now for the quilt-y notes

Amy or anyone that is interested --I posted my crockpot turkey recipe in the preceeding post. Those of you with Mastercook software MAY be able to export it from my note. I had to do some heavy duty editing after copying it to blogger so maybe not.

My demonstration on bowtie blocks went pretty well today. A couple of the members did stay over to have me help them try a couple of them. It is always neat to see how the one that just learned how to do it can walk the next person through the steps of making a 3D bowtie. I figure they have learned their lesson well if they can do that. Linda S and I went to lunch at a Chinese buffet after I was finished up--DJ played golf and had made his own plans since I didn't know when I would be home exactly. Girl's day out all around!

If there were not a few good sites online with a tutorial for this I would post my own, LOL. Cher asked me to do this for her. I' ve got the pictures except for a good one with the fingers spreading the know and matching the center seams---not enough hands! And my husband is not very good at using the digital camera either. Of course, before I could send my stuff on to her, someone else gave her a hands-on lesson.

As usual, I came home with more stuff than I left with. One of the Belles had her raggy top ready and a friend of hers had donated a fleece throw and hand knitted afghan that they wanted to go to Big Oak Girl's Ranch with our quilt donations. Another Belle had the binding done on another top. Another had been cleaning and re-organizing her sew space-- some panels and some backing fabric to send home with me as she had "been there and done that" with that particular fabric and had no intention of returning.

Then there is the top above. You know how people give you fabric or quilt tops if they know you quilt and either they don't or don't want to deal with whatever that item was?? Mary, the church secretary where the today's groups meets, came up and handed the top you see to me. She said this was a top that someone in her husband's family had made. "You don't want it?", I asked. It was out in her garage so please take it for our use. We may be able to get two tops out of it.

Last year she had given us two huge Sunbonnet Sue tops that we made into 8 donation quilts. Those had come from one of the parishioner's family members. They knew Mary quilted or might know someone that could put them to good use--and we did. Mary just asked for some pictures to share with the family on how their tops were used. Some of these went to WTIL headquarters and others we mailed directly to a Baton Rouge, LA quilt shop for distribution for Katrina survivors.

Finn, you might be interested in knowing that I tried working on a personal project yesterday afternoon--coloring in a Block Studio Party "Over the Edge" panel to make my version of one Cher has made (see Jan 15 her archives on marathon quilter). The coloring was a blast but unfortunately I didn't let the ink dry enough and the purple bled into the nearby color---orange-y brown did not look so hot and I messed up another spot by trying to color it too realistically. Just looked like a big dark blob. ACK! I knew that I would not be able to overlook those areas everytime I looked at the wall hanging. I ordered a replacement.

I decided to piddle dink with the round robin a bit instead---I've got a big paper square area taped together around the block and stuck up on the book case hangers to let some ideas percolate. I had no sense of the scale and space I had to work with on this applique business till I did that. Now I'll be able to tell if the flowers I was thinking of using, beehives, whatever will fit in there.

That's it for today------

lchj