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