Guild Speaker Trunk Show

Lots of pics to show from Mary Kerr's "Saving Our Treasures" show at the East Cobb Quilter's Guild today. I have been fighting bronchitis this week but realized if I hurried, I could get to the Guild meeting only an hour late. My first E. Cobb Guild meeting, albeit watched in a fog. Of course, beaucoup ladies were missing since they are in....Houston. Apologies now for the photos that came out fuzzy, guess I'm shaking from the bronch.

First a mini-trunk show from a friend in the audience. This woman reeks talent. You have seen her exquisite work before on this blog. Her color sense. I die. Here is what she had with her:

purse tag

set of blocks. Click to enlarge. Don't they look old and somewhat like barkcloth?? Perfection. She said something about needing to make 66 more and that they would have red sashing. I vote for orange. But this girl knows what she is doing color-wise.

my fave

her Guild name tag. She said I didn't need to obliterate her name :-). Barbara is the one who teaches the excellent Big Stitch class (after you hit the link, hit ctrl-f, type in "big" and it will take you right to her class description).

On to the other trunk show:

pillowcase!

oh, what a pretty old Seven Sisters

this one has a cute border, see elsewhere, there's no way I'm going to try to arrange these photos in my deteriorated condition lol

somebody began to replace the greenery but did not finish

ah, here's that cute border although the blue is a little harsh

Anybody who haunts antique shops has seen some unfortunate attempts at quilt "restoration" like this one

oo pretty orange

ah, nice!

do si do sunbonnet babies

back to the beautiful one

I think these are examples of old mends

Friend Looking for 2002 Fabric (5-6 yards)

Hi there! A dear friend of mine is looking for 5-6 yards of this Andover fabric:

AFAM (American Folk Art Museum) P0260 Pattern 1294 Color Brown from 2002:

Andover offered a free pattern using this fabric called Savery Friendship Star (I don't believe it is in the Archives any more but sounds pretty, doesn't it!). That is what she would like to make with the yardage, preferably in the brown as shown but apparently it comes in red also.

Hope everybody had a great Quilty Day!

Apron and Graphic Design Activity

I really enjoyed making this All Day Apron from Indygo Junction last week-end out of this cute Hoedown fabric:

I have been Graphic Art-ing away as well, having designed this flyer for Marcie. She will be in Booth 2358 at Houston and has been so busy preparing all kinds of goodies for her booth, so be sure to visit if you are Houston-bound. In the meantime, if you need any graphic design, I'm your gal!

Cats at Work and Last Les Fleurs Show and Tell

Jack and Rembrandt continue to monitor Stray Cat:

Stray Cat's extreme eyes make me think of that Night on Bald Mountain creature in Fantasia:

Don't even think about it, Rembrandt:

Devil Cat.

Ar, going right for the skull.

I had to move the chair.

update on the Bernina 930: The Bernina-Fixer made a house call; he worked on the 930 for 2-1/2 hours and I got to watch the whole time. The Bernina never had to leave the house. It was all very interesting. He said that the machine has been used very little over the years but was kept serviced, so it's in dandy shape. He was not able to loosen the handwheel, however. He said at first, it's probably the bearing (uh oh, thought I), but then said, no, it isn't that, it would be making a noise in that case. Otherwise, it is running so beautifully and I am just thrilled.

Last Les Fleurs Show and Tell:

My long-time email friend Betty's son, Reid, has Hodgkin's. He is in between treatments just now and is in a lot of pain; his cat Ashely, is keeping him company. If you would like to leave a comment on Betty's blog, I know she would appreciate your good thoughts.

Happy Happy

There has been some happiness around here lately :-). First I finally managed to get, after years of faithful eBay watching, a Bernina 930. My first Bernina! Not only is it working okay (after some cleaning and oiling of the parts I understand), but it has turned out to be the kind that has the precious and elusive needle-down feature! Of course I can take it in for servicing, but if anybody can tell me how to clean/oil the area you see when you take the top off, do please email me. The handwheel is too hard to turn and I would like to see if cleaning that area helps at all. I don't want to fiddle too much for fear of harming that precious needle-down feature. But the handwheel is far too tight:

Next happy thing happened yesterday as I browsed through the latest Quilt Sampler. Oh! Ye Olde Schoolhouse is featured. They have bought my patterns!

I peered at the pictures hoping to catch a glimpse of one of my patterns. And here it is! Homestead Toile along with a shop sample they made up:

See how I cleverly have directed your eye to my little pattern lol?

A Start and a Finish All in One

Despite Rembrandt's shockingly bad behavior amongst my perfectly-aligned fabric strips...

...I was able to use part of a most generous gift from friend and fellow quilter Mary Jo (no blog) of a bit of each fabric (!!) in Jo Morton's new Spice Chest line...

...to make the Black and Beyond quilt from Evelyn Sloppy's "40 Fabulous..." book:

I also used the Jo Attic Shirtings that I won not too long ago in Kathie's giveaway. The star centers is one of Andover's Vegetable Dyes, for which I feel a recurring urge to write Andover a Fan Letter to thank them for bringing out one of my all-time favorite fabric designs ever. Thank you, Mary Jo and Kathie (not to mention Andover and Jo Morton!)!!

Oops, the very last block got turned sideways. I fixed it :-).

Les Fleurs: a lot of it together

Another picture of Little Miss Stray, who so far won't let me pet her (or carry her off to the vet); isn't she adorable? Incredibly slanty eyes and really big ears. The poor thing has a limp, although it was worse several weeks ago, so maybe it will get a bit better:

And of course Miss Kissy-Toes needs no introduction:

Thanks to multi-tasking during Day Job Duty, I finished the last regular Les Fleurs block (I moved the parts around, added a vase, and deleted a few fronds):

Then, filled with (as I told a friend earlier this morning) steely determination, I did the next six lengths of sashing (having resorted to machine applique in complete desperation since I have so much else I should be doing) necessary to allow assembly of the regular blocks:

I can't believe this thing is pretty much together. The very wide piece of applique that goes across the bottom has yet to be made. Now it's off to other Quilting Activities. What a Les Fleurs Relief!

The Little Applique Bag

Day Job has switched to a different school, elementary level rather than high school, which means I have duty three times a day outside of the media center. Now you know a quilter cannot just stand around when she could multi-task, so I am wearing this bag I just made and put in a few stitches on the fly during the first morning duty time when I am greeting students in the corridor :-).

All I need are the scissors, ripper, toothpick, thread, needle, and a few tiny pins.