Saturday's Adventure

Pat & I went with Aimee & Kevin to look at a possible venue for their wedding. 

 This is Hewick Plantation built in 1678. Aimee is distantly related to the former owners of the house.  She remembers attending family reunions at it when she was younger. 

It is located in Urbanna, Virginia about 90 minutes from our home. 

The interior of the main house is being restored and renovated.  There is a back section that was added on in the 20th century that we were able to see. But most of the house was being worked on.  

We had a very enjoyable day with them.  Had lunch at a nice little cafe.  Went to a market where Pat picked up some wine.  

No quilting being done, still. But, tomorrow for sure.  And maybe some this afternoon. Sharon is coming for a few days tomorrow so I will be doing some quilting.  

Happy Quilting All! 

Just a Bit of Quilting Happening

Yes, I did get a little bit of quilting done last week between all the events going on.  And here's what it looks like.  I am making the 1800 quilt from Moda Bake Shop.  It is basically a 9 patch with a few little twists.  And, the pieces are cut 1 1/4" inches so finished size must be 3/4"?? I am using Bar Harbor charm pack from Minick and Simpson.  Usually I don't use a line to create a quilt but I liked this particular line of fabrics so thought I would give it a try.  




Of course, first I had to take out all the light colored fabrics. And, I am using a light that I already had. (I really like using up fabric!)  


Here's what is left from the fabrics I used.  


When I can get back to sewing I'll be putting the 9 patches together. 

This was inspired by a challenge on Kathy Tracy's Small Quilt Chat group over on Yahoo.  I've been trying to do these little quilts on a regular basis. Although, I think this one will end up being a wall hanging.  


She also has a little challenge with these stars.  They were a perfect chance to try my Wing Clipper ruler.  It worked well but I need to finesse it a bit.  And, darn, I can't decide what other fabric I should put with this.  Once I decide on the last fabrics I'll try to get this together. It might work for a AAQI donation.  


Kevin and Aimee visited this weekend.  So Friday was a house cleaning day.  Then we went off with them on Saturday.  By Sunday afternoon I was ready to veg so no quilting was getting done.  Sigh.  And, visitors and cleaning made me forget to post.  So I'll try to do better until my quilting buddy shows up Wednesday!  


Happy quilting all! 

We're Home Again

Max checking out Sophia

Baby Sophia and her parents got back to their home around 1:30.  So we had time for a quick hold and cuddle before we had to be on the road again. (And a few pictures...) 

Baby Sophia and Grandma Lang

Sophia woke up for a little bit before we had to hit the road. Sharon -- notice the onsie.  When I was last up in Maryland, Sharon went with me to Target because I had forgotten several things, such as a brush!  Anyway, we wandered into the baby section and before I knew what I had done two darling little outfits were in my cart. Sharon had also found something cute for her grand daughter. Needless to say,  I'm trying to stay away from that section of Target now...! 

I've noticed that I haven't had much to say about quilting for the last week or so.  I did spend a whole day in the studio during the weekend but I haven't much to show for it. And, I've also noticed that having a new grand baby has been fabulous for my page hits.  Thanks everyone for visiting and commenting on Miss Sophia.    

Today's plans --

• put the Quilts for Kids quilt on Ruthie and get it quilted. 
• figure out the binding for it too and DO it. 
• work on the 1800 quilt and the Million Pieces quilt a bit (hey even a seam or two would be forward motion.)
• check the guest bathroom -- does it need to be cleaned?
• print out pictures of baby Sophia and mail them off.  

My to do plans are always bigger than I can do but at least it helps me stay focused.  So with no further to do, I'm off to take care of my list! 

Happy Quilting All! 

Welcome to Sophia Eloise

Sophia Eloise is here!

Proud Mom and Dad with Sophia

'

Amazed Uncle Kevin with Sophia less than an hour old! 

And the details: 

Born Monday, August 23, at 8:25 pm.  

6 lbs, 14 oz. 19 " long 

Everyone is doing very well. 


We'll be up here for another night and then will head home.  Needless to say, no quilting is going on! But I'm thinking about little dresses, little sweaters and darling little hats!   


Happy Quilting All!  

What's Cooking

Sometimes I do cook. And here is the pizza I made this week.  My hat is off to Kevin for sharing his veggie pizza ways with us.  It was as yummy to eat as to look at. And, great the day after too. 

Raggs loves to take all of his toys out of the basket and spread them around the great room.  And, somedays he even likes his rag quilt (how appropriate!) It was a sample for a bigger one as I had never made a rag quilt.  But, I really didn't need to keep it so Raggs got it. Luckily he doesn't think all the other quilts around are for his enjoyment.  However, waste baskets are another matter. 

Less we think summer is cooling off --not so here in Virginia. This was Saturday -- the time was 6:16 PM.  And, yep, it's 90 degrees.  And humid although the car doesn't list humidity. This evening we are having rain, lightning and thunder after a hot, humid dat.  


I spent the day in the studio working on a new wall hanging project.  And, more work on the Million Pieces quilt. It was a great work day, hopefully tomorrow I will get all the little pieces done to sew the wall hanging blocks together.  It would be wonderful if I can get the rest of the Million Pieces blocks finished. I've not been working in the studio for the last few days so it felt great to see some progress.  Eventually I'll have photos to share. 


We are all waiting grand baby. Jenny and Brian are definitely ready.  The room is ready.  It's just baby who isn't ready.  I'll keep you posted.  Five days to her due date and Jen really doesn't want to wait that long!  


Happy Quilting All! 

Ok -- There's a Reason I Save Way Too Many Emails ...

Yep, I save all sorts of emails to the tune of 500 or so in one of my inboxes.  (Funny, the other email address I use a lot only has 30 in there and I don't let it go over that very often...) Any how, I knew I had gotten email from the folks that have the free site counter and sure enough, there was an email from when I first started with them.  And, the statistics were there.  And the code to replace the counter on my blog. So everything is just fine! Back to normal. 


Now I need to redesign my header so it covers the whole width of the space.  That just might be another day.  And, it might be time to retire that bright banner for one that goes with the soft green background I chose.  Decisions, decisions... 


So now, I'm off to quilt before heading out to do a little shopping, a little computer repairing and a meal out (or two...) 

I've Done It Now!

I like the wider designs now available for Blogger and decided I would redesign my blog a bit.  Hey, I'm somewhat bored -- in a waiting mode (hurry up little grand baby -- I'm sure mommy and daddy would love to have you visit in person...).  But when I made the changes I lost my counter.  ARGH... I love my counter, I wish I had copied my counter... help!  Anyone know how I can gather my info back?  (heck, does anyone remember the "name brand" of my counter -- I sure don't!) 

Here's what I've been working on.  You've seen the blue and yellow quilt before. The little Amish quilt was purchased as a top.  It languished in my studio for YEARS before I thought about using it for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  How to finish it -- I found an old purple solid that went well and used it on the front and the back.  (Question -- hum, that old purple was from a log cabin quilt I made in a class with Eleanor Burns probably in 1982 -- it seemed like it was still in good shape and didn't fall apart while quilting.)  I used a cotton variegated thread in a shell pattern and then a square inside the center square of the shoefly blocks.  Finished it up in time to ship to Marge at Delaware Quilts for her challenge.  Printed out the registration form and started reading it... # 1 was quilts must be no larger than 9" x 12" (not even a little bit) ...  OOPS -- the Amish Shoefly came out 9 1/4" square.  Rats.  So the little blue one got sent along to Marge, Registration Goddess, and then will be sent on to AAQI.  

So, what to do with a 9 1/4" square quilt with a label indicating it came from the Delaware Quilts challenge.  Except, in reading Marge's yahoo groups I'm not the only one with a bigger than required quilt.  And, Marge's answer was send them along as they will be used.  Rats.  It's here on the counter.  So after I get a few more done I'll send it along.  


I am really impressed with the new blogger editor.  It is SO much easier to put photos where I want them.  I love the wider layout.  But, where, oh where did my counter go? Sigh. 




We are still on baby alert. Jen's doctor doesn't think she'll go another week (and that was as of TUESDAY.)  I'll keep you posted!  


Happy Quilting All! 

Jefferson Vineyard

Our friends the Makis arrived Friday night for several days before they dropped Sarah at school. Last summer she was the recipient of this quilt. After hanging around in the morning we finally started out to see one of the historic homes near Charlottesville. First we drove by Pat's office and saw this lovely train.

Next we drove up to Charlottesville and oops went right past Monticello. And turned in at Jefferson Vineyards. It was packed. We decided to skip the tasting and settled on the deck with a nice bottle of white wine. It was really lovely sitting outside under the trees with a nice breeze blowing. I think it really helped being overcast. This is Kirk, Sarah and Pat -- after we'd had our bottle of wine and some yummy dill crackers. Poor Sarah, no wine for her.

Lisa and Kirk getting ready to leave.

This is the wine tasting building. We didn't go on a tour although I would like to go back and do that. It is a beautiful location. You can see the patio where we sat under the trees on the right of the picture.

There is a garden on the road into the vineyard. The photo shows some more of the rolling hills in the area as well as the garden. I'd like to go to Monticello again -- it's been years but it was too late to do that on Saturday. And, James Madison's house, Montpelior isn't far from Monticello. (and another good quilt store if I remember correctly!)

Needless to say no quilting was done this day. But it was totally enjoyable day. And, doing a bit of research to write this I realize how much is around this area. No doubt we will work our way through the Jefferson Wine Trail and visit other venues the area offers.

No overwhelming plans for this afternoon. Things I could do:

• cut some more pieces for the million pieces quilt

• start the 1800 quilt

• make Kathy Tracy's little quilt for Challenge 10.

• see if I have enough fabric to make the jacket - - - hum.

• prep a project bag in case it is time to go wait for the new baby to show up.

Happy quilting all!

Last Week's Quilting Adventure

A week ago I was on a quilting adventure. I met up with some lovely ladies from Amelia, VA and we drove out to Harrisonburg, Va. (I'm trying hard to not get confused with Harrisburg, PA....)

We started at Patchwork Plus Quilt Shop. I couldn't help but take a photo of this little gem. Somedays that sounds like my life.

Here's the inside of the store... didn't think to get a photo going INTO the store. Sigh.

I did buy that cool jacket pattern but of course, I don't have enough fabric to make the thing in batiks like it is shown. But wait, let me think a minute. I have some fabrics from -- hum, Africa? One of them might look good and I actually may have enough fabric to make the jacket with short sleeves. New thing to ponder tomorrow.

You can't really see it but there was a darling baby onesie with a skirt that the new grandbaby would look darling in. (Of course, she needs to arrive first! Her mommy and daddy are ready, really ready.)

Next we hit lunch and saw this while we were

parking. I'm wondering if the occupants were going to the BB&T bank? Just sayin'.

After lunch at an interesting country restaurant we headed back to an Amish Farm Market. I bought cheese, red hots (one of my favorite snacking candy) and some fresh fruit. We hit another fabric store. (And, yes, I was good and didn't buy ANY fabric. Even after walking around with a bolt of fabric in my arms for 10 minutes. Didn't even miss it when I got home.)

Our last stop of the day was a Taco Bell where they have a great Lime Ade drink. Unfortunately they didn't have drive through margaritas but this tasted like it should have been a margarita.

Needless to say no quilting was done that day as it was almost 3 hours to get up to Harrisonburg.

I'll be telling tales of our weekend with the Makis later this week. (with very little quilting done...)

Happy quilting all!

Grandbaby Update

Two weeks until due date:

Really? You think it'll be two more weeks???

Quilting update: I've finished the hand quilting on the mini quilt. Need to put on the binding.

Not much other quilty stuff going on because I'm too busy visiting with some good friends. More on the visit later.

Happy quilting all!

How Would You Quilt This?

Remember this picture from last post? It is 10 1/2" x 8 1/2" with 2" finished blocks. I'm doing clamshells on it but it is really wrinkling up. Or so it seems to me. I'm using an 80 weight DMC cotton. Hind sight says I probably should have used regular quilting thread. Honestly, I can't tell if it seems thicker or thinner than normal hand quilting thread. After one false start I decided on clamshells. I figured it needed some softening of all the angles. And, I actually had a stencil I could use.

Here is what it currently looks like, a bit under half way done. I'm not trying to do tiny little stitches just quilting along. I spent quite a bit of time on it yesterday but I don't feel I got very far. (Hum, could it be that I was watching a movie and then a few episodes of Bones and not paying as much attention to the quilt as I should?) I'm going to be back at it after this post.

My question to you all is how would you have quilted this? I am NOT taking this out so this is a rhetorical question. I have a whole box of these things left and heaven knows I try to use them up! Leave me a note with your ideas.

Yesterday I continued to preshrink a charm pack. Ok, call me crazy but it wasn't all that hard. I soaked a few pieces at a time in hot water in the sink. Then laid them out to dry on a towel. I didn't want to mix washed and unwashed fabs. These are going to be used to make a small wall hanging from Moda Bake Shop. It's 1800's Vintage Quilt. I think it will look great in the front bedroom which is navy blue and brick red. I've got a quilt in progress so this will pretty much finish off the room for the time being. And, yes, these are some of the fabrics I'll probably use. I have to figure out how many are needed and then work from there. Most of the dark ones are black not navy -- the navy were in a different washing. I'll put more of them in then the black, no doubt. I'll keep you posted.

On to the hand quilting. Happy Quilting All!

What's Going On in the Studio

I have been "working" on spending

a gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop. Once a week or so I would go online and see what they had. The only thing I really knew I wanted was the Atkinson design table topper. I've wanted that pattern since it came out. And, as I looked I added things to my cart but stillcouldn't spend it all. (Well, really, I could have, but I was trying not to buy a bunch of fabric. Remember I am trying to USE it up!) It took me so long to make up my mind one of the Schnibbles I wanted was no longer available. That was fine as it was this one I really wanted. I thought it would be fun to make some neat shams for the two guest beds so got the book by Anka Designs. I also bought a little bit of fabric but it wasn't upstairs when I took the photo. Maybe I'll share the charm pack and the go with fab later.

This little blue and yellow quilt is for Marge's Challenge for Ami Simm's Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. These were left over triangles from this quilt. It was from "thank you" blocks from when I was in charge of Faithful Circle Quilter's night group. I started quilting it last week but didn't like it so took it out and next I'm trying a clamshell design. That's what I'll be working on tonight.

Do you want to help support Alzheimer's research? You've still got time to make a quilt and enter it in Marge's Challenge. She even has two prizes. One is for whoever sends her quilt #100. And another one is a "Best of Show" award. She'll be showing all the quilts she receives on her web site and open them up for voting. Last date for her to receive them is August 21st. Come on now, you still have a few days to make your wonderful little quilt and get it in the mail to Marge. I'm hoping I can take a partial quilt I bought at an auction and get it finished in time to send it to her too. Check the rules out at Marge's site.

I finally got this top done from the Quilt for Kids kit. It was fun to work on "new" fabric. It's a simple pattern that I kept sewing on as I was doing other things. It was finished along with another little quilt that I'll show pictures of later. I'll probably get this quilted next week as we're having company on Friday.

On a personal note:

CONGRATULATIONS

to Aimee & Kevin who became engaged over the weekend.

Happy Quilting All!

What Do You Do With . . .

10 different blocks with varying sizes and background colors?

My friend Sharon faced that dilemma recently. It stumped her so much that she took it with her to a quilt retreat where Gyleen X Fitzgerald was the resident "expert" to assist attendees with designing settings for their blocks. Sharon brought her 10 blocks that had been a block of the month challenge at Faith Circle Quilters in 2006. The basis was a dress form which folks were to "dress". Gyleen and Sharon came up with the following. And, I have to say that Sharon was tickled pink. She is well on her way to having a wonderful and unique quilt. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished.

We tend to do show and tell when we get together. So she shared this top with me. She dislikes the lack of contrast especially in the center. I know she loves the colors because those are "her" colors. I had no brilliant ideas at the time and still don't. How about you? Any suggestions I can pass on to Sharon? This was Scotch taped to a closet door so it isn't huge. Hum, maybe couching something in silver or gold?

I've been lazy today -- finished watching a video I started yesterday. Spent way too much time on the computer. Did a little stitching on A Tisket, A Tasket. I don't remember how many I have left -- made 3 or 4? I think I need to actually do some work on it rather than carry it around a lot.

This afternoon I will work on a mini Irish Chain I started before the move and I'll finish the Quilt for Kids kit. I guess I'll probably cut some more side pieces for the million pieces quilt and continue to sew them on. And, I need to iron a bed skirt I bought recently. I've held off doing that because I couldn't get it on the bed by myself and didn't want it to get wrinkled again. Hey, I normally don't iron anything exceptt fabric but this came in a mess!

Hope you all have a Happy Quilting day!

How to Cover a Lamp Shade --

I was visiting in Maryland this past weekend. Over the next few days I'll share some of my adventures. Today, I'm going to share how Jenny covered a lampshade for her baby's room. Here's the lamp with the plain shade. Jen looked for one with the least amount of flare. If she could have found one straight up and down it would have been much easier! (notice a familiar red, pink and white quilt?)

She cut the fabric slightly wider than the shade and about an inch longer than the widest part. Then she folded under the raw edge on the shorter side. Using a glue gun she glued the folded edge to the seam on the shade. Then she folded the other side so it would meet the glued edge.

She then glued the bottom edge to the inside of the shade. We found we had to glue small sections at a time or the glue would cool too fast.

Because the shade was wider at the bottom than at the top she had to gather the top edge. Using a needle and thread she ran a gathering stitch about a half inch in around the top edge.

Then we pulled it up. My job during the whole event was holding. So, here I am holding the strings tight.

Jenny glued the top edge with some gathers to take up the excess fabric.

She snipped where the frame got in the way.

Here's the finished shade.

Here's the finished project shining in the baby's room.

Not bad for a first effort. I'm wondering whether I have a few lamps that could benefit from colorful shades!

Today's plans include working on a miniature quilt for Marge's challenge for Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I don't think mine will be particularly artsy but it will be attractive. Not much time left but I really want to create at least one and maybe, if time allows, two mini quilts for this. I'll be doing a little leader/ender sewing as I work on this little quilt. I've got a Quilt for Kids kit started and how about if I think of finishing the Small Quilt Talk's Irish Chain challenge? That should keep me busy between moving laundry and cleaning up a bit at home.

Happy Quilting All!