up to Lexington on Friday. I'm spending Friday night with Erin - will we get any sleep?? The workshop is Saturday, then I'll go back to my mom's that night, and back home on Sunday. Hoping for good weather all the way up and back, but the forecast for Thursday is a little dicey right now.

Here is what I am thinking for the borders of the Orange Crush quilt - I've got the black border on one side, and the others are cut out ready to sew on. For the corners I am planning on using some of the extra little blocks you see there, and maybe some of them in the middle of the green floral border as well. Not sure about that, I'll have to see what it looks like when i get the black border on. Also not sure about the binding, but that doesn't have to be decided yet since I don't know what I will back it with, or how I will quilt it!

Emilie Richards -- and another Weekly Themed Quilt Contest

2011-01-29T13:20:00.001-05:00

Emilie Richards, author of the Shenandoah Album series (Wedding Ring, Endless Chain, Lovers Knot, Touching Stars, Sister's Choice), and many other books, is a FaceBook "friend." Several of her "friends," including me, have been asking recently when another of the Shenandoah Album books was going to be published. A few days ago Emilie blogged about the publishing issues involved with that series, and others of her books as well. Some of us offered to write the publisher asking for another book in that series. In her most recent blog entry she gave us the address of the publisher. I intend to write them shortly, and hope that if you like her books you will do the same. I would never have imagined a few years ago that I would be able to correspond directly with a favorite author like Emilie, or a favorite quilter like Bonnie Hunter. But thanks to email and FaceBook I get updates from other favorites like Sharyn McCrumb, Pat Sloan, Earlene Fowler.

Speaking of Pat Sloan, she and Emilie have teamed up to present a "novellini" by Emilie (that bridges the gap between the current book Fortunate Harbor and the next in the Happiness Key series) and a quilt that Pat will design to go along with the novellini. This interesting project begins February 8 on their blogs. I am reading Fortunate Harbor now, and will be finished with it before the novellini begins. No quilts in it, but some inteesting characters who are growing on me.
I entered one of the butterfly quilts in this week's Weekly Themed Quilt Contest. I'll post more about my butterfly quilts in another entry. I'm sure I won't have anything to enter most weeks, but it is certainly fun to see what the entries are. Last week there were 32 entered in the bargello contest; this week there are 17 in the Unusual Shapes contest. You can go see what they all look like - and below the pictures of them all you can vote on your favorite if you want. Voting is only open from Friday until Sunday night of this week. Next week the theme is Half-Square Triangles - you can check here to see what each week's theme is.

Lily's Frayed Edge Quilt Delivered

2011-01-28T22:19:00.001-05:00

I finished Lily's frayed edge quilt and took it to the new mom Wednesday night. Here is the front, and the back, and the label. We were all at my nephew Eric's Senior Night for wrestling at his high school. He won his match in overtime - very exciting! Here is the new mom with the quilt. She posted on my FaceBook page the next day that her 7-year-old son was wrapped up in it and wanted her to tell me that it is "the softest blanket ever." That's pretty cool! Here is Brooke with her sister, her mom and aunt with the quilt - I'm holding Lily.

After the wrestling match we drove to my daughter's house in Marietta to spend the night, then yesterday she and I quilted together. She is working on her first quilt - she blogged about it here a few months ago. It is the Bundle of Bricks pattern - looks like a good one for a beginner because there are no seams to match until she sews the rows together. I worked on our frayed edge quilt, and now have the bottom 4 rows sewn together. Becky got at least half of her blocks chain-pieced, pressed and trimmed. Here we are with our projects. We've not worked together like this on quilt projects before - hope we can do it again soon, but she is a lawyer who works out of her home and she just got a project that will keep her busy the next 3 weeks.

My next goal is to finish our rag quilt by next Thursday when my guild meets so I can take it to Show and Tell. Then I will go back the Orange Crush to get the borders finished in time for my old guild's Bonnie Hunter workshop February 11-12.

Snip, Snip, Snip - and some family time

2011-01-23T23:37:00.001-05:00

The frayed edge quilt for Lily has just come out of the dryer after two rounds of washing and drying to make sure it is nice and fluffy. All it needs now is the label and I am waiting confirmation on her full name before printing it on the label material. Here it is when I was still snipping. I had hoped to get it finished by Friday so I could deliver it to the grandparents yesterday but that didn't happen. We'll see them again Wednesday so I'll deliver it then. While I was making this one I kept thinking that I wanted to make a big one for us. I have a lot of the squares cut for one similar to this one that I made for the most cold-natured of our daughters and her hubby 2 years ago. In fact, since I started this blog entry I have laid out the front of a slightly smaller one for us. The big challenge will be what to put on the back of ours since I have run out of some of the fabrics I used on the front. In fact, with two of the diagonal lines I alternated two similar fabrics on the front. Can you tell which ones they are? This is the top part of the quilt and here is the bottom part of it - my table is in the way of putting it all together in one place. This one is on my "design floor" since my "design bed" in the guest room still has the orange crush quilt on it and the design wall I plan to hang up has the quilt from a retreat I went to in November still on it. How many more spaces can I find to lay out quilts on before I finish up some of them? Well, the plan is to work on this frayed edge quilt this week, then finish the top of the orange crush the next week. As long as I have it finished in time for the Bonnie Hunter workshop I'm taking with my old guild in Virginia of February 11 and 12 I'll be fine.

As I look at the pictures above, I see that I have a couple of blocks out of place - why is it that you can see errors in a picture easier than you can see it just looking at it?

My oldest daughter has started working on her first quilt and we are planning to get together to sew on Thursday. She is an attorney who works from home on a contract basis with other attorneys. The work is not as steady as working in a firm, which she did for several years, but her time is much more flexible, and allows her to volunteer in her son's kindergarten class. Her two younger ones go to day-care, so we should have some uninterrupted time to sew, then time to visit with them when they come home from school. Sounds like great fun to me. If I can get at least some of my rows of this quilt sewn together by then I could begin sewing the rows to each other while I am there. Always helps to have a goal, even if sometimes you don't reach it.

We were with this daughter and her family Friday night and Saturday morning. It takes a little more than an hour on a good traffic day to get from our house to theirs on the north side of Atlanta. My hubby and my daughter and all of her family participated in the Polar Bear Run (5K for Dave and Becky, 2K for her husband and son, cub runs for the little girls) Saturday morning at a church near her house. It was the first time our family had done anything like that with 3 generations participating - we hope it won't be the last!

After the run we came back down to our county to go to our nephew's wrestling match. He is a high school senior, and we have been attending several of his matches. We are all hoping he makes it to the state championships.

Friday I was able to help out the daughter who lives about 10 minutes from us. Their heat went out Thursday night, and I was able to go over to the house to let in the repairman on Friday so they didn't have to take off from work. Then that afternoon I picked up their 18-month old from her babysitter and met her mom at the doctor's office for her well-baby check-up so she didn't have to try to leave early from her teaching job to get to the appointment on time.

I am SO glad that we are able to do all these things for and with our family down here!

Blog Updates and Another Frayed-edge Quilt

2011-01-19T21:52:00.001-05:00

Since I decided to try to keep my blog more up-to-date I have also made some changes in the blog's appearance as well.

Changed the template and background to something more cheery
Updated My Playlist - added some songs, deleted some that weren't available any longer from Playlist. This took way longer than you'd think, but I listen to it every day while doing other things online. ***If you don't want to hear my music just turn your volume down.***
Added icon for Quilting Bloggers after seeing it on Nann's blog
Added icon for the Weekly Themed Quilt Contest that Quilting Gallery holds
Added my Blue BargelloBowl to the above-mentioned contest since the theme for this week is bargello quilts
Updated the list of blogs I am following, and re-organized them with help from Erin - thanks again for that help Erin
Took off the 2009 list of finished projects and added the short list of 2010 finished project.

For the last two days I've been working on a new frayed-edge quilt for Lily, our youngest great-niece, who was born January 4. Her room is purple, so I found a couple of purple fabrics to add to some I have used in previous baby quilts. Here is what I have so far - front side and back side. In the second picture you can see the plan for the rest of the back. I am hoping to have it finished in time to give it to the grandparents Saturday, but as you can see I still have 5 rows to go, then a couple of washings and dryings. I am clipping it as I go, so I won't have all the clipping to do at the end. Here are my two Fiskars clippers I use for frayed-edge quilts. The ones on the right are some I bought at JoAnn's Monday. The older pair have clipped several quilts and now the little orange latch doesn't work so well anymore. Even though these are designed for ease of use with arthritic hands, I still need a rest after using them for 30 minutes or so, so alternating sewing and clipping works well.

Orange Crush Ready for Borders

2011-01-16T02:15:00.001-05:00

It took me longer to finish the body of the Orange Crush quilt than I had hoped, but I finished it last night while going back and forth to watch parts of the Falcons game - toward the end I didn't have to watch so much 'cause they got crushed by the Packers. Hubby was at the game - guess he won't be so happy when he gets home.

I think I will use 2 borders - a narrow one in the black print that is in all the green/black blocks, and a wider one in the green print, with some of the leftover pieces in the middle of each side, and maybe some cornerstones from some leftover pieces as well. I'll have to see how much I have of the green fabric before deciding for sure. I think if I use those two colors it will bring them out in the body of the quilt, and tone down the orange just a bit. Might try using some of the pale blues for the binding. It will take awhile for me to think more about the borders.

In the meantime I will be working on a frayed-edge flannel baby quilt for a new great-niece born about 10 days ago. I've made one for each of our youngest 3 great nieces and nephew - for the oldest great-nephew I knitted a blanket. Here is one of the ones I made - I'm hoping I have enough of the teddy bear fabric to fussy cut some to use in the newest one too. Most of them have the same arrangement on the reverse side, but the for the last one I made I did something different because I didn't have enough of some of the fabrics to use the same pieces on the back - I may make this newest one in a similar way. I have to go shopping for more flannel on Monday - Lily has a purple room and so I need more purple in her quilt.

Orange Crush Half Assembled

2011-01-11T00:53:00.000-05:00

Tonight I finished sewing the top half of the Orange Crush quilt together - I had decided to make it 6 x 8 blocks when I saw how big it would be if I made it 7 x 9, since the blocks will finish at 9". I'll have a couple of borders on it, so it will be plenty big enough for roomy throw. I'm still liking the diagonal lines of it, including the light diagonal lines that go between the oranges and thru the middle of the greens.

It was a good day to be at my machine today - here is the view from the windows in my quilting room - We had a couple of inches of ice-encrusted snow, but most of the greater Atlanta area had more than that. You may have heard about our weather - interstates closed, airport runways closed, pretty messy out there, so we are staying inside. Temps are expected to be in the teens Wednesday thru Friday nights, so it may not melt much for a few days. Guess we didn't move far enough south to miss all the snow!

This picture is just too cute to pass up - our granddaughter Reilly riding in an improvised "sled." She has hundreds of toys - but not a sled - so Mom and Dad came up with this so she could play in it outside today.

Quilt Fiction

2011-01-09T23:25:00.001-05:00

I am coordinating this post with My Patchwork Life, my friend Erin's blog. She posted earlier today about some of her favorite quilting fiction, especially mysteries. I have recently read Jennifer Chiaverini's The Aloha Quilt and before that A Quilter's Holiday. I'm a little behind on reading them, since her next one, The Union Quilters, is due out next month. I really liked The Aloha Quilt - it advances the modern-day story of the Elm Creek Quilters, and incorporates a new locale of Maui, since Bonnie, one of the original ECQs, has gone there to help an old friend set up a quilt camp. I've been to Hawaii, but not yet to Maui - this just made me want to go there more. The Union Quilters takes place during the Civil War - I'll want to re-read some of her previous books from that time period to recall the characters. A Quilter's Holiday does advance the story of the modern-day Elm Creek Quilters a bit, and I don't want to miss anything in their saga, but it didn't have nearly the plot that The Aloha Quilt has.

I also just recently read Earlene Fowler's State Fair. This is #14 in the Benni Harper series and I have really liked them all. I do remember thinking when I read about the first one that I wasn't sure I'd like it since it takes place in south central CA, and the main character is a young widow has a ranch and is the curator of a folk art museum. I didn't see much in that for me to relate to, but I have completely enjoyed all of the books in the series, and eagerly await Spider Web, due out in May. Erin mentioned earlier about reading Fowler's Love Mercy. I read that too, and hope she continues that story line as well. Benni and her husband Gabe are mentioned a bit in Love Mercy, though they are not the main characters.

Here are the 3 I read recently -

I have read and loved all of Emilie Richards Shenandoah Album series - Sister's Choice is the latest. The setting is in Virginia, not far north of where I used to live, and where Erin still lives. Richards is also writing a series called Ministry is Murder - these do not involve quilts to a large extent, but the main character's mom has a quilt shop, so there is some mention. I've read several of her other books as well and enjoyed them all, but look forward to seeing if she goes back to the Shenandoah Album series again.

Erin mentioned that Clare O'Donohue had a new title in the Someday Quilts series published in September - that's in my Amazon wish list. I have read, and liked, the first two - The Lover's Knot and A Drunkard's Path. She also mentioned that Marie Bostwick has a fourth title coming out soon in her Cobbled Court series. I haven't read the 3rd one yet, so need to add that one to my collection.

I have not read any of Arlene Sachitano's Loose Threads mysteries, and the 4th one of those is out now. Might have to check my public library to see if they have any of them.

There is a 4th title out now in the Queen Bees Quilt mysteries - the first 3 were by Sally Goldenbaum, but this new one is by Marnette Falley - Dog-Gone Murder. Should be interesting to see if a new author can keep the same style as the previous one.

I have one of Terri Thayer's quilt mysteries - Wild Goose Chase. There are others in that series, but I'll read this one before ordering more.

The other authors that Erin mentioned - Lizbie Brown, Barbara Graham, and Lani Diane Rich - are all new to me, but I have now placed some of their books in my Amazon cart too. I am especially interested in the Barbara Graham books as they are set in East Tennessee, where I grew up.

It may not sound like it, but I do like to read other books besides those having quilts in them in some way. Some of my favorite authors, besides the ones mentioned above, are Dorothea Benton Franks, Debbie Macomber, James Patterson, David Baldacci, and Sharyn McCrumb.

Orange Crush Revisted

2011-01-06T01:03:00.005-05:00

This will be a test to see if I remember how to do a blog entry and post pictures to it. Yes, again it has been a long time, but I may be back on the blogging track now. Since my last entry in May our family had our annual vacation in Hatteras, shortened by my mother-in-law's death, my hubby retired, and we moved to GA from VA, attended about 20 Braves games, had a mini-family reunion at our house in September, had overnight guests 3 times, went to Seattle to visit our youngest daughter, took a cruise before Thanksgiving, had various combinations of our kids at our house several times (including all 3 families with the 5 grandkids the day after Christmas), attended a 3+ day quilting retreat in north GA, cheered our nephew in several high school wrestling matches, and went to Johnson City, TN where my mom lives 4 times, including last week for the graveside service of one of her sisters.

I did very little in my roomy and bright quilting room until after the cruise, but since then I have been busier in there. More about those projects in the next few posts. I have decided that rather than make this a longer post by including those projects, I'll just start with where I am today and work backward, and forward, later.

I started the Orange Crush mystery with Bonnie Hunter over 2 1/2 years ago. It calls for 2 main blocks, and got enough of those done to make a decent-sized lap quilt, and had started to assemble them. Here is the original plan for my layout. Before getting very far along with putting the rows together I saw a different layout that I have since decided I like better. I hadn't done any more on this quilt until today. I am planning to attend a workshop next month that Bonnie Hunter is giving for the guild in VA that I was a member of, and I want to be able to take this quilt top sewn together. So today I laid out the new arrangement and took apart some of the diagonal strips that I had already sewn together in the old arrangement. Here is what I have laid out so far. Yes, my "design wall" is still the floor. I think I know where I want to put it, and I have something that I think will work for it, I just haven't gotten it all together yet. More on that later too. I've added some more blocks to this layout since I took the picture earlier tonight, and now only need to make 12 more orange blocks and 1 more green one to make it 7 x 9. I think the border will be a narrow strip of the black, then a wider strip of the green with some of the leftover pieces in the middle of each side like I had laid out in the first picture. I'm a ways from that though. First I need to make the rest of the blocks and re-arrange what I have a bit so that I don't have like fabrics touching and so that the light blue centers of the orange blocks are more randomly placed. So now I have a project I am excited about again - and a deadline for completion of it. Sometimes that is just what we need to get going again, isn't it?

Long Time Since I've Posted

2010-05-17T23:23:00.003-04:00

I doubt anyone is even checking my blog these days because it has been so long since I posted anything. I have been doing some quilting, but I'll have to admit much of my time between November and February was been spent online house-hunting. My husband announced his retirement in January. He is a librarian at Washington and Lee University and will be retiring at the end of June. This has been in the works for awhile, though pretty much in secret. We plan to move to McDonough, GA, where one of our daughters and her family live. That means we will also be much closer to my daughter and her family in Marietta, GA, and to my son and his family in Athens, GA. We were in GA for Thanksgiving and Christmas and looked at houses both trips. After Christmas we even went with a real estate agent to see 9 different houses. We were back there in February, looked at about 9 more houses, and a few days later made an offer on our favorite one that we looked at for the first time in December. The owners accepted our first offer, and we closed on the house April 30. We've already moved some stuff in, and will be taking more there in a couple of weeks, and will officially move in June 26. Exciting times, and sad too, because we are moving from a town we've lived in, except for 2 years, since 1983.

Quilting-wise, I have finished the hand-quilting on Reilly's quilt and gave it to her in February. Here I am marking some of the designs I handquilted on it. Here you can see some of the hand quilting and here is a close-up of one of the corners of it. and Miss Reilly in her crib on her new quilt.

My Christmas projects included another tablerunner, so I was able to give each of our 3 GA kids a tablerunner. Then I made 8 napkins to go with each of the 3 tablerunners. Here is the latest runner and napkins - I also made bags with ties attached for each of the grandkids for Christmas. The boys' bags with drawstrings are in the front, and the 3 girls' ones are in the back with ribbons that can be tied into bows stitched to the bags.

For Easter I made each of them an Easter basket, similar to the ones I made for our girls when they were little, probably 25 years or so ago. This one is Reilly's and this one is for Atticus. Here are Reba, Jack and Lillian with their baskets. Reba's is the same fabric as Reilly's, but purple, Jack's is the same fabric as Atticus' but green and yellow, and Lillian's is a red print. Reba stuffed hers full with more eggs.

One of our recent guild workshops was called "Nickelmania" - here is the beginning of my version of that idea. I doubt that it will be any more finished by the time I move, but I will have a room just for quilting in my new house so hope to get back into serious quilting then.

For 3 years now I have contributed a few blocks to the quilts that a group of library-related quilters make to be raffled or auctioned at the American Library Association meeting. Here are the blocks for this year's quilts. This one is Carol Doak's Connecticut Star, and these are 3 Wonky Log Cabin blocks. You can see that these quilts will be quite different! The third quilt for the raffle is a bookcase - a pattern that I definitely want to do sometime.

My main goal quilt-wise before I leave here is to finish my second comfort quilt. It was started in July of last year when we had a workshop to get some more started. This is the front and the back of it. Just need to pin-baste it and quilt it. I will be doing it on my machine - probably just some diagonal lines in each section. VesuviusMama will recognize some of the backing fabrics! And she will be surprised that I have actually posted on my blog after all this time.

Pink and Brown Quilts

2009-11-03T16:30:00.003-05:00

Reilly's quilt is one of my pink and brown quilts, but I have recently finished another one that I haven't mentioned here. Awhile back the Senior Center quilting group that I lead started making some lap-size quilts using strips and the quilt-as-you-go technique. It took me longer to finish mine than it did the rest of the ladies, but I finally got mine finished and gave it to the Center to put in their shop to sell. Here it is finished and here is a close-up of one corner Here is photo of the back of the quilt . It is always good to learn at least one thing with each project - one of the things I learned with this one is how to make rounded corners. That required me to review how to do a continuous bias binding. I especially like the way a stripe fabric looks in a bias binding, so was pleased with the way this turned out. I cut many more strips than needed however, so could probably make another one without cutting any more fabric. Instead I will just add them to my collection of strips of different widths for another project. This was the same process that we used for the table runners we were taught at Retreat this year, just a different size, and with sashing added. I really like it as a quick to do quilt.
Working on this project also prompted me to investigate walking feet. I have never been happy with the one that came with my Brother CS6000i, so just didn't use it much, but these seams were pretty thick so I contacted a Brother dealer to see if there was a different foot I could get. He said that if my foot did not say "Brother" on it then it probably wasn't a Brother one, and my original one did not, so I ordered one from him, and it seems to be doing much better.
Yesterday I started quilting Reilly's quilt - my first pink and brown quilt. Here are the 4 blocks I've done so far. On the right you can still see the marking pen I use to trace the stencil design, but I will spray it tonight with some water and it will go away. I am outlining the individual sections of the pink and brown sections, and will be alternating the two stencil designs for the cream sections.

Decision on Reilly's Quilt

2009-10-05T22:45:00.003-04:00

I am GA still tonight - I'll be driving back home from McDonough tomorrow - about 9 hours if I don't make any wrong turns!! Tonight Kristi and Micheal and I decided that we like the one border on Reilly's quilt I brought several possible fabrics, including the one they thought they wanted as the outside border, but when I laid it out in Reilly's room we all agreed on this - just one wide border of the brown polka dots; I'll use that as the backing too. I also had some stencils for the cream sections that I showed Kristi, she is leaving it up to me to pick between 4 of the 7 I showed her. Knowing me, I will probably practice with a couple of them at least before I decide. I think in the pink/brown areas I will just outline the sections. I did more of a quilting design in Lillian's but you can't really tell what it is, so I think I will do something more simple for this one.

I have had a great time visiting with all our GA kids and all of our grandkids. I left home last Wednesday afternoon, went to Johnson City, TN to stay with my mom that night, then on to McDonough on Thursday. Friday afternoon I went to Marietta, stayed there Friday and Saturday nights, then Sunday afternoon came back to McDonough. I really miss hubby though, and hope that he can come with me on my next visit here. We'll be here for Christmas, but I hope we'll be back before then.

Yoyo Bunnies, Fabric Baskets and a Sudoku Board

2009-09-30T23:47:00.004-04:00

I have been working on making some yoyo bunnies - this one is completed and ready to give to Reba, our oldest granddaughter, later this week. I made a quilt for her out of some of these fabrics about 2 years ago. The fabric basket is one of the 6 fabric baskets I have made so far - here it is with some of the others. Starting on the left, #'s 1, 2, and 4 are for granddaughters and they all coordinate with quilts I have made or am making. The one in the middle coordinates with a table runner that I am giving to one of my daughters this week. I had given two of these baskets to the granddaughters earlier this year, but then I agreed to do a workshop on them for the guild, so I borrowed them back to use in the workshop. I am hoping to have the second bunny done by the time I see them on Friday. They take about 60 yoyos each, so not a real quick project!

For some time now I have had in the back of my head the idea that I wanted to make a Sudoku board using fabric pieces in some way that could actually be played. Eventually I came up with this idea I've used Velcro in each square, on the back of each fabric square and as strips on the sides to hold the pieces I've not used yet. I wanted some way to make "pencil marks" - and finally came up with the idea of just cutting out little pieces of each of the 9 fabrics. I made this on muslin with 1/4" fusible bias tape for the major lines. Each of the playing pieces is 2 squares of fabric sewn together with a piece of batting in the middle and frayed edges all around. It remains to be seen how long the playing pieces last, but I could always make more. The 9 fabrics I used are all from quilts I've made. In the middle is a 20" x 40" display board, so it can be folded up if I want. I set up the board by using any Sudoku puzzle, then see how far I can get.

Reilly's quilt and some table runners

2009-09-24T16:29:00.005-04:00

As usual when I start a new blog entry, I wonder where to start. I have been working on several projects since my last posting. My newest granddaughter Reilly's quilt - the Squarin' Around that I mentioned in my last entry - is now ready for some borders. Here is the center - and a couple of possible borders - I am going to GA again next week and will take the center and the possible borders with me for her parents to help me decide what to use for the borders. I think the brown with cream dots will be the backing. I'm sure I have thought this before, but I really do think this was the hardest quilt to piece that I have ever done. I like the way it turned out -- but not sure I would want to try it again!

Last spring our guild had a workshop on quilt-as-you-go table runners. I have finally finished 2 - one I started in the workshop and one that I did while helping the Senior Center ladies learn how. Here are the two of them and here they are with the backing showing. When the piecing is finished all you have to do is add the binding. These have been very popular at our guild recently - one lady recently showed 13 she had made!

Honorable Mention

2009-08-13T08:22:00.003-04:00

Our guild had a show July 14-18 and I entered 4 of my quilts - Fallen Leaves , BargelloBowl , Simplified Log Cabin and Say it With Flowers . Much to my surprise I got an Honorable Mention ribbon for the Say it With Flowers. I entered it in the handquilted category - I made it for my mom in '06-'07. I think it was the second handquilted one that I have finished. The comments from the judge were interesting. She thought my triangle points need improvement, and that my handquilting needed to be more consistent in size and space between - I thought the points were pretty darn good, and it was only my 2nd handquilted piece so I thought it was pretty good. She did like the theme fabric and felt the colors were well coordinated - I should give all credit to the fabric designer -- this was a kit that I bought so all the fabrics were in one collection from Northcott I think. She did like the checkerboard border - I was pleased with the way it turned out, and it was easier than I thought it would be. She also said "Excellent handling of difficult binding fabric choice - very good binding corners." That was satisfying because it was hard to do - the binding is a strip of the fabric that has a rope design that I used as the top of the binding and right beside that are some strips that show up on the binding on the back - so it was nice that she noticed that. It is instructive to get the judge's comments, but you need a bit of a thick skin. The important thing for me remains to be that I make quilts that I like, in fabrics that I like, that suit the person I am making them for if that is the purpose. My mom says she likes this quilt - and it will shortly be back in her living room - although this morning I was wrapped up in it a bit while working on this blog entry. It was a cool and foggy morning in central VA - a typical August morning that reminds us that summer is fading.

Recent Encounters with Quilters

2009-07-28T21:08:00.005-04:00

In the last 6 weeks or so I have been out of town 4 times - Beach Week for our family the 2nd week in June, a 5-day cruise with DH's brother's family the last week in June, a great-nephew's christening July 11-12, and now I am in GA to help middle daughter with her new baby daughter. I am feeling like I will never get caught up on email, blogs, Yahoo groups, etc. However, I have a quilting friend who is way busier than I am and she posts blog entries much more frequently (EH, you know who you are), so I am finally posting a contribution to Blogland.

In the last few weeks I have had two encounters with Quilters - Capital "Q" because both of them have published patterns that I have used or had some relationship to. First of all, a few weeks back I had a whole Friday all to myself - doesn't seem like such a big deal for a retiree, but trust me, it is! I wanted to get some serious work done on new granddaughter's quilt. Her parents picked out Squarin' Around after looking at hundreds of patterns that I showed them in books, magazines, and my stash of singles. We finally settled on some of the fabrics from the "Backporch Bouquet" collection from Maywood Studios, with other fabrics added in. I made a few blocks, which don't look anything like I thought they would when I looked at the pattern, and took them to the beach with us so they could see what I had done so far. We tweaked the fabric selection a bit so I was ready to roll the Friday after the beach trip. I cut out enough pieces to get started on and began sewing them together, did the trimming of the blocks, etc -- and had real trouble getting them to come out right. Such trouble that I felt like I could only use about 10 of the first 20 blocks I made. By the afternoon I was wondering what my problem was, and what I could do differently and was getting pretty frustrated and worried. In desparation I googled the designer of the pattern - Karla Alexander - to see if I could find a link or email address for her. I did find her listed on a webpage with a place to send her an email message. So I did that, describing my problem. As I was thinking about which of my MANY UFO's I wanted to work on while I waited to hear from her in the next few days my phone rings - and it is Karla!! This was not more than 5 minutes after I pressed "Send!!" She said she had just turned on her computer and saw my message so thought she would just give me a call. She gave me some good advice about the situation and encouraged me to continue. I am still amazed that she responded so quickly. Too bad she lives in Oregon and I live in VA - I am the Program Co-chair for my guild and I'd suggest her in a heartbeat for a program but I don't think our program budget could swing airfare for a trip from Oregon!

A couple of weeks ago I had a message from Christine Thresh, who designed the Going Around in Circles Again quilt that our daughter Allie made for the niece of her employers. She was very complimentary of Allie's work on the quilt and we emailed back and forth a couple of times. I was happy to hear the compliments, and gladly forwarded her messages to Allie. Pretty cool!

Catching Up for the Last Two Months!

2009-05-28T22:45:00.004-04:00

I HAVE been quilting during the last 2 months, just not blogging about it. I finished the "Simplified Log Cabin" a few weeks back and last week I went to GA to see our kids and grands and also to take a class in using the Handiquilter at A Scarlet Thread in McDonough. After taking the class I rented time on the machine for the rest of that day and most of the next day. During that time I was able to get a comfort quilt done that I started 2 years ago - as well as my "Simplified Log Cabin" and the "BargelloBowl" that I pieced on Super Bowl Sunday 2008 (a Bonnie Hunter project) These last 2 will stay at our house - I am hoping to get them bound and labelled in time to put them in the quilt show our guild has in July. I learned a lot from Kathy, the Handiquilter teacher at A Scarlet Thread, and had fun using the machine. Thanks so much to Wendy for helping me out when I had little boo-boos! I am not planning to buy one anytime soon as I have no room for it, but it sure does allow this hand-quilter to get some tops done more quickly!

Our guild had a retreat 2 weeks ago. It was held at the Virginia Horse Center in town, but it still felt like a get-away with 20+ quilting friends. Friday we had a class taught by Augusta Cole about making what she called Batik Beauty. We made 9-patch blocks to look like half-square triangles and saw various ways to assemble them. I have 9 blocks made so far and am thinking that I will put them together like this - The picture of the red and white quilt is in Karen Combs' Combing Through Your Scraps - called Star Puzzle. I took a class from Karen Combs thru Quilt University 4 years ago when I first got back into quilting - it was called Combing Through Your Scraps, but at that time I didn't realize she had a book by that name. I never finished that quilt, but I did learn a lot from her. We all enjoyed Augusta's class, as well as her lecture on tips the following morning, and hope she will come back for a guild meeting next year. One of the most helpful things she showed us was how to use Eleanor Burns' Triangle Square Up Ruler - a great ruler for squaring up HST's! And most of us bought one from her too!

Saturday afternoon at our retreat one of our members showed us how to make a folded log cabin square using iron-on templates from Foldy Stuff. Here are the two I have done so far - It is fun to do, and goes pretty fast once you have your strips cut. Of course it took me longer than most of the others because I was trying to use different fabrics in each block, or at least putting the fabrics in different places - typical of the way I seem to do things -- making them more difficult than is wise! A few of my quilting friends were surprised that I was using colors that were not blue and yellow, but I have lots of black/white and white/black fabrics left from the quilt I made for Lillian.

I am the program co-chair for the guild for the next two years. We are planning a challenge for our ladies that will begin in June. I don't want to give anything away in case some of them are reading this - but here is a picture of the pieces of a block that is involved in the challenge - More to follow in mid-June!

Allie's "Going Around in Circles Again," the Final ALA Biblioquilters Block and Progress on the Simplified Log Cabin

2009-03-27T12:11:00.010-04:00

Allie has now finished her "Going Around in Circles Again" quilt and it is probably on its way to the recipients. This photo shows her quilting really well. I don't see how she does all those lines so evenly spaced, even with using the walking foot, on her domestic sewing machine!
Here is another picture showing the quilting up closer and closer still I wish I could see the quilt in person, but she made it for the niece of the family that she works for, and it is probably on the way to her and her new hubby now.

I finished the last of the 5 ALA Bilbioquilter blocks a couple of days ago. I like the design, and I like the look of stars, but I don't think I can do them very well. I can add the flying geese pieces on the sides OK, but sewing the blocks together so that my seams don't eat the points is frequently a problem. I always have to sew at least one seam again to get it better. If anyone has suggestions for that problem I'm all ears!
I've also been working on the Simplified Log Cabin and now have 9 rows pieced It is 11 blocks wide; I'm thinking I will make it 13-14 blocks long and hope to be working on it some more today. I love the fact that the border is a part of the piecing, so when I'm thru it is ready to sandwich. I' m thinking I will use a batik for the back - maybe see what I can find in a wide piece so that I don't have to piece it. I think I want to learn how to use a Handi-quilter at some shop where I can then rent time on the machine to do some quilting myself. There is a shop about an hour from here that does that, but you have to buy a set of leaders. There also at least 2 shops in the Atlanta area that have Handi-quilters so I might be able to work in a day or two of lessons and practice with an extended trip to see kids and grands there.

Cabin Branch and Stone House Quilters 2009 Show

2009-03-22T00:00:00.004-04:00

Today we took a roadtrip to Northern Virginia - DH attended a sports card show in Chantilly and he dropped me at the Cabin Branch and Stone House Quilters Show in Manassas. This is only the 2nd quilt show I have attended that had vendors. It was not nearly as big as the Hampton Show, which I have only heard about, but certainly bigger than my guild's show. I took pictures of some of the 225+ quilts and loaded them into an album on my Webshots page. This was one of my favorites The woman who made this quilt was there as one of the "white glove" ladies, so I was able to hear about the making of this quilt - and it made entirely from batiks, which I love to use. Check out my Webshots album to see more of my favorites. I also took pictures of most of the labels, so if you are particularly interested in some of them let me know and I can maybe tell you more about them.

Two of the things that I was specifically looking for there was some fabric sheets for the printer and some Civil War era reproductions for the final ALA Biblioquilters block. I was able to find all of those things, plus some fat quarters, patterns, books and 1/2 yd cuts that just jumped into my hands! I was there from 11:00 - 4:30, so it was a long day of walking and standing, but also quite an inspirational day!

This Pattern Kept Calling My Name!

2009-03-13T01:43:00.004-04:00

A couple of days ago I bought a pattern online called Simplified Log Cabin from e-PatternsCentral. I printed it and it has been sitting by my computer calling my name - over and over again! Tonight I finally gave in to it and pulled a bunch of colorful batiks to use in it. I have now cut 21 blocks, and positioned them where I think I want them to go, and have sewn 3 of the blocks together. Here is the layout for the upper left corner - and further to the right Here are two of the blocks sewn together and a third ready to sew to the first two. I think one of the reasons this pattern appeals to me, besides the bright batik fabrics, is that it is a tessellating design. The pattern calls for 42 blocks, but I think I will make it bigger. Since the border is part of the blocks I will need to decide on the size I want before I can finish the top row. I think the thing that will decide it for me is how much more of the border material I have.

This was not the best time to be starting another quilt top - I still have Lillian's quilt to bind and label (but I have finished the quilting on it), another block to make for the ALA quilts, fabric to cut for a table runner class at our guild meeting on Saturday, and tomorrow, well, actually today, I need to start taking the wallpaper off the bathroom walls so the contractor can start on our renovation project. Oh, and I also need to make some of the refreshments for the guild meeting. So around all these things I wonder how many blocks I could get sewn together this weekend??

Blocks for ALA Quilts

2009-03-06T23:43:00.007-05:00

One of the online quilting groups I belong to is the ALABiblioquilters. We are all librarians and library-related folks. For the past several years this group has been making 2 or 3 quilts to be auctioned at the annual ALA meeting held each summer. The proceeds of the silent auction go to ALA's scholarship fund. I just heard about the group and joined last year, and contributed blocks for 2 of the quilts last year - shown here. This year I volunteered to make 2 blocks for "Chicago BLT" and 2 for "Star Struck"(a Bonnie Hunter gem) For "Chicago BLT" (Chicago because it is the home of ALA, and the site of this year's conference) the organizer sent us the brown and red fabrics and we are to supply the yellow and green. For "Star Struck" the organizer sent us the more solid red, which we could use for some or all of our sections, and were are to supply the black and white prints. For this one we are to send the 8 quarters back to her and she will arrange them. I have lots of black/white prints left from Lillian's quilt and would love to do a bigger one of these. As usual, Bonnie has come up with a great quilt pattern! I have one block to make for the 3rd quilt, then I'll mail them all off to the "Quilt Mamas." It is a version of a 4 patch with 2 parts being smaller 4 patches and the other 2 being stars. I still need to select my fabrics to go with what was sent to me for this one.

Allie's Quilt Top is Finished

2009-02-24T23:12:00.004-05:00

DD Allie just sent me more pictures of her "Going Around in Circles Again" quilt. She has now finished appliquing the circles and has it sandwiched, and will start the machine quilting on it in a couple of days. Tomorrow is market day for her - she goes to the Greenmarket in Union Square in NYC for Hawthorne Valley Farm, where she was an intern during the summer of 2007. On some Saturdays she goes to the Inwood Greenmarket too. In between these times she will be quilting away. I think she will be outlining the circles but don't know what else she will come up with. I think she has done a great job with adapting the double wedding ring pattern to make it her own.

Senior Center Gift Quilts Finished

2009-02-17T22:07:00.005-05:00

Last Friday the quilting group that I lead at the Senior Center presented the two quilts we have been working on for months to the director and associate director of the Center. Both are the Turning Twenty pattern, one in blues - with a large lighthouse panel on the back - because the assoc. director likes blue, and reminds us of that every day we are there, and he likes lighthouses. We made this one for the director - I used some large pieces of sunflower print on the back - At the time we were making this one the director was involved in getting a raised garden going behind the building, so we thought lots of floral prints would be appropriate. These were both made out of fabrics donated to the Center. One of the members of our group has a long-arm, and though she didn't want to volunteer to quilt them both she was willing to show me how to use a pantograph so I quilted both of them. The quality of the quilting does not stand up to hers, but we got them done - and the recipients seemed to like them. If they suspected anything during those months we were working on them they were kind enough not to say so. I am hoping that the woman who took some pictures will send them to me so I can add them to my collection. Here are the labels -the is Ray's and this is Jeri's I was finishing up the labels about 2 hours before their monthly musical program at the Center! I had quilted Jeri's the previous Friday, and though the other ladies said they would help me bind it at our meeting on Wednesday, I decided I didn't want to ruin the surprise by having one of them ask who it was for at that late date, so I just did the binding - and the labels - myself.

Allie's "Going Around in Circles Again" Quilt

2009-02-12T00:42:00.008-05:00

Allie is working on a new quilt - this one as a belated wedding gift for the niece of the family she works for in New York. She wanted to do a version of the double wedding ring, but different. Here is what she has so far. She is using a pattern called "Going Around in Circles Again" using scraps of blues and greens. The circles are paper-pieced, then machine-appliqued onto the background fabric. Here is a closer view - with some of the pins in. Here and here you can see the design even closer. I believe I recognize some of my fabrics! When Allie comes to Virginia she stays in our guest/sewing room and sometimes some of my fabrics make their way into her bags. She has been having more time to work on it recently since it is very definitely winter still in the Hudson Valley. I'm hoping she sends more photos soon!

Mid-January Update

2009-01-18T12:53:00.004-05:00

Although I did not make it an "official" New Year's resolution, I think I am going to be trying harder to finish up a few more projects this year than in previous years. So I guess my first "finish" would count as one of these, even though I only started it on Dec. 27. A bit of background - our Christmas was protracted this past year since I was sick on Christmas Eve evening and Christmas Day and the next day was just beginning to get better. By that night DH was sick and he ws just beginning to get better by Sunday. During this time we missed the Christmas Day gathering at his mom's house, that we had only missed 2 times until this year in the 33 years we've been married, and we had to postpone the gathering with our kids until New Year's Day. His brother offered us 2 tickets to the Falcons game that Sunday but we had to pass on that too - DH barely felt like watching it from the couch. We were at the home of one of our daughters and her husband - They are newly pregnant and we were all so afraid she would get the stomach bug we both had, but thankfully she didn't. On Saturday I was ready for some retail therapy so I went to A Scarlet Thread, a great quilt shop in McDonough, GA where we were staying. Along with a "few" fat quarters, a Rowenta iron, and 2 pillowcase kits (see the previous post for one of the Spiderman pillowcases) I also got a cutting mat and rotary ruler to leave at their house. That way, when I am there from now on I won't have to worry about bringing a mat from home and have it warp - ask me how I know that happens - and I can work on a greater variety of projects. With the mat and rotary ruler I was able to cut out all the 6" squares for a rag quilt for this daughter and her husband, plus enough to get started on one for us. On my previous post I have pictures of the first 5 rows of it, but now it is finished and UPS will deliver it to them tomorrow. Here it is on our couch and here is a close-up - I did try it out for a few minutes and it is very comfy - hopefully it will help keep them warm in this cold weather that even GA is feeling. I think DH is glad to be rid of all the little "sprigs," as he calls them, that are a necessary by-product of a rag quilt, but I do plan sometime to make one for us too - and next time I will try to clip as I go so i don't have 15 rows to clip at one time! Washing it at a laudromat the first time was a good idea, but I was able to do it a second time in my washer. It is about 60" x 75" and has a square of white flannel in each square so is pretty heavy.

I also made a pillowcase for me last week to demo it to the Senior Center quilting group that I lead - Not actually quilting, but since I used some of my quilting fabric I'm considering it a project finished. This pattern is really easy to do. I had not made pillowcases until these, so don't know if the way described in this pattern is typical or not. It has you sewing the border, the body of the pillowcase, a folded strip of accent fabric, and the other edge of the border all at one time (with the body of the pillowcase rolled up so that you can reach the other edge of the border). This makes a tube sort of thing that you turn inside out, then make French seams across the bottom and up the side and Voila!! - done!! You could also serge the seams but since I don't have a serger I'll stick with the French seams.

My next project will be to try to finish Lillian's quilt - 10 blocks to go with the hand quilting, and the rest of the boders. I will be trying to do 2 more this afternoon/evening. If I could do 2/day all next week I might be finished by the end of the weekend, but I'm not sure my wrists and thumbs will hold up to that much quilting.

While in the midst of writing this post I have had a couple of welcome interruptions - youngest DD who is also a quilter has emailed me for advice about where to get some wide backing for a large quilt she is making as a commissioned work for a niece of her employers in the Hudson Valley of NY, and while I was replying to her email my oldest daughter called while on her way to a quilt shop in Marietta, GA. So now oldest daughter is looking for wide backing fabrics for youngest daughter and I've had a nice conversation with both of them! Oldest daughter has recently gotten back into sewing a bit. She made some neat gift bags for Christmas, and is now working on a dress for her middle daughter, and we even discussed how to use some of her scraps to make a kind of crazy quilt looking bibs for her baby. As a mother of 3 under the age of five and a practicing attorney, she is doing well to even find her sewing machine!!

After Holiday Update - More Paper-pieced Ornaments, Table Runner, Pillowcases, etc

2009-01-05T21:42:00.006-05:00

How did it get to be January so soon? My blog definitely needs some updating on projects I finished last month. I did make more of the paper-pieced Christmas ornaments - These are the 4 paper-pieced bow ornaments - purple for DGD Reba, red for DGD Lillian, the other two for great nieces Lauren and Sofie. Here are the 6 gift package ornaments - soccer balls for DGS Atticus, snowmen for DD Kristi and DSIL Micheal, baseballs for great nephew Anthony, stars on blue for us, Spiderman for DGS Jack, and other stars on blue for a friend at work. And the green Christmas tree that was in my previous post about the ornaments I sent to DD Allie. They are all made from Carol Doak's paper-pieced patterns, and all but the tree have a pocket in the back for putting a little something in.

DD Kristi requested a table runner for Christmas, and after looking for awhile and not finding what I liked I decided to make this one for them - It is made using some flannels that I had purchased a couple of years ago to make her a rag quilt, but hadn't made it yet. I designed it based on their table measurements - it is about 70+" long and 14" or so wide. Here is a close-up showing the backing - These fabrics are from the "Let it Snow" collection by Maywood. I liked it so much while working with it that I bought more of the pieces I could find online to make a rag quilt for Kristi and Micheal and also one for us. Some of the fabrics that I ordered turned out to not be flannel - because I didn't read the description carefully enough - but I think I have enough for 2 throws. I have started on theirs and have enough blocks cut for the beginning of ours, but will finish theirs first. Here are the first 5 rows of theirs (front view) - and back view - I like to stagger the rows so the intersections are not so bulky. I think theirs will be 15 rows long and ours will be a bit longer.

I also completed 2 projects that weren't quilting. I made several felt food items for Jack and Reba's play kitchen - some of them are shown here in the kitchen - Altogether I made 2 donuts, 2 pancakes, 2 strips of bacon, 2 fried eggs, 2 strawberries, 2 sandwiches with 2 pieces of bread each (1 white and 1 wheat) with 2 colors of lettuce, 2 colors of cheese, 2 tomato slices, a slice of ham and a slice of roast beef, 1 apple, 1 pear and 1 banana. I made all of these from kits I bought at Lily Bean Market I have some other felt food patterns but I thought I'd stop here and see how they go over before I make more. I'd never even heard of felt food before last month, but there are LOTS of patterns out there!

I thought this would be the end of my projects for Christmas, but I was at a quilt shop a few days before we had our Christmas with our kids and saw some kits for Spiderman pillowcases. I've never made pillowcases, but it sounded pretty easy so I got 2 and made one each for DGS Atticus and Jack - here is Atticus with his - I did some more hand-quilting on Lillian's quilt but have not finished it yet. I have 12 more blocks to do and the borders that are on the edges by those blocks. I have finished the borders on one end and part way up the sides. I can work on it for a while some days, but not every day because it hurts my wrists/thumbs too much. I did have it with us while we were in GA last month and took a picture of her with it - She seems to be looking at it pretty intently!

A Helpful Hubby

2008-12-06T11:27:00.003-05:00

I just posted the text below on Quiltville Chat but decided after doing it that it deserved a wider readership - so here it is.

After reading recently the laments of Bonnie Hunter and others about the lack of help from hubbies during the holidays I just had to write to speak up for the other side. Yesterday my DH took off 1/2 day from work, which he rarely does, so that we could go to the tree farm we've gone to most of the last 20 years and cut our tree. Since the farm is out of town, we combined it with a trip to get one of cars its 120,000 mile check-up. The car part of the trip did not turn out as planned - something about gaskets - and may end up costing us as much at $1500 and they are keeping the car over the weekend. They gave us a loaner though and we decided to proceed with the other part of the trip. We got the tree, didn't mess up the loaner getting it home, put it up and decorated it last night. He cut the tree, put it in the stand, carried up the boxes of decorations from the basement, unfurled the lights while I placed them on the tree, put as many ornaments on the tree as I did while we both hummed sang along to some of our Mannheim Steamroller Christmas albums, and swept up afterwards. We put up a tree every year even though our 4 kids are all grown and gone from home - and we go to GA where most of them are every year for a week or so at Christmas. Soon he will help me select a photo for our Christmas cards and help write the Christmas letter.Then together we will sign the cards and put the labels and stamps on them.To make this a quilty post, I will also say that he takes great interest in what I am quiting on, and will help with fabric selections for the ones I make specifically for us. Oh, and he also helps with the dishes every night, vacuums every weekend and will even squirt cleaning stuff in the bathroom bowls without my asking. I think I made a terrific choice almost 34 years ago when we met and married - and I think I'll keep him around!!

Christmas Ornaments, Another Fabric Basket and Lillian's Quilt

2008-11-22T01:00:00.004-05:00

I was home all day on Friday - this doesn't happen often these days since I work 2 1/2 days and volunteer at the Senior Center one day. I decided to get an "early" start on Christmas ornaments. Carol Doak recently gave her Yahoo group a new pattern for a paper-pieced ornament. I made two of them, as well as 3 others of her patterns. In this picture the new one from her is the package. They all have a two-piece backing that forms a pocket, in case you want to put a little treat, gift card, etc in it. I'm thinking I will make these for our grandkids (4), my mom and siblings (3), my great nieces and nephew (3), our kids who don't have kids (2), misc. others (???). Hmmm, good I got started this early I'd say!

Earlier this week I finished another fabric basket - this one is for Lillian, our youngest grandchild. It goes with the quilt I am making her. I am slowly doing the hand-quilting on it, but my thumbs and wrists are making the hand-quilting a challenge. I have 7 of 35 blocks quilted - here is one of them in progress, but it is hard to see the quilting stitches.

Signature Quilt for Carolyn

2008-11-03T23:51:00.003-05:00

During the past couple of weeks I have been working on a quilted signature wall hanging for my supervisor at the hospital office where I work part-time. I finished stitching the label on about 9:30 this morning - so not much time left before it was to be presented to her at noon. Here is the front, the label and the basket that I made to go with it, now with a big daisy button and little heart on the frog's chest. I spent many hours on the quilt, especially since I got the center with the signatures on it last Wednesday night. I machine quilted around each of the star blocks, and quilted a star design inside each of the 9-patches, then hand-quilted hearts inside the 6 frog blocks. For the border I hand-quilted stars. I've not done machine quilting and hand quilting together in the same quilt before, but I felt like I could do a better job with the hearts and stars by hand. What would the quilt police say???

I am finding tonight that I have a surprising feeling about these two items. I knew all along that I would be giving these away - that is why I was making them, but I find that I am missing them more than I expected. It is like I made them so quickly, and gave them away so quickly that I didn't have time to properly say good-bye to them. Is that why it generally takes me so long to finish any one project - that I just don't want to say good-bye to them??

More of Allie's Quilts

2008-11-03T23:31:00.003-05:00

Allie, our youngest daughter who works on an organic farm in Ancram, NY, sent me photos of her most recent quilted wall hangings. They are a set of three carrots that go along with other vegetable designs she has been making recently - see my earlier post. She has an exhibit of her quilt projects this month in the cafe area of the farm store at Hawthorne Valley Farm in Harlemville, NY. She hung the quilts last Thursday, and had sold these three before she got them all hung, with the understanding that they will remain with the rest of the exhibit until the end of the month. Now she has also sold 2 of her cow designs (Hans and Bodo) and one person has asked her to do a vegetable design of her choice for her. As you can imagine, Allie is very excited about all of this. I'm hoping she will send us some photos of the whole group of quilts.

String Quilts, Fabric Baskets, Carol Doak's October BOM and Long-Arm Quilting

2008-10-27T09:35:00.005-04:00

I have been working the last few days on several different projects. One is my first string quilt. I have suggested this as the next project for the Senior Center quilters, so I am working on an example. No surprise - mine is yellows and blues with a few teals and golds thrown in. My guild had a work day Saturday where most of us worked on string quilt blocks that were more scrappy than this, but like mine they did have the same color thru the center of each block. I only have enough of the dark blue fabric to make 3 more 4-block units, then I will use a different fabric or 2 and mix them up, but I do plan to have all blues in the corners so that the centers of the big diamonds will be blue. The blocks could certainly be different sizes, but I am squaring mine up to 10". I am trying to make my stripes varying widths so I don't have anything to match up except the center dark blue stripes.

I've been working on a secret quilted wall hanging over the last week - not ready to show it, but here is a fabric basket I made yesterday to go with it. I'd been seeing these on Vera's blog and thought they were really cute, so I went to Pink Penguin and printed the directions. I'm sure I will be making more of these! It is about 4" x 6" and 4" tall, not counting the handles. Thank you Vera for posting your pictures!

Recently Carol Doak started a new BOM on her Yahoo Group - here is my October one. Each block will be a 7" square. I already have plans for whipping up another one with a different kind of tree and a creek instead of a road. She has already given us the November one, but I am not looking at it, or the pictures that others have already posted, until Nov 1.

Friday I used a friend's long-arm machine to quilt the Senior Center's first Turning Twenty quilt. I had practiced on it a couple of times and selected the stars and loops pantograph to do on this quilt. I got there about 1:00, chatted for awhile and then we began loading the quilt. When I got down to the actual quilting it took about 15 minutes to do a pass across the quilt, then about 10 minutes to reposition, etc. We were taking it off the machine by 8:30, and we had taken several breaks. It is just my first attempt, but not too bad. I thought this pantograph allowed a bit of freedom about exactly where you put the loops, as long as they don't run into the stars! Here is the back of the same quilt

"Monsieur Beauregard" ~ and Other Allie Quilts

2008-10-25T18:16:00.006-04:00

Last weekend DH and I went to Columbia County, NY to visit Allie, our daughter who works at Thompson Finch Farm in Ancram. She is our youngest, and the only quilter. In between tending and harvesting strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples and the other garden produce this summer and fall she has also been busily working on some more quilted wallhangings. I mentioned some of her pieces in a previous post but now she has more. The model for "Monsieur Beauregard" is a Beauregard sweet potato that graces her doorstep. Here she shows the original and the quilted piece. She used some Paris street scene fabric for the background and painted over it. If you look closely at the larger view of it you can see the design in the background. She also painted the fabric for the potato to make it more the real color.

Another one of her quilted wall hangings is "Hans" The model for this one was Hans - a bull at Hawthorne Valley Farm in Harlemville, NY. Allie worked at this farm last year, and still goes to the Inwood Greenmarket in Manhattan for them sometimes. He died prematurely and Allie created this quilt in his honor. Here is a close-up of the work on it.

She made "Lily's Peas" for a friend who used to work for a food magazine - this was made to resemble a photo in the magazine. Here is a close-up of the stitching on it.

Another one of her quilts is this rolling chicken coop modeled after one on a farm she worked on this spring. I think my scrap pile was raided for several of these blue fabrics - but what a wonderful use of them! The background fabric has text on it about chickens, painted to blend with the blues.

Another quilt she made is this one of dried tomatoes - again painted and quilted to emphasis the colors. She says the title of this one, "Plump Thing with a Naval," is a translation of the Spanish word for "tomato." I am amazed at the way she quilts the lettering of her some of her titles in cursive writing!

Back of Lillian's Quilt and the Quilt Frame at the Senior Center

2008-10-11T19:00:00.004-04:00

Last night I finished the backing for Lillian's quilt - Here is the front . I have the backing and batting together now, just need to add the top to them and I will be ready to baste it.

Today I went to the Maury River Senior Center, where I lead a quilting group and teach a computer class, to demonstrate using a quilting frame during a community festival. Yesterday I took the Pantry Quilt over to set it all up. The frame I was using was a Hinterburg that was donated to the Center. We had to drill a bigger hole in each side of the legs to get the bolt thru that is a attached to a stabilizing piece. One of the gears on it was turned the wrong way, but we couldn't figure out how to get it off. We even tried hammering it off but it wouldn't budge. This afternoon, as I was taking the quilt off the frame, the director of the Center showed me that the gear has a screw - no wonder hammering it wouldn't make it come off!

DH came over to see how it was going for me and took a couple of pictures. Here's the long view and a closer up shot - In the backgroud you can see my Grandmother's Flower Garden, that is still a work in progress, and the Turning Twenty top we recently finished. The sampler on the wall with the gold sashing is the one our group made for the Center last year.

Pantry Quilt Backing is Done!

2008-10-07T01:43:00.003-04:00

I've never pieced anything this big this quickly. Saturday night and Sunday night I worked out a design using leftover fabric from the front of the quilt and a few fabrics that I bought for the front but never used. After several hours of drawing, measuring, etc I discarded the first design I had and then came up with this one. Sunday night I started cutting out the pieces, then this morning I started putting the pieces together. You can't see it but there is a white square in each corner. My thinking is that when I have finished quilting it I could add a few appliqued jars to the large white area, but I don't want to add them now. I am planning for the hand quilting to be outlining the jars, inside and out so I wouldn't want to have jars on the back that would have the quilting around jars on the front showing. However, I have plenty of time to think about this because it will be a long time before I finish the hand quilting on it, unless there are lots of people helping me quilt it at the Senior Center this Saturday.

Next I need to lay out the batting, trim it on one side and piece it on one end. Then I will be ready to begin basting. I have been spray-basting smaller things in the last year or so, but because this is so big I think I will baste it by hand. I'll be using my big Q-Snap frame to do that. I don't use it much for quilting as the height does not suit me, but it is convenient for basting.

Pantry Quilt Update

2008-10-06T08:10:00.009-04:00

Late last night I finished the top on the Pantry Quilt I like the braided border even better now that it is all done. (See the previous post for why I am working on this quilt now.) It was not as difficult as I thought it might be, but time consuming since there are a LOT of 1.75" x 5" strips in it - 85 each on the top and bottom, more on the sides. The quilt is 78" x 98" which makes it a bit bigger that the t-shirt quilt I made for Dave - and therefore the biggest quilt I have made to date. (Disregard the white sock on the couch - this was taken late last night and Dave was asleep on the couch!) Now I am working on a plan for the backing. I did not any wide backing fabric at Walmart that I liked, and don't have time to go out-of-town to a quilt shop this week, so I am taking a page from Erin and Bonnie Hunter and making do with what I have. I have some of the white left, and some of the woodgrain, as well as some multi-veggie prints that I bought to use on the front but ended up not using, so they will be on the back. Hopefully I will have that done by the end of today. I also have to piece some batting - the biggest piece I have is not quite long enough but is wider than I need, so I will try to piece it together. Any advice there?

Speaking of Bonnie Hunter - she has a great new book out - Scraps and Shirttails: Reuse, Re-purpose, Recycle! The Art of "Quilting Green" My autographed copy arrived a few days ago, and after going thru it quickly I was even more inspired to try to make do with what I have for the back of this quilt.

How Do I Decide ~~~

2008-10-04T09:05:00.007-04:00

One of the online quilting groups that I belong to recently asked the question - "how do you decide what to work on next?" It got me to thinking about how DO I decide. A few days ago I was working only on Lillian's quilt - see the previous post - but had to stop because I ran out of one of the fabrics for the backing of her quilt and had to order more. Fortunately, I was able to still find it where I got it first - Thousands of Bolts - and it arrived yesterday. Just have to wash it, cut one piece out of it, add it to the backing and I'll be ready to sandwich that quilt and start the hand-quilting on it.

In the meantime however, I met with the Senior Center quilting group and began to make plans for the demonstration that "we" are going to participate in on Oct. 11. Months ago I agreed to set up a quilting frame that was donated to the Center and have a quilt on it to be showing hand-quilting. This is to be part of their presentation for the "Mountain Days" celebration in Buena Vista where the Senior Center is located. So, we need a quilt to put on the frame. I had thought that maybe one of the other members would like some help on hand-quilting one of her quilts that is ready to quilt, but I was wrong. On to Plan B - to put another quilt on the frame --- but which one? I don't have any that are totally ready to quilt and the one that is the closest to being ready, Liliian's, I really don't want any help on. I go thru the other possibilities - BargelloBowl (no decision on the border yet and not very mountainy looking), Orange Crush Mystery (blocks are finished, but not sewn together yet), the quilt as you go blocks I started 20+ years ago (they are quilt as you go, not suitable for a frame), the Senior Center's Turning Twenty (but I have already made plans to quilt that on my friend's longarm). That brought me to my Pantry Quilt that we made at the Senior Center a few months ago. Others have finished theirs, but in my typical fashion, I had not finished my border nor decided on the backing. It would be appropriate for the frame however and I wouldn't mind having some help on it, and I did plan to hand-quilt it -- I just have to finish the borders and decide about the backing - before Oct 11. I wanted the border to be braided, like Bonnie Hunter does on some of her quilts, but had not finished sewing them together, and was really worried about how easy it would be to put them on. Since it seemed like the best choice for the up-coming demo, I am now working on it in spite of my concerns. Here is a picture of the quilt with one border on it - The braid is made out of 1 3/4" x 5" strips from the fabrics in the jars. Last night I finished sewing on the first side. With lots of spray starch on the braided strip, and a pin on each strip, and slow, careful sewing I think it turned out pretty well. I have the the other side finished and starched, but not trimmed yet. One little problem with the quilting frame we have at the Center - there are no cloth leaders on it to attach the quilt to. One of the resourceful ladies in the group suggested that I temporarily sew a strip to the top and bottom of my quilt that I could then wrap around the rollers and pin in place. Sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure I want to do that with these braided borders on the top and bottom, so I'm thinking that I will just sew some muslin strips to the top and bottom as they are now, after I get the other side border on, and let those muslin strips be what wraps around the roller. Would that work - I'm not sure. Maybe the muslin strips need to have some batting on the outside edges that would be the part wrapping around the rollers first - I'll have to think about that. Oh, and decide about the backing - pieced from what I have or buy a "fat back."

Lillian's Quilt Top Finished

2008-09-29T08:07:00.007-04:00

I just finished piecing the top of Lillian's quilt - and am working on the back of it now. (Lillian is our new granddaughter who was born August 16.) I am planning to make the back one large 9-patch square like the ones on the front, using the purple/black/red fabric in the border and one of the lighter red prints, then make a wide border of the purple used in the narrow border on the front. I am also working on a plan for the hand-quilting designs using a few extra blocks that I had. I've used a couple of purple fabrics that I used in her sister Reba's quilt which I think is fun to do. The pattern is "Glory Days" from Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine, July/August '08 issue - I've just made mine more scrappy than theirs. I'm hoping to get the back pieced today, then I'll be ready to sandwich it. I've used spray basting a lot recently so think that I will use that for this quilt, but want to try it on my little sample first since I'm not sure how it will work with handquilting. I'm planning to use a new kind of batting - Quilters Dream Green. It is 100% polyester and is made out of recycled plastic bottles. I'll post a photo of the back when I get it done.

Quick Zip System questions

2008-09-26T08:57:00.005-04:00

A couple of days ago a quilting friend of mine let me come practice some on her Gammill. I used some of the pantographs she has and also did a little free-motion quilting. I have several quilts in progress that I would like to try quilting on her machine, but we are wondering how to best do that when she also has quilts to do for a few customers as well as for herself, and she has another friend who also uses her machine some. We are looking into the Quick Zip System as a way to easily change out quilts that we are working on since we don't think any of us would necessarily be able to finish one in a single segment of time. Does anyone out there have experience, good or bad, with this system? Here are 2 links to a description of the system - KM Quilting Supply and Quilting Connection. Sounds like she would need to have a machine set and then each of the users would need a quilting set.

Fallen Leaves, Turning Twenty and GFG Progress

2008-09-25T08:18:00.007-04:00

Last week I finally finished my Fallen Leaves wallhanging. It is a tissue foundation pattern from Cindi Edgerton that was fun to do. I bought mine as a kit at Cottonwood in Charlottesville, VA - primarily because I couldn't resist the fabric that was in the kit for the border and backing. I searched online until I found more of it to save for another project. This is a project that I started last September when I bought the kit, then it languished while I worked on and completed other more pressing projects, mostlly for other people. I had even finished most of the quilting on it - just had to finish up some of the borders and bind it. Now I am looking for a special spot in our house for it to hang. I am pleased with the way the quilting turned out. I just used a regular foot and left the feed dogs up - I'm not ready to cut loose with free motion yet - and found that I was able to move the quilt around enough to to make the wavy lines thru the leaves. There was a lot of starting, stopping, and turning in the border but it is a good example of where I am now in my quilting odyssey.

The Senior Center group that I quilt with has finished the top of the Turning Twenty quilt that we have been working on. We are planning to make the backing by using a lighthouse fabric in the center and a light taupe fabric surrounding it, since the recipient really likes lighthouses. I should have that pieced by our meeting next Wednesday, then we can begin sewing together the blocks we have for a 2nd one. These will be gifts for the director and assistant director at the Center - one of them knows who this one is for, but neither of them yet know about the other one, which is a pretty neat trick when both of them are usually there when we are meeting and working on them. Both of them are being made from fabric donated to the Senior Center, either by us or by other quilters in our area.

I am also continuing to work on my Grandmother's Flower Garden. This picture shows the progress to date - 4 rows of the 9 I expect to do will be done when I finish attaching the last flower on the left in the bottom row. I have laid out some of the fabrics I think I will use for the next row - the pink and green one is finished and the pink and blue one is partially finished.

We went to the Atlanta area again last weekend for a family wedding, a Braves game and to check in on some of the grandkids. I had time to make a quick stop at Tiny Stitches in Marietta where I met Melinda in person. I will definitely go back to that shop!

New Granddaughter and Quilting Progress

2008-08-29T16:12:00.007-04:00

My quilting has taken a back seat since August 13 when I left here to go to Johnson City, TN to visit my mom for the night, then on to Marietta, GA to stay with our oldest daughter and her family. They were expecting their 3rd child on August 16 and needed some help getting ready and someone to stay with the older two while they were at the hospital. Lillian arrives Saturday afternoon just a few minutes before I got to the hospital. I would have loved to be there for the arrival, but was staying with the siblings. Our middle daughter and her husband came up to help with the kids, but I didn't leave quite soon enough after they got there. I did get to hold Lillian a few minutes after I got there and later that afternoon this picture was taken of me with the three siblings. If you look closely you can see that Jack and Reba were just as interested in Mom's crackers as in Lillian! After Lillian and her mom came home from the hospital my son and his son, Atticus, came from Athens, GA to visit - here are cousins Atticus and Jack in the Disneyland t-shirts we bought them . Reba wanted me to take pictures of her too, so here is one of the best ones - .
I had time for dinner at a cute little restaurant, The Fickle Pickle in Roswell, with my nephew, his wife and their new baby, Sofie. Here they are with the quilt I had just given them for her - Yes, Sofie has red hair - hopefully it will be as beautiful as her mom's!
I did get a little quilting done while I was in GA. I have started a quilt for Lillian - I have eight more stars to piece and the outside border to finish piecing. Those stars are hard for me to get just right, so I have taken a little break from it and have been working on my Grandmother's Flower Garden. I now have 25 out of probably 91 flowers - with this on our bed I have a better idea of how far I have to go! I am sure after this weekend I will be getting back to Lillian's quilt, but this weekend we are going to DC to see 2 Braves' games, then back home Sunday night and the probably to Richmond for the last Richmond Braves' game Monday afternoon. I see more GFG flowers being made on these trips!

My Guild's Quilt Show and Allie's Quilts

2008-08-11T00:44:00.006-04:00

My Guild, Rockbridge Pieceworkers Quilt Guild, has a quilt show as part of the Rockbridge Regional Fair in July. I joined the guild in August 2006, but was not ready to put anything in last year's show. This year I put two of my quilts in the show - the T-shirt quilt and the Butterflies and Hydrangeas quilt . Neither of them won a prize, but it was neat to see them displayed in a public place. The quilting group that I lead at our local Senior Center also put a quilt in the show that several of us worked on, so that was neat for those ladies to see their handiwork on display.
For me the best part of the quilt show was that our youngest daughter entered 5 of her quilted wallhangings in the show. I am showing them here with their labels so you can see what she said about each one. She is in her second year of working on organic farms in the Columbia County, New York area. "Flame," "Chocolate," "Bodo," "Wiltsie Bridge," and "El Corazon." She has painted on some of them, and I think just did a terrific job on them. She has an art background, but has only been quilting for a couple of years.

Allie just recently finished a quilt for the daughter of her current employers that they commissioned her to make for their daughter's wedding. Here is a picture of her and my hubby with that quilt - She designed the quilt herself, cut out all those orange flowers from some batik fabric and machine appliqued them on, machine quilted the quilt and included some botanical designs in the quilting and has a quote from Khalil Gibran quilted in cursive writing around the border - Quite an amazing job I thought! The couple did not see the quilt until the reception, where it was hanging up for all to see.

Where to start with an update?

2008-08-08T14:58:00.003-04:00

It's not that I haven't been quilting, although summer and summer trips have intervened in that a bit. Since my last posting, we went to Cincinnati for a weekend to see the Atlanta Braves play the Reds, one of our daughters and her husband visited for a weekend, we went to Anaheim for a library conference and stayed to be tourists for a few days, we had a week in Hatteras Village on the Outer Banks, and we went to Richmond to see the Richmond Braves play. Next week I will go to Atlanta for the arrival of #4 grandbaby - my oldest daughter's 3rd baby is expected to be delivered on Sat, August 16, unless she decides to arrive earlier.

In between these trips I have been doing some quilting. The only one that I have finished is a rag quilt for my second great-niece, but I don't want to show it until I have given it to her, which will happen sometime while I am in Atlanta. I have finished all but about 6 blocks of the Orange Crush Quilt, and have started putting the rows together. Here is a possible arrangement for it - and a picture of the one corner that I have sewn together - I'm thinking that for the border I want to use a narrow strip of the black and then a wider border of the green, with a few of the leftover blocks centered as shown on each side of the quilt. However, since this is not for anyone but us, it is now on the back burner with several other quilts.

At our July guild meeting we had a workshop on the New Orleans Puzzle Quilt. Here is what I did during the workshop - this is 1/2 of it. It is also now on that same burner since it is for us too. We had to sew all of our strips together for this project before arriving at the meeting so that we could get this much done during the workshop. It can be finished to have all these points and used as a table-topper or wall-hanging, or could be finished by filling in around the corners with trapezoid-shaped pieces to square it off. I'm thinking wall-hanging, but we'll see.

Since we are having a new granddaugher soon I am working on a qult for her now. Her parents have requested something with red, purple and black - and nothing babyish. After much searching online I found a fabric that has all of that in it and have now added considerably to my stash in those colors. I am using a Fons and Porter Love of Quilting pattern, July-August issue - "Glory Days" - but using lots more fabrics. Here is what I have done so far on it, photographed on the usual blue carpet. I think I will not use the goldy cream that is the center of one of the stars -- it goes with the focus fabric, but doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the quilt. Those 9-patches are easier to make than the stars -- can you tell?? Our guild had a quilt show last month - I'll talk about that in my next post. And I will try to make that soon - at least before I head out to Atlanta on Wednesday afternoon. I have to plan my computer time more carefully now since we use the computer to watch and/or listen to the Braves on MLB.com - and we watch every game they play!

Testing to see if I can post a blog entry

2008-08-06T21:40:00.002-04:00

I received a message from Blogger recently that my blog had been identified as possibly being a spam blog! I had to request a review of my blog in the next 20 days or my blog would be removed, and until that review had been completed I would not be able to post to my blog. I requested the review right away, but have not heard back from Blogger. I am testing to see if I can now post again.

The Retreat Quilt

2008-05-24T18:14:00.004-04:00

At our guild's retreat earlier this month we each signed and wore a nametag that Erin made just for the retreat. We asked each person to bring 3" squares to make some scrappy 4-patches using the leaders/enders method of Bonnie Hunter. We collected all the nametags and the 4-patches at the end of the retreat because Erin had the idea to make a quilt from them, and then to give that quilt to one of the attendees. This past Wednesday and today Erin came over to my house and we put together the quilt top. Here we are working on the top and here it is finished. She has backing, I have batting, we just need to write a message in the center block and get it quilted. I had never done a quilt on-point so it was great to learn how to do that. She had a book that showed how to determine the size of the corner and setting triangles. I also found a good description of how to do it on Janet Wickell's site. It was lots of fun to work on the quilt together, and to spend some time visiting too. Erin, it was fun working with you on the Retreat, and the Retreat quilt!

OC updates and our Senior Center Sampler

2008-05-19T08:52:00.004-04:00

I am happy to report that I finished all of the blocks for Clue #3 in the Orange Crush Mystery and got a start on #4. Here are all of Clue #3 and 2 of them up close. And here are the 6 I've done of Clue #4. For #4, I have all the strips cut, then lay out one of each as Bonnie suggests, cut them with the Easy Angle ruler, sew one strips' sets together at a time, position them on the cutting mat, then place my 4-patches into those 4-5 blocks, trying not to have the same fabric twice in one block ~~ guess that makes mine a "controlled scrappy" arrangement. I'd like to move along on this project some more this week, but first I need to do some work on the sampler quilt we are doing at the Senior Center.

Last Wednesday at the Center we (read that as "I") got the 4 rows sewn together on the fronts. We are doing this as a quilt-as-you-go so each block has already been quilted. Now I need to begin the work on the back, positioning the batting, trimming off some of the batting, and figuring out how to fold one side of the backing pieces over the others so that it looks neat when finished. I am hoping some some of the other ladies will be able/willing to help with the handwork of stitching the backing pieces together. I've not done this before except on a sample, so we'll see how it goes. This quilt will be given to the Center to hang when we finish. Then we are going to start work on some Turning Twenty quilts.

Back home from Georgia; OC and GFG update

2008-05-18T13:04:00.007-04:00

We left here Tuesday, May 6, after work and went to Johnson City, TN, for a night with my mom, then on to Atlanta on Wed. We checked into our hotel and met one DD and her husband at the Braves game - a tradition for us whenever possible when we are in ATL. Thursday morning (while DH was attending his conference) I met oldest DD to get her son, and his carseat; he and I drove to Zoo Atlanta and met DS and his son there for several hours at the zoo with the boys - 4 yr old and a 3 1/2 yr old. Fun, fun, fun, and very heartwarming to see my son's parenting in action. He is a stay-at-home dad and very good at it! Here he helps Jack and Atticus share some "fluff" - I think this was the highlight of the zoo visit for the boys! Thursday evening there was a reception for the conference where we managed to get enough food to count as dinner. Friday morning I relaxed around the hotel a bit, then DH was thru with the conference and we sat out to explore. He grew up in Chamblee, and we are back there several times a year, so the area is not all that new to us, but it keeps changing! We went up to the Perimeter Mall area, detouring by the house in Chamblee that his family used to live in. Then we decided to try to get to Marietta without going on I-285 ---- and discovered that there may be a way, but the way we went was not quick and might not be the best way! We did eventually find our way to Red Hen Fabrics, after being on Marietta Parkway much longer than was necessary. I've been to Red Hen several times, and like to go back there frequently when I am in the area. They will be moving their shop to another location about 1 mile away at the end of the month. Oldest DD and her family live in Marietta and we spent Friday night and Saturday morning with them - even got to babysit her 2 while she and DSIL did a little shopping. Here I am with Reba and Jack Then to McDonough to visit middle DD and her hubby. Marietta DD and her family followed us there, and DH's mom and one of his sisters came down from Flowery Branch, plus McDonough's DSIL's parents, grandparents and sister were also there. Good times, great food from the grill; we spent the night there and then it was back to Lexington on Mother's Day. We got home just in time to quickly grill some steaks for dinner. I've posted quite a few pictures from our trip on our Flickr page.
Quilt-wise I worked only on my Grandmother's Flower Garden -- it is so portable when you are working on the individual flowers. Here it is now - 18 sewn together and 3 (far left ones on rows 1, 3 and 4) ready to sew on. I've now had a few days to get re-oriented to being at home and trying to catch up a bit on stuff.
Thursday I got off my part-time job a bit early, and spent some good time working on the OC quilt. It will soon be time for Clue #5, and I was still working on #2. Last night I finished Clue #2 and got all the pieces cut for #3. Last week I jumped ahead to make one block of Clue #4 to see if I still like the fabric I selected for Bonnie's "red" - I do like it! Can't post it on the Quiltville Group yet since I don't have but one made - but I can post it here! I'm hoping to get all of Clue #3 done today.

Orange Crush Mystery Update, GFG

2008-05-04T23:32:00.004-04:00

I think I am now in the "Lagger's" Group on the OC mystery. I finished the Clue 1 blocks - 150 4-patches - before Clue 2 was given, but have slowed down since then. DH and I were in DC last Sunday-Wednesday for him to attend a library meeting, and I brought along my OC fabrics and sewing machine. Bonnie's instructions were to cut our scraps into strips prior to starting the steps, but I had not done that yet except for what I used for the 4-patches. So I had all the fabrics with me at the hotel that I wanted to use for this step. I got the strips cut for Clue 2, all of the large triangles cut, all the squares cut, and some of the little triangles. I had already sewn a few together at home and after measuring them I realized they were a bit smaller than they should have been, so I decided to make my seam allowances slightly less than 1/4" when sewing the "wings" to the squares. I was able to get about 27 of the 142 finished while at the hotel -- and still had time to eat all meals with DH, go to a reception one night, a Braves game one night, etc. However, very limited time on Internet so was pretty far behind on reading the messages in the Quiltville group. I had seen just a mention of the way you are supposed to cut and sew on the "wings." When I got home Wednesday night I read all the messages that had come thru while I was gone, and realized that I had cut the small light triangles incorrectly. I am using strips of 30-40 lights, so don't need that many from any of the fabrics, and therefore I am cutting them pretty much as I need them, and cutting them one at a time with the fabric always facing up. Now I see that that is wrong - the points on the corners don't match up, so .............. this afternoon I started over on assemblying Clue 2. I don't have enough done to photograph yet - 3 to be exact! And we are going to be out of town this week from Tuesday afternoon to Sunday night, so I will be even farther behind when I get back. I will have time to work on my Grandmother's Flower Garden - a great thing to work on in the car, but I won't be taking the machine with me on this trip. We are going to Atlanta area for another of DH's conferences, but will be seeing kids and grands too ~~ and another Braves game.

Guild Retreat is History Now

2008-05-04T21:16:00.010-04:00

How can it be 4 weeks since my last post? So many times I have thought - "just let me finish this next thing then I will post about it on my blog." Silly me!!! Most of the past month has been spent getting ready for my quild's Quilt Retreat - I was on the committee to plan it, and we had decided to make a "saddlebag" for each attendee. Here is a picture of all 9 that I made and a closeup of one laying flat and of the same one hanging on the arm of a chair One of the other committee members had been given one and she drew out the pattern for us. It took more time to select the coordinating fabrics than it did to actually make them! We had been given some fat quarter/fat eighth bundles by one of the other guild members, and I made 10 more of them so we'd have one for each saddlebag. Here are the bundles I made - Again, it took longer to decide on coordinating fabrics than it did to make them. I also made 4 Toasty Toe Warmers to give as door prizes. Here are two of them. They are made by sewing 3 sides of 9 pouches together (a 4.5" flannel square and a 4" muslin square with a tuck in each side of the flannel piece), filling each of the pouches with 1/3 cup of aromatic rice, then sewing the pouches carefully together on the 4th side. Sew them together like a 9-patch, then assemble them as you would to "birth" a quilt.

Marty Moon from Culpepper, VA was our teacher. She taught a class on Friday on making Drunkard's Path blocks. She has just recently started using Quiltz Dual Arc Drunkards Path Templates. We had not seen them before - I think she saw them for the first time at a recent quilt show in Atlanta. They are made by someone in Bowdon, GA. It is a set of 4 fluorrescent green acrylic templates that you use to cut both of the shapes for the drunkards path. Each template is used to cut both the pie and the L shape - and each one makes a block of a different size. Some people were able to finish piecing and sewing a top before we finished for the day. I was not one of these, but I did get 16 blocks made, and an idea for what I want to do next. Here are photos of 3 different designs I considered for my drunkards path She also showed us how to make coasters by folding and stitching 5 blocks together, then flipping them inside out.

We played a version of Strip Poker after the workshop was over. Thanks to Jen for the link to her post about it. We had decided to make it fairly simple for all, so we just played Five Card Draw and the most you could lose in one hand was 2. We told the members to bring 15 or so 2.5" strips, but Erin and I, the other committee person in attendance, brought extras. I had 43 strips - all neatly rolled up and tied with DMC thread - when we started. I gave 10 to one of the gals who didn't bring many, and by the end of the poker hands I had 6 left. I had never played poker before so the night before the retreat started I practiced at home with several hands -- I don't think that helped! But it was fun and enjoyed by all who either played or watched -- and revealing about who among us knew ALL about playing poker! We also had two local massage therapists come to give 10-minute massages to all who wanted them - what a great treat --- shoulders, backs, arms, hands - we were all so relaxed afterwards. Erin showed folks how to use 3" squares that we asked them to bring to make 4-patches using Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders method. We will take those 4-patches and make a quilt using them and the nametags we each signed and wore. The quilt we make from all that will be given to a name drawn from the list of the attendees as a special momento of the retreat.

On Saturday Marty gave an embellishment workshop. I made my first yo-yo without a yo-yo maker, learned about couching, weaving, stamping, piping, etc. It was a fun time to play with some things we had never done before. After lunch of the yummy leftovers from the potluck dinner the night before, Erin showed the group how to make some scrap blocks using Bonnie Hunter's method of sewing pieces onto strips, cutting those strips into segments, sewing those segments, etc. It was interesting to hear everyone's comments about doing that. Some who are scrap quilters at heart were happy to see a new way of doing that -- Erin had 3 quilt tops to show as suggestions for how to make them up. Others who had never used scraps had a hard time of letting go of rules enough to do it. Here is a link to Erin's blog on which she has posted 2 pictures of one of her tops in progress - they are the bottom 2 photos. We all had time to finish several scappy blocks before folks started going home.

We think everyone had a good time, and learned some new things, and grew closer as a group too. Our guld now has about 65 members, and only 25 could come to the retreat, but we had no one on a waiting list so I guess about everyone who wanted to come got to come. And Erin and I are looking forward to being just retreat participants next year!!

Orange Crush and Batik Block Swap Update

2008-04-06T21:49:00.004-04:00

To my surprise, I have finished the 150 4-patch blocks that was the first step in Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush mystery. This photo shows them with the yardage fabrics - and a bottle of Orange Crush. The next clue probably won't be published until around April 14, so I have some time to catch up on some other projects in the meantime. For these 4-patches we were to use neutral and dark scraps. I think I probaby used 50 or more fabrics, but since I am not quite to the truly scrappy mindset I tried hard to make sure that no two of the 4-patches are alike.

I also finished the other two blocks for the Spring Batik Block Swap on Carol Doak's Yahoo Group. Here is block #3 and #4 Number 3 is Nancy's Block from Carol's 40 Bright and Bold Paper-pieced Bocks. Number 4 is F88 from the Bonus Blocks of the Designer Edition of Foundation Factory. Now I only need to make the Bonus Block. The whole group will be invited to vote on which one they like the best, with the winner getting the other 15 or so in her group of Bonus Blocks. I know which pattern I want to use for that, and think that I have picked out the fabrics I want, but not where to put what. I need to get them in the mail around the 15th so that doesn't give me much time to finish!

I showed the ladies at the Senior Center some of Bonnie Hunter's scrap quilt designs last Wednesday since we are beginning to think about what we want to do next. One that I like is Maverick Stars - but they all agreed that they didn't want to do that one since they thought people who looked at it would think they couldn't make an accurate star. They did seem to be interested in doing one of her string quilts, so we'll see how that goes. At the next meeting we will be working on quilting the sampler blocks that we made last fall.

Orange Crush Mystery Quilt and Spring Batik Block Swap

2008-03-30T16:17:00.005-04:00

I am getting ready to participate in the Orange Crush Mystery that Bonnie Hunter has on her Quiltville website. Opening day is April 1 - don't know how much I will be able to do that day since that is DH's birthday, but I'll get started soon after that. After a shopping trip yesterday in Charlottesville, VA after DH ran in a 10-mile race there I now have my fabrics - I was unsure about the green fabric because it might not read as a single color, but I really like the design and with there being a bit of yellow that connects it to the orange/yellow batik, and bit of black that connects it to the black fabric I'm hoping it will work. Not sure which of the blues I will use for the accent - I guess I'll decide that as we go along. I have never done a mystery before, though I did follow along with Bonnie's last one. Along with these fabrics we will be using a lot of light and dark scraps. I have some small pieces of lights and darks selected but haven't cut them yet. Bonnie has said we can cut them into 2" strips, as well as some 3.5" strips of the darks. Since she hasn't said yet what length to cut the pieces from these strips I am waiting on that. If need be I can use various light and dark fat quarters rather than these smaller pieces that I have selected. I doubt that I will be able to keep up with the others doing this mystery since I have several other quilts and quilt projedts underway, but I'll work along on it as I can. Part of the fun of doing this will be all the back-and-forth between the participants on Bonnie's chat group. This will be a new experience for me because I've not really made a scrap quilt before. I did make the BargelloBowl quilt with Bonnie's group, but I don't think it would be considered a "scrap" quilt. I'm making several quilts with lots of different fabrics, but I'm not sure that they would be considered scrap quilts.

I also am working on 5 blocks for the Spring Batik Block Swap on Carol Doak's Yahoo group. Here are the first two that I have finished. This one is #102 from her 300 Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks - This one is #162 from the same book - Each of these blocks is supposed to have some green in it and the block is supposed to represent spring - and of course be a Carol Doak design.

Senior Center Quilting - pt 2

2008-03-27T17:41:00.004-04:00

After we finished the placemats for the Meals on Wheels participants some of the Seniors in our quilt group wanted to do something for ourselves. One of the Senior Center Board members had given me a couple of pictures of a jar, or pantry, quilt that he and his wife saw on display in the Midwest during a cross-country trip. I had seen the blocks on Janet Wickell's Quilting About site for a ginger jar and also the more traditional mason jars. I printed these out for the ladies and we decided to each get some fabrics and share them with the rest of us. So far one lady has made 4 wall hangings or small quilts using these patterns, two are quilting or ready to quilt wall hangings, and I am ready for the borders of mine. Here are pictures of the top 5 rows of mine, and the bottom two rows, and the strips of braided border that I have done so far. I will be putting the woodgrain fabric on the sides, then a narrow border of the background fabric before I attempt to sew on the braided borders. They are pretty stretchy so I am concerned about how to do that neatly, but I have gotten some advice from folks on the Quiltville Chat group so hopefully it will turn out OK. I got the directions for doing this border from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com

A couple of weeks ago I was telling the Sr Center ladies about my Atlanta Shop Hop fun and how some of the ladies on the bus tour wanted to see how I made the Grandmother's Flower Garden pieces with Quilt Patis. Two of them got interested in making some of their own so I shared some of my florals with them and they are off and running with it. They will probably be finished before me! Here is a photo I took yesterday of my GFG - with some of the top row partially finished and auditioning for a position!

I think that those who are going to do the Pantry Quilt are far enough along on them that we can begin thinking about what to do next. Last summer and fall we made 20 blocks for a sampler quilt to donate to the Senior Center and some of us are in the process of quilting those blocks, then we will assemble them as a quilt-as-you-go. I am thinking ahead to our next project. I'd like to do one of Bonnie's scrap quilts for the Center to raffle or to have on display. If we give it to the Center we can use some of the fabric that has been donated to us and each of us could make some blocks then we could sew them together. I'm going to show them pictures of some of those quilts in the next week or so and see what they think of that.

Senior Center Quilting

2008-03-19T23:53:00.004-04:00

In May of last year I asked the folks at the Senior Center where I volunteer as a computer teacher and Medicare Part D advisor if there was any interest in my starting a quilting group there. My idea was just to get together with others who like to quilt, NOT to teach a class. Well, yes, there seemed to be some interest, but of course more interest in my teaching than in everyone just "doing." So, I needed to plan something for each week's meeting. A few had done some quilting before, but several had never quilted, and some did not have sewing machines. The first few weeks we spent going thru the fabric contributions on hand at the Center, then we decided to do a sampler quilt. Each of us - at that time about 8-10 - were to do 1 or 2 blocks. I brought in lots of patterns for them to choose from and some more fabrics. We eventually got 20 blocks made, then I showed them how we could assemble it as a quilt-as-you-go quilt with several different ones maybe helping with the quilting of the blocks. Some of the blocks had to have a bit added to the edges to make them be the right size, but I have done that to most of the ones that needed it. I'll post pictures of mine when I finish quilting them.

Before we finished this project I had the idea to make placemats to give to the Meals on Wheels participants that are fed out of the Senior Center. Turns out there are at least 60 people in that program so we had lots of placemats to make, but a few of us got really busy and by mid-December we had about 70 placemats which were distributed to the Meals on Wheels clients before Christmas. Here is one of the placemats that I made. It is from Six Halves Make a Whole - 6 fabrics -1/2 yard each - of coordinating fabrics make 6 different placemats with each fabric in a different position in each placemat. I wish I had taken a picture of all of them before they were distributed, but the day I brought my camera they had already been rolled up and tied and ready to give out.

In the meantime we had found 20 blocks in a box that was donated to us by the family of a recently deceased quilter that were clearly intended to go together - and with them was enough fabric to use as sashing around these blocks. One of the ladies volunteered to piece them together. I put on two borders, using fabric that we had decided on as a group when we took a field trip to the VA Quilt Museum (about an hour north of here) and to a quilt shop. Then the lady who assembled the quilt took it to do the long-arm quilting on it. I got it back from her about 3 weeks ago and finished it today. At her suggestion I did the binding differently - cutting the backing a bit wider that the top and folding the backing around to the front and blind-stitching it to the front. I thought it was really hard to do the corners neatly that way, but I got it finished and this afternoon I finished the label and gave it to the director at the Senior Center. It will be raffled with the proceeds going to the Senior Center. They had a recent quilt raffle that brought in enough money for them to spend some of it one a Brother sewing machine for the quilters and others who meet there to use. Here is a picture of the quilt on our bed. We are calling it Bertie's Purple Lady because it was Bertie Golden who pieced the blocks. I will take a picture of the label when I am there next week. I wasn't sure it I would be able to finish it this afternoon as I don't often have time to do things I want to do when I meet with them!

More in the next post about what we are working on now.

The Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop was such fun!

2008-03-01T22:03:00.004-05:00

I am now back to DD and DSIL's house in Marietta after completing the Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop - 13 shops in 2 days! What fun to take the tour with a bunch of like-minded shoppers!! I am SO glad I took the bus tour that was organized by Sarah at Intown Quilters. It was well worth the $100 to have John do the driving; I definitely want to do it again next year and I expect to see some of the same ladies on the tour next year. I met Shirley, Martha, 2 Mary K's, Diane, Anne, Deborah, Lucretia, Bonnie, Bess, Thea and Thea's mom, and others. We shared our purchases, our projects, and our lives during the long drives from Decatur to Covington, Conyers, Jonesboro, Newnan, Hiram, Lawrenceville, Duluth, Sandy Springs, Marietta (3 shops) and Holly Springs. Each shop had made a quilt using the same blocks, and each shop gave us a pattern for their block. It was so interesting to see all the different quilts made with the same blocks. At Red Hen Fabrics I saw Sandie, the woman who quilted my Van Gogh's View and shared my happiness about her quilting with my friends on the bus - and gave out some of her business cards. I even met a lady at one of the shops who had read my blog entry yesterday or this morning about going on the bus. An unexpected treat was meeting Aunt Philly at Stitchin' Time - the creator of Aunt Philly's Toothbrush Rugs. She was demonstrating her method of making these quick, completely washable rugs and some of us bought her pattern or her CD, or a starter kit -- and I practicing making it on the bus back to Intown - sure made the trip back go fast! Now I've got quite a few fabrics that will be "seasoning" as Lucretia says while I plan for their use. Maybe at least one of us will even be one of the prize winners.

Add to all the fun of the Shop Hop the fact that I have seen, or will see, my mom, 3 of our kids and their spouses, all 3 grands, and a friend of a friend back in Lexington - it will have been a great extended weekend. Only one thing could have made it better - if DH had been along for the trip so he could have seen the family too.

I'm in the Atlanta area this weekend

2008-02-29T07:53:00.004-05:00

I came from VA to the Atlanta area yesterday to participate in the Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop. I signed up for the bus tour that between today and tomorrow will take us to all 13 shops. I am staying with DD and DSIL in Marietta and have to leave in a few minutes to drive the 15 miles or so to Intown Quilters where the tour starts. Yes, they suggest that I allow about an hour to get there since I have to go on I-285 from Marietta to Decatur. At times like this I have to remember exactly why it is that I want to move to the Atlanta area when DH decides to retire! The reason is that 3/4 of our kids and all of our grands live here between Athens, Marietta and McDonough. Wish me luck on the drive. The funny thing is -- this shop is across the street from where the Marietta family used to live! Oh well, here goes.

The other two blocks for an ALA quilt

2008-02-23T18:48:00.003-05:00

Here are the other two blocks that I recently made for a different quilt for the ALA BiblioQuilters. This quilt will have all purple and green Log Cabin blocks, and I volunteered to make one of each. It will also be part of the Silent Auction that will be held at the American Library Association meeting this summer in Anaheim. The center block will be the same in all of them, and the organizer also sent one purple and one green fabric, along with one beige that we could use if we wanted to. I used her purple and green ones on the longest outside positions, and the beige is in the top center of the purple one. I had not made a Log Cabin block in a long time but liked doing these and now want to do some more for myself!

Sterling Touch Quilt Blocks

2008-02-18T07:53:00.005-05:00

Recently I joined the ALABiblioQuilters Yahoo Group - a small group of librarians and library-related folks who make quilts to be in the silent auction at the annual American Library Association conference. Since I attend this conference most years with my husband I offered to help make some of the quilts. This year they are making three, and I am helping with two of them. I have finished the two blocks for the first one - "Sterling Touch." This pattern was in Quiltmaker last year. The organizer of this quilt sent me 3 pieces of material - I needed to use at least one in each of the blocks. The rest of the fabrics were to come from my stash. In this one the fabric of hers that I used was the tan with burgundy brush strokes in the small triangles on the outer edge. This is the bottom center block. The second one that I made was the left center one. The fabric that she sent that I used in this one was the burgundy oak leaf design in the center. The organizer of this quilt converted the patterns that were in the magazine to paper-pieced designs. It took me a pretty long time, and a special trip to a quilt shop 45 minutes away from here, to come up with fabrics that I hope she will approve of!

The other quilt I am helping with is a log cabin design - I have one of them partially finished and have selected the fabrics for the other one, and hope to finish them both today. No quilting since Friday night -- we spent the weekend painting our hallway. We finished just in time for me to watch the last few laps of the Daytona 500! None of my favorite drivers finished in the top three but it was an exciting finish!

Questions about Guild Size

2008-02-05T22:31:00.000-05:00

I recently volunteered to be on a committee for my guild to come up with some ideas for having small group experiences within a large guild. How do you put people together diplomatically, or do you let them put themselves together by interest group, geographically, etc. And are there other ways of having the large group seem small enough to make friends and have a chance to enjoy being with each other? At the moment our guild has 63 members, and probably 20 of these have joined in the last 2 years or less. If everyone on the rolls came to our monthly meeting it would be standing room only. We are currently using a place for our guild retreat that can only hold 22 sewing machines, and some people are unhappy about that. Some have suggested that we limit our size to 65 - but several of us are opposed to that at this time. If any of you have ideas about our concerns please let me know. Our committee is having its organizational meeting this Saturday, but our investigations into this issue will be going on for awhile.

Center of BargelloBowl is Finished!

2008-02-04T08:55:00.000-05:00

I was up until 3 am, but did get the center of my BargelloBowl finished. It is 48 1/2 by 64 1/2" - each square is 2", so there are 768 pieces in it! That is not many pieces for one of Bonnie's scrappy quilts, and with only 32 different fabrics I'm not sure it qualifies as "scrappy." I am very happy with it, and am now thinking about borders and binding, and then quilting. For the border I am thinking of using the purple "Raindrops" with maybe squares or rectangles of the other fabrics arranged to look like they are floating on the purple. Not sure how to do that yet, but I am thinking about it. This was a fun quilt to do, a design that I had wanted to do for a long time, and pretty quick, though several others on QuiltvilleChat got finished way before me! Getting the intersections to all match up worked well most of the time, but at 3 a.m. I am less of a perfectionist! I hope that I find the time to do other bargellos. I have a book of bargello designs in needlepoint from 1967 - might be fun sometime to convert some of those to quilting. I also ordered the Twisted Bargello pattern that so many on QuiltvilleChat have talking about.

First Half of BargelloBowl Quilt is Together

2008-02-03T22:53:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all of you who replied with your thoughts about which layout I should use. I finally decided on using just one square at the top and bottom of the stairs. I am not sure what my quilting pattern will be but I think I will try to follow the lines of the fabrics and if that is the case I thought it might be easier to do if there was only one block at the ends of the stairs. I have 12 of the 24 strips together and am now working on the 2nd half, then I'll sew the two halves together. I'm still hoping to get it finished before I go to bed, but we'll see. I've had some trouble getting a few of the seams to line up correctly, but I am trying to not get frustrated! Here is the first half I also took time out to fix pizza for dinner - from scratch, including the dough! This would have been a good day to order out, but our tradition is that I always make it at home. It was good, but took about 2 1/2 hours for fixing, eating and cleaning up. And watching all those commercials took time too! Some of my favorites were the baby for eTrade, the dog and the horse for Bud, James Carvill and Bill Frist for Coke --- oh, and the oboe player who became a football player. It will be interesting to see which get the most chatter over the next few days.

Back to the machine now.

Layout question on BargelloBowl Quilt

2008-02-03T13:23:00.000-05:00

I have cut my 4 tubes of strips and am laying them out to see how I want that to go. Can't decide between having one square at the top and bottom of the "steps" and having 2.

I will sew the first six strips together and then see if I can decide - and in the meantime might get some input from others.

My fabrics for the BargelloBowl quilt

2008-02-01T12:01:00.000-05:00

I now have my fabrics cut for the BargelloBowl quilt. I have agonized over the fabrics I wanted to use for way too long - after all it is supposed to be a scrappy quilt, right? Well, I decided to use teals, purples and blues and only 32 fabrics, so each fabric will go completely across the quilt. Here are some pictures of my run. I just laid out the strips on top of each other to get the general idea of how it will look. They are shown in order from top to bottom.

Now I need to start sewing the 4 groups together. It's a good day for staying inside here - freezing rain, ice and sleet apparently this morning and even though the temp is 37 now there is still ice on the trees and bushes. I do have to go out later for hair appt, but I'll get some strips together before then I hope.

BargelloBowl '08

2008-01-28T20:51:00.000-05:00

One of the Yahoo Groups I belong to is QuiltvilleChat, hosted by Bonnie Hunter She is one busy lady, but has decided in the midst of having packers come next week to move her family from SC to NC that she wants to do a quilt on Sunday during the Super Bowl, and she has invited the members of her Chat group to join in. She/They/We will be making her Scrappy Bargello quilt in a lap size. For that we need to have 128 strips - 2 1/2" wide by 16" long. I was undecided about whether to join in or not, but after seeing this logo that one of the members designed today I thought I just really NEED to do this! I have not made a bargello before, even though I have collected a lot of fabrics with that design in mind. Not sure how scrappy I will make mine - but I have a few days to decide. Anyone want to join in??

Copyright Issues and Jumping to Conclusions

2008-01-26T20:38:00.000-05:00

One of the Yahoo Groups that I belonged to until just recently was Quilters Corner Club. It is now defunct, mostly because the person who started it has apparently disappeared, and the other two women who were in it with her started, and recently expanded, a new group called One Stitch at a Time Saturday night I read on the OST group that the founder of QCC, the nowhere-to-be-found young woman, was selling as her own designs a group of New York Beauty patterns that look to be identical to those designed by someone else. On the QCC site they are called the International New York Beauty BOM. Beginning this past June she posted for our free use two patterns per month. If we did not get them from the site during that month then we had to buy them from her. A few months ago she started selling all the rest of the 25 if we wanted to move more quickly than two a month. In early January we expected the next two to be posted but they never appeared. We then began hearing the the other two women could not contact her, and soon they pulled out completely from QCC. I have already made 4 of these blocks and had planned to make a pillow using some of them, as well as finishing the BOM as they appeared. The OST woman said she was going to throw all of her patterns from the BOM away and I gathered thought we should all do the same thing. After reading this, and seeing the photo evidence they presented, I found some patterns and books by the designer who they told us was the actual designer and purchased them online. Later that night, or the next morning, I read a follow-up posting from someone else who was trying to set the record straight. This person, who as far as I know has no contact with any of the other women, told us that she emailed the "actual designer" who told her that indeed the patterns were designed by the first person. Seems that a fabric shop where the "actual designer" recently held a class was looking online for a picture of a New York Beauty quilt to advertise her class. Rather than get a photo from her, they just went online and found this one and put it on their website as hers, when in fact it was from the first young woman. Apparently they are taking that picture off their website, although it is still there as I write this. I did think it was odd that as I looked at designer #2's patterns and books I did not see any that looked exactly like the International NYB from QCC, but it never occurred to me what the real reason for that was. I did however like her patterns, and will be happy to have them in my collection. When this mix-up was pointed out to the OST women, including a quote from designer #2 the response was that there was to be no more discussion of this topic on OST. Clearly there is more going on there than has been said, and the fact remains that the first young woman is the only organizer of a retreat scheduled to be held in WV in April that now no one can find out anything about. I have not signed up for that but apparently several people have, and have paid for it. Messy, messy, messy!

I plan to continue at some point to complete the NYB blocks that I have already, and if we never get any more of them I'll just do something with the ones I have. And the pillow is still on my list of projects. One of the OST women is now designing some other NYB blocks that I may also use for something, but they are a different size from the others. Here is a photo of the 4 blocks I've made so far -

If you have followed this saga and are not confused to this point - then good for you!!

Hydrangeas and Butterflies pillow finished!

2008-01-21T23:15:00.000-05:00

Tonight I finished the paper-pieced pillow-top that goes with the Hydrangeas and Butterflies quilt. I did the piecing on it months ago. It was the first Carol Doak design I did before I started on last year's Fat Eighth Swap in her Yahoo Group, which took place from April - June I think. I used some of the same fabrics that I used in the quilt, and made a cording edge using the same stripe that I used for the binding of the quilt. It is probably hard to see the back of the pillow, maybe some of it in the second picture, but it is the fabric from the border of the quilt. I hand pieced it, and just finished assemblying it tonight. The cording gave me a few problems, but I really wanted to use it so I kept working with it. This completes the Hydrangeas and Butterflies "set." Now on to other projects!

Allie's Green Batik Quilt

2008-01-20T23:41:00.000-05:00

Our youngest daughter, Allie, has been visiting us since mid-November. She had been working as an intern on an organic farm in the Hudson Valley of NY, and after a visit with us left this past Friday to go back to work on that farm for a few weeks before moving to a nearby farm where she plans to work this coming season. During the last couple of weeks that she was with us she decided she wanted to make herself a quilt using some of my batiks. She was living in my sewing room, surrounded by my stash and I think it must have been calling her name! She likes to make up her own designs in her quilts, and her knitting. She has two quilts in progress that I have pictures of on my Quilting Links webpage - http://mamanance.info/quilting/index.htm#family She hand-pieced and is hand quilting them, but this time she wanted to try out my Brother. She started on it Jan 7, and finished all but sewing down some of the binding by the time she left here Friday. She had never machine quilted but practiced a bit with the walking foot and with free motion, and, as I guessed she would chose, she liked the free motion better, so did a meandering stitch all over it -- and seemed very happy with the results!

Van Gogh's View is officially finished

2008-01-20T23:18:00.000-05:00

Just a few minutes ago I finished sewing the label into Van Gogh's View so I can now say it is officially finished. Usually the labels come later, sometimes much later, but this time I thought I would do it while I still had the quilt. I made the label using 18-count cross-stitch fabric, and did the lettering in backstitch, then put a border around the label. I'd hoped to have it finished by Christmas, but that didn't happen. I'll be shipping it to our daughter and her family in GA.Tuesday since tomorrow is a holiday.

Hydrangeas and Butterflies wallhanging is finished!

2008-01-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

This afternoon we hung the completed Hydrangeas and Butterflies wallhanging in our room. I have documented some of the progress in making it on my Quilting Links webpage I began this project in September 2006, a few months after we painted our bedroom and got a new comforter, etc. The room is blue, and not a pale blue, and the comforter has a large block of lime green, one of blue and one white, so I knew from the beginning that it needed to have blue and lime green in it, and I knew where in the room I wanted to hang it, so that limited the size. After looking and many fabrics on quiltshops.com I saw the large hydrangeas fabric and knew right away that I had to use that fabric. I looked at the collection it was in - Lakehouse's Hydrangeas and Raspberries - and bought some of those fabrics, along with the butterflies fabric that was in a companion collection by Lakehouse. I found a pattern using big blossoms, that actually used the hydrangeas fabric, but the pattern had some aspects that I didn't like, so I designed my own. I used other fabrics besides just what was in the Lakehouse collection to make the borders around each block. It is hand quilted using the Baptist Fan pattern in the 4 big blocks, a cable around each of the big blocks, and a diagonal grid on the border. For the binding I used a striped fabric from Lakehouse and cut it on the bias so that the stripes would go at an angle. I am so happy with the way it turned out - I have been making extra trips upstairs just to look at it today! I have a paper-pieced pillow using several of the same fabrics that is almost finished that will go on the bed. Can you tell that blue, yellow and green is my favorite color combination!

Daughter is home; 1 treetop done

2008-01-08T00:17:00.000-05:00

The traveling daughter is home, all safe and sound with no apparent problems. When she called this morning from DC to say she was that far it was a like a big weight off my shoulders. Kristie and Cindy, thanks for your comments.

I appliqued the smaller treetop on Van Gogh tonight, and 1/2 of the larger one, but it is time to put it up for the night. I work at the hospital tomorrow, but will try to finish it tomorrow night and get started on the label.

Progress on Van Gogh Quilt

2008-01-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of one of the trees on the Van Gogh quilt. I have machine quilted the two trunks and treetops. The trunks are appliqued on and I will be working on getting the treetops on today.

Bloglines, LibraryThing and Motherhood

2008-01-07T00:50:00.000-05:00

No, there is no real connection between these three topics, just things I want/need to comment on!

First, Bloglines - is a great way to see which blogs have new postings. You just enter the list of blogs you want to keep up with, then go to the Bloglines site to see a list of all your favorite blogs, with the number of new postings indicated beside each. Thanks to Jen for mentioning this site. Unfortunately, it doesn't help you find the time to read them all!

Second, LibraryThing - Thanks to Debbie I have found this great site that lets you catalog your library collection rather painlessly. As a retired librarian who has done a fair amount of cataloging, I am thrilled to find an easy way to catalog my own books. You can see to the right of this posting a widget from them that shows a random group of book covers from the ones I added earlier tonight. It even shows you how many other people on LibraryThing have the same book in their collections. At the moment I only have 19 of my books in, with lots more to go, but I think 2 of them are only in my library.

Thirdly, Motherhood. My 4 kids are 28-38 years old and all on their own, but we still worry about them don't we? Our youngest has been an intern on 2 different organic farms for the past two growing seasons. In 2006 she was on a small family farm in south central KY; this past season she was at Hawthorne Valley Farm near Ghent, NY. We picked her up from there the weekend before Thanksgiving and she has been here since then. She started working full-time at the library where my husband works the week after she got here. She has already made one driving trip back to NY to visit friends there, and on Christmas Eve she flew from Atlanta, where we had gone for Christmas with our kids, grands and hubby's family, to NY to spend a week or so at the farm. This past Friday night she was to have taken a bus from NYC to Bangor, ME to visit a farm about an hour from there where she would like to work this year. I last talked to her that night before she left - she was trying to stay awake so she could sleep on the overnight bus. Today she was to take a bus back to NYC, then, after a few hours wait, take a bus from there to Charlottesville, VA where I am to pick her up tomorrow afternoon - that's about an hour from here. The more I think about it the more worried I get! These are not her first bus trips - last year she took one from Atlanta to KY to revisit that farm, then from KY to NY to get to the new farm, but overnight bus trips, and being in bus stations during the transfers, etc really worry me. She said she would call me in the morning when she is waiting for the transfer in DC. I'm sure she gets aggravated with my worrying, but I still worry.

OK, back to a bit more quilting before I try to get some sleep. I am finishing up the quilting on the treetops for the Van Gogh quilt. I'll try to post a photo in the morning.

Quilting plans for the year

2008-01-04T16:47:00.004-05:00

This is NOT a list of New Year's Resolutions - I know I won't keep those! But I do want to make a list of projects that I want to finish or continue on during the year. Will "publishing" it make me more likely to actually stick to it - not sure about that, but here goes:

1. Finish the applique and label on Van Gogh's View - DONE AND MAILED
2. Make the labels for Surrounded and the two Cars quillows - attaching will have to wait until I am in GA again - ONE QUILLOW LABELED
3. Make secret 6 blocks - DONE
4. Make secret signature wall hanging
5. Make a secret flannel rag quilt - DONE - JAN '09
6. Bind Hydrangeas and Butterflies - DONE
7. Assemble pillow that goes with Hydrangeas and Butterflies - DONE
8. Assemble the calico lap-quilting blocks into a lap quilt
9. Continue on the Spectacular Scraps quilt- MORE FABRICS CUT
10. Continue on Grandmother's Flower Garden - WORKED ON BUT NOT DONE
11. Continue on Dresden Plate Stack 'n Whack
12. Catch up with QCC's NYB blocks
13. Catch up with Carol Doak's BOM
14. Make a quilt out of the blocks I got in the Carol Doak Fat Eighth Swap
15. Make the Dahlia Sweatshirt
16. Do something with my guild's challenge fabric - DECIDED NOT TO DO
17. Continue on the Christmas wreath wall hanging
18. Continue on the Pantry quilt that the Senior Center group is doing - center is done
19. Finish quilting the blocks for the Senior Center sampler- DONE AND IS HANGING
20. Assemble the Senior Center sampler quilt - SEE ABOVE
21. Make some toe-warmers for the guild retreat- DONE
22. Make some of the participants' gifts for the guild retreat - DONE
23. Finish quilting Allie's apple quilt
24. Finish quilting on Fallen Leaves wallhanging - DONE
25. Finish quilting on guild's comfort quilt
26. Make Peter Rabbit quilt - ON HOLD
27. Make a quilt for grandchild due in August - PIECING DONE; HAND QUILTING IN PROGRESS
28. Make one of Quiltville's scrap quilts - see #33
29. Make the batik Hawaiian wedding quilt
30. Make a quilt with the blue Tonga batiks
31. Make the Celestial Migraine quilt
32. Make a quilt for niece/nephew due in June - DONE
33. Make a bargello quilt - Center is pieced
34. Continue on the Tumbling Blocks quilt
35. Make some placemats for us
36. Make some placemats and/or table-runners for our kids - ONE TABLE RUNNER DONE
37. Make a 2nd pillow to go with the Surrounded quilt - probably NYB design
38. Make a rag quilt from my collection of homespun fabrics - new addition to the list
39. Make a beach/water themed quilt - new addition to the list
40. Make 4 blocks for the ALA BiblioQuilters - new addition to the list - DONE
41. Bind the purple Senior Center quilt - new addition to list (2/20/08) - DONE
42. 1 secret block - new addition to list (2/20/08) - DONE
43. make 5 blocks for the Carol Doak Spring Batik Swap - new additon to list (3/19/08) - DONE

OK, that's that enough to list for today. Amazingly, I don't think I would have to have any more material to do all of these projects! Maybe some for backings, but not even sure about that. Can you tell that I must have a pretty big stash right now? If I am counting right, about 20 of these are finishing or continuing on projects already started. I would be astonished if I got all of those finished this year, but it is a goal I could strive for. I will be starting with #'s 1, 3, 6, 7, 15, 24 and 37 though not necessarily in that order. #18 is an on-going project that I work on mostly on Wednesday mornings before I meet with the ladies at the Senior Center on Wednesday afternoons. I am hoping to have #1 and #15 done in time for our next guild meeting - Jan 12. So I'd better stop working on my list and start working on Van Gogh! I am hoping that putting this list out for all to see will be some encouragement for me to try to be a "completer" this year.

Updating!

2007-12-31T20:41:00.000-05:00

Hard for me to believe that it has been so long since I posted a blog entry. I have been quite busy trying to get some projects finished for Christmas, some of which I did finish and some that I didn't. I also started working part-time in November. One of my volunteer jobs was working at the Home Care dept of our local hospital. It started out as 4-6 hours one day a week, then went to twice that, then after Thanksgiving I went to paid temporary part-time - 24 hours a week. That may slow down some in January since the people I was helping to replace are expected to return.

First, for what I did get finished by Christmas -
1 and 2 - The Surrounded quilt and matching pillow for my son and his wife. We started working on selecting pattern and fabrics for these projects in June. Quilt pattern is from Four Paws Quilting and the pillow is Fallen Leaves from Cindi Edgerton. I machine-pieced the quilt and pillow-top and a friend did the long-arm quilting on the quilt. I machine-quilted the pillow-top with a variegated blue/violet thread and backed the pillow with the back of a pillow that came with their sofa.

3 - ABC book for granddaughter. The pattern I used for this project came from a summer issue of McCalls Quilting. It uses RJR So Sweet So Soft fabrics, including the panel with the letters on it. I quilted some on each letter and used some the collections' fabrics and some that I had used last year in her green and violet quilt and patchwork puzzle ball.

4 and 5 - Two quillows for my grandsons. In mid-November I got the idea to do some quillows for Jack and Atticus. The fronts of both are a Cars panel with Cars fabric above and below the panel. The back of one is part of a duvet of Buzz Lightyear and the other one is a sheet of Backyardigans - these are their respective favorite characters at the moment. The pocket is from the NASCAR flag fabric that is part of the Cars collection. I machine quilted them - first big quilts I've done on my machine - doing some stitching around the Cars figures in the center panel and around Lightning McQueen and Tow-Mater in the other panels. One I added a binding to after I quilted it and the other one I "birthed" and then quilted. Can't say which process I prefer - both took way longer than I had expected!! We had our Christmas with our kids and grandkids on the 23rd, so I gave them the quillows then, but had to take them back at the end of the day to finish up. We saw them again on Christmas Day at my mother-in-law's house and by that time I did have them both finished. Here is Atticus wrapped up in his at his house, with the Surrounded quilt in the background.

The main project that I did not get finished was the Van Gogh for one of our daughters - see my posts from October 11 and 17 . I still have 1 trunk and 2 tree-tops to add to it. I have been stuck for some time about exactly how to do the tree-tops. For the trunks I have quilted the fabric to look kind of like bark (using batting and muslin) then appliqued the trunk to the quilt. I will do the same for the other trunk, and am trying to decide on the treetop. I felt so bad that I couldn't get it done in time to leave it with them for Christmas but I just ran out of time. I'd love to be able to make another trip down to deliver it when I finish it in the next week or so, but since they live in Marietta, GA and we live in Central VA I will probably have to have Fed Ex deliver it. I had also planned to do a 2nd pillow to go with the Surrounded quilt, but after doing one and seeing it with the quilt I'm not sure they need another one in the same fabrics. We'll be talking about that.

Here is a photo of me with the T-shirt quilt - I finished it a couple of months ago but we have not yet hung it in my husband's office. He wanted a picture of me in front of it to show how big it is.

Tumbling Blocks with no Y seams

2007-11-11T23:27:00.000-05:00

Our guild had a workshop yesterday after our meeting. We learned how to make the blocks shown in this photo. These 8 blocks have not been sewn together yet - I want to wait on that until I have made more of them. It has been challenging to find fabrics that blend together and ones that have 3 in light, medium and dark values in each color. The pattern calls for making a quilt that is about 47" x 58," so I have 56 more blocks to add to these 8. The setting triangles would only be at top and bottom of the design. I probably won't be adding more to these until after Christmas since it seems that I keep on adding project to my list of things to finish by then!

T-shirt quilt is almost ready to hang

2007-10-31T23:48:00.000-04:00

I have now hand quilted around the lettering on the T-shirt quilt and finished 3 sides of the binding.

Next we need to pick out the rod that we will hang it on so I know what size to make the sleeve, then I can finish the top. Last Saturday we took it to DH's office to see how it would actually look there. He will have to move a filing cabinet and a bookshelf but it looks like it will just fit in between a thermostat and another filing cabinet. He will have to get the Buildings and Grounds people to put up the brackets for the rod since we don't have a drill for the concrete walls. I told him I needed it today to show to my Senior Center group, next Monday morning to show to my Monday morning quilting group, next Saturday to show to my quilt guild, and then want to take it to SC with us when we visit my sisters and mom for Thanksgiving. In between those times he can have it in his office.

Here are a couple of pictures of one of the shirts - hopefully you can see the great quilting job that my local long-arm quilter did on it.

A great gallery of quilt photos

2007-10-30T08:41:00.000-04:00

I will soon post an update on my quilting projects, but right now I want to share with you a website that has a great collection of quilt and stained glass photos. I belong to One Stitch at a Time, a very on-topic Yahoo Group from Quilters Corner Club. We are learning about Stained Glass quilts last week and this week, and one of the members has posted her website where she has photos of her quilts, some of which are using the stained glass technique, as well as photos of some of her "real" stained glass. There are some gorgeous photos there - check them out at http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=6&uid=2587539& Look at the albums entitled Farmer's Delight, Quilting, Quilting #2, and Stained Glass - and her Cross Stitch album has some pretty amazing photos too if you like that.

Getting to Know Each Other

2007-10-17T22:14:00.000-04:00

Here are the Fours..... I got this from Jen and Gina

Job's I've Had:
1. School librarian - 2 high schools, 1 middle school (Miami, FL and Lexington, VA)
2. Placement Office assistant at Washington and Lee University Law School
3. mail order catalog order-taker - this was in the early 80's, catalog is no longer in operation
4. College Librarian and Library Science teacher - Augusta, GA

Movies I (do) Could Watch Over & Over:
1. Dr. Zhivago
2. Sound of Music
3. It's a Wonderful Life
4. Something's Gotta Give

TV Shows I Watch:
1. Braves Baseball
2. The Closer
3. Dancing With the Stars
4. Women's Murder Club

Places I've Lived:
1. Charlottesville, VA
2. Nashville, TN
3. Decatur, GA
4. Miami, FL
I could go on - I've lived in 12 different towns, but have moved 23 times

Favorite Foods:

1. my mother's rhubarb pie
2. my husband's grilled hamburgers
3. crablegs
4. steak

Favorite Colors:

1. blue
2. yellow
3. teal
4. purple

Places I'd Love to Be Now:

1. on the beach at Hatteras
2. in Hawaii
3. in Ireland
4. wherever our kids/grands are gathered

Names I like but would/did not use for my children

1. Kurt
2. Sara
3. Ariana
4. Kate

Not sure how this part works - I will tag Rhoda, Teresa, Stephanie and Lori/Hazel

Van Gogh's View is back home!

2007-10-17T21:37:00.000-04:00

As promised, UPS delivered Van Gogh's View back home late this afternoon. I LOVE the quilting that Sandie did on it. She did little swirlies in all the sections where the folds are not, so that the folded back parts really stand out. I had tacked them down well, so I am not worried about them falling out. Here is a picture of the quilting she did on it and a closer view of the it.

When you look at it at an angle you can see the 3 dimensional appearance - here is a photo that kind of shows that

So excited/nervous!

2007-10-15T09:24:00.000-04:00

We took a trip this past weekend to Marietta and McDonough, GA to see our 3 kids and their spouses and kids, along the way stopping to see my mom in Johnson City, TN and Dave's mom and one sister in Flowery Branch, GA. It was a short trip since we left late afternoon Thursday and got home last night, but fun to see everyone. I have posted pictures on our Flickr page for all to see - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mamanance/

Saturday morning I took the Van Gogh's View quilt to the quilt shop in Marietta where I bought the fabric. I'd been told on the phone that they could quilt it there, and so I expected it to be a simple drop-off, chat a bit about it and be on my way. NOT! The shop owner told me, very nicely, that they could not do it there - it has curved folds, like cathedral windows, in every block - so about 190 of them! She said their quilters were not that experienced - too bad one of their employees had told me, twice, that they could do it with no problem. Anyhow, the owner gave me the name of two quilters in the area that they use. I was of course reluctant to call someone I did not know or know of, but I thought I'd give it a try. I called the first one, Sandie, because Mary Anne said she might be able to do it more quickly. I called her, reached her on her cell phone, she said she was about 10 miles away, but would turn around and come to the shop. She was there in 15-20 minutes, we talked about what I wanted and what she thought would work, and she left with my quilt and the backing. She wanted to know when I was leaving, and when she heard it was the next day she wanted to know what time! She is northwest of Atlanta and we were going to be southeast of Atl, so we discussed mailing it. I just got a call from her this morning - the quilt is finished and she is on the way to UPS it to me so I should have it on Wednesday!! She says it looks really good - my piecing and her quilting. I am so excited and nervous to see it! I've never been in this situation before - I have the T-shirt quilt at one long arm quilter, this one just being finished, and Surrounded, the batik for son and DIL, ready to go to the local quilter as soon as she finishes the t-shirt quilt.

Photo problems

2007-10-12T00:44:00.000-04:00

When I wrote my last posting Thursday morning I noticed that the link to the larger pictures on Webshots was not working, but I hoped it would resolve itself during the day. It did not, so I tried to fix it by re-inserting the link from Webshots, but now there is some problem with Blogger and images, so I will check tomorrow night.

After looking at all of my posts it looks like most of them do not actually link to the webshots photo. I will need to get some help in trying to figure out what the difference is in the way it works with some and not others.

Here is another edit to this post. I think I have now fixed all of my photos so that the thumbnails actually DO open to the Webshots picture. I will check it again tonight to see if they still work.

"Van Gogh's View" and T-shirt Quilt Update

2007-10-11T11:21:00.000-04:00

First - a T-shirt quilt update. Yesterday the local long-arm quilter brought me the sample she worked on for the quilt, and I totally approve of what she has done. She seems more confident now of what she will do and she plans to get started right away. I am hoping to have it in a week or two although she did not give me a date. I also asked her to do Surrounded that was on my previous post, but first I want to take it to GA this weekend for my son and DIL to see it, then I'll bring it back for her to quilt.

Here is a picture of "Van Gogh's View" - I am making it for my oldest daughter and her family. She picked it out when she saw it on display at Red Hen Fabrics in Marietta, GA where she lives. Turns out that the fabric designer is the owner of that shop. She bought some of the fabrics and in August when I was there I bought the rest that I needed. I am going to see them too this weekend and hope to be able to take this quilt to the shop Saturday morning for them to quilt it. It is in the McCalls Quilting issue for July/August '07 - if you look closely at those pictures you can see the quilting design that was used on the sample. I saw the sample in the shop, and would like for them to do something like that. It is closely stitched swirls that resemble the swirls in some of the fabrics. I still have about 60 or so folds to tack down - they are folded back to give them a more curved appearance. If you look closely you can see about where I got to on them. I just finished the borders and my first mitered borders since I got back into quilting 2 1/2 years ago. I was nervous about that, but thought they turned out pretty good.

This is a picture of the fabric to be used on the back of the quilt. It is part of the same collection - First Impressions by Northcott - designed by Mary Anne Henderson of Red Hen Fabrics.

"Surrounded" Quilt for Son and Daughter-in-Law

2007-10-07T18:04:00.000-04:00

A few months ago my son and his family moved into a new house in Athens, GA. I told them I would like to make a wall hanging or lap quilt for their new house and this is the pattern we eventually decided on. It has about 30 different batiks in it, and will backed with a different batik. I just finished adding the borders to it this morning. I will take it with us to GA next weekend so they can the progress on it, then bring it back here to get it quilted. I am hoping the long-arm quilter who is hopefully going to do my T-shirt quilt will also do this one. Son and DIL sent me two of the throw pillows from their sofa and loveseat so I can cover the pillows with some kind of quilted top to go with the quilt. She suggested the same pattern that I used in the quilt, but I am thinking about using some of the same fabrics but doing some kind of paper-pieced design for them.

I took the T-shirt quilt to the long-arm quilter Friday afternoon, along with a sample block for her to practice on. She is hoping to have the sample quilted by Wednesday when we have our Senior Center group meeting. I also got the second border on the quilt that our Senior Center is going to raffle and took that to the quilter as well - so she has a few things to work on. I was interested to see her quilter. She does some freehand work with it, but she also has some patterns that she traces with a laser light and the machine quilts that design. Seems like more skill involved in that than if you have a computer-operated quilter.

I have had some trouble letting go of my t-shirt quilt, feeling like I really wanted to do all of it myself, but knowing I would have a difficult if not impossible time doing that, and that it would not look as good as I want it to if I did do it. I am not ready to totally give up hand-quilting, but as I get more used to the idea of sharing the making of my quilts, I realize that I could make more, and there are SO many I want to make!

The First Quilt I Started

2007-10-03T16:48:00.000-04:00

About 23 years ago I took a class at a local fabric shop, which is no longer in business, to make a lap quilt. The teacher used Georgia Bonesteel's book, Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel, and gave us patterns to make the various designs from. I chose 4 bright calico prints and before the class was over I had 19 blocks in various stages of completion - some were quilted and ready to assemble into the quilt, others were pieced with the borders and the cornerstones, others were pieced but no borders -- you get the idea. If we learned how to actually assemble them I did not remember that part.

Fast forward to 2007. I have now been quilting again for about 2 1/2 years, but had not taken out the calico blocks to do anything with them. I had looked at them various times, but couldn't decide what I wanted to do with them, until last week. Our Senior Center group is doing a sampler quilt to hang at the Center, and I thought the quilt-as-you-go method would be a good way to get the individual blocks quilted and assembled. Only problem was - I didn't know how to assemble them. So, I read Georgia Bonesteel's book, which I had bought in the meantime, and studied the handout that one of our guild members had distributed when she gave a workshop on assembling a QAYG quilt. Then I made a sample using the handout, which puts a narrow sashing in between each block, and put two of my calico blocks together as an example of another way of assembling them. Of course, in order to do that I had to decide what I really wanted to do with those 19 blocks, etc. After a few hours of playing around with arrangements I came up with what you see here - 12 blocks which have at least been pieced - and with lots of moving around of pieces, I came up with an arrangement that has one each of the four colors in each 4-patch at the corners of the blocks.

As I work with these blocks I have started liking the quilt more, even though it still does not "go" with anything in our house, it will be a nice quilt to have for the TV room -- and it has a history to it as well. The woman who taught the class was our youngest daughter's nursery school teacher, her husband was my boss at that time at the university library, she and I and her husband all went to the same college in TN (though we did not know each other then), and it turned out that she and my younger sister with Big Sister/Little Sister in their college sorority -- so we had a few ties. She and her husband no longer live here - when they moved away my husband took her husband's job - but we have seen them occasionally at library meetings. I will definitely have to send her a picture of the quilt when I do finish it! So now, thanks to my Senior Center group, this quilt has moved way up on the list of WIPs that I want to work on finishing. Of course this is not the only project that is calling me this month, but it is on the "short list."

Here are the first 2 blocks sewn together -

Another T-shirt quilt update

2007-10-03T16:40:00.000-04:00

I picked up the T-shirt quilt from the first longarm quilter last Friday morning. Monday night I took it to the quilting class/group and discussed it with the local longarm quilter. She wants to practice first on a sample of it, since she is a bit concerned about how it will work with the fusible material that I used on the back of the shirts. So, tonight I hope to finish a sample - one T-shirt with a bit of a logo on it, and a picture printed on Printed Treasures, as I did in the quilt, surrounded by other t-shirt material and a border around all of it, similiar to what I did in the real thing. I hope to take it to her maybe Friday. She is also going to quilt a raffle quilt for our Senior Center group, after I finish adding the borders to it, and I want to do that too before I go see her. So, I guess progress is being made on the T-shirt quilt, but no definite answer yet.

And Jen, thanks for your offer. If this woman decides she doesn't want to do it, I will send it to Vera.

My first finished quilt

2007-09-29T19:59:00.000-04:00

I have thought for some time that I ought to write, at least for my benefit, a little about each of my quilts. I post pictures of the progess on them on my website, but there is very little other information there about them. So I am going to use this blog as a kind of journal about them. The quilt pictured here is the first one I finished. It is a wall hanging I made for our middle daughter and her fiance/husband. I began it a few weeks after they became engaged in July 2005. They picked out the pattern and the colors they wanted in it. I had a fat quarter of the border fabric which they really liked, but of course when I went back to the store where I thought I had gotten it they had no more of it, and the piece had no identifying info on the selvedge. So I began looking for other fabrics they might like in the same color. I found several fabrics, but none of them did they like as much as this one. Then one day I was looking online for more fabric for another quilt that I was making and there on the screen was the fabric I needed for this one! I of course ordered it immediately, but it was coming from British Columbia, so I didn't tell them anything about it until I had it in my hand. Once we had enough of this fabric, we were able to settle on the other ones in the quilt. I hoped to get it finished for them in time for their wedding in Feb 2006, but it was actually April 2006 when I gave it to them. They hung it near their front door in the house they had then, and it is in the same location in their new house. I hand pieced and hand quilted it, and am very happy with the way it turned out. It is the Rail Fence pattern from Alex Anderson's Start Quilting.

Picture of the T-shirt quilt

2007-09-27T21:30:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of the T-shirt quilt I mentioned in my previous post. This is the first picture I have posted on this blog - I think I need more practice at it. I have loaded a few of my quilt pictures into Webshots and am posting them here from there. I am going to pick it up from the first longarm quilter in the morning and will take it to someone else locally on Monday. She is in the group that I meet with at the Senior Center. I am hoping that if she does not feel comfortable doing it she will let me know now, rather than waiting 6 weeks to tell me like the first person did. If she doesn't want to do it, I have a blog friend in CA who will do it.

T-shirt Quilt Update and Retreat plans

2007-09-25T23:46:00.000-04:00

About 6 weeks ago I took my t-shirt quilt to a longarm quilter who lives about 40 miles or more from here. We selected a thread color and quilting design and she explained that the quilting design would be all over the quilt. After thinking about that for a few days, I called to ask her if she could not quilt on the photos that are on the quilt - look here to see what I am talking about. She said she would practice doing that to see if she could do it, but today she called to say that she can't do it, so now I have to go get my quilt from her and find someone else to quilt it for me. In July I thought I could try to do it by hand myself, but after having it on my Q-snap frame for several weeks I decided that I'd better pay someone to do it. Am I being unreasonable to want there to be no stitching over the pictures? I have the names of a couple of other longarm quilters in the area who might be able to do it. It is big - about 75" by 96" and pretty heavy. I suppose I could just tie it, but I really would like to have it quilted. I will make some calls tomorrow and see if I can find someone else to do it.

Our Retreat Committee met today to discuss plans. The retreat is not until the first weekend in May, but we know we need to get plans made. We are hoping to get a teacher who can teach us about sewing with curves, and also want to have some demos from guild members on various embellishment techiques. We are going to look into getting some t-shirts for us with maybe a picture of a quilt we would be making at the retreat. We thought it might be fun to play some strip poker, but we need to find out how to do that -- Jen, can you educate me about that? I am hoping that those who want to will be able to stay overnight. It is held at a community center way out in the country - not sure how many would want to stay, but having that option would be fun. If not, maybe some of us could spend the night in a hotel in town rather than going back to our homes for the night. Thanks to those who replied to my off-blog email request for advice about retreats.

Tomorrow morning I will continue working on the blocks for my demo to the Senior Center group about ways to connect the blocks of a quilt-as-you-go quilt, but when I get home tomorrow afternoon I'll be able to get back to MY quilting and see if I can make some progress on this week's list.