Memorial Day

We've just returned from a week at Myrtle Beach - the ultimate tourist trap. It was a fun trip and of course we encountered "interesting" people during the week - including the woman on the beach who had a monitoring ankle bracelet because she had just been released from County (her words). She was visiting the beach with her pet parrot.

We missed seeing the kids while we were away but got some kid time today. They brought our new granddog Nicholas with them and he sure is cute. (click photos for larger view)



He's a lab/corgi mix and looks like a lab but has the short corgi legs. It's a really funny combination.

He's very calm and allows the kids to love on him without complaint.


The kids were being silly. Don't you just love Noah's freckles?


Noah kept trying to stick his face in the way of the camera so I fixed him and took an extreme closeup. You can really see the freckles here!


Hayden got upset that she wasn't getting some extreme closeups.



She got her smile back when I stuck the camera in her face.



They liked just hanging out on the back porch.

Settings revisited

Since my design boards are not big enough for this log cabin quilt I put two of them together to give me enough room to try a couple of layouts. My design walls are actually sheets of insulation and you can see a blue strip of one of the boards peeking out between the blocks.

I think I like the first 2 settings best, but will have to decide between the two. All comments welcomed. (click photos for larger view)

Curved Log Cabin settings?

I finally finished piecing all the blocks for my curved log cabin quilt. Now I have to decide how to set the blocks. This will be a bigger quilt than I usually make and turns out I don't have a design wall big enough to try layout possibilities. I tried 2 different layouts on my living room floor but really need to try a couple more before making a decision.

Which layout do you like better? I think I like the 2nd one. (click photos for larger view)

Camp Happy Days

My guild, Cobblestone Quilters, has adopted Camp Happy Days as its community project this year. The camp is for "kids kickin' cancer." Our goal is to make 92 quilts by September when they hold family camp so that each person in attendance will have a quilt on his/her bed when they arrive.

My splinter group, the Duck Ditch Quilters, has been busy making quilts for this good cause. We've already turned in about 20 quilts and are working hard on more. Yesterday we had a sew-in and worked on several tops.

(click photos for larger view)



Sheila assembled this top which started with the preprinted panel. There was a lot of discussion about this one. It took a while before the group could agree on exactly which yellow fabric should be used as the inner border. In the end, even those that didn't think this particular fabric was the best choice agreed that it worked.



These green blocks started out as block of the month at guild a year or so ago. Betsy won them and decided to donate the blocks for charity quilts. There are still a lot of kits left to make more blocks so I expect we'll see more quilts like this before we're done. Pat and Melissa worked on this one.




Cindy and Janice cut big blocks out of these fun bright fabrics. This is going to be a really happy quilt when it's done. (I suspect that I especially like this one because all of the fabrics came out of my stash!)



Betsy made this pretty purple top which looks more complicated than it is.



Janice and Crystal worked on this one - assembling it from bits and pieces left over from previous quilts. They added a couple more rows after I took this photo.



Frances and Joanne worked on this one.

Somehow I missed getting photos of one or 2 more that were worked on.

Next month we're going to try to quilt some of these!

Curved log cabin

I have finally progressed far enough on my retreat project, a curved log cabin, to post photos. I got this pattern from the book Blendable Curves by Peggy Barkle.

I first had to construct 21 red log cabin blocks and 21 white log cabin blocks. After each complete round the blocks were squared, but only on one side so there were skinny logs and wide logs. (click photos for larger view)




One red and one white block were stacked aligning the wide logs on the red block with the wide logs on the white block. The two blocks were cut through both layers at once with a random curve. Here the 2 blocks have been separated but you can see they were cut together.






Then one side of the red block was sewn to the opposite side of the white block and visa versa resulting in 2 new blocks.



Here are 4 blocks showing one potential setting.



It has been a fun project but sewing all those log cabin blocks got a little tedious. I'm glad I'm getting to the fun part now.

Is it today or tomorrow?

Craig is turning 37 either today or tomorrow depending on how you look at it.

He was born in Scotland on April 11th at 3:10 a.m. Because of the time difference between the UK and the US, when Jerry called family here in the states to let them know Craig had arrived safely it was still April 10th. To this day my brother jokes that since Craig is an American citizen he should celebrate his birthday on American time.

Here he is on his first birthday. He's still as cute as he was way back then.

Back from retreat

I just spent 4 great days at the beach with my quilting friends. The weather was fantastic and the walks on the beach were a joy. This is the best time of year here in Charleston.

Our sewing room was an explosion of fabric (and snacks!). These photos show the view from my corner of the room. Those black strap things you see several of the women wearing are designed to ease back pain. You can learn about them by clicking here.

(click photos for larger view)





There were six people working on the same pattern - a Monterrey Medallion. Each picked out her own color combination so the quilts all have a different feel. There is a lot of piecing involved in the pattern so each quilt is still in process.

Here's Sheila's on the design wall.



Virginia used brighter colors for hers.


Karen used the same white fabric as the entire background in hers.


Frances loves blue and it's obvious in her quilt.


Betsy used a soft color palette like Sheila did.


I somehow missed getting a photo of Joanne's. She used a soft pink and brown color palette. You might be able to see some of the fabric she used as she is ironing it.




It's a group project getting each quilt up on the design wall!



Not everyone was working on the Monterrey Medallions.

Janice and Cindy were each working on a red and white quilt. This is Janice's.



Cindy's never made it to the design wall. Perhaps this is why?


Evelyn was working on hand quilting her horse quilt. It has been a long lasting project for her but she refuses to start anything new until she finishes this.



Maureen worked on this cute Scotty Dog quilt.


The other Janice did this great paper pieced project.


I didn't get photos of Marcie's work but she was doing some blocks of the month from way back in 2005.


I also didn't get photos of my projects. One didn't get far enough for photos and the other main project I worked on is TOP SECRET so photos can't be posted.

As always we had a great time and are already planning our next retreat!

Retreating

The TTT gang is going on retreat starting Monday. We go to Camp St. Christopher located on Seabrook Island - one of Charleston's barrier islands.

Everyone brings her own projects to work on and we spend the days sewing and laughing. Several members(but not me) plan to work on a pattern called Monterey Medallion.



I've packed up 4 different projects to take with me although I know I won't get to all of them. Have to have a variety just in case I get bored with what I'm doing.

We leave Monday morning and it looks like the weather will be beautiful so I anticipate a lot of beach walks.

Enjoying the outdoors

We're finally getting some of the wonderful spring weather that makes Charleston such a great place to live. The flowers are beginning to bloom and it's wonderful to spend time outdoors.

Noah wasn't interested in playing outside today but Hayden was enjoying the fresh air. She loves having her picture taken and then running to the camera to see the image. She'd have had a tough time back in the olden days when you had to wait to week to see your photos. This isn't the greatest photo of Jerry but it's cute of Hayden.


She had been sitting primly on the white bench until I pulled out the camera. Then she had to try out a variety of poses.



She's getting so big and it's hard to believe she'll be 3 years old soon.

Judging a quilt show

I haven't really blogged since our guild's quilt show. It was a very successful show and we had so many beautiful quilts.

The judge for our show was Scott Murkin from North Carolina. In addition to being a quilter Scott is an MD. I wonder what it looks like when he has to stitch up a wound. Judging took place over 2 days. It's an interesting process. All of the quilts in a category were stacked on a table and Scott would examine each one and give comments. Generally he would give 2 positive comments and point out 1 area of improvement. He would then pick the best quilts in each category for ribbons.

Here's Scott in judging mode. (click photos for larger view)



Here's a category waiting for the judge.



After judging the quilts were stacked by category in anticipation of hanging the show.



Each aspect of a quilt show requires a lot of volunteers and judging is no exception.




And volunteers need to eat!


I was excited to receive a 2nd place in the Art/Innovative category for my quilt Orange Fizz. The quilt isn't hanging straight here in the photo because it was pinned to the drape. We need to work on a different way to display the smaller quilts because it's hard to pin them to a fluid drape.



Click on the photo to see the ribbon better. Our guild prides itself on unique homemade ribbons and I think that Joanne and Maureen outdid themselves with this year's ribbons. It's really nice isn't it?