Twenty-Three!

My friend Lori and her husband have Pittsburgh roots, so this was the perfect quilt for their 20th anniversary:



Sorry for the shady photo, but sun is a rare as hen's teeth around here lately.

The fabric is Taxi from Timeless Treasures and the pattern is Yellow Brick Road by Terri Atkinson.

Zoos are for the wealthy

Poor people go to mall parking lots to watch the baby geese:

Twenty-two!

Since I spent many, many, many hours in a car, I took along several quilts to bind.

I used my friend Maria's tumbler template and cut up a bunch of blue scraps for this baby quilt:



Since I was visiting my son, I made full use of his quilt-holding skills:



Remember, the owner of those sexy legs needs a job. Music teacher. Call me.

Product testing

My son has a special young woman in his life. Soon she will be his wife. They didn't exactly spring this on us since they've been mostly together since the sixth grade.

My future daughter-in-law accompanied us to my son's graduation in Ohio. She brought along the quilt that I made her for her 16th birthday:

The fabric was Annabelle from P&B and the pattern is Terry Atkinson Confetti in the Corner. The quilt has been to many states and a few foreign countries. It's been well-loved and oft-laundered. The quilt should survive for many more years, but I'll be happy to replace it when called upon to do so.

Death to the Platypus!!!

Once upon a time, there was a platypus:



The platypus met my neice (dog), Mallory:



Mallory likes to take the squeakers out of the platypus:




She walks around, squeaking randomly:



Then the platypus died:



The end.
_____

Mallory came to Ohio for my son's graduation. All the photos were taken at grandma's house. If you look carefully, you'll see Tiger Wood's golf on the television. It's what the men-folk play when they get together.



I suffered for these photos. I took a lot of photos of where Mallory used to be. I took a lot of blurry photos. I laid down on the ground and have some extreme close-up photos and photos of Mallory's tongue as she licked my camera. Mallory thought my ponytail was a chew toy, too.



I travel too much to own a dog, but if Mallory ever goes missing, don't tell my brother-in-law that she's at my house, ok?

Oh, the places I've been!

The Ohio State University graduation, June 14, 2009.



If anyone knows of a music teacher job..........

Clearing off the camera.

Last Sunday, we were driving to get mjy daughter's bridesmaid dress fitted when the car started making a flop-flop-flop sound. We pulled off the highway, discovered a flat tire, and a good time was had by all.



Or at least by me. I was in the shade, watching a cute guy do manly work.

Twenty - one!

Several of my daughter's teachers are having babies. Here's a quilt for one of them:

I pulled greens and whites out of my 2-inch square bucket and set them randomly. I think the quilt is 42x48 inches.

This makes TWENTY-ONE quilts finished this year. I may actually make 50!

weekly update

the weekend that was: I taught all day Saturday. Sunday was my book release party. Photos will come later.

where i am at the moment: Home!

on my to-do list this week: Quilts, writing, class samples, trying to dig through the mess of my studio

what I'm sewing: graduation quilts and other presents, scrap quilts

books I've read: I'm back to my Stephanie Plum-a-thon. Up to number 8 now.

movies I've seen: Eagle Eye. What a fun movie!

next trip: College graduation in Ohio!

what I'm looking forward to: my son's college graduation!

When life hands you scraps....

...make quilts. When life hands you red scraps, make this:




I make this pattern often. This time I used only red/pink squares for the four-patches and I put them together randomly so there are no continuous diagonal lines.


I played some more with the Pro-Stitcher and quilted huge daisies all over the quilt.





The American Idol finale gave me some much-needed time to finish the binding.


For those counting: TWENTY!

Festival!

I've lived in New York for over 20 years and have never really taken advantage of all that the area has to offer. Since our nest is soon to be empty, hubby and I plan to see the sights, locally and elsewhere.

On Sunday we went to a local winery for a Strawberry, Chocolate, and Wine festival. Now I ask you, what better sort of festival could there be?

I don't drink much, so looking at a list of 16 different wines that I was going to taste was quite overwhelming. The fellow who poured the wine kept thinking I didn't like it when I took a sip and dumped the rest, but sixteen sips of wine = more than I usually drink in 2 months!

The strawberries and chocolate were wonderful, and a few bottles of wine followed us home.

OK, maybe not that many.

Baldwin Vineyards. Check them out.

NINETEEN!

My daughter is graduating from high school this year and has asked for 10 graduation quilts. If that's not challenging enough, I haven't finished graduation quilts for my son's friends who all graduated FOUR YEARS AGO!

Here's another flame quilt for one of my son's friends:

If you've ever wondered if a computerized quilting system is worth it.... it is! Check out what my Pro-Stitcher did while I was cleaning my sewing room:

If the Pro-Stitcher could bind my quilts for me, too.............

weekly update

the weekend that was: Strip & Stones Club at the Quilt Basket on Saturday. Even though I promised myself I wouldn't, I bought the kit. More on that later. Sunday was a trip to a local winery for a strawberry, chocolate, and wine festival. More on that later. Monday was exciting: tons of laundry and a bunch of quilting.

where i am at the moment: Home!

on my to-do list this week: Quilts, writing, class samples

what I'm sewing: my new quilt kit, graduation quilts, and other presents

books I've read: Dog on It by Spencer Quinn. You must read this book. A detective story told from the perspective of the dog. It was worth the overdue fine at the library.

movies I've seen: X-Men, Sex and the City, and at long last.... Wall E.

next trip: College graduation in Ohio!

what I'm looking forward to: my book release party on Sunday!

In case you needed proof

I really have made my mother 15 tablerunners.







And she really does have a top to her head. Sorry for the bad photo, mom.

More tablerunners to come.

Quilt Market, again

Since I showed my not working photos, I'll share photos in which work was actually completed.

If you've been to a quilt show (or a trade show of any type), you've seen the booths all finished and ready for the public. Less than 3 hours later, the convention hall could look like this:



Those pallets are stacked about 5 feet high.

The Handi Quilter crew, waiting for the shrink-wrap guy to arrive and wrap the pallets:

Great job, ladies!

Quilt Market

I worked hard. Really, really hard. Especially during the dinner cruise.

My hometown as viewed from the water:



My travelling companions (sorry Elaine, it was the only photo that wasn't fuzzy):



All good things must come to an end:

I'm EIGHTEEN!

and I don't know what I want! Ahem, enough Alice Cooper for today.

My eighteenth finish was an apple quilt for mom. I had it quilted and machine bound before I went to visit in Pittsburgh, but had to hand finish it while I was there. When I carried the quilt into the house (unwrapped), mom started dropping some serious hints about how much she liked it. "Good thing, Mom, because it's your Mother's Day present!" I couldn't leave for home until the binding was complete. She threatened to unpick the stitches while I was at Quilt Market, just so I'd stay longer. Yeah, my momma loves me.

Mom and Dad with the finished quilt.

weekly update

the weekend that was: I was in Pittsburgh for Quilt Market. I got to see all that is new in the quilt world. Added bonus: I'm from Pittsburgh so I got to visit the family and attend my nephew's confirmation.

where i am at the moment: Home!

on my to-do list this week: Quilts, writing

what I'm sewing: graduation quilts and other presents

books I've read: Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. Some fun stuff about Star Wars in there, but annoying beat out interesting and I couldn't finish the book. Also listened to Getting Things Done and Me, Inc. during my long car ride.

next trip: College graduation in Ohio!

what I'm looking forward to: graduation, graduation, wedding, college, cruise

Another one for mom

Girl's best friend

Another graduation quilt (72x72 inches), courtesy of:

*my 2-1/2" strip scrap bucket
*Bonnie Hunter's "Scrappy Trip Around the World" pattern
*my HQ Sixteen Pro-Stitcher for quilting swirls on the quilt while I cleaned my sewing room
*my 10-1/2" square scrap box
*my roll of leftover binding strips
*a Frankenbatt

Also brought to you by:

*a sunny day. Doesn't the sunlight look great in this photo? Sunlight is as rare as hen's teeth around here.

And..... SEVENTEEN!