I am very pleased to tell you that I am almost done with my FMN quilt top.  I have some hand applique and machine embellishment to do on my last block, but the other 11 blocks are partially assembled and I am quite happy with the quilt.  I auditioned several fabrics for my sashings and borders and finally settled on a multi-color batik.  It sure is a colorful quilt, but I am loving it. 

We are all getting excited about Esther's next project.  I am hoping I have some time in May to get started with it, but we are leaving for the summer around June 1st, so my time will be limited.  Lots of packing to do, I load the van with sewing machines,  embroidery supplies, threads, etc. 

Another busy week here.  Last Friday we hosted dinner for our dinner group, which meets monthly.  Dinner for 22 people took a few days of my sewing time, but we had lots of fun.  Today, we had planned to go over to Disney and spend the day at the flower and garden festival at Epcot, but John has been favoring his ankle lately and we decided that lots of walking probably wasn't such a good idea.  I hope to be able to spend some time with EQStitch this afternoon, I am frustrated that I have spent so little time learning it.  I am hoping to design an embroidered wallhanging but my knowledge of the program isn't ready for that yet.

I hope you all have a great week! 

We returned from our cruise on Saturday and are finally getting things back to "normal".  I didn't do as much hand stitching as I had hoped.......it seems that I am very set in my ways when it comes to hand applique.  I never realized this, but I stitch while sitting in a recliner and use my knees and thighs to support a lightweight board that I stitch on.  I didn't bring that board with me, and the small sit-up straight with your feet on the floor chair was amazingly uncomfortable for me.  I did try, but never lasted more than 15 minutes.  So now I have lots of prepared work, and I have started playing catch up with it in the evenings.

OK, I need some help..................I am not at all fond of the framing fabric that I chose.  I am very tempted to use my border fabric alone and drop the pinkish/orange/purple batik.  The bottom picture doesn't show the border fabric well at all, but it can be seen against the frame fabric in the 2nd pic from the bottom.  Sorry that the pics aren't better, I am definitely NOT a photographer!

 Celebrated my birthday on Sunday and was surprised to receive the very new add-on program to EQ7.  It is called EQStitch, and is a digitizing program.  I am working on the included lessons and watching the videos and it doesn't seem too hard at all.  It will make almost anything into an embroidery or machine embroidered applique design into an embroidery file.  Hopefully, I will find time to actually do a design, send it to an embroidery machine and stitch it out before next week.  If I manage to accomplish this, I will post a picture.  I also need to post a pic of the small wallhanging that I made at our retreat, using the stack and whack method.  I will include that next week as well.

So, I value all of your opinions, so let me know what you think of that batik framing fabric.  I have visited both of our local quilt shops and haven't found anything else.....but of course, I will continue shopping, just in case, lol.

Have a great week!

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted.  It seems the older I get the faster that time passes me by. 

I confess to not being very productive lately, but I think I am finally over my quilting slump.  Maybe I just needed a break, but now I am back and so anxious to work on so many projects! 

I have a new enthusiasm for Esther's BOM, and am working very hard to catch up with everyone.  I am finally past my "I don't fuse" phase, lol.  I am doing the blocks using a variety of techniques, basically "whatever works" is my new mantra.

Next week, on Monday and Tuesday, I will attend my guilds retreat.  The retreat project this year is Stack n Whack, which I have never done before.  I am trying to decide between two fabrics, pictures are here.  I could use some feedback from someone who has done one of these quilts before!

Also next week, we have a large national sewing expo in the next town, about a half hour from here.  I have attended for the past couple of years and it really is fun.  I plan to attend it on Thursday and it looks like I will be able to meet up with 3 internet friends for lunch.  It is always exciting to meet up with internet friends.

Another new project is Jinny Beyer's Renaissance Garden quilt.  I am anxiously awaiting delivery of the fabrics that I ordered for it.  The pattern is free at Jinny Beyer.com and uses a method that she calls "soft edge piecing".  It is an applique technique. 

Here are my completed BOM blocks, I hope to catch up before we leave Florida for the summer!

Here are the two Stack n Whack possibilites.  I am leaning toward the really busy one, on the right, but I plan on taking both of them to the retreat.  The one on the left is more my normal colors but the new me is trying to think out of the box, lol!

That's it for this week.  I hope you all have a great one!

It's a chilly Wednesday morning here in Florida.  I know, I know, my friends in upstate New York are laughing at me right now.  But when you are used to 80 degrees, 58 can feel downright chilly.

Returned from Atlanta late Monday.  Had a great trip and the weather there was quite nice.  We worked most of Saturday setting up our booth at the antique/craft mall and I am posting some pictures of it. 

My goal for the rest of January is to work on charity quilts.  I am sure I have shared with you all that our local guild makes quilts for the local sheriff's department to give to children who are in distress.  We have the sheriff visit annually, have a pot luck lunch with him, and present him with around 100 quilts.  I have made only two so far, so I need to really concentrate on making a few more.  Since it seems I am between projects, now seems like a great time.  And the sheriff is scheduled to visit with us on March 18, and we all know how quickly that date will come around!

I am currently quilting a charity quilt on my Sweet 16 machine.  I love doing them, because they give me a great opportunity to practice my quilting skills.  Here is a picture, but I am not sure how visible the quilting will be in it.

 

 

 

 

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I hope you all have a wonderful, productive week.  I am enjoying reading the blogs and seeing the wonderful results of the blocks from Esther's BOM.  I will complete mine someday soon, although I am running sadly behind everyone. 

January 16

After a frustrating few days, Angie has come to my aid with instructions on uploading photos here.  So here goes, I am trying it out!

 

Wow!  it worked!

 

Many, many thanks to Angie!

 

This is a small wallhanging, 30 by 30 inches that I made several years ago.  It is machine embroidered with Baltimore album blocks.  It hung in my hallway for a few years and everytime I passed it, I thought to myself, "it needs more quilting".  So today, I finally did it, just in time to sell the quilt!

 

My daughter and I are trying a small business venture near her home in Georgia.  Some friends of hers own an antique/craft mall and I let her talk me into taking a small space there with her.  In my old life, I made and sold doll clothing for the American Girl dolls.  I retired from that venture 4 or 5 years ago, but I still had quite a stock of outfits on hand.  And of course, I have quilts spilling out of closets here.  So, nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I am committed (or maybe I SHOULD be committed, lol) for six months. 

 

We are leaving for Georgia on Friday morning, with the van full of inventory.  I will keep you all posted on our progress.

 

Again, thanks so much Angie, for coming to my rescue! 

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged.  Time sure does get away from us sometimes.  I've been busy since our return from New York.  First, I volunteered at a dinner at our clubhouse.  We had a New York deli night, and I  can't begin to tell you how many sandwiches we made, also potato salad and cole slaw.  We fed 120 people and spent 3 days working on it.  It took me a couple of days to recover.

Then I enrolled in a cooking class which met once a week and just finished up last Wednesday.  We are lucky enough to have a trained professional chef here in our small community, and the classes were fabulous.  I love to cook and was amazed at how many tricks I learned in class.  Each week we made an appetizer, entree and dessert.  I am not a dessert lover or baker so the desserts were a challenge for me.  I had never used phyllo pastry before!

Sewing has been on the back burner, but now that I survived Thanksgiving and all that preparation, I am getting back to it.  The above photo is an apron that I made for my daughter.  I had some fabric left over and a couple of leftover ceramic tiles in the garage, so I made two hot plates to match the apron.  Todays project is to make the apron and trivets for my daughter-in-law.

This is a quick charity quilt, paper pieced ice cream cones.  I still need to baste it and quilt it.  My local guild gives quilts to the local sheriff's department and they distribute them to children who are in distress.  We do about 100 quilts per year, which is quite an accomplishment for a guild with only 15 members. 

I have kept the embroidery machine busy this week, making lace Christmas ornaments.  I have 24 done now and plan to give them to my fellow guild members at our Christmas luncheon next Monday and to keep some on hand for friends and neighbors.  Now I need to embroider a Christmas shirt to wear to the lunch.  I will post a picture of it next week.

No progress has been made on Esther's Forget Me Not blocks.  I have 5 of them done and plan to get back into that project after the holidays.  I do my hand applique in the evenings and I have been so busy lately that I am tired by then.

That's it for this week!  I hope you have all been well and keeping busy.

It's been a quiet couple of weeks around here.  I've made two charity quilts for the volunteer ambulance squad, done some hand applique and a couple of machine embroideries to frame.  No big projects at the moment although I continue to plug along with Esther's BOM.  I have finished just four blocks but I have prepped for another two so that I can take them with me to New York next week. 

We are heading to New York to  celebrate my mother's 101st birthday.  She is in good health, takes no meds, but her memory is totally gone.  She has been in a nursing home for 3 years now.  She still knows who I am, but with each trip I have to wonder if she will recognize me or not. 

The weather is still very warm here, we are waiting for a break so that we can do some outdoor work. It has been an unusually warm summer and there doesn't seem to be any relief in the near future.  Gardening is done early in the day, and for short periods.  With an almost daily afternoon rain, everything is growing strong!

I hope you all have a wonderful week.  I do enjoy reading all of the blogs on Esther's WOW linky page.