Happy Birthday Jesus!!

I hope your Christmas was Wonderful!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

My little princess and I made four pumpkin pies tonight. They will be our contribution to Thanksgiving Dinner. I cooked down the pumpkins yesterday which saved a lot of time today. J. got a little creative making the edges of the crust. We bought some new cookie cutters, and she cut out the leftover dough with flowers and leaves, then set them on the edges. I must say, they look beautiful. Hopefully they will be there in the morning, and won't be devoured by the middle of the night snackers!

Don't forget to count all of your blessings. I bet there are more than you realize. Have a wonderful day!!

Linda

a few things I've been working on

Kathy's maple leaves.....

Judy's rail fence....... Cheryl and her students.....

Sharon's Christmas Lights........

Lori's Christmas Critters, with a little gingerbread added...........

Emily's camo baby quilt..............

Kathyrn's Tree of Life.............

Another installment of the round robin....

My addition............

.....and there are some I haven't taken pictures of yet!! Now to get those Christmas lights untangled and up!!!

Victoria's Black & White

This quilt belongs to Victoria. She comes up with some amazing ideas. This one is one of my favorites.

Happy Halloween!!

Mick Jagger doesn't have anything on these two!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

For Blogger's Quilt Festival, I've decided to tell you about my log cabin quilt. This is the first bed quilt that I have ever made. This quilt actually belongs to my husband, but he'd be hard pressed to find it at any given time, because one of the kids usually snatch it for their bed. It is one of the most well loved, and worn quilts in the house.

If you look closely on the bottom right side of this photo, there is a cut in the fabric. My oldest, who is now 24 decided to "help" me finish it by taking a pair of scissors and cutting it. (He was 3 at the time.) After I scolded him about playing with scissors, (I'll have to tell you the rotary cutter story some other time), I couldn't bear to hide his part in making the quilt, so I left the cut. It has never gotten bigger while being washed or used, so I guess it was meant to be! The binding is so worn, it is practically see through. Amy from Park City Girl is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival. There you will find links to many other quilts to be inspired by. Check it out!

Another Installment on the Round Robin

We are still working on the Round Robin in one of the guilds that I belong to. These blocks belong to Merciful. She requested that we make a log cabin variation. The log cabin quilt is the first large quilt that I ever made, and it has been one of my favorites. It's been loved to death, but it's still hanging around the house. It seems to sneak from bedroom to bedroom. If I ever find who's hiding it, I'll take a picture. These are the blocks that I added to the project:

I'm Back!

My how time flies! It has been a busy couple of months. On August 12, my husband and I, along with a few other family members jumped on an airplane, and headed to Vancouver, BC for a few days before boarding a cruise ship to Alaska. A dream come true! I have wanted to take that trip for 27 years. The opportunity presented itself a few months ago, and I couldn't say no. I want to go back. We were not able to do the land package that I wanted to this time, but we will next time!The scenery was absolutely awesome. This picture is an iceburg floating in Mendenhall Lake outside of Juneau. The rain that day was torrential. It was good for viewing the glacier, because we were able to vies the amazing blue colors. We saw humpback whales, eagles, and seals. To see an orca breech the water is truly awesome. On the train ride from Seward to Anchorage we saw moose. Unfortunately there were no bears to be found, but while visiting the Botanical Gardens in Anchorage, we did see bear tracks!

We got home just in time to celebrate two more birthdays. My big guy Dan, turned 24 this year, and my big little guy, John John turned 17. Dan and his friend Kate decided to jump out of an airplane to celebrate the occasion. I just don't get why anyone would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.After being gone that long, I had quite a few customer quilts to catch up on, still no time to blog, let alone read any. Then, along came an opportunity to visit Orlando on a business trip with the husband, and we decided to add a little pleasure. I took my girl out of school, and we visited Hollywood Studios, Universal Studios, and had a wonderful day at Cocoa Beach.

Now we're back at home, and I've had my nose to the grindstone, busting out those customer quilts. This coming weekend a couple of my friends and I are going on our yearly retreat. We'll do a little shopping, a lot of sewing, and then I'll come home and start on my Christmas rush!

Mom!! There's a Huge Basket in the Front Yard!!!

I'm down here tidying up my studio, and all of a sudden I hear a scream. MOM, come up here, there's a hot air balloon in our front yard!!!!! Evidently there is a hot air balloon festival somewhere in the area, and this guy decided to land on our road. He made it past our yard to the neighbors, landed, packed up, and drove away!

One Block Wonder--Cosmic Cabbage Roses

It all started with this piece of fabric. What pattern could you possible use to justify cutting this up?

Here's one block......... ...and here's another.

These are what I had at the time I took the pictures, now I'm up to 42 blocks.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Halloween?!!

It seems that this was the week to work on quilts for Halloween. Two different customers of mine, from two different sides of town, have declared that Halloween is their favorite holiday.Billie chose this panel to work with. She added the nine patches, (I don't think you can ever go wrong with a nine patch!), and then a smaller border, to which I added the bats. When I saw the panel, I knew right away that the only thing that would work on it was spider webs. I used a mono poly for the webs, and let just a hint of the orange come up through the back to give it a touch of color. It looked great. I didn't want to take away from the print, and it worked.This is the second Halloween quilt that I've quilted for Kathy. She chose spiderwebs as well, but all over the quilt instead of only the center.Christmas is just right around the corner, and I've got a few of those to do already. A little bit of Rudolph, a little bit of holly, and we're there. (I'm not wishing my life away, but sometimes time goes WAYYYYYY faster than we like!)

BTW, does anyone know why I was able to do two loads of laundry, and cook four loaves of stromboli before blogger was able to load these four pictures?

Have a great evening!!

Linda

The Aliens Have Landed!!

Billie gave me this BQ2 quilt to finish for her. This piece was fun to quilt. I did a wonky greek key in the border, loops in the green background, and I "electrified" the aliens. It was fun to do. Sometimes it's nice to get a break from all the "fancy" work.

As I was working on this block I noticed that this little stinker has his fingers crossed while holding his sign that says "galaxy peace." I got a kick out of that one!

Happy Birthday Juice!!!!

This is another of my most precious babies. Happy Birthday Julia, I love you honey!!

Charming Chatter

I've joined a group of gals at a blog called Charming Chatter. It's all about finishing WIP's. My project for July is a quilt that I've pieced way back in January. All I need to do now is piece the backing, and get it quilted, and bound. Shouldn't be a problem.

Back or Front? You make the call.

I just took this quilt off the machine. I'd like your opinion. Which is the front, and which is the back.

Happy Independence Day!!

Our family is very patriotic. Back in the day, when I first began quilting, a lot of my quilts were antique versions of red, white, and blue. These two little quilts shown here were purchased at the Little Quilts Auction at the NQA show four years ago. This quilt was made by Vera Bickett Gable.

This mini quilt was made by Marguerite Wiebusch. She used an antique cigar felt for the center. She says on her label that flags of many nations were premiums in cigar boxes from 1880-1910.

This pincushion was a project that I made at "Primitives of the Midwest". That is a retreat in Lee's Summit, Missouri every June, put on by a quilt shop called Quilter's Station. The class I had taken was taught by Barb Adams and Alma Allen, who I must say are two of the best teachers that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. The class project still isn't finished. It is an applique wall quilt, or table topper, I haven't decided yet, but I am making progress. It's one of those take along and wait projects.

Have a great 4th!!

Round Robin Part 2

These pictures are the blocks that I received to continue on the Round Robin.
Sherry liked these color combinations. We are able to add our fabrics along with whatever came with the blocks.

These are the blocks that I made for my addition to Sherry's quilt. This round robin is different that others that I have participated in. Rather than add borders or rows to a center medallion, we make blocks for the owner to piece in whatever order they choose.

Each participant will complete one large block (Block A) and two small blocks, for a total of three blocks.
You may make two of Block B or two of Block C. Note that both of your small blocks should be the same
size. They can be the same pattern or they can be different.
Block A should be 12 ½” x 12 ½ “ unfinished, for a finished size of 12” x 12”
Block B should be 6 ½” x 6 ½” unfinished, for a finished size of 6” x 6”
Block C should be 3 ½” x 12 ½” unfinished, for a finished size of 3” x 12”

Instead of making one "A" block, I chose to make four "B" blocks. Such a rebel!!

These are the blocks all together.

Lots of Color

Both of these quilts were designed by a friend of mine, Donna Ragone. I met her while she was working at a quilt shop in the area. Her patterns are geared towards very colorful, whimsical fabrics. There is usually a lot of movement in her patterns also. I call them happy quilts!!

Don't you just love 50% off sales?!!!

First I'm going to clean my room, ( I need to show the kids a good example, right?), then I'm going to play with my pretties!

A quilt for Baby Cara

Another one finished!! This quilt was made for my daugter Julia's teacher who is having her first baby in September. Julia went through my stash, and picked out all of the colors on her own. I thought she did well. I used a squiggly line to quilt all the way through, and just loved how it turned out. The quilt went together quickly. This one could be a good one for project improv also. I just started out cutting strips, and this is what happened. Doesn't it feel good to get something done?!

It all started.............

This crazy busyness seemed to have started way back in April. I belong to North Coast Needlers, which happens to be the largest guild in Northeast Ohio. We held our quilt show the weekend of April 17-18. There were almost 300 quilts hung at the show, 26 of them were quilted by me. Two of them won ribbons. I was in charge of the kitchen. Establishing the menu, buying the food and drink, cooking the food, and pleading for bakery donations. Sixty pounds of sloppy joe's, and lots of shredded chicken sandwiches. I couldn't have done it without the help of my sidekick Judie. The show was a hit. The quilts were beautiful, and if anyone left there hungry it was their own fault.

These are the quilts of mine that were hung in the show:
Last year Frieda Anderson came to our guild to teach a workshop with her patterns and fabric. These are my version of her sunflowers. I machine quilted the flowers, and did some hand stitching in the background with hand-dyed floss. I have since added more stitching.This is the quilt I call summertime. It is NOT one of those cut up nine patches. (Only because at the time I made this quilt, I didn't know about that particular way!)

The inspiration for this quilt came from "You've Got Mail".Kathleen Kelly, (Meg Ryan), had a quilt similar to this on her bed in the movie. I have coveted it since the first time I saw the movie. One day early this spring while I was quilting, (I often put movies in my laptop while I'm working, and just listen), I lifted my head to watch, only to notice the quilt one more time. I immediately went to my stash, picked out a collection from Moda called Chelsea Boutique, and at 1:30am the morning before the show was to be hung, it was finished! I belive it ended up being 108 X 88, or something close.

This quilt is called "Kinetic Energy". I made it spring 2008, but didn't quilt it until the week before the quilt show. I freehand quilted it with feathers, and leaf vines.

After the show was closed on Sunday, I went home, had one day to tie up some loose ends around the house, and pack for my trip to the AQS show in Paducah, Kentucky.

To be continued.........