Plugging along

Not sure where the photos will quite land in this post--do we ever, LOL?

I'm still binding on the friendship star in alternating red chains, maybe half done at this point and should go shell those purple hulled peas (thanks, Melanie for helping me with that word that I was NOT coming up with---lord knows, I did enough shelling and snapping beans when I was growing up)

This morning I had the chance to go with three friends to a small quilt shop just over the state line in Bowdon, GA. Aline had gotten some fabric there on one of the JOY group's field trips and was short a piece about 6 1/2 inches square. She probably was the only one admitting to "needing" anything this trip. I think it is a little shorter trip over there than us going to Birmingham but smaller sampling of fabrics. I would go back though depending on what I needed.

I almost bought some batiks that I thought would work in the round robin but since I went off without it, I thought it best to wait till I had the whole thing in hand and a better idea of what I want to do. What I did get was backing fabric for my 30's sampler---9 yards of soft blue Chanteclaire (good price of 3.50/yard) and some Quilter's Dream poly batting since I am still thinking I might hand quilt this one. If it were pinned then I could do a block at a time or put some stitches in in my spare moments (HA! I'll make time) Oh, and a half yard of midrange moda marble in brown for binding on the revamped Betsy quilt--that was more pricey but the color was perfect. Reminds me, I better go throw that in the dryer. I told DJ that he might consider this part of my birthday present---I often do the spend down thing but now I wish I had gotten that Sharyn Craig book I was looking at! Aline our driver had an appointment at 1 but we were back in Oxford in time for lunch--just went out to Cici's for pizza buffet since we were going right by. Coincidentally, that's where my husband eats when he plays golf and I am unavailable--he had just left probably 15 mins before we arrived.

I swear you could have almost baked pizza on the hot asphalt/ concrete today but we all are stifling in this heat--even our European friends it would seem. Get this though--- as explanation for the new girls, I gripe and complain about the way my husband runs our a/c--starting and stopping instead of just raising it a degree or two and keeping a constant temp??? No way is he changing his mind about the inefficiency of that tactic because this has been going on for 10 plus years. He turns the thermostat up two degrees and tells me to turn on the a/c before I leave since he won't be home till after 12 and the cat will be suffering in the heat in the house! But I reply---"I am leaving at 8:20. You don't turn it on till 11 normally." He restated that was what I was supposed to do. The cat will get too hot but what about me???? SHEESH

Okay the two quilts you are looking at---Ellen the head of WTIL sent several of us this Noah's Ark fabric a few years back as a challenge. (Eileen, it would have been perfect for the quilt you were making recently). I shared what she mailed with my friend Joy and my mom got some too. Mom had just been down here for the spring sew in and flew in with her Jem and mailed me her clothes. For the return trip she reversed that.

Joy and I were on our way to Paducah, though not together, as I was going on up from the AQS show to visit with my family in central IL.
I sewed the Storm at Seas on the Jem in the hotel room so I would not spend too much money at the vendors. That resolve backfired a bit though because I bought my own Jem at the show, LOL. The snowball and nine (below?) was made with the leftover yellow and what remained ark fabric remainedfrom our three quilts. I wish I had picture to show you how theirs turned out---I probably do somewhere if I dug deep enough and tracked down the year--01 most likely. Joy did a neat appliqued shape just like the ark in the fabric and I sure can't remember what Mom did. She can tell me when she gets home and checks her documentation. Then I can show you the other two pics.

















That's it for today---kitchen duties await. I am determined to be done with this binding tomorrow!