Wassup?

Popping in to report on the little bit if quilting I've done lately.

Hand quilting update on the Jubilee quilt.

Here is the back view.  You can really see how the wool has great loft and body.  I'm loving it.  Surprisingly, I'm using a size 9 between.  It has great strength and I'm able to achieve small stitches (small enough for me anyway).

If you are wondering if those circles are a pain to quilt, YES they are.  But I like the look with the stuffed berries.

Here is an update on the projects I took to the retreat, which was fabulous!

I got all the blocks pieced on this.  I have to get it on the wall and play with it.

Here are my blocks for my eventual king sized bed quilt.  I'm loving it so far.

and Hooray!  I purchased one of Lori's quilts from AAQI.  I've been wanting to and when I saw this one it really spoke to me.  Lori has done an amazing job toward achieving her goal of $1000. for this worthy organization.

 
That's a wrap for me.  Have a somber and joyful Easter week if you celebrate, and if you don't Happy Spring!

Fun For Friday - I'm LEAVING!!

Just for the weekend.....
This weekend is our annual Shawnee Retreat!  Hooray!! I'm Saved!

But first a little Frida love.  I bought 3 yards of this fabulous fabric at the Lancaster Quilt Show.  Won't this make a wonderful backing?

This is my favorite art book of her work.  She was a talented and fascinating woman.

Little Day of the Dead figures of Frida and Diego keep company with my thread.

Today I'm also sharing a fun note and photos I received from Gwen Marston (my mentor, idol and friend.)  It was such a fun surprise for me.

Here is a photo from 1995, my first Beaver Island  retreat with my dear friend, Mary B.  The theme was log cabin quilts and  I made 1 small quilt a day.

Gwen in on the far left, I don't know who is in the brown pants, then me looking totally dorky in a denim dress and sweatshirt (nice hair, lol) and my Mary.

Here is the log cabin quilt that Mary made.  I loved it then; I love it now.

Here is what I'll be working on at the Retreat:

The Flying Geese project:

And my king sized bed nine-patch quilt (not worked on since the retreat 2 years ago - ooops.)  I even added some more of those chinzy looking brown florals.  Oh yea, I have a backing already.  Now I just need to SEW!

I hope you are doing something really fun this Weekend and Happy Spring!

Ramblings

Happy Tuesday!

Here is another "quilt from the attic" that I made for my son, Andrew, in 2000.  We had 2 cats and a chocolate lab then, but all different from the ones we have now.



The acorns and oak leave pattern was inspired by the bedroom set that he has, which was my Grandparents and looks like this:

It is literally falling apart as you can see here:

Without properly securing the quilt all the diagonal quilting stretched and broke :(

 What's this? by gum it's GUM! (can you name that movie?)

 Of course coco, who spends a lot of time on Andrews bed doesn't see any problems.  I'm not sure it will ever get repaired, but I'm glad Andrew loved and used it so long.

Now here is some real quilt guilt!  (see original quilt post here)  Every night coco goes to bed in her crate with a cookie.  Apparently one night she got a little "confused" and ended up chewing a large portion of binding.  Stinker!!  Well, I just told her, "you did it, you live with it".....

I got a really nice surprise at the AQS Show in Lancaster last Friday.  They included a photo of my Mother's Garden Quilt from 2012 in the program.

My class with Sharon Schamber was not what I expected, but I sure learned a lot!!
here is my top take away from the class.  By the way I never even sewed!

1.   Everything should be constructed for the quilting process.

2.  Use Schmetz embroidery needles in the machine, they are heat tempered and won't bend.

3.  Always wash your backing fabric; but never dry it in the dryer.  Sharon says the act of tumbling it and turning it add twist into the fibers.  She said just snap it straight and hang it over  banister, or shower rod.  She also said it "cooks" it and reminded us that cotton is a vegetable.

4.  Always, I repeat, always cut your borders, strips and lattice on the length of  fabric!!  Did I mention always?  Your strips will have less of chance to skew or ripple.

With all that is going on here, I'm finding it hard to stay caught up on the computer. For the time being instead of emailing everyone a thank you for commenting, I'd rather take the time to visit your blog.  If you have a question I'm more than happy to answer it.  I love getting questions.

I really enjoy reading comments and I never take them for granted.  They are what makes blogging worthwhile for me.

I'll be sneaking back on Friday for a little fun.

Finders Keepers!

Here are a few things I recently found in my attic.  I don't really know why there were there.

This is a top.  The blocks were made my members of my group in Illinois.  The theme was "anything to do with a chicken".   Aren't they terrific?

I made the middle block on the bottom. (sorry, it was a cloudy day an the light was bad.)

Here is a little feed sack panel I purchased at the quilt show recently.  I have a dream of having laying hens when I move.  Maybe I can hang these in the coop.

Here is one of my favorite quilts.   I made it commemorate Hanna's 6th Birthday.  She was born on June 6th (6/6)  and turned 6 in '99 so it was her golden birthday bonanza of 6s and 9s.

Here are our hand prints at the time, and my little blue bird.

We called her "miss" when she was little and I designed this dandellion seed flower.

It is hand quilted and it still makes me smile.  Here is the back.  All the junk food a 6 year old girl loves.

Tonight Sharon Schamber is visiting our guild and tomorrow I'm taking her workshop on machine quilting.  Here are the 2 little tops that we had to make to practice on.  I'll show you how I did soon.

Have you ever found quilts or tops you had forgotten about?

Have a Great Week !

Cinderelly, Cinderelly

Night and Day I'm Cinderelly.
I'm continuing to clean out, sort through and rearrange my house in preparation for selling and moving.

But First - Hooray!!  At the Quilt Fest, my buddy Jill won a Judges Choice Ribbon for her lovely quilt:  Sweet Emiliee.

I forgot my camera in the car so I only have a few phone photos - sorry!

Here is my Best in Show.  While the subject is a sad one, the memorial quilt is really thoughtful and wonderful.

There was a wonderful Red & White exhibit and this one was my favorite.

And here is an example of really creative quilting on a border.

While cleaning out the attic on Saturday I found several quilts and tops I had forgotten about.   Here is a little paper pieced flying geese that I made in 1997.

the backing fabric is shipping tags.

In the attic I found this school house quilt that I made in 1993, the first year my son went to pre-school.  Wow, I guess it really didn't care how that printed fabric on the borders was cut!  The lattice has quilted school houses in red thread.

I'll have some more "treasures" from the attic to share soon.

Back to cleaning....Have a great week!