Bloggers Virtual Quilt Show

While reading blogs this morning, I discovered the First Bloggers Online Virtual Quilt Show hosted by Amy at the blog Park City Girl. There is still time to enter your favorite quilt and then blog about it. 

Chosing a favorite quilt is like chosing your favorite child, friend, book, food - it's hard to choose just one. I debated choosing the Neutral Stars Quilt. 

The neutral fabric just came together on that one. I thought about the band quilt I made using the Friendship Crossing Pattern by Pat Wys. The colors that I had to use blue, gold, and cream are not my normal color choices. (I can't find the photo at this minute. Will look later today) There was also the T-shirt quilt for my previous school. The colors just came together. I guess you can tell that I'm all about the color choices of the fabrics in my quilts.

 I decided to feature the quilt that I just completed. It's called the Mulberry Author Quilt. Our fourth grade students wrote to their favorite authors. They included a 6 inch quilt square in the letter requesting the author to autograph it and mail it back to us. We had 23 squares to include in the quilt. That's a hard number to design with. I brought the squares to my art teacher. In our discussion it occured to me to add more color to the quilt and to use Sharon Henderson's T-Shirt Quilt Pattern. I had found some library book fabric from an online shop. I visited Melisa at Sweet Home Quilt Shop to purchase additional fabric for the background and quilt sashings. Peggy Barkle quilted it for me. She did a fabulous job enhancing the blocks, but not interfering with the autographs. The quilt will be shown to the students this week. I've taken photos of each block. These photos in addition to pictures of the authors and their books will be used in a Powerpoint Presentation. We have autographs from some wonderful children's authors, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Barbara Park, Christopher Paolini, R.L. Stine - just to name a few. Thanks for viewing my quilt! Click on my side-bar to visit the other quilts in the Bloggers Virtual Quilt Show.

Two down, one more to go....

I've been hand-sewing the binding on this quilt for months. I did a couple of inches every weekend watching football games. Guess I made the stitches too small. Anyway... this one is completed. It's for my husband's sister. We will spend Christmas day with them. I'll give it to her then.   I love this quilt. It's hard giving this one away. Of course, I do have enough fabric left-over to make one for me.The pattern is from McCall's Quilting magazine June 2005. The original quilt name is Star Light. My regular quilt holder is still sleeping. Rusty said, me hold the quilt? 

I need to machine sew the binding on my neice's quilt. My work was so poor yesterday morning that I put it aside. Decided I'd better wait until later today so I would do a better job. 

The tote bag pattern is a design by Penny Sturges. It is called Charm Party Tote. I gave it to Kathy last night. She was speechless for a little bit. That's always a good sign :)  

On the Road .....

I've completed my to do list for today. We leave early in the morning for Louisiana to visit my MIL for a couple of days then visit my Dad for a day or two. Both of our parents are in assisted living facilities so we having to do the hotel and restaurant bit for the entire trip. In fact the only hotel in Central Louisiana where my MIL is living is in a  Casino. It's weird having to walk through the area with the slot machines to get to the hotel lobby. Since it is Louisiana, we are guaranteed to have great food the entire trip. We are hoping to have a good visit, but both our parents are having some "ageing" issues. I have binding to sew, stitchery prepared, books, magazines, and books on my Ipod for the LONG drive. It's an 11 or 12 hour drive from Atlanta.

I didn't get much sewing done this week, but I had lots of quilt ystimulation. I visited Sweet Home Quilt shop with my friend Brenda on Monday. Tuesday, I was able to attend the Gwinnett  Guild meeting (since I'm home for the Summer)  Visited with many wonderful friends. Thursday, I shopped at Intown Quilters with a friend looking for fabric for her daughtter's T-shirt quilt.  I just looked. I actually didn't purchase anything.

I did finish two projects last weekend. I completed the quilt top of the neutral quilt for my SIL for Christmas. I have to piece the back, then it's ready for quilting. I just love this quilt. It will look even better quilted.

I pulled an old UFO out of a bin. I worked on my Good to Go bag last Friday at Sisters. It's string pieced. I used Chelsea Lane fabric by Pat Sloan. I just love the autumn colors in this bag. The bag is a design by my friend Pat of  Silver Thimble Quilt Company.       I even used it a couple of times this week. That's another project off my extensive UFO list. DONE!

I'll have limited internet access until we return home next Wednesday. Have a great weekend! 

What I'm Working On

I've had some time to sew in the past couple of days. Today, my son had a couple of friends over for their band to practice in our basement. I was rather surprised to hear some pretty good music and not just noise coming from downstairs.  I worked on the neutral quilt for my SIL for her Christmas gift.  When I was cutting out the blocks, I was amazed at the great selection of neutral fabrics that  I had in the project box. I know that I'm the one who bought the fabric, but for the life of me, I dont' remember some of these prints or where I purchased them. I do really like them. I hope I can find some other interesting neutrals. I'm planning on doing another neutral quilt. It's a log cabin quilt in neutrals called White Chocolate designed by my quilting teacher and mentor Pat Wys. 

Here is the neutral star quilt that I worked on today. It's from a pattern in McCall's Quilting Magazine. I don't remember the name, but my friend Brenda at The Quilting Cowgirl made one so I just refer to it as the neutral quilt that Brenda made. Lame, but I'd have to go upstairs to check the pattern name:)  I still have to sew the rows togther, then add two borders. I'm liking how this one is coming together.

Happy Quilting!

Saturday Sisters

Tomorrow is my sewing group day!!!!  Our group is called Sisters or Saturday Sisters and it is organized through a local quilt shop. I'm getting excited about spending the day with my quilting friends. I've been trying to decide which project to take. We talk and laugh all day long so it can't be a project that I really need to be able to concentrate (like the border for Orange Crush). I've pulled two project boxes. One is a project that uses lots of neutral fabrics. It's a pattern from McCall's Quilting magazine. My friend Brenda at The Quilting Cowgirl made one that I loved.  I need to cut the blocks and begin sewing. I'm thinking of using it for a Christmas gift if I can part with it. It looks easy to construct. The other project is Bloomin' Rose again from McCall's Quilting Magazine. I have blocks from a swap on Pat Sloan's Yahoo Group several Summers ago. My blocks have a green background instead of yellow like in the picture.  I'll put them both in my van. I'll decide tomorrow which one to work on.

Wednesday was a Quiltaton Day on Judy L.'s blog Patchwork Times. I moved around my dog Rusty's annual visit to the vet so that I could sew most of the day. I was able to complete a flannel rag quilt for a graduation gift. I used the school colors of her future college, burgundy and gold. It will be hard to part with this quilt. I love the colors. The flannel is sooo soft. The best thing is that this is another project I can check off my list. It's another F.I.U. or Finish it up. It is Done!

Shop Hop Confessions

Ok. It was just too much for me. I was not able to resist the Atlanta Shop Hop. Thursday afternoon on my way home from school, I stopped at my local shop, Stitch 'N Quilt. I got my passport stamped and looked at the neutral fabrics. Sandy was working that day. It was a treat to visit with her. Friday after a super day at school, I decided to travel to Sweet Home Quilt Company in Conyers. It took me almost an hour and a half driving from work to the shop. I forget that my new school is "out there". The shop was worth every minute of the drive. Melisa, the shop owner, has THE best taste in fabric. I could have purchased lots and lots of yardage. I did purchase only those things on my list. I bought 4 different one  yard and a fourth cuts of flannel for Sarah's rag quilt. I had them cut FQ's of four neutral fabrics for the neutral quilt that I am making for Janice, my sister-in-law for Christmas. So that was 5 yards for flannel and 1 yard of neutrals. I was also able to pick up the Stitchery block-of-the month that I am participating in. I have never done stitchery. This BOM will be new learning for me. It will also give me a hand project. Saturday since we were so close to Little Quilts, we took a quick detour after the workshop. There were lots of temptation waiting for us there. I found some brown textured fabric for the stars on Janice's neutral quilt. I've been looking for the right fabric and felt fortunate to find this. I picked up two neutral FQ's and black DMC floss for the stitchery kit. That's a total of 2 yards from Little Quilts.

I did bust some stash this week. The first grade teachers asked for fabric and batting donations for a project. I brought 6 yards from my stash. Gone!