The Pashofa Quilter

Andrean's quilt

2012-03-08T12:14:00.001-05:00

I missed Andrean's BD. OMG! and Karen had told me she needed this quilt by the middle of February. I was on track until I decided to change threads. Remember? I posted about this earlier.

I did finish it though and enjoyed every minute! I had meant to do cross-hatching but I got caught up in seeing the movement that just the curved lines made!

Just a note to you Face-Bookies! I am enjoying SO much connecting with all of you and seeing what you're working on!

The Color Purple

2012-03-07T15:09:00.002-05:00

Today is a Purple Day. I feel Purple. My shirt is purple.My chair is purple. A purple & white quilt top was bought at a garage sale for $1 yesterday & it was brought to me to quilt. Love purple. Just finished quilting a different purple quilt this morning. Use purple thread on most of it. Did you know that the more times "purple" is typed, the more misspelled it looks?

My quilting schedule is full waaaaay PAST the brim! In fact, neither the studio nor the SUV can hold even 1 more quilt top! But a lady appeared saying she needed a quilt done f-a-s-t- because it's for a friend who's sick- very sick, so what'd I say???? you knew it! I said OK, I'll try to work it in. Good thing I'm done because I hear that sick lady isn't doing well- she needs her quilt.
This 1st pic is what I had to UN-quilt. I started the borders with the purple thread that I was going to use elsewhere on the quilt and the border was just looking like scribble. So after frog-stitching I re-did it using a variegated thread. Better, huh?

I did this crosshatching using my new

tool from Lisa Calle!

The Most Difficult Quilt Top I've Ever Made!

2012-02-23T12:51:00.002-05:00

Pretty unassuming as far as pattern difficulty goes, right? A simple Log Cabin, right? NOOOOOO!
The fabrics are really pretty and they were packed in a nice little straw bucket with a Chinese symbol on the front. (I guess it was Chinese- I only speak Oklahoma so I don't know for sure!) It was a really neat kit, I thought, when I bought it at Market Sample Spree a few years ago but it's been here at my "shop" inside our grocery store for at least 2 years and no one has even looked at it except for the lady that wanted to buy the bucket for a "purse".

Monday this week was a holiday for everybody except the self-employed (us). It was v-e-r-y slow here at the store for all the time except the lunch hour. Stan has his Stan-wich following, you know. So I spied the kit & decided it was time to get it off the shelf.

Why would it be hard to create, you ask? Here's the fabric group: great fabrics-

and HHHHEREEEE is the fabric KEY:

So far so good, huh? So I started cutting the pieces & labelling each fabric group with the SKU so I could find it again. Started trying to sew it together..........Step 1 wasn't too hard to find the right fabs. But look at the set of directions! Look how the "key to the colors" makes all the diagrams look!

Clearly, the colors used in the diagrams DO NOT correspond to actual fabric colors!

I've thought of

at least 2 additional ~~reasons~~ excuses for why this was so hard.

1) The space where I squeezed in my Janome Gem behind the counter is REALLY small

so it must have cramped my thinking capacity!

or....2) Being interruped ever-so-often (wonderful customers!) might have derailed

my thinking just enough that I

had to rethink the whole thing every time I started to put blocks together.

Fortunately, I DID get 'er done, I DID get 'er done! Whew! and Yippee!

There's fabric left for the binding but I think I'll see about adding a solid black border first. What do you think? border or no border?

Winner & quilt posted

2012-02-20T08:16:00.001-05:00

Howdy! I enjoyed reading all your comments from the Share Some Love blog post on the 16th. Isn't it amazing how "small" our world seems now that we can communicate over the internet? It's awesome - kinda compares to the old-fashioned pen-pals but with pictures!
Ms. Random Number Generator chose #23 from the comments- so YOU WIN, Jan!

Jan said...

Love your quilt and love scrap jar star on your pinterest - isn't it addicting! I just got a go for my BDay! Lucky me!
Jan

So Jan, I sent you an email for your mail addy! Congrats!

I don't have the binding on the quilt yet but I am through quilting:

I hope you have a WUNderful week!

Bonus & another pic

2012-02-16T20:05:00.000-05:00

I hope you got to see the post from earlier today and to enter the give-away. BONUS added: the extra pieces I'd cut from this die will be included with the Sudoku quilt kit.

This morning as we left for the store, I took a pic of the quilt that's been resting all night. I love how the quilting gives it so much texture!

Share Some Love Bloghop Post

2012-02-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the day for my sharing the most recent of my projects involving Accuquilt's GO! machine. I haven't gotten to use my machine as much as I'd like but every time I DO get to use it, I'm amazed at how much time it saves. Be sure to read all the way to the END so you'll know how to register for the give-away! And be sure to see Marjorie's post as she's also posting her project today!

For this Valentine's time project, red & white were the theme. I posted HERE some of the red-n-white quilts I drew in EQ6 while at the store. (I have EQ7 but it's on my other laptop at home & I keep forgettig to load it at the store!) It really can be quite dangerous getting a play time on EQ software! The only drawback I see is that dinner doesn't get cooked, laundry doesn't get done, & there's less time to surf all the great quilter blogs if you get mixed up with EQ products! LOL Here's the one I finally decided to do:

This NEXT one was actually my favorite, but time was at a premium so the extra borders were eliminated, and I'd made a block already with the white outside, red main design & pink in the center before I realized that was going to be too much pink. So I ended up using that block in the center (see above).

so----------maybe this one will get done some day-----------or maybe not! Who knows.

So how does the GO! machine help with this? Man, it's cool! and FAST!

I'm using the smaller Drunkard's Fan- just 3-1/2" finished and some beauttiful MODA fabric. All I did was cut a width of each fabric 10.5", press it, fan fold each one and

lay it on the die. See the pretty fan-folded fabric? There are 8 layers shown here. Cover it with the mat & run it through themachine.

Will the GO! cut all 8 layers??????????????? Let's see------

It DID! It DID cut all 8 layers! That is SIXTEEN blocks at a time. So I did 1 strip creamy white, 1 strip pink and 1 strip red-- 48 blocks! -- enough to mix & match for lots of blocks in less than 15 minutes! Can't beat that! Hmmmmmmm wonder what the leftovers look like?
Looks like somebody's been cutting out paper dolls. Cool huh?

And what's extra cool is that the die even cuts the little markers for putting the pieces together. See the little notches that stick up? Just put the concave & convex parts together matching that notch.

Now we're down to sewing those round seams. Just as everything else in quilting, there are lots of ways to get 'er done! One fun way which I've used before on larger drunkard's path doesn't even use pins! It goes pretty fast and is pretty accurate. Here's Elisa Wilson's video showing you how to do that method.

This time, however, since I'm

using the Janome 3/4 machine at the store which does not have a large flat sewing area, I'm pinning.

I recommend you use fine pins, and when you pin- just barely catch the 2 layers with the pin. Here you can see how little the connection is. It's at the point of the scissors.

Pin the center 1st, then the outside edges so that the fabric doesn't twist. Stitch away!

Then sew the blocks together.

Here's the light block.

and here's the dark block.

Now, seww all the blocks together!

Oh wait- I forgot to tell you about those little oval things, didn't I?

Those are made using a different die. You can see the Rose of Sharon die HERE. I just used the small leaf on the die. Same process- except added Soft Fuse to the back of the fabric BEFORE cutting. I used a strip just wide enough for the leaf, fan folded it, run it through the GO!.

Here I am running the 1st part through the GO! machine.

Then I didn't even run it all the way through-- just far enough to pull the 1st cut out. Stuck the next fan-folded strip over the leave cutter, then rolled it back through the other way.

Talk about FAST! Imagine how long it would have taken me to hand-trace 72 shapes, then cut out all 72 shapes by HAND! YUCK~!

LOOK how clean they were cut out!

I cut out bunch of them right quick! Here they are corralled in a cup.

Now, lest you think that I wouldn't

have done it if I couldn't have used the GO! on these little shapes- just let me show you

how the quilt was looking without them!

Those little ovals make a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG difference, don't they? Sure am glad I didn't have to cut them by hand, though! So just peel the paper off the backsides, press them to the quilt top. If you wanted to stitch them down, that could be done now but I"m going to stitch them down when I'm actually quilting this

I didn't get the quilting finished but I thought I'd post a couple of picks of the blocks I've got done. There's cross-hatching in the centers, Feathers in the ring part. There's kind of a dome shape over the little red ovals. Then there's a sort of channel around the ring with little circles or loops or pebbles around those.

I'm using 2 batts on this one. Quilter's Dream cotton on bottom and Dream Poly on top. I wondered if it'd be difficult to quilt since I haven't used that thickness in quite a long time.. It was really fun seeing the texture develop immediately! I'll do it again!
I guess you'll have to come back in a few days to see the finished quilt. If you haven't clicked "FOLLOW" yet, you could do that & the you'll be notified when the final quilt is posted.

THE GIVE-AWAY!

Would you like a chance to win a quilt kit?

You choose: leave a comment about your favorite project using GO!, or go visit my Pinterest page and leave a comment about which one was your favorite. Be sure that your email address

is accessible, that you're not "no reply". I'll choose a random

winner early Monday morning, Feb. 20. Good luck to you!

Old Dog Learns New Trick!

2012-02-14T17:49:00.003-05:00

How old IS an old dog,anyway? We've had several animals, both dogs & cats, that have lived to almost 20 years old. We take good care of our animals. The dog in the title is "me"! yep!

I warned Karen to watch out for curved cross-hatching. I was just a-playing along loving the curves. I got to the end of the row, looked back at that 1st block where I'd done the curved crosshatch and it looked dusty! Hmmmmmm, how'd that happen? The backing for this quilt is brown and the front uses a dark ruby, a pink and a beige. So I'd been stitching with a brown thread that matched the back. Where all that thread was in the curved x-hatching, that's where it looked dusty. Guess it was the brown on the red.. What's the remedy? Frog-stitch! NOrmally I slip the ripper through every 3rd or 4th stitch, then pull the thread out from the other side. But --- look here http://youtu.be/l6jaVst0zqw

Now, understand that I have that tool. I don't use it much but it IS a good tool. Tell you what- Renee's tip does make it go fast! I had stabilized the entire quilt with the brown thread. It doesn't een show on the back so I'm going to leave all that in. It's just that x-hatching and the other swirly parts that I"m removing. I've stiched on a different row in that ruby colored thread & I do like that.

Learned some other stuff this last week, too. Had a memory from school days brought to mind & I learned that I can still feel like a giddy school kid even though I'm rather "long of tooth" as they used to say.

I also RE-learned a little thing this last week. Stabilize, use a long pin cross-wise across large areas left temporarily un-quilted so the fabric doesn't shift so much when rolled. Hat-tip to Lisa Calle whose picture on FB reminded me. Isn't this beautiful quilting?

Don't forget the Share some Love Blog Hop that's going on now. My post will be on the 16th so

don't forget to come back for the GIVE-AWAY!

Christmas in February?

2012-02-11T11:47:00.000-05:00

I've heard of Christmas in July, but Christmas in February? New Fabric lines come out (I think) around Market times- and there's a Spring Market and a Fall Market , plus lots of other events & maybe new fabrics get released then too. There are so many quilting fabrics out these days, and even new manufacturers that it's possible new fabrics come out every day! Gosh! What if we were coerced into buying some of EVERY fabric for out stashes????? Just imagine how big iour stashes would be then!

Chelair sent me a top to quilt that's from a soon-to-be-available line called JOY by Kate Spain, manufactured by Moda. As it often happens, I'd been surfing through quilters' blogs and FB pages and had come across multitudes of gorgeous quilting. My favorite of this minute is Judi Madsen at Green Fairy Quilting . By all means, go have a look at her work! Gor-ge-mous! I even pinned at least one and maybe 2 of her pics on my PINTEREST. Judi's work is so creative that they merit *studying* each picture just to see all she's done! She's got a great tutorial up since yesterday - check it out!

Another place I got hung up this last week was at Alex & Ricky's The Quilt Show . Somewhere in my surfing I learned of Episode 802 where Ronda Beyer was demonstrating her rulers and curved crosshatching. I did find the rulers that Ronda produced for sale at Quilters' Rule and I ordered the small S curve one. It didn't arrive, though, until this quilt was done but I already had some curved templates from Renee Haddadin. I got all enthused! What was the next quilt top up? Why that Christmas quilt, of course! The 1st couple of spaces I did were a little scary because it was on a real quilt, not a practice piece, but it worked out ok. I was VERY surprised at how quickly curved crosshatching becomes 2nd nature. I DID have 1 pretty bad problem, though. Each time I'd get a pass done, I'd have to sit and stare at it for awhile. The texture is Lovely! and it makes so much movement in the quilt!

I'll be doing more of this- so WATCH OUT, Karen! (She's the 1 with the most tops in queue.)

Sweetheart!

2012-02-06T08:40:00.001-05:00

Isn't she lovely? Good Job, Jen & Kelly!

Good Taste

2012-02-01T20:13:00.001-05:00

No, Tony the Tuna isn't going to pop out! But really Good Taste is what I just got from a bottle of tea. I don't usually care for bottled tea but this TWO IF BY TEA peach tea is--------WUNderful! So flavor-licious. Know how the scent of a certain food or drink is pleasant before it even gets to your tongue? The peachy-ness of this tea is just right. And not too sweet!

What's this have to do with quilting? I was actually quilting when I heard about this tea the 1st time. And I was loading a quilt while ago but I got side-tracked so I stopped for a break & between the studio & the kitchen was this tea----see? I knew you'd get it!

I finished a quilt over the weekend but I'd forgotten all about it (side-tracked again). That happens alot to us quilters, right? We can hardly wait to work on that other project as soon as we finish "this" one.
The finish is a quilt top that is ????? old- pieced by machine with lots of stains & puffiness, etc. It's owner acquired the top at a garage sale for a very low price. They just didn't know what they were selling, I guess!

I just uncovered the quilt when clearing the Gammill table while ago. I guess it's been "resting" & relaxing since being unleashed from the table so the texture is lovely. I must not have taken a pic before quilting it. The 1st 3 were taken while the quilt was being worked on. Last 3 are AFTER it sat for 4 days.

Just wondering..... does this pic make you worry whether our cats are fed?

And does this one make you wonder what we did that make her pull every single quilt off the cedar chest?

Don't forget the Show Some Love Blog Hop coming up in less than 2 wks.

LOVE is in the air!

2012-01-25T13:03:00.002-05:00

Yep! Love is in the air! Every day I realize more how much I love my DH! Thank you Lord for putting us together, and keeping us together!We're togethr 42+ years now, married for 35-1/2 of those years, and still I wouldn't want to spend a day without him.

SO! What will I get for Valentine's Day? Notta! as in notta-darn-thing! Once when we were in highschool DH gave me candy. Dark chocolate with creamy stuff inside in a fancy box from the drug store that used to be on the corner of Main & Washington. I didn't even know I liked dark chocolate but that candy sure was special! He says he doesn't have to "woo" me anymore- he's already GOT me. He's right again!

BUT! Y'all will have a chance at a present! Some of us will be having a blog hop in February to show off what our Accuquilt GO! machines can do. I sure hope you will join us for the fun, the info, and ---a GIVE-AWAY! Here's the schedule and the bloggers:

February 13th

Marjorie (Marjorie Busby, quilter)
Ariane (Ariane's Crafts)

February 14th

Connie (Quilting by the River)
Linda (Living 4 Quilting)

February 15th

Lisa Marie (Scraps of Life)
Marilyn (North Hills Quilters)

February 16th

Alicia (Heirloom Quilting) (that's ME! )
Marjorie (Marjorie's Busy Corner)

February 17th

Sharon (Crazee Corners)
Jacque (Lilypad Quilting)

February 18th

Stacey (Driving Miss Stacey)
Tracey (The Peony Teacup)
Paulette (Sweet P Quilting and Creations)

That's not the only Love in the Air! A Lady from Texas brought me a T-shirt quilt to do. She had already assembled the T-shirt blocks. I just added the border - great plaid that she bought for it - and then quilted & bound it. They LIKE ! (they said they LOVE it! I hope they do bcz I sure had fun!)

AND__------- if you want some of those neat decals I showed in the last post, I've posted them to our website under "Novelties" -- you can just click HERE!

DECALS!

2012-01-20T11:57:00.000-05:00

I forgot to include pics of the sewing decals I applied to my clean windows on the car yesterday. Love washing the car! Don't they look great? And they're only $7.95! What a deal!
YOU can buy DECALS HERE!

Positive Reinforcement

2012-01-19T14:22:00.001-05:00

We get positive reinforcement in many ways. Hubby isn't good at giving it, yet he's tickled by our grand daughter's positive reinforcement of him! He just says "boo" at her & she gives the biggest grin ever! I've never heard anybody say "boo' as many times as he does!

Did you get your Hancock's-Paducah catalog yet? How about your Keepsake Quilting catalog? Amazingly, I got positive reinforcement from both of those! How, you ask? BOTH of the catalogs show kits available that are almost identical to a couple of the kits I have available in my store. Lookie here! This 1st one is a pattern I picked up at Market last October, and I packaged it with a Moda cream jelly roll and a Freedom batik jelly roll . Look how close that is to the kit in Keepsake Quilting and then the one in Hancock's-Paducah! I must be doing something right!

The next kit is one that I've packaged with a free pattern from Moda Bake Shop where the

pattern writer used Terrain fabric, from Moda, of course! See that printed sheet underneath

the fabric? Look closely, now. I've put a Moda Terrain jelly roll together with Moda's Bella

white for the background, and Moda's Tranquility green for the border.

In the Hancock's-Paducah catalog, it's just the pattern showing but hey--

it appears to be from Joanna Figueroa at Fig Tree! I'd doubt the actual instructions

are the same but the quilt tops look alike, don't they?

I might have mentioned that I'll be participating in a blog hop of quilters who

use AccuQuilt GO! machines in February. I've been designing red-n-whites

for my contribution, trying to choose 1 of them that seems completely

original. I'm not sure there IS such a thing as completely original anymore-- somebody

somewhere is sure to have done the same thing thinking there's was original, too.

Oh well- it'll be fun just the same. Hope you'll join us then!

Meanwhile- come see us at Key Grocery and my little Quilt Shop inside. I've

re-arranged all the books & precuts & Stan finally gave me enough room

to get all the bolts up on the shelf!

And-- if you're a gardener, come get your onion sets to get them out. It's TIME!

FAST!

2012-01-11T16:45:00.002-05:00

Don't you agree that 2012 is already going fast?!?!? Seems like yesterday that I got my list of UFOs ready for the 2012 challenge at Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times. No, I haven't made any progress on those yet- except to fold them up & put them away. Have to clean up the work area,you know, before we can progress!

And SewCalGal's had - oh gosh, her name's on my computer at home- head up a blog hop scheduled for February among quilters who use Accuquilt GO! machines. We'll be playing along on that one and there WILL be a giveaway so keep it in mind- long about Valentine's Day!

Meantime, back at the ranch (aka grocery store), I've been playing with EQ. I seem to be hung up on red & white, wouldn't you say?

I just picked the ones that were my favorites to post today. I wish we could

SEW as fast as we can design on EQ, don't you?

The 2012 UFO challenge!

2011-12-30T17:11:00.002-05:00

Judy Laquidara has set the challenge again for 2012 to get some UFO's done. I'm going to play along. Perhaps I'll clear up some piles of "Works In Progress" this way! Here's the link:
http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012-ufo-challenge/ and here's the button:

1. I made the following quilt top using a layer cake, a jelly roll AND a honeybun. I sure would like to see it quilted & I hope I'll like it better then!

2. Next on the list- I want to finish this Kaleidoscope quilt. I had taken a Stack-N-Whack class with

a couple of buddies but never did get it quilted!

3. I can't wait to get this next one finished. Made it using a layer cake and some ivory fabric that has

pintucks sewn into it. Bet it makes for some great texture!

4. Gotta finish this one. Hard part is done!

5. Now this one is a scrappy quilt. All kinds of scraps! I used a Marti Michell template to cut the colored pieces, a different one for the neutral triangles. When it's put together, there will be 3 intersecting diamonds with background. It'll be cool!

6. Must finish this one although it's a disappointment. I bought the "kit" because I'd seen it on the wall at a quilt shop in Texas and LOVED the quilting. By the time I started in on the kit, I didn't remember it real well but figured I could remember the quilting as we went. The kit didn't bother to remind me that the sample I saw did NOT have the applique. See, the applique goes where that quilting was supposed to be. DRAT!

7. Probably ought to finish this one. Made it a good 10 years ago!

8. I remember this fabric but I sure don't remember making this quilt top!

9. Gotta get these 3 alphabet tops quilted. Gotta !

10. Bought this kit when I was FabShopHop'ing last summer. I'm a sucker for anything purple!

11. It might seem as though I' hung up on red-n-cream. This quilt top was made by my friend Liz.

It'll be a beauty when it'd finally quilted and bound. Had it since spring of 2010.

12. Another kit. No idea where or how I got it.

Now let's not be thinking this is ALL we're gonna do in 2012! These are just the ones

that I figure really *ought* to be done. I've still got a couple dozen client quilt tops

to be quilted, and like every other quilter- at least a couple dozen projects in my head.

And you know what happens when I surf the blogs- even MORE projects

end up getting started!

So bring it on, 2012! We'll "git 'er done!"

Happy New Year to ya!

Easy Red-n-White Star quilt top

2011-12-29T21:08:00.000-05:00

Using the GO! by Accuquilt sure makes piecing this quilt top fast & easy! It might have taken 30 minutes to cut out...
For every block, cut 1 dark & 8 light 5" squares using the Accuquilt 5" square die(4-1/2" finished),
and 8 3-1/2" dark squares using the 3-1/2" die (3" finished square).
So for this top of 12 blocks I cut 96 light 5" squares and 12 dark 5" squares,
plus 96 3-1/2" dark squares. That's it! Done with the cutting!
The blocks go together the same as any other 9 patch. Just make the pointy parts by sewing a dark 3-1/2" square on 2 adjacent corners of a light square. Trim the seams each time - you'll find this inside point is offset from the center square so you will not lose the pointy definition in that seam. The easiest 1 to see is that lighter red check fabric around the dark red center square.

I used a 2-1/2" cut inside border & a 6-1/2" cut outside border.
Think of all the variations there could be on this fast-to-cut quilt!
1. change the light background to darks & use light or bright fabrics for the stars
2. go even more scrappy- mix all the mediums & darks for the stars- a different
fabric for every star point and star center
3. stick with 2 colors or color groups but use *color* not neutral such as emerald green background & royal blue stars, bright yellow with blues, purples with golds, etc.
4. make it larger with more blocks
5. make it smaller with fewer blocks! (duh!)
6. set 'em on point
7. offset star blocks with plain 9-patch blocks
8. add sashing & cornerstones
9. use a picture or embroidery or "I Spy" fabric in the star centers
10. more ideas?

Catching up again

2011-12-29T12:44:00.002-05:00

I've been surfing again and came across Judy Laquidara's 2012 UFO challenge. Tonight I shall (that's emphatic) gather my choice of at least 12 UFO's to list for my part of the challenge. Judy picks a certain item each month, like #3 or #6, etc, and that's the one we endeavor to finish that month. So to prepare for that, I'd better finish the ones I'd already mentioned, huh?

Last time I showed the red & cream quilt top that I used the GO! machine to cut pieces for. (Bad syntax, I know). I always like them better after quilting. I'd made one of these for a lady last Christmas but the names were really big & showy on it. This one, I tried to be more subtle because I wasn't happy with that one last year. Turns out the owner liked that last one & wished the names were bigger on this oe. Oh well, can't win 'em all!

And I finished the t-shirt quilts.

and of course no blog post is complete with out my little darlin'!

Accuquilt GO!

2011-12-21T14:31:00.000-05:00

Alrighty then! The required t-shirt quilts are done now. Haven't delivered them yet but they're done! The LAST one "required" is ready to be quilted. I whipped it out using my Accucut GO! die cutter- I used the 5" squares for the light parts and center red squares, and the 3-1/2" squares to make the stars. Here it is before quilting.

Two new books have arrived at my store:'

1st this one

and this magazine type book- Collector's ITEM!

Merry Christmas!

Giveaway winner!

2011-12-18T17:57:00.000-05:00

Happy Sunday, the start of a new week...the last week before Christmas. I'm almost through with the customer quilts, except for the one that ...oh yeah, and that one....and the one I just would have liked to finish!

Not really, but sort of! You all know how it is. We really DO have the ones that we've made commitments to finish but there's always more we'd like to get done. I have 2 more "have-to's" and 1 that I'd really really like to finish for its momma. Those 2 will absolutely be done. That last one-- it's gonna be a tricky one!

Mr. Random Number Generator chose a 1st number whose author doesn't have her own blog- just a list of blogs she's following, and it's a no-reply email so I can't bounce it back for the address. I'm sorry! so the 2nd random number was #72 :

Mhairi said...

I have a lot of projects still to complete. Not only do I have Christmas but between the 24th of December and the 4th of March I have 10 birthdays!!!
So that is a lot of gifts and I try to make half of my list homemade.
This is getting increasingly difficult with so many birthdays right after Christmas.

Mhairi! I've sent you an email, and I'll be looking forward to getting your address so I can ship your FQ prize right off!

Merry Christmas to all! I hope you'll all come back to visit!

Pay It Forward...and disappointed!

2011-12-14T08:26:00.002-05:00

Disappointed and It's Not Even Christmas yet? YES! LOL It's a disappointment that I'll be able to fix as soon as I get some TIME, though! I love easy fixes! Except....the "time" part won't happen until late next week or the week after Christmas. Remember the Christmas Blog Hop Party- link on the right side bar? I haven't even gotten time to visit the list of blogs myself! but the disappointing part is that I haven't gotten to send a reply to all the people who've commented on MY blog! I sure do want to! I like to click on the names in the comments to find your blogs and check them out. Some I'm even following! I'm really excited to connect with new quilty friends- and y'all are all around the world! Great FUN! I shall get to all of them sooner or later!

Checking the blogs day-b4-yesterday netted a Pay It Forward challenge that I accepted. It was found on a day in the life of raising six munchkins blog. Lisa (on that blog) has some rules to the game such as re-posting the challenge here on my blog. You can check out that link to see the rest. For my rules:

RULES, RULES RULES! THERE'S SO MANY RULES!

1. I will send something I've created to each of the 1st 3 people who commit to do the same on THIS post sometime during the next 365 days. (Most likely it'll be in January,before I forget hahaha!)

2. When you commit to doing it also, post something similar to this post or Lisa's post on YOUR blog within the 48 hours following your comment here so I'll know you're serious. If you don't, I'll move on to the next person as one of "The Three".
3. Yeah, you gotta have a blog.
4. I hope at least 3 people take the challenge!
5. Have you ever paid for the order *behind you* at a drive-through restaurant? It sure surprises that person! The most I enjoyed was when I got to buy coffee for the guy behind me. Of course I had no way of knowing it was only coffee until I found it was only 58cents, but the reason I SO wanted to do it was that he had a VET cap on. Seems like it was an Army vet & I asked the cashier to tell him that I liked his hat. He gave me a thumbs-up sign when he pulled up to the cashier window! I'd have given him a hug if I could have!

2011-12-12T19:21:00.002-05:00

Here's more of the mooka-quilted quilt.

well- mooka & feathers. Mookas in the center stars and the border, feathers elsewhere. I was

trying to make the stars look like they were whizzing around & I love to do feathers.

The backsides - if the quilting can be seen on the back-side fabrics- is cool too! Sometimes I end
up liking the backs better than the fronts!

Processes? I try to balance out the quilting- and I'm pretty firm on outlining blocks, borders, and major shapes with stitch-in-the-ditch. Sometimes, like the Lego quilt from yesterday, the design just begs for opposites. Those lego strips were all straight & narrow so I quilted circles. The "first" quilt I posted a couple days ago was all curvy lines because the blocks were all squares & rectangles. The BASKETS and WHEELS quilts for Moda were all outlined & then quilted. Yet the McDonald's quilt was just meandered because- after all - it was T-shirts & they themselves were the point, not the quilting. But I got my 2 cents in with the Golden Arches Border!
Taking the day "off" tomorrow again to work on completing Christmas projects (not ours, though). I'm grateful for the fella that helps out at the store when I want to play hookie!

It's a Small World After All!

2011-12-11T19:41:00.001-05:00

Karen is getting about 5 quilts back this next week & I thought I'd gradually pictured all of them here-- or at least "part" of them since they might be gifts. Looking back today, I see I've missed one but I must post it now, because I've found another one! Karen was it a sew-along? HERE is the think to the one I came across today following up on the Christmas Blog Hop Party entry. Shout out to CLARE in FRANCE! (link, not think!)

And here are pictures of Karen's quilt. Have you ever seen so many different fabrics all in 1 place?

Christmas Blog Party Give Away

2011-12-10T07:53:00.001-05:00

Today's the official starting of the Blog Hop. See the link to the right? That's where you can find the list of all the blogs participating. I hear there are 250! Yeah, 250! Talk about spending some computer time!
I appreciate your moments spent here- we quilters love to share, don't we? And much quilter-love to all you other quilty bloggers whose writings & pictures I get to enjoy while DH is watching his sports.

You'd think that I'd be sewing while all those sports are going on but, see, I spent 6 years away from home until I could retire the first time (in 2004) and now I don't like to be away from him - not even as far as the sewing "studio" is from his Lazy Boy chair! Too mushy for you? That's what happens when you spend 42 out of 58 years with 1 man. (no,we've only been married 35 years. the other 7 were just waiting for the big day!)

TO ENTER: Please leave me comments either here or on yesterday's post about how many projects you have left to complete before Christmas. Drawing will be on Dec. 17 and I'll add both comment lists together.
I got to quilt yesterday, afterall!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Don't forget to comment to ENTER!

Update: Blog Hop Giveaway starts Dec 10!

2011-12-09T07:25:00.001-05:00

Sorry, I thought it started today but it's tomorrow through Dec 17! Tomorrow morning, go here Quilting Gallery Blog Hop page to find a list of all the blogs participating in the Christmas Blog Hop Giveaway. Wait-- don't go there until you register for mine! I'll be sharing a dozen fat quarters with the winner here. There are lots of different color combinations that I'll be choosing from. These are just right to help you finish out your own STASH when you find you're short of a certain color for that next Scrappy Quilt you're going to make/ And to enter, leave a comment telling me how many projects you have YET TO FINISH between now & Christmas.

12 Fat Quarters in each package, hand selected for color range. Available for purchase at http://www.pashofaquilter.com/.

Yesterday, DH (he's such a dear!) got a substitute so I could stay home to put a little speed to finishing up some of the projects I'm committed to before Christmas. I got TWO completely finished! One's a T-shirt quilt out of McDonalds shirts, and the other is a lady's very 1st quilt! I'll need to get permission before posting the T-shirt quilt but I will show you a piece of the border:

See the Golden Arches Supper Club "M" in the border?

Yes, my arches could use some improvement but I thought it was a cute idea. The McD's fabric just makes it. Good choice, young lady!

Some months ago, I came across Zentangle which is a method of doodling with pens & paper. It always looks beautiful but I haven't actually drawn any. Take a look at http://www.zentangle.com/ ! Awesome! So this week I got their newsletter which led to a video showing a shape called Mooka .

The video shows the mookas done in a nesting and I had fun quilting some yesterday.

And then I had great fun doing the swirls in the border! Really fun!

No matter how much fun I have actually DOING the quilting,

the best part is pulling that quilt off the table and feeling

its weight & body- the quilty part! Trim of the batting & backing edges getting it

ready for binding. Gives a finished look even without the binding.

I have to go back to work at the store today. Drat! Oh well, we wouldn't want to much of a good thing, would we? Besides, I get used to seeing our frequent customers and it's like not getting

to see good friends when we miss being at the store. Yesterday was sure a treat.

Merry Christmas, and don't forget to comment to enter the giveaway!

Give Away!

2011-12-08T08:24:00.001-05:00

We are, after all, in the season if giving. No one can give more than Jesus gave for us. Thank you, Lord.

Tomorrow starts THE BLOG HOP PARTY. But 1st, TODAY! I must quilt until I wilt today. Got to get some of the ones promised to clients before Christmas done! Several T-shirt quilts and 1 other pieced quilt all from scratch, and a few tops that have to be quilted & returned for binding. It'll be a busy day. I'd better go get started!

Come back tomorrow! and Merry Christmas!

Catching up

2011-12-05T20:35:00.000-05:00

Gosh! Where does the time go? Haven't posted in awhile but I've thought about it! msny times, in fact. Stuff always seems so interesting at the moment, but then when I get tired enough to quit sewing or quilting- whatever the treat of the day is, by then I'm too tired to mess with the pics & stuff. Bah humbug! But I SURE DO enjoy reading & surfing all you other quilters' blogs! Thanks to all of you in blog land!

We got some more NEW stuff at Ardmore's Scrap Basket! You'll want to come see! My new favorites are these decals for windows. Each one is a different sewing theme.

Today I got to look at a 1923 book called Carter County School Journal. It was similar

to a Criterion except it was all the schools in Carter County. Imagine!

There was a head teacher with the last name of Zaneis-- and now Zaneis is a little town. There were several

teachers & administrators by the last name Galt, even a John Galt. Wonder if he was related to the

fictional character in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged ?

Well, I guess it's a little difficult to be related to a fictional character.....

One of my school buddy's father is named Jack Langston. I found a picture of a Jack Langston who was the

mayor of Healdton. Wonder if that's her ancestor?

What's the earliest telephone number YOU remember? My childhood had

numbers like CApital 3-xxxx. Or.... CA3-4422. Then is was CA6-4422. The "CA" became

numbers only, like 223-4422 or 226-4422. We never needed to give the Area Code. Look

at THIS pic! The telephone numbers are just a few digits. I saw one that was "10". See the

drug store at bottom edge of page. Dr Boadway's # had ofc 749 and residence 395. Dr Pollock must

have gotten his phone a little later because it has 4 digits: ofc 2381, res 2509 !

How about that? They redid matresses!

Have you ever seen a "felt" mattress? Neither have i. And their's was a 3-digit telephone #!

Lots-o-quilting going on around here. Most projects are other people's

Christmas gifts. I'll show you the back of one, though.

And here's my sister ANN with our grand daughter Keira on

Thanksgiving. Two pretty women!

Busy weekend

2011-11-21T17:03:00.001-05:00

Why do weekends go faster than the other 5 days of the week??????????????
I had another special treat this last weekend: our new grand daughter needed me, I'm sure of it!

And she is SO sweet! She's still in the stage where you know IF she cries, there's something wrong.

Not whiney yet! Do girls get whiney? No, I didn't think so!

And--- I finished up a few things. Here's a quilt I pieced back in the summer. It's

large enough for a man to throw over his legs while reading....or in our case,

it'd be while he's napping while claiming to be resting his eyes. I maintain

that if he didn't watch so much football, he wouldn't have to rest his eyes!

Here are pictures of a quilt I pieced last spring or summer. Just now bound it.

And here's one for Karen. She used Arnold's Attic fabric from Moda

Now this last quilt is one that I worked on probably a year or two ago. Just now put the binding on!

It's nice to finish some things. There's another quilt already about 2/3 done. It's a small one, about 29" x 29". I expect to get to show you that one tomorrow. It's got lots of feathers!

We're Growing!

2011-11-19T12:35:00.000-05:00

...and changing our name **inside the store** to Ardmore's Scrap Basket! We've grown from a mere 1% of the store to....maybe....5%? YAY! Please come by to see all the new stuff. New patterns and books geared toward Scrappy Quilts to help you use up your stash. That way you don't have to spend HUndreds on all new fabric for a quilt! And-- if your stash has "holes" in it, drop by to pick up a bag of beautiful new Fat Quarters already grouped by color. If you need reds, get a bag of REDS! or greens? get GREENS! etc. Come on by-- love to see you!

Quilting Queen, etc.

2011-11-19T12:16:00.000-05:00

I've been quilting since 1980. You'd think dear Hubby would have absorbed some of it by now! When we have a customer ask a question regarding the quilts or quilt notions or fabric, Hubby says "You'll have to ask the Quilting Queen!" Well well well! I guess I showed him! Voila! the Quilting Queen SIGN:

AND some other signs! All for sale at Ardmore's Scrap Basket

inside Key Grocery. Have a Stan-wich while you shop!

This morning I pulled together some things

to show some choices for stocking stuffers

or small-ish gifts for your quilting friends.

I know I would like all this stuff!

Purple!

2011-11-16T18:03:00.000-05:00

What is your favorite color? I guess I have a lot of favorites, mostly jewel tones. My very FAVoritist favorite is PURPLE! Purple clothes, purple chairs, purple hair, purple fabric, etc. I got a wild hair that I wanted a silver watch (all my other ones are yellow-gold types and some of them are YEARS old!). I'd gotten a sale ad email from Macy's so that's where I went a-clicking. Didn't find too many silverish watches that spoke to me but boy-oh-boy did I find PURPLE ones!

Ok, that .

next-to-the-last one is actually hot pink. That's sort of purple, isn't it? and the very last

one is actually a chocolate color with some pink gold-tone in it. Cool huh?

You know what bothered me when I was eye-balling these watches? There wer

some that were made of PLASTIC that were about $285! Yeah! almost $300!!!!!

A few were made of silicone. You mean like breast implants??????

And 1 was a very cool purple but it had some

designer's name across it and the price was over $300. Shouldn't

THEY PAY US for advertising for them??????

I think I'll go back to fabric watching!

Karen's 36-patch

2011-11-15T17:58:00.002-05:00

This is one of the quilts I worked on last week. Karen just picked it up yesterday- hope she liked it! Karen is one of the best scrap-users I've ever seen. She makes lots of string quilts to use up lots but I really like this one for using up bigger pieces. 36 pieces in these blocks.

What do we quilt in 36-patches? I dunno, let's see what comes out!

First, I stitched between the rows & blocks. Some people dont but I think the quilt looks

sharper if it is done. Then I marked off some point around the outside of the blocks

and connected them all with sort-of blade-like whispy things. It was fun! Once I got going on the

pattern it was so much fun to do!

and on the back side:

Then of course I wanted to try something new for the borders, too. This one will take a little

practice to get it like I really want it. This was a fun quilt to play on!

Speaking of fun, the holiday season has arrived! I've just come home from Quilt Market with some new ideas and some new products. In the midst of trying to get all that handled, it's time for all the Chrismas Candy we stock at our store. It's not all for Christmas, I guess, but our customers know that

we always have an ample supply of old-fashioned candies during November and December.

Several boxes of it............................

The box that I've REALLY been watching for came also:

It's from A Quilter's Eye in California. When connected to my quilting machine

on the bottom portion under the quilt, I'll be able to SEE the stitching on the

bottom so that if the tension is off, I'll know it NOW, not later when I realize I'll have to

pick it all out! Can't wait to get it connected!

Did I mention that I"m a new DEALER for this

wonderful product? Yep! I am!

Ardmore's Scrap Basket

2011-11-12T14:20:00.001-05:00

It's kinda funny, sometimes, the way things work out. For the last 30 years I've wanted a quilt shop. Last spring when I decided to start bringing in quilty stuff to sell (along with my quilts), I had a little sign prepared with a dry-erase lower portion so we could highlight the current specialties out on the sidewalk. Here's what it says today;

Yes, holiday candy is here! There are lots of different taffy flavors, fresh peanut clusters, fresh orange slices, coconut haystacks, bonbons, new sourballs, circus peanuts, even Christmas Ribbon Candy!

Now, about the sign. While I was at Market in Houston with my friend Liz, we had a discussion on what I'd want my quilt shop to be, what is it's character? Hmmm, hadn't thought about that!

Once a couple of years ago, I wrote an "essay" describing my vision of a kind of sewing center that had all kinds of sewing stuff, for clothing, quilts, whatever, with spaces to sew that could be rented for a small fee while making or finishing a project. Lots of classes for learning to sew and of course quilting classes! A sitting area with sewing inspiration magazines, etc. That particular dream hasn't come true yet, but I haven't given up! Ok, so what's the character of my little shop inside Key Grocery? I know what it's NOT! a fancy-schmancy place.

Remembering that we have lots of kinds of stuff at Key Grocery ranging from Stan-wiches to steaks to seed & garden tools and quilting stuff, it's really like an old fashioned general store. Not hoity-toity stuff, not formal stuff, lots of gab & laughter, really down-to-earth & fun. Because of the sheer number of products we carry, there isn't room to stock thousands of bolts of fabric, although there are over 200 as it is! Besides, we already have in town the Ardmore Creative Sewing Center located at Ardmore Plaza. They carry lots-o-fabric plus machines. Why duplicate?

So, in the words of Lucy Ricardo, "Tell ya what I'm gonna do!" We'll use that title we put on the dry-erase boards last Spring and call it.... Ardmore's Scrap Basket!

At Ardmore's Scrap Basket, we'll have lots of choices for adding to each quilter's OWN STASH in order to use up what you've got and escape thinking that you've got to start over to buy enough to make a whole quilt. That, you know, can run into hundreds of dollars! I know there are FQ bundles available, and jelly rolls, and layer cakes, and bali-pops, and all sorts of pre-cuts made available by the fabric manufacturers. Those are not scrap bundles-- they're pre-matched parts of a line of fabric.

What you'll find here, and on our website, as soon as I can get it updated, will be bundles of certain color groups in FQ's or half- yards, maybe some other combinations. We'll have lots of patterns specifically geared toward the scrappy look, lots of books & even new methods! That way, when you start your quilt but find that you're short on greens or blues or ________, come shop here & you'll be able to fill in with just the right combination AND at a reasonable price. The packages I've fixed up so far are 12 FQ's for $21.95, doesn't that sound great? I can't guarantee they'll all be that price but you can depend on quality fabrics every time!

Seems like there's something prescient about having that sign made last Spring that said Scrap Basket!

Late post from Market

2011-11-07T08:44:00.000-05:00

Market was - always is - great fun. SO much to see. So many quilters.So many ideas freely flowing.
I did find the quilts I got to work on.

We also found a restaurant that had great Margaritas--- and TEXAS SCORPIONS!

This young lady was in the last Schoolhouse series class, I think. LOVE LOVE LOVE her hair! And she has the perfect complexion for it. We kept seeing her throughout the weekend. How can you miss seeing that hair? And she's very sweet to boot!

That last Schoolhouse class was supposed to be Carrie Nelson and her new book- the one that has the quilt I got to work on in it. Carrie's mom is having some health issues so Carrier stayed with her. A C&T rep did the class- she gave a very enjoyable program in Carrie's absence and look! When I got to the C&T booth the next day, they had sticker's with Carrie's autograph to put in the books when they arrive. Of course I ordered some for the store!

Yes, I DID buy (order) some things for the store. Please don't tell the hubby! He'll find out soon enough. AND-- I came home with my 1st distributorship! It's for A Quilter's Eye. It's a camera that attaches to the lower part of longarm so that the quilter can see the stitches on the bottom as the quilting is happening so that the bottom tension doesn't come out a surprise later! Great Invention!

After quilting this weekend, I can hardly wait until my demo one shows up! My tension was ok but I just kept thinking how nice it will be to SEE it while it's happening! If you've ever had to un-quilt anything, you'll immediately know how handy this little thing will be!

Here's what I worked on Saturday. Karen the prolific quilter made this offset log cabin with "scraps", I think is what she'd call them. I remember almost ALL of the fabrics from quilts she's made in the past.

To market, to market

2011-10-25T19:38:00.001-04:00

To Market, To Market

To Market, to market, to buy a fat pig,

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

To market, to market to buy a fat hog,

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

Yes, I've run away from home to go to the Market! Quilt Market to be more accurate. And run-away-from-home certainly fits. YOU try convincing the Stanley that I need to go to Market! He really just doesn't understand quilters. Odd, isn't it? 43 years together and I still have to explain it to him! I'm quite sure that "old Key saying" about Birds of a Feather originated with quilters! We're like family! It doesn't matter if a body makes scrap quilts or art quilts or traditional or...whatever! Besides, if my friend can come from Sweden to market, surely I can come from Oklahoma!

Show up at any quilt-related event-- a quilt show, a festival, a quilt shop (or shoppe) or Market! It's amazing that there's never a stranger. Somehow we all "belong" and it's a great place to be. Even standing in sort-of-a-line at the Sample Spree-- hundreds of women! -- before you know it everybody around is like old-time friends. .... that is, until the doors open for Sample Spree! Look out, here we come!

That's what a "regular" quilting class looks like. I wish we (at Key Grocery & Quilts) had room for a classroom! I'd keep it hopping all the time! Anyway, on Friday, there's a School House series that is reminiscent of classes. For 20 or 30 minutes each all through the day, vendors show & demonstrate their new products. At least a couple-hundred of us mill through the George R. Brown Convention Center to get to the classes that seem to interest us most. Fun, fun!

Saturday the actual "market" starts- there'll be pattern people & fabric people & notions people & batting people & sewing/quilting machine people plus books & laces & buttons & threads! Lions and tigers and bears OH MY!

I'll be looking for the 2 quilts I had a hand in finishing. Hope I see them!
Here are a couple of glimpses. The 1st one reminded me of wheels - see the green backing fabric? So the prints were quilted with "tire tracks" & hubcap in the center, and the white sashing is the Dallas mixmaster at every corner! I know- I have a vivid imagination...

The 2nd one is a quilt full of baskets! Lots of fun quilting on it. Hope I don't offend anyone for posting just a peek!

The color GREEN

2011-10-22T10:46:00.001-04:00

Years ago, My sweetie said his favorite color is green. I couldn't tell if he was teasing but as I waited,he grinned & said that's the color of "hip pocket national bank"! But he did actually have a green Ford pickup one time-- drove it so long that the driver side floor wore out! Oldest son said his favorite color is green, also. I guess one of my favorites is green-- the greens we see in the Spring when plants begin to get new growth. If you can get out in the country - take a good look at all the greens from the yellow-greens to blue-greens! Love 'em! Besides-- they go good with PURPLE!

So long story short, MODA had a line by Basic Grey called Origins.

and it uses these colors

I bought layer cakes and a few bolts to go with. In March of this year,

had a contest using one of the "charm packs" patterns that had been published on their BakeShop blog. Par for the course, I didn't decide to play along until the month was half over. I got the top finished but it wasn't quilted so I didn't enter the contest. We could alter the basic pattern so I did-- don' we all? Here's the original pattern on the Moda Bakeshop. I started with the Layer Cake, cut into charm packs. I used larger squares sewn into the star points moving the midpoints out into the block rather than joining the center square. Then I trimmed the finished 9-patches to give it different perspective. Here she is:

Waiting

2011-10-19T07:43:00.000-04:00

Isn't it always the way? Hurry up and wait!?! We waited "all our lives" I guess for grandchildren. Then we waited months for her to be born! Now we're just waiting on the awe inspiring pics taken last Sunday by Jessica Flanagan. I hear that Jessica is overworked-- very likely since she produces lovely pictures! Need examples? Here's the only 3 I have so far of our bee-u-tiful grand-sweetheart.

I probably shouldn't admit this. When I get Keira in my arms, I kinda don't want to give her back to her parents! Makes me grin just to see the pics!

Better Eyes

2011-10-18T22:17:00.000-04:00

I wish I had better eyes. Last May I got to quilt one for Moda that was made from Fig Tree Fabrics. I saw a picture of a similar quilt behind Mrs. Figueroa in her booth at Market last spring but that wasn't the one I did. Somehow I ended up on Juicy Bits blog tonight & read some of the older posts. THIS one might show the quilt I did. Just scroll down in the blog entry to see it. I can't see the quilting clearly even when zooming in but I seem to see curves in the white spaces that look my curls. The picture What do you think? Here are the blocks on the one I did:

Patchworkz

2011-10-17T08:44:00.000-04:00

Stan says I have too much time on my hands. That's really not it! It's that I've not been raised in a grocery store as Stan has- so those things I "ought" to be doing don't occur to me. My natural bent is to be creating something, not stacking or dusting something . I do pretty well just to keep the books done!

Couple days last week I had to find something to busy myself with so I turned to games. Games? Yes, the kind all the youngsters play these days---on the computer! I like Mahjong solitaire and a few others. Here's 1 of the Mahjong versions I found using MUSIC stuff on the pieces. I had to think about some of them to remember what they were!

Then I found this PATCHWORKZ game! As far as I can tell, it can only be played online. I did not find a way to purchase it. Just put in your search line "play patchworkz online" and you'll find it. Playing was great fun! The puzzle appears with a half-dozen or so pieces already in place. The rest of the pieces come up 5 at a time on the "board" below the puzzle so the player moves them into place as he figures out where they go. In my case, I had to just stick some pieces on to the puzzle to get more pieces in the queue where I could figure out what went where. Great fun! Here are some shots:

There were several animal heads, fish, ocean scenes. I didn't seem to take pictures of those. I really enjoyed the cat & lion faces. Have fun today!

3 days

2011-10-14T21:26:00.000-04:00

I might have mentioned that we were expecting a grand daughter. She's arrived! and she's the sweetest little sweetheart. So are her parents!

Winners!

2011-10-10T08:27:00.000-04:00

Laptop is on the blink again. Acts like it's swallowed molasses or something! Hate its not moving the very second my fingers touch the keys! Isn't it marvelous that we can access the whole world by touch these days? And yet, let it not work for a moment and I'm ready to pull hair!

I wish everyone could win - but that's not the natural way of things, is it? The random number generator chose 18 & 5. #18 is Tammy - who wins the software - but when I click on Tammy's name, it takes me to a blogger profile where the link takes me to a page that says its owner is Patti, not Tammy. So I'm not sure what to do there. #5 is GILL and I've sent you an email for your address so I can ship the book to you.

Perhaps I should choose a different # for the software? Ok, this time Mr. Random chose #7, Karen. I'll be in touch !

Playing again

2011-10-02T11:46:00.000-04:00

Love this software for digital scrapbooking! Here's one I've worked with this a.m. I used graphics from SEW HAPPY at Shabby Miss Jenn's Designs . I learned "bring to front" for the layers. I learned how to add products from "elsewhere" into the My Memories software. I learned to tilt the picture, add matt and shadow, and more. GOSH! You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!

My name is in a Book... and .... A GIVEAWAY!

2011-10-01T20:30:00.002-04:00

Howdy! It's been a grand week, hasn't it? Lovely weather. We made it to October! This is the month that our new grand daughter should show up! Can't wait to get pics to show off. I'm trying to learn digital scrapbooking in preparation. My previous post dated 9-28-11 shows my 1st attempt using My Memories Suite. All I can say is shopping for the "kits" of graphics to use is addicting! So is playing with the software. Today I got a little carried away, sorry. There's lots-o-curly-cues to add and I love those--I use the shapes a lot in my freehand quilting. I apologize for the lack of artistry in the page but I couldn't resist adding more & more! even word-art! I'll load plain pics below.

Cool, huh? The curls can be flipped & rotated & sized, etc. And look at that azure-colored curved stitching across the middle- that's an embellishment I'll use a lot!
I had thought to follow hubby to the ballgame this afternoon to take pics of his coaching. I shouldn't have mentioned it---he said if I was going, he WASN't going! (he really hates his picture being taken!) But I could have used those pics to play more with the scrapbook software.

Wouldn't you love to get to play with the My Memories Software too? The people who developed the software have graciously offered to give one of you readers a copy of this software, too. To enter, just visit their site to view some of the kits, then return to this post to leave a comment telling me which kit you like the best. We'll use the Random Number Generator to choose a winner on Sunday evening, October 9. Click on the logo below to go there now. Don't forget to come back here to enter!
By the way, if you don't want to wait to win, here's a promo code that will get you a $10 discount on purchasing the very-reasonbly-priced suite plus $10 off on kits: STMMMS58775

Oh, Great! You're back! Is your name in a book? ok, a printed book? a book that's for sale?
Carrie Nelson has a new book that's out this month. I've been waiting for it since this time last year! I had NO idea that it took this long for a book to be published! I've mentioned before that I love MODA fabrics & the people there. Perhaps you read some of their blogs? I'd bet if you're a quilter that you've read THIS ONE. It's Lissa Alexander's blog- always interesting & often funny. Lissa let me quilt the top she made for Carrie's book. Thanks so much, Lissa, for the opportunity! I used to have a number of pictures of the quilt up close-n-personal but that was pre-laptop-crash days, as I said, a year ago. Here's a peak at the book, though.

Ok, everybody, let's turn to page 82 in your copy and you'll see:

What'd you say? Oh, you don't HAVE a copy of this book? Hmmm... we'll have to see what we can do about that! 'Scuse me? oh, you can't read the writing on the page? Here ya go:

Still can't see it? Try this:

That's ME! How 'bout that? It's as good as seeing my name in "lights"! Since I've been watching, I've seen Lissa Alexander's name in lots-o-magazines, & I'm getting to know some others' names also. I can't imagine being published all the time! Can you? Thank you, again, Lissa, for letting me play along!

Since Lissa so graciously sent me a copy of the book, I'll put the one I ordered into a 2nd giveaway. The 1st one, remember, is the scrapbooking software above. This 2nd one will be for Carrie's new book. To enter, include in your comment stating your favorite kit at www.mymemories.com post telling me how many SCHNIBBLES you've made.
Random Number generator will pick us a winner on Sunday, October 9.

Confused? Simplified: add your comment about which kit & how many SCHNIBBLES . Be sure to mention Schibbles in your comment so that I know you're interested in the book. There will be TWO winners-- one for the software & one for the Schnibbles book.
Good luck to all!

My Memories Suite Software

2011-09-28T21:52:00.001-04:00

Cool Software! I've tried to use digital software several times. I just can't make it look great like the pictures I've seen all over the blog world. There's even More Reason now to want to use digital scrapbooking: there will be tiny feet (grand child) around here before very long !

Yesterday I received a great invitation to try out the digital scrapbooking software called My Memories Suite . I've only just peeked at all the sets of layouts that are available on this site. I just now downloaded the software- didn't take long, just a round or two of Mahjong on the ipad. Can you guess what the 1st file I used is? Betcha didn't guess anything to do with a baby, did you????

We don't have that baby yet but I used the next best thing- baby's parents! This is my first try. I'll keep you posted on the progress....

Oh, and by the way, stay tuned for a generous offer & giveaway from

I'll give you the details after I get a little more picture play done!

Wishful Thinking

2011-09-26T08:14:00.000-04:00

We had our 2nd "2-day weekend" in Key Grocery history! Stan got the rest of the winter forage planted, and I got...something..... done. I'm bound to have gotten "something" done. Just gotta figure out what it was, I guess. No sewing or quilting! That's for sure! BUT--- I did work on straightening up the sewing studio. Had to! Sold my sister's auto & I needed to hunt for some paperwork in all her papers that I brought to our house, all of which was piled in my studio!

It was a very emotional weekend- going through someone else's stuff feels quite odd & was very emotional. Watching Ann's record keeping progress from exacting & intricate to "I don't understand this, ask Alicia or Laura or Clay" reminded me constantly how scary it must be for her to experience this Alzheimers. I wish....I wish...I wish it didn't have to be so!

More wishful thinking: When I can't sew, I'm often looking at quilting magazines or catalogs. I've come across a new pattern maker- new to me, that is. Chris Hoover has a number of patterns in the Keepsake Quilting catalog, and more on her website http://whirligigdesigns.com/. I wish I could whip these out! Take a look:

Aren't they great? Of course I started sketching them but it's easier just to order the patterns. Hmmm, I better take care of that pronto!

2-day weekend

2011-09-19T08:08:00.001-04:00

A 2-day weekend doesn't sounds so special....unless you run a business that's open 6 days a week! This last weekend, though, we got almost 2 whole days off- we played hooky! For the 2nd time in Key Grocery history, we took a little time off. See...here's what happened. We got a little of this:

yep! real rain! maybe a couple of inches of it! You'd think the desert had moved to Oklahoma and Texas it's been SO dry this year. Thank you, Lord, for this rain, every drop! So this rain came on Thursday and Friday evening. The sound was so lovely and welcome. There had been some discussion between cattle people last week about whether it was even feasible to plant winter forage for the cows vs. buying more hay from someplace up north. This rain was a decision maker for Stan. Get that ground broken up so some seed can be planted! But when? We don't get home til around 3pm on Saturdays & Sunday afternoon there's a doubleheader scheduled with a team Stan helps coach. We opened the store bright & early Saturday morning. Between 8am & 10am we had only ONE customer. Yeah, just one! I guess everybody else was as thrilled with the rain as we were & they were out enjoying the clean air, etc. Have you ever heard "the call of the tractor"?

Stan heard that call! We were home pretty quickly and by 11am Stan was out in the field using that green John Deere toy. He loves it! The ground was just right for tilling. He got about 25acres done plus he planted us some mustard green!

It just so happens that the quilt I decided to work on was green too!

This is one that I pieced in March. There was a contest on Moda Bake Shop- use one of the recipes from the site & update it with your own changes. I didn't finish this in time to enter it. I modified the star points from the original, and I used a layer cake. All that's left to do is bind it.

It was a restful weekend- a little quilting/plowing therapy and Sunday for a day of rest (the doubleheader was cancelled because of the rain). We both needed it. Desperately. We feel better now!

Alzheimer's- it's a BAD deal!

2011-09-13T08:09:00.001-04:00

I haven't gotten to sew or quilt in a couple of weeks. Talk about withdrawal!

My 63 yr old sister has fought MS for a number of years but this last number of months, Alzheimer's is trying to take over. Our dad had Alzheimer's so we know it's ugly to watch. Ann was afraid of getting it so she started on Aricept early. Didn't delay the disease any.

This is NOT a picture of my sister, yet she's been doing this action non-stop for the last 2 weeks. It started when I explained that she had to have more constant care than I was able to provide & that the doctor was recommending assisted living. We have a lovely place in our town that's much like the Hilton Hotel!

Ann even has 1 of her cats there with her so that's a very positive plus! 2 more of her cats have come to live with me & there's still 1 more at her place that I haven't located yet. Come out, come out, Madison, where ever you are!

Ann got lost several times while on her way to go.....somewhere. Our dad had a couple of car wrecks at this stage and like him, we had to take the keys to the car (also doctor's orders). You can well imagine how that's gone over. She's accused me of stealing her car.... As I've worked at her place trying to pick the best of her many-memoried possessions to help her feel comfortable at The Lodge, I've found notes much like this one all over the place. How scary it must be for her!

Someone explained Alzheimer's to me as similar to a curtain dropping down over the mind- picture the curtain on a stage coming down to cover mental abilities. Sometimes Ann is her real self, but sometimes she's just as vacant as can be. Right now she's very angry because moving to The Lodge is forcing her to step out of the "denial" stage (I'm fine, I can do such-n-such) into recognizing that she cannot do all that she previously could. It would make me angry too. This is a picture of the difference in the brain as the disease progresses. Very Scary isn't it?

You've heard of Ami Simms, haven't you? She's a funny quilter with a great imagination. She has a great dog who even has his own FB page! Ami's mother suffered Alzheimer's, so Ami founded the AAQI- the logo above. People make wall quilts that are auctioned off to raise money for research. The September auction is over but you can check out the possibilities HERE .

A Dream Come True

2011-09-05T21:57:00.002-04:00

How long have you been quilting? I started in 1980 when my Aunt Terry visited us. It was a simple project using a pre-printed panel of a duck, layered like a quilt, stuck in an embroidery hoop. Loved it for years but I think it ended up in the trash after several years.
Several years later, quilt shops began to pop up. I'd go through the big city telephone directories-- yellow pages, of course--- to find them. What a sleuth I am! It was a really big disappointment to find these addresses-- remember there was no such thing as GPS back then-- only to find that the quilt shop had already gone out of business.
Later, the quilt shops began to take hold. One of my favorites was The Quilt Depot in McKinney, Tx. Loved it: all the fabrics, the patterns, the notions! Oo-la-la! And in 1995, Patsy & I took a plane trip to Houston to visit the Internation Quilt Festival. Talk about Heaven! We bought stuff just because we were afraid we'd never see it again. After all, quilt shops were still few & far between...or at least they were in the big cities, not in our town. I still have some of those purchases- they're keepsakes!
Ever since then, I've dreamed of having my own quilt shop. And every time we'd drive down Main Street in Ardmore seeing yet another building empty, I'd wonder if a quilt shop could make it. DH said having the shop wouldn't be as much fun as I thought: retail is a lot of work! Like shelf maintenance, for example.

And marketing. And figuring out how to "stage" things on the shelves. It doesn't come naturally!

I have much more fabric to stock on these shelves. I thank DH for moving the regular stock so I could have more shelf space. My Moda Rep, "MODA GENE" stopped in one day to make suggestions & for some reason, hubby was suddenly more cooperative about this! (Thanks, Gene!) And all of a sudden, I have a Quilt Shop! Sort of.... it's inside our grocery store but we sell lots of things: great Meats, Stan-wiches, bulk veggie seed, organic soil amendments, local honey, and now QUILT stuff!
One of the things Gene mentioned, besides having lots of fabric, was turn around. To have turn around, ya gotta have customers. Think "advertise". Well, I thought, how about starting with a sign out front? So today I made one. Didn't cost me a thing because....well....you should see my sewing room. There's plenty of stuff in there.

I got the idea from the Billboard Quilt on the blog Oh Fransson . Go check it out, I'll wait! It's a cool quilt. So when I was in Hobby Lobby, I found in the scrapbooking section some chipboard letters. I was going to piece them like the Billboard Quilt but I got in a hurry.

Our store has a red floor so why not a red sign? The patchwork blocks are I-dont-know-how-old. Found them in a drawer. It'll work!

Cotton and Paisley

2011-08-28T22:03:00.000-04:00

No no NO! These are NOT my puppies! They're Yorkies somewhere on the internet. Why, you ask, would I post puppies that aren't mine? Because I do not have Yorkies, yet Cotton and Paisley are yorkies that belong to a lady I know. What does that have to do with quilting? Well, that lady is a quilter, plus today I played with cotton and paisleys! See? How's that for circumlocution?

Cotton is my all-time favorite fabric. Isn't it for all quilters? I even like cotton clothing and 100% cotton sheets. Cotton has come a long ways since calicoes- the weave is nicer, the finish is nicer, and ya don't have to press the heck out of 'em to use them anymore. Speaking of pressing, do you remember having to "sprinkle" the clothes before they could be ironed? Did you have one of those sprinkler bottle tops that fit into a pop bottle?

Now of course we don't "iron" much. But we DO press our fabric- we rarely have to sprinkle. Only if there's a really bad crease would we sprinkle and then we'd spritz it, not sprinkle.

Anyway, back to cotton & paisley. Here's a pic of the quilt I'm working on now. I think the fabric line is called Nesting by Moda. I have a few pieces of it myself that I'm saving for a special project. This is Karen's quilt top:

and this is the backing fabric . See all those paisley? Aren't they GREAT?? Love that

turquoise and blue with the brown. You know, sometimes the back of the quilt

is just as pretty as the front. It depends on the fabric and whether the quilting

shows. On this one, I'm gonna love the back no matter what!

You can see by those pictures that the top is a lively one. I first thought to do an all over

pattern but decided against that because the rectangles really need to be

defined to avoid it looking like a jumbled up mess. I think... and I'm the quilter

so I get to decide! YAY! Sometimes my mind changes and it did during this 1st pass

on this top. I'll go back to that white rectangle to update that squiggly line into curls to match

the white block I did later in the row. What I'm excited about is the border quilting.

Remember that paisley print above? I mimicked the shape for the inside-most rectangles

and even more in the border. Have a look:

Cool, huh? Lots of people love their jobs - I love mine too! Quilting by machine is such a therapeutic

job. Just think: it's colorful, totally tactile, creative, mind stimulating, productive and long-lived! Well, at least the quilts last a long time....

Something that caught my eye as I was rounding the quilting table while ago is that this piece of Nesting fabric goes with a piece from Amelia, a completly different line from a different designer but they're both from MODA. See? I guess it doesn't show up as well on the camera as it did in person. There's a dark blue inside the turquoise in the paisleys that resonates with the blue on the dotted. Wish it had shown up better.

Speaking of blue, another one of Karen's quilt tops is quilted now. It's blue, blue and blue!

Love this fabric on the back.

And......speaking of backs..... that Peachy Keen quilt on the previous post has THIS on the back. Ain't it beautiful? Yes, I admit it: I'm a fabricoholic. Aren't you?

Just Peachy Keen

2011-08-21T22:49:00.000-04:00

It was a beautiful afternoon in the ~~neighborhood~~ studio today. Had the sun pretty much blocked out where it couldn't cook anything in the sewing room! Had the AC on early in the day to get ahead of the heat. Had another beautiful quilt top to work on. My friend Karen has been prolific this year! I don't know the name of the fabric Karen used on this one but I LOVE the backing--and I forgot to even take a picture of the backing! Here's what the finish looks like:

And now some pics of the fun I had quilting!

Earlier in the day I had come across a blog by a lady in Melbourrne, Australia. Her name is Desley

and I'm sure you'd love to see her quilting as much as I did....and will....bcz I'll be back, Desley! So just click HERE to be taken straight to her blog called Addicted to Quilts.

A Finely-Made Quilt Top

2011-08-20T12:36:00.000-04:00

In addition to all the quilty play I do myself, I also quilt QOVs and I quilt tops for "the public" (who's that??). Occasionally I get to do some of Moda's quilts and that connection brought me this beautiful quilt top out of Arnold's Attic fabrics (by Moda, of course!). Turns out this quilt top was made by a lady in Tennessee who hasn't been into quilting all that long but you'd never know it by the exact matching of almost every corner & point in the top!

It took me awhile to decide exactly what I was going to do on this one. It was SO well-made that I certainly didn't want to hide any of the patchwork. I also feel strongly that if not doing E2E, the blocks and sections (such as borders) need to be stitched in-the-ditch. Usually SID (stitch in the ditch) is highly irregular because seams flip back-n-forth or don't match, or the top isn't exactly square, or other reasons. THIS one, however, stitched very easily in the ditches. Here's a pic showing the SID and how bright that white looked before it was quilted.

There's an outside feather border and feathers in the dark setting triangles of the center. So I also put feathers in those white triangles in the border blocks and the center. The texture keeps the white from being so "white", don't you think?

Apparently I didn't get good pictures as the feathers in the center triangles don't even show up enough to see on the camera. Shuckins! Here's a sketch of the feathers, though. For some unknown reason, I really do better with the machine than I do a pencil.

THank you, Chelair and Lorinda for letting me work on this quilt!

I haven't sewn in the last 2 days -- I may be experiencing withdrawal! I'm at our store just now &

writing about this is making me itch to quilt! So, 'long about 2pm, that's where I'll be headed: home to quilt! One of Karen's quilt tops is already pinned on so I'll have fun-n-games awaiting me as soon as I can get the studio cooled off. Yippee!

On A Timely Basis

2011-08-16T15:37:00.003-04:00

What's that mean to you-- "on a timely basis"? In the work-a-day world, it might mean getting it done "promptly" or by-the-due-date, etc. In quilting, I think it might mean "within the next few years". Quilters are well known for WIPs or UFOs (works in progress or unfinished objects). My reason for interpreting "on a timely basis" a different way is that I've just now begun working on a quilt kit that I purchased at Quilt Country in Lewisville, TX in 2006. That's only 5 years ago, pretty timely huh? AND, even though I worked on it the end of July and 1st few days in Aug, I'm just now putting it here. That's just 2 wks later!

I was still in the midst of cat-lover-ville when I came across the quilt kit. If it happened today, there would need to be doggies in the quilt, not kitties, for me to buy it. I'm sure I'll always have a kitten or two, a big kitty or two, etc. After all there IS an apparent sign out front that says all strays welcome. But now I seem to be getting doggie-fied. We have 2 American Eskimoes & a Great Pyranees. You should see that great pyranees when she sits on my lap!! The picture here is of Sissy when she 1st got here last March. She's 7 months old now and big enough to RIDE!

I digress. Back to the quilt kit. This one has lots of kitties in it and lots of pink and black. See, that's a change too. Why pink? At least it's mostly HOT pink! I had no idea what I'd do with pink. Now I realize there's actually people who LIKE pink. Yeah, that's right! Borders aren't on this yet because in my itty-bitty-barely-squeeze-in sewing area behind the counter, there isn't enough room to work on borders. Can't measure or cut accurately. Have to wait til sewing time rolls around at home...and...have to remember to carry it home.

We had a baby shower to attend recently. I tried making a diaper cake- here it is before it was done. I thought it was a cool way to "wrap" the purple receiving blankets and some baby outfits inside:

See that wide

stuff around the 2nd layer? I had some very old waist elastic that needed wasting. (haha) So I sewed

the ends together and slipped the diapers into the elastic bands to make them curve around, then covered the big elastic with a wired ribbon. It turned out ok and was fun for a 1st-time craft. Of course

I took some quilts to the shower, and I tried some burp rags made from

regular diapers - the not-disposable ones:

On the 1st two, the keys are pretty obvious. The key in the 3rd one is kind of hide-n-seek. Better luck next time. They turned out ok for never having done it before.
So. The shower on Saturday, our anniversary (35th!) the next day. My BD the following Friday & when I show up at the hairdresser's, I find out that the quilt I thought I had the weekend to finish really needed to be done RIGHT NOW! Luckily, I could call for help at the store so I could go home to make that T-shirt quilt for a young man heading off to college on Saturday morning. I already had the T-shirts cut up and interfaced. Did I get it done? You betcha!

I'd heard Payten likes lime green, the more the better. Thus the new fabrics

I used were designed by Me and My Sister manufactured by Moda.

Two of the shirts that Payten brought me were tie-dyes, no text. So I used pieces of those to
fill out blocks .

Labels by Sweetwater. Don' you think the baseball thing in the "diamond" is creative?

UPDATE: I just remembered that I signed that "process" pledge so I thought I'd show you the pattern for the T-shirt quilt. Want to see it? It's an original.

I also worked on a very nicely pieced, very square & flat, almost perfect quilt this last week. I don't have permission to post yet. I'll show ya when I get the ok.

AND... I made circles! Circles & circles & circles & circles. A SWB friend Diane Brown can draw perfect circles without having to trace anything. I always thought that was a pretty neat trick. I can't draw anything with a pencil! I can, however, with my Gammill! Connie wanted "bubbles" on this batik quilt.

Have you ever drawn circles for hours? I hadn't either. It turned out to be VERY soothing! very calming, very fun! But my sides hurt like heck when I finished. While longarming, making circles involves using the whole body- which I didn't think about until I finished.. Coulple of hours later, "OWWWEEEEE!

Did I mention that I REALLY enjoyed doing all these circles?

And look in the last pic at the small space right below the snips where there's no sewing yet. I was THAT close to being done when I ran out of bobbin thread! Good thing I had another one already loaded! Thank you, Gammill, for winding while I quilted!

CON'-tent or con-TENT'

2011-08-01T00:40:00.001-04:00

There are at least 673 quilty/crafty bloggers that have taken the "process pledge":
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.

I thought that's what was happening when we write our blogs. Are blogs diaries? Are they communication? Are they fun? YEAH! I read others' blogs more than I write my own- what else is there to do while DH is watching all those sports? There's hundreds of blogs to surf! Oh- I forgot, I can sew! But, see, I spent 6 years staying 100 miles away from home before I could retire (the 1st time). So now I LOVE being home with hubby and though I also LOVE to sew, that chair beside hubby sure calls to me!
Sitting by my hubby is con-TENT'. I guess the rest of it is CON'-tent! Anyway, I added the "process" badge on the sidebar.

On the con-TENT' side of things, it dawned on me yesterday that I've had a dream come true! After I retired but before I became a grocer, every time we drove down Ardmore's Main Street & we'd see another empty building, I'd describe to Stan the quilt shop I could envision having there. He'd say "Oh, it's not what you think, not fun-n-games. It's a lot of hard work. Ya can't just sit-n-sew! Plus you'd never be able to pay the rent." And yet, here I am, able to sit-n-sew quite often, in my own little store with some quilt fabrics, notions, etc just like a real quilt shop! or is that shoppe? Now if I could just figure out a way to have a classroom, or get my Gammil down there.... and.....it'd help if I could make it feel like a quilt shop at least in the little corner where quilty stuff is.

Here's 1 of the projects I've been working on today. LakeHouse fat quarters in my favorite color, purple.

I used printed papers called Star Singles by a lady in Edmond to sew the HSTs. Easy peasy!

Just layer 2 fabrics, WST, pin the paper on, sew, cut apart, remove paper, press carefully. It's great- especially for this quilt where half of the fabric was white. Making the HSTs this way ensure there are no purple seam allowances showing through the white. When there's a few minutes between customers at our store, I can stitch a seam or two on my little Janome Gem. It worked out well in my tiny confined sewing space while ripping the paper off. The mess was at least all in one spot!

This is yesterday's project.
A friend had these old-timey applique blocks that were in perfect shape. A pillow used 3, 1 of them wasn't fully appliqued and the other 2 (green) are a small quilt & 1 to frame. Pillow needs another (4th) bag of polyfill.

Alphabets were on my mind lately. Got some new panels in at the store and coordinating fabrics. Sure makes for fun while passing time! 2 quilt tops are now awaiting the quilting machine.

Last weekend I got to quilt 2 tops from S Texas. Both were really fun. Orange isn't my favorite color...unless it's OSU orange!

And the other was wonderful BRIGHT colors:

The method for this one is rather like Stack and Whack. The center of every block were different & had a kaleidoscope effect.

Pen pals?

2011-07-20T23:09:00.000-04:00

Remember back to the time when we had pen pals? Grade school. Charles Evans Elementary. (Evans Eagles, blue-n-white....) Remember when we used to write real letters to other cities asking for info so we could develop a report.... or take a field trip to the local paper to see how newspapers are printed? Did you see the old type face stuff & how the type had to be set? Did you ever do that science fair project where the hard boiled egg slides through a milk bottle opening? Have you seen a milk bottle? Can you remember when we had between-schools foot ball games and we even had cheerleaders! DH says there was even a basketball school vs. school. I don't remember that part- I'd have been practicing piano.

Sorry- I guess I got carried away. Pen Pals. THIS BLOG is where I started. I watched the video so had to go check out the product. What got me to remembering was reading a blog by Nancy Murty, the lady in the video. Check out this cute fabric line. I'd seen the name before but hadn't been familiar with all her artistry. My interest, of course, is in the fabrics & quilts. Nancy does much more! Click here to go visit her blog. Reading just a few posts I learned we not only have quilts in common: we have cats in common- kinda siamese but one darker than the other. Looks that way, anyway. Ours like that were named BuBu & Knotty-potty. (She had a knot on her head where she got hurt probably when someone tossed her from a car. Baaaaad!)

So I felt as if I'd made a new friend today. Isn't it amazing how we can connect electronically? So many ways- FB, Twitter, about 20 other social sites. Blogs. Love blogs for seeing the quilts everyone else all around the world being worked on. So many people are SO talented and many of them are young-ish- say early 30s & under. That's exciting!

A challenge

2011-07-18T14:47:00.001-04:00

Most days I'm up for a challenge. Are you? The answer likely depends on "what" the actual challenge IS, doesn't it? One of our customers at the store asked if I could assemble a quilt from blocks that had been made long ago- when the kiddo was still in the oven. Evidently there had been a shower where people took "blocks" to personalize. I've done this before- usually the blocks are uniform, consistently shaped, ready for a quilt. This one was different. These blocks had been chopped with scissors. And yes, that's the selvedge stll attached.

The idea was an d is a good one. The person in charge of this one, though, wasn't a quilter. The fabrics given out for the blocks was very thin & loosely woven. Colors are pretty-- pastels! The background was an argyle printed flannel. 1st thoughts were to trim up the blocks & try to piece them into some kind of top & back it with the flannel. Closer inspection of the blocks revealed several that would have had part of the creativity cut off because there was no allowance for the seam.

Yesterday, the box of Steam-a-Seam lite spoke to me and made a fairly easy, fairly pleasing quilt! I put the steam-a-seam on the blocks & then used the pinking rotary cutter to straighten the edges. The block were then repositionable until I decided where to leave them.

The picture below is the parents, of course. The block below that was hand cross-stitched. The heart to the left was machine embroidered.

The block below includes hand embroidery + a felt flower stitched on.

It's been said that theres no ugly quilt. This one turned out cute, too!

The Rest of the Story...

2011-07-13T17:20:00.001-04:00

The other day, I showed a "sneak peek" of an embroidered quilt I was working on. It's finished and returned to its owner and actually, today, it's wrapped and on its way to a new owner at college!
It's quite pretty and there was a LOT of cross-stitch done by Beverley McMillan.

The top layer is a fine embroidery fabric so I used a layer of MODA Puzzle Pieces white under it, then the batting, then the backing which is a purple print (MODA) by Me-n-My-Sister Designs.

It's bound with the background fabric. The purple & white pirnt makes a mottled border that kinda looks like more embroidery. It doesn't speak loudly, yet it finishes the quilt.

EURIKA! Found Treasure

2011-07-11T08:14:00.000-04:00

I came across a box while getting ready to quilt yesterday. Couldn't say how long the box has had "stuff" in it. Lookie, lookie! More projects just waiting to be sewn.

This first group is left over from a kit that made a baby quilt. The quarter circles were sewn onto charm pack pieces and that quilt is on the west wall at our store. I'd forgotten about there being leftovers. Looks ready to start the same quilt in the "negative values", huh?

The next one is the leftovers from that cherry-pie-looking dresden plate quilt also on the west wall behind the counter...the one that looks SO feminine! Gee, who would leave 2" strips and 2" squares and a whole charm pack just lying around?

Now see, some people would say- it's just scraps, throw the stuff away! OH NO! Not at THIS house! All we do is go to the Stash to find something to go with! White! yes, white! That would do it! Is there any white in the house?

Yesterday I was working on a hand-cross-stitched top with a white background, and the fabric was pretty thin so I was afraid the backing might show through. What to do, oh, what to do?
1st thought: 2 layers of batting ... but that'd be pretty thick when that top fabric was really fine.
2nd thought: a layer of fleece over the batting... but that'd be stiff. Who wants a stiff lap quilt?

3rd ~~time' s~~ thought's the charm: a layer of white fabric under the top but over the batting so it'll give more substance to the top fabric & help avoid the backing showing through. That's it! eurika! Wait- -do we have any white fabric? In fact, we do- it's one of Moda's Puzzle Pieces and it's beautiful! Can you see the sweet paisley pattern on the fabric?

This will work GREAT with those scraps shown earlier so, with just a little visit to the Stash, we fixed 3 projects! You know, sometimes it's nice not having a memory anymore. When I find stuff I forgot about, it's like getting a surprise present!

I'll try to show you that thin fabric and how it's working out.

See -- you can see somebody's hand showing through it.

Here are the layers- the backing (wrong side showing), the white batting (must use white when the top is white), then the layer of white fabric (Puzzle Pieces) then the top which is hand embroidered.
Note to self: find a model with younger looking hands!

Sneak peek........

See why I had to be sure the backing wouldn't show through? Tonight we'll bind this. Want to come join me?

New pre-cuts! yippee!

2011-07-11T07:35:00.000-04:00

We all love new stuff, don't we? Our stashes are cherished, yes. What would we do without them? But OH the NEW stuff! There's nothing like getting new fabric right off the bolt or opening the package to find new pre-cuts.

Have you used Jelly Rolls or Layer Cakes yet? They make starting a new project SO easy because there's already a selection of fabric that you KNOW goes together! No shuffling through the stash to find x-number of fabrics, etc. It's already done for you! Since the pre-cuts are precise, the project is already ahead of the game just for precision only ! I'd guess my favorite is layer cakes but I like Jelly Rolls pretty well too. Fat Quarter bundles are nice but pressing is required before using and that just slows me down.

Moda's Terrain by Kate Spain

Moda's RUBY by Bonnie and Camille

Moda's Fairy Tale Friends by American Jane and this one includes Honey Buns!

Nature's Gift by Deb Strain for Moda. This set was actually a thank you gift. Very unexpected but very nice!

Amelia by Me n my Sister Designs for Moda

Each of us has our favorite place to shop and I understand! If, though, you need 1 more place to shop, may
I recommend Key Grocery? These precuts as well as more, and some fabrics on the bolt including backings,
are available there and on our website Pashofa Quilter . (note: If the grocery man would give me more shelf space, there could magically appear MORE bolts of fabric for sale!) The quilts I make from these and other fabrics
are also available at the store although some don't stay with us very long.

2011-07-10T12:10:00.001-04:00

Last weekend- Independence Day weekend- I finished 3 quilts. It was GREAT fun! Sewing, sewing, sewing! No other stitch has been stitched since then but I've been thinking about it alot. Does that count? I had to catch up on some quilters' blogs so that filled a few hot summer evenings. Also my "studio" isn't AC'd during the day so it's hot when I get home from the store & I'm too feeble to stand the heat anymore. But now the weekends are a different story!

Here's one of the ones that I finished quilting last weekend.

Not sure how long ago this top was made- it's at least 5 years ago! Patsy & Chris & I went to a 1-day

quilt workshop in TX, seems like it was at Quilt Country before they moved to the new building. We must have had to choose a kit because some of these fabrics are not in my stash. The whole quilt is these little snowball blocks just alternating dark & light blocks. It finished at 48" by 60". The pics "kind of" show how the quilting in just the snowballs made the little quarter-square-triangles puff up. It was very therapeutic quilting all those spirals in the blocks. Quilting is such a tactile experience. Love it, love it, love it!

I mimicked the spirals in the snowball blocks in the outer border and of course, sewed my little

label in the corner when I added the binding.

I really like all the reds. I have another set of red-n-whites that I've been collecting so there are a couple more R&W quilts coming....sometime.....

I also quilted the top I sewed while at the store last week. There's a pattern by Julie Herman of JayBird Quilts in a magazine . The key to that one was when Julie mentioned in the article that she used just 4 fabrics. There were 4 fabrics in a basket at the store that worked great. Here's how it came out. It's 80" x 80".

Go here to check out the getting the pattern and view several other quilts made by the same pattern. I really like the last pic where the maker used pastels set like a rainbow.

Looking at mine, I wish I'd added a solid black border but it's too late now! Oh well....next time, maybe.

The 3rd quilt I finished was another little person quilt. Can't remember now where it was but what caught my eye was the floral border that the quilter had used. I have several florals in my stash from those days when Northcott fabrics could be bought at Hobby Lobby for decent prices. I was still working at SWB/AT&T in OKC then so I know it was between 2000 & 2004. Before that time I was a little anti-manufacturer-collections because they'd seemed to overly matched, not enough texture difference, etc. But this one caught my eye because the same colors were in a stripe, a couple of different florals, tone-on-tone, etc.

Only 2 of those coordinates, though, went into this little quilt: the border fabric and the backing. Here it is after pieceing, before being quilted. If I make this one again I

believe I'll use an embroidery or special fussy cut in the center plain blocks.

More later 'bcz hubby just said "thought you were gonna do some sewin' !"

"Trash" to Treasure

2011-07-05T08:41:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I received in the mail some SCRAPS

that I won at Ribbon Candy Quilts blog. This little quilt top was finished pretty quickly but I just now

got permission to show the scraps. Margie shared her pic of them with me:

I used a pattern called Baby Jester to create from these scraps a whole small quilt!

Looks pretty flat there, huh? But You should see it quilted!

The circles quilted in the border which you can see on the pink back side mimic the circles in the border fabric....see?

See that little label? I ordered them from MommieMadeIt on ETSY and they had

just come in the mail so I stuck one on here. I'll have to order again

to request a custom "key" for the picture, and to get a little more room between

the labels so that I can sew them into the binding rather than on top.

MODA QOVs

2011-06-20T09:29:00.002-04:00

REmember I said I quilted 5 QOVs? I'm sure they're in this pile, AND I have 5 more yet to quilt!
You can read more here .

Pedal to the metal...

2011-06-20T09:07:00.002-04:00

UFOs, WIPs, probably more names for all the projects that get started but not finished. Quilters seem to have this problem because there are so many ideas floating around in our heads. I guess it could be our actual heads floating around.... you know in the "real" world they call this attribute ADD. I'd rather just keep the "ideas floating" image.

Working 6 days a week (boohoo, are you feeling sorry for me?) leaves just 1/2 of Saturday and Sunday to quilt so usually the weekends are standing up quilting on my Gammil. This weekend, though, I chose to finish up several already started, blocks-are-done-just-put-them-together projects to get them ready to quilt.
This 1st one was fun because the fabric came from a fellow blogger http://ribboncandyquilts.blogspot.com/ . I "won" the scraps- you'll have to visit her blog. Lots of giveaways there. Have you heard that adage: When life gives you scraps, make quilts? I did:

I had 3 kits of this next one, sold one at the store and still have 1 left besides the 1 I sewed up. It comes in this cute lunch box

and makes this cute quilt top. It's the 1st time I've ever cut from fabric that has several different prints on the same piece of yardage. Kinda different....

This one was made from "junker" pieces, meaning pieces that weren't enough to do anything with otherwise! The big squares are a charm pack of only 35 pieces from Lakehouse. The small squares were a 2.5" sample from Moda. Tan strips are from a Moda jelly roll. Border fabric is Moda Sanctuary from several years ago- leftovers! I'm sure it will be adorable after it's quilted- even UGLY quilts are great when the quilting is done!

This next one is a kit, of course, because how else can you get those letters printed on fabric? This kit is from Lakehouse also and I got it at The Fat Quarter Shop and it's on sale! I skipped the ric-rac sewn in diagonals because I feared it shrinking & distorting the quilt.

This one is rather manly, don't you tthink? It's made from a Moda Layer Cake by a pattern that you can see here at Crazy Old Ladies.

The pile of quilt tops waiting to be quilted keeps growing & growing. It sure was fun doing all this sewing. And I got to start cutting out another quilt using some more older fabric. Can't wait to start sewing on that. All I need is more hours of full energy- the kind I used to have when we were still raising the boys. Where did all that energy go???

Taste buds change... do "color" buds?

2011-06-17T11:49:00.000-04:00

We have 3 sons. I'm not a frilly person. Suffice to say we have no PINK at our house. (not much white either if you want the whole truth!) They say our taste buds change every 7 years. I do think our choices in color change over time but I had a Very Sudden Change in Color Taste 1 week ago today!

Last Friday our son says he saw that our grandchild will be a girl. That's all it takes to suddenly LIKE PINK! Not the namby-pamby pale pinks, but the real hot bright colorful happy pink!

Here's just a few I found searching "pink" at Hancocks-Paducah:

And of course there are Many Many more! It's really fun looking at color & patterns in a new way. And there's a plus to this- baby quilts aren't very large so they don't take weeks to finish! YIPPEE! How many quilts can 1 baby have???

Moda Quilts of Valor

2011-06-08T16:12:00.000-04:00

Did y'all take part in the One Star Challenge by Moda? People all over the states did. I don't kno HOW many star blocks were sent in. I sent 4 myself but I feel ashamed that I did not take the time to find a sharpie to sign my name. It's that old feeling of "well, nobody cares about little old me anyway" type of thing, I guess.

I'm getting to quilt FIVE of these QOVs. The ones I have are a tonal red rather than that flower that' shown here but they're every bit as pretty! And the star blocks are wonderful. Each one I've seen so far has the maker's name & state on it. The blocks have come from everywhere! I'm so proud of us quilters for chipping in like this. It's the very least we can do for our awesome soldiers who are the best in the world.

Seeing the names & states on the blocks brings back memories of the early 90's when the internet & PCs were "new". It was on AOL that I found the first of many chat lists having to do with quilting, especially long arm quilting. Some of us use to have swaps. Each of us sent in certain size pieces or strips or FQs- whatever it was that we were swapping. The swap-meister then divvied them up & sent them all back in our postage paid envelopes. It was great fun because it seemed different fabrics were sold around the country. What was available in the NE wasn't available here, etc. Sometimes we swapped blocks that we'd signed, which is why these blocks on the QOVs were such a reminder.

Music to my ears!

2011-05-04T09:04:00.000-04:00

Just found out how to add the "player" that I sometimes come across on other people's blogs. Seems like other lists just haven't included my favorites. It never dawned on me that I could make my own play list...until I found a blog this morning that had lots of Crowder Band and Mercy Me and other songs I hear on KLOVE. So I checked it out! Yep, Casting Crowns songs came up. So now I have a playlist and when all else fails, I can access my blog and let the music play no matter what else is being surfed online! YIPPEE! Now... if I could only get this computer speaker to sound like the BOSE speakers!

Break-even day

2011-04-03T23:53:00.001-04:00

It's been a restful day even if the wind DID howl, and boy did it howl! Reminds of that state song about the winds coming sweeping down the plains (thanks for singing, Jane). Too bad it's not RAIN sweeping down the plains. Wonder if I could learn a Chickasaw rain dance at this late age?

Two ladies came by today. One was Linda, the lady from the other day. She came back to acquire the "Advancing On" SnS book. She had finished a runner using the option 1 which is the basic square in a square. It worked SO well for her! I wish I'd thought to take a picture of her runner!
I hope Linda gets some more time to sew while SnS is fresh on her mind. It's easier to keep straight in the mind if hands-on practice takes place to settle it in. Seems her only problem is that it's flower garden time now. I understand! I'm trying to work on our so-called flower beds also. I'm adding mulch- or working on it. Can't do it all at 1 time. Don't even WANT to do it all at 1 time. We'll be ordering some new top-o-the-line garden tools for the store this week so I'm trying to hold off until I get one of the new weeders. Talk about a valid excuse!

Another lady came also. Joanna makes clothes for doggies- cute stuff! She sells on EBAY under the name Stitches for Pooches, I think. I couldn't find it but I just went through a couple of pages. I had NO idea that doggie clothing is so popular! I do remember dressing our cats in doll clothes when we were little but these clothes are more like outfits for the critters to wear out in public!

Little by little, the studio is getting organized again. There are just SO many projects to sew! All fun & games in lots of different colors. Should I dare to try counting all the projects-in-the-works? NO! Yet while Joanna was going through fabrics looking for suitable prints for dogs, I re-found lots of pieces I'd forgotten I had! Now there are even MORE projects to get started on! I'm mid-way on the applique quilt that's on the table now & there's more tops in the waiting.

I've quilted with several kinds of thread these last 15 years- permacore, serger thread, King Tut, polyester embroidery threads, Masterpiece, So Fine and probably others. My favorite right now is So Fine by Superior Threads.

So Fine comes in lots of colors. It's a 50 wt thread with low lint. Being a fine thread, it doesn't stand out like larger threads. The quilting texture shows without there being tons of thread sitting on top.

It's great to have actual thread cards so that the colors can be matched right to the tops-n-backs of the quilts-to-be. One would think that 15 years in the business would net me lots of thread. Well, yeah, kinda.

These drawers are full of quilting thread but it never fails, the exact color I need is not there in the kind of thread I want to use.
You might wonder why one would have SO many threads. Sometimes I want the thread to show such as names or words, etc. Sometimes it needs no be seen such as for stabilizing blocks and block definition- different kind of thread. Sometime the quilting needs to dress up the quilt top- maybe it appears sort of dull or boring. A sparkling thread such as the polyester embroidery thread 40wt can give it just the sparkle it needs. I did a QOV once that was pretty blah. Used a gold shiny thread and did feathers in all the navy blue blocks. Wish I could find a picture of it to show you!

Anyway, why the title- Break-even Day? When the 2 ladies left I had enough $ to order thread for all those quilt tops you see hanging up there. Surely, you say, with all those threads in the drawers I don't need even more thread! Yes I do. I swear I do. Promise!

SnS again, 2nd time in 2 days?

2011-04-02T08:28:00.000-04:00

Yes, SnS not SOS! Although SOS would be good too-- HHHHEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLp!
I need all the help I can get-- most of the time!

More seriously, SnS is our little abbreviation for Square in a Square technique by Jodi Barrows. I got that email inquiring about my doing a guild program. Later that day, a lady showed up at our grocery store- which also sells quilty stuff-- with a lady asking about a Square in a Square ruler. Sadly, I hadn't brought the rulers nor SnS books to the store. I found out the lady lived at Lone Grove so she came over Thursday evening and we had a mini personal quilting class- just the two of us! GREAT FUN! I kinda feel sorry for Linda because I haven't gotten to share quilting with anyone- you know- like a group or retreat or class -- in a really long time! 2 years, in fact! So poor Linda got all my pent-up want-you-to-know-this-too outburst of ideas & techniques in about 2 hours! In addition to demonstrating the SnS Options 1 & 4 and cutting scraps up so Linda could actually MAKE three, I showed her the technique on this blog post that I used making the pinwheels for this quilt.

Linda is a very astute lady and a quick learner-- it was a JOY having her here & getting to share. She had all the appropriate oohs & ahs & ah-hahs at seeing how these techniques work. It was an awesome evening. Thank you, Linda!

Guild Programs?

2011-03-31T08:41:00.000-04:00

Back in the good old days (I swore I'd never say that!) I wanted desperately to share quilting. The closest I could come was the local night-time quilt guild. We played lots of quilty games there. I've even still got the lap sized quilt we made where every body brought certain strip combo's and we all traded to increase how many different fabrics were in our scrap quilts. Then there was a period between my retirement after 28 years at SW Bell (at&t) and my current endeavors at Key Grocery where I really did get to teach quilting!

This quilt belongs to a friend I met at SnS certification.

I accidentally ended up at Square in a Square Certification classes in Ft. Worth. Accidentally, because -- now that it's ok to tell the truth-- I really needed a getaway & that was the closest getaway I could find at the time! I've always been certifiable (LOL) but being "certified" at something was a draw-- and -- it was QUILTING after all! What else needs to be said? I did meet ladies there who will be lifelong friends, and I did learn different ways of looking at block combinations. Square in a Square is a great method and has its uses, but there are other quilting techniques I like just as well.

Traditionally called Storm at Sea, this one is named TORNADO IN THE PASTURE!

What brings up this discussion? I got an inquiry about doing a guild program at the other end of the state. I just can't commit right now- DH's business has 1st claim on me- and besides, I've sold most of the SnS models I had and I'd have to knuckle-down pedal-to-the-metal no-time-to-eat-or-sleep sweat-shop sew to get enough quilts for a trunk show to do it again.

This one's called Twisted Star and uses option 16 SnS.

It's fun looking back at these quilts. Makes me want to cut up more fabric right now! And while I was looking back on pics in my webshots album I was reminded also of this trapunto one. Fun at the time but not likely to be repeated any time soon!

Shadow Trapunto using one of Sharon Schamber's quilting designs.

CRASH!

2011-03-26T08:51:00.000-04:00

Both computers crashed. So sad. Both were supposedly "backed up" on Carbonite. I got the new Dell restored- all my embroidery files and everything. Yay! but the Macboook? nope. nada. zilch. Even had 2 of the Carbonite people try to help- where did my back up files GO???????? Yep, I'm somewhat upset. I say Somewhat because...really.... what's the use in being upset about it? Too late now. Water under the bridge. Spilt milk, etc.... But I sure did have a lot of pics stored- pics of family, pics of quilts, pics of MOda people/parties, Houston market, Swedish friend, quilts, oh-did I mention that already? and my bookmarks of favorite blogs I read. DRAT and double-drat!

I had posted this one to facebook so I've still got it! It's a Sudoku quilt done for Moda. And I just realized there are the pictures that I posted to this blog. Now I wished I had posted EVERYTHING to this blog! double-drat again! Oh well....better things to do than being upset. Besides: Here's the GOOD NEWS of today: Cruising along hunting for blogs today I came across one where a lady had people link up to their blogs. Guess how many???? over FIVE HUNDRED OF THEM! Okay, okay, here's the LINK at Red Pepper Quilts.
I'll be quilting later today on a BEE-utiful appliqued quilt from my friend in Sweden. Who can be upset while they're quilting?

You MUST see this adorable project!

2011-03-21T20:03:00.002-04:00

So Cool! Don't miss seeing it! name picture

Where in the world is Waldo?

2011-03-18T08:47:00.000-04:00

I don't know where Waldo is. Where have I been? Just lazy I guess. It got really cold and I went into hibernation! I have gotten sewing done and some quilts finished. Best I could do was send photos to my facebook page ( just look under Alicia Key or Key Grocery & quilts on facebook). Today I noted on somebody else's blog http://emptybobbinsewing.com/ and it called for "my" website. Shame on me for only remembering it that way! Here's what I found on Empty Bobbin and I ordered one!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2010-12-26T09:15:00.002-05:00

You can see I haven't spent time posting but I've done More-than-My-Share of surfing lately. SO many people have SO many great ideas and so much creativity that I've just been soaking it in for the last few weeks. I did finish a couple of quilts and a pair of socks that I got to wear. I have the 3rd pair of socks almost done! I hope to finish the foot of that 2nd sock today. And........I just joined a new group- sock knitting! on Ravelry! I had heard of Ravelry before but didn't conceive how big a group that would be!
It's over 1 million member back on November 17th! Yes....I'm just another number.....AGAIN!

Oh well. Onward and Upward. This group I joined is called Year of Stash Socks 2011. The only "problem" is that my stash-- yarn stash, that is -- consists of only 3 yarns. Two skeins each, of course, because when I ordered it, I wasn't cognitive of how much yarn a pair of socks requires, but still only 3 yarns! You should see some of the NAMES of the yarns discussed on Ravelry. It's sure going to take some studying to find out about all those yarns! Wish we had a LYS (local yarn shop). These are called Mermaid Lagoon, Evil Stepmother, and Arabian Nights.

Last night, relaxing after a wonderful celebration for Christmas with all the family except my sister who had fallen again (MS), I was perusing the pictures on the AccuQuilt Facebook Pages. There are SO many ideas there, also, it made me want to rush to the studio to start more new projects. But, alas, the studio is COLD! Today I'll heat up the studio and do some sewing.

Happy knitting and quilting, y'all! Bring on 2011 and another set of friends on Ravelry! Ain't the internet fun???

Sudoku, anyone?

2010-12-11T19:18:00.001-05:00

I do love Sudoku and other puzzle games. I got to quilt a couple of tops for Moda right before the last Market. Today I came across an app online that let me make mosaics of some pictures. Pretty fun!

As a matter of fact, I just did a search for the kits so you could see and found THIS PICTURE on the Moda Fabrics Blog! You can see some of the quilting on the Perennials one on the top of the pile!

and the flowery one is in this video.

This-n-That pattern giveaway & parade

2010-12-02T07:45:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite pattern designers is having a giveaway to celebrate the Quilt Parade that's being done using her patterns. Here's an example:

Check out the blog A Quilting Life to see info about it!

Hallelujah! (the chorus)

2010-11-30T08:09:00.000-05:00

You've GOT to see this video! It's AWESOME!

Quilting Marathon ended

2010-11-29T08:31:00.001-05:00

What a marathon! I finished 2 quilts and most of a 3rd one but I got discouraged when I realized the tension wasn't good in 1 area so it needed to be frog-stitched (rippit, rippit, rippit). The 1st quilt I finished has already gone back to its owner. Here's a pic of the 2nd one and really, I did more than quilt it, so it ought to count as 2 or 3 done! I've got this one bound, too!

I'd forgotten how much fun it is to quilt my own quilts! I was excited to try this pattern way back in the spring but didn't like it as well as I thought I would when it was done. Now that it's quilted, I love it!

Seems like that's always the way it is-- even the ugliest tops are beautiful

when they get that 3rd dimension added by the quilting.

I'm having lots-o-trouble with the ring finger on my right hand. DH says it's "Arthur" coming to visit.

"Arthur" is arthritis, you know. But the licensed doctor

(not Dr. Stan the hubby)

said it's NOT Arthur-- it's just an inflammation of that joint. Probably go away

with NSAIDS, etc. Ever since all that chopping/slicing/stirring on Thanksgiving Day,

I've been willing (almost) to not even have that finger anymore!

Anyway, I knew I wouldn't be able to hand-sew the binding down on this quilt.

The striped binding was done by machine- but it looks good and even better:

IT'S DONE!

It's wonderful to have a full FINISH!

and another quilt mostly done - just gotta redo that 1 part and keep on keepin' on for

a couple more passes.

I also had a revelation yesterday. I must have ADD or something. Maybe ALL quilters do and

that's why we all have so many UFO's (unfinished objects) or

WIP's (works in progress). I kept wanting to "take a break" and work on a different project.

There's a quilt by Jerri Robinson in a magazine that I wanted to make.

It's reds and creams with lots of pinwheel blocks.

Instead of following the directions, I used a method I saw on a you-tube video

from Missouri Quilt Company.

I used my Accuquilt GO! cutter to make 5" squares from scraps, both reds and creams. See the squares above, and the little pile of leftovers that can be cut in some other shape, and the skinny "trash" pieces? The GO! lets us cut lots FAST!

So then, sew the squares RST, 1 red and 1 cream, 1/4 inch away from all 4 sides.

Use your Best Press on both sides

then cut twice diagonally lining up with your "corner" where you sewed

Press these open, seams toward the red. Don't they look Beautiful? That Best Press

really does the trick!

These made the greatest pinwheels ever! They are SO straight and so fast because I didn't

have to sew ANY triangles together, just squares.

After pressing, I trimmed to 4-1/2" square. Center is "swirled" seam allowances.

You know how to do that already, huh?

Makes for perfect centers every time!

I think there are 88 of these. I'm doing them in batches because, as I said,

I think I have ADD!

How Many Quilts in 1 weekend?

2010-11-27T18:01:00.000-05:00

Is there a limit to how many quilts tops can be quilted in 1 weekend? I'm undertaking a "quilting marathon" to find out. In my younger days, no tellin' how many I could have done but now I'm old and gray (senile?) and can't keep up like I used to do.

I'm glad we aren't having a "challenge" or something where I have to actually beat somebody at how many quilts can be quilted. It's just that I've been so energy-less for the last couple of years, ever since I started having to work 6 days a week, in fact!!! Oh my! I hadn't thought of that! Well........now I feel better all of a sudden! How about that!

At any rate, I have a pile of quilt tops and I'm going to see how many of them can be quilted before Sunday night crashes down around me. Wish me luck!

Mint Cleaner Giveaway? Sounds good to me!

2010-11-27T09:17:00.000-05:00

There's a give-away at http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/ that sounds really good! Have you heard of that ROOMBA thing? I think that's the name. It's a sweeper robot that cleans the floors. The previously mentioned blog shows a Mint Cleaner that apparently does about the same thing. Boy! Could we use that?

The hardest part of cleaning our home is the floors. Several years ago we changed from carpet to tile floors... the whole house! No more cleaning carpets around here! and that's a good thing because there are LOTS of feet coming and going around here. How many, you ask? Let's see....there are PeeWee, Buster, Yellabelly, Littlebit, BlueEyes, Stanley, BooToo, Murphy, Cricket, Blackie, etc. You get the idea. That list was only part of them. And, I guess, I have to include myself.

When we chose the tile, we thought light would work best to reflect as much daylight as possible. We didn't stop to think about dirt & stuff being tracked in. So... sweep or vacuum the floor and it looks great. Dare to take a step outside and back in, or let 1 of the animals in, and there goes the floor!

Leaves are bad right now, also chips of wood in front of the wood burning stove where we built the fire. If it rains or....snows... or anything else the least bit damp-- half the front yard comes in on our feet! So wouldn't it be loverly to win the mint cleaner? Go see it!

I am participating in Infarrantly Creative and Tatertots and Jello’s Blog Hop for a chance to win a Mint Cleaner. It is the revolutionary machine that cleans your hard floor surfaces for you.

Click here to join the blog hop and a chance to win!

The Mint Cleaner is available at the following places:

Amazon

The Mint Cleaner

HSN

Bed, Bath & Beyond

Blue finish

2010-11-21T11:41:00.001-05:00

Here's a quilt now quilted that is all blues. Blues, and then some more blues. The pattern is one of Judy Martin's, and I've quilted some other ones made from that same book. This quilt's maker ( I have no idea who it was) used fabrics that were low thread-count. I hadn't seen such fabrics in a long while. Actual prints are from years ago because I remember buying some like them but they were better quality than these. I wonder if the older calico companies "sell" their designs or plates or whatever to other companies to reproduce in cheaper greige (sp?) goods?

Holiday Chocolates

2010-11-18T18:55:00.000-05:00

I realize I'm supposed to be sewing. Can't do that until I have my medicinal chocolate. Yes, it IS medicinal! This week I really splurged: a Godiva chocolates flier arrived at our store and though I knew I shouldn't, I did page through it. Result? I ordered Godiva dark chocolate online.
Here's what I usually eat:

Sew? yes, later, after the chocolate!