100th Post Give-Away!

Wow...100 posts! I do enjoy looking back over my posts, and reading your comments which have always been so full of encouragement and humor. Thank you all for taking the time to stop by and leave a comment or just to take a look at what I have been up to. I also want to thank all of you bloggers out there that I follow as you have taught me quite a few things about quilting and shared your thoughts and life. I am so glad I discovered blogging!

Now, for the give-away. I purchased these Fat Quarters in Hopewell, Va at the Needle-N-Thread Quilt Shop. This is a great shop and has lots of new fabric patterns that I had not seen anywhere else. The fabric line is called Noble Family by Mizuki for Benartex. Now what better name could I find for my family of bloggers than Noble Family? I am also including one of my Cathedral Window patterns just to add a little something more personal to me. So, if you would like to win these lovely fabrics, leave a comment telling me so. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but you do have to have an email address so that I can get in touch with you. You can send me an email telling me your email address in private if you like, but I will not include any names in the drawing that I don't have a way of contacting you if you win. I will draw a name on Sunday, November 23rd!!!

And here is what I have been working on this week. It is my Jingle Bell Twist quilt that I started at the retreat a couple of weeks ago and finished the top tonight. This was a workshop taught by Lynn Buske and was a ton of fun. Now to get this one quilted and ready to use during the holidays.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to leave a comment so I can get you in the drawing!

America, the beautiful...

I thought I would share some of the images I captured while in Washington this past week. The ride to and from DC through North Carolina and Virginia was absolutely beautiful and reminds us even in these hard times, that God is good and is still in control. The memorial is the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, VA and is just breathtaking in its simplicity and design. The Cemetery is the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington and was just amazing in its beauty, size and history. I would like to go back there and spend a couple of hours just walking the paths and reading the markers and enjoying the beauty. The red tree was in Hopewell, Virginia and no way was I able to capture the glorious red against the bright yellows in this picture. God's beauty surrounds us if we just take a moment to enjoy it.

Within the next day or two I will be hosting a give-away for my 100th post, so stay tuned. I have some beautiful FQ's that I purchased at the quilt shop in Hopewell, Va and you will want to get your name in the hat for these!

Don't leave home without "it".....

"It" being your cord that lets you download pictures from your camera. I am on a week's conference in Washington, DC and spent most of yesterday in the small town of Hopewell, Virginia - where U Grant had his headquarters during the Northern Invasion (some call the Civil War). It was a great day and I got some fantastic pictures, including some at a sweet lil quilt shop called Needle and Thread in Hopewell. I also picked up some FQ's that I intend to use as a give-away on my 100th post which is just around the corner. We spent some time crossing some really neat bridges over the James River and I have some great pictures of that too!
Fred and I drove on into Washington last night, and I started my workshops this morning. I had a free afternoon though, and we visited the Pentagon Memorial and the Air Force Memorial, as well as some shopping at the Pentagon City Mall. Sure was a nice afternoon, but alas, I can't share any of the great pictures I took. I have been working on some stitcheries and enjoying a little relaxation in the evenings at the hotel, but am already missing home and family.
Rather than leave you without anything colorful, I am showing a picture of my KScope Design in EQ6 that I am still working on. I had orginally thought NO BLACK on my quilt, but then I just had to try it and of course, I like it. What do you think?

Check out Christines's great give-away and beautiful blog: http://onceuponaquilt.blogspot.com/2008/11/1st-blog-anniversary-give-away.html


Happy Stitching!

Kitchen update

So many of you have said you are enjoying following my kitchen renovation project, ok...so two of you said that...I thought I would show you some pictures with the new paint in place: The first picture is the area of the kitchen that used to house the washer and dryer and the ugly grey fuse box. We are going to add one more cabinet in front of the fuse box which will just cover the the fuse box and provide me a place to store bread, which will allow me to get rid of the ugly bread box o the far right.

And just to let you know that I did accomplish something at retreat, although I did not take any pictures I am showing my Jingle Bell Swirl project from a 4-Patch Swirl workshop I took with Lyn Buske. It sure was a fun workshop and I will show more later on this. All the blocks are made from the same fabric which will also be used in the border. More on this project later.

I also finished up my October block for the redwork BOM that many of us in the guild are doing. This owl seems to be missing an eye - but then it is Halloween!

Its Retreat Time!!!!!

Woohooo....time to leave for retreat, as soon as I finish this message. This is the Quilters of South Carolina and is so much fun each year. Looks like I am packing for a month, don't ya think? At least in quilt goodies. That small red suitcase is my clothes and personal stuff, hmmmm guess you see where my priorities are. I will be back Sunday afternoon.

This past Wednesday my friends and I exchanged our October blocks. Cheryl has become a skilled paper piecer and sent us camping in the mountains with her cheerful yellow tent block. Carol did a beautiful job with oriental fabric and fan blocks. Notice the perfect embroidery stitching - she's a pro at handwork. And me, well I just put together a pumpkin as everyone needs a pumpkin in October, right?
I hope you all have a great weekend - I know I will!

Early to bed...Early to rise...

Makes for some great quilting time!!! I must have been really tired yesterday as I went to bed at 9:00pm and woke up ready to go at 4:00am this morning. The house is always so nice and quiet early in the morning, no tv going, everyone sleeping - gotta love that! I want to share some pictures with you of various things and hope you will grab a cup of coffee, as I am doing, and read along.

Kitchen update - we now have a big gaping hole in the wall that separates my dining room from the kitchen. This is actually where a window used to be before we added a deck onto the house which eventually we closed in and made into a dining room.

My daughter-in-law, Holli, sells tupperware, and I promised to do a party for her on October 28..YIKES!! Hubby has promised it will be finished in by then. Sure would be nice if I could get the kitchen painted by then too, but I don't think that is going to happen. Poor hubby got a sliver of steel in his leg yesterday removing the brick on the dining room side of that hole. Took over an hour to get the bleeding to stop even though the cut was very small. He just felt like something was in there, although he could not see it from the outside or feel it - so being the handy carpenter man he is, he whipped out his stud finder, moved it over his leg and sure enough, there was metal in there. Four hours later after a trip to the medical clinic he returned home, with the metal sliver in a jar and funny stories about how he entertained the folks at the medical clinic with his stud finder and leg. His doctor even borrowed it to check out another patients foot that he had removed a nail from to make sure he had gotten all the metal out, LOL. Now this is a non-electronic plastic thingie that he bought probably 20 years ago at Sears for around $1 !

I did a little decorating this morning, hanging my fall wall hanging over the fireplace. Don't look too close as I did not finish the quilting! I want to hand quilt it, but I also want to use it this year - so, I just machine stitched in the ditch around the sashing, and will finish the quilting once I put up the Christmas wall hanging. The pilgrims I found at Tuesday Mornings - one of my all time favorite places to browse and all to often to buy.

My quilt club met yesterday and we worked on our Forever Friends table runner. Here is mine finished and on the coffee table in the living room. This was a lot of fun and most of the ladies just about finished theirs at the meeting.

We meet at Hobby Lobby, and they were having a 50% off sale on all the Fall decorating stuff, so I picked up the candle holder, garland and the Seasons of Thanks shown shown on the mantle.

.....And last, but certainly not least, my two friends, Carol and Cheryl, and I were finally able to swap our September Friendship Blocks this past Wednesday - October 8. You know how it is, life just gets in the way sometimes of doing what we want. Here they are. Cheryl did the cute lil fella in the yellow raincoat and red boots, Carol the delicate pink flower and I did the Autumn maple leaf. We are really having fun with these blocks!

Thanks for dropping by! (I probably should have said that two paragraphs ago.)

Fireplace wall hanging...

Just thought I would show you all what I have been working on tonight while watching the scintillating (NOT)debate..a fall wall hanging that will go over my fireplace.


The center picture is a panel that also had the smaller pictures with it. I purchased FQ's to match to create a look of tile . I still have the sashing at the top and bottom rows to add and then I can start quilting it. Just simple quilting in the ditch around the "tiles" and something fancier in the center. I do love this fabric though.



I also finished up my Flowers block in the NPNT project: The blocks are laying on my ironing board and thus the weird background.

Hope you have all had a pleasant evening, and definitely time for me to go to bed.

A little of this.....a little of that.....

...and not much of anything to share with you all!

This being Vintage Thursday, I thought I would share one of my treasures with you. This is a cameo necklace that belonged to my maternal Grandmother. Its one of the few things of hers that I have, and it is very special to me.

I have been spending my evenings getting ready for two workshops this month - one being a fall table runner that I call Forever Friends. I have put together kits to make these and will be presenting this project to my club on Saturday, 11th.

And then there is the Cathedral Window workshop that I will be presenting at the Quilters of South Carolina retreat at the end of this month. I have the kits all together and started making a new CW quilt to use as a demo model. I do love this pattern and hope I can present it well enough at the conference to get the ladies coming to my workshop excited about making one. This is a first for me and needless to say, I am just a little aprehensive.

I have stated another NPNT block and finished another friendship block that I hope to be able to show you soon. So00000.....a little of this, a little of that, but nothing "finished."

Happy stitching!

York County Quilter's Quilt Show

Wow..what a week! I was out of town Monday - Wednesday for a business conference and then came home to our guild's bi-annual quilt show, starting Thursday night with the pre-show party for guild members and their guests and then the show on Friday and Saturday. Saturday night was my youngest daughter's 23 birthday, so pizza and cake and friends over and lots of laughter ruled the house that night. Then Sunday, was a family celebration of birthdays, for my daughter Ellen, by brother Jack (a little older than 23) and my niece, Cindy, who actually could not come. I fixed a BBQ dinner complete with home made potato salad, slaw and baked beans with a vanilla/chocolate swirl cake. Sorry no picture, but this time I was just so tired pictures were not on my mind. I am showing some pictures from the show below, just a taste of all the beautiful quilts at the show. I will show all the prize winners when I get the official cd of the show, as the photographers pictures are much better than any I can take.


A gorgeous Mariner's compass - perfect points everywhere.
And here is my little butterfly quilt made in Year 2000. It has a special butterfly with the sparkly 2000 fabric.

And this quilt was made by a great quilter and friend Linda Dellinger. Her father was a Prisoner of War in the Vietnam War and she makes these quilts in honor of POW's. You can't see it very well in the picture, but names of POW's are embroidered on the blocks.

I won a door prize at the pre-show party. A FQ pack from Quilter's Loft in Mooresville, NC. What a wonderful prize. I did not take any ribbons on my quilts in the show, but I sure did come home with a special prize!

And just a little product endorsement - when you are tired, hungry, and need a treat, might I recommend a vanilla coffee milkshake from Chick-fil-A ! Oh my, so yummmmmmy!

Home from Richmond....

I am about two days behind in my blog posting, as my guild is in the midst of our bi-annual quilt show and as the treasurer and board member I am totally involved in that and little else. I did want to share with you some beautiful fabrics I received from Kathy of The Humble Quilter. Remember that Butterfly pattern from the previous post? Well here it is again with the fabrics Kathy sent me - don't you think these are just perfect for a butterfly? I just got all giddy when I saw them and how they went so well with the pattern I bought in Richmond. Thank you Kathy!!!!! She included the neatest press bar too. I love using these when I am piecing and don't want to fire up the iron.

Need to get busy now getting my demo ready for the show tomorrow - doing one on Back Basting Applique. I am way behind in reading blogs, but I will get caught up - hmmm..maybe tomorrow, or the next day. Pictures from the show will be coming around next week.

Quilting Adventures

I made it safe and sound (after 5 1/2 hours non-stop driving) to Richmond, Va and hurridly checked in to the hotel and made a dash for the quilt shop Quilting Adventures. If you are ever in this neck of the woods (just a hop, skip & jump off Interstate 64, north of Richmond) you have got to check out this shop. Very friendly salespeople, and there was a class going on in the back and everyone was laughing and just having the best time. The fabric selections are fantastic and lots of other goodies, like buttons, yarns, patterns, and more.

Of course I had to do my part to help support such a great shop. I bought some fabrics to use in my Nice People Nice Things quilt, a beautiful butterfly stain glass pattern, some needles and a birthday gift for a dear friend next month. The gift will just have to wait and be shown another time but I bet she will like it. I also made a dash to Books a Million and picked up the Quilt Sampler magazine and the book Atonement. Now I am all set for a relaxing evening here at the hotel. The large butterfly picture is the one that was on display in the quilt shop and it is absolutely gorgeous. They teach a class for this one!

And lest any of you think I went hungry (no snickering allowed) I stopped off the Famous Dave's Award Winning Pit BBQ Resturant and picked up a plate to bring back to the room. Ummmmm...sorry, no picture of that - but it sure was good and I was hungry.

Forever Friends Table Runner

Finished! Is there any lovelier word in the English language? I guess I should qualify that - "finished" when applied to a project. This is a table runner I designed in EQ6 and will be putting into a kit for Stitchin' Friends (my quilt club) to make in October. Not sure you can see it in the picture, but the fabrics just sparkle.

I have another finish to report as well, but the picture will have to wait for another day. I finished my Granddaughter Tess's quilt, dust ruffle and bed pillow. I will be giving it to her tomorrow and my daughter will hopefully get some pictures for me of the setup in Tess's room.

I will be leaving for Richmond Va tomorrow for a business meeting and just hope I can find gas! Its becoming expensive and scare around here. Prices jumped from $3.55 on Thursday to $4.09 today and my daughter took a picture of a Flying J close to our house selling it for $4.89! She sent it in to a the price gauging patrol.

Hope you all have a great week. My guild's quilt show starts on Friday with the pre-show party on Thursday night. There will definitely be pictures of that to show!

Do Not Use......

Hand quilting thread in your sewing machine! I had a note from one of you nice bloggers that cautioned about using handquilting thread that is glazed in your sewing machine, which is exactly what I had done. She indicated that it can really mess up your machine, and she knows this by experience! Now I did not have a problem with it, but this is the first time I have used it and its an old machine with all metal parts (not sure if that matters) but I won''t be doing it again. I have also removed reference to the use of handquilting thread from my previous post.
I do so humbly apologize if I have tempted any of you into trying this .

Quilting frenzy

I spent most of my Saturday, right here in front of this New Home machine quilting on Tess's quilt (my granddaughter - who just moved into a big girl bed at the age of 3 and needs her big girl quilt!). The New Home machine is a favorite of mine. I can't remember exactly when I got it, but I think it was before my youngest child was born and she turns 23 on the 2oth of this month. Happy Birthday, Ellen! I discovered that if I put a table behind my cutting table and quilt there - I have great support for the quilt and a lot less drag.

I finished my second block in the Nice People Nice Things pattern - this one is Innocence (my picture is not the best in the world, and I was afraid you could not read my stitchery.)

Check out this beautiful little wall hanging that Joan is giving away!http://makinquilts.blogspot.com/2008/09/give-away-sunday.html

Another GREAT birthday give-away at :http://janesfabrics.blogspot.com/ !

Happy Sunday!

Friendship Block #3

Yesterday my friends and I swapped our August Friendship blocks. We had to postpone one week due to a family emergency last week, but all is well (kinda) and we got to swap blocks.

Carol made the very elegant tulip block. You got to love these fabrics and she did a great job. Cheryls is the sewing machine - don't you just love it! Carol and Cheryl are both new to paper piecing, but they look like pros with these blocks. Mine is the dresden plate that I used English paper piecing to make.

I have started quilting my granddaughter Tess's quilt and its about time, don't you think Tess? I have really been having a time marking this quilt - started with a blue water soluble pen, but ran out of ink. Went through three chalk pencils that I could not find a pencil sharpener to fix the point. I was about to give it up, when I remembered someone blogging about using the Golden Threads (I think I have that right) paper to draw their quilting patterns - and don't you know, I have some of that! So I am going to try that today and I will let you know how it goes.

And yeehaw..I am staying home today to quilt! I was supposed to be off this week for my summer vacation, but gas prices got in the way and we decided to stay home and spend the money on the house. Fred did take his week to do some family research in West Virginia, staying for a week after our family reunion, but I have not taken time off this summer and I think I am due. I was off Thursday - Monday as planned, but geez I worked so hard on the carpet installation, I don't call that a vacation!

Happy stitchin!