Happy Birthday Julia!

How is it possible that my daughter is an adult?  She's planning to buy a lottery ticket today.  She is registered to vote.  Most importantly, she'll be going to play Bingo with Grandma on Tuesday!

 Dad helped her pick out the guitar and I made the guitar strap.

I used the tutorial from One Shabby Chick to make the guitar strap.  It was pretty easy and didn't take very long.  I was happy that she went to a movie with a friend last night so I could sew while she was out!  Bill picked up an $8 strap at Wakefield Music that I disassembled for the parts.  Worked like a charm!  The fabric is a Philip Jacobs print called Tropical in her favorite blue.  It has enough dark pink to coordinate with the maroon leather pieces that attach to the guitar.

Happy Birthday, Julia!

JDRF Plan B

 A few months ago, a friend of mine asked if I could/would assemble an auction quilt for the JDRF gala at the end of April.  How could I say no?  Several kids drew or colored masks to go with the gala's masquerade theme.  I scanned the drawings and printed them on fabric.  That was the easy part.

My first layout incorporated the colors of the gala and a harlequin diamond that reminded me of carnival.  I struggled with finding a combination of purples and greens that appealed to me.  I had almost all the diamonds paper-pieced when I decided I hated the whole thing!

The green and purple were fine for the night of the gala, but the quilt needed to stand on its own after the party was over.  Don't worry, I'll put those diamonds to work on the back.

Enter plan B.  

I've used a similar layout on kid quilts before and it always works.  A rainbow was pulled from my stash.  The hourglass blocks pieced up in a snap from white and charcoal solids.

All laid out and ready to assemble.  Tomorrow, I'll be on the hunt for the perfect border fabric.

I hope to have the whole thing done by Friday to deliver to JDRF. I'll be putting my freshly acquired rainbow of threads to work in the quilting!

Wish me luck!

Fun at MQX

 Next time I go to a show with Karen, remind me to leave my credit cards at home! This lovely lady from Red Barn get us every year!  She does the best demos and makes everything look so easy.  So every year, Karen and I buy whatever she is demonstrating.  This year it was cathedral windows by machine.  This is Karen buying the tote bag pattern.  She posted a photo of me being suckered in by Ms. Red Barn.

Here are a few of my MQX purchases.  The glue pen, purple thang and aqua fabric with needles and thread are from Red Barn.  The two prints at the bottom of the pile were actually from the Folk Art Quilts trip with Bonnie on Wednesday.

Another demo, another purchase.  This is my new friend, Stephanie Farrell.  In the course of her 5 minute ruffle scarf demo, we discovered we have so much in common!  We both can only knit, not purl, and we knit continental style because we learned to crochet first.  The three skeins in the bottom left of the photo are mine.  (Sucker!)

I did the most damage at the Superior Threads booth.  My favorite thread is So Fine 50 weight.  I arrived with list in hand!  I may never need to buy thread again!  I buy needles from them, too.  The titanium coated topstitch needles are the BEST!

OK, Tina.  Step away from the vendors and move on to the quilts!

I love seeing quilts I know.  Pineapple Patience was made by my friend, Pat Harrison.  She does gorgeous work!

Caught in the Act by Barbara McKie is so cool.  She uses a unique technique to transfer photos to fabric, then does an amazing amount of thread painting.

  

Randall Cook's Enlightened Freedoms.  Have you seen the documentary Stitched?  It's wonderful and features Randy, Caryl Bryer Fallert and Hollis Chatelain.

Best in Show!

America, Let it Shine by Sherry Reynolds

This is a show stopper!  Every detail is over the top.  Quilted on a Bernina!

String Color

If the flaming bagel in the microwave wasn't enough to wake me up this morning, all this color surely will do the trick!  Julia intended to defrost her frozen bagel for 30 seconds, but set the microwave for 3 minutes!  Who knew you could set a bagel on fire that quickly?

On to the color!  I was able to complete 12 basket weave string blocks in the workshop with Bonnie on Wednesday.   I used phone book pages as foundations and cut them to 6.5". 

 I'm thinking about somehow combining them with the swap blocks below.  Maybe I'll chop up the basket weave blocks to create a border.  These are 30 of the 32 blocks I received through 2 rounds of Mini Scrap Basket swapping.

Here are the 16 blocks I sent for round 2...

and the 16 blocks I received...

I was actually kind of excited to get one of my own blocks back.  It was like seeing an old friend!  You can pick out the red with giant polka dots.

I'm loving this string business!  I can't wait for Bonnie's next book (due out in July!) with lots of string projects.  We got to see some of the samples this week and they were amazing!

I'm off for day 2 of MQX with Karen.  We're sure to run into Diane, our MQX buddy!

Bonnie Hunter!

 What an awesome day!  We've been waiting for years to meet Bonnie and today was the day.  You know how when you "meet" someone online you wonder what they will be like in person?  Bonnie is exactly as she appears on her blog.  So fun and friendly and generous!

Sorry.  Blogger is not being nice, so everything is out of order.

When I walked in this morning for the workshop, THE hexagon medallion was draped over the piano.  Breathtaking!

 

Sharon gifted Bonnie with an "Only in Rhode Island" basket.  

 Dels's frozen lemonade mix, Jonnycake mix, coffee milk syrup, and New York System wiener sauce.

 

Don't you just love stacks of quilts?  Stacks of Bonnie's quilts are the best!

 

Tomorrow, we're off to MQX for some retail therapy.  Woohoo!

I'm Back with Rose Stars

 Hello!  It's so nice to be back among quilty friends!  I was completely swamped with Girl Scout business for all of March.  It was good stuff, but it didn't leave much time for sewing.  I'm back now and ready to catch up!

The first deadline to meet is the 4X5 Swap and I'm actually ahead of schedule!

 I made Rose Star blocks using English Paper Piecing.  It was wonderful to have a portable project to tote around.  I even decided to hand applique them to the backgrounds.

The pink, orange and yellow block is mine.  I like to think I was slightly ahead of the tangerine tango trend!  I pieced mine twice because the test block was a little too big.

Aqua with a touch of orange and yellow for Hive 11's caretaker, Kathleen.

 

This one for Anna was a little tricky.  Plum, cerise, coral and papaya.  Did I get it?

This was one of the first ones I made.  Pale blues and Denise Schmidt for Christine.

Black, red & yellow for Leona.  So fun!

Cool blues and greens for Amy.

 I can't wait to see all of my 4X5 blocks together.  I've decided to pass on the next round, so I'll end up with 18 blocks to play with.

It's been s long since I've posted anything, I almost forgot about Sew Modern Monday!

See you again soon!

Quilt Giveaway

 I never intended to go several weeks without blogging.  Life happens.  It's all good, I've just had other obligations, including Girl Scout cookies.

Karen Griska is running a giveaway to win this strippy quilt!  Run right over to the Selvage Blog to enter!

Do you remember when I made my section?  There it is at the very bottom of the quilt.

One of the reasons I haven't posted in a while is that there hasn't been much stitching going on around here.  My annual quilting getaway was last weekend, so I'll share some of those photos as soon as I'm done with today's cookie business.  See you later!