Giveaway

1 Choice 4 Quilting has a GIVEAWAY! Hurry on over and register. You have choices! She wants your best quilting tips for new quilters. While you're there look around--can you say SHOPPING.

Have a good Friday.
Blessings,

Some Little Visitors and the Quilting Room

DGS Mason and DGD Paisley came to stay for a few days this week. We played with sidewalk chalk, dug in the dirt, rocked the baby, road tricycles, played with toys, etc. etc. They were very good and lots of fun. Aren't they growing?

I remembered to take my camera to quilting on Wednesday. I remembered to get it out of my purse. I remembered to take pictures. Thumbs up!

Below is Mickey's beautiful quilt. This is a Pam Bono pattern. We had borrowed her pattern and were in the process of making the blocks for a raffle quilt when the building burned. We lost six blocks in the fire. I had made one just like the sunflower one in this quilt. 

 Bonnie pieced this one from cute flannel prints that were donated to us. From left to right are Bonnie, Marie, and Mickey.

Kathleen is crocheting since there wasn't room at the quilt to quilt. We had several afghans donated that were not finished.

Sharon and Jan are almost ready to turn the quilt. This quilt belongs to Sharon. She had it ready to be quilted and when hers was lost in the fire we told her to bring it and we would quilt it. I hadn't realized until I took this picture that I should have tidied up the quilt top before taking the picture. LOL Some of the papers are the stencils that Sharon traced so we could determine the quilting lines a little better.

Here they are removing pins and unscrewing the c clamps to turn. Do you see that trunk behind Sharon? That was donated to us. Pretty neat, huh?

And here they are turning what has been quilted. The little disk you see is used to cushion the c clamp.

So there you have it.  I will take my camera again-- when I can remember!

Blessings,

Visitors and COOLER weather

My daughter, Amanda, called on Friday evening and asked if they could come over Saturday evening for supper and visit. YES! That meant I had to clean house. I hadn't done any good cleaning for awhile. Just vacuuming and laundry for a couple of weeks--so I tore through the house Saturday morning. Washed several loads of clothes and hung out. Stripped our bed and washed sheets. I straightened and dusted. Picked up the sewing room--seems like it always needs picking up. Things come apart in there pretty fast.

Amanda's husband asked if we might have fried okra for supper. Since we didn't have a garden this year we have to rely on the grocery store or MAYBE someone who did plant one. We'd had some okra gifted to us last week by an older gentleman that DH knows. Would you believe he stopped by with just the right amount for our supper? And it was so good. The last time DH barbecued we had some German sausage in the freezer and he grilled about five pounds and I froze it in separate packages for future meals. I got out enough for our meal and Amanda had asked for my fried potatoes. I decided homemade ice cream would be good so got that together and DH got it going for us. Our meal was great and we had a good visit. DGD Aimee asked her mom if she could stay and spend the weekend with us.(She wanted to sew. : )) They hadn't planned on that. They had shopped at a thrift store that day and had picked up a couple of clothing items. I told them we could run to the store for a toothbrush and undies. So that's what we did. She had finished the body of her quilt last time she was visiting. This time we added her border. We also had to comb out one of the Cabbage Patch dolls hair and rebraid it. We had a great time. We took her home yesterday and ate lunch at their house and enjoyed sitting on the porch with a cool breeze.

The weather is much cooler! We stayed in the eighties yesterday and overnight low was 59 degrees. Woohoo! The a/c is off. In fact it felt pretty darn cool this morning.

Please pray for the wildfires across the state of Texas. A huge fire is burning east of Austin--where nearly 500 homes have burned and thousands of acres. The Possum Kingdom fire is still burning. This one is in the same general area as the one back in April.

I'm praying for rain for all those who need it and for relief for those that don't.

Blessings,

Goodbye August 2011

Parting is such sweet sorrow. NOT! Come on September with cooler temperatures and RAIN!

I lied. I told you a week ago I would take pictures of our new quilting room. I forgot. I forgot to grab the camera as I was leaving. Today, I put the camera in my purse and forgot to GET OUT and take pictures. One of these days I will remember to do all three. We were laughing and cutting up today. Dixie was talking about how a cut up her new husband is. He keeps her laughing and that is so wonderful for her.

Part of the reason I forgot to take pictures--I had finished quilting Jan's quilt and brought it to her at quilting and of course everyone wanted to see it. And then several of us had C.A.S.A. quilts we had finished and had to show them. And then I had brought examples of the backing fabric I have on hand for Jan to see for her next quilt. And then it was time to quilt. And then it was time to eat. And then it was time to quilt again. And then it was time to go home. Blah-blah-blah.

Here's Jan's quilt. Isn't it pretty? I don't know if you can tell or not. I used a snowflake overall pattern. And after I took it off the frame I loaded this little C.A.S.A. quilt. Got it quilted and bound within two days. Fastest I have EVER gotten a quilt done. Woohoo! Of course, I sewed the binding on by machine. I didn't have matching purple thread so I used a variegated purple and used one of the specialty stitches on my Kenmore to sew it down instead of by hand. Much faster! I have another quilt loaded and I'm quilting it. I will also bind this one. Hopefully I can get it done by the weekend.

                                         Jan's quilt.

                                          C.A.S.A. quilt. The colors are washed out in both pictures.

Wildfires are burning again. Possum Kingdom Lake has a huge fire burning. Twenty or more houses have been burned and thousands of acres. Today a big grassfire started up south of Bridgeport. Two houses and possibly a third have burned. I will know more tomorrow. One TV station out of  DFW is reporting that it is 0 per cent contained.  From our viewpoint the smoke line was much smaller before sundown. Another station has reported a more accurate report. Firefighters will remain tonight and watch it closely for the next few days.

Ya'll stay safe and be blessed,

Wednesday

Yes, quilting with the Kraz-z Quilters. I will take my camera and take pictures of our new room.

I have updated our Wise County Quilt Guild blog if you want to see pics from Saturday's meeting.
http://wisecountyquiltguild.blogspot.com/

Blessings,

A "GO" Giveaway

MooseStash Quilting is holding a giveaway of an Accuquilt Baby Go die cutter. Hurry on over and sign up and do me a favor--tell her I sent you. I'm going now to sign up. See 'ya.

Blessings,
Marilyn

We had a wonderful meeting at guild last Saturday. I took pictures of the show and tell and will link to the post on our WCQG site just as soon as I download the pictures and do that. Ahem. Tonight I have been invited to a local group to peddle my goods. Be back soon to post more.

Update on Friday

DH came home. We ate. Then I asked him to look at the mower and see if I had something set wrong. Yup, it was operator error. I was told I didn't need to choke it except on a cold start. Okay, got it. I finished mowing. Did some weedeating before it got dark. Good end to the day.

Tomorrow morning is guild meeting. We have a special program. I will take my camera.

Good night,
Marilyn

Dresden Plates

I got to thinking--yes, I know it happens and sometimes it can be dangerous. LOL I got to thinking that YOU might like to know how to make Dresden Plates. Oh please say you do! Even if you don't I'll still luv ya.

Here is an awesome tutorial--  Of course these are the POINTED blades with I believe ARE easier. Anyway you get a nice finish on the edges.
http://www.designsbyloftcreations.com/2009/04/easy-dresden-tutorial.html

And then I saw these Dresdens with 3D triangles created by Edyta Sitar  and my heart skipped a beat--literally. This is a free pattern if you register with allpeoplequilt.com . Oh, how I wish I had found this BEFORE I needle turned my edges. I am so doing this next time!
http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/projects-ideas/table-toppers-runners/bold-sunburst_1.html

And I wouldn't have found the link above IF I hadn't listed to Pat Sloan's Creative Talk Radio program where she interviewed Edyta Sitar. Big plus I now know how to say her name. LOL  Edyta is a very talented quilter with some very good techniques and tips.

And remember these? http://cateringquilter.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-won.html  I am still thinking of how I want to set them. I absolutely love these.

Enjoy and I hope you might want to try making a Dresden Plate.

Blessings,
Marilyn

Best Laid Plans

You know when you get up and have things you want to get done and then they start going down hill? You've had one of those days, too?! Then you know how I feel. First thing this morning I call to see if DH's prescription is ready for pickup. It was out of refills--I knew that--I also knew they would fax the doctor. They haven't heard from the doctor. I call the doctor's office. They say they didn't get the fax. Also the doctor won't be in until Tuesday. Call pharmacy back and they will loan us enough until then. I love our Brookshire's Pharmacy. They have a drive-thru window. It rocks!

I get that done plus other errands. I filled up the gas can so I can mow the yard. I get changed and fill up the mower. It starts just fine. I start mowing. I kill the engine to pick up a stick I didn't see before. It's hard to start back up. But it does. I had to stop another time. That time it wouldn't start up again. Drats. Double drats. I only like about fifteen minutes more. Hopefully it is only an air filter stopped up or something.

Have a blessed and productive day,
Marilyn