Meeting day

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, my quilt group met today. I had taken my hand quilting along with me but it was left untouched. I helped pin and sewed together batting bits mostly---and a lot of yakking, LOL.

Shown at left is an adorable top that Lois made. We all fell in love with the embroidered butterflies that Lois did up on her fancy dancy machine. Of course two of the grandmas in the group would love to have some of the blocks for their granddaughters. Got to pay her something for the deal so she can keep herself in thread, right? By the time we left Lois and Marilyn were working on a barter---butterfly blocks for a decorated cake Lois needs for a club function in about 10 days, LOL.



(I should have taken the picture BEFORE the pins went in and made sure I had the butterflies flying right side up when I handed it to Marilyn to hold it up.)

I told the girls I wouldn't need to have them sign a release form as all I took was their hands on this one, LOL. The top is another of Lois' creations. I recognized it right away as Terry Atkinson's "Fire Escape". This one is fairly long and wider than our usual ones so Jane and Lois teamed up on sewing binding widths together while I sewed the other half and some scraps together. Unless it gets narrower than 6 inches, it gets used. Kids come in all sizes so it doesn't matter if it is larger than the suggested 40 x 60 range that we usually make for Wrap Them in Love.

We took off for lunch at the Olive Garden to celebrate the summer birthdays. Actually the date was right on one of the girls actual days and another has one coming up this weekend. Soup, salad and bread sticks all around, basically.


When we were just about to leave, Brenda had a question for the manager. She has spotted a patron she thought looked very familiar----yep, it was our former two term governor of the state, Bob Riley dining with his wife and another couple off in the room beyond where we all were seated. He is from a nearby county but you just don't expect to see him in Oxford, AL at the Olive Garden. I did used to run into our District 3 Congressmen at Winn Dixie on occasion---in fact, he almost backed into me when we were both leaving our respective parking spots. Still......

Marilyn had made us a cake for the occasion so we tore into that when we got back to the meeting spot. Again, I should have taken the picture BEFORE. Pretty tasty. We divided up the leftovers to bring home so Marilyn could get her tray back. DJ said I am supposed to tell her she has not "lost her touch", LOL.

I wanted to share my FAB birthday gifts with the girls for "show and tell" as well as show them what I had gotten with the birthday money they had given me recently.

First the explanation. Cher had gone to Sister's Outdoor Quilt Show again this year and had picked up the panel piece (shown at right) for each of the FABS along with some of the companion prints.

We did not sew on her birthday as we did for Pam and I; instead, Cher is issuing a challenge for us to use the panel piece in some manner. We can get ready by pre-washing, cutting whatever but we are not to sew on it till after October 1st with a reveal several months later. I am assuming that we are supposed to keep the work in progress a secret until that time. Cher says we can use our own fabric from stash or order more of the product line---but we must use the main piece of fabric. The fabric is from "In the Beginning" designed by Kathy Deggendorfer. As I understand it, the picture is based on a poster art called "Nature's Symphony". I believe it was the design used for the official 2011 poster---each year there is a different piece of art used.

SOOOO here is how I spent my birthday money. And no, I am not going to tell you what I have planned. I imagine that I may change my mind about 4 or 5 times by the time October rolls around. I always do when it comes to challenges. The keeping it secret part is a problem since I am so used to bouncing ideas off my FAB pals, Norma in particular. It is bright, happy fabric... and I do love sunflowers.

I had missed the Friendship Quilter's guild meeting this month as that was my FAB-ulous birthday party. Turns out Peggy the club president sent my birthday gift from the guild back with Jane. I certainly was not expecting this at all! I knew the girls present at the meetings got to pull something from the gift bag in their bday month but figured I just missed out. There were two pretty fat quarters and a pair of stork embroidery scissors. Can never have too many pairs of those!

And so it goes around here. Tomorrow I have some paper work to do and a few errands to run but I have hopes I can start the strip sets for the "Bricks" project---that is the plan anyway.

Thanks for stopping by------