Lovelies

A photo of the oh so lovely Stardust.

The weather has been lovely too.  I couldn't stop looking at the sky.  :-)

Creamy white loveliness.  These magnolia blossoms are huge.  About 8 inches across. 

And blue loveliness.  I wish I could capture the intensity of the blue.  (and possibly without the drain in the background.  sheesh)

And more blue lovelies!  A second nest in the box and two eggs so far.  Sweet!

Lovely kisses from Charlie.  :-)  (please look at him, not at me)

An especially lovely surprise from Bonnie Hunter!  Woohoo!  Bonnie drew my name and I won this Australian Homespun magazine which features Bonnie's Jamestown Landing quilt.  How cool is that!  :-)

And of course it's signed.  Thank you Bonnie!  As I read the magazine from cover to cover I had one of those "it's a small world" moments.  Not only does Bonnie live right here in North Carolina, but one of the Reader's Showcase entries (page 8) was sent in from Fuquay-Varina.  Just a few miles from here.  Heh!  Talk about coming full circle.  :-)

On another lovely note, the Capital Quilters rallied once again and 98 (!!) baby quilts were turned in at Thursdays meeting, for Quilts for Kids.  Wow.  Mom and I turned in two.  Mom pieces and I quilt, then Mom binds.  Very simple designs but the recipients love them.....and I get to sneak in some lovely quilting practice. 

Wednesday evening I raided my '30s stash and stitched up a few of these little lovelies.  Mug buckets.  :-)  I really wanted something better than the plastic basket I was using next to my machine.  I was always digging for my tools.  This is much better!  Everything from seam ripper (sigh), tweezers, and stiletto, to the absolutely necessary tube of Bert's Bees lip balm.  And cute to look at too.

 I added a circle of cardboard in the bottom of the mug to protect the points of my tools.

They're like potato chips, you can't make just one!  (two for me, one for Mom)  No matter how badly the pattern is written.  Shame on you Simplicity.  It's really so simple to make, but the A, B, C, D, E pictures on the pattern envelope don't match the actual layouts on the instruction sheet.  Made me nuts until I figured out it was them and not me!  They also listed materials on the envelope that aren't even mentioned in the instructions.  Sheesh.  I'm sure glad I didn't pay the full (and ridiculous) $15.95 for the pattern.  I grabbed it at a JoAnn's $1 sale.  So once I got sorted out I just went ahead and did it my way.  Now I need to go to the thrift shop for a few more mugs.  Cute, cute, cute!

In the kitchen today, some gluten-free bread for my lovely Tramp.  Yes the test for Celiac came back positive.  But we are eating better/healthier than we ever have so there are blessings in disguise.

And what better than a lovely and comforting shepherd's pie for dinner after a long and somewhat fraught week.  Geez.  Is it obvious those are Yukon Gold potatoes?  :-)

And I had a lovely relaxing time today at the nail salon, though I doubt my footrest cares one bit.  :-)

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Catching up

Symposium is over and I've had a week to recover.  I don't know why it tired me out so much.  :-)  I enjoyed being a fanner for the judges, very much enjoyed winning a ribbon, and attended three great classes.  The Friday class was with Eileen Sullivan on drafting asymmetrical log cabins.  All we needed was color pencils, paper and glue sticks and had a great time.  She's lots of fun and very clear in her instructions.

All day Saturday I had Pepper Cory's class, The Swartz Creek Scrap Quilt (say that three times fast!).  The vintage top is fascinating with all it's wonky piecing.  Even some of the small triangles are pieced from bits.  There were unexpected seams everywhere.  I guess no scrap went unused!

Pepper is a hoot.  I brought a collection of thrifted shirt fronts and sleeves for most of my "scraps" and Pepper spent the morning eyeing them up.  She finally asked if she could cut into some of them for herself and I said sure!  She used her large apple core template and when she realized I had some shirt fronts with the pockets still on them she fussy cut so the pocket would be in the center of her apple core blocks.  Pepper got very excited and has decided to go thrift shopping and make a "pocket quilt".  We had fun thinking about what could go in all the shirt pockets and I nearly fell out when she suggested a geek quilt with pens and pocket protectors.  Like I said, she's a real hoot!

Pepper gifted me with a fat-eighths bundle of her fabrics in exchange for the shirt pieces and I was able to incorporate some of them into my quilt.  I got the first two rows done on a lap size version.  Pepper made me hold up my rows so she could point out that I make scrap quilts to match what I'm wearing!  :-)

Sunday morning I had a class with Frieda Anderson.  Poor Frieda was suffering from a bad case of no voice but we all managed fine and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  We each chose three pieces of her yummy hand-dyed fabrics and were given the pattern for "Sister Trees."

Frieda showed us her method of fusing and though it was a little awkward as we had to share just a few irons, we learned plenty.  The pattern colorway for Sister Trees is the pink, blue and green with the yellow border below.  Mine will look more like the one above.  With so many color choices in our strips of fabric it was so hard to choose!

This week I completed another t-shirt quilt top for Patchwork Memories.

And I started working a few hours a week at American Art Editions.  This week I learned how to stretch canvases......and I only pinched my finger in the stretching machine once!  :-)  The company is owned by one of my quilting friends and her husband.  The art their clients send them to be printed is amazing.  The canvas, the toner, the printers, and especially the papers are so expensive and I'm a bit nervous about messing up.   :-)  But it's fun.

Also this week was doll club day.  Heera has finished her mermaid and it's spectacular. 

Cindy showed off her  Zozie doll from a Susie McMahon workshop.  What a cutie!

Selena is busy making Cabbage Patch dolls.  This is the one she's keeping for herself.

This week we were working on pancake dolls.  Mine isn't exactly a pancake but I had it all gessoed and ready to paint.  I used the Spool bird pattern.  I had no idea what I was doing but at least it's painted.  It's pretty boring though.  Maybe I'll Zentangle all over it.  And if I ruin it, so be it!  :-)

Do you think they have enough toys?  Maisy is sleeping...apparently comfortably...on top of at least six of them.  Nut dog.  Ngaire has one under her back and one between her paws.  :-)

Ivy has absolutely no use for the toys, and anyway she sticks to the nice cool tile floor in the bathroom.

Say goodnight, Ivy.

It's official!

All the time and work I put into the big quilt was worth it!  It's hanging in the quilt show.  I'm pleased to see it's not so big it had to be draped on the floor (carefully folded onto sheets).  It just fits the poles.  There are several other quilts even larger, like the one behind it.  One was 113" x 130".  Wow!

And look what's on it!  Wooohooo!  Blue ribbon in Large Bed Quilts, Mixed Techniques.  **happy dance**  Gosh....I really thought the judges were going to ding me for all the flaws.  I guess in the end the flaws were only huge in my eyes.  :-)

Oh dear.  I look a bit wrinkled, don't I.  But happy!  :-)  It's been frightfully hot here so I dug out some shorts and capris.  I got this pair all ironed up this morning and got dressed at the last minute before I had to go out.  I had totally forgotten the zipper on these pants won't stay up!  LOL  Luckily I realized and grabbed a safety pin as I left the house, or it would have been a very interesting afternoon and evening.

We had the teacher show & tell this evening.  Of course now I wish I could take all of the classes.  But there was a book sale and signing reception so I did get to meet them all.  Lots of photos but I'm not going to do anything with them now.  Got to go to bed so I can get up early for class tomorrow.  :-)

A very nice week so far

Saturday we went up to the Raleigh-Durham Caged Bird Society pet bird fair at the State Fairgrounds.  It was a happy accident that I found out about the society and the fair the day before from the Parrot Nation weblog.  Thank you Patricia!  One of the buildings at the fairgrounds was chock full of birds, cages, toys, more birds, and everything else you can think of for pet birds.  There were some competitions and also many society members showing off their pets.  Of course we bought some stuff for Charlie.  :-)

This gentleman was showing off his captive bred Eurasian Eagle Owl.  It's the largest type of owl in the world.  We were able to stroke it's very soft back. 

Wish I'd had my good camera!

One of the vets had a tame Muscovy duck with a broken leg, a stray that had been brought to his clinic.  You can see the pins through the injured left leg.  They will be removed after three weeks.  There were so many interesting people to talk to.  I've joined the society and look forward to going to my first meeting. 

As far as sewing is concerned,  I'm very excited that Quilt Symposium starts today.  :-)  I have classes with Pepper Cory, Eileen Sullivan and Frieda Anderson.  Tuesday, I spent all day assisting the quilt judges as a "fanner."  I had no idea what a fanner was but it turns out it's a person who holds the quilts for the judges to view.  The quilts start out laying flat in a pile on a table and you (and a partner) fold them back slowly one at a time to give the judge an overall view of the whole category.  I guess that's where the "fanning" comes from. 

Then we held them up when asked to and the scribes took down the judges ratings and comments and we "held" or "released" quilts.  I got to work with Karen Kay Buckley.  I learned so much from watching her and listening to what she had to say about each quilt.  Of course my quilt was across the room with another judge and each time Karen made a comment about the workmanship on a quilt in our stacks, my heart kept sinking because I know the flaws in my own quilt! 

The "held" quilts were then judged by all three judges together.  I thought my arms were going to ache the next day from all the holding up of heavy quilts, but it was fine.  :-)  We even finished ahead of schedule so I ended up with a free day yesterday!

I've also started sewing for Patchwork Memories.  Julianne's business is making t-shirt and memory quilts, and bears.  This is the first t-shirt top I've put together and the free time yesterday meant I was able to finish it.  And before any of my children read this and comment....yes I know I have a huge bin of your t-shirts up in the attic.  I have no more excuses now, do I.  :-)

Those shirts came to me already prepared.  (cut and interfaced)  So in preparation for doing some of that work myself I bought this new toy. 
 

The Symposium committee appealed to our inner Donna Reed and asked us to make aprons for a silent auction.  Monday evening I finally got around to it and made a retro child's apron with a matching one for an 18" doll.  I haven't done any garment sewing for so long and I think it's probably 20 years since I've used packaged bias tape!  All the aprons will be auctioned off during Symposium to raise money for the Interfaith Food Shuttle.

And yesterday, so I could try out my new steam press, I messed around with making a couple of Snap-Happy II bags.  The steam press makes it soooo easy to fuse on the interfacing and fusible fleece.  Why had I never thought to buy one before??  The bags "snap" closed because there is carpenter's metal measuring tape in the casing at the top.  They're cute!  :-)

Symposium registration starts later this afternoon.  I can't wait to see all the quilts hanging properly and have some quality time with the vendors.  Hee hee!  And this morning I'm going to have fun gathering everything I need for my classes.  And cleaning house.....not so much fun.  :-D