Pumpkin Festival

My guild's donation quilt made its debut today at the North Augusta Pumpkin Patch Festival. Lots of generous folks donated and got tickets to this beautiful quilt.
It was fun to see the costumes go by...these Mummies were one of my favorites...
Today I had one of those oopps moments...I saw a woman walking by our tent that I thought I knew from years ago. When she saw me she said "hey, how are you," and came over and gave me a hug. We talked about the quilt, she bought a few tickets, then she introduced her grandchildren and then it hit me. This isn't the woman I used to work with...I don't know this woman! I think about that time she realized it too (the "I didn't know you quilted" comment was a turning point.) However being in the South I just smiled and said what beautiful grandchildren she had and she said what a beautiful quilt we had....

Focus - not just the name of a car...

First, I have started posting on my other blog again - threadtalequiltappraisals.blogspot.com I'm trying to keep track of some of the "adventures" this year while I work towards sitting for my AQS certification in April.I am heading out to Houston next week and need to have the dining room and kitchen cleared of all quilting stuff before I leave. So why instead am I putting binding on my tree quilt and teaching my neighbor how to make zucchini quiche (do not try this at home...I am a professional multi-tasker!)
Because as usual my list of things to do has more lines than hours in the day...oh dear, I'm sounding like my Mother....

So I've lined up some boxes and am "sorting" UFO's...yikes! Along those lines, I signed up for Finn's UFO Challenge. I committed to finishing 5 UFO's (binding on the tree quilt, binding my 1930's Traveler Quilt, border and send off the vintage fun quilt, border and baste my Baltimore left-overs, and finally...oh, no...I forgot what I said my 5th would be? I am spoiled for choices on that one!

Along those lines...the photo above is of a couple of blocks I made before going on vacation. Do you recognize them? I know the "inspiration must have come from somewhere on the internet but as I was housebound (bad MS week) for a couple of weeks so I was everywhere on the net....Since many of you go the same places I do I was hoping you could point me in the right direction. (I like to give credit where credit is due....days spent cruising the Quilt Index and E-bay and lead to quilt-design over-stimulation!)
On another note...hexagons seems to be running rampart in blogdom! Here is a little quilt I made almost 20 years ago (you can tell I was a beginner than so please do not look closely!) It isn't my best quilt but it does make me smile....

Now back to focusing on that list....(which btw gets a check mark on the "post to blog" line...whoo hooo!)

No I am not running for office....

My friend Paula and I started working on these embroidered Witch's hats in January...she finished her's in time for a local quilt show...mine still needs a few stitches and a hatband but I may have it in time for the Pumpkin Patch festival Saturday!
The pattern is by Crabapple designs. It is designed to be a pillow/centerpiece/decoration but we decided we wanted to be able to wear it. It has been a long time since I tried to make a hat and it will be a long time before I make one again! Getting it all together was a bit "fiddly" but I am happy with how it looks!

The first thing my DH said when I put it on - "so are you going to run for the Senate now?" Funny guy, no?!

Back from Vacation

I was on vacation down in the Bahamas for a few days...now I need to recover from the vacation!
Our next guild donation quilt came back from Maggie Hunt who quilted it for us. I ran it down to the quilter who volunteered to put the binding and sleeve on it... our first day of selling tickets is next Saturday. Lots of time....yikes!
Lots of projects are strewn across the studio so back to work and more photos tomorrow!

Mindless piecing...

Doing some mindless piecing right now...not enough energy to make my way to the ironing board or the cutting table very often to I have been "cleaning" my sewing area by just sewing scraps together...perhaps for another crumb quilt or not...
I did make some 6 pointed crumb stars...the foundations are pages from my mutual fund reports. (At least they were good for something!) The paper is thin but the ink doesn't rub off as easily as telephone book print.

The blocks above are some vintage ones that have "aged" in my closet for a bit and are "asking" to be made into something...After reading the two Material Obsession books I want to be a bit more adventurous with my color choices for sashing...I don't think I will go as far are Kaffe or batiks but I may play with some brights...or some funky black prints....

Last week I did take out my autumn decorations and got most of them up...I left out my fall quilt to put up in the living room but it looks like my DH had other plans...so his red white and blue quilt will just have to co-exist with my orange and purple witches!

Back on the techno highway...

Technical problems the past few days have made posting difficult...a visit to the local computer nerds (hey, they have six foot model of the Starship Enterprise proudly hanging from the ceiling!) has the CPU working again. If furniture is an antique after 100 years and cars become antiques after 25 years how old does a computer have to be? Just wondering....
Before the computer went down I did do some damage on Amazon...both the Material Obsession books really fun and a few projects tempt me (like that is hard to do...) What really hit me is the mix of fabrics that they use. I have been trying to stretch myself a bit (this week I mixed batik with repro...the roof didn't come down nor did I get hit by lightning - who knew!)

We had a good guild meeting on Monday...more show and tell than in any meeting in recent history and since that is my favorite part of meetings...whoo hooo!

Here are a few....
The colors in the log cabin below have an almost vintage feel from a distance but up close are a real mix of fabrics (did I spy some Millennium prints!) Very fun!

This was a tiny version of Bonnie Hunter's scrappy Bargello (1 inch strips!)
More later....