Oct 26, 2016

Meeting day

Yesterday was my quilt meeting(s) day with Belles leading off.  I've got the Halloween quilts up right now so could not hang my recent completions up on the design wall to get pictures.  The meeting spot would work just fine!

You have seen this one--the guild Charming Boxes quilt. The guild members did about 20 some blocks at the spring retreat.  I completed the top, Wendell quilted it and Margarita completed the binding for me with a promise to help with our donation quilts IF I ever get them quilted!!!





This is the Prairie Sticks I completed earlier this summer.  Jennifer quilted it for me along with the No Bake Jolly Bar from the same fabric line.  I plan on sending this one on to one of my great-grand nieces once it is shown at the next guild meeting.  I would have done so LAST month but I had just had that tooth extraction and couldn't drive, etc.


And finally my version of the Good Karma challenge quilt for the recent fall retreat.  The pattern is a take off of Stacey Day's Rubix which came in a mailer from AQS.  She used a controlled palette and I do like that better BUT I had to use each piece of fabric in the charm pack along with some of the aqua stitch yardage.  Those of you who know me will also know how much I tweak patterns.  I did not want to have 4 little squares of the same fabric meeting.  I changed the piecing methods to be framed squares with sashing around them.  Looks the same, sorta, in the end but did NOT go together as Ms. Day's did.  I call mine "Rubix Redux"



I had to laugh at the retreat though as my friend Linda N. came up to me to say how much she loved the gray background I chose. No one else had used it for the challenge but she had used gray in one of her own quilts recently.  I told her that was as much to contrast with the white pieces in the pack but I do happen to like gray.  I mentioned that my mom would probably hate that part as we lived in parsonages that had gray wall paper.  Linda, a pastor's wife (now widowed like me and maybe even a PK too), that I had just hit on the reason she didn't care for white backgrounds.   Everything white at her parsonages!  LOL

Margarita was my tablemate at the retreat and this Twisted Sister was the 2nd of her two projects.  I got her started with one block, and understanding that partial seaming was no big thing, and she was off and running with most all the blocks done by end of retreat.  Last Tuesday they arranged the blocks at the evening group and the top completed in the interim week.  This will be a birthday gift for a family member.  She just wanted to be sure that she had enough backing before passing this on to Jennifer at our guild meeting.



Brenda also had a "show and tell" piece.  I believe she said that this had been a block of the month project from the defunct Heart to Heart Quilt Shop in Trussville (AL).  The binding is in progress.



Lois had brought 5 quilts to pin and I think she said she had 5 more at home!  Bev had a cute baby top to pin as well so she got first dibs at the table.  We had plenty of hands on deck for pinning though with Marilyn, Jane and her guest Valerie who wanted to learn how we did this.  Margarita was getting caught up with her Ashville House Block of the Month stuff with just a little guidance from me.  I love how confident she is becoming at reading patterns and cutting!  Brenda came along a bit later to help.  I probably only got a few stitches in my ancient embroidery project but I don't care.  Some days friendship, fellowship, going where needed and just visiting is the order of the day.

We were having a potluck lunch and she needed to borrow the church's oven to make her yummy contribution.   I don't know if this has a name but you de-crust and flatten white bread with a rolling pin, spread it with softened cream cheese, roll it up, dip it in melted butter and then roll in cinnamon sugar and then bake.  She said she had done this with her grandkids on Sunday and it was a big hit!  Well, it was a big hit with the quilters too!  We also had some yummy butternut squash soup that Lois had made and I've got to get that recipe.  Bev found one that might be similar on her i-pad so just need to ask for the link.  Ham or turkey and cheese sandwiches, blueberry salad as well as mac and cheese rounded out the meal along with some good Bojangles tea.

I had to leave a bit earlier than I would have liked after lunch to meet the bookmobile but also to rest up between meetings.  Donna is working with a couple of the girls on a sampler quilt to teach them various techniques.  Recently we had found a block on Quilter's Cache called Sarah's Choice that had a pinwheel at center and then flying geese for the star points.  She didn't necessarily want to follow the printed directions but then there all kinds of ways to do flying geese. As it turns out, Donna's preferred method is the No Waste 4 at once version but I still ran home to get my Eleanor Burns book and rulers for the girls to use, just in case.  They were going to do them slightly over-sized and trimmed down.

Another of the girls was prepping her stuff for the Fidget Quilt class we are doing to do at Guild on Friday afternoon.  I still need to get in the sewing room and pull some stuff for this like buttons, zippers, rickrack, ribbon, beads and the like sometime between now and then.  My friend Bev and fellow Belle is going to teach us how to do this for Alzheimer's patients.  This one was one she did for an autistic young boy but you get the idea.  I should have kept some of those jeans jumpers for the fabric or see what I can scrounge up at the thrift store for corduroy/textural fabric.



I tried to leave last night once but Aline's husband had just arrived with a couple pizzas for us.  LOL I felt like I had been eating all day after that potluck but it is hard to say "no" to pepperoni.  All and all, a good quilty kind of day--and I love it!

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Charlie and I spent a good bit of the extended weekend together.  Turns out repairs to his van were going to be more than it listed on Blue Book.  The 2017's are coming in though so there were some deals to be made. He wanted me to go look nd weigh in on Thursday and had brought his 3 year old granddaughter along with him.  Abby saw Gramps about to leave and he couldn't leave her home.  She loved Skyler but Oscar not so much even though she has a large dog and even 3 puppies at her house.  I kept Abby entertained (and vice versa) though she wore me out chasing her around one of the cars at the dealership.  They had a truck bed loaded with candy and cookies right by the salesman's desk so some of that might have been sugar overload.  I heard she crashed and burned once she got home!

Friday I drove off to his place as we were off to Bennett Farms Pumpkin Patch for the twin granddaughter's (almost 7) school field trip.  Michelle was going to go with us but had not gotten much sleep as Abby kept her awake a good bit of the night.  We needed to run by the credit union, the insurance place and the dealership plus he had plans to visit with our friend Paul.  I had meal prep to do anyway as I was making Shrimp Pad Thai for our evening meal.

Saturday we went for a drive and thought the kids might want to go as well.  Zeke his 8 (almost 9) yr old grandson had an overnight guest so we didn't.  The kids were all about to watch "Turbo" in 3D.   I had one twin on one leg and one twin on the other as the movie started.  Emma apparently got all settled in as she asked her mama why I had to leave just because Gramps was ready to go.  Michelle said she's his girlfriend and he likes her and started making "kissy faces".  I said "no, He LOVES me"  in a sing-song voice like people do.  Emma looked at me and said "you like him too" We had planned to watch the Bama-Texas A & M game back at my place anyway rather than interrupt their TV viewing.  He even did some of the "honey do" jobs around here and I was free to putter in the kitchen a bit.

Sunday found us trooping through Walmart for groceries etc like an old married couple or something and going for a drive.  Some roads I have been on, some I have not.  He had hoped to introduce me to some long time friends of his but they were not home.  I think he is still missing some phone numbers after his phone accidentally got burnt up while clearing brush this summer.  I guess I meet his brother and sister-in-law a week from Sunday at a local restaurant.  That's set up.

I am truly enjoying our time together.  He does taekwondo with the kids after school during the week so I tend to see him more come the weekend but we keep in touch. Couplehood--gotta love it!  I am oh, so happy, thanks to him in my life.

Okay, I got up with plans to clean the bathroom and maybe mop the kitchen floor today but of course, none of that has happened yet.  I did get a load of wash done but it needs switched over.  I'm dressed, Oscar was walked.  Best get crackin' here as I expect to see my honey this evening!

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