Highfields quilters become happy scrappers

Kathy discussing possible quilting projects using the strip cutter

The KoolKats made a 10 minute trip up the road to Highfields to hold a Scrap Happy workshop with the Darling Downs Quilters Guild.  Around 16 ladies participated in the workshop, and the most popular activity was cutting fabric stashes into 2 1/2" strips.  Kathy gave a presentation of her quilts made with jelly rolls or fabric pack strips, and various blocks and other shapes made possible with dies from the Accuquilt Studio cutter.

While the winter wind swept across the open Highfields plateau on the day of the workshop, we were pleased it wasn't held the following day, overcast, westerly winds, and thoroughly miserable weather!

Preparing the 2.5" strip cutter die for the Accuquilt Studio cutter

Highfields Quilters with their completed Art Nouveau Iris projects from Kathy's June workshop

Hello, My Dear Quilting Friends!

 

                                                     Happy Birthday Courtney!!!!

Hello, My Dear  Quilting Friends!

I am thinking of my sweet daughter today!  Today is her Birthday!  A day I will never forget, and I had no idea either back in my time what she was going to be.  The doctor said a boy.... the entire time.  From the sound of her heartbeat.
I had a boy already, Jeff... and for some reason since I looked like one of my Aunts I felt I would end up having all boys as she had.
I still had saved all of my dolls, just in case I did have a little girl.
Well 34 years ago today, Courtney came into the world.   She was three weeks early, and was born on my parents 25TH Anniversary.   Today my parents are celebrating  their 59th Anniversary!

Happy Birthday Courtney !!!!!!  Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

                                                        Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!!

              Courtney and Jerry her husband ....They just celebrated 9 years!  15 years together!

                                             Happy Anniversary   59Years   Mom and Dad

                                                         Hugs Morgan   oxoxoxoxoxoo

Today's Animals In

Today's Animals in

I Spy Quilt Pillow

 Per my idea to sew some smaller things this summer, I made this little I Spy pillow to go with the recent monster-sized I Spy quilt I made.  The pillow is made up of 25 squares of 4 inches each.

 Even though it's quite small, there is lots of I Spy potential I think because I really tried to go for a good variety of fabrics.

 This little beaver is the kids' favourite.  I guarantee that "the beaver" is the correct guess if either of them are spying something brown.

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Also in this photo, you can see the herringbone/baseball stitch I used to quilt it with.  I really like how it turned out and I think it added some interest to this little pillow.

 Here's the back. 

 It's bird, it's a plane, it's Super Pillow!

I am thinking this would make a perfect Christmas gift -- it is handmade, can be personalised by choosing very specific squares for each child, and doesn't take near the time a quilt does.  If I made it again I would try a slightly bigger pillow form, so I could use 36 squares.  With 36 squares I think there would be tons of I Spy fun packed into it. 

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Thanks for stopping by.  Since it's Tuesday, I'm hanging with some other fabric-lovin' friends over at Fabric Tuesday.

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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U

Cute quilts for kids... Don't Look Now !

Australian designer Kellie Wulfsohn, who designs under the name Don't Look Now, has created a wonderful collection of quilts for kids.  Her distinctive style includes bright, primary colors on a white background, resulting in a fresh and contemporary look. Kellie's whimsical quilts are often inspired by her own children (she is a mother of four).

Peak Hour, 56.5 x 56.5”, by Kellie Wulfsohn, at Don't Look Now

This fun quilt will delight every child who is fascinated with transportation.  Traffic signs help direct the flow in "Peak Hour", which features stylized trucks, motor scooters, and cars (some of the cars are even being towed away ! )  We love the clever 'stoplight' border, which is made of red, yellow and green circles. The pattern uses raw-edge appliqué (see the detail below).

Animal Alphabet, by Kellie Wulfsohn, at Don't Look Now

Upper and lower case letters are illustrated with adorable creatures from the animal kingdom.  The quilt even serves double duty as an 'I Spy' game:  can you find the dragon, iguana, kangaroo, octopus, unicorn and vulture?

Worry Dolls, 52 x 52”, by Kellie Wulfsohn, at Don't Look Now

Kellie Wulfsohn came up with such a clever idea:  a quilt covered with worry dolls.  Worry dolls are a tradition of Guatemalan children, who make tiny colorful dolls from sticks and fabric. A child who cannot sleep due to worrying can express their worries to a doll and place it under their pillow at night. According to legend, the doll will worry in the child's place, thereby permitting the child to sleep peacefully. With this cozy and cheerful quilt, a good night's sleep is sure to follow.

Image credits: Images are shown with the generous permission of Kellie Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now. You can read about Kellie on her biography.  We also featured Kellie's Alphabet Soup pattern in our post on The ABCs of Quilting.

Rainbow Zebra Backgrounds

Rainbow Zebra Backgrounds

Memory Quilt {machine quilting}

Joyce pieced and designed this fun quilt for her granddaughters' birthday.She included pictures and things that she loves. 

It was a fun quilt to machine quilt and look at all the creativeness (is that even a word :) that is going on here.Joyce is super creative, click here to see another quilt that she created and I quilted.The backing on this quilt is minky, it quilted really cute.

Back to the long arm machine, I had a late start this morning so I may be here a little while longer tonight :)
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The Truth is...

that I haven't turned on my sewing machine in well over a month...have not made anything out of cloth lately...This is a thread painting I created for a challenge on Quilts Around the World that was posted on that blog and mine the end of June. And I just entered it in an art show in our local art gallery in three parts: Photo; drawing; thread painting for a show called "Animals, Animals, Animals".

click on photos to enlarge and see details

I've been taking lots of photos since summer started and have taken up my sketchbook, pens, and watercolors. Oh, and I've been knitting for our new grand baby coming in a months time. But since finishing a quilt for her I have not made even a journal art quilt. That muse is on hold for some reason. But lest you think me fallen by the wayside I decided to post these today. I am sure the sewing quilting creative me will rise again....before too long. Stay tuned. In the meantime I am enjoying all that others are doing here!

hodgepodge . . .

Really I have just a strange collection of odds and ends from my life to share today. All of them are important to me in one way or another, so I just piled 'em up together. There's no wonder I don't have a design wall per se . . . I've been too busy buying fabrics and running the video on my camera . . .

First, a nod back to Knoxville and the AQS show. One of the most poignant exhibits there was the traveling Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative exhibit. Unfortunately, in order to preserve the quilts, no photography was allowed, but you can see photos of it HERE at their website and some HERE if you "like" them on facebook. (Photo from the website.)

I had actually had an opportunity earlier in the year to put the name of a dear friend and mentor on one of the squares. I was so excited and touched to find her name -- my handwriting -- on the exhibit (yes; that's the thing I had a part in that was hanging at the AQS show) . It's a very beautiful and moving display and would have been worth the AQS entrance fee if that had been all I'd seen. If you have the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend it.

Next? I got not one, but TWO happy packages in the mail! The first was this wonderful collection of books - and you can see, there are some great titles (and a cute little notepad which is perfect for list-making and/or doodling)!

This came from Peggy at The Simple Woman's Day Book.

The second package came from Karen over at Lisnaweary Quilts. She picked my names, "Cactus Kid & Bo" for her little guys on her Wild West Quilt.

Aren't these fun and pretty? Perfect for the little cowgirl in my life (and I do have one or two).

Saturday I got to spend a couple of hours with my favorite little man, Sawyer Graham. I cannot believe how busy and chatty he is!

Just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

See that frown? That's what happens when you try and read your books upside down!

Great profile shot, non?

Just so HAPPY!

I managed to whittle this little clip down from the eleven minute mini-movie it originally was. It's still entertaining to me -- and I've already watched it a dozen times!

Remind me to share why the pig says, "La la la!" I love being a grandmaaaaaa. :)

Then finally, from today, we have new visitors at the camp!

Mama Raccoon and her sweet little babies! They were the first raccoon babies I've ever seen. We saw the first fawn of the season up here last week -- but it was very timid and wouldn't come out for a camera shot. With the baby raccoons I had no such problems.

They were so cute -- and they didn't get too far from mama at first.

Todd commented how amazing it is that we're seeing them in the daylight like this.

Something startled them (another raccoon -- a big male -- came out to eat) and they went dashing up the tree!

After they'd been in the clearing for a while, they got a little braver and let mom get more than six feet away. But my favorite part of their visit I managed to catch on video . . .

Isn't that fun?!?!

All right, I've got a busy, busy (but fun) week in store. Tomorrow I'm off to a church finances seminar and then we've got Community Groups in the evening. I've got a dear, quilty friend coming for lunch and iced tea on Wednesday followed by an evening with the Ignite ladies at the movies (Winnie the Pooh), then Thursday I've got some book-keeping to do before I head off to my guild meeting. Friday I've got lunch at Emma's with a sweet young lady from church, and then a Friday evening ladies' conference at Lighthouse Baptist, and then Saturday morning is the Sulky Thread workshop. Whew! I'm out of breath just typing all that! Good thing the list Todd gave me for the week was such that I finished everything but one item today!

:)