Surprise Visitor at QOV

This week was our Quilts of Valor quilting group and we had a very special guest.   Meet Louis,  an 11 yr. old an American Bald Eagle.  He was rescued after he fell out of his nest in Washington state when he was young which left his wing and shoulder damaged.   He was transferred to the Wild Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis County where he received treatment to recover from his injuries.

His handler is a Viet Nam Veteran and
volunteers his time to train Louis and takes
him to various events. Louis is quite the celebrity.  He performs flying demos at home games for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball and Rams football,  Veteran's Day events, has been in the Tournament of Roses Parade, Boeing events and various local and state government events.  He was a beautiful bird and so polite and well mannered.

Design Wall Monday

My design wall looks similar to last week, but I've added more string blocks, started piecing a border for Winter Friendship Stars, tried a light blue for the background of the fishy stack 'n whack blocks and made more 9-patch blocks for a baby quilt - which is cut off from the picture.  Not enough room on the wall for all my ongoing projects.  I need to get some finishes soon or I'll run out of space up there!

I also have a QOV top to turn in this week for our hand quilting day.  We are meeting at the American Legion Hall in Wentzville on Mar. 28 if any local quilters want to join us.

Sorry it's turned sideways.

Check in with Judy to see more Design Walls.

Stash Report Week 13

Here we are at another Sunday and stash reporting. I've been busy sewing, quilting and getting ready for Spring planting.  My stash got a little boost from a friend that was cleaning out her fabric, and I had to be polite and take some off her hands, right??  After all, what are friends for! :)

Do you remember that little bundle of fat quarters I received to make a baby quilt called "Playing Tag", well I finally got time to put it together.  It was an easy pattern, but the cutting directions were a bit unclear and there was an minor error in the instructions.  The top is finished and hopefully some little one will enjoy playing with all the "tags" on the blocks.  I'll get it quilted tomorrow, I hope.

Here's my week's results.
Fabric Added - 2.5 yds
Fabric Used- 1 yd
YTD fabric added - 6 yds
YTD fabric Used - 19.848 yds.




The colors are more true to the fabrics on the left.  I lost my "real" camera and had to use my cell phone which does not take good pictures. Hope to correct that soon.  Head on over to Judy's and see more  reports.

Wordless Wednesday

Design Wall Monday

My design wall hasn't changed too much since I last posted on it.  The stack & whack blocks are still there -- no fairies came to finish them up and I did more string blocks at the retreat.  This weekend was our quilt show and I had to put on hanging sleeves and labels on 2 quilts from last year to be in the show.  Did finish up a couple customer quilts here and there throughout the week.

Here's a shot of one of my quilts that was in our guild show this weekend.  It is a Bonnie Hunter pattern that was done with all scraps and some blocks from friends' stash. .  I named it Mocha Latte because I asked them to use colors that reminded them of coffee (with and without cream), cappuccinos, teas, hot chocolate and other fancy drinks at the coffee houses these days.

Mocha Latte  (click to enlarge)

Check out others design walls over at Judy's.

Stash Report - Week 12

I'm a wee bit tired after 3 days of fun at our Bits 'n Pieces Guild quilt show (Fanfare of Quilts). To see up close and personal over 400 quilts is a tiring but enjoyable task.  I think I walked at least 40 miles in those 3 days.   I helped with hanging the quilts before opening day and taking them down the last day, along with white glove duties and final distribution of quilts back to the original owners.   Of course I had plenty of time to go shopping at the vendors. I had to help support them right?  There are so many volunteers needed to make a great quilt show and our guild has the best volunteers around.  The first day we had more than 1,000 attendees and that was with 2 big St. Pat's parades going on in town.

I bought lots of goodies -- batting, threads, other quilting items plus these black and white fabrics. I'm only showing what I have to count on my stash report!  :)

This week's Report

Added this Week: 2 yards
Added Year to Date:   3.5 yardsUsed this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 18.848 yards

Net Used for 2012: 15.348 yards

Check out what others did during the week with their stash over at Judy's here.

Quilts of Valor

Yesterday I attended our local chapter of Quilts of Valor and we had a great turn out. The weather was beautiful and the hosting church made us a wonderful lunch.  This week we met in the Knights of Columbus Hall in Old Monroe, MO. We move around each month to a different church or hall. There are  90-100+ ladies each month and they come from 4 or 5 surrounding counties.  We quilt all day with breaks for snacks and lunch.  It's really a lot of fun and for a great cause.  To date, our group has given out 801 handquilted quilts to our troops.   It's amazing to see so many hand quilters in one place-- just like the old-time quilting bees we've heard about.  We finish 6 to 12 quilts each time we meet, which is sometimes twice a month. Here are some shots of a couple finished ones and some we are working on.  All the tops are donated by members and their friends.

Some lucky soldier will be getting this beauty soon.

I don't know if you can see this, but the maker drew more grazing deer and quilted a scene in the large tan border.

It's hard to get a good perspective on the size of his room, but if you can imagine 15 or more large quilting frames set up with  6 or 8 chairs around each, then you can get an idea of the size needed to hold us all.

Sorry these are not better pics. I was trying to show how many quilt frames were set up, but there wasn't a place to stand to get a wide angle shot.  I think I need more practice and a better camera!

Design Wall Monday

My regular design wall is too crowded this week, so I'm using the floor and my sewing cabinet in addition to the wall --all because of being on a 4-day retreat.  My Winter Friendship Star went with me to the retreat and the top is almost finished.  It still needs one small inner border and a pieced border "yet to be designed" using the left over HST blocks.  Hopefully by next week the top will be done.

Winter Friendship Star

Another project I worked on and finished was the backing for the QOV,  posted on Stash Report.  Here is the top that I promised to show you.  This was donated by Cindy L and I really love this fabric and colors.  The fabric line is from Michael Miller, but I don't know the name of the collection.  Thanks Cindy.  I hope a female soldier receives this one. 

CL QOV

I'll show more of my projects from retreat later in the week as I get them off the floor!  Now I have to start getting ready for our upcoming quilt show this weekend - March 17 and March 18.  If any of you are near St. Louis, be sure and come.  We have over 450 quilts, lots of vendors, special quilt exhibits from Ricky Tims and Jackie Robinson (both who have ties to St. Louis) and lots more.  It's being held at Queeny Park near Highway 270 and Manchester.

Stash Report - Week 11

A happy Stash Report this week -- I depleted all the fabric I had in one color family.  At least all that would coordinate with a beautiful top that was donated for Quilts of Valor. It needed a backing and binding. So I dug through my blues and greens and used every scrap and small piece that matched the colors of the top.   My stash numbers this week:

Bought this week - .5 yard -an inner border  for a UFO
Used this week - 4.5 yards - pieced backing + border
YTD Bought - 1.5 yards
YTD Used -  18.848 yards
Net for 2012 - 17.348 yards

Here's the back. You'll have to check back tomorrow to see the front.  Sorry to be a tease, but I've got to get busy to have something on my design wall for tomorrow! :) :)  

Head on over to Judy's to see how others did on their stash busting this week.

Retreat News

I've been behind in blogging this week, but I have a good excuse.  I attended a 4-day retreat and it was so much fun.  I was very productive too!.  We sewed 16-18 hours a day, ate great food, sewed, laughed and sewed some more.  I don't remember getting much sleep, but I'm much closer to having 3 quilt tops finished. They only need a border or two and they will be complete.  My Bernina behaved so well that she even received a special reward for her service --she was personalized with some snazzy hot pink, sparkly letters.





Here's a peak at one of the completed tops by Linda.  There were more, but I'll post them later.

Stash Report - Week 10

A friend of mine is collecting fabric for a special quilt using black and white with pink accents, so I donated from my stash two and half inch strips for this project.  These will be added to others so there should be lots of variety and look great when it's done.

Used this Week:  1.39 yards
Used year to Date:  14.348 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 1 yard
Net Used for 2012: 13.348  yards

Check out what others have done over at Judy's.

A small finish

Today I finished the last set of custom pillowcases for a customer to match a quilt that was finished earlier.  I learned from my experience with the first two cases, so these went faster.  It normally takes less than an hour to make a set, but that's not the case when you have to make 12 small blocks to put around the cuffs.



Next I'm going to work on my February UFO that was put back on the shelf last month. This means March is going to be my catch-up month.  It's a Sudoku puzzle and the thing slowing me down is how do I quilt it.  That's always a stumbling block for me.   Does this happen to any of you?  What do you do?  If it was just piecing quilts, I'd could probably finish one a week; but  my mind goes into stall mode when it comes to which quilting designs to use on a quilt.  Sometimes parts of the quilt will speak to me, (mostly in a whisper), but it takes me forever to decide what works and what doesn't.  I know... I've been told to use the 3-P method - practice, practice, practice -- but I'm ready to be done with it and on to the next project...one that's been waiting for years to be finished.  So many quilts, so little time!