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Thursday, June 28, 2012

BEACH BREAK

Hi all - we're having a bit of a beach break.  You know, sun, sand, family...seafood...it's my mom's 90th birthday, so everyone showed up and is trying to get along...
We went on a paddlewheeler trip down the Cape Fear River...  here's mom and my DH at the rail.  There was dinner and a Murder Mystery... (you know, bad acting, but amusing)


The sunset was gorgeous... all blue, purple, and yellow..
 On Saturday, after flying all night on a RedEye from California, I convinced DH that we needed to stop HERE at a QUILT SHOW!!! in Wilmington.  We will retire in Wilmington, so this guild will one day be "MY GUILD"...  I met a few ladies, saw some of their very lovely work, and bought some Raffle Quilt tickets...
 I also spent some quality time with the Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen machine... I am definitely buying either that or the George machine from APQS.  Haven't decided yet...  but am just positive I NEED another machine!

Hope everyone is well -  Kate


Friday, June 22, 2012

A Dilemma


Hi all...

I just learned I have to make a business trip to Philadelphia...

yep, that would be the Philadelphia that is close to the Amish Country fabric stores...

should I rent a car and drive over and shop????

Do I need fabric ???  (no, no)

Do I want to go shop ???  (yes, yes)

Whatever should I do???

I will spend all the money I save on fabric in renting a car...............

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Kate

Monday, June 18, 2012

What Are You Doin, 'xactly?

So today I took a day off from work - and the housecleaning people came this afternoon.  As I generally do when they are here, I hid out in the sewing room... At the end of the cleaning session, my cleaner, Juana, came to the sewing room door to say good bye...
 
 Then she said to me today:  "What Are You Doing, 'Xactly?"

For two years she has swept up thread, and pins, and needles, from various locations.

She folds up quilts on the beds, quilts on the couch, quilts in the closet.

And, for the same two years, she has been forbidden to go in my sewing room - because there's just not an inch of floor or desk that she could clean...

And when she goes in the garage, she sees bins and bins of fabric, and quilts laid out on the pinning table.

So today, she came in, and I was working on my little wall quilt



And she said "What Are You Doing, 'Xactly?"

Now, Juana is a practical woman, born in Mexico, who has built up a housecleaning business with her husband... he does the "power tool" work (vacuums, etc.) while she does floors and bathrooms.. they are fabulous fabulous cleaners...  Juana is a non-nonsense women who speaks limited, and very succinct english. . 

So I answered "making a quilt"?
Juane:  "What is 'quilt'"?   (anybody know the spanish word for quilt?"

me:  "blanket"
Juana: " too small"

I GOTTA WORK ON A BETTER ANSWER FOR "WHAT ARE YOU DOIN, 'XACTLY?"

................then she said "WHY YOU DO THAT, 'XACTLY?"

Oh, Lord, Juana, I don't know how on earth to even begin...

Perhaps I just need to make Juana a 'blanket' - not too small.

Kate

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Pink and Green

Happy Saturday, everyone....

I have recently realized how much I like pink and green - both with a nice crisp white, and now with a gentle taupe color as the neutral...  Different, but both wonderful...  By luck, I am working on two pink and green projects:

The first is some fun Lotto blocks for the Sunshine Yahoo Guild...  I think there will be four or five when finished and mailed off!
 And next is my Sally Collins class wall quilt... I had to take one side of  the flying geese off, fix some, euthanize a few, and do a little repair - and I am glad I did...  Now I have added a dark green border - it won't be this wide - just made it wide until I figure out what comes next...then will trim it down to a nice even measurement that I can work with and make some setting triangles, I think...
 This morning was commencement for the Quilting Professor's Day Job... and it was beastly hot - I stood on the stage for two hours shaking student's hands... in heavy academic robes... I could feel myself getting shaky and nausous - by the time it was over I was in full heatstroke...just miserable.

So this afternoon, DH has directed me not to move from the couch with Lifetime Movie Channel going.  But I can still work on the hexagon quilt!!!  I'll be all better tomorrow - another commencement at our branch campus!  Oh well, it's that time of year, and the students are so happy.  I can make it through a few more handshakes. 
Happy Quilting everyone,

Kate

Sunday, June 10, 2012

More and More Tiny Geese

Oh boy have I been having fun continuing to build this small quilt, begun in a class with Sally Collins...









Three rows of the tiny flying geese are completed;  one more to go!!

I spent yesterday with Pat Speth of "Nickel Quilts" fame - you have probably seen her books... she was the speaker for our guild, and I really enjoyed being her host - she brought lots of quilts and books and patterns!   She did a great presentation, and is doing a workshop today for some of our quilters!  What a great community the quilting world is!

I'm also working on some blocks for a charity bloc lotto, and a binding on a small charity quilt, but no finishes there yet...  I must say I love doing the charity quilts just as much as my "better" work, it's all fun, isn't it????

The Tony Awards are on tonight - that means a nice couple of hours snuggles on the couch working on the hexagon quilt!!!  Heck, another year and that will be finished - just imagine what I can do with the time that is going into that quilt!!!  HA...

Happy Quilting,

Kate


Friday, June 8, 2012

Meet My Friend......

Mr. SEAM RIPPER !!!

 Remember this block????
I added some more tan and a marbled green to give it a frame,  and then started a tiny green 1/4 inch border and a row of flying geese 1 by 1/2...
I love it, I love it... but I realize I should have put the 1/4 inch border on all around, not tried to sew it to the geese and put them on both together... ok, a little ripping... this is so fun!!

Meanwhile, the Quilting Professor's house sure does feel empty after losing our kitty George last month..  I think it has been nearly 30 years since I did not have a pet... it's just so quiet...
I think of him at the strangest moments - when I open the patio door and don't have to worry about him running out.......... when I go in the laundry and there's no stinky litter in there...  or I go down the row in the grocery store and then realize I don't need to buy cat food. 

I know that in a few days the vet will send us the little plaster cast of his pawprint...  I still have the one from when his mother died two years ago - it's in the box, hidden at the back of the cracker shelf - I couldn't open it...  now there will be two unopened boxes........ 

Kate


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Aftermath of Sally Collins

Honey, I Shrunk the......................Flying Geese   !!!!

Remember I took a class with Sally Collins???

Sally Collins is sure to make you rethink the sizes of things... so tonight I am making little geese, 1.5 by 1 inch...  (and for Sally, that's a BIG goose)...

For me, it's ...............well..................... they are just little GOSLINGS !!!!

I only have to make 88 of these little cuties...that's only 10 times what this mama Goose made!!

back to work....

Kate

Saturday, June 2, 2012

I Survived Asilomar Empty Spools Seminar

 Hello everyone !!!!  I'm back from the Asilomar Empty Spools Seminar...

I am exhausted........
My back hurts........
My feet hurt.........
My tummy is upset.............

AND I HAD A WONDERFUL TIME.............

We laughed, we learned, and we had a fabulous time... for five days .

We were in the most gorgeous setting imaginable - Asilomar State Park... gorgeous Pacific coastline just steps from the room - you could hear the ocean at night...
It's a beach... right there outside the window!!!!
 Sally Collins is a FABULOUS teacher - her quilts are, of course, spectacular - but she is very good at making difficult stuff understandable...  this was one of my favorites - you can't tell from this photo, but it's tiny - those blocks are probably four inches apiece... fabulous workmanship.
Day One was drafting - circles, angles,  formulas - but the chance to really create whatever you wanted to make...
Drafting - compasses and protractors

 Days Two - Four were spent selecting fabric and making mock-ups, and playing with mirrors...Can you see that tiny 1/8 inch insert in that orange strips - good work done by my neighbor!
My neighbor's blue block in mockup...
My block - mirror stage
Practicing up on tiny geese and HST's


 SO - Lots of learning later, and here is my "Carolina Star" block....  I have a big draft of what will go around this - so stay tuned...

ASILOMAR ROCKS... 

Happy Quilting to All,

Kate

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