Sunday, February 25, 2007

Snow missed us


Yea, the snow missed us, not quite sure how it did, but there was a small area that seemed to be in the eye of the storm all day yesterday. By the weather map we were missed by just a few miles on all sides. All total I would say we had under an inch of snow and little if any ice. Whoopie, no snow to scoop.

Spent the day yesterday designing some celtic applique blocks. I think the count is 24 right now. Most, I think, will work up well with one or two colors of bias plus some fabric inlays on some of the pieces. Now to find time to actually do some of these blocks.

Here are some of my button bracelets. Have done some of these for gifts for friends and of course some for myself. Its a neat way to use up old buttons. Some small beads are added at the tops of some buttons, and some along the edges to fill in if there is a space left by some of the buttons. Just a fun thing to do on a rainy day.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

more fun stuff


Norfolk guild has had a progressive quilt project. I paper cut the center design for this and appliqued it on this wild print. The next person had to add the triangles to put the block on point. Next round was using half square triangles in a border, next person put the top and left borders on, and finally the left and bottom borders were added. I recieved mine back at the meeting Monday night, now have to think how to quilt it.

The black and white is from Shirley (my friend in Vegas) challenge fabric. She found this japanese print. I put it together using slices of the fabric with a black on black fabric. I kind of like the way it turned out. Lots of fun doing this. Now its my turn to find fabric for next years challenge.

Weather finally turned warm, most of the snow is gone, however the weather report is for a snow storm again this weekend. UGH!! Oh well spring cannot be to far away as its nearly March.

nursing home quilts


Calico Quilt club is making lap quilts for a local nursing home. We hope to have enough to give everyone a new lap quilt. These are the ones I made so far. Its a fun project and uses up lots of scrap batting as well as fabrics. To start you cut a 2 pieces 6" x 18" for the center panels, plus a 6" x 18" piece of cotton batting. Sandwich all three of these layers with fabrics right side out on both sides of the batting. Stitch around the edge, Next step is to cut 4 more pieces 6" x 18", Plus 2 batting the same size. Lay one fabric right sides together to one side of the piece just stitched around. lay the second fabric right sides together on the back side of the center panel. Lay batting on top of last piece and sew the seam. Unfold layers to enclose batting between the two pieces of fabric. Repeat for second side of center. Then measure across the ends just stitched and make pieces for both sides plus batting and stitch to top and bottom of piece just completed. (sandwich the fabrics as described above.) Repeat at opposite sides until you have 3 rows. Then bind, I still need to add a row of decorative stitches down the center of each 6" piece. Makes wonderful throw size quilts for nursing homes.

One of the ladies made a backing the size needed, put a batting on top and sewed strips, full length to cover the batting. Sew and flip style. This too turned out great. I still have to try one like that.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Retreat

This is a pot of flowers quilt I did as a block of the month design several years ago. Was fun to do and fun to share.

Went to the CPQG quilt retreat this past weekend. Left on Friday AM and returned late on Sunday. Was on the committee so had to be there to help set up. We had 24 people sign up this year so was a nice group. We guess at the beginning of retreat how many items would get completed during the weekend. This includes quilt tops completed as well as items completely finished. The grand total was 43 this year.

We had "Aloha" as the theme, so had lei's, a candle mat, the name tags I showed earlier, and several other small items as favors. We had the stained glass tuplip quilt class, which was really neat. Played a few games and just generally had a grand time with quilting friends.

We try to KISS (keep it simple, stupid) the meals (we have to do our own meal prep.) We had sloppy joes, plus salads and desserts, then soup and sandwiches, Wisconsin Cheese Soup, Cheeseburger Soup, Chicken Noodle, Veggie Beef and Chili. Lots of great desserts and salads. Plus we have a snack table to graze on all weekend.

Had a deliscious dip for chips: 2 pkg cream cheese
2 cups grated cheese (cheddar)
1 envelope dry ranch dressing mix
1/3 cup beer (not lite beer)
Mix all, let set overnight in fridge and serve. Yummy, yummy good stuff.

I marked and cut out 35 kitty patterns which I now need to get fused to base blocks. Then stitched. Have been wanting to do this quilt for a long time, so figured now was the time. Will keep you posted on how its coming in the weeks ahead

CQC cancelled the guild meeting yesterday. Just to cold out. Wind chill was -15 degrees, so didn't want to drag people out in that weather, besides that we had had snow Monday night and I wasn't about to dig out by 10 in the morning. They decided no one would want to come out in the cold, so cancelled.

Have some road trips planned for spring. March 1,2,3 will go to Hancocks Fabrics retreat at Ashland, May 4-5 to Curtis to the Frontier Stitchers retreat, in June to Overland Park for the Machine Quilters convention, July to state meeting, August to Ricky Tims seminar, Oct to Threads and CQC retreat. Think that should hold me for this years adventures.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Back into the deep freeze!!


Had some warm weather for a few hours today. It went all the way to 44 degrees for a couple hours. Now its below freezing again. On its way to about 9 degrees tonight with some snow predicted for tomorrow and Thursday. Supposed to be just cold for retreat this weekend, but snow flurries by Sunday afternoon. But its Feb. in Nebraska so what do we think it should be? Where in the heck is all the "global warming" those idiots keep blowing about???? I could sure use some of it.

A couple days ago someone asked me what a progressive quilt was. This is the progressive my group did for the state meeting in North Platte a couple years ago. The theme was the WWII canteens, so I began with the platform and bulding . The others in the group added the track signs, the produce waiting for the train, the ladies waiting to serve the guys, the border doesn't show up very well on this picture but gives you an idea of what a progressive quilt is. The owner makes a center then the others add according to a set of directions. What fun. Am in another progressive with the Norfolk group right now and should get mine back at the Feb meeting. Will share it when it comes home.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Road Trip



What a great day, Marie, Vivian, Viola and I went to Grand Island to the Stuhr Museum annual quilt event. Lots of neat quilts from all over the state were hung around the museum. + 18 venders from across the state and out of state were there with their wares. Oh the temptations of all that fabric, notions, books, patterns etc. I only bought some thread and one book, so consider I made it out of there pretty lucky. Only problem is the book is written in French and I do not read French, however the photo's are pretty self explanitory. Some new things to try.

Marie and I signed up to venture to the Hancock Retreat the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of March. Should be a fun time. Just hope its not a blizzard or ice. Bad time of year to make plans in Nebraska.

We shopped JoAnns fabric, Material Girl quilt shop and the Mall in addition to the shops at the museum.

Was a bit chilly when I left this AM. A bit below 0 degrees with quite a bit of breeze, so know the wind chill was way down below the 0 degree mark. But Maries car was nice and warm, so stayed cozy all the way.

The small wall piece is called Ice Crystals. Its a take off on a hawaiian design with drunkards path borders.
The second is a memory quilt. I called it Gails Eternal Flame in memory of my friend Gail who passed away a couple years ago. I had designed this quilt, she liked the design and planned to stitch it for me, but passed before she could make it, so I made it and named it in her memory..

Friday, February 02, 2007

Ground Hog Day



Brrrr -19 degree wind chill this morning. It was -2 on the temperature but felt lots colder with the wind. Sun is shining so makes it seem warm out. The official ground hog did not see his shadow, BUT the one here did, so do not know which one to believe. I think I will believe the official one. grin!!

This is a small 9 patch quilt I did for beginner class project. Its very simple 9 patch with sashings and a strip piece border. Very quick and lots of fun to do. The other is called Spice It Up Nine Patch and was done as a mystery quilt for state meeting class a couple years ago. Its basically a split 9 patch block which is then arranged into a design. Most in the class were finished with their blocks and had them sewn together by the end of the class. The mystery quilts are always quite popular and the classes fill quickly.