Diagrams Can Be Annoying

I've left notes for Timmy the past few mornings when I left for work, asking him to put Gaston the Tomcat outside if he sees him. Decided to present the request pictorially yesterday, to which Timmy added a comment:

Some Dear Jane Blocks are the A-Word

We had our first meeting of the new session of Dear Jane at Little Quilts; you can join in any time if you are in the area and are interested in making some Dear Jane blocks.

We worked on this E11 block in the Dear Jane group Thursday night. This is an interesting one because it can be made in different sequences. I believe we in the group are making this one at least three different ways:

I'm still new enough to hand appliqué that I'm absolutely delighted when a hand appliqué project is actually presentable.  This isn't one of the two that I need to make this week-end, however :-).

Dear Jane-ing

LOVE today's Google Art (Mary Cassatt's b'day):

Two Stickles fini; two to do this week-end to catch-up:

Unexpected Bonus

Now this was fun. I am working on a Repro Divas assignment (star quilt as an example of a certain historical style); these three would-finish-at-2 1/2" stars were not right for it.  Instead, they fit perfectly into the photo inserts of this bag.  I've been carrying this bag to work for years with the original Anonymous Photo People in the inserts :-).

Rainy Sunday

Rembrandt napping....not:

Time to catch up from Mother's Day: at the trailhead for our Sunday hike, Timmy felt a certain lack of energy to start the hike. That'll happen when you never go to bed the night before:

But I kicked him ahead of me on the trail and we saw the sights:

And eventually he woke up.


We received our reward after the hike:

Some quilt sightings in the antique mall on the way home:

In the mall, I bought myself a little fix-up project for the summer...a pie safe:

Some Show and Tells from Jo class two months ago (better late than never):

Show and Tells from last month:

This month's Show and Tells:

So We Had a Challenge

First let me say that I have some nice Show and Tells (Holiday Inns, original designs, etc.) from the last two sessions of class, and will post soon. Our new session of classes has been planned by our noble leader Kathy. We are going to have interesting swaps, challenges, research homework (!), and projects that will encourage our creativity. I think this is all delightful and am looking forward to all of it so much. You remember (I am completely out of time and do not remember the details) the group challenge where members received one of a set of antique blocks and they each made a quilt with the antique block as inspiration? We are doing that as well. Here is the antique block that we each received, "collected" (I love that word :-) ) by Kathy:

Notice mine has a hideous stain on one chrome yellow piece.  But did I complain?  I did not.  I was a saint.  

Since I've been wanting to do this ever since seeing that group's quilts, I got mine made:

I cut each of the non-chrome pieces into two strips and incorporated them into the two French Braid strips, then of course the chrome became the flowers.  One non-chrome piece was a hideous furry navy blue that I did not want to put into my pretty quilt, so I put a narrow slice of it, as skinny as possible, with that cute little woven piece and made a leaf with them.  

Emails from College

[phone]
Timmy: “Hi, Mommy!” [he’s 19]

Mommy: “Come home from college, Timmy, it’s almost Mother’s Day.  Oh, how are your finals going?”

Timmy: “Waiting for the last one and the hardest one to start. It’s Gandhi.”

Mommy: “What will we talk about when you’ve finished with that Gandhi class?"

Timmy: “Your dolls, I guess. I am working for my dad on Saturday. I might come home sometime Sunday morning or noon. I am playing volleyball with the guys from 2pm to 5pm on Sunday.” [Mommy sees little opening for a Mother’s Day in this schedule]

Mommy: [taking aim at the only possible target] “Timmy, I really doubt that you will be playing volleyball.   All those boys will be home with their mothers.   Where you should be.”

Timmy: “No, Mom, no, we are playing volleyball.” [Mom’s vision of a hike in north Georgia and lunch at the German restaurant with her only child on Mother’s Day fades]

[24 hours later]
Timmy: “Hi, Mommy! You were right, nobody knew it was Mother’s Day, everybody has to [regretfully] stay home.”

Mommy: “See, I knew that because I am a mother.”

Timmy: “Okay, Mommy, so what would you like to do on Sunday?” [and you, dear Reader, know the rest…Happy Mother’s Day to all]

P.S. If you would like to see some pretty shots of Galveston continuing to come back from the hurricane: Betty's Blog.

Holiday Inn

Got the top completed....

A Pattern Sighting!

Imagine my delight when I was riffling through the needlepunch listings on eBay (when I should be doing other things but we won't talk about that) and saw that this eBayer has stitched a lovely version of my pattern Hearth Rug; Magpie1217, it looks so pretty!

Lori Smith Tulip Quilt

First I just wanted to post this combination of red/pumpkins and greens, all Jo.  D'ya love it?

I had these two sitting by my computer thinking that they look wonderful together (Honey, Indigo and Pewter on left and Peddler's Pack on right):

so when a friend and I agreed that we would each make the tulip quilt from Lori Smith's Six Fat Quarters is All You Need, I added these fabrics (one on right later regretfully eliminated):

and made:

I was so insistent on getting it completely done that it even has its label :-).