The Good, Bad & Ugly

The Good

A charity quilt for HospiceCare, Inc.

 

A bright pink "happy" backing.

The Bad

I remember years ago playing a game in Sunday School. 

We stood in a circle, about 12 of us, and the teacher

told the first girl a “secret”. 

Then that girl whispered it to her neighbor. 

And the story went from girl to girl. 

When it came to the last person she was 

asked to repeat the secret out loud. 

Then the Sunday School teacher 

held up a piece of paper with the original secret. 

The truth was completely distorted having been repeated 12 times. 

That is what I have been dealing with this past month. 

Gossip spread like wildfire thru our quilt guild.

Not much truth was told in the end. 

I've been a member of five different guilds, in five different cities.
And not once have I seen such rude behavior or
ugliness spoken at a meeting.
Hopefully, it is behind us now and we will move forward

promoting our love of  fabric, quilting and friendship.

The Ugly

Snow in the middle of April!

Aren't retreats wonderful?

Only trouble is

it takes me a week to recuperate!

We had sew much fun.

Laughed, ate lots of chocolate, 
laughed, went to bed way toooo late.

 I did manage to piece a top (still needs borders)

and work on a few other projects. 

But didn't complete anything.

 This is the studio.

Enough room for 24 quilters!

 Lots of windows and sky lights.

 

 Kitchen area.

Unfortunately, it was tooo chilly to eat on the deck.

But we did have our morning coffee out there.

And this beautiful view from the deck

we didn't see.

Not that green here in Wisconsin YET.

All of the above photos were taken from the

Magnolia Ridge website.

I forgot my camera!!

***************

 Click on recipe to enlarge.

These are  quick, easy, and delicious.
One of my favorite recipes from
our Guild Saturday Sew Day.

Finished quilting Kathleen's

"Round Robin" quilt this week.

Now I'm off to load another customer quilt.
Maybe I can get some piecing time in today.
Here's hoping......

Connecting Threads

I just received my order from Connecting Threads

and couldn't be happier!

The fabric quality is excellent, has a nice soft silky feel.

And the price can't be beat! 

Just let me say, no affiliation, no paid commercial.

These fabrics are from their Firecracker line. 

A real country red and bright royal blue.

I purchased enough of the red prints for backings.

At $3.00 a yard, how could I not!

Love the blue "friendship star" print.

Going to be borders on my BOM guild quilt.

I also ordered their thread for the first time.

White in the middle, with natural on the left and antique on the right.

The antique is a perfect match for muslin fabric. 

A real bargain at $2.49 a spool.

100% Egyptian cotton #50.

I will give it a test run this weekend at retreat.
Have you tried it yet?

These 2 fabrics, are labeled as "seconds".

Seconds meaning the print is wavy.

I looked closely and was unable to see any major waves or distortion.

An affordable backing, priced at $2.28 a yard.

Don't get me wrong.

I love the major manufacturers "designer fabric" lines.

But at $9.95 a yard and up .........

I need to find a few alternatives to make my hobby affordable.

I ordered 2 spools of their Essential PRO thread.
Thought I'd give it a try.

I love to have a variety of threads available for customer quilts.

Remember my thread wall?

 

 Freehand roses and rosettes.

With a paisley background.

 This is the customer quilt I was working on for last 2 weeks.

King size plus.

Love the pieced back.

 Well, I'm off to gather my treasures for the weekend.

Leaving bright & early tomorrow morning.

 Shop Hopping all the way there!

 

 Look at my poor cold porch rockers.

Hubby set them out 2 weekends ago, at my insistence.

And I've been waiting for the sun to shine ever since.

I hope you'll notice my new blog look. 

I added a top navigation bar and removed the links on the side.

When you get a minute take a look at the

Out & About page.

I've haven't finished adding all the sites, but it's a start.

More will be added as I find time.

******

It seems all I've been up to is quilting customer quilts.

I'm working on a Spring yo yo table topper. 

Need just a few more nights in front of the television yet.

 Both quilts were made by Lin from Las Vegas.

Can you tell her favorite color is blue?

 Close up of the star block.

 Hard to see the quilting on the back because of the print.

 Not much happening here this week.

I'm trying to get a huge customer quilt finished
and organize a few projects to take with me.

  Where to???
A 3 day retreat, leave next Friday.

OOO, I can't wait!

Sewing with friends.

Can it get any better than that?

Blogger Problems

I have tried to post for the past couple days
but BLOGGER isn't playing nice.
Anyone else having problems?
But it did let me embedded this video.
It's been floating around the web all week.
But well worth seeing again.

Wouldn't he been great at the Super Bowl?
Will try to post again tomorrow.
Keep Stitching!
Karen

The Next Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

OOOOO, I didn't forget about you......

I've been sew-o busy,
just like the you, I'm sure.
But now with day light savings time
I have an extra hour of sunshine in my day!
Cuz let me tell ya
when it's dark by 4 in the afternoon
I'm in my jammies.

There's HOPE for Spring!
Check out my BOM from Little Miss Shabby.

Lovin the orange and teal!

January Snowman

February Love Birds

Lucky Shamrock March

Of course I'm not doing the suggested setting.
In fact, I used that setting for my Snowbound quilt.
Cute. Cute. Cute.

And here is the next best thing since sliced bread!
Erasable gel markers.
The ink disappears when ironed!
* Can be purchased at the office supply store or Walgreens.

And this sweet tea towel pattern is available
FREE

Click Here

Here is a customer wall hanging.
Love the eagle!

Keep those sewing machines humming!

Snowbound

Not here in WI.....thank goodness!

Just in fabric.

I completely changed directions on the setting for
my embroidered "Snowbound" blocks.

My inspiration came from
LMS's Birdie BOM.
Hmm, I just happen to have 2 charm packs of
Mary Engelbreit's The Caroler.

Love the bright colors with the white.
I debated whether or not to use the black prints.
I'm so glad I did.

I had enough fabric left to add a piano key border.
Now to get it quilted by Christmas.


Look at this spectacular quilt my customer Sharon pieced.
You know how I love 1930's reproduction prints!

The pattern was in the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of
Quilt Sampler magazine.
A million half square triangles.

Love those wide open spaces for quilting!

The back can be used as a whole cloth.

Wool batting really shows the quilting details.

Well, that's my life up to the moment.
Rainy and yucky outside.
Guess I'll just have to stay inside and play with fabric.
And work on customer quilts.
Pretty quiet here without the grandbabies.

Keep those machines humming.