The Die is Cast

Autumn Ridge ... A good number of years ago. Maybe, 4. Maybe 5. Gretchen, Karin and I traded strips to make the Autumn Ridge quilt from the book The Best of Black Mountain Quilts.

 (Wow. The website said this book is currently out-of-print) Gretchen sewed her strips into  a quilt. Karin and I still have bags of 2 1/2 inch strips. Friday, I located the plastic box with the red, green, purple, gold, and tan strips. I have the component parts cut. Tomorrow, I begin sewing on my very own Autumn Ridge. I'm a poky sewer. I hate to post this blog because Karin will still probably complete her quilt top before I do. 

I'm not sure who this completed Autum Ridge quilt belongs to. I took a photo of it during shop hop one year. I'm thinking it belongs to Pat or Debbie or Sandy. Anyone recognize their quilt top?

Sewn Addition

I forgot to mention that other bloggers have give-aways with the Sewn Launch. Click on this link to visit other blogs and enter their give-away.There is still time to join in the fun and host your own give-away, too. Go to the Sewn site to enter your blog give-away.

Please make sure that you give me your e-mail address so that I can notify you if you are the winner of the Quiltmaker books. I already have one entry that I have no way of contacting that person. Thanks so much for entering my give-away! I'm loving your comments and visiting your blogs!

Have a great Sunday!!!!

All Sewn Up

You may have seen this red button appearing on blogs. Sewn is a new online quilting and sewing community. It looks to be a very interactive forum. There will be articles, interviews and tutorials from industry experts, competitions and free patterns! Visit the Sewn website to learn more and to enter their giveaway (book and jelly roll)! Many bloggers are hosting give-aways to help launch Sewn. You know I love participating in give-aways. I like hosting them and visiting blogs to take part in them. To help with the launching of Sewn, I am giving away the following books. 

The Quiltmaker's Gift is one of my favorite picture books. I love reading it aloud to older children and sharing it with adults. The second book includes patterns to make the quilts from the picture book. To win, please leave a comment on this post. For an extra  entry, become a blog follower or leave me a comment letting me know you already are following. For an additional entry, blog about my giveaway on your blog. That makes a possible three entries! I will randomly select the winner on June 8, 2009.  Thanks for joining in the fun and celebration! Welcome Sewn!

Pillow Perfect Porch

Project Decorating - Done! It feels so good to have this project finished. I've looked at this loveseat for two or three years thinking that I should do new cushion covers. The best part is that I used fabric that I had on hand. Whatever is left-over, I'll put in a bag for my art teacher. She asked for fabric for our students to use in projects. I even used batting remnants to fluff the cushions. Yahoo! Back to regular sewing. I have the Firecrackers top on my design wall. It's a weird shape. Long and narrow. I may play around with the design to see if I find a width I like better. I'm not really happy with the fabric in my stash for the borders. I'll try auditioning them again today. Have a fabulous Friday!

A Challenge

When my quilting buddies, Karin and Gretchen learn about my new project, they will worry about the state of my mental health. They will think Summer Vacation did not come soon enough.  They will  be right that I am "obsessive and unbalance",  but not because of my new project. It's about as far from "jelly roll quilts" as one can get. 

This afternoon, I began cutting out "big" fabric  to recover the cushions on the loveseat the lives on  our screened-in porch. It's not my kind of sewing. I know how to sew large pieces of fabric. I normally choose not to sew anything larger than a charm square. The problem is we have a graduation party for Michael planned in June. We've invited family and friends. It takes having company to make me look around the house to  see what needs to be done inside and out. The cushions for this love-seat are a special size. I've tried to buy inexpensive ones, but they don't fit. Marion's sister has a business making items for decorators. With Michael's college expenses, I can't afford her prices even with the family discount. I even have fabric in my sewing room closet. My SIL gave me some remnants several years ago for window treatments that were never made into window treatments. So I have a plan. I even have one of the cushions completed. Maybe, I can get the other three cushions finished tomorrow. Then  I can go back to my real love - cutting and  sewing little pieces of fabric instead of fabric cuts bigger than most quilt blocks.

Silver Thimble Give-Away

             
Pat, quilt designer from  Silver Thimble Quilt Company, is having a pretty fabulous give-away to celebrate her 100th blog post. There's fabric and new patterns that just debuted at Spring Martket in Pittsburgh.I really want to win those new patterns. Yes, I want the jelly roll and layer cake, too :) Visit Pat's blog for lots of entertainment, inspiration, and fun. Leave a comment on her May 21st blog entry for a chance to win.  

Sewing on Memorial Day

It only seemed appropriate to pull out a red, white, and blue project to work on today, Memorial Day. This project was one that I began last Summer. I remember working on it in July, then put it away. It took a bit of time to figure out where I had stopped in the pattern directions.                                                                                                                           
  

I'm loving the fabrics in this project. It is mainly a charm pack of Prairie Paisley by Moda with some additional red and blue fabrics. The pattern is Firecrackers by Two Sisters at Squirrel Hollow.                                                                                                     

This is one quilt that I think we might just have to keep for us. Maybe, I can get it finished for July Fourth. Of course, this is Atlanta where quilts are not needed on July 4th.

We've had lots of rain here in Georgia. We decided to just stay home, grill some hamburgers and enjoy the time at home. Hope that everyone has had a wonderful Memorial Day! 

A Week of Celebrations

This past week has truly been one of Celebrations! Last Saturday, our nephew graduated from the University of Georgia Law School. The graduation ceremony was held under the ancient oak trees on the UGA campus. 

This is my SIL (Marion's sister), her husband Bobby and the elated graduate, Brandon.

Sunday brought an additional reason to celebrate. High school seniors in our son's graduating class attended a Baccalaureate ceremony. It was their first opportunity to wear their graduation gowns. The speakers, music, and event were inspirational and touching. Our son Michael is in the center with two of his closest friends. All three were in Symphonic Band and Honors classes together. Sunday evening, we attended a graduation party for Marion's nephew. The newest family member baby Kate was in town from California for the graduation. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any pictures of Kate :(

Monday through Wednesday was one big celebration at the elementary school that I work. From popsicle parties for classes returning all their library books, a third grade class throwing water balloons at their teacher because they all passed the state CRCT test, fifth grade celebration with awards, fifth grade parade with our principal riding her bike because the fifth graders all passed the CRCT, to the family picnic on the school grounds and students limboing under the limbo stick to the next grade - it was a week of honoring student achievement and accomplishments.

Wednesday evening, was GRADUATION. Our youngest son, Michael completed his high school education. We were blessed with family (our oldest son, Marion's sister and brother-in-law ) and our neighbors and friends, Kathy and George taking time to attend the evening graduation. It was held in the high school football stadium. Schools in our part of Georgia have huge student enrollments. Michael's class was just under 600 students.
   

Here's Michael just after the memory-making event. Here we are in the stadium. That's Marion, me, Janice, Bobby and our son Jason.

Thursday and Friday were days of completing yearly reports, cleaning, sorting, throwing away and packing away for the Summer. One more day of work, Tuesday, then it's finally Summer Break :)))

I sewed a bit this morning. Cut out a new project would be more accurate. A nap won for the afternoon. I slept for almost four hours. What a wonderful week! On Wednesday, we played music from Kool in the Gang, "Celebration." It truly was a week of "Celebrations."

I'd Better Explain

I knew it was time to clean my sewing room. I've just been putting it off, piling up the scraps and projects. My DH informed me last week that he had made an appointment with  the carpet cleaners (like I suggested)  Those containers on my cutting table contain Works in Progress - loved projects, but unfinished projects.  

The carpets were cleaned on Friday. It is now Tuesday and my sewing room still looks like this. I was psyched to work on it Friday evening, but the carpet needed to dry. Saturday, I sewed with my Silver Thimble Group. My resolve has now stalled-out. Maybe, if I read enough blogs tonight, I can avoid it for another day :)

Winning Gifts

I won a give-away. Paula who blogs at  A Latte Quilts - Lattes and A Lota Quilts had a give-away just because - No particular reason, just a very generous, giving quilter sharing things she loves with other quilters. I love give-aways. I love discovering them on blogs. I love sponsoring them. Heck, I love door-prizes, raffles, even give-aways at conference exhibits.(I actually won $5,000 in books for my previous school at a conference drawing)  Blog give-aways are just one of the many generous aspects of online quilters. Thank you, Paula for the lovely fat quarters, Starbucks gift-card and your wonderful note. Kristie from our Saturday Silver Thimble Group organized a swap to trade  bricks to make Bonnie Hunters Bricks & Stepping Stones quilt.  Several of these fat quarters will work perfectly for me to cut into bricks for our June swap. I love coffee. I grew up in a family that served coffee to the dog:) The gift card isn't in this picture because it was already in my purse waiting for the right day to treat myself to a Latte. Thank you, Paula for making my day!

The Final T-Shirt Quilt

It's done! This afternoon after a long "Mother's Day" nap, I was able to sew the last stitches on the binding on my son's high school graduation quilt. He is my quilt holder for pictures. At 6'2", he is able to hold them up high enough to be photographed. The best compliment that I could ask him to give was when he muttered under his breath, "This one is going to college with me." Just by chance, the colors of his college are navy blue and hunter green, the colors he chose for this quilt last Summer.

My son loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). We chose paintball splatter backing fabric in TMNT green.

To Mothers Everywhere

Hoping that your special day is filled with much joy, love, laughter and those you have "mothered" ! Enjoy the day!

A Little Side-Trip to Sweet Home

It was P.J. and Gretchen's fault. They both mention going to visit Melisa at Sweet Home. It's their fault that I HAD to slip in a side-trip after school on Wednesday. From my school, it's over an hour drive. 

P.J. or Peggy Barkle is a master log-arm quilter. When I picked up my last quilt, she mentioned visiting Sweet Home. She raved about the Moda Scrap Bags that she had purchased. I knew instantly that I had to have one or two for me. My schedule is bonkers this month. It would be difficult to drive to Sweet Home before Melisa sold out of them, but with the wonders of e-mail I was able to ask Melisa to put two of them aside for me. Bingo. Two  of the new Moda Scrap Bags had my name on them. The scrap bags are real neat. The strips are 3 1/2 inches wide. If my math is right, each bag contains four yards of fabric of various Moda fabric. I recognized Peace on Earth and Hello Betty. I'm already thinking of projects to use some of these strips.

Gretchen blogged about her trip to Sweet Home. She picked up the latest issue of Quilt Sampler magazine. This is one magazine that I always purchase. I still have all the issues from the very first one published over ten years ago. Another e-mail to Melisa and the magazine was added to my stack.

Today, Karin blogged about her recent trip to Sweet Home. Melisa has some luscious fabrics in stock. The new Moda lines -Aviary and Flag Day Farm -stopped me in my tracks while in the shop. I'm also wanting some of that green, black and white line that Karin took home. Karin hope that you left some for us! Thank you, Melisa for a wonderful place to shop and visit!

150 Post Winner

And the winner is.......

 The random number generator choose comment number 11. Brenda who blogs as The Quilting Cowgirl is number 11.  The comments on why folks read blogs was wonderful. I truly enjoyed reading each comment. Thanks to everyone who participated! This has been great fun. My birthday is next month. I've already begun planning that give-away.

Take care!

Give-aways

Hi there blog friends! 

Lyn at Welcome to Bluebird Quilts is celebrating her blogaversary, too. She is giving away this lovely stitchery and other items. Visit her blog and comment to win. Please tell her that I sent you:)

There is still time to make a comment and get your name in the give-away for my blog anniversary. Comment on this blog post.  The drawing will be on Sunday.

It is Finally Friday!!!!!  I love my job, but I do love the down-time on the weekend, too.