Jack-O-Planter

Our Bee Friends Quilt Group has a "stay at home" quilt retreat 4 times a year.  I know I have mentioned it before, but I just love those weekends.  We start at 3:00 on Thursday afternoon and go until 3:00 on Saturday afternoon.  We held our fourth and final one of the year, October 27th - 29th, right before Halloween.

My friend, Gerrie, brought a bunch of quilt patterns, marked down to one dollar, that were in her daughters garage sale, but they didn't sell.  She offered them to us for free, if we would just take them.  So, being the nice friend - who, by the way, doesn't need anymore patterns or junk in her house - I went over to look at what she had.  I looked them over and said "no, thank you", but the more we stood there and talked, there were two patterns that kept calling my name.  So, I said I would take them.  This was on Thursday night.  This pumpkin pattern kept yelling at me to make it so, that night when I got home, I reached into the batik buckets and pulled, without really looking, a bunch of batiks to make this quilt.  Did I tell you that this pattern was done in dark wools?  It was very country/primitive looking, but there was something about it that I liked.  I don't really know why I pulled batiks, that wasn't the plan before I got into my quilt studio, but that is what I came up with for this quilt.  After school, when I got to the quilt-in, I started drawing off the pattern onto the paperbacked fusible I also pulled Thursday night.  There were some fabrics that didn't work at all and some that only a bit of it would work.  I wanted the background to be a darker fabric, but I didn't have enough to make it work and it really wasn't dark enough for me.  This blue fabric was the only other piece that was large enough to use as the background.  Then, I went from there, selecting one by one the fabrics I was going to use for each piece.  The only one I re-did was the middle of the eyes.  The second color was going to be that dark orange and then the little bit was a dark blue and there just wasn't enough contrast.  Everything else stayed the same as what I haphazardly decided on, even the mouth - which I thought was too busy, but after adding the stitching for the teeth, it needed to be that dark.  Of course, once I ironed it on, it was staying there no matter what. 

This is really not the final picture.  I have totally finished it.  Yep, bound, hanging sleeve and label!  Amazing, I know.  It is ready to put out next year.  It also has these curly lines of perle cotton stitching that twirl out from the jack-o-lantern and some buttons.  It is really cute and I thought I had that picture, but nope, you only get the partially finished product.  At least it is a better picture than the previous ones and it, too, was taken with my tablet.  So, now I have a cheery halloween quilt to hang.  I have also finished the top from the other pattern  - oh, wait, the funny part of this whole thing?  After I started working on this quilt top, Gerrie decided she really liked the pattern and took it back to make her one, also!!  I told her I would sell it to her for one dollar, but she wasn't going for that!

Two new small quilts

Over a year ago, my friend Kathy and I joined an Art Quilt Guild in Lubbock.  The first meeting we attended we made a wonderful black/white top. I don't have mine finished to show you because I am not sure what exactly or how exactly I want it to be.  It was a lot of fun to make and just to be sitting in that room with about 14 other art quilters was inspiring.  Then, with the scraps and other things we made a couple of other projects.  This is one of the projects.  I used the leftover cutout pieces from my black fabric and made some more of that pattern in other colors.  I put it on a lime green background and there it was for almost a year.  A couple of weeks ago I decided to make it into a quilt.  I had fun quilting around the edges and off the edges.  It is bound in dark purple and is about the size of a sheet of paper.  (I don't have exact measurments.)

One of the assignments from that day was for strips and one shape.  I made this next quilt top and invisioned fish swimming among the reeds and seaweeds in a lake.  Everyone else that saw it just went, "yeah, that's good."  They couldn't see my vision.  After I quilted it, my friends thought it was wonderful.  Of course, now you can clearly tell that those black blobs are actually fish.  It all makes sense now. 

Okay, I can't make this picture turn the way I want so just turn your head to the left to see it the way it is supposed to be seen.  It is also about the size of a piece of paper. 

McDuffy Quilt

this isn't a very good picture and I apologize for that.  I am still a little bit in limbo computer-wise, but I am trying to make a go of it between several electronical devices.  I e-mailed this picture to my school computer three days ago and it finally showed up today.  It's a little bit slow, but that is probably due to needing to be re-charged.  Who knows.  I will try and do better in the future.  (If I can figure out the new high tech devices) 

this quilt is my version of the schnibble McDuffy.  I have loved that pattern since I first saw it and now I have finally gotten around to making one.  A couple of weeks ago, Midland Quilter's Guild, held their bi-annually quilt show.  that is where I picked up the charm packs, Etchings.  I loved the front of that pack and flipping through the stack, I thought it would make a great quilt.  After opening up the packet, I realized that there were a lot - - I mean a lot - - of light colored fabrics.  I don't usually work with light colored fabrics so putting this together was a bit of a challenge for me - not piecing it - that was simple - just dividing the lights from the darks.  there were more lights than darks so some of the fabrics are both a light and a dark depending on which other fabric it is paired with.  I like the look of this quilt (sorry again about the poor quality) it might be turned into a baby quilt for someone since I have about 6 friends and family that are pregnant and due sometime in the early new year!!  It's baby crazy here now adays.  Be looking for more from me in the near future since this isn't the only picture I e-mailed to my school address.  I am back to blogging!  It feels soooo good.  Now it's back into the kitchen for me and my students. 

a quick check in

I know it has been forever since I have posted, but I just wanted to touch base here and let you know that I am still alive and quilting. School has become busy, busy, busy.  We are in labs 2 or 3 times a week and that means trips to the grocery store.  The good thing is, last week we made focaccia bread for the first time and it turned out pretty good.  They had never made a yeast bread before.   I had never made that recipe and it was good, but needs some tweeking before we make it again. 

The good news is volleyball is over for me for the year, unless there are playoff games they call and ask me to work.  One of the basketball coaches wants me to keep his books, but I haven't told him yes yet.  I keep putting it off and thank goodness he didn't ask on Friday. 

This week we were in the lab today - didn't go great, burned cookies, yucky brownies - just not a good day to bake I guess.  Tomorrow we are serving lunch for 24.  Then on Wednesday we are serving finger food for a series of meetings held here at our school.  We made some mini muffins for that today.  Tomorrow will be extremely busy!! 

I have been working on quilts.  I even have the pictures to post, but I killed my computer.  Thank goodness our tech person here was able to save everything to one of her computers and I am hoping our computer class can find the problem and fix my machine.  I am going to have to make the trip to Best Buy in Midland to look at getting a laptop.  Too bad our Best Buy here isn't open yet.  Well, gotta go put the cooled muffins and cookies that made it up for the night.  I may work some more on my hexagon quilt top this evening since I can't play games on my computer!  (by the way, I am writing this at school which is why I don't have any pictures)

Whisper and Retreat

Last posting I talked about my whisper quilt.  Even though I have to top completed, I still haven't had the time to quilt it.  I really need to get on that since I have to have it finished in 13 days.  I will share with you a little bit of the quilt I got from Kathy. 

Then I will share part of my quilt. 

Sorry, that is all you get to see at this time.  I shouldn't even be showing that much, but I couldn't keep it all a secret, now could I?  Last weekend was the Ogallala Ceta Canyon Retreat and my friends Kathy and Gerri and I headed out on Friday making the long trek to our getaway.  Of course I planned on getting away much, much earlier than we did, but I really overslept and then I wasn't completely packed and the car wasn't clean and well, let's just say about 2 hours later than planned, Kathy and I were on our way.  Which, it turned out was not a bad thing since Gerri was leaving about the same time we were and we got to meet up in Lamesa.  However, the quilt store there was closed.  Neither one of them have ever been to that store since she has been closed every single time they are with me and we stop there.  I, on the other hand, have stopped there quite a bit.  She has great prices on her fabric and some wonderful  new and clearance items.  I seem to always find a few things to purchase.  Next time we will have to call ahead of our trip and make sure she will be open when we get there.  Too bad we didn't do it this time. 

Since that quit store was closed, we headed on up to Lubbock to the Bernina store - yes, we purchased a few things - and then Sugarbaker's for an early lunch - okay, since I was running late, yada yada yada, it was about lunchtime.  Gerri went to Sugarbaker's and ate first.  When we called to find out where she was, she had already ordered and we were already purchasing so we both stayed where we were.  Then we swapped.  Lunch was good as always, but the Italian Cream Cake was exceptional!!  Since we were already in Lubbock and not going to make it to Ceta by 10 - hah - we decided to schlep on over to Rachel's.  yes, we all found goodies and whatnots there, too.  We enjoyed sitting at the counter getting our fabric cut and chatting with the employees. Then off to Plainview for a Sonic drink and a stop at the Wal-mart.  I know, we have a Wal-mart here, but you know how you have those last minute items you forgot and this is the last stop along the way to pick up any of those items.  We shopped and found some wonderful things that we just had to have - S'MORE GOLDFISH!!!  Have you tried them.  YUM!! 

Now a few more hours and we are at Ceta Canyon.  It looks like we are some of the last to arrive.  There is a table for two and Kathy and I grab that one.  Gerrie had already put her stuff down on a table with another friend, Pam.  It wasn't right next to us, but we don't usually sit really close together anyway.  We need an excuse every once in a while to get up and move and not sitting close is our excuse.  Here is a picture of Kathy with her winning challenge quilt.  The Challenge was to make a small quilt with a "Calendar Holiday".  She chose Johnny Appleseed's birthday.  Yes, it's on her calendar.  Maxine doesn't celebrate it on my calendar, though.  I loved her use of a pair of jeans with a hole it that she used to make Johnny's jeans with a knee hole.  It was very clever and I was so proud of her when her quilt won. 

This is one of the quilts I worked on while there.  Like I have said before, I have been wanting to make one of these interlocking crosses quilts for quite some time.  I have read about them on the blogs for over a year now and I finally decided to just draw one up and make it.  This is some of the fabric that I was cutting and cutting the last couple of weeks.  This quilt is made up of 4 1/2 inch squares.  196 squares to be exact!!  I can't believe there are that many squares, but there are.  It went together really fast.  Much faster than I thought it would.  It would have been faster if toward the end I hadn't sewn some of the rows together wrong and then had to take then out and  sew them back together correctly.  I really like this quilt and plan on making one or two more.  I thought I was giving it for a baby gift, but I think I might just keep this one all to myself.  At least for now.  Anyway, it's not quited and may not be for a few years the way things go around here. 



Quilt top Done!

I am still cutting fabric.  However, I took some time out to work on my Whisper Quilt this weekend.  I can't show any pictures - one, because I am at school and don't have my camera with me and two, because it is a secret!  That's why it is called a whisper quilt.  This is how it all started.  In April at the Ogallala Quilt Festival, I saw a display from a quilt group out of New Mexico called "Whisper Quilts".  (Or it could have been Gossip Quilts or something else entirely, but for this purpose I am calling it Whisper Quilts)  The premise is you have a group (4 - 8 people) (we had two groups of four) and person number one gets a picture from a magazine (we had my sister in Arkansas pick the pictures, seal them in an envelope and mail them to me and I handed them to the first person in each group)  The first person makes a quilt based on their interpretation of the picture. (they only have one month)  They then send their quilt on to the second person who makes a quilt based on their interpretation of person # 1's quilt. They give # 1 their quilt back and they pass their quilt on to # 3 and so on and so on.  You only get to see the quilt from the person in front of you.  Only the first person gets to see the original picture.  When everyone has had a chance to make their quilt (must be finished - quilted and bound), everyone brings their quilt to display.  There are only 3 people in our group this time and 4 people in our second group because we wanted to get this done before the holidays.  We will display our quilts in October. 

I am so excited!  I have my Whisper quilt top finished!!  I only need to quilt and bind it before the 15th of October.  I can't believe how fast it all came together for me.  I would love to do another one - and may - someday.

Scrap Organization and Blocks

This past week I have been reading blogs whenever I have gotten the chance.  Which hasn't been very often.  I have a few blogs that I read first and then if I have more time I go a little deeper on my list.  This weekend, I had a bit of that free time and was going through my list and one block really, really caught my eye.  I got to this blog in a round about way.  So, let me give credit to the blogs - I was reading up on what Quilt Dad is doing when I noticed that during October there is going to be a Quilt-Uberfest.  I picked a random name off that list, Amy Logsiger - October 5th and went to her blog, Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts. Wow, I have been to this blog before.  I have always liked what she has done and I don't know why I didn't have it bookmarked.  Reading through, I came upon her posting about the Japanese + and X blocks.  I was transfixed.  I love this block.  I need to make this block.   I clicked on a link that led me to another link and now, I can't tell you where I found the tutorial on this block.  I have tried to backtrack - I had to backtrack to even write this posting, saved it, looked, write, saved it, looked, etc.  Just so I could bring you all the information I could, but alas, this is it.  I made four blocks yesterday and put them up on my design wall.  I sewed them together already and think I will make it into a pillow. 

Even though I really like this and it uses up my scraps, I think I need to have a lighter "background" like in the ones on the flicker group. I think it is from here that I followed links to the tutorial, but I can't figure out which magic website got me there. 

Last week, or the week before, I made a 15 minute play block for the basics quilt.  I just hope it's not too late to get it to Victoria for her quilt.  It has been hanging out on my wall ever since it was finished.  I need to go over to 15 minutes and see the rules/guidelines for this one and send it off. 

This is what I have been up to the last week in that extra free time.  Cutting fabric. I am getting ready to go to the Ogallala Ceta Canyon retreat.  I plan on working on my quilt for the retreat my friend Kathy and I put on each year. 

This is my year to teach and I designed the block below.  You can read more about this block here.  Since it is made up of lots of scraps, I have been cutting my fabric into squares.  You can see my boxes for a few of the sizes on the cutting station.  I have squares from 5 inches to 1 inch.  I don't know what I am going to do with the one inch blocks, but I will do something.  They have been talking to me all day and I am thinking 9 patch or something like that.  A 9 patch block made with 1 inch squares would only measure 1 1/2 inches!!  That is crazy.  I may just have to make it and play with my other size squares.  However, that is in the future.  For now, I need to get this quilt made.