Back to the Show

My lack of a voice turned into a full blown asthma attack which has necessitated me being back on prednisone.  You all know how much I HATE that drug but it does explain why I’m up, dressed and don’t know what to get up to at 4 A.M.
Now back to the Quilt Show.
This Dear Jane was done by Karen Horn and she is also working on a hand pieced I Spy which is just as intricate. 

My friend and cohort from Paducah, Margaret, did this beauty.

We picked out the fabrics on a trip to Mennonite country last summer. 
Here she is with her Pumpkins table topper.  I love this pattern and it’s on my to do list (I think it’s #432).

Also from Margaret is our Quilt Diva.  She picked up this pattern on a trip to Buffalo last fall and I swear by the time I got my stuff out of the bags, she had her Diva finished!

Another friend and cohort from Paducah, Diane made this beautiful Block of the Month quilt from Marti Michell’s Anniversary Waltz pattern.

This jacket was in one of the Vendor’s booths and I really liked it.

A jacket class is also on my to-do list, but I want to make one that is properly fitted and not just based on an oversized sweatshirt.
Now for some quilts by Bunny Wood.  What can I say about Bunny – just that she is one of the most talented people I know.  Her talents are limitless – she pieces, she machine quilts she does machine embroidery, hand embroidery, thread painting, makes the most beautiful clothes you’ve ever seen and I’m sure she has many other talents that I’m not aware of.  Check out the link to her blog – you won’t be disappointed.



I didn’t get the quilter’s name on this – she’s probably in the looney bin by now anyway after finishing this “Oh My Gosh” – isn’t it gorgeous!

Edited to add:  Bunny just let me know that this was done by Robin Petty - thanks Bunny.


This beautiful wool felted piece was done by Rosemary Makhan.

I believe Rosemary did this one too, but I could be wrong – doesn’t happen often – just ask Leo :-)

I have a few more pictures to share, but I’ll save those for another day.

No Voice

I was sick yesterday and today my voice has completely gone.  I can still type, though, so they aren’t going to shut me up that easily!

Saturday Lee & I went to Quilts in the Gardens put on by the Halton Quilter’s Guild.  It’s held in the Royal Botanical Gardens which is a beautiful place to visit if you are ever in the area.

There were many beautiful quilts and I did get pictures!

I didn’t get pictures of all the labels, but the one directly above is called “William Morris Stars” and was pieced & quilted by Robin Petty.

This was pieced and appliquéd by my friend Barb and believe it or not, this was her FIRST quilt!!!!  It’s called The Queen & Her Court.  She also made this beautiful blue and white quilt.  She doesn’t believe in doing anything easy!

This next one was one of my favourites – and I stupidly didn’t get the name of the quilt or the quilter!!

I have lots more pictures, but I’ll post them over the next couple of days.

I managed to get my Mystery Quilt stars figured out – I replaced the star points with a different batik and I’m happy with them now.  They still don’t show up that great in a photo, but in person you can definitely see they are stars.  I also had the opportunity to meet Sherri, the owner of Border Creek Station at the Quilt Show.

Saturday night was our bowling banquet and Leo & I cleaned up!!  Our team came in 3rd out of 18 teams; Leo won most improved average; I won highest triple with handicap; and our name was pulled for a door prize so we won a 22” flat screen HDTV.  We also won ‘The Twist’ contest – I was dragged up there unwillingly – and won some restaurant gift certificates for that.  All in all, it was a good night – and very lucrative too!

Our magnolia tree is in full bloom and looks beautiful.  I just had to share a couple of pictures!

Mystery Quilt

Looking through my Webshots album, I came to the realization that I have finished exactly ONE project this year – my Blooming Nine Patch.  How discouraging is that!

I have been working on a Mystery Quilt from Border Creek Station and have really enjoyed the process.  However, I just finished putting some of the blocks together and was very disappointed to see that one of my fabric choices is all wrong – the stars disappear into the background.

 

I toyed with the idea of just leaving them, but knew I’d never be happy, so yesterday I went all over the place trying to find another fabric to replace the brown star points.

I came up with this:

but I’ve decided this is too ‘white’ and doesn’t really look right.  Back to the drawing board!

Leo’s spring garden is starting to bloom and since I don’t have completed quilts to show you, I’ll share some of his flowers.  We have lots of different daffodils:

 

The magnolia tree is just about ready to bloom:

The hyacinth smell lovely when you open the front door:

The tulips are just starting to bloom – this is a pretty colour:

I had a lovely Mother’s Day lunch at Sandra & Darren’s, followed by a visit to my Mum.  I usually visit her in the morning as she gets more agitated as the day goes on – today was no exception.  Happy Mother’s Day to all who are Mothers, and especially to those who have lost their Mother.

Paducah

I was lucky enough to go to Paducah with 3 friends this year.  We were told this wasn’t a good year to judge Paducah, as so many venues had to be moved because of the flooding and this meant that things were all over the place.  That aside, I didn’t enjoy Paducah nearly as much as Houston and I wouldn’t go back.

We encountered the flight from hell from Chicago to Paducah.  That was the day the tornado hit Alabama and I’m sure we were flying through at least part of it.  The turbulence was awful and the flight attendant wasn’t allowed to leave her seat for the entire flight.  I actually considered driving home, but medicated myself enough to get on the flight and both flights home were fine.

The quilts were amazing but I didn’t take my camera to the show.  It’s a big heavy SLR and while it takes beautiful pictures, I didn’t want to be carrying it around all day.  I’m sure the website has better pictures than I could have taken anyway.

I did show amazing some restraint with my purchases.

I dropped a good bit of money at Fern Hill Quilts – her fabrics were gorgeous.

I also managed to find some batiks I couldn’t live without at Hancock’s of Paducah.  They were mostly 1 yard cuts for $6.95/yard – practically free :-) but on the whole I found their prices really high.  Their Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs and Layer Cakes were the most expensive I saw on our trip.

The American Quilt Museum had a sale on Friday morning.  You purchased a baggie for $10 and got all the fabric you could stuff in it.  It started at 8 A.M. and by 8:15 everything was gone.  Since we had been up since 3 A.M. watching the wedding, it wasn’t a problem getting there on time.

What a wedding celebration we had!

Margaret brought us hats, homemade scones, Devon cream and strawberry jam, as well as English Breakfast Tea and a commemorative mug.

We all met in Margaret & Diane’s room around 3 and the celebration began – left to right – Lee, Margaret & Diane.

A close-up at 4 in the morning without make-up – what I won’t do for my loyal followers!

Notice Margaret made me a PINK hat – does she know me or what!!

Busy Hands

I think I’m going to have to add “Knitting” to my header as there seems to be a lot more knitting going on around here lately than quilting.

I just finished this scarf by Churchmouse and enlisted Bruno’s help to model it for the picture.

It was very easy – after you get the 648 stitches cast on!  The yarn I used is 100% milk fiber.  I’m not sure if it will turn to butter when I wash it.  Who knew you could make yarn from milk!

It was originally knit in Koigu, which is a Canadian yarn and comes in some luscious colours.  Here are just a few that I couldn’t resist buying.

The two on the far left are actually Bamboo from a local company called Dyeversions.  I’ve made many scarves from their bamboo before and it is a dream to work with and drapes beautifully.

The three in the middle are to make this.  It is knit horizontally too and looks like it’s woven when it’s done.

My friend Lee just got back from Texas and just in case I ran out of wool, I ordered some from Knitpicks and had it shipped to her to bring back for me.  This should keep me busy for a while.

I plan to knit socks with this.

As if that wasn’t enough, a friend gifted me this on the weekend:

It’s Mini Mochie and I think suitable for socks too.

I do still quilt – honest – in fact I went to a quilting retreat this weekend.  I must admit I spent more time knitting than sewing as I took all the wrong things.  I am determined to get all my kits sewn, so I picked a couple and thought I was all set – wrong!

One of the kits was short fabric so I couldn’t complete the tablerunner.  When I pulled out the second kit and started reading the instructions, I realized I needed a book which was at home.  It was an add on to a Bag Lady class I had taken several years ago and I didn’t realize the pattern was from the book – I thought it was in the kit.

I did get this accomplished though.

There are supposed to be 4 blocks on the right, and they were designed to be placemats with some additional blocks and sashing.  I think I’m just going to put them on point, add some set in triangles and call it finished.

My hands and wrists are killing me from all the knitting I’ve been doing, so I think I need to give knitting a rest and get back to finishing some of these quilting projects.

One of These Tops is Not Like the Other

I’ve been fighting a sore throat and cold this week, but plugged along and got Lovebird Lane finished.

I e-mailed this picture to my friend Joan yesterday then noticed that all the large roses in the border were sewn together wrong.  I’ve been looking at this on my design wall all week, but didn’t notice the mistake till I saw the picture.  After I’d said “oh, darn it” (for those of you that know me, you know it was a little stronger than that – well, actually a lot stronger than that) I started taking the border apart to fix it.

Here is the corrected version and if there is a mistake in this one, it’s going to have to stay there!

I’m dreading quilting this as I’m a panto girl and there is no way I can do a panto on this as there are a lot of three dimensional elements in the blocks,  It’s going to need custom work so for now, it will go in the ‘to be quilted’ pile and I’ll think about that another day.

You all know what a huge animal lover I am and I heard some very sad news yesterday.  My friend Deb, over at Rags N Quilts lost Harry, her gorgeous ragdoll kitty.  He was only 5 and my heart just aches for Deb.  Those of us who have loved and lost an animal know what she is going through.

Delinquent Blogger

I have so much admiration for people who blog daily.  It takes real commitment and you have to make it a priority.  Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people.

I’ve been really busy, but I don’t have a whole lot to show for it.  I went on Retreat a couple of weekends ago and I had planned to have my Lovebird Lane top completed.  Ha – that didn’t happen – it still isn’t completed. 

I did get the blocks done

but I’m still working on the pieced border.  These are the bows for the corners

and these are 8 of the 18 flowers on the border.

The other 10 flowers have even more piecing that these ones.  It’s one of those – what on earth was I thinking quilts!

In between piecing this fussy border, I did manage to go and see Melissa Etheridge and Serena Ryder in concert.  I’ve been a fan of Melissa’s for years and I really like Serena’s music too, so the fact that they were together was an added bonus.

Last weekend my girlfriend Ursula and I went back to The Hillcrest Spa.  It was a wonderful 24 hours.  Now we’re just waiting until we win the lottery so we can go and live there.

The crocuses are in bloom in Leo’s garden so spring must be coming.  I hope so!

I caught Molly cuddled up beside “Marmalade” on the chaise in our bedroom – they could be from the same litter!

The weights are purely ornamental :-)

It’s Beginning to Look Like Home

The dust is settling from the renovation – the floors are done, the painters are finished and all I’m waiting for now are my window treatments which should be here in about 3 weeks. 

I got my Blooming Nine Patch finished, but it’s been renamed “The Frog Prince”.   I quilted this baby twice – the first time with a small pleat in the backing that I knew would drive me crazy, so I frogged the whole thing.  It took me almost 2 weeks, but as my grandmother always told me, if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.  I’m glad I did.

Here’s a close-up of the quilting:

The panto is Ambrosia and after doing it twice, I could do it in my sleep.

I can’t believe that it’s almost March and that is the only quilting I’ve done this year.  I’m going on a Retreat in a couple of weeks, so I better get my act together and decide what I’m going to take to work on.

When my sewing room was under construction, I did do a bit of knitting.

These scarves are so popular – it seems everyone who sees one, wants one.  There was a lady here on Saturday helping me decide on window treatments and when she saw them, she asked if she could buy one so I did actually knit 5.  They knit up so quickly, but now the yarn is sold out everywhere. 

I had a wonderful Valentine’s Day spent with Bon Jovi.  He put on another amazing concert – in my opinion, even better than the one in July.  My favourite quote of his for the night was “Bon Jovi is like Viagra for women”.  It’s the smile, girls – his smile just melts my heart!!!!

Tonight Sandra & I are going to see Billy Elliot, the musical.  I’m not really sure what to expect.  We both watched the movie so know the story – I just hope we can understand them better.  I usually don’t have a problem with English accents, but I spent more time rewinding to try and figure out what they said than I did watching the movie!

I’m also missing my best friend Lee.  She is down in sunny McAllen Texas for a couple of months and every day I see the wonderful weather she is getting and look out my window at the snow and freezing cold.  She wanted me to come down for a week and I really wanted to go, but in order to get there from here I would have to take 3 flights and that just doesn’t appeal to me.  As you know, I don’t like flying to begin with and the thought of all those changes and layovers, especially by myself, makes me a bit nervous.  With so many flight cancellations due to weather this winter, it would be just my luck to get stranded somewhere like Detroit.

So, I live vicariously through her e-mails and console myself knowing that I can order anything I want and have it shipped to her and she will bring it back for me :-)  I wonder just how much fabric a trailer will hold?  I don’t think her husband wants to find out!