Latest Hayden photos

These photos are from last week. Cute as usual don't you think?

What will YOUR obituary say?

Mine will say...

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Mother's day gift

My mother recently asked me if I had a wall hanging laying around that had spring like flowers on it. The request was a surprise because she doesn't get excited about any of my quilting - it's just not her thing. Now that she's living in the independent/assisted living center though she wants something to hang outside her door. The residents all like to decorate with the seasons.

Since I don't have things just laying around, I made this wall hanging from a kit and will be sending it to her for Mother's Day. Hope it fits in the spot by her door! (photo clickable for larger view)

Hayden

Hayden tried on her new dress the other day. I'm not sure she likes it. What do you think?

Quilters Day Out

Yesterday my guild held a Quilters Day Out. We do this a couple of times a year as a social get together. Typically the organizers have a quilt planned for us to do but the participants don't have to if they'd prefer to work on their own project.

Our project yesterday was a simple mock log cabin that could be made using Jelly Rolls. I don't usually buy Jelly Rolls, but purchased this one by Moda specifically for the class. The colors are fun, but they didn't work out quite right for the pattern. We had samples of a number of different layouts for our blocks and the layout I liked best just didn't work because I didn't have enough lights for a good contrast. I did find one layout that will work and will end up with quite a bright quilt.

It was a fun day and it's always good to spend time with quilting friends.

Another dress for Hayden

This is the dress that took me an entire year to smock because I worked on it so seldom during the year. I finally got it constructed this weekend and it was a big pain to do. The instructions with the pattern were horrible! I actually still need to put the buttons on, but turns out I don't have just the right ones so I'll have to go out for some.

I've been feeling sick on and off since Sunday. Actually got sick yesterday. A few years ago I had a weird virus with nausea that lasted on and off for about 5 days and this sort of feels the same. I'm hoping it won't last that long. I'm feeling better this evening so maybe I've turned the corner! (although when I had it before I lost 9 pounds in those 5 days...hummm...I wonder if it's worth it. NOPE!)

Garment sewing

I don't do garment sewing very well. I was a Home Ec. major in college and actually had to take a clothing construction class, but I'm still not very good at it. (I suppose the fact that I cut most of my clothing classes probably contributed)

The other day I FINALLY finished the smocking on a dress for Hayden. I started the smocking a year ago! I was getting ready to go down to Florida to deal with one of my mother's injuries and hurriedly had a dress pleated up for smocking so I could take it with me on the trip. Since at that time Hayden hadn't even arrived I wasn't in much of a hurry to finish.

After returning from Florida I ended up only working on the dress when I was at my twice-monthly mini-group and sometimes not even then. It got to be a joke that Hayden wasn't going to have the finished dress until her high school graduation.

Last night I started finishing the dress - you know, actually putting it together after finishing the smocking - and I'm having a heck of a time. It has taken me about 4 hours just to get the neckline finished and I still have to do the sleeves. I'm beginning to think delivery of the dress before her high school graduation is pushing it and this thing won't get to her before she finishes college!

Craig's birthday

Yesterday was Craig's 35th birthday. I guess it's time for me to stop saying I'm 39 years old if my baby is now 35! Noah hates it when I call his dad "My Baby!" and always insists that Craig is HIS dad, not MY baby. Craig just rolls his eyes when I call him that.

Here are some photos of my baby when he really was a baby.







The first 3 were taken when he was somewhere between 6 and 12 months old and the last one was taken at his first birthday party. I usually have trouble seeing the resemblance between people, but I do see a little bit of Hayden in the photo of him sitting up in the blue outfit. I love the photo of him in his pram, which was his mode of transportation the entire time we lived in Scotland. Since our fridge was so tiny and had no freezer(you can see it in the corner behind him in his birthday photo) we would have to make a trip to the store almost every day. I would put him in the pram and off we'd go. The shops in town were very small and it was common for the babies in the prams to be just left outside the door while the parents were inside shopping. (although the dogs were allowed in, and you'd see far more dogs than kids in the shops with mom.)
Happy birthday to my baby!

Cooper River Bridge Run

One of the big events in Charleston every spring is the Cooper River Bridge Run. A 10K race over the bridge that spans the Cooper River. The race starts in Mt. Pleasant and ends in downtown Charleston. Yesterday was the 31st running of the race. In the past I have run the race, but that was a number of years and a lot of pounds ago. (and before my knee started giving me problems.) It was always a fun race and it was nice to be in a large enough event that I was not the last finisher. (several times when I would run in smaller races, I ended up being the last person to finish. It's very disconcerting to try to run with the police car signifying the last runner right behind you with the flashers going.)

Jerry and his running buddy John took part in the race yesterday. Unfortunately, Jerry hurt his ankle several weeks ago and could not really run. He ended up walking the distance with John's sister who came to town just for the race.

Here are John and Jerry before the race started. (Jerry is on the right.)

as always, click on photo for a larger view

More Palisades views

Our Pacific Palisades townhouse was up a hill - the area was referred to as the Highlands. We used to watch the fog roll into the canyon and it would actually be below us. It was really cool to look down on the fog. Jerry used to call those houses below our "Whoville." He thought he was funny.















This photo was taken from the end of our street before it went up the hill to our house. It shows where Sunset Blvd. and Pacific Coast Highway meet. (photos are clickable for a larger view)

Vista

We lived in the Los Angeles area (Pacific Palisades)from 2003 to 2005. Pacific Palisades is located next to the ocean between Santa Monica and Malibu. We lived in our rented townhouse for several months before we realized we had an ocean view. On a really clear day (there weren't very many!) we could see Catalina Island. This was the view from the back of our townhouse at sunset. (click on the photo for a larger view and you'll see the island)













While living there, an on-line friend challenged me to make a quilt based on the word "Vista" so I used the photo from our house as inspiration. This piece is only a little bigger than a piece of paper so it was quick to make.














Here's a detail shot.

Asilomar Pinwheels

I'm posting this photo for Melissa who asked about a similar style of color arrangement. I started this quilt in a class with Miriam Nathan-Roberts at Asilomar. The focus of the class was to use a traditional block in 3 different sizes. The 3 sizes of my pinwheel blocks are 9", 6", and 3". It was fun to work with the color arrangement. This quilt was juried into Pacific International Quiltfest back in 1999 or 2000.

Happy Easter

It's been a while since I posted photos of Noah and Hayden so I thought it was about time to do so. Cute aren't they?

More Pigeon Forge

(as always photos are clickable for a larger view)
This is the gang just before leaving Pigeon Forge.
Back: L-R - Virginia, Janice, Sheila, Jolene
Middle: Joann, Maureen, Cindy (slightly lower than Maureen), Frances
Front: Corky, Betsy, Karen

Betsy's sister-in-law Janet took the photo. She joined us from Alabama.

Here are two of the three tops I completed while there.

Both of them still need borders attached. The orange/yellow/purple one actually wasn't supposed to have a border and I was going to donate it as a baby quilt to one the guild's community service projects. Lots of baby quilts are rolling in. We're also making lap sized quilts for our other service project and fewer are being turned in, so I'll add a border to it to make it bigger and then donate it.

The other quilt, using Paula Nadelstern fabrics, will have a black border. The photo makes it look like there is a lot of yellow in the quilt, but it's actually more of an olive color in real life.

Back from Pigeon Forge

I returned last night from a week in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to attend the Mountain Quiltfest. There were 12 of us and we had a ball. We didn't spend much time at the actual show, but we did spend a lot of times at our sewing machines. I completed 3 quilt tops.

Virginia, one of our crew, was a ribbon winner at the show! She won 3rd place for her beautiful applique quilt. Here she is posed with her quilt. Isn't it beautiful?

















Karen was the winner of a quilt raffle and was able to bring home this quilt. The colors don't show true in this photo. It's not nearly as dark in real life as it seems. It's probably about a twin size.






















We attended two dinner lectures and one brunch lecture. This is some of the gang at the brunch.

From left to right we have Janice, Cindy, Janet, Virginia and Karen in the front.











Here are Sheila (on the left) and Frances. Doesn't Frances look like she's having a horrible time? I assure you she wasn't.

Quilt Show winners

I forgot my camera both days of the quilt show so never got a single photo. However, Karen has posted photos of some of the winners on her blog here. I was lucky enough to 'white glove' the Best of Show quilt on Saturday afternoon, and let me tell you it was beautiful. The back was just as spectacular as the front.

The TTT gang is off on Sunday morning to Pigeon Forge, TN for the Mountain Quilt Fest and a week of sewing and fellowship. We have a couple of condos and plan to sew, eat, shop, and sew some more!

Quilt shows are a lot of work!

Today the guild hung the quilt show. With all the helpers (including Jerry!) the quilts were up in only a couple of hours. My feet and legs are killing me this evening. I'd blame it on old age, but my feet have always ached after being on them for a while.

The next time you go to a quilt show, thank the organizers for the work they did!

Quilt Judging

The quilts for my guild's show were judged today (some of them that is - the rest will be judged tomorrow.) I acted as one of the scribes. What an interesting experience. I've never seen the judging process before and it is very involved. We worked from 9am to 5pm and went through just over half of approx. 200 quilts. I could never be a judge and make the decisions! I've always heard how important good bindings are on quilts and it sure was driven home today. It was interesting watching the judge run her hands along the bindings to see if they were "full" or whether the joins were smooth or how the mitered corners looked.

The judging helpers can't make comments during the process and it's hard to see one of your quilts - or one made by a very good friend - being judged without making comments. Two of my 4 quilts were judged today. She didn't say anything I didn't expect and one got the usual "would benefit from more quilting" that I seem to get often. All in all a very enlightening experience.

Quilters of South Carolina

South Carolina has a great state guild. Our annual meetings are held in a different city every year. This year's meeting was in Rock Hill, which is just outside of Charlotte, NC. Our speaker was Janet Jones Worley author of Quilts for Chocolate Loves and Quilts for Ice Cream Lovers. You can visit her site here. What a delight her lecture was! She had us all in stitches talking about her experiences in the quilting world. I especially enjoyed how she talked about "BARBARA" which is the name she gives to every member of the quilt police. If you have a chance to hear her speak, jump at it. You won't regret it.

The state guild has announced an Art Bra Challenge which will be presented at our annual retreat in October. I think I have to come up with a title for my art bra before I actually design it. Jerry has given me one good possibility, but I'd sure welcome suggestions from you. I googled 'art bra' and came up with some great sites and ideas, but I don't want to duplicate what has already been done.

We're going into the home stretch for our quilt show. If you're planning to be in the Charleston, SC area next weekend (March 1 & 2) please check out our show at the Galliard Auditorium on Calhoun Street in Downtown Charleston.

Show quilts

Our guild's quilt show is March 1st and 2nd. I finally finished the bindings, sleeves and labels on my quilts for the show. I've learned that I need big time binding help. I don't know if I pull my binding too much or what, but my edges don't lay flat. I'm going to have to ask my expert quilting buddies for a binding tutorial.

Anyway, here are the 4 quilts I'm submitting. (click on photos for a larger view)

This is "Autumn Leaves" I started this quilt in a class with Judy Sisneros at Asilomar.








In order to get the texture on the tree, I used Judy's scrunch technique which involved lots of spray starch and a hot iron.


This is "South Carolina Palmetto" and is the result of a class I took with Judy Heyward.




















"The Fellow in the Pinstriped Suit" was made from a panel I purchased from a vendor at our last quilt show. When auditioning the squiggly fabric for the inner border I discovered you could actually see it through the panel and liked the way it looked so left it like that.





















This is Aussie Shadows. I really screwed up on the binding of this one. Karen Kendo quilted it for me and she said the edges were flat when she was done with it. I must have really stretched it out when finishing it.




Below is a detail of Karen's quilting.




If you're in the Charleston area the first weekend in March I hope you'll stop to see our show!