Starts, Finished and Progress

Just read over my last post and can't believe that I haven't written a post in a month and a half and how much has been happening since then. 

My foot/ankle is improving, if not fast enough for my tastes! My doctor had me taking massive doses of anti-inflammatories for 10 days and the swelling and inflammation went down at least temporarily. I was on my feet this past Friday and Saturday at the Guild Quilt Show on cement floors and Sunday was a hard day but both legs and feet were unhappy. Monday when I went to work I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could walk at close to normal speed without limping and even the stairs weren't bad. 

I got my two quilts finished for the quilt show and I was really happy with how they both turned out. I will do another post soon showing the quilting on this first one. The small tag hanging under the label says "A GUY likes this quilt." Every man who came in received one of these tags to put on a quilt he like. This quilt eventually received two of these tags and the other received on.

 This one is my 2004 Shop Hop Quilt. I had it in the Relay for Life Quilt Show in March but I added some more quilting in the block 'shadows' so the blocks would stand out a little more. 

Tonight I plan to take the hanging sleeve off so it can be put on our new bed. 

Fall is definitely here in Western Washington. We had about a week of fog that just didn't lift and now the sun has been out for a few days and it is gorgeous! Our son has been helping get the leaves picked up from the yard. Today we got 4 loads of leaves hauled away and yesterday and today I got most of the mowing done and let SIL finish it off. I can sure feel it in the muscles that I was out working in the yard!

I have gotten quite a few Harry Potter blocks done for the quilt I am working on but with other things going on I realized I would not have it done for the quilt show. I did finish the hand quilting on my 2002 Shop Hop quilt but I don't have any pictures of that yet. I will try to get that done soon. 

I finished a border on one round robin project and have one more I hope to get to tomorrow so I can pass them off to my niece and get some others from her. We need to get them moving along again. She and I have both have had crazy summers.

Our daughter and son-in-law got their little house on wheels moved out to its 'new' home and are pretty much settled in. Our son is settled into our Argosy until he finds a 'real' job. For now he is doing some math tutoring and helping around the house some.

There are rumors we will have grandkids here for Halloween so might have to do some quick planning for a fun family party. We are thinking decorating gingerbread haunted houses or maybe Halloween sugar cookies.

I need to pull some things together next week for a quilt retreat too. 

The Quilt Show & #5 & Rearranging

Here is a close up of the quilting on finish #5 for the year. It was made from the leftover triangles of another quilt that I blogged about here. 

I was happy to get it done to hang in the quilt show which was March 16. The show went well with about 50 quilts hanging. I only had one quilt of mine hanging that had been in the show before. There were 11 local quilters who shared their quilts in the show. 

Here is a shot of the Eiffel Tower quilt my niece made to raise money for her trip with the Vivace Chorale to Paris. It is an adaptation of the Stained Glass Denim Quilt Pattern I have used so much. It is amazing to me how many people are still asking for that pattern.

This quilt was done all by hand by a local quilter. The base of the tree is hidden by the sewing machine that was for sale. The creator of the quilt saw a 3" X 3" picture of this tree and enlarged it to a queen size quilt! This quilter shared 7 or 8 quilts with us at the show!

Here are three more quilts on display. 

Another quilter shared these two quilts on the quilt rack with us. They were both hand sewn. The Cathedral Window quilt used 30 yards of unbleached muslin and 3 yards of the blue calico.

If you would like to see more pictures from the show, they are up on flickr.

I have been working on getting things rearranged in the house to allow for the new pieces of furniture that arrived a few weeks ago. I emptied out a bookcase and took it to my niece's house. I rearranged things in the great room and then started to add items to the new curio cabinet. I kept adding and found more things and added them and was rather surprised to fill it! 

I have also been working hard at cleaning up the sewing room. It was just such a huge mess! I am pretty satisfied with it right now but there is still room for improvement. I bought some bins to store fabric and batting, etc. and started filling the little drawers in the sewing cabinet and I even got rid of quite a few things. I will try to post some pictures soon but the weather is improving and I have a lot of work to do outside!

Retreat, #4 and Show

Last weekend was Quilt Retreat for me and I got a lot accomplished. I got the star blocks from the last block exchange put together and got the borders on another top that has been waiting around for several months. I also did two sets of One Block Wonder blocks and two LWR quilt tops. As a final project I worked on some blocks that I started several years ago.

Had a great visit with my sister and other quilters at the retreat and the bonus visit from my daughter and grandkids. On my way home I stopped by my son's apartment and picked up the twin bed he has been using. He decided that a nearly 23 year old, 6 foot tall young man should have a big person's bed. This was followed by a quick stop at my daughter's house and I continued on the trip home. I was so glad to be home at about 5:30 pm after leaving camp at about 8:30 am!

I arrived home to two new pieces of furniture in my house. The most exciting was my new sewing cabinet that my husband made for me.

It has 24 treadle sewing machine cabinet drawers, a shelf for my serger and it fits around my Sew-E-Z table for my sewing machine. I have only done a little sewing since I got home but I already love the extended sewing surface. I haven't had a chance to fill all the drawers yet but I am looking forward to getting things organized.

The other piece of furniture is an antique curio cabinet that my husband purchased from a customer. 

I already have one curio cabinet and really no more space in my house so we are emptying a book case and giving it to our niece to make some more space. I am also considering giving away another piece if I can get things rearranged to I'm not using the space.

With the quilt show just one week away I am trying to get more quilts finished that are close. Here is finish #4 for the year. These are my Block Exchange Blocks from this past year. The rainbow stripe fabric is the backing for the quilts I made with my grandkids so I figure this will be a cuddle quilt for them to use at Grammy's house. I used a polyester batt that I had on hand and was able to make it two layers so it is nice and fluffy. 

I started quilting another quilt yesterday and after I had some feather borders done I realized the tension was off and I have to rip it all out! I stayed home from work today as I am not feeling well so I am hoping to get the ripping done today and then maybe I will feel better tomorrow so I can get the quilting redone so it is ready for the show.

This week I have received 20 quilts from other local quilters and hope to get at least another 20 for the show. I have 3-7 people who have offered some so I hope to get a bunch. I am hoping to only have newer quilts of mine in the show so it is mostly fresh and new. I was excited this week to find out that we will have a beautiful handmade oak quilt rack made by one of our church members to raffle off.

Well, I still feel pretty crummy but I am going to try to get something accomplished today even if it is just hand stitching a binding!

Great Show!

Well, I think I am about recovered from the show and its aftermath. 


My niece, Katie, and I managed, with the help of several others, to get the show set up in less than 2 hours on Friday evening and then headed home to get the labels made up and last minute items ready for the show. My daughter, Chelsea, and the grandkids, along with my other niece, Brita, arrived a bit later and we stayed up a little later than would have been smart!

Katie and I woke up early and along with the grandson we were at the church before 8 to do the finishing touches. GS counted the quilts and we had 70 quilts in the show! And of those 70, 18 were from other quilters in the community. After the flood and remodel at the church we had to rethink our set-up for the show and I think it was our best so far. Here is one picture from the show and if you want to see more you can head on over to Flickr.

We had a good turn-out and lots of positive feedback from those who came. 

After the show we got things tidied up and left a few quilts up for church and headed home and had our pizza dinner (no one had the energy to cook something!) and we were all ready for bed by 8! Luckily we had to spring ahead so we can say we went to bed at a more respectable 9!

Sunday was a day filled with much activity and I was so tired. I so wanted to take a snooze while the kids watched a movie but it is so hard to sleep when one child is squirming next to you on the couch and the other is squirming on top of you! I was happy to talk Brita out her Lumberjack Barbie birthday cake and into a chocolate cake (her birthday was Saturday) with chocolate cream cheese frosting!

Yesterday morning everyone was packed in the car and on their way and then after I had started washing sheets and towels, I got a call that they were coming back - too much snow on the pass - so we got an extra afternoon and evening with the crowd.

I did get all the quilts returned to their owners yesterday and got to the bank to deposit the proceeds from the show.

Today I am again doing the washing and getting caught up on some things and generally being lazy! Tomorrow maybe I will tackle getting the sewing room cleaned up some!

The quilt show is getting closer and I am amazed that I am feeling pretty good about things coming together. 

Yesterday I quilted the Christmas quilt, finished the binding on this one

and got started on the binding on the carnation quilt. 


I did the binding work at two separate quilt guild meetings. In the afternoon, I went to a neighboring guild to talk about and invite people to the show. I had one person offer a quilt for display and sold a few tickets for the drawing. 


Got some take-out for dinner and then headed to the second guild meeting. This was my usual guild meeting. The funny thing is we had the same speaker at both meetings so she had to hear my spiel twice while I got to enjoy two different talks! The speaker was Mary Lou Weidman and talked about her story quilts and shared many of them with us. Just amazing! After talking about the quilts I had one person hand me a quilt to put in the show and several say they would be at the show. 


Today I will be quilting the baby quilt, taking the dog to the groomer, picking up a quilt and doing some grocery shopping - our daughter, grandkids and two nieces will be here over the weekend for the show and a visit so we need food in this house!

Retreat Recap, part 1

Home again! What a great weekend! Not rested, but happy. 

My drive across the state to the retreat was uneventful, though I did get to have lunch with my sister, Karla, and our friend, Teena, as they were returning home from some meetings. Great meal and fun conversation. I had been worried about snow on my drive but I didn't have to drive in any until I turned down the drive to my daughter, Becky's, house. Had to climb into the back of the car to find my boots so I could even get out of the car. We had a fun visit talking a lot about their upcoming move back to our house so she can work on finishing their tiny house on wheels while her hubby is out on the road. 

Headed over to the retreat in the morning and got set up and started sewing. My first project was getting all the quilting threads on the HP quilt taken care of. As I was working on it I realized that the last 4 or 5 blocks I had quilted had poor tension so I ripped those out and will redo them today. Everyone loved the quilt and I was able to sell quite a few drawing tickets at the retreat. I also ended up selling one owl hat and getting an order for 5 more so I will be working on those in the coming weeks.

I saw a tutorial last week online for a folded bag and just had to try it so that was one of my early projects. (Lynn T, if you are reading this I am supposed to tell you that you are not allowed to try this yourself, Jill is making you one!) It is made from 2 squares of fabric, sewn together and turned right sides out, top-stitched and then folded and turned and fluffed and you get these. 

Mine is the second from the left on the bottom row. I really liked it as a thread catcher while sewing. Karla and I were going to make some scrap catchers like this but these folded bags are so much easier and practical that we went with these. Karla made 4 of the bags in the above picture and a couple of other quilters in our group each made one for themselves. These were all made from 17-18" squares.

Others came up and saw the bags and wanted to make some for themselves so I said I would do a little 'thing' downstairs and teach them too so they all started getting their squares cut in preparation for the next morning. I wanted to have some samples of a couple of the steps ready for the morning so I started a couple bags to give to my grandkids when they arrived the next day. I only had 10" squares of fabrics they would like so I went for it. I was so tempted to finish them to see how they would turn out but instead I cut another couple of fabrics up and made two little bags out of 8" and 9" squares. They are the cute little strawberry bags in the front of this next picture.

When I got up the next morning I dug out all the extra fabric I had in my piles and cut out whatever I could for bags and made the above baskets. We had much discussion about all their uses and determined that the 8" would make adorable little egg holders for Easter and the 9" could hold sugar packets at your table. The 18" ones are great for small potted plants and a 20-21" will hold a square box of tissues as you can see in the above picture. The biggest one there is a 20" and has a tissue box in it. One of the best  things about these bags is that they fold flat so are easy to store when not in use. I am hoping these will be a big seller at the quilt show and at Relay for Life. I have lots more fabrics I can use for them.

When I headed downstairs to the other quilting room there were at least 10 people who learned to make the bags. One person used corduroy which I think could be great for a larger bag made from maybe a 36-45" square to be used for dog toys or baby toys on the floor. Someone else used flannel which is so nice and soft and would be great in a baby's room for holding socks in a drawer or cotton balls or pacifiers or almost anything!

One of the ladies is an amazing quilter and embellisher and she had fun with her bag. You can see the front and back here:

I think that many of the bags will be made in the coming weeks by a lot of the quilters for selling at bazaars, using in their own homes, giving as gifts, etc. I know I am going to get more done in the coming days and weeks.


Well, I have much to do before Saturday's quilt show so I had better save the rest of the retreat recap for later!

So what do you think?

Yep, the top is done and waiting for backing. Though I haven't gotten an email saying the backing has shipped so I might just have to go do some shopping to get a different backing fabric so I can get this thing quilted and finished! I am planning to make another Harry Potter quilt so when the backing does come I will just use it for that.


I ended up with a black tonal for a border. I had enough of the fabric to cut 4" strips to go around so that is what it got!


Yesterday I also did another coat of mud on the drywall so it is looking better though still not great - definitely not one of my favorite jobs. 


Other jobs for yesterday included folding the 3 loads of laundry that have been languishing in the laundry room while I sewed, going to my neighbors to cut numbers on her Cricut to put a new date on the quilt show sandwich boards so they can get put out today or tomorrow, and doing a little cuddling with an adorable little baby boy. The little guy is almost 3 months old and was not impressed with my skills - he wanted Mommy! When his daddy came home he said that it is the same way for him so I shouldn't feel too bad! I didn't because we did have a little while when he was happy!


Oh, and I also had a little time to get started with cutting the pieces for the girl baby quilt. I would love to have the cutting done today so it is ready to take to the quilt retreat but my first job is to get the sign amendments done so they can be laminated so they last for 2 weeks in our lovely wet February/March weather!

Quilt Show Part 2 plus some

I spent last Friday in the sewing room. I got two comfort quilts basted and quilted. I even had one of the bindings finished before I headed for bed. Friday evening we went out for 'date night' and also picked up the paint for the bathroom. 


Saturday I spent several hours at the quilt show. I arrived in time for my first job only to find out I was told the wrong time so I had my hour to look at the quilts, check out the venders and take pictures at the beginning. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and had to use my phone so the pictures are not the best. I mostly took pictures for future inspiration. Here are some of my favorites.

To see the rest of the pictures you can go to Flickr.


I had fun working at the show. I was one of the quilt turners. There were about 20 or more quilts laid out on a bed and as one guild member told the story of each of the quilts another member and I folded them back so the next quilt was revealed. Then I had to hustle over to the raffle table. It was fun talking with the guests as they were filling out their raffle tickets. I really enjoyed getting to know some of my fellow guild members a little. 


I was back at the quilt show as it closed on Sunday afternoon to help take down the quilts and the hangers. It is amazing how fast things come down when you have a huge crew helping. 


Today I spent the day on the road with Hubby fixing appliances or at least watching him fix them since he had an appointment this morning with the eye doctor and had his eyes dilated. This evening I got a little closer to finishing the last of the 5 Christmas quilt tops. I really hope I can finish tomorrow so the Christmas fabric can be put away for a while!


I really need to get some other projects finished like baby quilts, the label on Sally's quilt (the reveal is a week from tomorrow!) and my block for the next round robin - Saturday is the reveal for this past year's round robin and the beginning of the next.

Guild Quilt Show Part 1

But first, a bathroom redo update. The night before last Hubby got the bathroom sink drain all hooked up and it works! Last night he finished the rest of the cabinet work so today I can start loading it up so the drawers from the old vanity can get out of the guest room. He has some other ideas about customization but those will wait. We are pretty sure about paint color but today I will paint a larger area and do two coats of our favorite so we can be sure.

Yesterday morning I headed out to the fairgrounds to deliver my quilts (no one ever called me to drop off their quilts) and help with setting up the show. 

The first job was laying out all the quilt stands and getting them hooked together. At one point we had to call in everyone so we could move one section with one person for each upright. Wish I had a video of that to post! Once things were set-up and straight we started distributing the quilts to their spots. We had great maps but it was so easy to get turned around!

Then the quilts started going up. There are spots for 12 extra long quilts (over 90") and my Out of the Darkness quilt was chosen for one of those spots. The funny thing is, someone else made one from the same pattern and the plan had them hanging back to back but as we were hanging them we made an executive decision to have them hanging side by side for comparison. Here they are:

Mine is the one on the right. The main difference is that she hand-quilted hers and I had mine machine quilted by my friend Deb Barth in Montana.


We had about half of the quilts hung by lunch time and after a quick break for a delicious box lunch we headed back to the quilts and finished the hanging. As the quilts went up it was hard for all of us to stay focused on hanging and not stop to examine the quilts!


Once things were up there were some adjustments. There were also about 4 quilts that never showed up for hanging so we found Community Quilts (charity quilts) to hang in their places. A last check for extra poles or empty bags, etc. and we were done.


There are a lot of great quilts in the show and I will be bringing my camera tomorrow when I will be there to do a couple of volunteer shifts. I definitely need pictures of a couple of great scrap quilts.

Is it going to settle down?

At this point I am not so sure. But more about that after I update you on the last couple of weeks.

Here are the quilts that I made with the kids. This is Layden's creation. He is 5 1/2 and just started Kindergarten. He was very methodical in his placement of the pieces. He chose the layout - I think he saw it more as 2 rows of 3 instead of 3 rows of 2! He chose his green background fabric and was instrumental in the choice of the rainbows for the back and sashing.

Here is little Clara's quilt. She is 3 and just like laying them all over the place! Clara chose pink because, you know, pink is her 'fravrite' color!

I drove them back home last Monday and let me tell you, driving for 6 hours or so with those two kids is no mean feat! The only time they weren't talking was, wait! they never stopped talking! I was able to kiss them goodbye the next morning as they headed to the first day of Kindergarten and preschool and then rode with their dad to pick them up and hear about their morning. While they were at school I enjoyed a relaxed conversation with my son-in-law. He works 12-hour shifts on the weekends when I am usually visiting so it was nice to have a chat without kid distractions.


I headed out just before lunch and my son fed me lunch at his apartment at college. He is starting his senior year at Washington State University.


I left there when he needed to head to class and drove up to my other daughter's house on Lake Coeur d'Alene. She had to work until 7 so I got to have a nice one-on-one with my other son-in-law. I spent the next two days at their house enjoying my daughter's 'weekend'. We had a little sew-in up in her attic. Thank goodness the weather was a bit cooler so it was comfortable up there! We each got a Professional Tote made and had a great time! This is my bag...

 ...and this is Rebecca finishing hers. 

I headed home on Friday and got busy with laundry, picking blackberries and getting everything put away. My sister arrived for a visit from Idaho just before dinner as did her daughter who lives about 30 miles away. We had a fun weekend! Saturday we did a garage sale marathon hitting 27 sales! We got some treasures - my favorite was a piece of vintage barkcloth - about 11 1/2 yards for $80! I have been thinking about making new curtains for the bedroom using barkcloth but hadn't yet found any larger pieces online.


Several months ago, our pastor asked me to make her a green stole to wear with her alb. I got it finished very quickly but then never remembered to bring my camera to get a picture of her wearing it. I finally remembered this past Sunday so here it is. I caught her as she was greeting folks after worship.

She looks happy here but today she was looking a bit tired. A hot water pipe broke under the kitchen sink at church on Tuesday evening sometime and wasn't discovered until about 5:30 in the morning when the daycare staff came in. The kitchen and bathrooms upstairs were flooded along with the bathrooms, storage area and one classroom downstairs. Luckily, the insurance company is being very helpful and we have professionals cleaning things up but it is still a headache! Tomorrow I am going to go in and help figure out which of the wet items is worth keeping or should be trashed! Luckily, we have finally gotten summer here so it is warm and dry to help with the drying and the weather is supposed to be lovely for outdoor worship on Sunday.


Yesterday I did some yard work and got laundry washed and on the line during the day and in the evening I made it to my quilt guild meeting. We had a great speaker and I got my registration forms for putting quilts in the show in October. Also, the guild president announced that she won the auction for my quilt that was hanging at the bluegrass festival!


This morning I did some more laundry (the sheets and towels are all done now) and also made two batches of peach jam and this afternoon was LWR quilting day at the church. 


I haven't gotten any sewing done since I have been home but I am hoping to get into the sewing room soon as I have quite a few project deadlines looming!

Catching up...

...but it isn't too hard! I have had a woefully scantily productive first quarter of 2011 both in blog posts and sewing/crafting!

It has been so busy around here...

Two weeks of the granddaughter visiting,

One week of watching both grandkids at their house,

One quilt show,

One quilt retreat,

One year of appliance repair business records that needed to go into the computer...

and that is just the big stuff!

I did get...

33 pairs of mittens crocheted,

2 owl hats made for the grandkids,

1 binding done on someone else's quilt,

Seasons of Hope Relay for Life quilt finished,

6 quilt kits made up for retreat (finished the tops from 5 of them at retreat),

2 wall quilts/table toppers finished,

2 baby quilts finished,

2 block exchange blocks made and mailed,

2 quilts quilted and bound for other quilters,

20+ stemware coasters made,

120 spiderweb blocks finished and trimmed,

6 tops quilted and bound

...so I guess it wasn't too bad.

I am hoping to do better for the rest of the year but I am sure it will never be as much as I am hoping to do!

More Recuperation Needed!

This week my house needs the recuperation! I didn't do much around here last week as I worked on quilts and getting ready for the quilt show. I quilted and finished 4 quilts last week! Then I sort of trashed the sewing room and the rest of the house getting things for the show. And after the show I just brought all the quilts, etc. in and dumped it. I think all the quilts are put away but the sewing room, that is another story!

First, here are three of the quilts I got finished before the show. These are all ones that I had available for sale if anyone was interested. One of the others I finished was just quilting and binding for a friend but it was hanging in the show also.

The show itself went very well. Lots of people came and lingered. Overall we raised about $600 for the American Cancer Society! I will admit that I prayed for rain so people wouldn't be able to work in their yards but I don't think that is so wrong, is it? I never got around to taking pictures once all the quilts were hanging but I took some during set-up and you can see those here.

I Made It!

through the quilt show that is! Here is a teaser photo to give you an idea of how things were set up.
For more pictures you can go over to flickr to see all the pictures taken by my daughter.

We had about 50 larger quilts on display and quite a few mini and doll quilts. There were also a number of quilts for sale. Unfortunately the weather was beautiful for the first time in a while so we didn't have very good attendance. It was disappointing but we left up some of the quilts so members of the congregation could see a bit of what they may have missed the day before and also had the sale quilts available. This was a good thing since we sold most of them following worship! It ended up being a pretty good fund-raiser but next year we will again do the show in March when nice weather isn't as likely so we might get better attendance.

For me the stars of the show were these two (my grandchildren)...


but for others this probably won the prize!
This is my niece, Katie's, Dear Jane quilt. She started it several years ago and we finished doing the hand-sewing on the binding the night before the show. It is truly spectacular!

I am now trying to get things put away again around the house after having grandkids here and taking quilts to the show. I also need to get out in the yard whenever the weather allows and I have several projects to get finished soon including two more tote bags and a t-shirt quilt for a high school graduate!