PRE-GAME FINISH

It's a rainy, dreary day outside -- perfect for getting another quilt finished.  This one is called Bali Love Song by Elisa Wilson of Elisa's Backporch Design.  It's a freebie on http://www.hoffmanfabrics.com/.   Lots of neat patterns there.  Try them out!

This quilt goes to the Durham (NC) Veterans Hospital, which is the Outreach Program recipient for the quilts made in the month of February this year.  The grey looking areas are actually a dark brown and white gingham plaid.  The backing is a gold homespun plaid with threads of red and brown in it.  As soon as I finish up my Fons and Porter quilt, I'll get this one done, hopefully by the time of the guild meeting on Wednesday.

ALMOST THERE!

I am happy to tell you that I have almost completed the quilting on my Fons and Porter quilt -- all but the top and bottom borders!  I had to stipple everything in the three flowered panels -- ugh!  Took forever, but it's done now.  Tomorrow I'll finish it, take it off the frame, and start on the binding.

I ordered one of those wonderful retractable design walls for my studio, and when it arrived, it had a dent in it.  The dent is smooth and sanded, so I don't think it was done by the shipping company.  I'm negotiating a partial refund now.  These things are pricey, so I expected perfection.  Am I wrong?  Anyway, the company that handles the orders is very helpful, but the manufacturer is less so.  I'll keep you posted on what happens.

DAY FIVE

On the fifth day of her visit, Mary met with some of my guild members to teach a class on the Tri Recs rulers.  Here she is with Mary Ann and Lee Ann, talking about how to line up the triangles in making the star points of our project. 

She also combined this lesson with one in the many ways of creating stems for applique and demonstrated her favorites.  Lynne is looking on as Mary shows how you can still get excellent curves from a bias strip even when Heat N Bond or Wonder Under is applied.

Mary has a wide base of knowledge in quilting and loves to share with others whatever she knows.  She has an easy, humorous, supportive way of teaching that makes her an annual favorite in our guild.

So now I have caught up with our doings this past week.  I'm still laid low with this stomach and lungs flu-y thing that I came down with Wednesday evening and that's going around, but my head has finally cleared enough to write now and then.  I'm better off than three of our guild members who have come down with pneumonia, though.  Hope to be up and well next week and quilting my Fons and Porter quilt for the show!

DAY FOUR

Steve and Lori Clayton run a wonderful quilt shop called Threads Run Through It in Phenix, VA.  I LOVE going there, even though it takes an hour and forty-five minutes to get there.

You can find just about any fabric you would ever want for your quilting projects.  Here, Myrt's devilish grin speaks volumes about 1) her glee over finding new goodies for her stash, and 2) her solution as to how to get these newest acquisitions past her husband when she gets home. 

Not really.  Most of us have co-dependent husbands who understand that a cold meal is better than no meal at all; that laundry can and does get done eventually, even if it's in the middle of the night while we're obsessively stitching out our quilts; that a happy quilter is MUCH better than a p----d off woman going through fabric withdrawal; and that if Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Joyce has discovered the newest tease in the shop:  scraps by the pound!  I'm telling you, these people know how to market!  Could a restaurant sell scrapings from customers' plates?  Could a hospital OR sell used sponges?  Could a newspaper sell last week's papers?  No!  Basically, most left overs are ditched because they are contaminated or obsolete.  But not scraps!  Scraps are pure gold, and the more eclectic, the better.  Joyce is a very happy camper in this picture, believe me!

Mary hates to shop.  Fortunately, she has a hubby who doesn't mind doing it for her.  However, it's a different story when it comes to fabric.  All of us who quilt are basically junkies.  We get high just being in proximity to fabric.  We have all sorts of guilty (quilty) pleasure pulling bolts from their shelves, feeling the smoothness of well made cloth, fantasizing about how it will look in our projects, matching it to others that complement the color scheme.  Ahhhhh.  It's heady stuff, this addiction of ours.  Here's Mary, getting her fix for the day.

The Threads Run Through It team are so very welcoming, especially to groups.  They will make you a free lunch, and a very hearty one at that, if you tell them a group of you is coming.  The table above was one of two, chock full of treats.  Sliced ham, roast beef, turkey and two kinds of cheeses for our sandwiches were on this one, and grapes, cookies, raw veggies with dip and chips were on the other, along with delicious iced tea or water.  Yum!!!

Mary is taking a moment of peace after completing her shopping to text her hubby.  The front porch of this quilt shop is inviting, with its quilts hung on the walls and many rocking chairs.  Occasionally, Wingnut, the cat and familiar of this place, visits and INSISTS on being petted.  He is a long haired, mostly white and brown, large cat who thinks everyone is his friend.

And so we bid adieu to Day Four of Mary's visit.  We got home too late to do much sewing, so we knitted instead.

DAY THREE

Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine had this pattern in it in the July/August 2007 issue.  It was called Whimsical Garden and was done in bright colors like orange and turquoise.  I didn't care for the color scheme, so I changed it to more of an old world look, with muted blues, warm browns and strong reds.  It has taken me over three years to finish this project.  The applique, which I did on the machine, was extremely time consuming, so I only did it now and then when I was feeling masochistic. 

Finally, I decided to finish it on Day Three of Mary's visit, because I want to enter this quilt in our annual quilt show in March.  Just the top is finished at this time, but I will be quilting it soon.



DAY TWO

Remember my Painless Cathedral Windows class?  Well, I used that approach to deal with the fabric challenge from my guild. This fabric is a Kaffe Fassett mille fiori sort of look on an olive background, and I think it's pretty ugly.  Others don't.  Our assignment was to take the two crayons in our packet, and the 1/4 yard of the fabric, find two fabrics that matched the crayons, add two other fabrics of our choice and come up with a quilty thing.  I KNOW I will never hang this fabric on my walls, so I made a pillow.

I put a zipper in the back.  My crayon colors were the pink and sea green that are on the back.  You can also see them in the windows on the front.  The added fabrics were a deep purple and a batik orange.

Now I have to fluff out my pillow and hand it in.  Our guild has a quilt show at the Library every March, and we will be showing some of our challenge projects as part of the show.

I finished this project on Day Two of Mary's visit.

DAY ONE

I thought for sure that I had already shown this quilt, but apparently not.  This was quilted and bound on day one of Mary's visit with me.  I don't know the pattern and would love it if someone recognized it and passed it on to me.  I found it in a box of UFO's from the year 1 in my studio while cleaning up for Mary's visit.    Love the scrappy look!