fun, fun evening . . .

Last night was our regular guild meeting and I had such a good time! I first had dinner with some of the gals from our Stitcher's Group - we ate at McAlister's Deli. We hadn't been there for a long time. It was yummy!

The weather was not the best -- when we left the restaurant it was already raining/misting, and we knew the temps were supposed to drop quickly and that sleet and then snow were on the way. It's really a shame, because I think it caused a lot of ladies to stay home last night, and they missed a *wonderful* program!

Before the program started, I met up with one of the members, Anne T. Anne had brought in her crazy quilt for Show & Tell several months ago (the July meeting), and I'd wanted to get a better look at it. We worked together as hostesses at the Lost Heroes Quilt exhibit last month, and had talked a little more about her crazy quilting and the process. She'd agreed to bring in her finished crazy quilt last night. She did better than that!

First she showed me this book on embellishments. Doesn't this look like fun?!? Doesn't it look like something *I* need???? I think so. I mean really.

Amazon.com has it listed and you can even look inside! Click on the photo to check it out yourself. There may be one on the way to my house as you read this.

She also brought the crazy quilt project she's currently working on:

Isn't this fun?!? I love the profusion of COLORS!! She's paper piecing this one, and has about 38 different patterns she's following. She said she likes it because it's hand work that she can pull out in small spaces and work on whenever she wants to. I wish I'd caught some of the fun stitching she's got on these blocks. It's wonderful.

And then she pulled out this beauty . . .

Isn't it gorgeous? I just love this wall hanging! My favorite embellishment? Her Girl Scout patches! What FUN!!! I know without a doubt that I simple must do one of these quilts. Someday!

Then, after an abbreviated business meeting (due to the impending weather), our program started. What a terrific national speaker we had!

If you're not familiar with Melinda Bula, you can check out her website HERE and/or her blog HERE.

I found right off the bat that Melinda and I were sanitarium sisters. Yes, that's right, both of us were born in sanitariums! She on the west coast, and me in the Washington Sanitarium, Takoma Park, Maryland. Who knew?

She had with her two *gorgeous* quilts -- the one on the left is a sunset in Monterrey and the one on the right is titled Romance. I love both of them, but especially the flowers. I wanted to run up there and inhale their fragrance -- that's how real and beautiful they were!

My photos from last night do no justice to the objects I was trying to capture. Probably because I was sitting in the very back row.

It also didn't help that most of my captures are off the projector screen!

Both of these wearable arts caught my attention. Beautiful work!

But I especially loved this green. Sweet!

I did get one of her books. I cannot resist Christmas!

And yay! It's an autographed copy. Whoohoo!

My two favorite sound bites from the night?

She told how she had grown up sitting at the feet of her mom, watching her sew, and that she and her sister would take scraps of fabric and sew outfits for their dolls . . . "We thought were sewing, but mostly we were wrapping!"

and . . .

"You're only a quilter if you have a minimum of ten unfinished quilts!"

I think I qualify.

She was as engaging a storyteller as she is a quilter. If ever you have the chance to see her or her work, just DO IT!

I did drive home (very carefully) in the snow and this is we woke up to this morning . . .

Not so much to shut anything down, but enough to leave a beautiful light blanket over everything. And it did delay school openings this morning which was GREAT because it meant I didn't have to deal with the stinking school zone traffic!

Happy FRIDAY!!!

:)

Flower Talk - Hoffman Quilt

Flower Talk (Pick Me I'm Cute) 25" x 25" 2010

My 2010 Hoffman Challenge quilt--flower talk. It was picked to be part of the Hoffman Challenge traveling collection (my sister Donna's feathered star is also part of the collection). The challenge fabric is the blue floral used in the 4 blocks without letters.

It is an original design, inspired by a field of purple coneflowers all asking to be picked ... flower humor. Part of my serious of "word play" quilts--quilts that have something to say. A whimsical approach to quilting. Started for the 2009 challenge (brown paisley-see middle line of last E) --I kept the pink and brown centers and then reworked the next row adding blues and keeping the greens. I finished off with more pink and a funky dragonfly border. It was a design I really liked and it felt good to make it work.

Letters were paperpieced from my patterns. Machine pieced and then embroider/quilted in one step with Sulky thread. 2 batts- 80/20 cotton/polyester and 50/50 cotton/bamboo.

Alliance Crazy Quilts Auction on eBay

It is time for the first round of the Alliance auction. My Crazy quilt pictured above will be auctioned off this week. Click on the logo above for more details and to see all the quilts.

All contest quilts will be auctioned via eBay
Click on an auction week below to view or download an auction guide for that week.
Week One: Monday, Oct. 26 - Monday, Nov. 2
Week Two: Monday, Nov. 2 - Monday, Nov. 9
Week Three: Monday, Nov. 9 - Monday, Nov. 16
The bidding for each quilt will start at $50 and each 7-day auction week starts and ends at 9:00 pm Eastern.
All proceeds will support the AAQ and its projects.

My Quilt in the News and back story

9-8-9 Update -my quilt was one of the honorable mention winners in the challenge.

Exciting news: my quilt for the Alliance for American Quilts Crazy quilt Challenge is one of 4 quilts highlighted in their June newsletter. Here is the direct link. My sister called with the news the day before my birthday- what a fun surprise present. It is pictured above (from the back) I wanted to show off all the threadwork and I think it is interesting to see quilt backs which are often forgotten. To see the rest of the quilt, see the previous entries below and the link above. More than 70 quilts were made and donated to the Alliance for this challenge and they will be auctioned off on eBay in late October and early November to benefit this valuable quilt resource.

Crazy Quilt Update and A Fabulous Surprise For Me

I can finally show you my completed crazy quilt block made for our 2008-2009 guild president.

She received her quilt last night.

I was so pleased she chose this theme for her quilt. I really enjoy hand embroidery.

It was so much fun to see all of our unique styles blended together in a quilt.

This quilt is such a treasure!!

Guess What? Can You Tell I'm Excited?? Yesterday I woke up to the news that I had won such a beautiful gift from Embellisher at Million Little Stitches. For her 125th post she gave away this amazing heart sampler. I have been following her blog for a long time and always enjoy seeing her creative ideas and little pieces of her life far across the oceans.

Thank you so much! I will cherish your gift.

My new bolts of fabrics have arrived and are ready to be dyed. Keep an eye on my blog. I plan to pass my good fortune on with a Dye Candy Fabric giveaway in a week or two (once my dye lots are finished and photographed).

Have a wonderful rest of your week!

Chris

Still Crazy

Here is the crazy quilt, now with stitched swag border. I can't believe how much the swag has changed the quilt. It completes the quilt, pulls all the elements together and adds a funky sophistication.

I really like the black and pink polka dots binding. So much better than the fuchsia binding. Guess that means I have to tell my sister that she was right about the dark binding.

There is a lot of stitching on this quilt. I went through a whole spool of pink bobbin thread. Thanks for looking.

Crazy update

I've made quite a bit of progress in a week--on the home stretch and the deadline is looming. I've got to finish up tomorrow or really this afternoon. Now to figure out the border and binding and buttons-- oh my! By the way, the bottom border is a test strip of my proposed quilting design: a scallop swag border inspired by many antique quilts though those are done with applique instead of decorative stitching.

My sister could visualize on the phone that the quilt needed a black or almost black binding but I was sticking with the fuchsia until I did the above mock up. On camera the fuchsia disappears and is really blah. I think I'll use the black polka dots, it is more fun than either of the batiks. She's also thinking that the border would be better with just buttons and no decorative stitching but I think that I'll do the quilting. Of course, I'll do it a bit more evenly and with two lines of stitching to give it a 'real' swag look. Got to get quilting before I'm really in a bind-ugh. Hope this quilt doesn't make me completely crazy.

Crazy Quilt part 2

I'm made quite a bit of progress on my quilt for the Alliance for American Quilts Crazy quilt challenge (read more about it in my previous post). I've already used a 100 fabrics. I trust you can 'read' the quilt - it spells out crazy quilt. I'm taking the challenge literally.

Now to figure out the center 2 blocks and decide what fabric(s) to use for the small 2" border. Any suggestions are welcome.

C is for Crazy Quilt

What I'm working on --a crazy quilt for this year's Alliance for American Quilts challenge. They are currently accepting entries/donations of 'crazy quilts' which will be auctioned this fall on EBay to help with their mission of preserving American Quilts and quilt history. In honor of their 16th year, the quilts are 16 inches square and must be postmarked by June 1, 2009. If you are a quick worker, there is still time to join in, and anyone can buy a quilt on EBay to help support the Alliance. I'll post when it is time to vote for your favorite and again when it is time to starting bidding.

I'm taking the theme literally and spelling it out, as you can see in the sneak peek block. Drafting paper pieced letters in a log cabin, cq format with strong graphic appeal of black and white and hot pink/fuchsia. What a lot of fun for a great cause.
----
Update on the last Fiberart For A Cause (FFAC), my donated raven postcard raised $50.00 for the American Cancer Society, thank you Donna. Virginia Spiegel with a lot of help from her friends has now raised almost $200,000.00 for ACS. What an amazing woman.

A Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at the crazy quilt block I just completed for the current president of the Friendship Quilt Guild. I was so pleased to have a chance to use my imagination. Each year we make a quilt for our current guild president as a thank you for their service. The theme is chosen by the president but she does not get to see the progress until May when the completed quilt is presented.

My apologies for the brief posts I've made lately. Something had to give way to make room for all the other things going on in my life. I have attended two weekend retreats this month. No, this in not normal for me but it sure was a great way to start the New Year.

I also taught a class about hand piecing quilt blocks at the Piecemakers Guild which meets at Patsy's Retreat once a month. This was the first time I taught the class so I had some work to do to get the samples in order for class.

Last weekend was our annual Sleep-In for the Friendship Quilt Guild. Our Art Quilt group met to share paints, markers and other messy embellishments. We also did a little color discharge from fabric. Lots of fun and a great chance to see which products worked well and which did not.

Here is another project we worked on at the overnight. Our group is sewing pillowcases for children with cancer. These pillowcases will go to the cancer ward at UW Hospital in Madison. We made 40 pillowcases on Saturday. I was able to finish 3 at the overnight and have 4 more to complete this weekend. Suzanne will continue to collect these into next month. See info on RC blog for details.

The biggest reason I have not been blogging as frequently is exercise. I used to read and write my blogs in the morning before work. I am now riding my exercise bike each morning. More about that soon.

I recently started using Google Reader to read posts and have sometimes waited so long that I have 200 posts to read before I can get caught up. Please know I am reading and enjoying what you write. I am not commenting as much as I used to because Google Reader does not have a option to comment (or am I missing something?). Also, please note I do not reply to comments on my own blog but will e-mail a reply to you if you enable the e-mail feature when you leave a comment. I welcome comments and e-mails.

Wishing you all lots of time to create and dream. - Chris