How I spent the weekend

Happy Halloween!

Thought I'd share a couple of pictures from our Halloween Village.

We've been so busy, there hasn't been much time to enjoy the holiday.

We had a great show at West Sound Quilters last week.

We did so well, I've been furiously

making more things so I will have enough to properly fill the booth at the two shows yet to come.

Richard found his Halloween costume at the show and spent a great deal of time entertaining the vendors with it. I'll also share a couple pictures of the booth.

I'm Back -- Let's Try This Again

Yes, I've been goofing off. Now the year is half gone and it's time to get busy. So, I'm hoping I will stick with the plan and post at least once a month - have a give away this fall - who knows. . .

Since April, I've been teaching classes, straightening up around the house, and making quilts for family. I thought I would share one of those from the past (Star Trek) and the latest one made from wolf panels. The wolf quilt is made with thinsulate batting for extra warmth. I really like the thinsulate because it gives the quilts an extra soft and cuddly feeling.

Until next time, happy quilting!

Look What You Can Do With Scraps

Well now that the scraps are so neat and organized, I just can't seem to stay out of them.

I have two classes scheduled now. One is ongoing on Sunday afternoons and is finished with their first project and ready for more. (See group quilt photo above. )

This group is very informal and everyone seems content to work at their own pace. One person has already finished her second project which led me to go in search of ideas for a third. Alas, I have no pictures of the second project as yet.

Anyway, I needed a sample and the scrap bins provided just the right stuff for the boxy stars quilt shown here. Pattern can be found on www.quiltville.com. Of course, I resized it for those who wanted to work with bigger pieces.

The next thing on my agenda was a project that could be used to teach the Quilt-As-You-Go method designed by Susan Nelson. Once again I went to the scrap bins and created the small runner shown here. Now I know my calculations are right and I can proceed to make the kits for people to use in class.

It seems I've had lots of treasures hiding in the scrap bins. For now at least I have a plan for staying caught up with them. I set a drawer aside for collecting scraps and I'm determined that everytime that drawer gets full, I will take an evening and sort them out and put them in bins so they will be ready for my next creative moment.

At least it's a start . . .

After at least 50 quilts made and roughly 4 years since the last clean-up, I managed to accumulate quite a pile of scraps. But after pulling everything out of the sewing room to make room to switch my old quilting frame for the new one, I was determined to put some order into the scrap pile and turn it in to something usable.

After two weeks of spending virtually every weekend hour and weekday evening sorting and trimming, I feel I've made great strides. Lady Cat was quite concerned at my single-mindedness and felt it necessary to stroll across the table now and then to check up on me. At one point, she stopped nose to nose and just stared at me as if to say "this has gone on long enough - you can pay attention to me now". So, I took the hint and put the sorted part neatly on the shelves and stuffed the rest back into 2 bins, and then sat down with Lady Cat to catch up on television. I was rewarded with a contented purr and adoring looks before she drifted off to sleep.

I made a note to self to be sure and get back to those bins soon -- we'll see.

February 2009

In February we got a bit bogged down with taxes and paperwork. I managed to keep busy with a teaching a quilting class on Sunday afternoons. I'm hoping to post pictures of our quilts from class next month.

So far, I've started 3 quilts and finished one (shown here). This quilt is one I found in a catalog. They were selling a kit to make it. I'm too cheap for that -- I just looked at the picture and figured it out. Of course, I have no idea how the size of my blocks compares to theirs. It turned out that my free sample of thinsulate 250 was enough to quilt it with, so I used the thinsulate for the batting and was delighted to find that my quick and easy quilt turned into a comforter. Next month, I'm hoping to finally organize the scrap pile - wish me luck . . . .

January Flew By

January was supposed to be a chance to relax and take a break before starting to make stuff for the 2009 shows -- my goal is to make at least one quilt each month.

As luck would have it, it took most of the month to get customer quilts done because there were too many days of being sick and not wanting to risk sneezing too often and having to rip out stuff. But, the sun came out again. All customer quilts got done ahead of the promised date and everyone was happy with the results. We even found time to start up a Sunday afternoon class for some seniors in Silverdale. We've been working on 'The Road to Oklahoma'.

I did manage to get a quilt done in January. I finished Bonnie Hunter's New Year's Eve mystery quilt called Double Delight. As always, I made little changes . . . .

Lighthouse Quilt

Over the holidays I decided to use some lighthouse fabric to make a gift for a friend. I wanted the quilt to be something more than just lighthouse pictures joined by sashing, so I thought I'd add some geese -- a stand-in for the seagulls commonly found around lighthouse, but I've never seen a 'flying seagull' block. I played with a couple of ways of putting flying geese blocks around the pictures -- wasn't quite right. Then I found the 'Goose on the Loose' block in an old book. I mixed these blocks with the pictures, quilted in the clouds, and used a mottled blue on the back for the water and ended up with the complete package shown here. My friend loved it.

Who was that mystery guest at the party?

We’d like to introduce our Chief of Security. She’s always on the job. No bag, box, or container of any kind is allowed on the premises without a thorough search . . .

She does not hesitate to explain in great detail whenever something happens that does not suit her. The humans have been severely chastised on those occasions when the levels of the food dish or water dispenser dropped below acceptable levels or if she has not been properly adored when she felt she was due (pretty much all of the time).

She has been known to chase of intruders on the perimeter of the property from her observation post inside the building using nothing more than her extraordinary vocabulary augmented by her considerable attitude.

Congratulations to our staff member of the quarter – Precious!

Just wanted to say Happy New Year and share some pictures from the office party. We'll introduce the staff in future posts. As you can see, everyone had a good time at the party.