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!