Mr. Moose

When I was recently in Detroit my brother and sister-in-law let us stay with them. As a thank you, I've made this moose wallhanging for their vacation home in northern Michigan which has a moose theme. The binding has to be stitched down so it looks kind of odd in this photo.

Hopefully they'll like this!

Charity quilts and leaving town

Here are two quilt tops made by my splinter group for donation to charity.

We pooled fabric and made simple patterns. We ended up with 3 nearly identical quilts out of the fabric in this first quilt.


We used the pattern for this green quilt several times in different colorways. I only have the photo of this green one.



Several members of our group have longarms (quilting machines not physical deformities) and they will quilt these.

After 5 years of not visiting Detroit, I'm returning next week for the 2nd time in a month. My mother recently fell and broke her arm. The break is way up high on the arm - almost to the shoulder. She had surgery to insert pins but the surgery ended up not being successful. In fact, one of the pins fell out and my brother found it on the floor of the hospital room! They were designed to be removed after a month or so, but it's hard to imagine how one worked its way out early.

She is scheduled for additional surgery next Friday to try screws and a plate. If, when the Dr. gets in, they determine that the screws and plate won't work they're going to do a partial shoulder replacement. (this is a new Dr. and a new hospital. Mom didn't like the first hospital very much and we lost confidence in the Dr. after finding pins on the floor!)

So, I'm back up to Detroit to be there for this new surgery. This has been quite an ordeal for my 85 year old mother and she just wants to get it all behind her. Any good thoughts sent her way would be appreciated.

Irises

This is what I worked on for most of the weekend back when the guild had its annual beach retreat. I finally put the borders on yesterday. I really enjoy working on complex paper pieced projects. This one will probably sit for a while until I get around to quilting it.

Family visit

I don't get to see my family often enough. I don't ever seem to get up to Detroit where they all live and they don't get down here to Charleston.

The day before we left Detroit was my nephew Eddie's high school graduation open house. Still not sure why they waited until August to celebrate a June graduation, but because they did wait, I got to attend.

Here's Eddie with his cake. (click photos for larger view)



Me with my two brothers. Ed on the left and Claude on the right. I make sure everyone knows I'm their MUCH younger sister. Actually, I'm 6 years younger than Ed and 4 years younger than Claude.



Here are some of my other nieces and nephews.

Corinne and her husband Dan (Corinne is Ed's oldest daughter)


Eric and his wife Melissa (Eric is Claude's youngest son)



Claude, Jr. and his wife Rhonda (Do I need to say that he's Claude's oldest son)


Colin and his wife Diane (Colin is Ed's oldest son)


Kristin and her husband Brian (Kristin is Ed's youngest daughter)


(l to r) Kevin, Chris and Eddie (Ed's 3 youngest)


Claude's middle son, Paul, wasn't able to attend the party.

It's always fun to see everyone. I really need to visit more often.

There's no place like home

Boy, it's nice to be home! I left on July 23rd and went up to Knoxville, TN with several quilting friends to attend the AQS show being held there. After leaving Knoxville I traveled up to Detroit and just got home from there yesterday. As I mentioned earlier, my mother fell and broke her arm the day before I arrived in Detroit. She had surgery and is now in a rehab center learning on to survive with her dominate arm useless to her right now. She is improving, but has a long way to go.

The quilt show was smaller than I expected, but the quilts were lovely. (click photos for larger view)

This was the Best of Show Quilt "Circles of Life" by Linda French of Ohio.



This is "Feeling Groovy" by Candace West of Florida. There is lots of bling on this quilt which doesn't show in this photo very well. According to a friend of hers that was lurking near the quilt, Candace digitized the quilting design and then added the bling inside the quilting lines.



Here's a closer look at the bling



This is Dresden Galaxy by Mary Ann Herndon of Texas.


I think this may have been my favorite quilt in the show. It's "Silverlight" by Betty Busby of New Mexico.


Knoxville was a nice town and I think the TTT gang will want to attend the show again next year. If we do, we plan to stay longer than overnight so we can enjoy the city.

AFK

I've been away from the keyboard longer than I anticipated. My mother fell and broke her arm. She has had surgery to insert 4 pins (which will be removed in several weeks) and I have been sitting in a hospital in Detroit.

Hopefully I'll get home next week and can post some photos of the Knoxville Quilt Show.

Hitting the road

Several members of the TTT gang are leaving in the morning to attend the AQS quilt show in Knoxville, TN. After the show Karen is going to join me on my trip to the place pictured here. Do you recognize this skyline?



It's my home town - Detroit. I'm going to visit family and friends for a few days and will be attending an all class golf tournament/dinner reunion for my high school - Redford High School. Many of the Detroit Public Schools have been closed in the past few years and Redford is one. I understand that my elementary school was also closed this summer.

I never posted photos of what I did at our guild's beach retreat. This top was created from a kit I purchased at Sew 'n Sew. The blocks were constructed at retreat and I sewed them all together after I got home. This is a whole lot bigger than what I usually make and I had a problem finding somewhere to photograph it. Not sure whether this will end up as a charity quilt or not.



I spent most of retreat making this paper pieced iris. This still needs a border. I really enjoy doing complex paper piecing projects but by the comments I got while working on it, it's obvious not everyone enjoys it.


See you all after I get back from my Motown trip.

One small step...

40 years ago today man first walked on the moon. My mother hosted a moon landing party in our basement. We set up the 19" TV in the basement and everyone gathered around to watch the grainy pictures as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin exited the lunar module and planted an American flag on the surface of the moon. Wasn't it an awesome event?

It's amazing how complacent we have become about space exploration. The shuttle was launched just last week and I bet most of the US wasn't even aware of the event.

cute hairdo

Hayden spent the night with us last night. This morning we gave her a new hairdo. What do you think? Cute isn't it? Her hair sure is getting long.

More beach retreat photos

I'm still having some posting issues with photos, but have a few more to share.

This is Louise with her Ricky Tims quilt. The floral fabric in this quilt is the same as the fabric Jeanne used in her Asian style quilt that I posted yesterday. (click photos for larger view)



Marva made this cool Tree of Life quilt. She mentioned a couple of times that it used the "herky jerky" technique. I haven't heard that term before and kept meaning to ask her about it, but never got the chance. (sorry this is so blurry)



This is Karen's outer space quilt. The dark fabric is printed with space ships.



This is Sheila's Cracked Pots quilt. 4 people have been working on this same pattern for a while and all 4 finished their quilts at retreat. Unfortunately, I missed getting photos of the others so can only share Sheila's. Way too much precise work for me!

Beach Retreat 2009

My guild, Cobblestone Quilters, holds an annual retreat on the beach. We go to an Episcopal conference center located on Seabrook Island.

We were blessed with fantastic weather and even better company.

Here's the entire group.
(click photos for larger view)


The theme this year was Christmas in July so we all received Christmas red shirts.

Lots of beautiful work was done. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to bring my camera until the last day so I missed some great photo opportunities. I did catch a few of the great quilts though.

Here's Jolene with her blue and brown quilt.



This is Janice's Stars over Ft. Sumter. She revised the original pattern a bit. This still has some borders to be added.



As luck would have it, when Janice first sewed this together she set it wrong and ended up with this. The photo was taken before she realized the mistake which explains why she was still smiling. I actually thought it was an interesting setting.



One of Frances' projects was this paper pieced magnolia.



Janet was our resident bag lady. She comes all the way from Alabama to attend retreat and it's always a joy to see her.



Jeanne's original design includes work from several classes she has taken. This photo is terrible, but the quilt is beautiful.



Virginia finished a number of beautiful items but I didn't get photos. She's our resident applique expert and her work is exquisite. She sat next to me and every time I looked her way I saw her busily at work.




Some of our hand quilters enjoyed the wonderful weather and the company.



I'm having a few problems with some of my photos - they're not posting in the proper orientation. If I can get it fixed, I'll post more photos.

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."