I'm in trouble now!

OK, remember my little shopping spree Sunday morning? Well here is part of the result. Late yesterday afternoon I received these 20 luscious colors of New Zealand corriedale wool silver.
And of course I bought felting needles, a multi needle holder, and a felting mat. NowI know you can use a piece of thick foam...but as long as I was buying......

After receiving a beautiful needle felted postcard from Michelle Wyman, I thought it would be a fun thing to try. So last night I started a coffee cuff. I used a piece of rust colored hand dyed wool felt as my base. Then started needle felting gold and green wool silver in the shape of leaves. You can see the chalked out line of my cuff on the wool.

Then today on my "lunch break" (which lasted 2 hours today instead of 1) I cut out the cuff, layered and quilted it and finished the edges.

Kinda cute, huh?

Then I decided a journal cover would be nice, so I drew this simple design in chalk on a piece of green felt cut to the approximate size for a sketchbook,and then added my wool silver and felted the design. Afterwards, I cut it to size with a decorative edge rotary cutter and stitched the flap pockets. And there you go!

This stuff is so easy and cute! Another addiction, just what I need, LOL !!

And today is my granddaughter Samantha's 5th birthday! Happy birthday, sweetie. We love you!

And Happy Halloween to all!

On my lunch break

A few weeks ago Carla posted about coffee cuffs she made with her logo. They were great! And they reminded me I had seen an article a while back (almost 1 year ago) in Quilting Arts Magazine with directions on how to make them. After reading the article again, it occurred to me that I had the book that originally had the pattern. (your mind is a terrible thing to lose, LOL)

Anyway, I dug out both the magazine and the book and made my own coffee cuff! I just pieced some strips together, fused some leaves, and machine blanket stitched them down. Then layered that with dream puff batting and a another fabric scrap for backing. Quilted the leaf veins and couched the yarn. Cut it all to size using the template, zig zag the edges, then join the ends by top stitching and Voila! A coffee cuff! Much prettier than the cardboard ones the coffee shops use. And start to finish took 20 minutes!

If you don't have the book or the magazine for the template, just use the cardboard one from your coffee! Fun, fast, and easy. Would make great gift for coffee loving friends, AND as a bonus, it helps use those fabric scraps. Also lets you use some of those pretty yarns I know you all have!

A busy weekend

No quilting this weekend. This was the weekend of our sailing club's "Moonlight Regatta" Done on the weekend of the full moon in October each year, it is a distance race ~ 17 miles (which in sailboat time is from 3-5 hours depending on how fast your boat is and how skilled your crew). Well, it starts at dusk, and we had a perfect night. Beautiful full moon, good wind, and not too hot! It is actually more of a social event than a really serious race...though the guys are always serious about racing!

For me it was a beautiful night out on the boat. We finished and got back to our dock at home just before midnight. It reminded me of those nights sailing when we were cruising our boat long distance from Virginia to the islands.

Then today we had the after race party, and then met some friends who have just returned for the winter for dinner.

This morning, however, I did a little shopping online. I had some "joggles bucks" I needed to use, and after receiving Michelle's postcard a few weeks ago (pictured here)
I have been thinking about trying to do some needle felting. So this morning I ordered 18 colors of wool roving, felting needles and 3 books. 2 on needle felting and the 3rd is "Fabric Art Workshop: Exploring Techniques & Materials for fabric artists and quilters" by Susan Stein . It hasn't been released yet, but is due in the next couple weeks.

Now, to make time to explore all these new things!

I've been tagged

OK, I've been tagged by Yvonne, so I'm going to play along. Here goes:

4 jobs I've had:
I've only had 2: RN/educator and Longarm Quilter.

4 films I could watch over and over:
1) Gone With the Wind
2) The Sound of Music
3) Lawrence of Arabia
4) Fiddler on the Roof

4 TV shows I watch
1) Masterpiece Theater
2) Mystery
3) Paula Dean's home Cooking
4) Emeril Live
(the last 2 give you a clue as to what's important in this house...LOL!)

4 places I've lived
1) Newport News, Virginia
2) Norfolk, Virginia
3) Deltaville, Virginia
4) on our boat cruising down the east coast and the Bahamas

4 favorite foods
1) Chesapeake Bay blue crabs
2) Pink shrimp (fixed any way)
3) Frog Legs
4) crawfish
(and this is just the start of a VERY long list!)

4 favorite colors
1) Turquoise
2) hot pink
3) lime green
4) coral

4 places I'd love to be right now

I'm torn between being here with hubby and kitties, and back in Virginia with the rest of the family. There is nowhere else I long to be.

4 names I love but would/could not use on my children
1) Colleen
2) Sarah
3) Ryan
4) Jacob

4 people I'd love to tag
1) Mary
2) Vicki
3) Debbi
4) Randi

Another work day

One quilt done and out the door, and a new one in to be quilted. And so goes the dance. I made good progress on the one I loaded this morning...should finish up by noon tomorrow.

And the mailman brought me a wonderful surprise today...another postcard from..... (drum roll please!) MARY!!!! Isn't it great! It is her representation of a stand of birch trees she photographed on a recent trip. All of those green and gold dots you see are TINY french knots!

It is beautiful and I LOVE it!! Thanks, Mary.

A working weekend

I stayed busy this weekend. I had decided a while back that I wouldn't work on customer quilts on the weekends. But this weekend I did. trying to clear my October stack, I kept at it thru the weekend. And below is what I accomplished.

This quilt had a TON of SID. It was made by my client in one of my machine applique classes.

And she wanted me to quilt it. So I outlined the applique, did detail veins inside the leaves, quilted oak leaves in the plain blocks and triangles. And SID in the lattice work and between the borders. and in the outer border I just did a very simple freehand leaf and vine.

The extreme closeup is so Mary can see my stitch quality....we have the same machine (except mine is not stitch regulated and hers is)

This is another customer quilt finished this week. I did a panto in the center (LT's stars and loops), figure 8's in the yellow border, and my own stars, loops and spaceships in the outer borders.

A productive week. Just 8 more quilts to go for this month!

A little work on my own projects

This weekend I decided to work on my own project. I don't piece quilts, but I love pieced backgrounds. So I decided I would like a pieced diamond background for some applique. Well, diamonds, are a pain!! At any rate I persisted, and pieced this 56x56 background of diamonds. It is "sky and water" so maybe one of those Mariners' compass blocks will come to live here! Ok, I've done that now...on to the next thing!

And of course you have to see the new fur baby pictures! They were quite cute today, though not a lot of help piecing those diamonds...lol. Chloe is bathing Harry...she is sooo sweet to him!

And here...have you ever seen a more relaxed boy??

And then Chloe is improving the look of one of Mom's quilts!

So I had a weekend and a day to goof off! Guess tomorrow I'll get back to customer quilts.

Have a good night!

Happy Birthday Kara!

My oldest granddaughter, Kara is 12 years old today! My, how time flies! Hope you have a wonderful day sweetie! We love you.

Look! Mary is playing!!

First of all, thank you to all of you that have posted and e-mailed me privately about my design for Judy Ls latest challenge. and about my latest custom quilt. I appreciate all your comments, and love when you visit my blog.

Then for those of you who don't know... Mary and I are sisters. Sometimes we get a little competitive... but I could never have a better support system than her.

I have been needling her since the beginning of the MQR postcard swap about participating....so far she has resisted. So I just sent her a postcard when I was doing my last swap.

Well look what I got in the mail today!!! From Mary! I know you can't tell from the photo, but all the detail on the houses is hand embroidered. Thanks you so much, Mary, you can't even begin to know what this means to me.

My latest finish

I had a comment last week asking about another quilt that I had done this panto on. It is a very popular pattern by Donna Reinarts called 'leaf pile'. Well here it is again this week on another quilt.
The back was white flannel, so I thought this would give you a really good idea of how pretty this pattern quilts up.

This next set of pictures is the another quilt I finished this week. The customer has it now so I can share it with you. The flowers are 3-D and very pretty.

The back is fabric that she hand dyed and is gorgeous....perfect for the colors in this quilt. I was pleased with the end result, and fortunately so was the owner!

Thanks for visiting my little spot on the web, and have a great weekend!

Judy L's design challenge 2nd option

I like this one better....in fact, I might even make this one. When I get a minute! lol

Judy L's design challenge

OK, remember now, I'm not a piecer. Fortunately for me, the block Judy chose lent itself to being set in a quasi "barn raising" pattern. And that allowed space for....you guessed it Applique!! And we had to have a little orange...after all it's almost Halloween! Maybe I'll go back and add a black cat applique.

So this is what you get with a less than 2 week deadline. Imagine what I could have done if I had till February!

I really should be quilting all those quilts that are waiting......

Even still, it was fun. Thanks, Judy for issuing the challenge. Can't wait to see what the rest of you did!

Giving to the kids and supporting the police

Some of you know that I have a son who is a cop. Most of you know I am the community quilts chairperson for my guild. Our membership has really swelled the past year, and I find myself with loads of charity quilts. Our guild requires that each member make at least 1 charity quilt a year to be donated thru the guild. And we have many members who make several quilts a month for this purpose. So I found myself with TONS of quilts to donate. And our usual venues didn't require the numbers we now generate. But, we still want to keep the majority local, so I needed to find a new donor project.



Well , since my son is a cop, I have a special respect for what they do, and both the frustrations and dangers they face; I fear and pray for his safety each and every day. So I thought we could combine support for the local police with helping children at risk and in need of comfort. So I talked to the community resource officer for our local PD and asked if there was a need...she said absolutely. So today, because of the generosity of my fellow guild members and my friend Gert, and the vision of Sgt. Reynolds, we took 90 quilts to our local PD to be placed in patrol cars and distributed by the officers to the children who need comfort that they encounter in the process of doing their duty. This will be an ongoing partnership. And it is my hope that this joint effort will comfort at risk children in their hour of need, and foster an environment of trust and hope between these children and the officers who serve the community. And in some small way,... maybe ....will reduce the violence that our children AND our police officers are exposed to. If we give hope and comfort to just one child, and can help save just one police officer from the violence of a hopeless, misdirected youth then I will feel good about what we have done.

Too many children slip through the cracks in our society. And too many officers die trying to protect them. My prayers go out to all of them.

Just a short note

For all who are interested, the clear envelopes I use to mail my fabric postcards come from here. The one I use is # B 46 It is 6 1/4" x 4 1/2" with the opening on the 6" side. They have a peel and stick re- sealable flap. Remember to use the self stick stamps. I normally take mine to the PO and let them weigh and stamp them. Sometimes they weigh a little more and need extra postage. Also if your cards are more than 1/8 th inch thick they cost extra. Usually though, most of mine go thru for the cost of a first class stamp. I always get them to hand cancel them, so they don't go thru the machine . I had an issue of 1 getting totally mangled once going thru the machine. No problems since using the envelopes and getting them hand cancelled.

Some others that I know just send them thru the system with no envelope and no other special care and have done fine. I can only go by my experience and it has shown me that I prefer the envelopes and hand cancelling.

More progress

I'm on a mission ...lots of quilts to be done this month, so no messin' around. In addition to the penguins that I posted last night, these 3 have also been completed in the last few days.

This morning I loaded another small top...but then we went sailing...a race and we won! then there was the after race party and guess what? No quilting today...oops! Tomorrow I'll get back to work, I promise!! Only 10 more tops to quilt this month!

And it also looks like Mary has given in to the postcard bug! I figured she could only resist so long! Can't wait to see what she does!

A busy couple of days

First of all, I received another postcard from my MQR swap group. This one is from Lyn. At first you might wonder what this has to do with our theme..."new beginnings". Can't figure it out?
Well take a look at the back. It is perfect and especially with Columbus Day on Monday! Perfect Lyn! I love it...thanks so much! It is wonderful to see all the different interpretations of a theme. I just can't say it enough...this is an incredible way to collect art from so many talented people!

And then, I finished the Penguin quilt today. I know it looks like a lot of unquilted space between the snowflakes.... It is in reality 3" between the large ones and about 2" between the smaller ones. Had this been my quilt there would have been a background fill in the empty spaces. But it is not mine, and this is what the client wanted soooo...there it is. I did use quilters' dream cotton batting so hopefully there won't be any batting shifting.

In spite of my reservations as to the density and evenness??(is that a word?) of the quilting, it is kinda cute I think.

And here's the back.

So now on to the next one!

Thanks for stopping by!

More presents!

Another beautiful postcard in today's mail! This one from Danetta! thanks Danetta, I love it!

It so beautifully shows the fall season...of which we are NOT experiencing! It is still in the 90's. How I long for the weather to break. When it finally does we will have heaven on earth here for about 5 months! 75 -80 degrees and NO humidity! All the windows and doors will stay open . It is just a perfect season here. Once it gets here...hopefully SOON!

And I also had another surprise today. Remember on Wednesday I posted about my extended base plates woes, and that Gammill was working on it? Well today I received the new extended base made to my specs . It fits PERFECTLY!! I am so thrilled! I immediately fired off an e-mail to Gammill thanking them for their fantastic response and FAST solution. Monday I will call Jearld personally to thank him. This kind of customer care is why I'm on my 2nd Gammill.

Good News!

I heard back from Gammill today, and they are going to fabricate a new extended base plate for my machine based on the photos and measurements I gave them. So I will soon have one that fits...assuming my measurements were right lol.

There have been complaints about service and other issues on some of the lists. But I have to say, Whenever I have contacted Gammill with an issue, they have jumped on it and resolved it. So I guess my point is contact your machine company with issues....it's in their best interest to find a solution, and I'll bet they'll be happy to do it.

What time of day are you?

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?