Squishy mail

Three wonderful packages awaited my return from Ohio--all giveaways I was lucky enough to win.   I could hardly wait to open them.

First, from Leisure Arts, a copy of Pat Sloan's book.  I won mine from Amy.  Thanks Amy, Pat, and Leisure Arts!  I love all the back stories and photos of Ireland sights.  The quilt on the cover is adorable.

Next was this lovely collection of greens from Kathy's Quilts, all the way from Canada.  I guessed her favorite block :)  Thank you, Kathy!  You know my favorite color is green.

And because I guessed that Fuzzy was a duck, I won from Candace at Squash House Quilts, this wonderful pattern from Stephanie of Loft Creations, for which Candace is a stunt sewist, and fabric plus handles to make the bag.  Thanks, Candace!

Home again, home again

Home was a welcome sight yesterday after a long day spent at the Cincinnati airport.  But more about that later.  My mom, my sister and I were the privileged guests of our cousin Florence, who was a more than wonderful hostess, and we will definitely book that B&B again for next year!  We had a great time and I've got a lot of photos to share in the next few posts, but will just start with one of my favorites from the International Quilt Festival held in Cincinnati:

The quilter recreated all the proportions, joy, and movement just beautifully in her quilt.

Isn't her granddaughter's face adorable?

All photos will biggify if you click on them.

More to come, but for now I'll be catching up on home life, laundry, blogland, work, and sleep!

Off to the Wild Blue Yonder

Well, not exactly wild, but it is Ohio!  My mom and I are off to Cincinnati to go to the International Quilt Festival being held for the first time in that city.  My sister Kathy will join us from St. Louis.  Other outings to museums and nearby attractions are planned by our loveliest hostess, Cousin Florence.  We will have a great time since we are all of the same mind and never set out to have a bad one!  I'll be back with words and pictures next week. 

While in Cincinnati I'll get a chance to see this quilt again, which I made for Florence four years ago upon her retirement from nursing.  It was the first time I bought and used a jelly roll, having fallen in love with the fabric line, Sanctuary, by 3 Sisters, a Moda product.  So soft and pretty!

Tuesday's Orts--April 5, 2011

Today's orts are as varied as always.  I'm a bit distracted!

• Being a WORD girl, I am often bothered by phrases people utter unthinkingly, like "already pre-cut" and "already pre-stained".  Somehow the double positive is more annoying than a double negative.
• I've been keeping an eye on Cincinnati weather, since my Mom and I will fly there on Thursday.  Seems my raincoat and a lightning rod will be necessary.
• Friday was April Fool's Day, and the ladies at the office locked the gate to the empty parking lot and parked in front of building, pulled all the blinds down, and were going to turn on the alarm system and hide when I arrived.  Unfortunately they caught the file clerk instead of me because I took the day off unexpectedly. 
• Traffic rant:  Folks who aggressively push shopping carts around in stores should be assigned one of those bicycle flags that sticks up so you can avoid them.
• The satisfaction of finishing two quilts last week lent quite a glow to my weekend.  I felt very free to rummage and plan my next piecing project.  I decided to play with leftovers inspired by the red and white quilt exhibition in New York.  Some broken dishes blocks set into a table runner. 
• Grant has been doing a lot of cleanup in the planting beds.  I see seedlings and mulch in my future.
• One day last week I took a lunch break at a local hamburger joint.  I recognized a former classmate I hadn't seen in 30 years.  The reason I recognized him was because he had the locker below mine for seven years while we went through junior and high school--they were assigned alphabetically.  He recognized me immediately too!
• Last week's record hot spell erased the last vestiges of snow from our local mountains:

Photo of the Topa Topa Mountains from about a week ago.  It is unusual for there to be snow this late in the year but it is so pretty to look at way up there on the mountains!

Design Wall Monday--April 4, 2011

On my design wall today is a sewing project of a different sort:

A Save This Date card for DD Elaine's upcoming wedding.  Here is our mock up, which was inspired by a bridal magazine's article.  The fabric is frayed at the bottom, stitched on, and a card with the date and their names and wedding website is attached under the fabric.

She got this free photo image of gingko leaves off the internet and had them printed at CVS, 4 x 6 size.  I told her that gingkos are a symbol of longevity, being one of the oldest species of trees on earth--a good omen for a long married life!

I cut rectangles out of inexpensive muslin while Elaine did all the stamping. 

We printed out the information onto nice quality paper and I cut up the sheets with my rotary cutter.  Here Elaine is affixing the last one with double stick squares from my scrapbooking supplies.

There were only 12 tabs left so we finished just in time!

I chain stitched all the fabric pieces to the photos with a green rayon thread and a regular needle.  This was such a cute idea and it was fun crafting all afternoon with Elaine.  Mini supervised as usual.  See Judy's Patchwork Times for more Design Walls.

Beyond the Garden Gate

In record breaking speed, for me, I met another deadline today, completing the Brown Bag Quilt Contest project, from the Sunday Picnic pattern by Heather Mulder Peterson.  I have renamed my version Beyond the Garden Gate.
 

Mini helpfully anchored part of it while I quilted into the wee hours. Thanks, Mini!

K's clamps came in handy for the photo shoot in the backyard.  Thanks again, K!

Sulky 30 wt variegated thread in blue and the recommended 100/16 top stitch needle worked perfectly.  I had not one broken thread or needle the entire time, thankfully, though of course I did run out of bobbin thread several times.

Love the texture of the all over quilting, giant puzzle piece style.

I sort of like the chopped off blocks though that was more through poor planning than intention.  Beyond the Garden Gate will get a label, a bath, and then will be shipped off to Quilts for Japan.  Many thanks to my swap partner, Rhonda, whose stack of blues sent me into this garden party, and thanks to the generous ladies at the Brown Bag Quilt Contest who devoted so much time to this effort.  I've heard there are prizes...and I have joined Flickr. That is a whole 'nother learning curve and I hope I got it right!

UFO #1 finish

Rick Rack Road is no longer a UFO.  Thanks to Judy's challenge, it's now a quilt.

Pattern of the same name from Quilt Sampler Fall/Winter 2007.  I liked this pattern because all the units were made exactly the same size, so very easy cutting and piecing.  Plus, I got over 100 bonus triangles to play with!

Scraps and stash with a few purchased background fabrics.

This pretty floral border and the Moda dot for the binding were just the right colors.

I love a pieced backing!  So happy to have this for spring and summer color in the living room.  It is a big throw, 69 x 77, so plenty of tucking in real estate on cool spring evenings.