Where to start with an update?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.