New Adventure

This small calendar wall quilt is a pattern given to the local quilt guild as a project last fall. I had all of the blocks completed but still needed to make the hundred and fifty half square triangles for the last border. Those have been completed the last two days. I still have some little details to finish on a couple of the blocks such as the handle on the umbrella. Now to get it quilted and bound.

The big adventure in my life started a couple of weeks ago when I went for my physical. A dark spot was detected on the mammogram that was not on the last one. So I was called in for a sonogram that showed the exact shape and size of the lump. The next day I had a biopsy that turned my breast into a blue/green/yellow batik-looking bruise. Three days later--yesterday--I had an appointment with the surgeon and made a decision about removing the lump. Today I am waiting for confirmation of the time for the surgery which should be within a week. This has been a surprise because no one in my immediate family has ever had breast cancer. My daughter-in-law is a surgery nurse, so she is helping guide the process. It's a new adventure for all of us. The prognosis is good and I'll keep you informed of my progress.

Back to Sewing

The sewing room has been a busy place today. This morning I finished washing an old quilt made by my grandmother. It had yellow stains, so I used a product called "Restoration" and soaked it overnight. I also made a quilt label for it so that I can give it to the next generation.

Last year I pieced a top called Vintage Moments by Marsha McCloskey. She is famous for feathered star blocks which makes up the middle of the quilt. Today I sewed the backing and delivered the quilt to my long arm quilter. So another quilt almost finished. I really love this quilt. I purchased the pattern and fabric several years ago and was waiting for my quilt skills to improve before making the quilt.

This afternoon I have been trimming 1.5 inch half square triangles for a small calendar quilt that I made this spring. The half square triangles will be the outer border. I still need some more triangles before I am ready to put on the final border. This little quilt has my first attempt at hand applique. I may even try applique again.

We are off to dinner with friends. A great ending to a holiday week.

Ready for Christmas

This is the stack of gifts my Bernina has been gloriously stitching for the last couple of months. I'll show you more after tomorrow. Most of the boxes and packages contain things that I have made or have embellished in some way for three children and spouses, seven grandchildren and three greatgranddaughters. This is the first year that I have not made several quilts. We are going to our son's house who lives just one mile west of us, so it all has to be moved in the morning. I have it sitting on my husband's creeper, so it will all move easily.

The napkins are from the OESD Christmas Collections 2008 #2. They are so fun to make and are beautiful. These have been made from some cloth napkins I found at WalMart. You do have to buy an extra to use for cutting the inserts. I am sure several people will get a set of cloth napkins next year.

I wish every a very Merry Christmas!

Jane

Embroidered Christmas Cards

Yesterday I made a trip to Lawrence to Bob's Bernina to get a few supplies. One of the items I picked up was the bonus OESD greeting card disk. This is the embroidered Christmas card. The cards are lovely and can be made for many occasions. Several people will have one in their mailbox soon.

I am also stitching the reindeer and sleigh that is part of the OESD Christmas 2008 collection. They are beautiful. I hope to show them to you when all the pieces have been stitched.

Card Holder

This is the business card holder that is part of the OESD Christmas Collections 2008. It is elegant. I have made it to send to a friend who works as an assistant superintendent in a school district. I know she will love it. I have also made two angels from the collection.

I have been very busy finishing up Christmas projects but can't publish any pictures until later. I still have another small sweatshirt jacket to make. I'll have that completed in a day or two. Many of the presents have been wrapped. Jake, serving in Iraq, should have received his box by now. I know he will like the food goodies and the electronic games that were wrapped in Christmas paper.

We have two grandchildren staying with us since Sunday while their parents are in Chicago at a meeting. We had a snow storm last night and this morning in Kansas--got about 4 inches of snow. Now it is hitting Chicago, so we may have them for another night. They are fun to have around and we have enjoyed them immensely. Spike, the rat terrier, is also visiting. He and Charlie, our Australian shepherd, are buddies and like to run around the house. We have been having a good time with everyone.

Christmas Apron

This is the apron that I received from Janet in the December exchange we had at Bob's Bernina in Lawrence. It was made by Janet and last year I received the napkins she made. Such a coincidence. Every first Wednesday of the month, Bob's has a sewing group that meets in the store. We share projects, learn about new techniques and tips, talk about Bernina feet, and make a small project. It is such a fun group with varied interests. I always learn something new at the meeting. A big thanks to Carrie and Diane who work so hard to make this an interesting learning time for everyone.

My Blue Visor

Today I worked on a visor that I can take with me to Arizona when we leave after Christmas. It is light blue in color. I completed the embroidery work and then added some crystals for a little added punch. I have also been working on digitizing some redwork. So far I have not gotten the design to look like I want. I did find a blog that had a lesson about redwork which was very informative. It will take me some time, but I will have a picture before long.
Our fifth wheel has been at the shop to take care of a refrigerator recall and a little problem with the bedroom slide. We were able to bring it home Friday, so with the nice weather, I have shampooed the carpets. Today I cleaned the rest of the trailer and generally have it ready for a big trip. Stowing my clothes, loading my sewing machine and projects, and stocking the fridge will have me ready for the trip. We will leave the day after Christmas--weather permitting.
This has been a long weekend for Charlie--our Australian shepherd. We are having a new deck put on the front of the house and Charlie just does not like someone banging on the house. Hopefully the job will be completed in another day.

Last sweatshirt post

I made two more sweatshirt jackets this weekend. They both are for great granddaughters. I just love putting the chenille on them. The chenille is the finishing touch the really make the jackets so cute! I used chenille for the flowers and and around the butterfly. On the back is a red flower for which I made my own chenille. It is really easy and works as well as the purchased chenille.

The gathering for the sleeve trim, neck trim, and bottom trim was all completed with the serger. I had to serge it three times to get it tight enough, but it was very stable when sewing onto the sweatshirt.

The white jacket still needs some little white buttons for the placket. The purple jacket is much brighter and the skirt has much more purple and pinks in it. Sorry the picture is not better. One sweatshirt is a size two and one is size three.

My other major project is to get the blocks ready for the guild members for tomorrow's meeting. The next donation quilt pattern and fabric has been chosen. It will be Midnight Garden from Possibilities. We will be giving out the pieced blocks and the directions for them tomorrow.

A Sweatshirt Jacket

Today I made another little girl's sweatshirt jacket. The cute jacket has horses that I stitched around with a blanket stitch. There are three additional horses on the back. The mane, tail, and horseshoes are made from chenille by the inch. This is another project from the booklet by Fran Morgan titled So Precious Sweatshirts. Her sweatshirts are very cute!

We had Thanksgiving dinner with our daughter and family in Pomona. She did a great job of cooking the meal. We did see our three great granddaughters. One is three years old and the other two are a year old. They are such fun.

A Great Wednesday

Today I have been working on a little girl's fancy sweatshirt jacket. I have it finished except for the buttons. This one will be a sample for the Overbrook Quilt Shop, but I am making three others for greatgranddaughters. One will be made like this one but the two others will be different. They are in a booklet by Fran Morgan called So Precious Sweatshirts which has six different styles. The butterfly is mostly made of chenille by the inch. It just makes the jacket so cute.

I finally ordered a new alphabet to try again on the design I am working on from my last post. The space in the middle of the letter must be relatively wide and that was very hard to find. I'll try another sample when I get a few minutes.

I made a trip to Kohl's to buy a mixer my DIL wanted. She wanted a certain Kitchen Aid mixer that was in the sale flyer. Well, I took one to the check-out and it was not the right one. So she called housewares to bring one and she brought the same one I had and then decided it was not the right one after looking at the flyer. So back we go to housewares to look--this woman had to be 70 or so--and she showed me one but it still was not the one in the ad. So up to the warehouse area and comes back and says it is in the stack in the aisle. Well it still was not the right one so back upstairs. 10 minutes later--and after conversing with a nice gentleman about Calphalon and finally telling him just to buy whatever his wife wants--she comes back with another gal who said they were out of the mixer in the flyer. So I ask her if I can have the $25 off on another one and she decides it is okay and heads to the checkout with me and I have the first one I picked up! So she has the cashier ring up the price (which was $50 off the regular price) and then gives me the sale flyer price (another $50 lower) and then deducts the $25 coupon I would get and then I get 15% off for senior citizen discount and get a $35 special Wednesday coupon. So the $350 mixer actually cost me a total of $175. And it is red--the color that Della wanted. But it took about 45 minutes.

I put some finishing touches on the apron with a pocket--I can't believe that I made the pocket and forgot to put it on. I also embroidered the sewing group's name and year on the bib of the apron. So it is boxed and ready to wrap.

The quilt shop in Burlingame has cloth dish towels, so I have put some angel redwork designs on 7 of them. Now I am hunting for some woodsy type of designs for another set.

Today I have been working on a design that I saw on America Sews. It was a quick explanation and so I have been trying different techniques to get the right look. Embroider a rather large outline alphabet of some kind on a t-shirt that you have put some coordinating fabric behind. After finishing the embroidery--cut a line into the middle of the letters on the t-shirt so that the backing fabric will show through. I just don't have the right kind of alphabet the has a wide enough space to show the fabric underneath. I'll just keep looking to find the alphabet I think will work. I'll show you a picture after I have washed and dried the shirts.

Apron Exchange

Today was spent helping out at the Overbook Quilt Connection shop. This is the Christmas open house with many new products from market in Houston.

So I had a few minutes to sew this morning and then finished my apron this evening. The apron is a cook's apron from Indygo Junction. My picture does not do it justice--it just does not have wrinkles. I should have had my husband model it for the picture!!?? This will be a gift for an apron exchange at my sewing group in December.

One new product that I really like is Mary Ellen's spray. It is a mild starch product that goes on gently and does not leave any flakes. I was not going to try it but eventually did and now I love it. It is great to use for sewing and on those clothes with stubborn wrinkles.

Kansas Postcard

Today I finished the sweatshirt for the quilt shop and took it in to them. I just had to get four black buttons from their basket to put on the last little touch. The quilt shop looks nice decorated for the holidays and playing great Christmas music.


The picture is of the postcard that I sent for my latest postcard exchange. The theme was fall and I chose sunflowers because they are at their very brightest during fall along the roadways. The background fabric is one printed for the central Kansas quilt shops for a hop. I especially love the subtle sunflowers in the background of the fabric, the towns of the shops, and the Kansas symbols. I also sent one to a friend in Texas who adores sunflowers. She should get her postcard in a couple of days. I sent a golf postcard to another friend in Amarillo.



Now I can get back to working on Christmas gifts.

Busy day

I had an old quilt that someone had given me. It had that dirty yellow grunge on it, so I used some "Restoration" to wash it. I soaked it for 30 minutes in the washing machine and then spun out the water. Then I soaked it overnight and washed it the next day. Some of the fabric was frayed so I decided to make some stuffed animals from the quilt. I used a simple pattern that has just two pieces. They are quick to make and look great.

Today I have been working on a sweatshirt with a cat design. I have the cat, tabs, and pocket finished. Tomorrow I will work on the facings.

Last night was a fun night. I went to the KU basketball game with my son, wife, and granddaughter. We had such a great time. Our seats were in the fourth row behind the KU bench. We saw the unveiling of the 2008 NCAA Champ banner before the game--that make the whole auditorium rock! I enjoyed watching new players starting to become a team.

Machine Embroidery Lesson

Today Elaine and I went to Topeka to the Bernina dealer for T-N-T 2008 or embroidery tips and techniques. The class was taught by Kevin, a Bernina educator. He was quite knowledgeable about the machines and the techniques, but his delivery was hard for me to attend to for six hours. There were a lot of colorful, maybe off-color, statements between him and the more youthful members of the audience. We sat with three other ladies at the machines to complete the embroidery techniques. One of my tablemates and one at the next table were friends and spent a great deal of time talking very loudly to each other. My ears are not as good as they were when I was younger, so I have to listen carefully to hear someone at the front of the room. It was fun to meet some new embroidery friends, see Joan and Suzy--old friends, have a few times during the day to check out new fabrics and patterns, and get some new embroidery ideas.

I enjoyed knowing more about the Bernina 640 that was at our table, found out some new techniques, and learned about several new-to-me products--like 606 a permanent spray used in machine applique and aquamesh plus. One new idea was to embroidery the tops of tall boots. The secret is to find a boot that has a zipper the goes into the arch area so the top can be flattened for embroidery and the bottom of the boot must be held during embroidering. One of the patterns used on towels was a mola design. They looked great on the towels. One suggestion was to do test-stitchouts on felt because it is so cheap and if it distorts, the design needs some work. We did get a CD of the three embroidery projects. One project was started with fabric paints and then had embroidery added--it was only a discussion project because it takes 12 hours for the paint to dry. I would rather have had a hand-on project.

It is always fun to have new ideas to think about.

Fabric Postcards

I have been working on postcards for an exchange. I am a couple of weeks late for the exchange but will have them completed tomorrow or Saturday. I was going to do a small landscape of the Flint Hills in fall but it just did not look like I wanted. Then I thought about using the beautiful trees that I have in the yard or the ones I took as I went to Overbrook this week. In the end, I decided to use some special fabric I received from a quilter friend that was printed for the central Kansas shop hop. The fabric is a soft green with sunflowers in the background and Kansas symbols and shop hop towns printed on the fabric. I know they are not works of art but I really like the fabric. I'll show you the cards when I have them completed.

Sewing and Sewing

Last week at Bernina sewing group our project was a kitchen towel with prairie points. I brought the project home to make. It will make a nice small gift for someone.

I have been busy for a couple of days with making Christmas presents. So I am sorry to say you will get no clues and no pictures for a while because my grandkids may be reading my blog. Most of the things I have been doing are either embroidery or serging. I love both.

One of the tools I have been using is electric scissors from Black and Decker. It is my tool of choice to cut around pattern pieces. I am cutting up an old quilt and they make the task very easy. I bought them for $10 at Lowes last year. They usually go on sale after Christmas.

Learning Day

Friday was a great day. I went to a quilter friend's house to help her feel more comfortable with machine embroidery and machine applique. She had admired my Wildflowers quilt that is machine applique and has the pattern for it. We spent the day putting her machine through its paces. She has a Bernina 630 and I have a 440, so some of the time was figuring out the correct symbol to touch on her machine. We had a fun time learning together and sharing our current projects. She has a couple of quilts in the works and I showed her one of the Christmas presents I am making for grandkids. She also has Designer Plus V5 and we played with it on her computer so she would have the basic skills to start designing.

Great friend, great lunch, great day.

Sample for the Quilt Shop

I just finished a sample for the quilt shop in Overbrook. It is one of the patterns that we purchased from a designer at the Houston Quilt Market. She designs under the name of Lunch Box Quilts. It is an easy quilt to make and great for a beginner. I forgot to take a picture of the one I made, so this is one from the front of the pattern. There is also a large bed quilt.

At my Bernina dealer, I purchased a 20 inch fuzzy bear that can be embroidered. So that is going to be my next project. I have some special icons that I want to use with each of my special friends. I'll get a picture before I wrap them.

The weather has turned cold and blustery here in Kansas. Winter seems to think it can just roar its way into our lives. Arizona is looking better each day.

Home from the Houston Quilt Show

The doors are opening and the crowd is starting.

Thanks to a wifi system that wouldn't work at our hotel, I have not had the ability to connect to the Internet since last weekend. I have a few pictures, but we were so busy that I was not able to get pictures that show the true picture of the crowds. The aisles were packed with people from early in the morning until closing each day. We would arrive at the convention center at least an hour before the show started. This gave us time to restock the Overbrook Quilt Connection booth and then have time to visit other booths to check out their wares.

There were 20+ rows of vendors of every variety. All major sewing machines were represented. Many quilt personalities were there, including Ricky Tims, Eleanor Burns (we also saw her at a local quilt shop purchasing fabric), Mark Lipinski, Jenny Haskins, Nancy Zieman, and others I missed seeing. One of the hot sellers at the show was a mechanical chalk pencil from Bohin in France. It is so easy to use. Look for it at your local quilt shop. One of our big sellers was the Quilt-a-Card, which I demonstrated. It made people smile when they saw how easy it was to make a unique card. You can order them from the Overbrook Quilt Connection. Our booth had many quilts and patterns from Vicky Lawrence of Prairie's Edge Patchwork. The quilt shop has many kits for her patterns. Her Mountain Lily pattern was our best seller.

Sharon Shamber, once again, won top honors at the quilt show with a red and soft brown quilt. The winner of the thread quilt category was an embroidery quilt that had a small amount of quilting but was mostly embroidery. The lace design around the edge came from Zundt.

One of the cutest displays was this shirt at the Rowenta booth that was made with 25 yards of pink fabric.

Houston Fall Market

The Fall Quilt Market has been great fun. Market started on Saturday with retailers checking out the newest patterns, fabrics, buttons, and other miscellaneous sewing and quilting items. On Saturday, Roxane--quilt shop owner--and I walked the entire floor to see what things were new and the vendors that were there. After lunch we started on the first row to stop at most of the booths to see their wares and make notes on items she wanted to order. Many of the smaller items, like patterns, she purchased and took with her. Some of the items were ordered to be shipped ASAP.

It was fun to talk with the vendors. The our other two people worked Vicky's booth which was selling her latest patterns. Her newest pattern, splitting image, has been a big hit. It is a very simple pattern but looks complex and is an awesome quilt. This quilt is made with fabric from Marcus Brothers called Mocha Meringue. Roxanne and I work the booth during lunch when Vicky and Jeanette need a break.

I have chatted with people from all over the US and also met three ladies from New Zealand. There were such fun. We are across the aisle from Thangles and the owners are a very nice couple.

I am having a good time. I spent some time today walking through the quilt show. The quilts are great pieces of art. I always feel like such a neophyte after seeing quilts at a national show...I'll include pictures when I have time to upload them.

Houston here we come

It was an uneventful 14 hours of driving today. I am in Houston to attend market with Roxane from the Overbrook Quilt Connection and help Vicky set up her booth for market. Then we will change gears and set up the booth for OQC and be here for the quilt festival.

Yesterday afternoon, I headed to the quilt shop to help load the trailer. It had been raining all day in Kansas, so we had to contend with that. But we loaded everything in fine time.

Pictures and more information later in the week.

Two exciting events

Becky from the Kansas City area had her ticket drawn Sunday afternoon at the end of the quilt show as winner of the donation quilt. She came to my house today to retrieve her treasure and we spent a fun hour talking quilting. This is the second quilt that she has won from this area--she won a quilt from the Overbrook Quilt Connection after the April quilt shop hop. In fact, she purchased her winning ticket for this quilt at the shop hop. It was great fun to meet her and to know that she will cherish our quilt.

The donation quilt of the Santa Fe Trail Quilt Guild was the most extraordinary that I have ever seen made by many members of a guild. I know I was part of making it, but I still love it. All members were given a piece of the focus fabric and then asked to make a block of their choice. The blocks were set together and then it was quilted by JoAnn Rodgers, our present secretary and a former president of the guild. Her quilting helped made it a great quilt.

This afternoon I attended the 830 Bernina party at Bob's Bernina in Lawrence. It was fun to learn more about the newest Bernina. I would have to get a job to afford it at the present time. I did get to sew on the machine and also watch it embroider a design--1000 stitches per minute. Refreshments, a goodie bag, prize drawings, and new friends made this a great afternoon.

Bernina's 830

The 2008 SFT Quilt Show is history!

Carol Vermillion received the large quilt viewers' choice ribbon. Her quilt was a sunflowerquilt with an applique center and pieced blocks. She was thrilled with the honor. Her quilt is the one pictured.

Monica Prim received the small quilt viewers' choice ribbon. The quilt was a hand-embroidery, colored block center with 30's reproduction fabrics. I will try to get a picture of the quilt later. Congratulations to both winners.

The Donation quilt was won by a lady from Kansas City who had visited the show on Saturday. She was just tickled that I had called her and so surprised that she had won. We talked for quite a while as the idea of winning the quilt sunk in...I am so happy it went to someone so overjoyed to have it.

The quilt show was a great unifying experience for all the guild members. Everyone was there to help set up the show and everyone was there to help tear it down. We started at 4 pm and we were all walking out the door one hour later. Everyone just quietly went to work taking the quilts off of the frames, with others dismantling frames, and then carrying the frame to the trailers to be taken to storage.
Everyone enjoyed the quilt show. We usually have a show every third year, but there is talk of having a show every other year. It has been fun to be part of this group.

Santa Fe Trail Quilt Show

The quilt show is great! Everyone showed up at 6pm last night to help set up the quilt show. We had purchased some used wooden frames that were only partially put together. So after everything looking like chaos for an hour because all the holes were drilled differently, we made progress getting them together. In another hour we had the frames set up. At 10 we had the gym cleaned up and ready for the show. Everyone pitched in and made the work enjoyable.

We have 139 quilts in the show. I was worried that we would have just a few quilts, but everyone brought out their best for display. We are a small guild with 20 members but we are growing and learning from each other. Visitors have the opportunity to vote on their favorite quilts. Half of the quilts had points as I left this evening. We have a variety of quilts that tickles someone's fancy.

I have met several people who I have only known online. It was so nice for them to visit the show and introduce themselves. Quilters are so friendly and love to talk about their work and know about the work of others.

We will be open tomorrow afternoon. Then it planning for the next show...

Holiday Redwork

It is finished! This morning I stitched out the corner snowflakes and put the top and bottom borders on. I had it hanging on the design wall and was admiring it when I saw the "Let it snow" blocks said "It let snow". I had looked at that for two days and never read it...With a little unstitching and some restitching I really did have the top completed in another 30 minutes. Now to decide how to quilt it.

I am very, very pleased with it. The quilt is called Holiday Redwork by The Stitch Connection. I purchased it as a kit from a vendor at the Wichita Quilt show.

My guild's quilt show is this weekend, so stopped at the school in Overbrook to see what I needed to know about our space. Then checked on the frames to see if we would need more hanging straps and what they looked like so I could make a few extras. I think we should be ready for set-up tomorrow evening after school. We are not a big group but we should have some fantastic quilts.

It's almost completed!

The Christmas quilt is almost finished. I still have the top and bottom borders to stitch onto the quilt. My sewing time was cut short today because of going to Topeka for a medical test for my husband.

I did get him to make a quick stop at JoAnn's for some pins and a pattern. I have a couple of older quilts from which I want to make memory bears. Lucy's blog shows the bears that she is making from her mother's clothes. I really like her pattern and plan to use it.

PINK & GREEN

Almost two years ago I wanted to make a quilt with Kaffe Fassett fabric. I decided to make a pink quilt similar to one I had seen at one of his trunk shows at a Kansas City quilt shop. Well, I never could figure out which pattern he used so I finally made the PINK quilt with Turning Twenty Again. Then since I was going to give it to a granddaughter I had to made a GREEN quilt for the other granddaughter. The picture does not do justice to the boldness of the fabrics. Both quilts seem to shock those who see them but they are well-loved by their owners. When I make quilts for kids, I usually embroider the label into the quilt after it is quilted.

The Christmas embroidery quilt is taking shape. I have a few more pieces to sew together before starting to work on the border. I really do like it. I may make another one that has some appliqued pieces instead of just redwork.

It's coming together!

Most of the squares have been embroidered. They are relatively quick when the colors are white for basting and then mostly redwork with a few green trees sprinkled in. I washed the red sashing fabric three times to get out most of the dye that was turning the colorcatcher bright pink. So I was ready to put a few of the cute blocks together before quitting this evening. They are really cute and this will make a smashing Christmas quilt!

It has been a cool day with a gentle rain most of the afternoon and evening. The temperatures have dropped into the 50's. We may get some more rain during the night.

Three more quilts to put sleeves on for the quilt show. That will be the first order of business tomorrow.

Starting a New Quilt

Earlier this year I attended the Wichita Quilt Show. This was the first time that I saw so many quilts at a show that I really liked. While I was there, I purchased an embroidery quilt kit that is a Christmas redwork-like pattern by The Stitch Connection. Today I started by cutting the background fabric and stitching out some of the designs.

My biggest problem with an embroidery quilt is deciding which stabilizer to use. I know to use cutaway with stretchy fabric and tearaway with stable fabric. Since this is a redwork design, I have decided to use water soluble stabilizer. It is working okay.

Special Saturday

The heart quilt top is finished. The borders are pieced blocks. I have them sewn onto the quilt top and thought about quilting the top but could not find a good fabric to use for backing. So guess I will just give it to the shop unquilted.

My granddaughter is spending the night. This afternoon she climbed the ladder to pick the apples from the tip top of the tree. There are only about three apples left that were a bit too high for her. Then it was back to the kitchen to make an apple pie. Haley loves to cook. I taught her how to make an oil crust and she liked how easy it is. We each had a piece of pie while it was still warm. Mmmmmm good!

Getting it Together

Today is my "baby's" birthday. Joe is 43. So the first order of business was making a birthday cake for his birthday dinner that will be late this evening. Joe and my husband are farmers, so they are busy with corn harvest and will not finish today until long after dark.

The big project for the day was finishing the borders of the heart quilt. They were completed in time to put the heart blocks together. So a preliminary picture is in order before I upload the official one. Each of the hearts are machine applique embroidery with different types of fancy stitching around the heart. This quilt is being made as a sample for the Overbrook Quilt Connection. Roxane, the owner, picked out the colors. I would have picked out more medium browns and more bright pinks. But I enjoy the fabrics she chooses. The quilt top should be finished tomorrow.

Sewing up a Storm (or creating a cloud of threads)

The Santa Fe Quilt Guild's show is next Saturday and Sunday. So I have had to make a list each evening of the things to have completed the next day. Today was putting on sleeves and a few missing labels. The quilts are almost ready for the show.

My grandson is in Iraq, so today is the day I send his monthly package. His favorite treat from grandma is homemade jerky. Then he has no-bake chocolate cookies and snickerdoodles. I add a few personal items like toothpaste, aspirin, shampoo, and deodorant. After packing all the items in a flat rate box, I take up the little spaces with wrapped hard candy. He says he is always excited to get one of my boxes of love.

My quilting enthusiasm right now is embroidery quilts. I am working on a heart quilt by Smith Street Designs. The hearts are finished and now I am working on sewing the strips around the blocks. It has been a busy day!