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!

Happy 4th of July!

Here in the United States of America, July 4^th has a special significance as the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

As we celebrate with picnics and fireworks, we might remember this quote from Adlai Stephenson, an American politician and diplomat:

“America is much more than a geographical fact.  It is a political and moral fact – the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.”

I must admit, I really like bluegrass and country music.  I think one of the best patriotic songs in country music is *God Bless the USA* written and sung by Lee Greenwood.  And one of the best lines from that song is:

   "I gladly stand up, next to you and defend her still today/

  'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land/

   God bless the USA".

Though Greenwood wrote this song in 1983, it didn't become a big hit until Desert Storm in 1991, when radio stations embraced it to help boost patriotism. The song re-entered the country charts in 2001 after 9/11.

I usually make children’s quilts for donation, but once I had an opportunity to make  a patriotic quilt – that was shortly after 9/11 when a co-worker’s church group wanted me to teach them how to make a quilt to send to the heroic firefighters.  I really regret that I never got a picture of that finished quilt or the wonderful group of ladies that made it.

If you are thinking of making a patriotic quilt, here is a great link with free patterns and suggestions:

http://www.bomquilts.com/Free-Patriotic-Quilt-Patterns.php

I hope you and yours enjoy this Independence Day Holiday and spare a thought for those who fought to ensure our country remains free.

Quilts for Kids

My kit from Quilts for Kids came in the mail today!  The makers of Downy fabric softener are still affiliated with this great group and sending out a free kit for a child-size quilt for the asking.  They request that you make up their kit and also make up a quilt from your own fabric and send them both back to them to be distributed to hospitals associated with the Children’s Miracle Network.  Of course, if you have a local chapter of Quilts for Kids, your quilts will remain in your local community.

This is the fabric I received:

And this is the teen-girl’s quilt top that I finished and will send back with my finished kit. 

I’ll also send the teen-boy’s quilt (with USAF airplanes fabric) that I have posted about earlier.  These quilts are only about 38” x 45” so they don’t take that long to make … it’s the quilting itself that holds me up.  But knowing that a child in the hospital will be cheered up by receiving one of these quilts will spur me on.

My dog (just off to the left in this photo) found a friend in the garden today.  She stuck her nose right up to this Giant Swallowtail and it didn’t faze it a bit.  It just fluttered from flower to flower, as happy as could be.  Those purple flowers must be tasty!

And how do I know it was a Giant Swallowtail?  I looked it up, of course!  This is one of my favorite sites for identifying butterflies:

http://www.gardenswithwings.com/identify-butterflies.html

There’s also a page there to tell you what butterflies you can attract to your garden by entering your zip code for your part of the country.  Happy planting to attract butterflies!

Go! Baby Opportunity at Quilting Along the Gorge

Kathy M from Victoria, BC, Canada has a blog called Quilting Along the Gorge.  She is sponsoring (along with AccuQuilt) a Give-Away of a Go! Baby along with 3 dies.  I’m still hoping to win one of these to embellish my donation quilts.

She has great tutorials on how to use the Go! equipment.  Check out her blog at:

http://quiltingalongthegorge.blogspot.com/2011/06/giveaway-of-baby-go-and-3-dies.html

Tuesdays and Turtles

Another rainy day forecast here so I made sure to get my walk in early.  I was expecting the overcast sky to get darker and to get caught in the rain, but unfortunately, it started to break up with some blue sky and got hotter so I had to take the full walk.  Just my luck …

But I did see this cute little guy in the road:

I don’t know if he was escaping all of the accumulated water or what – this is one of the usually dry and grassy ditches near me that shows how wet it's been the last couple of days:

So I *rescued* the box turtle and put him on the grass to save him from being run over (although it wasn’t such a busy road, there are teenage drivers near there that have lead feet,  if you know what I mean):

Anyway, he was still where I put him on my way back by 15 minutes later (with his head out), so he must have thought his new spot was ok.

On a quilty note, one of my on-line quilt guild members posted a great link to a YouTube video tutorial put out by the Missouri Quilt Company:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJCSoljKnqU

The lesson is for making quick, scrappy 4-patches.  Well, I’m always up for a new technique that promises to be faster than my current methods so I thought I’d try this one out with a kit that I had purchased with a 50% off coupon.  The kit had 10 different tropical-type floral prints so first I selected some solids that would blend or match to get a more scrappy look:

Second, I cut 5” squares and sewed them on two sides per the tutorial, then I pressed them and cut them in half per the instructions: 

Before cutting them into the rectangles for 4-patches, I thought I’d lay them out to see if I was achieving the scrappy look:

Hey!  I kind of like the rectangles as they are.  I have enough fabric to make a top with rectangles and then continue on to make one with 4-patches.  I might just do that!  We’ll see what develops …

Festival of Mid-Summer's Day

June 24^th is the Festival of Mid-Summer’s Day.  This isn’t the same as the Solstice (the shortest day of the year) which was June 21^st.  Today is a quarter-day, along with March 24^th (Lady  Day), September 29^th (Michaelmas) and December 25^th (Christmas).

The festival is still important to pagans today, including the modern day Druids who celebrate the solstice at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. For many, the light of the sun on Midsummer's Day, is sacred.

Mistletoe was, and is, highly revered by the Druids. It is regarded as particularly potent when it grows on oak. Although it is more commonly associated with Yule and the Winter Solstice, it was often gathered ceremonially at Midsummer when it is regarded as being at the height of its powers.

According to

 http://www.guy-sports.com/humor/saints/midsummers_day.htm:

Midsummer Is A Magical Time

·         Young ladies wash their faces in the mid-summer’s day morning dew to make themselves beautiful; older people do the same to make themselves look younger.

·         If you walk barefoot in the dew on Midsummer Day's morning, it will stop the skin from getting chapped.

·         If you can bring yourself to skip naked through the dew in the night, then it, supposedly, will ensure fertility for the coming year.

• It was an old belief, in England, that one of the best times to see fairies is between twilight and midnight on Midsummer's Day.   Let's be sure to look!

Post Office Mishap

I was going to mail my package of NICU quilts out yesterday, but after hearing the news I waited until today.  Unfortunately, some poor woman starting to park right in front of the big glass windows and doors of my local post office apparently blacked out with her foot on the gas pedal, and smashed the place up.

She drove thru the front doors and thru the dividing wall between the front lobby and the back work area - the car didn't stop until it hit the back wall.  Fortunately, all 17 of the postal workers avoided injury and the woman was taken to the hospital with only minor injuries (no customers were injured).

NOT a drive-thru P.O.

I've always had the best of luck with this post office - the people are friendly, the service is fast and my packages always arrive at their destinations quickly.  I'm so glad they are all ok.  When I went today, everything was boarded up nicely, and it was business-as-usual inside.  And you can ignore that part on the sign above that says to "Use the APC" - she took that poor machine flat out!

It rained today for all of 15 minutes.  It blanketed the area we're in, but at least the plants got to get their toes wet.  We're hoping for more rain tomorrow.  Meanwhile, I worked on another NICU quilt (I'm on a roll, I can't stop now).  Here's a sneak preview:

More tomorrow.

NICU Quilts and Sunsets

I’ll be out and about tomorrow running errands so I will pick up a slightly smaller box and get the NICU quilts sent off.  I finished the quilting and binding on the last of the three today.  This one was the easiest since it was just a large panel.  Here are all three that are going to WTIL:

Bazooples Panel

Bazooples Panel with Backing

Rail Fence with Bazooples

Rail Fence with Backing

Baby Bunnies

Baby Bunnies with Backing

And here are a few sunsets that I have been seeing on my evening walks.  Sometimes the reflection in the eastern sky is as pretty as the western sun setting …