Another Early Quilt

This is a baby quilt that I made in mid-2002 for one of my husband's great-nephews. I did not buy any fabric specifically for this quilt -- I just found it all in my stash (at the time, my stash wasn't all that large, but it was still a stash). I quilted it on my Bernina with a medium meander using monofilament thread.

By that time I had given up on using regular thread while trying to quilt on my sewing machine -- my stitches were incredibly inconsistent, so I switched to monofilament. That helped my confidence tremendously, but I don't really care for the look.

Warning...I'm On My Soapbox...

"Statesmen create; ordinary leaders consume. The ordinary leader is satisfied with ameliorating the environment, not transforming it; a statesman must be a visionary and an educator. "

-- Henry Kissinger, former U.S. National Security Advisor and Secretary of State in Years of Upheaval (1982).

This time around, I don't want "ordinary" Joe Six-packs as my leaders making decisions about my family's and my country's future...
P.S. I promise to go back to quilting now, but I may get on my soapbox once in a while...

Who Do They Think They Are?

This came in the mail recently...it's bad enough that I first heard from them when my husband turned 50 (I was only 40), but now they are actually after me.

One-Third Of The Way (Almost)

I'm not really in a mood to do much applique, so I'm afraid those blocks will mostly be left for last. For me, handwork usually requires that I sit in front of the TV and there really isn't anything on anymore that I am interested in. It's mostly garbage (although I do enjoy the occasional clever SNL political skit...). But I will have at least one block ready for applique in time for next Monday's Laurel Janes meeting.

Today's block is "K-8 Springbrook Park", an intermediate-level paper-pieced block. This makes block 56, which means that I am just about at the one-third mark of DJ center blocks. Only 113 more to go...and then there are the triangles and corners...

A Walk Through Chautauqua

The bus trip to the Quilting Around Chautauqua festival was fun and the location was gorgeous. I especially loved this house... Here's a closeup of the side...
I didn't spend much with the vendors...all I bought were 2 charm packs to make a couple of bags. I hope the person who first thought up the idea of charm packs and jelly rolls got a hefty bonus from his/her employer since I'm sure it's brought in a ton of money for the company. I know they are more expensive than just buying yardage, but for small projects that require a large variety of fabrics, the charm packs and jelly rolls are great. I have seen jelly rolls that only have a couple of fabrics, but those don't make sense to me. It's not all that hard to buy a yard of fabric and cut it into strips yourself. But then I also don't see the point of buying frozen pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! For those of you who haven't made your children's lunches in a while, yes, there are such things in your grocer's freezer.

Here are a few more shots of the location...

And here are a couple of quilting friends on the steps of the grand hotel on the property. The front porch was a great place to rock away some time after seeing the quilts and vendors.

The Early Bird Gets A Good Seat On The Bus

I will be spending tomorrow at the Quilting Around Chautauqua festival where there are supposed to be over 900 quilts on display from guilds all around the Chautauqua, NY area. The bus leaves at 5 AM (yikes!) and I hope to be home by 11 PM. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Thankfully, I'm not doing the driving.

There will be vendors, of course, but I'm going mostly because I love to see quilts in person. And I use quilt shows as an opportunity to get ideas about machine quilting...my camera will be full of photos by the time the day is done, I'm sure.

The Dear Jane block I finished today is "D-9 Uncle Richard", an intermediate-level paper-pieced block. I may be so exhausted after the bus trip that I may not have another block done for a while...

Final Days

It's hard to believe, but there are only a few more days to see the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild Exhibit in Wellsboro, PA. The exhibit is displayed at the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center on Main Street and will be open through Sunday, September 28th from 2 until 5 PM daily. There is no admission fee and there are just under 100 exquisite quilted items to see. In addition, there are a couple of wonderful raffle prizes as well, including a queen-size quilt and some quilter's gift baskets. Click on the highlighted link above to learn more.

Come see the show before it becomes just a memory!