Stash report and NQA report

Sunday's just don't seem to be the day that I can post! And I missed a week..I went to the NQA show (it's their National show in Columbus, OH) and it was a nice show, although very small compared to the IQA show in Houston and the AQS show in Paducah. The big difference is that it's not a juried show, so the quality is not always tops. I'm hoping by NQA leaving their show in Columbus (it used to change cities each year), that more big vendors and manufacturer's will start showing up. But still a nice show to attend and easy to get to! I showed very good restraint, although I did buy 3 yards of a green gingham that I have been eyeing since Houston. I have an idea that I'm not ready to do. I'm afraid if I wait until I'm ready, the fabric will be long gone! You all know what I mean! Tammy Tadd had a wonderful booth and that's where I stumbled. I love her booth--lots of fun stuff, Lakehouse fabric, cute purses and of course, the pink and green thing was going on! I bought another purse kit for Mom--she always loves the exact one I made and wants hers JUST like mine. Okay Mom..you were in luck! I also bought that fun JUMBO pink rick rack--don't have a clue where I'll us it yet, but I'll be ready! I could have spent a LOT of money there, but I was good. I took another peek at my stash before leaving for the quilt show--that will do it every time! LOL

I went with a group of quilter's to the show, including some newbies! One still doesn't own a machine, the other one bought a machine at the show. The first one did buy a yard of fabric that she just loved and was worried that she wasn't sure what to do with it. I told her that she just took her first step over the line into the quilting world! Buying fabric just cuz you loved it! :) I'm winning!!! I'm getting more quilter's in the fold! It's so fun to see things through a new person's eyes. I was more than happy to help them spend their money, hee hee. I told them I had already gone through that initiation and now am coasting.

Stash in Week: 3 yards
Stash out Week: 4
Stash in YTD: 12 yards
Stash out YTD: 273

Happy Quilting!

The wonders of nature

Sorry--the picture is a little blurry--but it's hard to get a picture while standing on your very tip toes and trying NOT to touch the nest. We were so fortunate to witness some robins in the process of being born. If you look at the egg on the left, the little beak was just breaking through the shell. Our grandkids were here later in the day and were able to see them. Oh how they wanted to touch them. Little lessons of nature........

I walked around the yard, taking pictures of the lushness of the early summer flora......the tall, bushy ferns, still lush before the full summer heat comes in.....the impatiens spreading their little roots, soon to be rich coral and pink waves of color.....the tiny tansy flowers with their delicate lacy leaves.......the pink begonias, baskets so full of blooms it threatens to break....the pink and green frog overlooking the whole garden and so on. But blogger decided it was too much infusion of color in one space and shut down....so just picture it instead. It's a cool morning...wonderful to sit out on the porch with a lap quilt on, sipping a cup of tea, listening to the birds and the whisper of the leaves as the gentle breeze rustles through.......ahhh..I'll see ya, I hear a swing calling my name.....

Girlfriend Getaway

I just returned from a week at a friend's daughter's house on Lake Anna in Virginia. What a gorgeous lake! Our view while sewing...eating...lounging....it was in a little cove off the main Lake, so it was nice and quiet. It was quite warm when we arrived..100+ and therefore the water was quite warm and it made the fish mad! I had several bump up against me and then when I got nipped by the 3rd one..that was it! I was out of there. The next day a storm came through in the evening, cooling the air and water temps and after that, we didn't have one fish even come close.

These friends are mostly non quilters

or sewers but I took my sewing machine anyway. I figured while they were lounging around reading, I could sew. I offered to help them make purses for anyone that wanted and they all wanted to except one. There were purse parts everywhere! And several made more than one. I'm going to convert people to sewing one way or another! LOL And I got a chance to make a quilt top, one scrappy strippy rag quilt and another partial top. And we managed to have some fun swimming and lounging in the lake as well. We took a day trip to Richmond and my hubby looked online for a quilt shop for us. We found it, thanks to TomTom :) but it was a sticker shock for most of the group, who are non quilters! They were anxious to find a JoAnn's with some cheaper prices. :) I thought the store was quite nice with lots of brights and contemporary fabrics, but another day, by myself. heehee

By the way--I had NO access to any computer and for those of use without "people" (aka Verizon), we had no phone service. I used the new feature in Blogger to schedule a post for while I was gone! Clever, huh? :)

T-shirt quilt

This past week I finished another T-shirt quilt for a customer. She was the most organized person. She had a picture of her daughter wearing every T-shirt in the quilt-and there were 29 of them! She wanted to have each picture with each T-shirt. I spent lots of time putting photos on fabric (I used June Taylor's Colorfast Fabric Sheets) and then onto the quilt. Most of the time, I just use the photo as is. But once in a while, the picture just called for it to be cut apart. (Don't worry--I only cut the fabric photo and leave the real photo intact. ) I like to use a high quality flannel as sashing and as backing and Warm and Natural batting. It made for a very heavy quilt! :) That's okay--they make warm and cozy quilts for the dorm.

One of the shirt had a really neat saying on it.."If you can imagine it, you can acheive it. If you can dream it, you can become it." I cut it apart and put it in the sashing strips and staggered them down the quilt. I try to use as many components and things off the T-shirts as I can. I cut off pocket logos, the sleeves, everything. I'll cut the basic T-shirt square (I use a 12 1/2" square up ruler) and then start adding things on top of the blocks and sometimes going into the sashings. I know some that will measure every T-shirt and graph it out, but I prefer this method and since I teach this class, it's a lot easier for beginning quilters to accomplish.

Another thing that beginner's struggle with is making the sashings line up if there are no cornerstones (little blocks in the sashings between rows). To avoid having your sashings not appear to be in line: Lay your row with the sashing right side down. Lay a ruler on the seam line, extending the ruler through the sashing and mark. When you add your next row of T-shirts, match the T-shirt/sashing seam with the mark on the long sashing and pin.

BIG TIME Stash Busting!

Woo hoo! It's been a really productive week for me and busting LOTS of stash! Although I cut out lots of new projects, #1--it was ALL from stash and #2--there were some class samples in there as well, so I'm getting a head start on the fall classes. These were for 9 quilts--no donations. It's amazing how much it adds up in numbers--but yet does not even leave a DENT in the stash closet! How does that work?

Stash busted this week (and last week since I forgot to post it) 50 1/2YARDS!!

Stash brought in: 0

Stash busted YTD: 269 yards

Stash brought in: 9 yards

And I didn't even count this as stash busting...cuz it was SCRAP busting! It called for a 1 1/2 yards for sashings/cornerstones, but I was able to dig up scraps and use them.

I'm leaving for VA on Sunday morning for a girlfriend retreat. Most of them are not quilters/sewers, but I got permission to bring my machine. :) I love to lay out and read, but I think my fingers would start getting itchy after a few days of that. If I could just sew for a few hours each day, I'd be in heaven. Of course I'm probably taking way too much, but better that than twiddling my thumbs. LOL I post what I got done next week.

Bucket purse: this is from ??? (help! My printer wasn't working the day I stumbled across this site, so I just wrote the instructions down and THOUGHT I saved the blogsite in my favorites. I gave up looking. Does anyone know who's blog site this is?--thanks!) great instructions. I had the pattern and it made no sense, but her blog photos helped. So easy and used 65 3" squares.

(Editor's update: thanks to Rose Marie and Joyce who kindly directed me to Andrea's site, where her directions made this bucket purse easy to do. http://welshquilter.blogspot.com/2007/06/bucket-bag-tote-part-4-last-one.html)

Congratulations to the Winners!

Research Randomizer Results
1 Set of 3 Unique Numbers Per SetRange: From 1 to 20 -- Unsorted
Job Status:

Set #1:
18, 3, 16

So--
#18--Loulee will get the fans she liked :)
#3 --Pam will get the Butterfly blocks she admired
#16--Littlepeepsmom will get the book! PS--please contact me with your snail mail address--you had a 'no reply' on your email and I can't find out how to contact you.

I was a little worried because I hadn't thought out the whole process of drawing names and having different prizes that some wanted and others did not. But it worked out fine. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment! I'll get these out on Monday. Sorry--I forgot that this was the Relay for Life weekend and I just got home. Too late for the Post Office.

happy quilting.......

200 POSTS Giveaway!

Wow--this is my 200th blogger post! And to celebrate--I'm going to have a giveaway. I was going through my quilt books and realized I had a couple of duplicates, so I'm giving one away. It's Kaffe Fasset's "Quilt Road" book--a great book if you like Kaffe! :) And I also found some blocks from exchanges that I did and never got around to putting together. Maybe someone out there might like them. The first set is: "Butterflies". There are 6 blocks total and are a combination of pieced or applique, all done in batiks. The second set is "Grandmother's Fan". There are 9 blocks of those. If you are interested in any one of these, please drop me a comment and tell me if you are interested in #1-Kaffe's Quilt Road book or #2--the Butterfly blocks or #3--the Grandmother's Fan blocks. I'll do my drawing on Friday, June 6 so I can get these sent out on Saturday before my trip. Thanks to all who stop by and visit and making my blogging experiences so enjoyable!
happy quilting....