First Quilt Show Post

I went to the WV Quilter's quilt show at Summersville, WV today with my friend Jean.  These pictures are of the booth belonging to the company I work for.  We are vendors at this quilt show.  The lady in blue is my boss, Linda, and the lady standing in the back holding something white is Pam, my co-worker.  The quilt behind the lady Pam is talking to is one of mine:  the Cat's Meow quilt.  The one with squares ringed in white is also mine:  called Meter Maid.  The second picture shows a small flowerpot quilt that is also mine.  The large quilt to the right of the flowerpot quilt is my Celtic Solstice, which was Bonnie Hunter's mystery last fall.  The third picture shows my friend Jean standing in front of our new raffle quilt made to raffle for money for our pillowcase group.  I have lots more pictures of the beautiful quilts I saw at the quilt show, so I put put some in each of my next few posts to this blog.

Cat's Meow Quilt

The first picture is the Cat's Meow Wallhanging I made for my friend Pat.  I gave it to her the other day but I forgot to get a picture of it for the blog.  I visited Pat on Friday and took the picture of it.  She hung it in her craft room where she spends most of her time.  It looks wonderful hanging there.

 

The second picture is the full Cat's Meow Quilt I made.  I made both of these quilts at the same time.  The cats are appliqued in the embroidery hoop by machine.  The design is from Lunch Box Quilts.  I love to make their designs because they are digitized very well and all the pieces fit together perfectly. 

Another Small Finish

I embroidered this at work about two or three months ago.  We embroider things and leave them on the embroidery machine in the hoop for a while, just to show what our machines are capable of.  I liked this one so I decided to finish it into a small wallhanging.  Since it is redwork I chose some of my red fabrics and cut 2 1/2" squares and used them to frame the picture.  Then I sandwiched it with batting and backing and quilted around the white block only.  I bound it with the same white fabric as the backing.  I finished it at work yesterday and hung it on our samples wall.  That is where I took the picture.

Two Finishes to Report

I am making a quilt that involves applique in the embroidery hoop.  It is called Cat's Meow and it is from Lunch Box Quilts.  They have the pattern in a throw-sized quilt and also in a wallhanging.  I am making the throw for myself but I have already made the wallhanging for my friend Pat.  I wasn't able to report it as soon as it was finished because I hadn't given it to her yet.  Well, I gave it to her on Thursday so now I am reporting it.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to get a picture of it so I can't show it here.  But when I finish the throw I will show a picture of it.  The wallhanging is just a smaller version.

 

Here is my second finish.  I finished sewing the binding this morning.  It is a wallhanging that was featured in a magazine.  One of our customers at work brought in a copy of the directions from her magazine and generously allowed me to make a copy.  It is called Spring Skinnie and was in Quiltmaker Magazine March/April 2013.  I have it hanging here on my front door.  It is bright and colorful and so happy!  I love it!  If I didn't have more obligations right now I would make another one because it was fun to make.  The flower and the flower pots were raw-edge appliqued to the background fabric, then the blocks were added as a border.  I free-motion quilted only the background so the flower and pots would pop.  I am rather proud of this.

Odometer and finally a finish!

My fourteen-year-old car rolled up 76,000 miles on Friday.  I pulled over to the side of the road to take this picture.  I bought my 2000 Mazda 626 new in early 2000 (with a little help from my dad).  I traded in my eight-year-old Dodge Caravan.  The Caravan only had 57,000 miles on it.  In the last twenty-two years I have had three vehicles.  I tend to keep a vehicle for a long time.  But back to the Mazda.  The only problem it has ever given me was when a deer jumped out in front of me on Corridor G one night.  It did $5,000 damage to the front end that was only cosmetic.  Stowers Body Shop replaced my hood and now the paint is coming right off, just the hood.  If I keep the car much longer it is going to have to have a paint job.  It still has all the pep and energy it had when I got it.  I wouldn't hesitate to drive it across the country if I had to.

I finally got this small quilt finished.  This picture was taken before it was sandwiched and quilted.  I got the binding done while I was a poll worker at the election last Tuesday.  We only had 70 voters all day so I had plenty of time to get this finished.  I have another finish to report but it is a gift and I haven't given it yet, so I will report it after I give it to Pat.

I have been desultory about writing this blog lately.  This is, however, my 200th post to the blog.  I will try to do better in the future.

Cute video about the cold weather and picture of my new quilt

I found this video on another blog and thought it was funny.  As I write this there is snow (again!) on the grass and roofs and cars.  The street and sidewalks are just wet.  The temperature is about 32 degrees.  Richard has been put on snow patrol tonight from 11pm to 7am.  He will be at work for the day at 7am so I hope he won't be called out too early.  He works at the hospital in maintenance and he and his coworkers have been given the job of snow removal.  Thank heavens, they broke them up into three crews so he hasn't had to go so often.

The weather should be cleared up before I go to work tomorrow at 1pm.  I am supposed to teach a class on the Double Pinwheel Quilt at 2pm and another at 6pm.  I designed this quilt in quilt software on my computer, called EQ7.  I picked two blocks that looked really good together and put a border around them.  I had the fabrics in my stash already.  We haven't taught any creative classes since November.  We usually drop the classes during the holidays and this year we held off because of the cold and snowy winter.  We scheduled this class hoping spring would have arrived. 

Double Pinwheel Quilt

 

String Quilt Finished

Last fall I was at work sewing string blocks.  Pam, my co-worker, was cutting out pillowcase kits, and everytime she had scraps she gave them to me.  I sewed them into the string blocks.  It wasn't long before I had enough blocks for a good-sized quilt, so I put them together with sashing and cornerstones.  I used a gray sashing so the blocks would pop with all their beautiful colors, and the cornerstones were sitting there having been cut out of tiny scraps.  As I was putting the quilt top together, it occurred to me that we should raffle the quilt in order to buy more fabric for pillowcases.  My favorite longarm quilter, Vonda Cochran, offered to quilt it for free.  It is hanging at the Viking Sewing Gallery where I work.  We started selling tickets on it on Jan. 31 and as of yesterday we have brought in $257 for more pillowcase fabric.  We will continue selling chances until April 26.  I am hoping for at least $500.

 

I am a member of a group who sews pillowcases for children hospitalized at Cabell-Huntington Hospital and CAMC Women's and Children's Hospital.  We give each hospital 40 pillowcases a month.  We volunteer our time and sewing expertise to make the pillowcases.  We take donations to buy the fabrics, and we have all bought fabrics and raided our stashes for fabrics that would appeal to children.  Some quilt shops give us special discounts, and Kohl's has given us money for coming to their stores to make pillowcases.  We sometimes meet for a day and make as many pillowcases as possible.  This is a wonderful group of women that I am proud to be associated with.  I need to mention the loss of one of our members last week.  Patty Weitzel, of Hometown, West Virginia, battled breast cancer for five years.  She was a very talented sewer and embroiderer, and a wonderful friend.  She will be greatly missed.