Show and Tell Galore-O

Last Sunday, I taught a class at the LQS, "Finishing Your Embroidery"; these are examples:

At the last Repro Divas, we exchanged our swap blocks! This set is from the Morning Group:

and this is our Evening Group swap:

Here are some completed Les Fleurs blocks, mine on the right:

Everybody's quilts are going to be so gorgeous when they are done, and they all look so different from one another.

A disappearing Nine Patch from Repro Divas:

Photos of things that look like letters and assembled into word collages! Found by our leader Kathy Niemann:

Disappearing... presented in table runners:

So cute:

and a final Disappearing...

Drafting and Inking and Colorizing the Bird of Paradise Quilt

Still plugging away on drafting the Bird of Paradise quilt, I should say my adaptation of the Bird of Paradise quilt, hereafter known as A Bountiful Life quilt :-). I have the center blocks and borders drafted and inked. I spent all day yesterday coloring in the inked drawings of the center blocks in order to make a color picture of the quilt:

I hadn't really done much coloring in my imaging software before, so it was enjoyable but I was falling off the computer chair by the time it was finished.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to make the color image of the four borders. Since the drawings are different sections of the border and some things are repeated, well sigh, I'm just not sure how to overlap them. Wish me luck today!

I began drafting this quilt for myself since I want the blocks to be square and I wanted to follow the original border (just love those birds and horses and big ol' dogs). But I'm also thinking of putting all of this on a CD in case anybody is interested in the pattern but I don't know how to do that either LOL! There are soooo many images involved and on a CD, I could include the color pictures of each block as well. Forge on, Karen.

Latest Les Fleurs

Phew, managed to get the next Les Fleurs block done; class is Sunday:

Do Not End O Summer

I still can't believe that I won this wonderful giveaway; aren't these pieces adorable? Look at the cheerful prints; it's a purse, billfold (so detailed), small bag, and keychain! They are so well-crafted, too. Thank you, Cyndi (of bluebirdswing blog)!!

I have been spending gigantic chunks of time digitizing music from not only my old vinyl records, but also my cache of old cassettes. Several cassettes had to go to music heaven, however, without making it to Digi-Land, including this one, Appalwood, that I always enjoyed. Guess I loved it to death:

Is anybody familiar with this one by any chance? Do you know where I can get another copy? I googled it and left a search for it on eBay, but nothing is available right now that I can find. Maybe there are some old cassettes laying around in stores in southern Virginia. Their home base was Independence, Virginia.

I drove up to the Smokies and stayed overnight at the Brookside Resort, that has rooms over the most beautiful, bubbling, loud creek.

I guess you can't see this (well maybe if you click on it to enlarge), but the Ripley's Aquarium (which is wonderful by the way) has this glass wall visible from the street (across the creek) where you can see the penguins swimming and playing.

I left Atlanta at 3am so I could drive through the Park from sunrise on. Arrived there exactly on time and what can I say, it was simply gorgeous. I went on to Sevierville, Tennessee (after getting breakfast at the Donut Friar in Gatlinburg; now that's a doughnut....or a few) to visit two quilt shops. They said No Pictures! at The Cherry Pit, so all of these pictures are from a shop called Machine Quilting by Iva, where the ladies were quite jolly and friendly, and had quite a large inventory of fabric, several rooms, in fact. The Cherry Pit had quite a good inventory, too, and I managed to add to the stash in both places.

The area just had their Shop Hop; this is a block from their Hop:

Here's the haul:

The Apple Barn in Sevierville is always a nice stop:

Nearly comatose and still turning out apples!

The Pattern Mart in Pigeon Forge had the most astonishing supply of quilt/craft patterns. I didn't get anything, but spent quite a bit of time just enjoying seeing so many patterns by one designer in one spot.

Sorry about all the stoplights and wires, but this looked so sensational as I was pulling out of the Food Lion:

Time to head home, driving through the Park once more:

What a treat to escape the unbearable Atlanta heat, even if only for a few days.

Jo's Chintz Quilt with Broderie Perse

Still needs the Jo's Chintz borders, but here is the quilt so far:

Summer Days

While Rembrandt is safely out of the way close to the ceiling...

let me take the opportunity to thank Kathie and Tara of Sew Unique Creations; I won this absolutely divine fat quarter tower of Jo's Attic Shirtings from them on Kathie's blog:

I love these shirtings so much and feel so lucky to have won them. They are well loved here, Kathie! Wouldn't they look entrancing in this Burgoyne Surrounded that has scrappy shirtings for the background?

Excuse me. Rembrandt has left her vulture-like perch and is now in my fabric stash. Getouddathere Rembrandt!

This is the time of year when I let the Queen Anne's Lace and Brown-Eyed Susans grow in the front yard, carefully mowing around them until their season is over. The Chaste Vitex is also in bloom and there are apples in the trees:

I should never have left the country hills of Indiana :-).

Here is a sweet little kitty who has been visiting my yard the past few weeks. She doesn't eat the food or drink the water I've been putting out. She seems like the happiest cat ever and will not let me get anywhere near her:

I'm making this version of Jo's Bird Chintz quilt that is in her latest book, Coming Home. It will have the bird chintz border, and will have a Broderie Perse collage in the center using the chintz fabric. I'm dying to get this done but need to make a LQS Run for more green fabric!

I've started to make digital recordings of my old vinyl records. Very time-consuming since I edit the tracks to get out as much of the scratches and pops as possible, but so worth it. Now I'm walking in the morning listening to my old LPs on the iPod!

The Third Week of Summer Break is Over Already??

Thank you, Polly and Laurie, for your Giveaway:

As you can imagine, I never liked how my music setup looked but there was no place to hide it. Here it is sitting on my pumpkin pine woodbox. Poor woodbox.

Unexpectedly, I got a new iPod Nano, spent hours uploading my 85 CDs to it, and this equipment may make their way to Craigslist soon. They certainly will never see the upstairs again:

The woodbox and I are both happier with a simpler look:

Today I made this (fore)armband to wear while walking, with pockets for both the iPod and the house key:

And on to Repro Divas Show and Tell. First up is our Quilt of Valor!

Gorgeous; I wish this were mine:

This one, too:

Hey! I want this one, too:

Is this adorable or what? I would want this one as well, but I don't have any blue in my house:

I made this clutch from a Whimsicals pattern. This one has several pockets including credit card slots. I am always disgustingly proud of myself when I manage to make any sort of purse/tote/clutch/iPod armband :-) :