Back from Vacation

Shortly before we went on vacation, my mother had a slight fall at her assisted living facility (she’s fine) so that threw off my pre-vacation schedule big-time.  I had to make a few extra trips over there just to make sure everything was OK (2 hrs round-trip each just for driving time) and I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to.

• I had wanted to finish quilting and box up a load of children’s quilts and mail them – that didn’t happen.
• I had wanted to schedule some blog posts to display while we were gone – only one of those got done.
• I had wanted to clean my house before we left – fortunately, nobody else did it while we were gone and it’s still waiting < grin >!
• I had wanted to order some quilt books that were from a big sale C&T Publishing was having – well, of course I did that – I have priorities, you know!  They should arrive any day now …

So now that I’m taking a break from the endless laundry loads, here are a few pictures from our trip to North Carolina.  The weather in Florida was still in the mid-90s and it was upper 50s in NC when we got there and upper 70s when we left there.  We were loving it!

We played golf at several different mountain golf courses – one had a small cemetery with very old stones (1700-1800s) on a hillside – no I didn’t hit my ball there! – I just saw it and we investigated.  It is still attended – that’s very cool.

Our timeshare is at Lake Lure.  This is a view to the lake and one of the golf holes.

There were lots of deer everywhere this year.  We were approaching in a golf cart and this is the last of a bunch that were taking their time getting off of the cart path.

One course was apparently on the migration path of Canadian Geese.  These birds are so exquisite, but they are messy if you get my drift!  Puts new meaning to “getting a birdie” when you hit up to this green … these did move aside and were not aggressive.

I’m getting back to quilting today – I have an “ugly fabric” challenge to meet.  Personally, I don’t think the fabric is ugly!  I’ll post what I make later.

Fluff Festival?

Did you know that there was an annual street festival to celebrate that venerable creation Marshmallow Fluff?  Y-e-s-s-e-r-i-e, Bob, it’s for real.  And it honors Archibald Query, who invented the gooey, sticky spread back in 1917.

The Sixth Annual “What the Fluff: A Tribute to Union Square Invention” will be held Saturday, Sep 24^th in

Union Square, Somerville, Massachusetts

.  And there’s a cooking contest … No joke!  The categories are:

§             Best Original Recipe

§             Best Traditional Recipe

§             Most Creative

§             Best Youth Entry

§             Grand Prize: Best Overall

I, of course, will not be able to enter because you have to take at least 6 servings of your best Fluff recipe and I would NEVER be able to let those servings leave my kitchen uneaten.  I’m just that way - I’ve never met a Marshmallow Treat or a Peep that I didn’t like.

Fluffernutter, anybody?  You can even have yours on a T-shirt, tote bag or get the comic books:

Thank you, Durkee-Mower, for bringing this totally joyful treat into our homes and good luck to all you Fluffy-cooks up in Massachusetts.  May the Fluff be with you.

Just One Top Done

Just finished up the borders on the 4-to-9 Patch top.  I like the country colors in this one.  Maybe I'll bite the bullet and try some more feathers in the light tan part (it's not as white as it looks in the photo).  I'll probably just meander in the middle - my current favorite, easy quilt design!

And this is the inspiration for my next easy quilt top.  You can tell that the heat has been getting to me and I haven't gotten that energy boost that the crisp fall weather is supposed to bring - ha! - not in Florida - maybe in October!  This photo is of the side wall of one of the local elementary schools, and is a simple square in a square set on point - perfect for some novelty fabrics.

America Remembers

Quilters have a history of community and compassion.  From the earliest days, groups of women met in “quilting bees”.  They shared the workload, enjoyed the fellowship of other women and helped each other through times of trouble.

When tragedy struck the United States of America on September 11, 2001, many quilters turned to their craft to work through their anger, grief and sorrow for the families of 9-11 victims.

Some of the many 9-11 Memorial Quilts were featured in the April 2002 edition of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine in their QNM Readers’ Quilt Show section.

One of the quilts shown was made by Ann Flaherty, a Textile, Fiber and Quilt Artist.  Ann’s quilt portrayed the Statue of Liberty and the burning skyline of New York City based on a photograph taken on 9-11.  It is titled “Liberty Endures”.

The quilting has pentagon shapes stitched amongst the buildings and behind Liberty’s flame.  Ann also began Operation Kid Comfort that creates comfort quilts and pillows for children of deployed service men and women.  Ann requests that you remember our service personnel today and everyday.

Another beautiful and detailed quilt shown in the QNM article was made by Natima Palaskas a New Zealander living in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates at the time of 9-11.  Natima expressed her shock at seeing the events in America unfold and that, even though she wasn’t living in America, she felt that their loss was her loss and their safety was her safety.  She named her quilt “One for All and All for One” in keeping with her thought that quilters live in one world of sharing and helping each other.  Her quilt was machine quilted by Donna Ward of New Zealand.

Natima’s quilt is also featured in a beautiful book from C&T Publishing called “America From the Heart: Quilters Remember September 11, 2001” by Karey Bresenhan.  To preview many of the quilts included in this book and excerpts with the quilters’ thoughts and intentions when they designed their quilts, check out Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/3d4ax76  OR  see the eBook offered by Google at http://tinyurl.com/3chzvvr.

http://tinyurl.com/3d4ax76 

Some of the most famous quilts were a product of “America’s 9-11 Memorial Quilts  Project” initiated by Jeannie Ammermann.  Jeannie’s desire to memorialize the victims resulted in multiple quilts that drew volunteers from all over the USA.  Individual quilts honored the Port Authority Staff, the New York State Courts, the New York Fire Dept, the New York Police Dept, the Emergency Services Personnel, the Port Authority Police, the crew and passengers of United Flight 93, Pentagon Personnel and the crew and passengers of Flight 77.

The largest quilt, honoring all 9-11 Victims, was a team effort, lead by Connie Daniels, that included photos of every victim.  It is about 60 feet long and ten feet tall and was made in three sections.  Through its symbolism and photographs of victims, it depicts all events around the 9-11 attacks.

Center of the Victims' Quilt

To learn more about this project, go to http://www.911memorialquilts.com/.

Today we remember and mourn their losses with the families of the victims.  Today we will continue to rebuild and carry on the ideals of this country.  Today we will still have hope for our future and pray for peace throughout the world.  It’s what we do in this Country.

God Bless the USA

Friday Focus

I’m sure I’ve gone on record to say that I don’t like sewing lots of little pieces … I do much better with big blocks.  Although I really like the way that this top is turning out,  I’d like to see it done!  So that’s going to be my focus for Friday.

This is just laid out on the floor now with the border in pieces.  The green on the outside is actually a very pretty color, medium green with tiny dark green stars – not gray at all.  I’ll try to get a more true color when it’s finished.

Wrapping Up Loose Ends

Just wrapping up a few loose ends.  I had put the borders on the Trail to Treadleonia top and I think it contains the “wildness” nicely.

I then made up the lottery blocks that I had pledged for this month in the Mailblocks swap group.  There are actually five, but two are the same orange fabric.  I liked how this Maple Leaf block from the Quilter’s Cache turned out … I can’t remember making it before.  I wouldn’t mind winning the blocks this month (it’s winner take all)!

That’s it for another rainy day.  Our cable was knocked out all over the county last night – another huge electrical storm.  We had no internet and no cable TV channels for most of the day.  We sure are tired of it.  I think we’ve had more than our share this summer.  Oh well, time to think about dinner anyway!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Labor Day, a national holiday in the United States since 1984, is celebrated the first Monday in September.  Those who are lucky enough to get the entire three-day weekend off often celebrate with picnics, community/corporate events, watersports and backyard bar-b-ques (grilling on the barbie).  At my house, we are having pot roast using my grandmothers roasting pan that I inherited and love.  Non-traditional? Yes, but yum-yummy!

Smelling Good Already!

And speaking of tradition, Labor Day is seen as the symbolic end-of-summer and women often change over from their summer wardrobes to their winter wardrobes – and they stop wearing white (especially white shoes).  Here in Florida, that doesn’t make sense – it’s still at least 90^◦ (33 c) outside.  I’ll just change over my quilts from light colors to fall colors instead – ha, ha!

This white whole-cloth crib quilt is in the collection at the Illinois State Museum:

While it is beautiful, I am unlikely to ever make something like this.  The Trail to Treadleonia is more my style for donation quilting and it’s what I’m finishing up today.  I have the borders picked out and ready to be cut and sewn.  I guess you could say I’ve moved on to “winter colors” for Labor Day!  These blocks were part of a block swap, so I didn’t make them all myself, but I sure do like them all together.

It has a few novelties and will have tiny stars in the border.

The pattern for this block is at:

http://www.treadleon.net/quiltshop/TrailtoTreadleonia/trailtotreadleonia.html

Progress and Magnolia Facts

The “4 to 9-patches” that I have been working on are progressing nicely.  I was on a roll once I figured how to cut the pieces of the blocks that I started earlier in the year – I still have a few more to cut.  The two blocks at the bottom show two more colors that will be introduced when I finish sewing.

Then I’ll have to dig around in the ol’ stash and find some country colors for the borders.  I’m sure I have something suitable since I’m on a self-imposed fabric buying diet!

And now for the Magnolia Tree facts:

Magnolia trees are actually relatively pest-free and easy to grow and they are gorgeous with big showy blossoms, lovely fruit and colorful seeds.  In my area, we have both the larger Magnolia Grandiflora  and the slightly smaller Sweet Bay (Virginiana).  This is an example of the flowers we saw earlier this summer:

http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/gardens/magnolia-trees-00400000065893/

On my walk today, I took some close-up shots of the cone-like woody fruit that we are seeing now and the seeds that pop out of the cone as the fruit matures:

The seeds are a favorite of pileated woodpeckers and other birds.  Yes, they also attract those pesky squirrels that my dog has sworn to eradicate - LOL!  The red coating on the seeds is high in fat and often migrating birds seek them out for the energy boost.

And did you know that the flowers are not pollinated by bees?  Nope, they’re pollinated by beetles, so don’t be too aggressive in eliminating beetles if you have a magnolia in your yard!  You can find lots of information about majestic magnolias at

http://www.magnoliasociety.org/

Don't Wait Too Long

I began making Four-into-Nine Patch squares back in March.  I have no idea how I got sidetracked (maybe a fabric sale and some adorable kiddie fabric?!!), but I only made this many squares then they got set aside:

That was a big mistake because then I didn’t remember what sizes I had cut the original pieces.  And we all know that math is not my strong suit.  The fabrics I started with were similar to layer cakes (which are 10 inch squares), but these came from a packaged set of odd sized rectangles instead (approx 9 x 10).

See those strips at the top of the picture above?  – that’s what helped me remember what to do.  Fortunately I had saved them from the original cuttings because I expected to make a piano key type border from them.  They were about 1 inch wide, so I figured I had started with 9 inch squares. So I went ahead and cut and sewed the 4-patches.

Then I remembered that I had used a black-marked 3 inch wide ruler instead of my regular Omnigrid ruler, so that was easy enough to see that I had cut the middles at 1 ½ inches on either side of the center seam.

Voila!  More blocks are in the works and I’m back on track.

Thank Heavens!

PS  Check out the picture of the great barn block on the police station in Tillamook, Oregon at the top of my sidebar.  Apparently the whole town was getting on the barn block bandwagon and a quilter on a quilter’s message board took this picture (I’m sorry I can’t find the original message to give her credit for the photo).  But look closely and see that those “flowers” really are iced donuts!  What a hoot … perfect for a police station stereotype ...

Another Top for Bev B

Continuing the memorial to Bev B – a dear friend and leader of the Sunshine Quilt Guild that passed away last year:

Yesterday, I finished up another top from blocks I was given that had been in Bev’s stash – Bev had the four big blocks and lots of little matching fabric 4-patch blocks - my job was to assemble what I had into a pleasing pattern and to find some similar or blendable (is that a word?) fabric for a border to bring it up to a good size for the kids that Sunshine supports.

The squares aren't as pink as they look here -
 they're more wine-colored.

Of course, I never remembered to take a block along when I was in a fabric store, so last week, when I saw this heart fabric, I thought I’d just wing-it.  The colors looked pretty close to what I remembered about the blocks and I thought the hearts theme would make it more kid-friendly.

This is the finished top – I think I did ok!  This one will go to WAS (see my sidebar).

A Big Kiss and Little Hugs from Bev B

Finished Up a Top

I finished up the Frog Top today.

Oh, you didn’t realize it had anything to do with frogs?!  Well, check out the middle block … aren’t they cute?  Little frogs around bigger frogs.

This block was one, among many cute ones, that I won in the novelty block month and was the inspiration for the whole quilt!  Thank you, *S*, in the Sunshine Quilt Guild (you know who you are).  I loved everything about this block and couldn’t stop smiling at the frogs smiling back at me - so I surrounded them in their very own frog pond.  Now it’s in the UFO pile to be quilted for donation.  Hope that happens soon – the pile is growing!  These will all go to WAS.

How a Quilter Exercises

I used to have a desk job.  Now that I’m retired, I try to build in a little exercise wherever I can, but today I think I got my fill.  This is what happened (and a little background).

A couple of days ago, I picked a pattern from a quilt book.  It was a darling quilt in bright fabrics – perfect for children.  I cut out the right number of pieces for five or six blocks to start and then got chased out of the sewing room by the lightning (a seasonal hazard here in west central Florida).  This photo is from Brazil, but shows the awesome power of these storms:

http://freenaturepictures.blogspot.com/

So I picked up today where I left off then  - No problem – I was ready to go.

I laid out the block pieces nice and neatly on the cutting board ready to sew.  Wait!  I’m missing two squares at the top and bottom corners of each block.  How did THAT happen?  So I get up and cut those squares – fortunately, I had plenty of fabric.  Getting up to cut those was the start of the exercise for the day.

I then sewed the left column of pieces I had laid out to the middle column.  Very pretty:

Then I sewed the left sections to the right column.  Again, very pretty:

More exercise (now this is planned – I have to get up to go to the ironing board so I get some activity – good plan, huh?) – well, I get up to iron the tops and bottoms ready to sew to the middles.

 Wait AGAIN!  What’s wrong with this picture?

The tops and bottoms aren’t the right size to sew to the middles.  Now, I’ve heard tell of quilters that actually read and follow the directions, but I thought I KNEW what I was doing.

I checked out the picture in the book.  Yep.  It’s perfectly clear that only one corner on the top and one corner on the bottom has the square – that’s why I didn’t need those extra pieces I had just cut.

Go to get the seam ripper – more exercise.  Do the frog imitation – rippit, rippit.

Sew the corrected tops to the middles and get up to iron – count that as exercise.

Then sew the bottoms to the middles.  You got it, more ironing and exercise getting to the ironing board.

Then, get up to square up the blocks – more exercise (hey, every little bit counts).

And I only ended up with a few blocks, but I like the way they’re developing, so it’s back to make more tomorrow (got chased out by thunderstorm AGAIN today). 

Might glance at the picture before starting in again tomorrow – LOL.

Box Finally Gets Packed Up

I’ve finally packed up the box with all six quilts to go to Wrap-Them-in-Love (WTIL).  Our Sunshine Quilt Guild (on-line) supports this group along with Wrap-a-Smile (WAS) – see the buttons on my sidebar for more info.

I may have already posted about the two Teddy Bear panels that are in this box, and along with those I added two more neo-natal intensive care (NICU) quilts and two larger child-size quilts for a grand total of six that are ready to travel to their new homes.  Now I have to finish up a few that are in the works and top off the box that I’m preparing to go to WAS.  Always something to do when you love to play with fabric!  These are in the current box:

Bound in Green

Bound in Red

I posted about the other two here with photos.  Happy Quilting!