Teacher's Present

Oh how I wish Wordle printed much nicer. We made a fun present for the most awesome Kindergarten teacher. We made a trip to Kinkos and then to Hobby Lobby.



It really doesn't seem possible that Grace has made it through Kindergarten and can now do all sorts of crazy things she could do in August. Things like read a book, addition, subtraction, recite things word for word that the teacher taught that day.

Daisy Scout Quilt Top

Grace is in Daisy Scouts.  For those of you that don't know, Daisies is before Brownies and is a great way to get the girls involved in Girl Scouts in Kindergarten.  May was my month to the host the meeting.  Of course it would have to be quilting related.  At the very least sewing.

My project, a whole lot of colorful Sharpie markers, fabric and willing artists.  The girls had a lot of fun.  They chatted and drew and colored and passed pens around.  While all of the coloring was going on, the lesson shared was that it's nice to do things for others without any strings attached.  The girls all earned their yellow petal as a result. 

Just a few pictures.

Once things settle down with all of the end of school year activities I will get the top quilted.  It will be donated to Project Linus.

Quilted for a Friend

I quilted this for a friend this week. She is going to Malaysia and it's a gift for her niece. The colors are really bright. I used a Chantilly lace pantograph pattern and Joesph's Coat by Superior Threads.

Betty (my machine) and I got in some good bonding time. I would call us BFFs now. :-)  I'm getting to get sewing on my own projects now.

Disappearing Nine Patch

This project started with a whole lot of black and white charm squares.  I added the color charm squares for the center and  started out with a block like this one.









I made my first cut.

 And my second cut.

And then I did a whole lot arranging.

I'm working on sewing all my rows together now. 

Gnomes

They turned out so cute, I had to share right away.  I fired up the embroidery machine and made some gnomes this afternoon.  It's so much fun to get the embroidery machine going and then running to the sewing machine and sewing while some stitching is going on.

This weekend I was posessed.  I finished a quilt top and have another about 3/4's finished.  Hopefully I can get them quilted this week.

I'm off to pick stabilizer off the back of my gnomes.  Have a great night.

MQS 2010

As usual, MQS rocked and I'm broke for another year. I did white glove duties for 2 hours in the morning.  My name was entered into the Volunteer prize drawing.  I won!!!  I wanted to yell Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, but I refrained.  My prize - an Inspiration pack from Wonderfil threads and a book.  Very cool.

Here are some pictures of a few of my favorites (click on the picture - it will link you to the rest).  Once I get a chance I will put the rest of my pictures out here.  I will spare you viewing the almost 150 I took.

2010_0513_MQS Show

Have a great weekend.  I will have a couple of show and tells this weekend (provided my plans don't get overruled).

Liberated Wedding Ring

I decided tonight after looking on flickr that I read far too many blogs and look at way too many quilt pictures. I thought my completed top was a Becky original. No, not original. My little brain stored this beauty away after seeing it else where. So back to flickr, tonight I found out this is a "Liberated Wedding Ring" from Gwen Marston. I love Gwen, so I'm glad that I was able to replicate something she came up without her pattern. I need to figure out some sort of cool quilting pattern for the black squares.

The pattern was very easy to replicate.  I used some packs of charm squares that I picked up for another project.  I cut them in half and then mixed them up and sewed them back together.  The black fabric is a 7 inch square cut in half.  I cut the stripped fabric long enough that both ends would clear the longest side of my 1/2 square triangle.  Once the block was sewn I re-sized each block to 8 1/2 inches. I think I'm going to have to make another using all sorts of scraps instead of a single fabric line.  With a light background instead of something so dark.  While I love the way the black looks, it shows every stray thread, cat hair and piece of lint that I might have on my basement floor.

This week is MQS (Machine Quilter's Showcase). Can't wait to go and see all the beauties and do a little shopping. This year I'm going to spend my cash on thread. Now that I have my new machine to quilt with, it will be fun to get some new thread and maybe a template or two. And maybe some fabric. Ok, I see my budget being blown all to heck.

Have a great night.

Why?

I have to ask why and if other people do the same thing.

I noticed something that I do on a regular basis this morning as my husband was heading out for his normal Sunday morning bike ride. I make sure to tell him I love him and to be careful. Got to thinking that mom did the same thing to my dad. "Have a good day at work, be careful."  If I were to really sit and analyze it, I'm sure it's just my crazy way of saying I really love you.  Who knows.

Didn't really realize that I did that until this morning.  Being mother's day, I'm thinking about mom since I can't call her.

Do you do stuff like that?  Things that pass over from one generation to the next.

Ladies Night Out

Some of the items I had out for Ladies Night Out tonight. Very fun, very tiring. Lots of fun people to talk to.

Have a great night.

Dinner with Friends

I mentioned before a friend of mine that was diagnosed with cancer recently. She is in the center of the picture in blue. Well last night a group of us got together at my house for dinner. It was GREAT.

We are missing one person because she had to leave before the picture was taken. As you can tell, we made the guys sit in the corner and not be a part of our way cool picture.

My husband was such a trooper cooking chicken for us on the grill. Everyone brought a side dish. I think if anyone left hungry is no ones fault but their own. Between the food and the wine, I think we were all stuffed to the gills.

The friend with the cancer is now undergoing radiation treatments on her back and soon her brain. She is doing chemo as well, so I'm sure the hair will be missing in our next photo.

There were lots of hugs and happy tears. It's amazing to me that we all come from different places (literally), are different ages and really different backgrounds, but how we all fit together. Some very outspoken, some rather soft spoken. All very supportive, loving and caring. I know I don't tell them enough, but I LOVE all my girlfriends more than they know.