Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Fun Stuff!

This past week has been a blur, not to mention, I never pulled out my camera.  No, not even once.  I spent the entire week getting ready for our Bus Hop, which was Friday and Saturday.  But the weekend prior to this, I did have a little fun. 


First, here's Delaney with her new "Plasma Car".  After I spent some time at Fern Hill with Randy and others, she mentioned to me about this Plasma Car.  I couldn't resist.  When I got home from Fern Hill, I immediately ordered one.

Briana and Delaney stopped by for lunch one day and I just had to get it out I couldn't resist showing her the new car.  She loved it.  But for now, it's staying at our house.  She will be staying with us at the end of this week for a few days and she'll love having it here.


 Now, here are the dogs!  Hmmm, my daughter took this picture with her phone, so it's not the best, but if you look real hard, there are three of them up there.  My first reaction was, why are they on my sofa, which they are not allowed!  But they're upstairs on this futon (old) and that is okay, but really, all three!  Now that is too funny!  You would never know that it's two dogs that are over 100# each and one that is almost 50#.   They somehow managed to get all scrunched up together. 



Now for the really good stuff.  I managed to get a little sewing time in on the weekend prior to the bus hop.  This one is a wall hanging or table topper called "Yankee Stars" and finishes at 22" x 22".  It's a fun take on those Jo Morton Stars and a variation of a courthouse steps.



It goes together so nice and even a beginner quilter can do this!








 
And Voila!  Done, and it really didn't take all day.  That's what I like about some of these smaller fun projects.  And don't you just love how they stars managed to get centered in the middle?  What a great way to use this fabric.



Now onto more fun things.  I have 2 more small quilts to do and put a border on my House Sampler.  Pictures to follow.

Till Later, PJR

Sunday, October 16, 2011

911 Quilt Day

I have to say that this event was suppose to have taken place last month, but either way it was wonderful.
Let me start at the beginning.  A year ago last month, a good friend of mine, Debbie, came to a Saturday sew day with this wonderful block that she'd made from the pattern called "911 Quilt" by Laundry Basket Designs.  It's a wonderful quilt, but not for a beginner by any means.  Well, the more people that looked at this pattern, the more interest it drew.  Debbie and I got our brains going, thinking about how to make it easier.  Well, we have an Accuquilt Dye Cut Machine in the shop and I decided to call the company to see how much it would be to have the curved pieces made.  So when others found out that we could dye cut the curved pieces, they were interested also.  The arcs are paper pieced.  So, we decided to make it a fabric swap and then each individual could come in and cut their blocks.  So as it turned out, we had 25 people doing the fabric swap. 

This also got our brains thinking.  Not always a good thing, if you know what I mean.  Being that a year from then would be the 10th anniversary of the 911 event, we decided to have a 911 Quilt day.  It was going to be on 9/11, but the weekend didn't work out for the shop.  So instead we had it yesterday.  It was sunny, but very windy, so I had quite a time keeping them all on the clothesline.  Any customers that came to the shop yesterday had the chance to vote on the quilts.  We had votes for "Best of Show", "Best Creativity", "Best Workmanship", and "Best UFO".  Here are a few pics.
   They ranged in size from a small lap to a full queen size quilt.  You had your choice of how big you wanted to make it and how you wanted to set it.  Some of them choose to make it with narrower sashing.  And some did pieced arcs in the borders. 
This was Karen T's 911 quilt.  She did some 911 Blocks in the outer border corners.  Her border fabric was a fabulous beige reproduction print.  Karen's won Best Workmanship.  Good job Karen!
This 911 quilt belongs to Kathy H.  She set her 911 blocks with this wonderful blue print and bordered it with a great tan print.  She sized her sashing down a bit, but kept the inner border to the size that the pattern called for.  I loved it!  Great job Kathy!
This was actually a quilt that was put together by several of us that donated 2 blocks each.  I donated the sashing, border, and binding fabric, and Marge West donated the backing and her quilting.  The quilt raised $1000 towards a benefit for 911 called the "Remember Rally" that Marge's husband does every year.  Good job to all that donated blocks and time.
This is Debbie D's 911 Quilt.  She sashed her quilt in a Judie Rothermel indigo blue print and cornerstones and outer border was this fabulous chartreuse yellow/green print.  It was wonderful.  Great job Deb.  Debbie was one of the first ones to be done with her quilt.
This 911 quilt belongs to Diane Q.  She used fabrics that she has had for quite a few years.  They were very patriot prints.  She even used some lady liberty print for her label on the back.  I should have taken a picture of her label, she does such a great job on them.  Her quilt won "Best Creativity.  I'm sure it was due to the arc piecing in the inner border and the curved corners.  Great job Diane!
This 911 Quilt is by Marge W.  She won the prize for Best UFO as she completed the top, but it was not quilted yet.  I have to laugh because, you know how the saying goes, "the builder never gets his own house done".  Well, Marge is a longarm quilter.  A fabulous one at that.  So, now you know that she puts everyone else's quilts before her own.  Great job Marge!
And lastly is Peggy D's 911 Quilt.  Peggy won "Best of Show".  Honestly, it was the one that just popped out and spoke to you.  Fabulous colors and nice job.  She made her sashing slightly smaller than the pattern had called for, but she was the only one that I knew of that used a brighter reproduction print to set her blocks.  Wonderful, wonderful job, Peggy!

And to all the others that may have or not have finished their 911 Quilts (I'm one of those), better luck next time, we wished you could have joined us.

Till Next Time, PJR

Fern Hill Retreat

Well, it's been some time since my last post.  Life seems to be to busy, especially in the fall and the shop takes presidence over other things.

At the end of September a few of us went on a retreat to Fern Hill in New Glarus, Wisconsin.  It's a lovely area just outside of town.  We had great fun and inspired each other.  Here are a few projects that everybody worked on.









Here's Bonnie with her Basket Quilt by Blackbird Designs made with "Antique Fair".  What a wonderful quilt!














And DarLynn with her Doll quilt.  This was an exchange that we did a couple years ago.  I still don't have mine together.  Way to go DarLynn!  Love those dolls!








Here's Debbie's quilt that she made for her Son and Daughter-in-law to be.  What a gorgeous quilt!  I'm sure they will love it.







And then there's Marge's quilt.  This was from one of Jo Morton's books.  They name befunks me at the moment, but what a great quilt.  She bought it as a kit from the shop a couple years ago.  Love it!




This is a quilt that I made for my granddaughter, Delaney.  I just decided to do different types of piecing in each pieced row separated with part of a panel
I started when she was still in womb and she's now over 14 months old.  Well, it's never too late.  I just figured, when I didn't finish it when she was born, I would give it to her at a later time.  Now I think it worked out perfect.  It has more of a toddler appeal anyways.  It will be a Christmas present.








Here's another one of DarLynn's quilts.  She started this at another retreat sometime back.  Isn't it sweet?  You just gotta love those pinwheels.  And of course, this is something she just made up. 






This is something that Marge was working on.  Little four-patches that finish at 1 1/2" each for a quilt called "Dipped in Chocolate".  That was another quilt that we did an exchange for.  I only have mine done in rows.  Someday it will get there.  But don't you just love how they landed in front of her sewing table on the floor like that in a little spiral pile.  Love it!





Here's a close up of that pile.  So perfectly spiraled.  Lots and lots of little four-patches!






This is DarLynn with a pincushion she won.  A Shawnee vase made into a pincushion.  Well, the game we played the last player could steel anybodies gift.  Guess who the last player was.  Me!  I tried, believe me.  She tried to tell me that she had a pet sheep and all that bull just so that I wouldn't steel it from her.  Well, she won out.  I did not steel it.  Darn!




But instead, I won this!  Isn't it adorable?  Gotta love it.  I also got a little pair of scissors with it, but they are being used while this picture was taken.  They are awfully cute too.  There's a lady north of where we live that makes up wonderful vintage stuff like this.  She's amazing




These are just a couple of things that I made during the retreat.  The little caddy on the left is for a mini iron.  And the bag is called "The Peek-a-Boo" bag.  It's made with 2 fat quarters, some fusible interfacing and clear vinyl.  Too darn cute!



This is a "Sewing Caddy" that I made several months ago, but it you look at my ironing tote and my peek-a-boo bag, you'll notice that they all kind of match.  Last year I bought this fabric at this shop in Monticello.  It's only about 10 minutes from the Fern Hill retreat.  This year we went back there and voila, they still had the fabric.  I decided I needed more, then I thought it would be fun if they all matched.  Oh Fun!

I wished I had taken more pictures of the scenery outside.  Great fall colors and beautiful countryside. 

Till next time, PJR