Saturday check-in

My Saturday started a little earlier than most as DJ and I HAD to get up in time to be downtown at the  Pancake & Sausage breakfast at Jane's husband lodge.  They do these 3 or 4 times a year Jane and Hugh are so kind to share tickets with us.  We had somewhere to be by 9:30 with about a 40 minute drive in between.

Today was also Friendship Quilter's guild meeting day, being the 2nd Saturday of the month so Jane, Terri and I would shoot over on AL 78 to Pell City after we ate, leaving the husbands to fend for themselves.   We got there plenty early to have time to visit with some of the gals ahead of time and hang the Show and Tell items we had.

Jane had gotten both of the QOVs bound but the coordinator was to have made the label for it.  Jane was stitching it on at the meeting so she could leave them both with the coordinator.  The latest word is that the Veteran's Home is open on November 1 with a ribbon cutting and tour of the facility.  The guild's goal is to actually have the quilts put on the beds in anticipation of the tour.  I think THIS article will open.

One of the gals who also follows me on my blog knows how much I like to do little themed/holiday wall hangings.   She said that she wasn't really interested in Halloween as a holiday so she wanted me to have these charm packs.  There are doubles of each of the prints from Studio E and there are two packs so I guess that makes it the equivalent of a layer cake.   Cute Halloween prints. Wow, thanks Ms. Brenda!  I asked her if there was anything that I could swap with her, what she might be looking for.  She replied that it comes back to her in some manner so don't worry about it.  What a sweetie!  I WILL pay it forward.

I also won a door prize. The president thrust the basket at me and told me to draw but you are not going to believe, that out of 40 tickets I actually pulled my OWN number.  I started to put it back to draw again but they wouldn't let me.  That is where the mushroom shaped pin cushion came from and the fall fat quarter.  Two other ladies were blessed with the same (I think) contents in their bags.

I spent all day Thursday on binding that Prairie Window quilt.  Beth should have a good picture that I can share since I took it for guild show and tell.  Yesterday just some embroidery on the halloween row project from Bird Brain Designs.  Actually it is a table runner but I am not going to use it for that!  I pulled some patterns I would not be using to share with a friend from guild.   One of the Belles needed some help with a block setting question too so it took some time to find the answer and an example of what I was talking about to her.

And sew it goes.  I may sew a bit now that I am home---back to the Hopscotch quilt blocks. (see previous post).  I have more or less decided that my goal for next week is to finish quilting the other three pro bono quilts.  Then cut another pile of FWIS blocks.  Then maybe I can just play and piece for awhile again.  A couple of online friends are tempting me to want to drag out some Christmas stuff and play along with them.  We'll see!

Ignore if you are not a sports fan!
Those of you that really know me, know that I am from the Midwest originally and know I am a St. Louis Cardinal fan.  Chicago Bears for football but Cards all the way for baseball with the Atlanta Braves as my secondary team.  ( I don't care about professional basketball at all.  Hockey is for my pals Norma and Pat,  LOL)

Well, DJ and I had just gone to bed last night thinking that the Washington Nationals were probably going to win the MLB National League Divisional Series.  In fact, I knew we had started out the games down 6 runs early on but the Cards had started to chip away at that.  I knew it would be too painful for me to watch or listen to though DJ would holler out that it was 6-3, now 6-5.  I flicked the set on to see it 7-5 in the top of the 9th with 2 outs already and not sure what the count was on the batter.  Nope, not going to watch the Nationals getting all happy here in a minute.   I was making my peace with the fact that it is very hard to repeat, thank you for the good run and all that.   Get 'em next year.

Then the phone rang.  I told DJ to get it even though no one calls at that hour unless it is an emergency.  I had a feeling it was DJ's son calling to tell us that the Cardinals had pulled out another miracle, somehow, some way.  We watched the bottom of the ninth and then the network replay of the salient plays.   Wow, 4 runs to win it and the division series over a tough team that had been in first place in the National League East all year long.  Even though the Cards were defending World Series champs I think most were still picking Washington.   I am still stunned they pulled off another miracle similar to last year.   Go Cards on the next leg of the playoffs!   By then I was far to wound up to get to sleep and I was still awake at 2.  Short, short night but I don't care with news like that!

.....................AND Roll Tide!  73 yard run for the first TD of the game.

Challenge reveal/Group Christmas party

We had our annual Christmas party yesterday at our pal Judy's lovely home. Good food, good friends and just a relaxing day. Time just flew! A few of the gals who have not been able to come very often this year were able to attend as well.

Part of the event the last few years has been the reveal of our challenge tops which will be donated to Wrap Them in Love. I thought that I would share those with you today.

This year's fabric was "Romance" designed by Michael Miller but you will see some of the lunch box fabric from the previous year's that were turned too. I don't care when the quilts get turned in, just as long as they show up at some point since that was the stipulation of the donor. We each had about a yard of fabric to work with so it is fun toss how we all find ways to work with that limitation.

Beverly was concerned about decapitating the figures so she fussy cut the squares using a Block Aid AKA Patience Corners block. (shown above, left) I love the bright frames she chose! The top is not assembled yet but I suspect we will be pinning it at our first meeting.


The quilt at right was made by Nancy, Beverly's daughter-in-law You will spot the lunch box fabric here. Nancy used the quilt as go method so there is a lot of hand finishing involved on the back side. She used a star fabric and a blue forming a checkboard design on the back. Beverly said that Nancy also used strings of our friend Theramae's (who passed away) fabrics in it.











These two tops were made by Aline's grand-daughter Leann with some help from her grandmother on the outside border on the one of the left. I quilted both of them along with a 3rd top Leann had sent during my recent donation quilting binge. They need the binding from Aline's stash so yes, you are spotting untrimmed batting and pins.


At left is Betsy's food themed lunch box challenge quilt. She quilted in the neatest spiral in the blocks. I need to learn how to do that, LOL!


Marilyn had three tops but as you can see, she combined the two years of challenge fabric in the top at right.





Here is her #2 top but I suspect maybe it was the 3rd one pieced since she added the 4 patch blocks to have enough. Marilyn was working with some of Lois' leftovers so she had a little extra yardage.

At right, top #3. I can see that we are going to be busy finding some backings and pinning up these tops.




Lois borrowed my Trudie Hughes Crib Quilts book to make this Interlocking Squares quilt. At one of the earlier this year we had been looking thru our photo albums looking at possible choices with large display areas. She said something to the effect that she and the ripper became quite close. The red, green and yellow are so striking against the fabric, aren't they?


And here is mine. I shared it on my bed in the last post but maybe you can see it a little better with this full on shot.. I do like that black against the aqua fabric that keeps photographing like turquoise, LOL.

There are a few more quilts I wanted to show you but I will do that in another post so I don't upset Mr. Google with too many pics.

Stay tuned!

piecing

A "completed to flimsy"---woohoo! I finished up my Bama Belles challenge quilt top yesterday. Those of us who participated will have the show and tell on Tuesday at our Christmas party so I just got done in the nick of time. Pattern source: Anne Wiens of Sweetgrass Creative Designs available on Quiltwoman.com.

I finished off the day by prepping the backing and binding. I was able to use the same stuff that I backed my Daisy Chain with and still have a bit leftover to go in the 30's stash. The binding will be that same stripe but cut on the bias as I love stripes, checks and plaids that way when possible. The color is a bit off in the picture---it looks more turquoise here when it is actually more towards the aqua and greenish tone. I also elected to use a fussy cut challenge print square for the larger cornerstone but all in all, the pattern is easy enough and went together easily. Initially I was going to go with the baby sized top but I had enough fabric so went with the lap which finishes at 56 x 68. It covers the top of my full sized mattress very well! The baby one instructions were a little short for what we shoot for in Wrap 'em quilts. Having made the first one, I know it could be adjusted to finish more in the 60 long range.

Some of the FABS and I have decided to work on "something" Christmas this weekend. I had any number of things I could work on but I elected to pull out this Patience Corner that I had cut out and kitted up some time back. Norma has one that is probably about 3/4 done and I am hoping that she will join me and get her top done. I just barely have a start on mine, as you can see. That is just 4 of the 42 blocks I will need for a full sized bed quilt. Actually Norma was whipping up another of Anne Wiens' patterns for a Christmas gift first. I'm waiting for her to show me a picture of it. I know Pat has been sewing on Christmas things this week and Cher will be joining us in a bit.

I have made Patience Corners before as donation quilts. Judy Hopkins offers this as a pro bono quilt pattern done as a mystery. The Belles and I made a good many of them one year in all manner of sizes, colors, etc. It is fun to insert pieced blocks in the open spaces. Good scrappy and good planned too. Really it is like making a souped up 4 patch but you do need to watch what you are doing. If it doesn't look like a figure of 8 laying on its side, then you have done something wrong-- get out the ripper, LOL. I know one of my pals would not consistently pick up the pieces in the same order and would seam the wrong side of the block. She got plenty of practice taking it apart.

Well, back to "work" for me...............cool, damp and ugly day outside so can you think of anything better to be doing than something you love? GO Auburn!