TTT sweat shop

The TTT (Tuesday Thimbles and Threads) gang decided to make 3 quilts to present to a Habitat for Humanity family. The mother and 2 daughters are moving into a "Woman Built" home. All of the labor was provided by female volunteers.

Sheila presented the idea to the group and we all agreed it was a good idea. Through Habitat Sheila was able to talk with the new owner and find out what size/color of quilts they would like. The owner asked for a twin sized black, white, and pink quilt, a full sized blue and yellow quilt and a queen sized earth toned quilt. We pooled fabrics from our individual stashes and decided on the pattern for each quilt.

Last week we sewed the yellow and blue top. Karen very kindly did all the tedious cutting so when we arrived at the studio all we had to do was start sewing (...and sewing...and sewing...) (click photos for larger view)



By the end of the day we had assembled the top with the exception of the borders. Karen added those over the weekend.

Today we worked on the black/white/pink quilt. Again Karen was a real trooper by having the fabric all cut when we arrived. This block was a little more complicated, but only a few errors were made.

Here are Frances and Karen holding up the completed top.


Well, it's not really complete yet - there are 2 borders to be added - a pink one and then a black & white one.

The earth toned quilt is on tap for our next session.

Hopefully the family will enjoy these quilts for years to come. We've enjoyed making them.


Karen has 2 studio cats. Today Lucy was very interested in Sheila's glasses. It's a good thing Lucy let Sheila actually take them off first. The other cat, Callie, would more likely just swat them off Sheila's face if given the opportunity.

Happy 4th of July

Enjoy the fireworks.

Slip Slidin' away

We pulled out the slip and slide for the kids the other day. The one action photo I had of Noah sliding won't post properly so you'll have to take my word for it that he was sliding like a champ.

For a 2 year old the fun is playing with the water spouts. (click photos for larger view)


I tried to get a photo of Noah when he wasn't looking because he still gives that forced smile when he poses for photos. I almost succeeded here.


Hayden looks like she's running a race here.


It's so hot that it's almost too hot to even play in the water. Remind me again why we live in South Carolina!?

At the aquarium

We took the kids to the South Carolina Aquarium the other day. Noah always tries to act uninterested in any activity we plan for him (he's almost 8)so it's hard to tell what he thought about the whole thing - except for the escalator. He loved it and couldn't wait to go up. Interestingly there wasn't a down escalator - you either had to come down the steps or take the elevator. Anyway, it made me realize that there are not many locations we visit in Charleston that have escalators. Guess I'll have to scope out a couple more for him.

For some reason one of the exhibits was a fake campsite called Camp Carolina. I'm still not sure how that related to the aquarium. I couldn't get Noah and Jerry to sit down for a photo but here's Hayden sitting on a fake log next to a fake campfire.



The aquarium was good with a nice assortment of sea creatures. We enjoyed the penguins - who are fairly new residents in our aquarium. Some of the fish scared Hayden a bit - especially those that were bigger than her.

It was a fun visit and a good place to spend a very hot day.

Bits 'n Pieces Quilt and Fabric Shoppe

I've had a frustrating encounter with Bits 'n Pieces Quilt and Fabric Shoppe in Pelham, New Hampshire.

The first week in May I was looking for a specific fabric line. I went to Quiltshops.com and searched on the name of the line. Bits 'n Pieces had it in several color ways and on sale too so I placed an order.

On May 14 I sent a follow-up email asking the status since I hadn't heard from them and my credit card had not been charged. I received a response from Liz the same day stating that they only had one of the fabrics in stock and they had shipped it to me that day.

May 22nd and no fabric - and no charge to my credit card so I sent another email and asked them to cancel the order. I also sent an email to quiltshops.com telling them about the events. Quiltshops stands behind the shops that come up on their website and I thought they should know - especially since the Bits 'n Pieces web site still featured the fabrics I'd been told they no longer had.

Jan, at Quiltshops contacted Liz at Bits 'n Pieces and Liz's response told about unreliable employees, a busy brick and mortar shop, etc. In her response Liz stated that I had canceled the order when originally told of the out of stock fabrics. I didn't actually cancel it until 8 days later, but it's obvious that Liz knew I had cancelled.

On June 15 I received a package in the mail - guess what it was...the one yard of fabric that had supposedly been shipped on May 14. The postmark and the charge slip inside the package were both dated June 12 so it's not like the package had been floating around the post office for a month.

My initial thought is to just put the fabric in the stash and chalk it up as a lesson learned because it will be just too much trouble to return the fabric and hope they don't screw up the refund. The more I think about it though, the more angry I get about the transaction. So, while I may keep the fabric I decided to make sure others knew about the poor treatment I received from Bits 'n Pieces Quilt and Fabric Shoppe in Pelham, NH.

(Please note that I was 100% satisfied with Jan at Quiltshops.com and find the site is a useful tool in finding fabrics.)

Birthday girl

Today is Hayden's 2nd birthday. Here she is back 2 years ago.



And then here she is on her 1st birthday.


We'll be going over to her house this evening for cake and ice cream and then on Saturday for lunch.

Happy Birthday sweetie!

Calendar Girl

I bought the pattern for this Calendar girl quilt a couple of years ago in Pigeon Forge, TN. The main panel of the girl is about 52" tall. The series of mini-quilts attach to the girl's hands with snaps and are interchangeable depending on the season/holiday.

The mini quilts are finished except for sewing small buttons for eyes. The girl needs to be quilted. I actually started the quilting on it after taking these photos, but haven't finished it yet.

Here the girl is holding the Welcome sign that she'll hold when none of the other quilts apply.



These two mini quilts are for Easter and birthdays.


Next we have Halloween and the Fourth of July


Here are St. Patrick's Day and Christmas


Finally we have Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day.


Every time I worked on this I would hum the old Neil Sedaka song "Calendar Girl."

Quilters day out

My quilt guild holds Quilters Day Out every couple of months. It's a fun opportunity for guild members to get together and sew. Usually the organizers have a simple project lined up for everyone to do. If someone isn't interested in doing the planned project she can bring something else to work on.

At our last QDO each person was asked to bring a bunch of 6" squares - half light and half dark. (I can't remember exactly how many of each we were supposed to bring - I think it was about 125 of each) The squares were then stacked up on a table and everyone went around selecting squares from all the piles. We ended up with a nice variety of colors and patterns with which to work.

We sewed a light and dark square together diagonally to create a new square that was half light and half dark. Unfortunately many guild members used this swap of fabric as an excuse to get rid of their really poor quality stuff. Some of the fabrics are downright scary. Even so, I challenged myself to just sew together random lights and darks without trying to make 'pretty' blocks. Some of the combinations I ended up with were really ugly, but I did my best to include them.

The blocks could be laid out in several different configurations. We had enough blocks that I was able to make 4 different designs - each of which will be 40" x 40" when completed.


After taking these photos I realized I could have done a better job in placing the blocks in each design. It's amazing how the work looks different when viewed through the camera lens.


There is some Elvis fabric hidden in this one.



I was amazed at how many green blocks I had. This last quilt was made up of all the 'leftovers' and it sure has lots of green.


Once I figure out how to quilt these I will donate them to our community service project. These will be a good size for wheelchair quilts so they may go to the VA hospital.

Waterfront property

I've always wanted to live on water. Ocean, lake, stream - any of those would do. Today I thought my wish was coming true. We had a deluge which overwhelmed the drains. This is the street in front of our house. (click photos for larger view)



That's our next door neighbor's mail box. There really is a sidewalk and driveway there next to the mailbox, honest.


A view of our neighbors across the 'pond.'



The drains on the golf course behind us were clogged and the water backed up into the yard.


Jerry got a rake out and did his best to clear the drain.


It might be too hard to see but the house behind him here had water lapping against the foundation.


It took several hours for the water to subside so our time owning waterfront property was short lived.

Grandkids

It has been a while since I posted photos of our cute grandkids. I got these photos the other day just after Hayden's bath. (click on photos for larger view)


You can see that Noah is missing one of his front teeth in this photo. His other front tooth is loose but not quite ready to come out. Grandpa has been trying to convince Noah that a string and a door knob would be a good thing. He convinced Craig to do that with one of his teeth - Craig never let him do it a second time.


My 3 favorite people just chillin'.

What a pro!

We live on a golf course and Jerry golfs our course a couple of times a week. Now, even though he golfs on a regular basis he is by no means ready for the senior tour. I believe he usually hits in the high 90's/low 100's for 18 holes.

Occasionally he will golf elsewhere and today was one of those days. He was participating in a charity tournament with a few friends at a course across town. Before leaving for the tournament he was complaining that he wasn't really thrilled about going. It was a hot day today and he doesn't really like tournament formats. It's a good thing he went because he got his first hole-in-one! I'm so happy for him.




When someone gets a hole-in-one they have to buy a round of drinks for everyone in the clubhouse. Luckily his foursome was one of the first finished and there were only a few people at the bar so it wasn't too expensive. He has also won what was described to him as an electronics package. Someone will contact him to give him more info about that.

I think I'm more excited for him than he is!

Memorial Weekend

The Memorial Day holiday weekend has become the traditional Pirate's weekend at the lake house owned by our friends Jim & Susie. This isn't the best photo of them, but it's the only one I took over the weekend so will have to do. (click photos for larger view)


The house is on Lake Gaston which is on the Virginia/North Carolina border. Jim's family has had a place on the Lake for years so I guess it was a given that he and Susie would buy a place there at some point.



They are located in a little cove which is nice because the big boats don't come speeding by constantly. It also made for a calm spot to go kayaking. Since I'd never been out in a kayak before, it was really important for me to be somewhere calm!



Usually there are 4 couples in attendance on Pirate weekend. Unfortunately, this year 2 of the couples were not able to attend and we missed them. Hopefully we'll be able to all get together again soon.

More California

I wanted to share a few more of the California trip photos. The morning before we checked into Asilomar for our quilting classes we visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's a beautiful aquarium and I always made sure to visit every time I was in the Monterey area. I especially love the jellyfish exhibit.



Shortly before our visit they opened their new seahorse display. I had no idea there were so many varieties. Most of my seahorse photos didn't turn out very well. Luckily I bought the exhibit catalog and used some of the photos as inspiration for my class design.



Joanne looks like she enjoyed the exhibit doesn't she?



Earlier in the trip when we were still in San Francisco we made a stop in a sweet tea shop. Joanne and Karen had the traditional tea.


Frances, the good southern girl she is, had iced tea and I splurged on a mimosa. It was an enjoyable stop and a great respite after a full day of sightseeing.

Catching up

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. Time just gets away sometimes.

I don't think I ever posted a photo of my project from the Empty Spools Seminar at Asilomar. My class was with Susan Carlson who does fabric collage work. The first evening of class she showed us how she works with small scraps of fabric. She suggested we might want to cut bits off of the larger pieces of fabric we'd brought with us. That put an image in my mind (and of others in the class) of needing to work with really small pieces of fabric.

When I began designing my seahorses I was using those small bits and really did not like the way it was turning out. It took me a day or so to decide that I needed to work in bigger chunks of fabric. Once I started doing that I was happier with how the work was developing. Here's what the work looked like in class. (click photo for larger view)



I finally put this back up on my design wall here at home this week and have begun tweaking it. Now that I can rummage through my entire stash I've replaced some of the fabrics with ones I feel work better. I haven't decided on the background treatment yet, but it will be in ocean colors. While in class I dubbed this George and Gracie. Don't know if that's what the final title will be, but that's what I'm mentally calling it right now.

Before and After

Remember this photo from way back 2 weeks ago? It was taken at the Charleston airport as we were waiting to board our first flight. Everyone looks so fresh and excited about the upcoming trip.



This photo was taken at the San Francisco airport last Friday evening as we waited to board the red-eye back home.


Obviously our nearly 2 weeks of sightseeing and sewing caught up with us. We were all exhausted.

It was a wonderful trip but it sure was good to get home!

Wednesday and Thursday in San Francisco

On Wednesday we decided to rent bicycles for a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito. It seemed like a good idea at the time!

For 4 women that don't do much biking it was a real workout. We spent so much time walking our bikes up hills that we decided we had invented a new sport called Bike Walking. (click photos for larger view)



Don't we look a little cold? (l-r - Joanne, Frances, Karen, me)




Once in Sausalito we took the ferry back into San Francisco and enjoyed cruising by Alcatraz and seeing the Bay Bridge close up.

On Thursday we took a full day tour of the city and Muir Woods. We actually wanted to take the tour the first day we were there but that didn't work out. We saw some sites we'd already seen, but it was still good. We even got to go inside one of the famed Victorian homes.


I never visited Muir Woods when we lived in the Bay area so it was a treat to see. The redwoods are amazing.



Here are Joanne and Frances enjoying the beauty.




While walking through the woods we met 2 couples from Iowa that were really a hoot. They kindly took a photo of the 4 of us standing in this tree.




We then took a photo of them. I promised that I'd post the photo on my blog of the Iowa Winos (as they called themselves) and I also promised I wouldn't mention that one of their group had arranged for the rental car to be waiting in San Diego, instead of San Francisco!


One of the last stops on our all day tour was an overlook between Muir Woods and San Francisco. It was windy but beautiful.

San Francisco

We arrived in San Francisco safely late on Monday. Both of our flights were delayed because of bad weather in Atlanta, so it was a very long day.

Here are Karen, Frances and Joanne in the Charleston airport. Everyone looks so happy because we hadn't learned about the flight delays yet!



We were major tourists today. It was very windy and chilly - especially along the waterfront. No trip to San Francisco is complete without spending time at Fisherman's Wharf.






We also took the required cable car ride to Union Square and bought chocolate at Ghirardelli square. Through out the day we saw our share of the unique people that make up San Francisco. I think my favorite was the man earnestly playing his violin - but it had no strings. The only sound coming from his instrument was that of the bow rubbing against the bare wood of the violin. The panhandlers are getting more honest. One fellow's sign said "please donate to alcohol research." Ahh...San Francisco...there's nothing like it.

California here I come...

Tomorrow I leave for California with Karen, Joanne and Frances. We will be spending 4 nights in San Francisco and then 2 nights in Monterey before checking in at the Asilomar Conference Center for 5 days of classes at Empty Spools Seminars.

My class is Fabric Collage with Susan Carlson. Karen is taking a class with Janet Fogg and Frances and Joanne are taking a machine quilting class with Jill Schmuacher.

It was really hard to pack my supplies for this trip because I wanted to bring my ENTIRE fabric stash. I would have had to charter my own private plane to do that. I'm sure I'll get there and realize I have all the wrong fabric for my project, but I'll just have to make do.

Yesterday some of the TTT gang went on an outing.



It's sometimes like herding cats to get the group together for a photo. In the back (l to r) are Frances, Virginia, and Betsy. In front are Maureen, Joanne, Sheila, and Karen. Missing from this photo are Janice, Cindy, me, Judy and Jolene. Someday we'll get the entire group together for a photo!

Birthday Boy

Today is Craig's 36th birthday. I have no idea how he got to be that old!

In honor of the day I thought I'd share some photos of his early days in Scotland. He was born in Dunoon Scotland and we lived there until he was 18 months old.

This was his first professional photo. His hair looks like it had a red tinge in this photo but it was just the way the color was adjusted.


I knitted this blue bunting while I was pregnant. I sure was taking a chance making it blue because back in the old days we had to wait until the baby arrived to find out if it was a boy or girl. We brought him home from the hospital in this bunting.


We had a traditional British pram for him and it got used on a daily basis. Because our fridge wasn't much bigger than a dorm sized fridge I would have to grocery shop nearly every day. In the pram Craig would go and we'd walk to the shops in town. Most of the shops were quite small so prams would not fit inside. The prams would be left outside the shop (with the baby still inside) while patrons were inside shopping. Often you'd see someone leave the baby outside but bring the dog in.


What set of baby photos would be complete without the obligatory bare butt photo?


Happy Birthday Craig!

Lax blogger

The QuiltArt list has been talking about blogging and whether most bloggers end up quitting after a short time. The conversation made me feel guilty because I know I've been slacking off on my blog lately.

I'm always of the belief that without photos nobody is interested in a blog, but I haven't done any new work lately so don't have any quilting photos.

Instead, I'm posting a photo I came across as I was cleaning out some files. This is Mark, the best man at our wedding in 1972. Isn't that 'suit' just too much? the jacket was that heavy double knit polyester. I'm especially grateful that the pants were not of the same print! (click on photo for larger view - if you dare!)




We had an open bar at our wedding and it looks like Mark is taking full advantage of the situation. He probably was trying to drink away his shame at wearing that outfit!