Sloanie and Regan Home from Hospital

Baby is better and everyone is home from the hospital.  Yay!  Thanks for the prayers.  Spent yesterday and today finishing a baby quilt and placemats for Tedi.  Will post pics of placemats when I get them back from Marilyn who does the bindings.  I did the binding on the babyquilt but it takes time and I think for this year my time is better spent getting projects to the binding point.

Baby blanket for Tea With Thee Chinese Auction

 I head a committee of 9 ladies from 5 churches and we do a tea for 160 ladies each year.  It is a lot of fun and we raise money for the local pregnancy center.  This year my only responsibilities are hosting a table which I love and use my aunt's tea set that she left me-and a baby quilt for a baby basket for auction.  Nice to have the quilt done.  I practiced some free form quilting-I need practice:)

Update on Sloanie

They have had a hard time of it.  Hopefully they will be home soon.  thanks for the prayers-they make all the difference.  My DIL is naturally beautiful but I can see the dark circles.  They are lowering the H2O and Sloanie is adapting to it.

Buried in Paperwork

I thought getting the contracts back in from the 7 speakers we are having next year at Friendship Quilters was the largest part of my job-HA! I finally finished the proposed budget yesterday and am about 1/4 done with the brochure.  Then I need to make and print up the sign-up forms and finish the gift bags and . . . However, it has been fun working with the board-a lovely group of ladies-and connecting with speakers I admire.  A lot of self imposed pressure hoping the guild will like them as much as I do. We are having: Helene Knott, Bonnie Hunter, Jan Krentz, Julia Zgliniec, Sally Collins, Patricia Pepe and Lenore Crawford.  I would love to see all of them but I am particularly bummed that I won't be able to see Lenore Crawford because of our proposed move.  She does the type of quilts I would love to do and hope to do in the future.

Since I don't have a WIP (except for the spray basted baby quilt) I will feature the dog of my heart.  She loves a ball more than any dog we have ever had.  I love our Lizzy.

After a long drought we are finally getting several days of rain-YAY!  We were planning a garage sale for Saturday, but I'd rather have the rain.

Prayer request: Our youngest granddaughter, Sloanie, is in ICU with a respiratory virus.  This is the 3rd or 4th time she has been hospitalized in the last year for respiratory issues.

Tardy Turtle

Tardy Turtle-officially the first Christmas present done!  This quilt was fun to work on. piecing, paper-piecing, and applique.  It will go to my son and daughter-in-law.  It was made from a Java House pattern and i have had the materials pulled for 2-3 years-definitely a UFO until yesterday and is on my UFO list for a Lovely Year of Finishes and Finish Along-both buttons on my blog page.  I changed the borders some and didn't add the extra orange the pattern called for.  My start was here. I was #47 on ALYOF goal page.

The quilting is a turtle panto edge to edge

We are going to a huge swapmeet tomorrow to sell motorcycles and parts-I hope.  We have been doing this sale for over 30 years and it is really a lot of fun.  Will check back in next week.

Exploring Color Workshop

A great day! I am really tired right now and my feet hurt from being on them all day but I believe it was a successful day.  Most ladies finished their project or came close to it.  I need to work on my presentation now that all the course materials are done. They have asked me to run the class again in May.  Wasn't sure how much information to share and how much time to allow for sewing.

Gift for coming to class

Maggie from Alaska, Felicia, Dianna, Carolyn, Lisa and Ruthie

Lisa, Ruthie, Lori, Maggie,Felicia and Dianna

Lisa out of her comfort zone-blacks with bright dots-really?

I believe Felicia was first done-either her or Dianna

Felicia's cover

Dianna's Cover

Carol did it her way:)

Petites Maisons Roses

Last post for Petites Maisons Roses. Binding is finished.  I just finished the stilettos-will post pics tomorrow.  Finally found the turkey lacers at Food 4 Less after going to Staters, Dollar Store, Michaels and Walmart.  33 cents for a pack of 8.  Tried to glue them this morning before coffee and ended up with Gorilla glue all over my hands when the tube split down the side.  What a mess.  Got most of it off during the day. They turned out really cute and I had all the beads from when I was making jewelry so the cost was 66 cents for 10 of them.

"Handle That" Totally Done!

The last time you will have to view Handle That! I needed a picture with the binding completed.  Work was great today-I really like high school kids! I want to make beaded stilettos for the students that signed up for my class but can't find the metal turkey lacer things that I make them out of.  Have the beads and glue-will look at Dollar Store and Michael's tomorrow.

I like the secondary design that the Kaffe Fassett border makes.

Tedi's quilt

I got Tedi's quilt back from Marilyn who puts bindings and sleeves on quilts and does an amazing job and is very reasonable.  I really like this quilt and am hoping my niece does as well.  It is so soft.  got to finish the placemats that go with it.

Last night I ran our guild's meeting for the first time.  I was nervous but had two comments after that let me know I didn't blow it at least.  When I get nervous, my sense of humor sneaks out in defense. The reason I didn't mind filling is was that my mentor, Susan Axelrod, was the speaker and I got to introduce her.  She showed 30 exquisite quilts and has a wonderful applique workshop View Here (scroll down to "What you Missed").  She is a fabulous teacher and has a beautiful trunk show.

I finished the two patterns needed for the Exploring Color Workshop on Saturday as well as the handout. Whew! Hours.  Need to make the stiletos that I am making for the participants and the sample I need and the templates and . . .too bad I am working the next 3 days-probably not the best planning on my part:0

Tardy Turtle is making me tardy

The Tardy Turtle quilt is a little more labor intensive that I thought.  Piecing the curved paperpieced part of the shells to the background pieces has taken 2 days so far-I don't work 8 hour days:) I hand appliqued 4 heads and 3 1/2 shells on last night.  Still have to piece 2 turtles before I can put the back together-maybe I'll finish today-would like to have the back done by today (not borders-just the middle)

Yesterday I started sewing at 10:30 but by 11: 45 I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open.  Went in for a short nap and woke up 3 hours later with a kitty pile on top of me.  Not feeling good last night and went to bed early.  Feeling fine today.  Should be able to sew for more than an hour, but I really can't sew for more than 3 hours at the machine.  I am a slow quilter. A tardy Turtle.  This may be a self portrait.

February Goal

My goal for February is to Finish the Tardy Turtle quilt.  I am giving it to the kids for Christmas 2014 and have had the material for 2 or 3 years.  So far I have paper pieced the shells and backgrounds

I love quilts with a bit of whimsy and this one has it.  It is paperpieced and appliqued and so far pretty easy and I am liking it!

I am supposed to post at the beginning of the month and then at the end for my finish.  I finished last months challenge early and forgot to post it so, since I threw myself out of the running for the end of year prize my motivation just got less:)  Oh well-the quilts are getting finished  and that is what really matters-I have always had an issue with time-it just seems to evade my sensibilities.  Check my sidebar for the button for A lovely year of finishes-there are still monthly prizes if you join now.