AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

I got this email from my brother today "i need to put in an order for some more placemats. The girl that I had here from ..... was so taken by the other ones you made I gave them to her for a gift to remember her trip by. She could not for the life of her figure out how you made them. She was very impressed by your skills. "

Ok, so I'm glad she liked them. But they were a gift to him that was hard to make. I made six of the above placemats, using "The Cotton Theory" and they took me about a week to finish. I am insulted that he would give them away to someone he barely knew, and he has only had them about six months!

I was venting to DH and he said, "Remember, when you give something away, you have to let it go." I know, I know, but sheesh.

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Here is another quilt from Carol's Closet. The quilt was made in 1937 (dated on the binding) by her grandma. Beautiful embroidery on the bear blocks and very small quilting stitches. The fabric is not cotton, maybe linen, slick but very sturdy. I see in the photo a dark spot over the lower left side, but this is not noticeable when looking at the quilt, other than that the quilt is in excellent condition. Stay tuned for more quilts from Carol's Closet....

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I just got the brochure for our local quilt festival in Valdez, Alaska in September. I am so stoked! The designers that will be there are Billie Lauder (www.easymade.com/billie_lauder.html), Judy Niemeyer (www.quiltworx.com), Amy Bradley (www.amybradleydesigns.com), Marci Baker (www.aliciasattic.com/artist.html), Pam Ventgen (local from Anchorage), and Carol Wight Jones(also from Anchorage). WOW! I can't wait to go. I attended last year with John Flynn, Sandy Bonsib, and other local artists and teachers. It was a great time, and well organized.

Hi All! I just love to read all your comments and your blogs. What great work everyone is doing!

The quilt in the last post is a pattern by Debby Caffrey called The Cat's Meow.



Here is a photo of a quilt I finished binding today. This quilt belongs to my friend Carol, and was her husbands when he was a boy. The batting had gotten all gobby in the quilt and she had taken it apart and had it machine quilted about five years ago. It was never bound and finished and when she pulled it out of the closet to show me, I offered to do it for her. I found some solid yellow that is such a close match, and machine stitched it to the front and hand sewed it to the back. Hand sewing took about four hours. This quilt is a long twin size and is probably made from feed sacks and flour sacks. It is in very good condition. Some of the embroidery thread is broken in places and there are a few darks marks.

This is another quilt Carol pulled out of the closet and said her grandma made. It is on a twin bed in the photo, but the quilt is square. It is machine pieced, handquilted and machine bound. The red is really vibrant and the quilt is in excellent condition.

Carol says she has more quilts to show me, but they will have to wait until another day.

Here it is! The finished mystery, started Dec. 2005. The top is finished but not quilted. I think it turned out really beautiful. I am going to leave the small border on it and use the green plaid for the backing.

And an up closer photo. This top took about 14 hours to put together. The blocks are 10 1/2 inches finished.

Spring is here! It has been 45 degrees for three days! Everything is getting soggy but the warmth is so welcome. The turning point is when the sun starts to give off some heat.

I went to a friend's house to sew this weekend to celebrate National Quilting Day.

I am working on a mystery ufo started in December. I won't tell you the name, just in case you may end up doing this one. These are the fabrics I picked. I am usually a very scrappy person but decided to go out of my comfort zone. The plaid will be the border, it is brushed cotton. It also has a maroon line in the plaid that you can't see well in this photo. The green print has little berries in it the same color as the maroon (colors in the photo are really bright).

And here are two finished blocks. The setting is on point. I have about four more hours to sew to finish the top. Then I will post a photo of that too. I sewed about six hours on Saturday and about four hours on Sunday. This one took a long time to make lots of hst's and those middle points for the stars. This quilt will be 51 x 68 without the borders.

Remember I am making a 1000 Pyramids quilt? Well, I have been cutting the triangles out of nickels. It seemed such a waste of those other triangle pieces, surely I could find something to do with them? So I sewed them together and trimmed to half rectangles and put this pointy star together with some four inch squares and two inch sashing. I will add another outer border, scrappy somehow.

My dh and dd said in unison "Look, more stars!"

There was a post on this ring awhile back about finding your "thing" in quilting. Mine has always been stars. Four, six, eight points, doesn't matter. Remember the blue and white star sampler (in a previous post), the Mexican crosses (Stars) (in a previous post with the polka dot border) , the Christmas mystery quilt(see below)? All stars. No one is surprised anymore by my quilts, they are stars. Maybe I should get a new thing? Anyway, I love stars, they way they can be so different and stand out from the background. And the points, oh the points. Sometimes, I chop them off just for fun.

This is a wallhanging I made for my mom. Just a big star with little stars...

A star variation "Chiclets" that I saw on QNN. Dh said, "Oh look, more stars!"

A Feathered Star from a small paperpieced pattern. Not sure if I really like the yellow border but it is quilted and hanging on the wall so I guess it is too late.

It is very windy here today, the temp is 5 %. Our screen door is just blowing back and forth. The wind is so strong, I can't keep it closed. But the light is coming back and for that I am soooo thankful!

I have been wanting to work with green for a couple of months. I discovered this easy Hidden Wells pattern and thought here is my chance. It is made with strips sewn together cut into squares and cut on the diagonals. Then sewn back together to make these new squares. This long table runner was completely pieced in one day, but I haven't felt like quilting, so it is not finished.

My cutie pie with his "Just Trucks" quilt, completed today. I made him a pillow case from this truck fabric and he wanted a blanket. His old blankie is dying, it will not last another washing. So I picked out a cute pattern, bought all the matching fabric in red, green, yellow, teal, orange, etc. I showed him the pattern and he said, "No, just trucks!" "What!!!!???" "Just trucks." So, here is "Just Trucks". The binding is black with little white eyes, and the backing is white with black swirlys flannel. It is quilted in straight lines along the roads. You can tell that he is just thrilled!