Party and what's next

The SpoolSpinner's Quilting Bee had their holiday party last evening.  There was a beautiful house to meet in, LOT of talk, and way too much food, and the exchange of gifts, and the drawing of new Secret Sister names for next year.

 Here is Adrienne showing the gift quilt she received, perfect for her love of lime green.

And here I am with my Secret Sister, Susan Shantz, showing off the "Magic Forest" quilt.  She says she loves the bright colors, and has a high rod around her living room where she can hang several quilts, which also have black backgrounds so far, and this will go well with them.

I learned from this experience in the last few days, that working with black fabric and black thread is now going to be a PAST experience. I love the contrast, but my eyes just really cannot handle it any more. When I was doing the free-motion quilting, I couldn't tell how to space my work, and I missed several sections altogether.  On sewing the binding down on the front by machine, my last step, I was a little dubious most of the time as to whether I was catching it down.  Way too much tension was created in my neck and shoulders!  So I apologized to Susan for any misses, and told her she was getting my last piece of "black work".

For next year we are going to handle the Secret Sister a little differently.  We each brought five FQs of our own fabric in a Spartan bag [local grocery chain] with our profile information.  Everyone grabbed one, not her own, and is to use these fabrics in next year's holiday gift, more added if we want.

So here are the five FQs I put in my bag -- my favorite combination of Red, Black and White.  I tried to use a combination of various sizes of print design.  I will be greatly interested in what turns up next December!  What do you think you would do with these?

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Next project is not so much fun, but very necessary.  This bed in the sewing room needs to be totally cleared off.

What, you don't see the bed?

Look down in the right corner, there's the corner of the bed frame.  My dad made this frame down in his basement wood shop to surround a daybed and it had room under it for a pull-out additional narrow bed.

This bed needs to be transferred to our basement guest area, so one of the grandchildren will not have to sleep on the floor.  The transfer helper is coming on Monday afternoon, so I have to start figuring out where all this stuff is going and how it is going to be organized.  Plus I need to leave enough space in the room for the bed to be moved, it doesn't break down any more.

Hmm, I think it is only going to be accomplished if I use Fly Lady's method of "15 minutes at a time".

Sara

Gratitudes:

Found lovely red fabric for my black winter coat's new lining
Found a tailor who will do the job for me
Looks like a "free" weekend to slowly get Christmas prepared

Magical Forest DONE

At 45" x 53"  it was finished at 3:45 pm, and I need to leave for the Bee holiday party at about 5.  So a whole hour to get everything wrapped and food packed and camera in hand.

The back has nativity pictures surrounded by a different evergreen forest.

Hope my Secret Sister has a place to enjoy this.

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Now to answer Julie's question about the Advent wreath quilt.... How do you add more flames as the weeks progress?

The flame and the aura are fused together and left detached from the quilt.   I simply keep four of these in an envelope, and then PIN one more each Sunday above a candle. The aura has sparkles in it, so the pin heads mostly look like just another dot of white from any distance.  At the end of the season the quilt is retired with just the candles on it, and the flames are returned to the envelope.

This quilt hangs on the kitchen wall opposite the big window to the driveway.  I can see it reflected in the window while I'm at the sink, and also when I drive up to the house.

We also have a "real" Advent wreath on the dining room table.  We use only that candle light for dinner each night.  Getting a good deal brighter now that we have three candles lit!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Rain, not snow today
Spoolspinners party tonight
First experience with cortisone shots to the knees went well

More Retreat

I also finished the borders, quilting and binding on the "King of the Ranch" boy quilt while on retreat.  This was made from two charm packs and some stash fabrics.

And here is the back of that one.

I also took along a set of  Fat Quarters I had won about five years ago.  They are all Christmasy and in muted colors.  Not my style.  But they have been sitting around for so long, when I found them I felt I needed to put them to use.  This is as far as I got, there will be three more rows of four-patches around this center.  This part is quilted now and the rest will be added QAYG, but I didn't have backing fabric along with me.

As I left the house, I grabbed a stack of 3" squares that were packed tight in a drawer, so that I could use them as my "leaders and enders" during the retreat.  Here is the stack of four-in-a-row that resulted.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Restful, quiet day at home

Discovered that our dog can howl when sirens blow on the highway

Another BLT supper

SpoolSpinner Retreat

I was on retreat with my quilting bee, the SpoolSpinners, from last Thursday through Sunday.  One of the quilts I worked on, and FINISHED was the Soccer Boy quilt.

It is simply a "strippy" quilt with soccer fabrics alternating with non-soccer fabrics.  But it has no flowers and no pinks, so maybe some father with a boy in the neo-natal unit will like it for his child.

Here's the back.

I also worked on the Liberated Round Robin's "curves" borders.

I used double wide, packaged seam binding in  black and red rickrack.  I am still in the process of sewing these down and doing the quilting.

We also were shown and then made a cloth wrapper for a small gift.  Our teacher gave us each two 8.5" square flowered fabrics and instructions which we could complete in about 20 minutes. Example on the right.

Later I tried my own fabrics and cut the squares 9.5" to see how much larger the package would end up.  The different is this: the original could hold six Hershey's nuggets, and the larger version could hold eight. [We had the nuggets available on our snack table.]

Sara

Gratitudes:
Another retreat earlier in the week with my spiritual accountability group
Dinner tonight with our DDIL Lynne
Singing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" at Grand Rapids Women's Chorus rehearsal tonight

More Lakes and Islands

From Sandy, five blocks and three extra islands!

From Cindy five blocks, and WOW look at that eNORmous island!

And for Spoolspinners' Bee this evening, more Fireworks blocks:

Seemed like we should have some 3.5" to fit between/among the 6.5" blocks.

Sara

Gratitudes:

A plan has evolved for a vegetable garden
Survived exercise class today
Soup and strawberry shortcake for dinner

Two finishes and something new

 Just before the Bee meeting on Thursday I finished the binding on my third neonatal quilt for the March collection.

I made the back from four FQs with some strips to make the whole thing large enough.

Right now it is in the wash.

Catherine had also quilted the Green Strips quilt with wavy lines and an occasional square or circle. It is light weight and is the right size for a nap quilt.

And for the "something new" --  I was asked to run a "Block Lotto" for our SpoolSpinners Bee.  At least I am going to organize the first time through.   I chose the FIREWORKS block.

So I spend yesterday afternoon writing up instructions.  And of course I had to make several more blocks to photograph some variations.

That was fun!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Jean took me to the women's brunch at Grace Church

Turkey dinner in February--lots for left-overs!

Symphony concert last night

Doll Quilt Swap #7 received!

I returned from the SpoolSpinner retreat last night, and found this wonderful doll quilt had arrived from Trisha Chubbs in Washington state. WOW! She really did a good job figuring out my special interests. It's black and white and RED, and she used Liberated Piecing.

Look at that two-color binding! Look at that wonderfully wonky log cabin! Look at those cock-eyed flying geese! And the luscious big floral print!

I am thrilled! I have it on the back of one of the loveseats in the living room, the one I am directly facing from my seat at the dining table. I can look at it all the time.

Thank you, Trisha!

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Now the first report from the retreat.

This Strip Twist top from last February received a border. I had nothing I liked in my own stash. We are able to go to two quilt shops near our retreat site, and at the first I found this orange with a pinkish red stripe. Suddenly I saw a lot of orange in this top-- so it became a perfect, and bright fabric for the border. This was a quick project to finish on Friday [after the shopping trip]. Probably this will only now be quilted and get bias binding to be finished.

More retreat news later.

Sara

Gratitudes:

After Thursday's eye injection I regained focused vision by 8 pm

All our meals were provided at the retreat--no cooking for me!

Lots of laughter among the quilters

Spoolspinners Retreat

I have joined Finn's UFO challenge, and said I would finish FIVE before the end of the year. My plan was to get two finished this weekend, which was our Bee's retreat at Ketunnen Center (4 H conference center) south of Cadillac, Michigan. Friday afternoon I put together these blocks from my UFO pile.

The fabrics were samples I received from The Cotton Club back in the 80's. Even then I knew that I might have a hard time finding a use for them, so I immediately took each month's selection and sewed them into HSTs. Then, maybe ten years later, I sewed the HSTs into blocks of four, a slightly asymmetrical block. Now I have finally sewn the blocks together and added a border. This turned out a really dumb size, 50"x42". . .I guess it is a wall hanging.

Friday night I counted up the Floating Four Patch blocks I had in another ziplock bag from an internet exchange, oh, five years ago. Found I needed about 25 more to approach a twin-sized top. So I worked with my batiks, which is very enjoyable colorwise, to make the rest.

This is the result, and I'm a little surprized. The fabrics are showing more pattern than I expected. Well, that's the chance you take with exchanges, and just using what is "at hand".

What do you think about with or without a border? I'm a little tired of black borders, and I don't have any other idea. As it is, 48"x78", it's really too narrow for a twin--maybe more of an adult nap quilt. So I may have to find SOME kind of a border. Darn, I wanted to be done! A really dark batik, not quite black? Oh, and I could put a FEW of Gwen's spikey triangles in it for interest.. . . that would be a different shape.

Also that "white" framed block in the botom row is bothering me. So much lighter than everything else in the quilt. Maybe I'll replace it with a different frame and make it definitely skewed. More my kind of oddity than the color.

Then on Saturday night and Sunday I worked on a third top, still another ziplock bag full of blocks, but had to pack it all up before it got sewn together. Since it is On Point I have to make a bunch of setting triangles before I can sew the rows together. Hope I'll get that done this week, tho' unlikely.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Sue is here for a visit

Three days of rain didn't stop us from sewing!

Yea for rotisseried chicken from the grocery store

Raffle Quilt - Whacky Baskets

Hoo-ee! Our SpoolSpinner raffle quilt for the Guild has been quilted!

Next the binding---which will be the same striped fabric that was used in the inner border.

Here is a close-up of a "blank" corner, where you can see the imaginative quilting showing up against the black.

Boy! It doesn't show against those baskets.

Also you can see the applique flowers, made from basket scraps, better here. I sure didn't participate in that part of the project.

Just for scale here is a photo of the discussion following the Reveal. Catherine Martin, who did the machine quilting, is in the light green.

Everyone is delighted with how it has come out. Lots of "ooo-ing and aah-ing".

The remaining basket blocks are going to made into quilt tops for Bee members, two or three tops of different sizes. I have my part put together in a top, but maybe I will add borders as well. We figure out some way to draw names or ??? at our December party.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Birthday Lunch for Kathie and Dee

Intestines calming down

Open Space preservation meeting went well

SpoolSpinners meeting

Our SpoolSpinners Bee is making a quilt top for one of our members, who is moving to New Mexico. At our meeting last night we worked on putting together all 4.5" blocks people brought from home. We had four machines in action, and could have used one more!

Of course we also had "Show and Tell" and we also had some Secret Suster gifts to distribute.

However, by 9:15 we had the top together in about five long strips. These I brought home, and I will be sewing them together this afternoon. Good work everyone!

Star points

I have made a few more pieces for the SpoolSpinners' gift to Beth. We'll see next Thursday if we are going to assemble this or just give her all the pieces.

As you can see on the right side of the photo, I double stitched the corner pieces and cut between the stitching lines. This is creating "extra" HSTs. You can see a pile of them in the middle. This gives me 56 "free" HSTs that will be 2" square, but it does mean a LOT of squaring-up! Something I can do during the NCAA basketball games with half an eye. Don't have a plan for these right now.

Looks like about 3-4" of snow haas fallen this afternoon--so I'm taking my tiredness to bed for a nap. Can't seem to shake this flu virus or whatever it is. I missed church last night and at noon today.

Sara

Birthday Presents!

My birthday is coming up this week, and I received a box of presents from my SpoolSpinner Secret Sister a few days early.

Everything was packed inside the purse-like tin with the handle; seven Fat Quarters of batiks! Plus there is a "Quilter's Pocket Map of Michigan, so I will be able to find Quilt Shops wherever I go. Better get that out and store it in the car.
Thank you, thank you to my Secret Sister!
Now--to think up a great design for seven FQs!

Sara

Gratitudes:
Made it through exercise without dizziness
Clean sheets on the bed
Rehearsal tonight really helped with one of our GRWC songs

Losing a SpoolSpinner

One of our Bee members just announced she is moving far away in one month. So we quickly came up with an idea for a gift. We are each going to make some blocks in Bonnie Hunter's quilt "Smokey Mountain Stars".

Each square is 4.5", and the corners are from 2.5" squares. This is very easy sewing. Everyone is going to use medium to dark blue for the background, so the white and yellow stars should really show up well. I assume this will be very scrappy within the color choices. I hope we will collect enough at our meeting this month to make a reasonable size quilt in a short amount of time!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Lots of help planning the Paschal Meal

Gift of a Gratitude journal

Britton's War Requiem tonight

Spoolspinners Bee anniversary

Here is a photo of the only member of our Bee that has been in it since the beginning, Carol Kuipers. She was awarded two tiaras--both with SPOOLS on them, for SpoolSpinners. We celebrated with ordered-in pizza, salad, and desserts!

Then we had our regular meeting with a talk by our Big Spool on quilting designs, Secret Sister gifts, and Show & Tell. Lots of fun.

And I did get to show the completed top, or center of the second Whacky Baskets quilt. I had finished sewing the blocks together at about 5:30 pm, just before I had to leave for the meeting.

These blocks we made did not all turn out to be the same size. In fact they were quite a few sizes! I picked out 7" square blocks and 7 x 8" rectangles for this quilt. Each row of three has one rectangle in it, which helps to make everything more tipsy.

This now leaves 20 blocks that didn't fit into either top. Twelve are the same size, and 8 are really various. Should we put them all into one wall hanging sized quilt top? Should we divide them into several table-toppers? Should we just put the block in the drawing? No answer from the group tonight. We'll cogitate on this in the background and consider it again next month.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Yea! Job accomplished!

Got a glimpse of the eclipse last night

Woman at the well meditations

Whacky Baskets #2 continued

There is plenty of black fabric for this sashing. Enough was bought for the backing. And I now have 18 blocks together in three strips of six. And I have three strips of three that are pinned on the bottom of them.

[These should be lying on my bed, so they are easy to rearrange and then pickup, in order, and rush to the sewing machine. However, THAT MAN has decided to go to bed! My goodness! It's only 10:48 pm. I could get a lot more done by midnight if my largest work area was still available!]

The black fabric is striped, which is making it look almost quilted already. I hope the blocks don't really show that they are two sizes, but only that the blocks are dancing around a little. After all, they CAN'T be evenly placed, since there are two sizes. The whole thing will be six by nine blocks, about 50" x 80". Then the applique folks will get to thinking about borders. Since the two tops are different, the same border treatment probably will not work.

The Spoolspinners Bee monthly meeting is this Thursday, so that is the deadline I am working against. Should be OK with two days.

Sara

Gratitudes:

I lasted 10 minutes longer swimming laps

Leftover stew and chili mixed for dinner

Making progress with Leader/Ender project too while working on this project

Peter's Baby Quilt

A FIND in the basement! Here is the quilt Charlie's mother bought for our son, Peter. I think she purchased it at some church sale. Each block has an embroidered animal. For instance, a snail! That's a bit unusual.
It also has Prairie points all around in blue and white.
I haven't seen anything like this is while, but they were very popular when I was a baby, I think. Not that I had one!

Time for me to stop storing this, out of sight, out of mind, and time to hand it over to Peter. Or should I save it for his 40th birthday next summer? No, I think I will probably have forgotten about it again by then, and it will end up stayingat my house. Better give it to him tomorrow. Then he can decide who to pass it on to.

And here are the finished 9-patches for Step 3 of Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Crossroads mystery. Didn't think it would take this long, but finally got them "squared up" this afternoon.

So that makes 100 rail fence blocks, 100 9-patches with an accent corner, and 80 9-patches like this. Plus 16 dark plain squares, and 25 neutral plain squares. For a grand Total (so far) of 321 blocks made. That's enough to make a finished pieced top of about 36" x 80". We were told at the beginning this quilt will be 80" x 80". So not yet half done, but getting close!

Off this evening to our SpoolSpinner bee's holiday party. That will include a potluck of appetizers, salads, and desserts, a concert by a Madrigal Choir, the revelation of Secret Sisters for the past year, sign up for Secret Sisters for next year, and an exchange of White elephants. I'm taking a UFO as a White Elephant that I am sure I will never get finished--or I certainly don't want to spend time on-- four 12.5" blocks from kits (all the same) and 2.3 yards of fabric that could be borders or backing. Fun to see if anyone wants to exchange for it!

LATER: Here at last is my Secret Sister, Bonnie Golder, looking happy to receive the Red and White 16-patch. She very nicely claimed that she loves RED.

She and I happened to be roommates on the Bee quilting retreat back in September, so she thought I had given her lint-rollers because I saw all the threads on her clothes. Really, ALL quilters have this problem.

Sara

Steps today: 8863

Gratitudes:

Lovely tins and diabetic candy from my Secret Sister, Timmy

A fun time with other quilters

Home again to a quiet house

Secret Sister

My quilting bee, SpoolSpinners, has a Secret Sister option, beginning each January. That means the "reveal" is at our December meeting. I am now trying to put the little four-patches I have been making as leaders and enders into a table topper for my Secret Sister. My thought is that Red and White are good for Christmas and also are good for Valentine's Day and even the Fourth of July. Therefore a "lasting" color combination.

I have put together these 16-patches and am planning on an on-point setting. Now I need to make some HSTs that white and red to set around what I have already. This will give the effect of an inner border.

This project has a due date before Christmas, whereas the Carolina Crossroads does not have a deadline. So I am working on this one (and doing a little cutting of fabrics for the mystery as well between times).

Sara

Gratitudes:
some sun between the clouds,
dinner out with my DH telling each other about our day
Red and White! Love it.