Serendipity

On Tuesday I decided I needed to finish this second installment of my designer mystery BOM series.  It turned out quite nicely, hmm?? 

Now, I bought this FQ pack when I went to Paducah last spring.  It is the Fresh Squeezed line.  Aren't the colors yummy??  But I just didn't know what I wanted to make with them.  I have been looking for the *perfect* pattern. 
So I stopped at JAF on my way home to look for a copy of Australian Patchwork magazine that I have been trying to find.  I saw a Fons and Porter magazine that I did not have and began to thumb through it.  Don't like it, don't need it, Not my thing, maybe, but probably not necessary

...wait a minute, could it be??...it is!!  The perfect pattern for the Fresh Squeezed fat quarter pack!  And here it is!
I had quilting with the CL's last night and had to decide what to bring with me.  I decided to take the FQ's and this patten and see if I could get it cut out.  Well, I got all the strips cut and now I just need to sub-cut and I will be ready to sew.  I was supposed to have a meeting tonight but it canceled so maybe I can do the sub cutting in the daylight when I get home!  YEA!!

I have a wedding reception to go to and have to get a dress.  I am trying to figure out how to show you the photo of the one I ordered.  If I can get it I will post it.

Found it!

On The Way To the Quilt Show...

So, I was driving to the quilt show when DD1 gave me a call.  We talked about, what else, quilts and she asked if I was planning on working on Prismata (a quilt designed from one of her drawings).  Well, duh...of course, but not sure when.  I wanted to make her a koi  pond quilt at some point and remembered that she had done some drawings of pond dragons so asked her about them.  Now I am picturing them like 6 inches or so and a wall hanging.  So I asked her, how big are those pond dragons?  To which she replied, "Oh about a foot and a half".  So obviously she wants a lake not a pond.  Unless it is a pond like my neighbor's have which really has become a small lake, Lake Engler, I think.  So I say, "like a queen sized pond?" To which she replied, "Of course!"  *sigh*

I was thinking of starting small and then if I can make it work going larger.  So we keep talking, negotiating, really.  She tells me the story of the pond dragons that she wrote to go with the drawings.  Apparently when people see them we see Koi as they swim underwater.  Other animals know what they really are but not us.  So I say< "What about a drawing of a cat sitting on a rock on the edge of the pond, looking at the pond dragon which is looking up at her?  You could do a cut away view and the underwater part would look like a fish (Koi) and the part above the water (that the cat sees) is the dragon?  The cat could have that look on her face like, "They may not know what you are...but I do!"  Can't you just see it?

We talked a little more and I asked her to send me a drawing of one of the pond dragons and so she sent me a drawing of "Koi".  *He* is what the red scaly fabric is being used for!

Without further introductions, I give you Master Koi!

More AA Quilt Show

You gotta just love those Buggy Barn patterns, right?  Can't you just see this done up for a wedding quilt?  Well, can'tcha??

These BB trees were great too.  I'm so in love with BB patterns!
We own 2 Jeeps.  One is a Wrangler which is what this quilt is.  I liked it and have thought of how to incorporate a Jeep into a quilt.  I think I would be more subtle but I thought this was neat too.
They had antique quilts in a special exhibit and I really liked this one.  You can see how teeny tiny those HST's are.
And, NO I didn't actually touch the quilt, just close!
I thought this one was neat as half the trees were upside down.
I love Halloween and a vendor had this quilt done as a BOM.  I especially liked the owl and the pussycat, but was officially too cheap to pay $60 for the patterns.  *SIGH*  I will just admire it from afar!
Now it's time to show what I purchased.  I bought this panel, Pumpkins Gone Wild.  Isn't it great??
Here is the rest.  (Wasn't I good??)  Red FQ for the red and white quilt, that next one is just a really odd print and I thought I *needed* it.  A ruler for cutting bias binding, really slick!!  A charm pack of PGW to use around the panel and that red scaly print.  I will tell you about that later.
I have my box-o-scraps packaged up to send to Julia in our scrap swap.  I hope she likes what I am sending!!

Ann Arbor Quilt Guild Quilt Show

In case you didn't know where I was all weekend, I was attending and working the Ann Arbor Quilt show.  I had entered 2 quilts in the show.  All members were allowed to enter 2 quilts in the show.  It was a fun weekend.  I have uploaded all my photos and will begin sharing them with you now.  

I loved this scrappy star and immediately thought of my friend, Robin and her love of HST.  I might actually have to make this one someday.

Now I am not a huge Sun bonnet Sue fan but this quilt was spectacular!  The needle turn applique was excellent and the piecing and hand quilting were awesome too.
I just liked this one.
I thought this was really neat too.  I have a close up of it later.  Can you see the cats in the fabric?
This quilt was so cute.  All about the 12 days of Christmas!  All 12 were cross stitched, I only took a couple of photos.  I would love to know where the pattern for the cross stitch came from as I would consider doing it, that's how much I liked it!
Isn't this swan so cute with her bathing cap on?  I actually ran into the woman with these squares before she had made it into a quilt.  We were both at the quilt shop and she was choosing fabric to make the quilt with.
I just adore Buggy Barn patterns and this one was called Wild Goose Chase.  I love it!
I took these to show Amy at the Calico Cat.  Aren't these cats great?  I like how they have people all over them.  Like Guliver's Travels, kind of.

Every person that entered a quilt was required to work 2 hours at the show.  So on Sunday I was wearing my white glove and walking around and I ran into the woman that made this quilt.  It is entitled, Georgia (her granddaughter) and was from a photo taken while on Beaver Island (where Gwen Marston lives, BTW).  She was very nice and offered to show me how to do this if I was interested.  Uh, duuhhh, of course!
This quilt won the Viewer's choice award.  It was pretty cool.  By Sue Holdiway-Hayes (I hope I spelled that right!, sorry Sue if I didn't)
The rocks were fascinating.
Here is an up close of the cats I was talking about.  They look like they were appliqued on but in reality they are part of the fabric!
I liked this one for it's use of that fabric for the wake.  Too cool!  Check out the nautical flag fabric used in the border!
This is all I have for now.  I have more photos and will post more later.  I was pretty good and did not buy too much.  I will take some photos of what I bought and post those later too.  I bought the panel of Pumpkins Gone Wild and a charm pack to use around the panel, 2 fat quarters, a binding ruler to cut bias binding and some red scaly fabric for a project DD1 and I are thinking about doing.  I will tell you about that later too!  She won't draw what I want until I finish Prismata.  Prismata is a water dragon she drew, I enlarged and chose fabric for but have not made into a quilt...YET.  She doesn't think I will do it but it is on the short list.  She will draw the next one when I finish it.  She drew a series of pond dragons, oh, but wait, I'll show it to you later...

I did manage to get 2 more of the blocks finished for Karen and Cory's quilt.  I also got some laundry done and went to the grocery store.  DH is overnight tonight so I am planning on getting more of the KC blocks done tonight.  I am so ready to be done with that quilt but so nowhere close to actually being finished, *sigh*.

The name game

While I am so exhausted and don't feel like looking for the camera cord to show the photos from the quilt show I will play the name game Natalie sent to me.

I hope this looks like fun for you...

SCATTERGORIES…It's harder than it looks! Copy and paste into a new e-mail. When you are done, send it on to everyone who likes games, including to the person who sent it to you. Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question

Name... Pamela

4 Letter Word…pink

Vehicle...Porshe

City…Paris

Boy Name…Percy

Girl Name...Petunia

Occupation...Pilot

Celebrity... Posh Spice

Food...Pancake

Something found in a bathroom...Powder

Reason for being late... Procrastination

Cartoon Character... Pepe le Pew

Something you shout...POW

Animal... Platypus

Body Part... Patella

Now with that said, the quilt show was wonderful! It was fun to hang out near my quilts and hear what folks had to say about them. Everyone had only nice things to say (or maybe that's what I heard when I was there) I took lots of pictures and I promise I will share them later (I think the cord might be at work!) I saw lots of people I know including Jeanne from Luv2stitch and her sister Connie, that was a treat! There are not really any awards only a Viewer's Choice. Funny story, DS thinks it will be his Texas quilt! There were so many beautiful quilts I doubt that will be the case but he is so proud of his quilt!

I behaved myself and bought a panel of pumpkins gone wild and 1 charm pack to put around the panel. Then 2 on sale, fat quarters, one for the red and white quilt and one that is really odd fabric but I really liked it. I saw a BOM for Halloween that I loved but I just couldnt justify spending $60 for the patterns when I have so many already here to do so I just walked away. Have you seen the pattern with the 12 days of Christmas panel where the panel is cut up and centered in some pears in...you guessed it, a pear tree? That's just the cutest thing I have ever seen!!

I beat, so more tomorrow!!

WOWSA

Wowsa!  That's all I have to say about this post card that Annemiek at Carpe Quiltem had on her blog.  Now THIS is some serious eye candy, and I don't just mean the quilt.
She posted about this little Dutch village and the traditional stuff they have there.  In addition she had some quilty stuff like shops and really spectacular fabrics.  You need to go and check it out!  = )

A Very Exciting Day

I had a very exciting experience recently.  I read Mary Ann's blog and she is a collector of vintage paper things.  I was visiting my dad's house recently and he had many vintage magazines and patterns that he was going to discard.  So...I thought I would just send them to Mary.  Little did I realize that there were 53 pounds of very vintage goodness to send to her!  I sent it and waited.  On the day I got a belated birthday gift from her I called her and the BIG package arrived with her.  Please go read about what she had to say here.

So on to the story of the evening.  I had an eye doctor appt after work and got new contacts.  I like some things about them but the close up vision is still more blurry than I like so may have to try another pair.  I drove home with DS (who is now working in the lab with me for the summer) and did some cleaning and then got dinner ready.  There was a surprise in the mail for me.  This installment of the Designer Sampler BOM from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I did the first one and loved it and here is what the second one looks like.

I love the fabric and I hope I will get a chance to work on it tonight.  I really want to try to stay on top of it so I can have a beautiful quilt all finished this time.  (My track record with BPM's is not very good, nuff said!)

In addition, I had seen this cute little pattern but it was out of stock when I ordered it.  They sent it with the BOM thus saving me some postage.  Isn't it cute?  I just fell in love with it!
I thought it might be a good group project for the CL's to work on.  Those that like to applique can do so and those that don't can make the pieced blocks.  I will probably make it bigger and may not use all the same green, and maybe not even green.  Our church stash is sorely lacking in green.  But, we will see.  I may make a few small ones for the craft show, I don't know but I just love these chubby gals!  (Kindred spirits, maybe?)

And just so you know, I am officially getting old.  You know you're old when...

You are eating dinner, the phone rings, it's the CL's asking where you are (and it's only 5 to 7) for quilting that begins at 7...except for when it doesn't because you forgot there are summer hours and it begins at 6!!  DUH!!!

I wanted to get done last night was the sleeve hand sewn on to the Texas quilt.  I took the quilt and the sleeve to the church with me and was hell bent on getting it done before I went home.  So I was working hard and 8 o'clock came and the CL's told me that Mike (the custodian at the church) would kick me out like he did to them last time.  Well, Mike came in and I asked him if I could stay until I was done, maybe another 20 minutes or so and he said it was fine just lock up.  I guess being in charge has it's perks right?  Long story short, the sleeve is on the quilt and Charlotte helped me get the last little bit of fur off the quilt too.  There's a little Charlotte and Pam spit all over that quilt!  I'm just sayin' that if you wet your fingers and brush the fur away it comes right off, better than a lint brush.  

I need to drop off the quilts tomorrow morning and then there is a reception in the evening.  I am getting my hair cut and highlighted tonight and am going to a new person so I am a little nervous about that but excited.  I have been seeing the same person for my hair for over 20 years and I met a woman that does hair and works with a dear friend of mine and I am going to give her a try.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Belated Birthday Gifts!

Ah, blogging friends!  I have "met" so many wonderful bloggers and several of them I have actually met in person (you know who you are).  One of my friends, Faith, from Nut Bud Quilter I have not met in person...YET.  She lives in the UK and send me this wonderful package last week to celebrate my birthday.

It was a box of very yummy chocolates!  And this cute little kitty card.  Thanks, Faith, you're the best!!
Bet you all wish you could sample these beauties, huh?  Some were a little mushed but they are all fabulous.  
I have been a slug of late.  I made the sleeve for the Texas quilt and now must sew it on the back.  I really don't like doing that very much and this is just the third time I have done it.  Way too much work!  I have quilting with the CL's tonight so plan on getting it done there, no cat hair either.  I had to spend about 20 minutes vacuuming the cat and dog hair off the Texas quilt.  Can't enter it in the show all furry!!  The Ann Arbor Quilt Guild quilt show is this weekend and I will have both Texas and the Posie Patch quilt in the show.  My very first show.  I hope people like my quilts.  I'm always a little nervous putting myself out there for everyone to see, but I am going to do it this time and see how it goes.  Both quilts are my own design so it's a little more personal!  How do you feel about these things?

What a Weekend!!

My weekend began with a wonderful belated birthday gift from Mary Ann.  I sent her a HUGE  (Think size of a small child, like 53 pounds) package and she received it on Friday too!!  Funny how that worked out.  I sent her vintage magazines and patterns from my dad's house.  I know how much she loves that vintage paper!!  Have fun Mary Ann!!  So this is what was inside.

And her it is all unwrapped!!  Very cool.  I really like the animals and the other fabrics play so nicely with them.  Thanks, Mary Ann.
Saturday was Quilt Till You Wilt with the CL's.  I had to bring a project that I could use my little machine on and decided to work on the 4 leaf clover string quilt.  As it just so happens, I got all the blocks sewn into rows! Then when I got home I used all the blue and yellow orphan blocks to make another orphan star quilt.  Sat night was a party at my friend Terry's house as her son     was in town and will be going back to Iraq soon.  I met them when I was his religous ed teacher many years ago and we have been friends ever since.  My DS is best friends with her youngest son also.  

On Sunday I decided I *needed* to get the St. Pat's quilt done.  Aiden was helping me on the couch behind the sewing machine.
Laxy was in the chair directly to the right of the sewing machine all curled up in the chair.
Mosen was lying on the bag with my sister's quilt in it in front of the sewing machine.
There was no more space so Jack went into the family room and took his nap on the Texas fleece I made for DS!
Here is the orphan star.  Now I have done 2 of these with blocks left over from the M string quilt.  One will be in our art auction here at the U of M and one will go to the Christmas sale for the church.
Well, here is St Patrick's Good Luck all finished!  I hung it on the clothes line for a picture and you can see it is too wide and long for it, but at least you can see it!
I think it turned out quite nice!  It will be the raffle quilt for St. Patrick's church next year.  I am happy to have it this far along already!  Our church works with theirs to help them as they are a pretty poor parish.  Every year the CL's make a quilt for them to raffle.  I actually designed this one myself.  I have to say, I really like making string quilts
After I finished this I made caramel brownies to take to my friend's house as DH and I were going to her boyfriend's house for dinner.  We had a really good time and the brownies were a hit!

Scrap Swap

I found, from Kim's blog, a scrap swap hosted by Nancy.  It looks like fun.  You need to go to the link to see what you need to do to participate.  I am all signed up!  Let me know if you sign up too.  Sign up closes today so HURRY on over to sign up now!!!

Birthday Weekend

When I arrived home my DH was putting a HUGE wire basket on my new pink bike for my birthday.  He had already installed a cool bell!  I forgot to take a photo so I will try to do so tonight and post it tomorrow.

On Friday, my birthday, DD2 came home from college.  She had her BFF come over and they made these cupcakes for my birthday.  Aren't they cute?  
Here they are, so proud of themselves!  I finished binding the Star of the Sea wall hanging and gave it to DD2's BFF this weekend.  She was thrilled!!  She loves my quilts and was so excited to finally have one.  I will have to make her a bed sized one, maybe for her college graduation in 2 years?  We'll see.  I did have wonderful Chinese food (Hunan Shrimp) from Chopstick House.  Yum!  Then cupcakes for dessert!
I put the sleeve on the back of the Posie Patch quilt and decided to make the label too.  I had not shown you the quilting  that Liz the Whiz did so now I will do that.  First I had to make a label.  Since the back is white I decided to color in 4 of the flowers and then make that the label.  I still need to find the textile medium to make it permenant but I am pretty thrilled with the results.  I know it can smudge, so I put it in a plastic garbage bag to keep it from smudging and to keep cat and dog hair off of it.  What do you think of my coloring?
This shows the quilting in the white open squares on the front.
These in the X are through the purple posies on the front, the ones that form the chain.
You can see both of them here.  What do you think of the awesome varigated purple fabric I found to use for the binding?  I love it, it uses all the purples in the quilt.
Liz did this all freehand.  She is amazing!!  There are even lines in the petals and leaves!  This makes the purple "flowers" on the front look even more like "flowers".
There is one dragonfly on the entire quilt and here he is.  Isn't he sweet?  I asked for one.  He is in a purple patch on the front so you can't really see him there.  I might color him it too so he is more visible on the back as well.  What do you think about that??
OK, Miss Hallie, this is why my quilt had to go into a bag.  She has her arms around the quilt, hugging it as she sleeps on it.  I guess even cats can't resist a beautiful quilt.  
After she got up, Aiden came over to the vacated bag and slept in exactly the same position, hugging the quilt.  This quilt not only has all my love in it but many many kitty hugs and lovin'!
I think this might be my 200th post too!  I will double check and if so there may have to be some sort of "give away" to celebrate.  I will let you know!