what a night!

So. Last night I did make it to my quilt guild's meeting. I had been looking forward to this one for quite some time; not just because I'd not been able to make the last two (so I hadn't been since April) and missed it, but because last night was our challenge display, "It's In the Cards!" We have a very large guild (300+ members), so we've typically got pretty good turn out for things of this nature.

I was NOT disappointed!

I took *loads* of pictures of all the beautiful challenge quilts, but I'll share those at a later date -- like when I can upload them from an Internet connection that doesn't charge by the megabyte! But I had such a marvelous evening that I did want to share some of the highlights here, today!

First, I'm so grateful to Beverly, one of our members, who e-mailed me that our meeting place did have handicap access, and she gave me her cell number so she could meet me and get me easily inside. How long I've taken for granted just being able to go wherever and not worry about steps and steep climbs and whatnot.

Once inside, I saw my friend Cindy, from Hooked On Quilting! And she had a PRESENT for me!! She'd seen on my blog that I was needing some hand work and she brought me this . . .

Everything I needed to do a little red work! I've never done any red work, but I've looked at others' projects longingly for a while now. Isn't this incredibly thoughtful? The little boy in the designs is a Sawyer, through and through . . . LOL! :)

I'm so excited. I've pulled it out and read the instructions and done a little online research. I'm ready to play now -- this will occupy my afternoon!! Thank you, Cindy!! :)

Next, me and my camera "rolled" around the displays! Oh my. Again I have to tell you how impressed and awed I am by the talent of our guild members. It's incredible!! The challenge was to create a small quilt (no larger than 36" X 36") based on a greeting card. Each quilt was displayed with the greeting card inspiration. There were five categories: holiday, celebration, vintage, pop-up/3-D, and other. Members walked around the room, took it all in, and voted for their favorite in each category, as well as a "Best Representation of Challenge" and "Best of Show" quilt. It was really hard to mark just one favorite on my ballot! I'll get those photos edited and share them next week, but I had to share this one today . . .

Here's the card -- a handmade, vintage (1945) Christmas card:

And here's the beautiful quilt my darling friend Tina, of Tina Wright Photography, made based on it:

Only my photo does not do it justice! The appliqued center opened up and she'd duplicated the sentiment hand-written inside the card. Precious!! The backing of the quilt was a Santa apron that had been worn by Tina's grandmother. It was just a treasure! She won 2nd place in the Vintage Cards category!! Yay, Tina!! Click on the picture of the quilt to get the whole story, which is dear, and lots more photos of this darling piece of work!

Okay, so every meeting we can purchase raffle tickets, and they do a drawings for assorted fun things that the local shops (and sometimes members) donate for such purposes. I know I've mentioned this in posts past, because I tend to have a strangely lucky streak when it comes to these drawings! Last night was no different! I won a nifty little prize-pack from Patches & Stitches! I'll share details/pictures of that later, too!

We also have a "Show & Tell" segment in every meeting. We had better than ten ladies stand up and show more than a dozen quilts last night. Beautiful, beautiful work! But this one had me drooling . . .

Again, my photo does not do this pretty, pretty quilt justice. She'd hand embroidered all these beautiful tea cups and the tea service center! I asked her after the meeting if I could see it up close and take this picture of it. Oh. My. Incredible! I really think I could have sat there for an hour or three, and just marveled over this exquisite quilt.

As folks were leaving last night, a guild member came up to me, introduced herself, and told me she reads my blog -- I just thought that was the coolest! Hey, Louise! I was so tickled to meet you last night!! :) It perfectly capped off my wonderful evening!

Tonight I have the pleasure of keeping company with Sawyer, while his mommy attends a wedding rehearsal and the subsequent rehearsal dinner. He's growing and growing -- I can't believe he's already four months old! His mommy is chronicling his months on her blog, here. He's pretty exquisite, too!

TGIF!

:)

SEW FREELY MONDAY!

Okay. On today's (so-to-speak) design wall . . .

I wanted to do a really simple table topper (square) for my mom. Then I made it *so* simple I decided to do three, one for my mom, and then one for my daughter and my daughter-in-law. The tops are all pieced, I just have to cut out the rest of the leaves, press 'em and stitch. Then the tops will be finished. I'll back them with the cute, cute, CUTE acorn fabric, and then bind them with the darker brown. Fun colors. The photos don't do justice.

For the last five or six years, I've made it a tradition to send my mom something squirrel-related every fall. This year, will be this cute little fellow:

He's using the same fabric as the acorn bottoms in the table runner. The acorns in the tea towel are the same fabric as the acorn tops in the runner.

Let's see. I also squared up BBS quilt top, and cut out and squared up the flannel back. At least, they are both squared up providing the lines in my kitchen floor linoleum are squared. I had swept and mopped the kitchen floor this morning, so I could lay the top and back on the floor to get them ready for quilting. I'd no sooner got them down when Merlin, my little black cat, just *had* to try and walk on them. Stinker.

Lastly, I had to put a tag and a sleeve on the back of the Grand Hands quilt, to get it ready to turn in TOMORROW!!! I can hardly believe the quilt show is this coming weekend!! I can't wait to see what other women from our guild have done! We have lots and lots of talented women (and men) in our group. Should be an incredible show. I'll take lots of pictures!

So. There's my day. To see what others are doing with their design walls, check out Judy's Patchwork Times blog! There's LOTS of quilting going on out there today! I do love Mondays!

For now, back to the cutting board . . .

cya!

:)