Two Quilt Finishes

I was able to get a lot of sewing done this morning.  I finished quilting the Box Kites top that I made from my Mailblocks on-line swap lottery winnings.  I tried something different with the quilting on this and won’t try it again.

I thought I could free-motion some straight lines – only to find that you really must have a ruler to do this successfully.  And I didn’t plan ahead for what I was going to do when I got to the sashing (the sashing was necessary for the small differences in sizes since different people made the blocks).  I think I could do this again if I plan to make curvy lines instead!

Here's a detail (that I probably shouldn't show ...):

And I got the binding on both the Box Kites and the Rows of Posies quilts.  Oh, happy day!

These will go to WTIL after I finish one more to fill a box.  But now it’s back to that other project I had in mind … I've only cut a few blocks and I think I’m going to like them.  I’ll show the WIP soon.

Hummingbirds and Quilts

I’m always amazed that people can get great photos of hummingbirds.

Up in Virginia, they had at least seven or eight hummingbirds that came to a feeder at the front porch at the same time.  Of course, I never remembered to have the camera at the ready when they came!  And this was a great front porch – big shade trees, light breeze, rocking chairs – how wonderful …

One did land briefly on a bush right in front of me and I was able to identify it as a female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.  She was a feisty little thing!  She chased all the other birds away from the feeder then stayed nearby to continue to defend her perceived territory from each and every intrusion.  If you look closely, you can see her at the bottom right with her needle nose in the feeder.  I could’ve watched these interesting birds for hours (and did!).

They also like the Rose of Sharon bushes and perched on the electric lines in between sips at the flowers (see closer to the left of the photo on the line).

So that’s the last of the nature reports from Virginia – it was a great visit.  Meanwhile, back at the sewing ranch, I was able to put together a quick top from novelty blocks that I won.  Each had delightful crayon colors and a touch of black, so I just sashed it in black and voila! - a finished top.  I also finished quilting my colorful flowers quilt, but still need to put the binding on.

I have more plans for today … here’s a sneak preview of the book it’s from – I think I like everything in this book!

Road Trip - Part 3

One more thing about my recent Road Trip to Virginia:

After we talked with the lady at the Fields-Penn House in Abingdon about natural dyes for fabrics and yarns, we were very interested in identifying local wildflowers in my friend’s yard and on our walks.  Fortunately, my friend had lots of the wonderful Peterson’s Field Guides; including Wildflowers, Eastern Forests and Trees and Shrubs.

We attached names to quite a few wildflowers, and I got fairly good pictures of the following:

We were looking for the tiny purple center that positively identified this as Queen Anne's Lace rather than Yarrow - it's there!

This is a Teasel - not to be confused with a Thistle (see below) - see the pretty tu-tu!

This is a Bull Thistle

This is Wingstem - I thought it was Sneezeweed, but now I think I was wrong (but I could still be wrong!)

And this is the easy quilt top that I worked on today, inspired by the various colors of flowers:

I liked all of the little kids in the border print - and I think words in English are OK - if it goes to a foreign country, they'll just think it's exotic (sort of like me looking at French!)

When I need something quick to get me back in the swing of quilting, I turn to the Ohio Star block.  These are 12 inch blocks  - to make your own, see the free pattern that Marcia Hohn offers on her Quilter’s Cache website at this link.  I had this border print and the solid colors on hand and it just seemed to sew itself.  Great fun!

Road Trip - Part 2

OK – I’ll admit that I’m a wanna-be country girl, but I’ve always lived in the city.  On my way home from my road trip, I stopped at two produce stands – one in Georgia that had peaches and peach jam and one in north Florida that had Vidalia onions, green peppers and beans.  I chopped and sliced and packaged up most of the above to go into the freezer so I’d have lots of fresh-frozen veggies for this coming winter.  So, what’s the problem?  I don’t know what kind of beans I have!

I was going to ask, but another customer was distracting the produce stand owner, so I never got around to it.  Are these the snap beans that my grandmother used to open along the “seam” with a colander in her lap to get the beans out?  Or are these pole beans that you just cook up whole?  Or something else?  I think I’ll just be blanching them and then cut them into small pieces to have cold on my salad.  Just might work!

And now, here are some more quilts from the Abingdon, VA quilt show:

Embroidered States, Birds and Flowers - Amazing!

Detail of one State

I loved the colors of this one - would be a nice Sunshine Quilt

I really liked "controlled" scrappy

Another with beautiful embroidery

I want to make this with my scraps - it's right up my alley

This lady won their Guild's lottery blocks and made this great quilt - reminded me of Sunnies

This was displayed outside so the colors aren't quite true in the photo, but it was wonderful

 Another friend here in FL wants to go up to VA with me next year – oh, boy! – another road trip … now we just have to find a sneaky way to tell the hostess to expect more guests … LOL!

I Went on a Road Trip

Last week I traveled to Virginia to visit a friend and we went to the Virginia Highlands Festival in historic Abingdon (southwestern VA).  What a treat that was!! 

They had lots and lots of vendors, some demonstrating old-time crafts and skills.  And there was a lovely quilt show.  Early in the day, we toured the 1860 Fields-Penn House Museum that had rooms and furnishings as they were in the late 1800’s.  They also had a weaver and yarn-dyer within the museum that shared with us fascinating details about spinning and weaving and the herbs, trees and other natural elements used to make various dyes.  Her yarns were in many gorgeous colors.  The festival continues for a few more days – see this link to learn more and maybe sneak over there or go next year:

http://www.vahighlandsfestival.org/arts_crafts.html

Shots of the historic house, vendor’s stalls, downtown’s pretty flowers and the trolley:

And some of my favorites from the quilt show:

30's Drunkard's Path w/ Applique

Applique Detail - TINY Yo-Yos

Beautiful Fall Colors

Patriotic Raw-Edge Stars

Tesselating Cats

Old-Fashioned Paper Dolls

More from the quilt show tomorrow!

The Trouble With Bindings

I’m really dragging my feet on getting these bindings made and on the quilts.  As you can see, there are five quilts waiting for these:

I really need to get these quilts sent off in the mail, so that is Job 1 for today (I know I said that every day this past week …).  I’ve been having computer problems and have spent WAY too much time trying to fix something I know nothing about.  The message keeps saying “cable unplugged” but that’s not the problem.  It comes back on whether you touch the cables or not.  A new version of AOL was downloaded and I blame it on them – I think it is a firewall or cache-size issue.  Very vexing.

I did finish up two more NICU quilts from cheater fabric (pre-quilted).  And I did get the bindings on these.  A lot of times preemies are twins so I did one bound in green and one bound in red.  The print is cute and they are very soft.

So I’ll see if I can get this blog updated and then it’s back to bindings!

Ice Cream Cone Quilt

In 1984, President Ronald Regan declared the whole month of July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday (today) as National Ice Cream Day.   I’ve never much craved ice cream, but I’m definitely partial to a small scoop on a piece of chocolate cake!  In the meantime, here’s a cute ice cream cone quilt I saw on the Web:

I found it at:

http://my.hgtv.com/share-my-quilt/Special-Occasions/Ice-Cream-Cone-quilt/detail.esi?oid=14114577

It's cute but I'm not likely to make it since the cones are paper-pieced and I don't do that very well.  Maybe someday I'll make it as appliques ...

Lottery Blocks and Thunder

My on-line group, Sunshine Quilt Guild, focuses on making donation quilts for children and we also have a monthly block lottery.  Participants make blocks in sets of two (or more) – one block goes to make a Sunshine Quilt by a member that volunteers to do that and one goes into the *pot* for that month’s winner – the pot is winner-take-all.  The theme for this month is *novelties* - and that’s my favorite month!

I’ve been making these half-log cabin blocks:



Detail of Novelty Fabrics



But I had to stop because of another thunderstorm.  I always unplug my machines during lightning.  Hopefully, it will end soon.

This is a photo that I took yesterday of a nearby field that is usually dry.  The dark area near the egret is not a shadow, it’s standing water that the egret intends to fish in.  Good luck with that, little birdie … I'm betting you'll find lots of bugs, lizards and froggies that will be pretty tasty!

Quilting Today

I finally managed to get some quilting done today.  My frame has been fixed since the day after I found an issue with it.  My sweet husband took the rails off and re-aligned and tightened the screws and it’s just fine now.  These are the three for Quilts for Kids that I just need to get bound tomorrow – then it’s a quick wash and out the door they go:

While I’ve been really trying to use up my stash and scraps, occasionally I can’t pass up a sale.  These are the fabrics that I bought in a kit from Joann’s that was 50% off (the solids are from my stash):

Considering the discount, the amount of fabric included in the kit averaged about $4.25/yd for higher quality fabric.  I’m sometimes willing to spring for paying that much for fabric for my donation quilts, but I’d have to drastically cut back if I had to pay $10.00/yd.  Can’t see that happening, so I keep trying to find bargains.

Don’t know what I’ll be working up with these fabrics – I don’t feel constrained to make what the kit offered (simple squares), but I hope to post a picture of something special soon since I really like the colors.

What's So Odd About Today?

Do you feel odd today?  Well, you certainly have justification.  Today’s date is three consecutive odd numbers:  7-9-11

And what’s even odder is that there are only six days each century that three consecutive odd numbers make up the date!

The odd sequence that began on Jan 3^rd 2005 (1-3-05) was followed by Mar 5^th 2007 (3-5-07) and then May 7^th 2009 (5-7-09).  Other than today, there will only be two more odd days for the next 100 years:  Sep 11^th 2013 (9-11-13) and Nov 13^th 2015 (11-13-15).

Check out this *oddly* beautiful quilt made from unusual materials:

Transparent Metal Star “Quilt”

Meena Schaldenbrand
Plymouth, MI

8 1/2” X 11”

Top :
Aluminum Wireform background, Aluminum Windowscreen doors,
Fiberglass Windowscreen Star, beads, lace and trims. Brass Wireform star center & metal fringe.

    Border 1:
    Brass Wiremesh, Hardware Cloth

    Border 2:
    Copper Wiremesh, Gutterguard,
    washers

Batting :
Fiberglass Windowscreen.

Backing:Aluminum Windowscreen.

See more of these lovely oddities in quilting at:

http://www.quiltart.com/challenges/weirdquilts/index.htm

QFK Top and BooBoo

I finished up the Quilt for Kids top that came in a kit from the organization.  They neglected to include enough strips of the dark green in the kit for the 4-patches and I didn’t have any fabric remotely close to that color so I substituted some orange that I think goes with the dinosaurs focus fabric and the purple and green provided.  The green was three blocks short, but that was odd when I just made that many substitute blocks (no pun intended) so I made a few extra.  I hope I’ve made a pleasing arrangement of the various color blocks.  This is the competed top:

But then I had this issue arise with my quilt frame:

I’d say when it rains, it pours, but I hope this isn’t a trend of problems. My husband I plan to correct the issue with the rails of my frame tomorrow – it looks like a screw just vibrated loose over time where the rails connect and is an easy fix.  Crossed fingers everybody!