12 Hours Later

Hmm.. I posted this morning at 10 AM. Now it's nearly 10 PM and I'm back here again. Can't believe the weekend has already come to an end. Weekend time flies way too fast!

I finished my mystery quilt. Here it is! I might add a few small embellishments, but all the regular stuff is done, even a label.



These two quilts are for Wrap a Smile. The blue/red one I made when Terry H. was having her heart surgery. I quickly made this one in her honor, but then it took me a long time to get it quilted. The crumbs/Peanuts quilt is made with some high-loft polyester batting which I don't like, but it looks way better after getting washed and dried. Maybe I shouldn't write that batting off as useless. The Peanuts fabric was donated by Katie Q.





And here is the view out my kitchen window! Tonya and a few others were showing this on their blogs. We used to see deer in our back yard until they extended our street and built more houses in the woods. Now we only see deer once or twice a year, if we're lucky. I miss them! When the leaves are fully out, we can't see the neighbor back there at all.



Have a great week, everyone.

Tag! You're It!

I'm "It" - tagged by Darcie. OK. I'll try... here goes:

THE RULES:

1). Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.

2). Post THE RULES on your blog.

3). Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.

4). Tag 7 people and link to them.

5). Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.
-------

Odd facts about me:
1) I'm impulsive. I sometimes blurt out things that sound way more critical or crude than I mean them to be. That drives me nuts about myself.

2) It bothers me when I have to machine quilt over the face of a fabric animal or person like this (ouch!):


3) I have a terrible, incurable Sweet Tooth. (terrible but fun - chocolate rules the universe)

4) When I'm home alone I hook the screen door shut to "keep out the ax murderers."

5) I can't stand watching fights on TV and in movies. When a fight comes on the screen I always cover my face and ask hubby to tell me when it's over.

6) When I was a kid I used to dip potato chips in my koolaid.

7) I don't mind wearing mis-matched socks. The freedom to be weird when one gets older is a true pleasure.

NEXT! I'm tagging --
Heather
Pat
Elaine
and that's all.
You're IT, ladies.

Here's My Kaleidoscope

This pattern is Kaleidoscope by Cranberry Cupboards. I made this several years ago for my friend. That's me on the right and my friend on the left. Check out the pretty one Malagueta made for her own Domino challenge. I'm not going to do a Domino challenge, but thought I'd post a picture of my Kaleidoscope. Hers is WAY different.. go check it out!

Sewing Machine is Smoking!

Lately I have been sewing like a mad woman! Last Saturday I took a mystery class, finished it during the next two days, and now I'm working on the binding. I'll post a picture here when I get it done. I also made a couple more Christmas gift bags, and I have some tote bags cut out and ready to sew.



This quilt is one I made for To The Top Project which is a Yahoo group. We make quilts for veterans who live in various vet residences in New England. This will be quilted by one of our members who does almost all the quilting for this group. She's a gem! I like making quilts for this project, because the quilts go to the "forgotten" vets who are from Viet Nam and even from WWII, and also now a few from the Gulf Wars are starting to show up.

I've been feeling so inspired to sew a lot lately, and frustrated that I have to work and can't sew as often as I want. I almost wish I would enter one of my less-inspired moods so I could give my poor sewing machine a rest! How much do you bet that when I have spring break in a few weeks I'll have the time to sew but not the inspiration?!

Quilts for Panama

These two quilts are going to be hand carried to Panama! I am hoping they can be donated to two little kids in the hospital where I was born 55 years ago! (I don't even know if the hospital is still in existence.) Remember voting on the setting for the quilt on the left? This setting got a lot of votes, and I decided to go with it. I am *hoping hoping hoping* that I will be lucky enough to get pictures of the little kids who receive these quilts. If not, that's OK, too... but if I do, I will be thrilled, and will share the pictures with you here.

A House for Bonnie

Tonya suggested a house warming gift for Bonnie, including a house block and some other stuff... here's what I came up with:

First is my signature block. I used all orientals.



Here's my house block with the required red background:



And here's my Ugly along with a crumb block. My ugly isn't all that bad; it's just kind of too gross in its attempt to look like a cool hand-dyed piece.



I hope Bonnie enjoys her new North Carolina home!

The Show Kick-Off

Tonight we had our official opening of the quilt show, a reception, and a speaker (Heather Mulder Peterson of Anka's Treasures). I was so pleased that several friends and relatives came to the show and to see me in my featured quilter debut. I had a great time.

Another pleasant surprise was that two of my quilts were chosen by the show committee or museum staff members as Best of Show! They get to put ribbons on their favorites. I didn't expect any, and I got two! My friend, Sally, the other featured quilter, also got one. I thought that was so nice!





Heather Mulder Peterson's quilts are beautiful, and I love her patterns and her philosophy... she likes to make her patterns simple but look more complex than they really are. My cousin won a door prize which was one of Heather's books, and she also bought a pattern which we agreed to share. My daughter sat there enthralled and decided she needs to learn how to quilt! Husband and brother-in-law even came to the show and stayed way longer than I expected. What a nice surprise!



All in all it was a fun evening and successful event.

Is This a Quilt or a Poster?

This quilt is never-ending. I made it out of blocks that were given to me as gifts over a period of a few years. I was a Lotto coordinator, and people sometimes sent me a gift block when they sent in their monthly Lotto blocks. Wasn't that nice?? I saved them all, and this is the quilt that resulted.

I ran out of the fabric I was using for sashing and border. It sat unfinished for a long time until I finally bought more fabric that sort of has the colors of the first border. However, it is much darker. When I stepped back and took a careful look, the border was just too dark to leave alone. And the middle row of red hearts was too white. (I bordered them to enlarge them... why didn't I use some nice color there??)

So I began to add words. I think I might still add a few hearts in the upper left area... but for the most part I'm done adding border embellishments. I told my husband that with all those words I was turning my quilt into a poster.

I like it better without such a stark and stunningly dark border. And I'm happy to say that this looks close to being ready for the quilter! It took a while, but when it's finally done, I think I'm going to love this quilt.

Oh... a Fat Quarter goes to the first person who can correctly identify the person whose quote I have in the hearts row. Who said "do all the good you can?"

More Quilts

Here are some more quilts from our local quilt show.

Quilt Honoring Human Loss

Here's a picture of a small, 6-inch quilt. The square itself represents one American killed in the Iraq war. The French knots (212 of them) represent how many Iraqis die for every one American. This quilt project is the brainchild of Caron whose blog, And Still Counting, is here. She wanted a way to represent the toll this war is taking, without being political about it. No matter how a person feels about the war, I would hope anyone can view the quilt seriously, thinking of the human toll and not of politics. I appreciate the rare representation of the enormous losses on both sides. It's too easy to forget what is really happening so far from our own soil.

I hadn't made French knots in a few years, and was I ever rusty! You can see how inconsistent they are. Oh, well... I got better with practice. I'm going to make more squares. Just watch how my knots improve!



Here is a picture of the quilt as it is so far. Caron appreciates any help others can provide. She is hoping to put this quilt on display in St. Paul when the Republican National Convention meets here in August. Please check out her blog if you want to help. (I also have her link in my sidebar list of blogs.) She has a tutorial on how to make these little blocks. It's good hand work to do while watching movies from Netflix, sitting in traffic, traveling, etc.

...Go! (To the Quilt Show)

Welcome to my post #200! I am sharing a few pictures from my guild's quilt show. I don't want to show everything, in case any readers are from my area and can go to the show. I don't want to spoil the fun for them. It stays up for a month, so I'll show more pictures now and then as the month goes on.

Yesterday hubby and I helped set up the show. Then in the evening we went to a concert of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO). Wowowowowowowowowow!! They are fantastic! The last piece actually brought me to tears. Hooray for Mozart and also for the super-talented musicians of the SPCO. Here's the place where we enjoyed the magnificent music.



Happy Super Bowl Sunday, everyone! Our kids and one SO are coming over for dinner. Yippee!

Get Ready, Get Set...

Thursday night Sally and I got our quilts hung for the show. This picture shows Trisha who was a big help with details and suggestions!! Couldn't have done it without her. As featured quilters, we have our own little area in which to display. It was a little overwhelming at first, but as we got going, I started feeling happy and excited. They look great in our own little "gallery." It's a walled-off area in the museum, next to but separate from the general quilt display. It's the first year we have used this particular area for the featured quilters, and I really like the way it turned out!

Tomorrow husband and I will go help with general display set-up. It's so exciting to see all the beautiful quilts! Then the show opens on Wed., Feb 6. Pictures will appear here very soon.

A huge thank you to everyone who voted for my quilt setting (previous post)!!! Wow, getting so many comments was fun! Some of you made me laugh. I am pretty sure I am going to go with setting #2. I think it won the vote, and I like the movement in it, too. Plus, I agree with what Tonya said.. this setting avoids the big clumpy parts. I'll show you a picture of the finished product, hopefully sooner rather than later.