Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Some quilt designs - or not?




Last week I attended a conference for my other job (Township Clerk) at Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort. The decor at the facility was absolutely beautiful. These pictures are of the carpet and floor tile. I don't consider myself a designer and I don't feel that I have the eye of a designer - but, I think there could be some inspiration here.


More Christmas Stockings

I am proud to announce that I will be able to turn in 27 more Christmas stockings at our Guild meeting tomorrow. That gives me a grand total of 34 stockings to date. As I wrote in a previous post members of our Guild are making these stockings for Christmas gifts for local children. Things have been a bit busy in my life lately and I haven't had a lot of time for working on many projects. I seem to be able to get to my sewing machine for a short time now and then. These stockings are very simple to make. I don't have to do a lot of thinking and it seems to be the perfect project for me right now. And I do love to do charity work, it is so rewarding. I have already dug out some more fabric and plan to work on more stockings when time permits. I need a couple of items to donate for an auction for our family reunion next weekend and Steve suggested a few stockings. I think that sounds like a great idea.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

A finished quilt




I finally have a finished project to share. The name of this quilt is Tilt A Whirl and I found the pattern in a Fons and Porter magazine several years ago. I hand pieced and hand quilted this quilt. The second picture shows some of the quilting detail on the back. Hand piecing and hand quilting are my favorite methods. When I am hand quilting my mind goes off in many different directions and I just feel that all is well with the world. Hand quilting is so peaceful and relaxing to me. Summer is always a busy time and I haven't had much time for sewing lately. And when I do go into my sewing room it seems like I am jumping from one project to another. I have managed to make about 20 more Christmas stockings for my Guild and I have about that many more in various stages. The stocking construction is a "no brainer"and I enjoy working on them when I just need some down time. I am not much of a TV watcher so I manage to work on stockings in the evenings. I had set a goal and so far I am ahead of schedule.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

To Mulch Or Not To Mulch




To mulch or not to mulch, that is my question. Although I love plants and flowers I don't really consider myself to have a "green thumb". In fact, given a choice between dirt and a shovel or my sewing machine I would much rather spend time with my sewing machine. We had a very small flower bed just outside our back door. We have had the same plants there for many years. I do not know the name of the plant but it was a very invasive plant. Last week Steve and I finally got around to digging out the invasive plant. I had bought a couple of hostas so we got those planted. Steve likes to have some color (other than green) in the flower beds so we bought a couple of annuals and a couple more periennials. Hopefully I can get them planted before it rains today. My day lillies are just beautiful in another flower bed. We bought a couple more and hopefully they will produce in a couple of years. Back to the mulch - what do you think? Steve is concerned about bugs making homes in the wood mulch close to the house. I would appreciate ideas and suggestions.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Another successful retreat with Mark Lipinski











Last week we welcomed Mark Lipinski back to Thunder Bay Resort for a third Quilter's Retreat. Thirty six excited quilter's joined us for the 4 day retreat. Mark's class was a Textured Frenzy Mystery Quilt. It was very interesting to see all of the different color combinations and beautiful quilt tops produced during the retreat. And I think you can tell by all of the smiles that everyone had a great time.
(PS - Sorry for the delay in this post. Blogspot was down last time I was in the office).




Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Could it be a 4th generation quilter?




We recently totally enjoyed 6 days with our 3 year old grand daughter Allie. We had a lot of fun with her. After going to Guild for a day of sewing I guess Allie decided she could operate my sewing machine. She had great fun putting squares of fabric under the presser foot and pretending to sew blocks together. While we were at JoAnn Fabric over the weekend she showed Papa the little girl sewing machine she wants to get when she gets bigger. We had a wonderful Memorial Day holiday weekend with lots of family time. Other than at Guild I didn't do any quilting but that is totally fine with me. There is always time for sewing later. Family comes first!