Don't Faint - I'm Still Alive!

I can't believe how quickly the time goes by. I am really remiss - I keep thinking I will post and then the day is gone.

I have been busy with lots of varied projects. I have been knitting, stitching and quilting. I don't have pictures of everything but will post a couple.

Here is a Kindle cover that I made for my friend Kay for her birthday in July.

I just finished a scarf this week but don't have a picture yet. I am working on a couple of gifts for Christmas so no pictures of them of course. :)

Since I last posted, I have been on a retreat in Shipshewanna and to Quilt Festival in Houston. The retreat was for four days and I finished/almost finished five projects. Boy, was I happy. We had a great time. Bonnie Hunter and Judy Laquidara were there as well as Jen and Loralei and Kathy from my bee. It was Loralei's first retreat and she is now a convert. We made way too many trips to Lolly's (a great fabric shop in Shipshewanna that also has a sale room downstairs that is better stocked than some shops!). I did well down there - I got backs for three projects and had fun digging through the boat full of fat quarters that are $1.75 each if you buy more than 12.
Here is a picture of our tablemates - Karen from California, Muffet from Chicago, Kathy, Loralei, Jen, Me, Judy and Elaine (hope that's right - I'm having a senior moment!). We laughed our way through the four days and look forward to getting together again. Unfortunately the four of us will miss next year's retreat since it is the same weekend as our guild's quilt show. I am chairing it and Jen, Loralei and Kathy all have key roles. We will definitely be signing up for the 2012 retreat ASAP.

Quilt Festival was as amazing as usual. Unfortunately my camera wasn't cooperative so I don't have many pictures. I wasn't crazy about the Best of Show quilt but there were enough others that were stunning. I loved the doll exhibit. I wish I had just a smattering of the creativity that these creators have! The miniature quilts are also impressive - I can't imagine keeping all of those small pieces together and then stitching them so that they look go good.

Now that I am back home I am trying to play catchup - a never ending task!! I have a piece to embroider for Jen but can't locate my embroidery foot. I am really careful about keeping my feet together (no smart remarks, thank you!) and am really aggravated that I can't find it. I will continue my search tonight after I get home from guild. Of course, the foot is clear so it will be a bit challenging at night.

That's it for now - I will try to post some more pictures soon and I will really try to get back into the habit of posting on a regular basis.

Christmas Is Getting Closer!

It's been a while since I posted (as usual) - can't begin to tell you where the time goes. I am keeping busy sewing, cross stitching and knitting. So many things to do, so little time.

I am the chair of our guild's 2011 Quilt Show so I've been working on setting up a committee. We have met three times and have gotten quite a bit accomplished. We have a location (same as the last two shows so that doesn't really count), dates (still sort of indefinite until we get the finalized fall break date from the school district), a theme and a raffle quilt pattern. I ordered the fabric for the quilt and it arrived yesterday. It is all batiks and should be really nice. One of the bees has volunteered to put it together and then I am hoping that one of the many skilled longarm quilters in the guild will volunteer to quilt it. I hope to have it ready by the beginning of October so that we have a year to sell tickets. I'll post a picture of it when it is done. I'll also include information about the tickets.

June was a very wet month in Indianapolis. We have ~12" of rain. Luckily our house is not near any waterways so we were high and dry. Others were not so lucky. The good thing for me is that I didn't have to water the new flowers that were planted - Mother Nature took care of that.

I was very fortunate to have Aljean, my friend of 35 years, finally come up for a visit. We had a really good time together and got a project finished and dropped off the the longarmer's in addition to going to bee, sewing with Kay, going to the NQA show in Columbus on a two-day road trip with five other friends and hitting nine quilt shops. Not bad for eight days. At the same time my friend Fran who is also a member of my Houston bee (as is Aljean) and her husband came for a couple of days.

I finished my Block of the Month quilt from 2007 or 2008. Don't have a picture of it yet - Jen is coming up later and she will take one.

I can't believe that it is July already. Jenna will be starting kindergarten in early August (she is going to year round school) and Collin will start later in the month. Andrew is going into third grade and Alex and Jack continue to grow like weeds. I guess I better get busy and think about projects for Christmas - it will be here before we know it.

Have a good 4th!

Retreat

It's been a week or so (actually two weeks but who's counting?) so I thought I would post about the retreat on which Jen and I went. (How's that for correct English?) We were supposed to go to a retreat in Ohio benefiting St. Jude's but the coordinator kind of screwed up and the day was lost. So much for that. Jen's husband was committed to keeping the kids so we decided to make our own retreat. We left on Friday morning and drove to Oldenburg, IN, where we had lunch at a German pub. Great sausage with sauerkraut!

We went on Cincinnati where we checked into a motel for the night. Jen got a great rate on Expedia. The employees just looked at us like we were nuts when we started wheeling in our stuff - two machines, a table, two bags of projects, bags with clothes and, of course, snacks and wine! We got set up pretty quickly and started to sew. Here are a couple of pictures:















We worked hard but stopped to have dinner (great Chinese) and spent some time with Jill who is in our Tranquiltity online group and lives in Cincinnati. It was great to see her again.



We got a late checkout on Saturday and then left for shopping and good food. We went to Aunt Ruth's Quilt Shop which just happened to be three storefronts from Roc-a-feller's. We went there for lunch and had outstanding pizza. We also made a stop at Aunt Ruth's that was very good. They had some great fabrics on clearance and I certainly took advantage of that. :)

After we left Aunt Ruth's we went to another shop where we didn't do hardly any damage. We then met Julie at Crate and Barrel. That is a very dangerous place for me. I bought a candle (don't tell Vic) and then went on to The Container Store. With a 20% off coupon for the entire purchase I really had a good time. I now have a new bookcase and Jen has some new bins for Jack and Jenna's toys. Then we all went back to Julie's and unloaded our stuff. Julie appreciates what we do so she didn't faint - especially after we promised to clean up before we left.

It was a great time - lots of sewing time while Julie caught up on her wedding website (Jenna is going to be her flower girl and is over the moon!). We went to The Green Papaya for dinner. It features Thai food - my second time and I didn't cry this time. It was delicious.

Jen made a donut run on Sunday morning and we sewed until 3:00 after taking a break for lunch and finishing up the Chinese from Friday night and the pizza from Saturday. We left for home ~4:00, made a quick stop at JosephBeth Booksellers (a fantastic book store in Cincinnati) and got home in time for Mike's ball game at 8:00.

All in all it was a great weekend. Lots of good fun, sewing and spending time with family. Hope we get to do it again soon.

Super Neat Weekend

Hi All,

I know - I haven't posted in a while - don't know where the time goes! Just a sign that I am getting older - sigh....................

Eric and his family arrived on Thursday - Jen has posted great pictures on her blog - here is the link --

http://quiltingmomsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/happy-easter-from-all-cousins.html

We are having a good time - I just hope that Alex (the youngest) will acknowledge me before they leave tomorrow afternoon. It has been so much fun watching all the kids interact - they love the climbing structure and also the food. They have certainly made a dent in my pantry but who's complaining?!?!?!?!?

Happy Easter to all. :)

Choo Choo

Well, I finished my railroad quilt last night. Jen was up today and took pictures for me which are included in this entry. I am really pleased with the end result. The only thing I would change would be trimming my threads before it was quilted. With the white background there are a lot of threads from the red and black fabrics that show through. Most people will probably not notice them but you know how it is when we look at our own work. :)

I have included some closeup pictures of the quilting because I think it is really neat. Paul Wycoff is a wonderful longarm quilter - he is willing to take as much time as necessary to come up with a good design. We always have a good time choosing patterns. Sometimes it goes really quickly - other times is is challenging but he is always patient and helpful. I got the blocks from Fennell Artworks in Arcadia, IN, and came up with the setting myself - much to my surprise!

Finally Pictures

I have finally downloaded pictures from my camera and my Pay It Forward gifts and the pincushion swaps have been received so now I can post pictures.

The market bags were quick to make up using Quiltsmart.






The pincushion swap was fun and quick. I have posted pictures of the pincushions I sent and the ones I received. The small one on my finger is great. A friend in my Houston bee made them for us when we went on a retreat. I am now addicted and cannot sew without it. It is so handy.

















Thanks, Rosie, for the pincushions you sent. They are perfect and look great in my sewing room.

This was a fun swap in case you are looking for something quick and easy to do with your bee or guild. Just google "free pincushion patterns" and you will have tons of patterns from which to select.

A Visitor

Yesterday Jenna took her parents took Kindergarten roundup - yes she is going to be five already! Mr. Jack came to visit us and have dinner with Pop. I think he had a good time because he got to do exactly what he wanted to do with no directions from his big sister. :)

Here is a picture of him reading the toy catalog. It is one of his favorite things to do when he has a chance.