QAYG CHRISTMAS TABLE RUNNER

START AT BOTTOM.     FOR SOME REASON I COULD NOT  PLACE IMAGES IN CORRECT ORDER.

Added a backing to top and flipped, then hemmed opening. VOILA!

Quilted the top and batting of each block  and joined them at seams

Chose some gold metallic fabric and some stars from Christmas fabric.

                                                       

Found some old Christmas circular blocks .

Christmas Cards 2013

Could not find Angel fabric this year

Card stock frames need another type glue.

South Africa cards

Thank-You Cards to South African Friends and Companions

Close up of one card

DHS-HHS Reunion

Douglass-Huntington High Reunion Raffle Quilt -2013

HOLY ENCOUNTER QUILT ENTRY

Sacred Threads Exhibition 2013

"Holy Encounter" Triptych entered in Sacred Threads exhibit 2013

Dena Crain Post

Just want to share a great post by Dena Crain, a superb online teacher, with you.

http://www.denacrain.com/blog/the-future-of-education-for-patchwork-quilters/

Piecemakers' 2013 Challenge

Three fabrics drawn from a paper sack,
and a stack of 20 signed friendship blocks

An idea of a tree, some leftover L_O_V_E blocks, and burlap coffee bags

 This past fall we selected three fat quarters from a bag with instructions to make a 40” x40” quilt. Two of my pieces were ( a turquoise print and a deep pink piece) nicely coordinated, but the third piece I pulled was somewhere between a mustard green or decaying lemon color. I was saved though by the fact that we had made name blocks for a friendship quilt last summer. The outer strips of the name blocks were scrappy so that made it easy to incorporate at least one strip of the yukky fabric into the quilt. I decided to make a friendship block quilt and use my three fabrics in it.

The finished project:

When I think of butterflies, I think of LOVE *, or vice versa

*associated with the Novel One Hundred years of Solitude

Crazy Patch Purse

     And this crazy patch purse has been places it never dreamed of when it was mere scraps in my sewing basket.  I've had more coompliments on this bag than on any thing I ever made.  It was made on a whim from blocks used to teach crazy patch and quilt-as-you-go construction.  In this business you never know what will catch the eye of someone.

I've been across the world and back

View from Table Mountain in Capetown, South Africa

It has been a wonderfully busy summer.  I've decided to try something else with my blog;  something calling for fewer words, rather allowing the images I post speak to you, the readers, about what I'm doing and how I'm doing it.  I do this in hopes of being more faithful to blogging and sharing, as my favorite bloggers are.

Venturing Out

Entering local quilt exhibits----juried and not!

One of my resolutions for 2013 was to submit several pieces to different venues. So far, I've submitted to The West Virginia Quilt Festival, Sacred Threads, and The WV Annual Quilt and Wall Hanging Exhibition at the State Culture and History Museum.  Busy, busy, busy. Oh and I forgot, Amy's Blogger's Online Festival is coming up too. These shows are giving me deadlines which spur me on to do more than I thought I could do. I'm one of those QUILTERS who needs a deadline to get beyond procrastination and desire for perfection and MOVE!!

Received Word that my piece titled "Holy Encounter" has been accepted for the Sacred Thread 2013 Exhibit.  ( I hear the Halleluia chorus in my head)!!!!  

"Peaceful Path"   has been accepted for the WV Quilt Festival.  (the choir continues to sing!)

  

How Time Flies!

What I've been doing?

Apri 30, 2013

This Quilt was made in a class through Quilt University in 2012. I've had this top for over a year and finally decided to finish it up into a lap quilt for a give-away from our local quilting group; however, I decided to keep it when one of our members asked if I might teach the block to others next year.  I made a backing, added the three borders, and pinkish binding. 

         Trying to come up with a quilting pattern was tricky. I finally tried some glad sticky wrap to mark different possibilities for quilting.  Another reason I decided to keep it is because I used it to practice free motion quilting, which is a challenge for me, but one I'm working on mastering.

         The next step of finding something to mark my pattern with on the light dark fabrics was even trickier, but AHA! some old dressmaker marking paper saved the day

       

                                                     

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I love how these colors seem to shimmer and the transparency effects of them, caused by the value shifts going from light to dark and vice versa.   

HAPPY St. Valentine's Day!

Oops!   forgot to turn this one aright!

These top two were for Red Hat Ladies

I'm a mushy type when it comes to love.  St. Valentine is a Saint for my heart.  So I created a few Valentine cards for this day of  LOVE and appreciation---and as usual I wish I'd done more so I could send them out to  more people I love and think of so often.

One of these went to a lovely granddaughter and the other two went to special friends.

Goodbye to the Grid Class

Here's a sketch of a quilt-to-be!!!  (Good Lord Willing and the Creek don't rise)

I like both of these variations on a theme.  Don't know which one to select?  what do you think my friends?

Quilt Univ. Class

I'm currently taking a class from Dena Crain at Quilt U ( www.quiltuniversity.com)  and I find I enjoying it thoroughly.  Nothing like new techniques to get the motivation rolling and the ideas rising.  The class is "Goodbye to the Grid"  There are students from all over the globe enrolled in the class and Dena is a fabulous teacher who gives lots of feedack and has prepared excellent lessons  for her students.

THEY KNOW WHAT I LIKE! :-)

My sister attended the National Association of Black Sstoryteller's Conference in November 2012, and bought this lovely wall hanging for me.  The center is felted and shows the three Wise Men coming to see the babe.  I love the colors and the stitching of the crazy blocks.

Then, my daughter took the crazy picture I've used all year on FB and this blog and made a mug of it for me.  Now, this  is my favorite mug.

Sister also purchased this book, which I didn't have in my collection.   I remember her asking to borrow this and finding out I didn't have it.  Clever girl.  The thoughtfulness of these gifts fills me with gratitude that overflows my heart.