Blocks for Jonna

My quilty friend, Jonna, is having surgery. A bunch of us on the About.com forum decided to make her heart blocks to cheer her up. But.... there's a catch! Jonna regularly participates in the "obnoxious fabric swap" on the forum. So, we are making our blocks as obnoxious as possible! I found this wonderfully obnoxious fabric with skulls on it and decided to use it. Here are my three blocks:

(I especially like the juxtaposition of the floral fabric heart surrounded by skulls!)

~Patti

Mystery time

I love mystery quilts, although I must admit they don't always come out like I want them to! I know some friends who played along with Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush, so this year, I'm playing too. First clue posts tomorrow. Want to play along? Click the fun logo at the bottom of this post!

Four County Quilt Guild retreat 2011

Last weekend was one of my guild's twice-yearly retreats. I always have such a fun time seeing my MD friends and getting lots of sewing done!

Joe came with me this time. We left after work on Thur and it took us about 4.5 hours to get there, including a stop for dinner. His niece got married on Friday, and we had a family dinner to celebrate that evening in Philly. It just made things easier if he came with me for the weekend and we went from the retreat to the family event.

This time, the retreat was in a new place: Pecometh on the Chester River on the Eastern shore of MD. It was held at their brand-new retreat center. It is a gorgeous facility, and we had it to ourselves. The food was fabulous, the sewing room was spacious and well-lit, and the sleeping rooms were all brand new and nice. My only complaint (and others had it too) was the poor sound proofing in the sleeping area. Several people were kept awake by others chatting late into the night.

I had a productive quilting weekend. I started by making (mostly paper piecing) my mini quilt for this year's holiday swap. I had that finished by dinnertime on Saturday night. Here's me showing it off at Show and Tell that evening:

By the time I went to bed on Saturday night, I had quilted it:

On Saturday, I also quilted the quilt commissioned by my friend Janet for her home in Costa Rica:

On Sunday, I worked on piecing this quilt, Celestial Dreams, from a kit I bought in Hershey in July. This quilt will be for me and Joe. We both really like it and want it to be bigger. I have some extra fabric, and I will try to buy a bit more. I plan to take these borders off, add some more to it, and hopefully get it big enough to fit our bed (not that we need another bed quilt! We have several).

Can't wait until May for the spring retreat!

~Patti



ArtOMatic opens

ArtOMatic Frederick (artomaticfrederick.org) opens on Saturday. My quilts will be there, but I won't. I will be in Pittsburgh doing my final oral exam for the Professional Coaching program. I find it somewhat ironic that these two things are happening at the same time. I have a lot of my future dreams tied up in both events.

I am also nervous about both events.... in a good way. I feel pretty good about the possibility of passing my exam... until I start to think too much, and then anxiety kicks in! I also hope that I get at least one new coaching or quilting client from the show.

~Patti

Blue and White Stars

I have been collecting blue and white blocks for a while with the idea of making a quilt. I needed another quilt for my ArtOMatic exhibit and I have a space of 24" x 36". I put together some of the blocks I had, along with some purple and white ones, and I love how this quilt turned out!

~Patti

Ray finished quilt

I finally finished Ray's quilt. His widow loved it and was very touched. It was one of my favorite quilts to make. Here's some pics of the final quilt.

I even used his shirts for the back:

When I was sorting and taking apart the washed ties, Rita got involved. She could resist rolling around and playing in them!

~Patti



A National Show!

Although I have won several ribbons at local events, I've never been in a national show. I got accepted in my first juried show! PA Quilt Extravaganza. I'm so excited. Now granted.... it's not a solo quilt. It's the first Round Robin I hosted on About.com.

The center, I made in a class with Karen Kay Buckley at Quilt Odyssey in July 2009. Then, four of my friends added borders.

I love this quilt! It's called "A Gift from Friends," and it's totally appropriate for the theme of this show, which is "friends."

It will be hanging in Philly at the show in mid-September and I will go visit. I don't expect to win a ribbon, but who knows?

~Patti

Ray's quilt

Well, Hurricane Irene wasn't anything at our house, so I spent the weekend quilting and working on my Website (and doing homework). My neighbor, Ray, died almost two years ago, and I promised his widow I would make a quilt from his old work clothes. It took us a while to get together and for her to give me the clothes, and then it took longer for me to decide what to do with them. But, a friend on About.com posted a photo of a similar quilt, and I got my inspiration! A couple of weeks ago, I washed all the ties (20 of them) and took them apart. On Saturday, I pieced the blocks for the top. My friend Vicki came to visit and offer advice. Late Saturday night, I was stuck on two items: which fabric to use for the centers and whether to sash it. I laid the blocks on the floor:

Joe suggested using the leftover shirt fabric as centers, and Vicki suggested sashing. I pulled a paisley print from my stash for the sashing. Here's the finished top:

I spent the rest of yesterday using the other shirts to piece the back. I hope to get it quilted this weekend. I still miss Ray... he would have made sure we were all safe during the Hurricane that wasn't.

~Patti

Heart Walk Quilt

I am on the Board of the local American Heart Association. My grandmother died of a heart attack, so this is a cause that's near and dear to my heart :). Each year, I make a quilt to raffle off. If you donate to my Heart Walk campaign, you get one chance to win the quilt for every $5 you donate. If you'd like to make a donation, click here: http://heartwalk.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=447251&lis=0&kntae447251=595F40F470FE4E3BAF925C11405963EB

The quilt is 27" x 35" and includes a sleeve for hanging. The winner will be chosen on September 24, 2011.

~Patti

Pat's other Round Robin quilt

Here are pics of Pat's second Round Robin quilt. Now, I'm all caught up! (But the next two Round Robin quilts--thank goodness, the last for this round!--are already here.)

~Patti

What I've been up to

ACCK! Two months have gone by, and once again, I'm neglecting this blog.

In July, I go to the two big quilt shows for me: MAQ and Quilt Odyssey. At both places, I took classes, and I came home with 5 UFOs :). Once they are further along, I'll post pics.

We also spent the month of July moving Joe out of his apartment and into our house. Yep... took the whole damn month, and we still have way too much unpacking to do!

The only real quilting I've done recently is on the Round Robins. I am behind.... the ones in the house are due out by Monday, and I already have the next two here. I finished the first one last night (see pics below; I added the square in a square borders on the sides), and hope to finish the second one in time to get them both to the PO today.






~Patti

Monday Organizing

So, today's project was to organize all the stuff that had been piled on the table that became the mailing/shipping station.

First, I replaced the table with this set of shelves. One of the plastic drawer units was used in the mail/ship station, but you can still see the other one in the photo below.

This is what I got accomplished. I'm very pleased with the result. Had some lunch, and now it's off to reward myself with some sewing for a few hours. Once the sun is off the patio, I have some backyard stuff to do. I could use another day off work!

I also managed to empty all the totebags on the floor in the second picture.

Here's a final photo of the big open space I managed to create this weekend. Yay!

Birds

This is my third summer in this house, and every year, a bird family nests in this same place (where my house joins the one next door). Every winter, I take down that year's nest. I live in a new development, and there aren't many trees.... so the birds nest all sorts of places. I have another nest in one of my front ornamental trees.

This nest grows daily and there are birds actively tending it. So, I'm hopeful for bird babies :). I do have to wonder where they got the quilt batting :).

The window you see in the second photo is my master bedroom.... which means that Biloxi "stalks" the nest from my bedroom. It's his summer entertainment. 

Quilting projects

I went on retreat with my Four County Quilt Guild sisters last weekend and got a ton done.

I sewed up blocks I won in About.com lottos. I finished 4 tops (2 from each set of blocks) and actually finished two quilts.

I also finally finished a kit I've had for a while. I completed the top while on retreat in AZ and quilted it at this retreat.

I also finished the quilting and bound the Canal Street Tiles quilt. This is a pattern by Gyleen Fitzgerald (http://www.colourfulstitches.com/) that I pattern tested for her. I'm thrilled with this quilt. I think it's my favorite of recent ones I've made.

I also made my Doll Quilt for this month's About.com swap. It's an Amish theme this time. I did not hand piece or quilt it (the binding was not quite sewn on when I took this picture).

Finally, I also finished 6 blocks for the About.com lotto for May.