And What Is She Up To Now?! :cD

It's a surprise!I will show you this much....3 bins....1.5" strips. All from recycled clothing! Mind you that not all are plaids or stripes. I also buy prints if they catch my eye, and I throw them in there to spice up the mix. The fun for me is that they are all recycled.


If you are a fabric scavenger like I am, don't forget to check the pajamas! Sleep pants are very popular and often have really interesting fabrics! I found a pair of 3X Old Navy sleep pants with the most wonderful red print. That's ALOT of fabric ;c) I go for the feel of the fabric, and of course reading the label to be sure it is 100% cotton. Another reason why women's shirts aren't always the best....lots of them are MOSTLY cotton, but have spandex in there for stretch..we don't want that.

I've found skirts to be a great source of recycled fabric, as well as jumpers and dresses. Don't forget to check those out!

Last night I got these cut! 3 bins of 1.5" strips in red, neutral, and dark blue. As for what it will become,you'll have to watch for updates, cuz I'm not tellin':cÞ

Yesterday was busy beyond belief. I had two dentist appointments in the morning. Yes, still dealing with the implant thing. I've got the temporary now. My insurance is maxed out for the year, plus we are changing insurances with Dave's new job in a few weeks, so we are going to lay off until after the 1st of the year to do any m ore work on it. At least the temp looks like a real tooth, and it is nice to be able to bite into things without worrying that it is going to come unglued and fall off.

Signed a bunch of papers to get the house listed yesterday too. You know, a gadzillion.. *sign here at the X* and it really really becomes real to you. At least it is to me. After that it was choir practice. I got home after 9pm and that is when I was so "WIRED" that I just kept pressing and cutting shirt parts and separating them into bins.

This morning the fix-it guy is here....and the Orkin man came to do his quarterly pest control to make sure we get a good inspection/appraisal. It's like grand central station over here.

This afternoon I have massage clients booked solid straight through from 1pm til 5...and then I come home and work on a client here for an hour and a half. That will be the extent of my entire day.

I'll just have to dream about these little strip bins and what they will become..when I have time!

On Leaders & Enders..

I had to start a new project with leaders & enders after finishing the Crabapples top last month! (Yes yes, it still needs quilting too! gimme a break!)

I really want to re-make the "Cathedral Stars" quilt that was raffled off at the beginning of the month. I really grew to love that quilt! So I started sewing 2" pairs together,matching a light with a dark. I did these while working on the "Swing Your Partner" quilt (I am liking the name more and more!) I just keep a plastic shoe box of 2" squares by the side of the machine, and grab a light and a dark to shove under the presser foot when ending a line of chain piecing. I have a cute basket at the back corner of my sewing desk where I would toss the finished 4 patches along the way.

This morning as I was cleaning up my area, I looked in the basket and WOW....there was a whole stack in there!

I decided to count them and see how many. How many do YOU think are in there?


I have this little thing I do. I hate counting stuff over and over and over, so I will pin things together in batches of 10. 10 blocks to each pin....and it is easy to figure out that way. Try it, you might like it!

I ended up with 97 four patches!! From making 16 of the milky way blocks, and sewing the triangle sashings and adding the borders. 97!!! Cathedral stars takes 305 4 patches, so I am about 1/3 the way there. How cool is that? This gets me stoked about leaders & enders all over again!

And of course while I'm counting and pinning little 4 patches together I'm not thinking or dwelling on all the stuff that needs to be done around here before I show the house? I also commiserated with myself by devouring the last of the pumpkin pie...for breakfast! And washed it down with a tall diet dr pepper....medicine to my soul!

Square Dancing.....

Thanks so much for all the quilt names! I love each and every one of them! When I look at the block, it looks like 4 people dancing to me. Like Square Dancing. I used to do this as a child.....my mom did too, and I loved to dress up in her square dancing outfits, and all the crinoline full slips that would swish and swirl when I would turn and turn and turn and make myself dizzy.. :c) Fond memories!

At first I was thinking of names of the dance steps the caller would call out. "Allemande Left" was one that came to me,but this quilt has such a farm feel to it that I think I am going to call it "Swing Your Partner".

What do you think?!

Update on the house fix-its....The hole in the ceiling where we had to fix the plumbing is now patched...mud is still drying, so couldn't be sanded today. The door knob holes are patched as well, and were sanded this morning as well as a couple other dents...the one in the stairwell where Jeff punched it, and the one behind the quilt that hung in the upstairs hallway...I guess he punched there too, thinking the quilt would cushion the blow? Needless to say he doesn't punch walls anymore!

We got a call last night from the relocation people. They want the house on the market for 30 days before they do the appraisal to see if it will sell on it's own before buying us out at fair market value. UGH. This time of year....quilt mayhem everywhere....Do I feel like showing a house? Like having strangers walk through this quilt mess that seems to continue into every room of the house? Do I have time to organize it all and scale down so the house looks showable? NO! I have a huge headache. DH says don't stress. HA! He isn't a woman trying to sell a house.

At least the fix its are getting done. Anyone else who sees the house is just going to have to look beyond my creative mess in progress...life has to go on. It can't come to a standstill to show a house.

Bonnie

Big And Flimsy....

It's really difficult to hang a big quilt top on a fence...the weight of it droops, the wind was blowing, trying to get it to lay flat to get a good picture just wasn't happening!

But the borders are ON!

I took my inspiration from a long leftover binding strip from the "Virginia Bound" quilt...it was all shirt strips joined on the diagonal, and you know how it is when you are piecing binding...I pieced about twice as much as I should have! So I only had to piece some more yet, and then inserted the red strip between the two shirting strips. I let the seams fall where they may!

I used the leftover triangle squares and some left over 4 patches to make the cornerstone units. Sometimes I struggle and struggle with a quilt design and other times the muse takes over and BAM it just works! This quilt? Well, I made the first 4 blocks WRONG...then couldn't figure out what was missing in the sashing...I guess I had my moments with it. But all in all, I think it turned out pretty great!

It needs a name...and I have to decide whether I want to hand quilt it (who am I kidding?!?) Or machine quilt it (Like how long will it be on the ever increasing pile until it reaches THAT stage?) I am thinking that big-stitch quilting would be great on this...*sigh*

Born to Quilt....Forced To Work! That's Me!

We've got a handy man here today fixing things on the house to get ready for the appraisal. Having teenage sons mean that they get angry and have occassionally hit the wall..literally! There is also the spot in the laundry room where a slamming door pushed the doorknob through the dry wall, and a few other "fix it" things that need to be done so we can get the best appraisal possible.You know, all those things you wanted to do while you lived there, but you do it before you move so some one ELSE gets to enjoy it? :cÞ

Because I Can......

I tried and I tried and I tried, and I just didn't like any of the other options! I'm sorry guys....it just didn't work because these blocks are so big, plain sashings looked SO plain....lots of things looked washed out. Maybe I just don't follow other people's suggestions very well..or maybe I just march to the beat of a different drummer?

I knew it wasn't the red that was the problem, but it took some tries for me to figure out what it was! It was the brown gingham check. It was too LIGHT to go up against the light parts of the blocks! So I started digging in the stash and came up with a taupe-y grey/brown mushroom color stripe....PERFECT! It reads less intense than the red, but still darker than the lights in the blocks.

I wanted to keep the "mirror image" and "positive/negative" thing going on, and it just seemed to me the best way to do that was to stick with the original half-square triangle sashing. I bit the bullet and framed a couple blocks to see if I liked it better with the seam allowances gone. PRESTO! That was what it needed! I just finished setting everything together and I'm pooped. Do you know how hard it is for me to make 50 gadzillion half square triangle squares with only TWO FABRICS!!! Talk about mind numbing..there is a reason I do scrap quilts, remember? I think it has to do with my attention span! :cÞ


So...it still needs an outer border to frame it all, but I'm bleary eyed and wanting to crawl in and watch some TV before nodding off to sleep. Work week starts back tomorrow.....what a great holiday weekend it's been! I've sure enjoyed the down time and glad that we didn't have to go to Winston-Salem!

is this any better???

Or maybe I'll go back to the drawing board....

I rotated the triangles around a bit to distribute the light/dark effect.

Thinking....

I have 16 blocks done. I think that is sufficient. They are BIG blocks, 15" which is so unlike my usual self, because I tend to be drawn to small blocks! However, with these shirt pieces, I wanted that "FARM" feeling....the look of a quilt made for warmth and utility, not for "fancy", you know?

Besides, I rationalized to myself that if I wanted the blocks to be smaller I'd have to work with strip sizes I wasn't cutting! (GOOD POINT!) And when you REALLY think about it..these blocks ARE four-blocks-in-one, aren't they? It's not the simple one-block milky way block..it's 4 of them put together, 2 positive, 2 negative. So I justified!

I decided not to set them on point as in the inspiration quilt. I wanted a more funky folky look without so much room for fancy quilting. I tried laying them out with sashings. It went BLAH. I tried block to block to block, but the blocks just cry to be separated by SOMETHING.

I thought of making four patches and little alternate 3" squares to make pieced sashings, but that is going to take a lot of four patches and do I really want to do that? I laid some out (thank heaves for a basket of leader/ender four patches I have going on by the machine!) and it just didn't do anything for me because of the way the four patches turn in the blocks. (More of that brain warp feeling going on!)

At this point I am pulling yardage....I know I know....I wanted it to be ALL SHIRTS..but when you get to this point, there isn't a shirt big enough to give me enough of a uniform thing to pull it together...I might need to buy a plaid tent from Ahab the tent maker! (But Tonya left him behind in Egypt, and it's just not convenient!)

I have a piece of brown gingham type yardage. Nice. Has the feeling I want. But putting it with a "light" Made the whole sashing too blah and fadey-outey. So I did what Bonnie does....went RED! I made a bunch of 3" finished 1/2 sq triangles...and laid them as a pieced sashing between the blocks! It gives the blocks almost a lady-of-the-lake feel. I like it! It has motion...it has punch in that RED...and solid reds were used a lot in utility quilts because it was so inexpensive and accessible..

Do you like it? Do you hate it? Is there an alternative I should think about before I take it any further?? Speak now or forever hold your peace! (PIECES?!)

Stuck in Irmo!

We were going to go up to Winston Salem to check out the area and go house hunting but we decided that the holiday weekend was no time to do that.

Dave starts his job there mid-December, so time is getting closer. We'll go in the next week or two.

Left-over pie is the best part of the holidays! I didn't have much on thanksgiving , too full...but a nice big piece of pumpkin last night while watching DVDs and cutting up plaid shirts was great therapy. I'm kind of glad we didn't go anywhere this weekend.

It is my tradition NOT to venture out on Black Friday at all! And we did quite well...only had to go pick up some prescriptions and did that at 6pm when most of the shopping crowd had petered out and departed home to eat their leftover dinners.

I've taken the dogs to the forest the past two days for a good 5 mile hike. They love it, and I love it this time of the year when the leaves are all covering the paths and the smell of the pines is so fragrant! My thighs and buns can sure feel it! Heaven knows, I need to take some time out each day to get THEM (the dogs...not my thighs and buns!!Okay..those do need it too!!)some exercise as well as myself. So I'm going to try to do this at least 3 times a week. I sometimes feel guilty because it cuts into quilting time, but at the same time...I NEED IT.

I'm down to the wire on the last few customer quilts I have for the year. Massage slows down this time of year when people get too busy (and strapped financially?) to think about getting a massage. It works out. When massage is slow, quilting is high...it just works. I'm not sure what I'll do with the massage therapy when I get to Winston-Salem. The thought of starting a new practice all over again is daunting, and I don't want to work for anyone else when they charge 50% to 60% commission. Where I am now I rent my own space, and have built up enough clientele that it is so much more worth it than working on commission. So.....we will see when I get there what happens. I'll keep my license current.....and give it time.



Here's some of the blocks I've been working on! It's helped me to use up some of the plaids as well as getting them cut down into strips for various other projects. While cutting the pieces for each block out of one light and one dark shirt, I set aside the shirt back as if it were a FQ, just in case I need bigger pieces down the road, and cut up the fronts and sleeves and yokes into 2", 2.5" and 3.5" strips. Any small pieces left over are getting cut into squares of the same sizes. After cutting two shirts, I allow myself the pleasure of piecing a block, how kind of me to myself, huh?? *LOL* The drawers are filling with strips, the piles of shirts are going down, and I'm getting a quilt top in the process!

You can see in the trashcan how it is filled with the front buttonhole bands (can't get anything out of that!) and seams, and pieces that had really thick fusible interfacing on them for body. Everything else is useable! I've got a big zipper bag that a comforter came in that holds all the small weird stuff for string/crumb piecing. I can grab it and just start sewing!

Life is Good!

CRAZY!!!

I'm going to make myself late for work, but I couldn't leave until I got this dang block RIGHT...just to prove to myself that I am not a complete idiot..*LOL*

I feel MUCH better now, and I'm off to take care of massage clients. I should call this block "mind bender" instead of Milky way!

Don't Sew Late At Night!!

And here I was so proud of my productivity! I've been taking shirts apart,and as I cut them into strips I thought it would be good motivation to cut block parts for a quilt I want to do as I go....so I have "INCENTIVE" right?..uhhhhhuhhh.......we all know the path to "WHERE" is paved with good intentions?

Obviously,the path to either ripping out, or setting aside if you were sewing like I was last night!

First off, I love OLD quilts. I love old "farm style" quilts, not fussy ones, but the utility ones that were made from the scraps of every day fabrics. Lots of stripes and plaids, pieced frugally and quilted simply to keep families warm.

I fell in LOVE with this antique quilt! I love anything that has a strong "positive/negative" feel to it, and I'd never seen the "Milky Way" pattern done as blocks this way and put on point. Fun, huh?

So okay...Bonnie gets big ideas and begins sewing thinking how hard can this be? It's 4 patches and 1/2 square triangles, right?!?!?!


It took me until this morning when I took pics of my 4 blocks to see that half of my 4 patches are marching in the WRONG DIRECTION!! It must be the optical illusion of this kind of block...but BLLLAHH! I don't want to pick them out! I'd rather just start over! I guess they can go on the BACK of something? I can't believe I got FOUR BLOCKS wrong, all just as wrong as the other!

Good thing there are lots more shirts where these came from!

Oh..one thing I learned. It sometimes isn't worth it to buy women's shirts. Darts and tucks and extra seams to make the shirt "fitted" plus sometimes pieces cut on the bias make using them really difficult. I'll still buy them if I REALLY REALLY think I have to have the fabric in that shirt, but I think I'll stick to mens 3X extra tall! :cD

IT'S HERE!!!!

My copies of Quiltmaker just arrived!! I am so thrilled!

It is very fun to open up a magazine and see your quilt inside. They did such a terrific job with the photography and the writing. How fun it was to work with them on this project! I really hope I can do more with them in the future, this venture was pure pleasure and well worth waiting for!


They have included directions for my Blue Ridge Beauty quilt as well as a little article on "leaders/enders". I hope that scrap quilters everywhere will look at their stashes a bit differently and find a way to be more productive at the same time!

What a great thing to come the week of Thanksgiving. I know I have so much to be thankful for. I'm really overwhelmed when I look at how things have happened in the past year. Next year this time...as I look back...I wonder what I'll see!

We are thinking of heading up to the Winston-Salem area on Friday and spending the long weekend up there getting a feel for the area. I don't know if it will be a good time to try to connect with realtors, but we have printed out some properties we'd like to see and can use the tom-tom to do a few drive-by sightings to see if it is something worth checking back later on or not. I think it will be a good weekend to "get out of dodge" even with all the holiday travelers. I just need to get a feel for where I'll be, you know?

I've spotted a listing for a 1900's farm house on 6 acres, with barn and shed. The house has 2545 sq ft....Might not have a basement for a quilting studio, but with 6 acres I'm sure I could build the studio I want :c)Wouldn't that be something? I can't wait to see inside of it!

It says it is restored, 3 bedroom and 2 bath and has heated tile and many extras.....hmmmmmmm!

A "Crumby" Upload!

I finally got on the stick and pulled all my crumb quilts/projects/blocks into a tutorial page on my website.

I've been intending to do it ALL YEAR since Tonya and I had our crumby week over last New Years..but you know how life goes!

You can check it out here: Crumbs, Crumbs, Crumbs!!

My idea is to have a place where all kinds of crumb projects can be shown, along with how different quilters make use of their crumbs, so if you have any techniques, projects to show...let me know! I'm happy to post them!

In addition to my crumb quilts, I posted some charity crumb quilts that I did...and the book covers projects.

Send me ideas and pics if you have them and want them included!

Might not look like much......

But this is all I've accomplished in the last couple days!

Isn't this tan floral great?! It looks SO vintage. And the tag on the inside said "old navy" I wish there was an old navy shirt factory near me, I'd love to just have their bin of cuttings, wouldn't you? But I think everything is made over seas now anyway, and like I really need another fabric source?! :c|

I decided that I needed to force myself....to stay away from GOODWILL! *L* And take the time that I spend buying up all the shirts and turn it into time I spend cutting up the shirts!

And a wonderful thing happened. I began to relax! I found sitting there removing seams and separating pieces to be a way to unwind and let go. To enjoy a TV program instead of worrying how I was going to get everything else done before a move, to worry about Thanksgiving, to worry about the holidays.

This small pile of disassembled shirts might not look like much, but oh the possibilities!

I've been cutting up shirts in between clients at my massage-work because I don't have any hand work that I care to concentrate on right now. Scissors can be very therapeutic! You know how stressful moving and buying a house can be on a marriage? I know what I want. I know what is important to me. Quilting space and a great kitchen.

What's important to Dave? Maybe some acreage, and a 3 car garage! So I get this email with a forwarded house from him.....it is the most BUTT UGLY house you have ever seen...BUT..it had a 3 car garage and 2 acres...(*&@#$(*&@#*($& AUUUGHHH! See me sitting there stewing and taking out my frustrations on shirts with scissors..SNIP SNIP SNIP! Tear tear tear (I tear the hems off and several of the seams open)

Please don't mis-understand. I don't want to leave the impression that I am the house-hunting version of "bridezilla" (House-zilla?!) I have simple tastes. I have a modest home, but it is newish. Some 1950's ranch with small rooms and no master bath just isn't what calls to me, and neither is some 1970's brady bunch contemporary thing with only 1.5 baths and no kitchen cupboard space.

I just keep praying "full basement full basement" so maybe no matter how ugly the rest of the house is, I'll have a place to hide and quilt quilt quilt, and scissor up some more shirts!

I spent some time last night emailing back and forth with Pepper Cory and it is fun to know that she is a North Carolinian too! She writes:

In January I'm opening The Quilt Studio, an intimate (translation: small) learning environment for seriously-addicted quilters. Want a schedule when they're ready?

ABSOLUTELY!! Heaven knows I am a seriously addicted quilter and always in need of some...ummm...quilt therapy? :cD So there is another North Carolina thing I am looking forward to discovering for myself!

When looking on the map for communities that we could settle in, I am immediately drawn to Pfafftown, NC. How cool is that? A town named after a sewing machine! I'd need to be in Berninaville, but Pfafftown would work for me too! However, I think it is a bit far on the other side of town from where the new plant is.

One other place I refuse to have as my address...*cough* Horneytown? Yes,there really is a Horneytown nc! Of course my adolescent and young adult sons find this extremely funny. But then I remind them that we are moving from Irmo, home of the "okra strut". I guess every place has it's own giggles!

Here is a pic of a guy in a Horneytown volunteer fire dept shirt:


Is there a funny-named place near where you live?

I'm Included!

Holly at Hollyblogs has written an article for McCalls Quilting Magazine about her favorite blogs! Lucy and I are both included in her list, and wow,there are lots of impressive blogs listed!

I am really honored and thrilled to be included (see me here doing my own impression of Sally Field's award nomination where she was so shocked she babbled "you like me! You really like me!!"

It is wonderful, and so much fun. Thank you Holly!

The magazine is the February issue, but should be out shortly.

I also got an email from Brenda Groelz, the editor of Quiltmaker Magazine. My quilt has been shipped back to me and she writes:

Wanted to let you know that I just got my preview copy of the JanFeb 08 issue of Quiltmaker with your Blue Ridge Beauty quilt in it and it looks wonderful! I think you’re going to like how your leaders and enders articles looks too. Our art director did a wonderful illustration.

I can't wait to see how it looks in the magazine! Exciting times in Quiltville, and yes....all this while the holidays loom over us and so does a MOVE!! Insane, I tell you! Insane!

Pretty Pretty Pretty!

I absolutely loved quilting this quilt for Sherry! Her applique is SO gorgeous and everything....everything...laid flat and square and perfect! I loved looking at the blocks while I was quilting it, I had a hard time picking my favorite one, but when I got down towards the end of the quilt,and came across the block with the big golden dog on it, I knew that was the one I loved best! He reminds me of my golden retriever, Buddy..even the fabric she chose for him says PET ME!! (in a very 100% cotton way :c) If you click the pic of the full quilt, you can see the dog in the bottom right corner!

This quilt is winging it's way back to Vermont where it will call HOME at last! I've had this quilt for far too long...and I'm happy it is going back home to it's mama!

It's another beautiful sunny fall morning here in SC. It was WARM yesterday..warm enough that I slept with a window open and oh how I love that! We don't get enough of that in the south with the heat and humidity. Sometimes it is so nice to be able to sleep without the a/c running!

I'm making studio plans in my head for what I hope to find when we go house hunting. I want a FULL basement. Is that too selfish? Can't I just wish on that for a while? I envision my set up pretty much as I have it here, but I want one corner where I can put the "den" stuff, so I have a TV corner set up with my two comfy chairs, a little NOOK for hand work.....And you know, there is a small dorm style fridge in the garage, I think that needs to come to my studio too :c)

It might be a dream, but thinking of it in positive ways makes me look forward to the house hunting...

Maverick Stringy-Sampler!

I don't have much of my own to report today! I've spent the day getting estimates on having some things repaired on the house before we get the appraisal. Things like Dings in the wall where the doorknob hit too hard, a place in the stairwell where Jeff got mad and punched it :c(

The place in the ceiling that had to be cut out to fix a leaky sink pipe and had never been fixed...auuughh...

You know how it is to sell a house, everything you ever wanted to do for yourself, gets done so someone ELSE can enjoy the benefits!

I'm quilting away on customer quilts....yesterday was pretty much a wash out as I spent 3 1/2 hours in the dentist chair for more implant work. I now have a real temporary where the permanent implant crown is going to go, and I was numb and sore most of the day yesterday. Just can't run the quilting machine when you feel that way!

So...since I don't have anything of my OWN to report, I thought I would whet your appetite with this fun stringy sampler! I love it! It is SO maverick. I would have loved to dig into this lady's scrap bag and see what she was working with to come up with her unique blocks!




My latest "in between massage clients" project is cutting up thrift store shirts! It seems to be a good thing to do when there is a bit of time in between clients and my mind is too frazzled to really settle on anything intricate. The shirts have got to be cut into use able pieces at some point, and this is as good as any!

Yesterday in between clients I was able to cut up these four articles of clothing...a lovely golden cheddar, two shades of blue, and a red/tan! Oh the possibilities! :cD I have a bin that the pockets, plackets, pockets, collars and cuffs are going into for string piecing, but the big pieces...I've tried to decide if I want to strip them all down into various sizes or what?

I think I'll compromise. I'll strip the sleeves and the fronts...but leave the shirt backs whole so I have a big piece if I need to cut alternate block pieces or anything. Sound like a good idea?

Birthday Dinner-----Japanese Style!

We had a delightful time with Jason, his girlfriend Kim, and her parents last night!

We went out for Jason's 24th birthday dinner, and he chose Yamato Japanese Steak House. It is one of our favorites, hands down!

While we were waiting for Kim's parents to arrive, I took a few pictures of them where we sat in the waiting area. Goofy kids! They are so cute together. Kim is a nursing student, and wants to continue on to become a nurse anesthetist. I hope she continues with this goal!

The dinner was yummy, the company was great! Our chef was so funny......part of why I love going there,the entertainment!

I hope everyone is having a restful wonderful Sunday afternoon/evening. I've got a client's applique quilt on the machine and I'm working away at it as much as I am able. Yesterday went by the wayside as I didn't recover as quickly as I thought I would from having my pupils dilated at the eye docs! Sorry, can't quilt with dark shades on! :c( But today things are back to normal vision wise...I'm grateful to be able to see the stitches!

Happy Birthday, Jason!

My Oldest Baby is 24 today! He was born November 10th 1983 in Nyssa, Oregon on a beautiful autumn day just like today!

He has grown into such a wonderful loving young man. I am so proud of him for the leaps and bounds he has made in his young life.

It's going to be hard to leave him behind as we relocate to Winston-Salem!

He moved back home here just a year ago. That was an adjustment after being out on his own for 4 years! For the past few months he has been back out on his own again living with friends and well into his own life here in SC. It's been great to see him carve out a place and a life for himself here!

And now we are leaving HIM behind!! I know, it's only 3 hours up the road, but still. I'm his mom, you know?

We are taking him and his girlfriend out to dinner tonight to celebrate. I'm looking forward to it.

On the other hand, I also have something difficult today. This week a member of my quilter's guild passed away. The funeral is today. So I'll be experiencing both ends of the life spectrum today. It leaves lots of room for contemplation. For all of us, life is a journey. Does it pass us by as we are so busy that we are oblivious to it's wonder? Or do things happen in our lives that make us stop and take notice once in a while as has happened to me the past week or so.



I had a WONDERFUL time with the Cobblestone Quilter's Guild of Charleston, SC on thursday night! I was met at my hotel with a van full of ladies who caravaned me over to Jason's Deli right near the church where the meeting was to be held. I had the most delicious Ruben sandwhich ever....stacked so high with meat I couldn't finish the whole thing! If you have a Jason's Deli near you, you must go. A couple of the other ladies had this gigantic stuffed baked potatoes that looked fabulous. They had yummy soups on the menu, and a great salad bar. Anyone know if there is one of these in the Winston-Salem area?! They are on my new favorite list!

The meeting went great. I had plenty of holders and folders to hold up quilts while I talked about scrap organization and how I squeeze as much as possible out of every scrap I've got, cutting them into useable sizes ahead of time and as I go so that I can just pull a bin or two and sit and sew without having to spend a whole lot of time cutting/pressing before I even get to sew a stitch.

The guild members were so welcoming, especially since I felt a bit intimidated....I was asked to fill in for Pepper Cory who was unable to make it. That was big shoes to fill for me! But it was fun, and I bet lots of ladies are now looking at their scrap piles a bit differently!

The funky quilt top on the curtain is one I have just finished piecing (AND FUSING!!! OH MY!!) for taking to do lectures. It has different sizes of strip widths, bricks and squares, and some of the blocks that I've made using them up....it's called "THE FABRIC FOOD CHAIN!" I've got to get it quilted, but so far there hasn't been time to do so. The borders were just put on thursday (before and after Jeff's car wreck!) out of orphans....fun, huh?