Sunday, July 31, 2011

fiddlehead finished

Well the top is done anyway.  Still have to put it together and quilt it.  That might take a bit yet but for a first attempt, and I rushed a little on it, I don't think it is too bad.

I will have to think on how to quilt it.  Perhaps when we get to FMQ on the bucket list I will dig this back out and then do it with this.

I heat set it but am also debating on whether or not to use textile medium on it also.  time to figure out that later.  It is now time to put it off to one side and contemplate something else.  It has been fun working on it it.  It is called whole cloth "applique" so i figured it would qualify for my "applique Sunday".  LOL.  It was pretty relaxing to listen to classical music in the background and just color this.  For anybody who tries it, make sure you put your fabric on top of something because the Sharpies will bleed through.  I had an extra piece of foam board from the dollar store which worked out nicely.  I didn't ruin anything expensive and it was sturdy enough that it acted like a separate table.


Finished the Turkey

Didn't get much accomplished this weekend but at least i did finished one thing.  I finished the turkey doll quilt.  Should I call it a small wall hanging instead?  Either way it is finished and will be mailed out to Dotty as a birthday present next week.


Now to get going on some other projects.  Took inventory and this month I have to do:

Catherine's present for July Quilting in the New Year. - changed my mind today on what to do so back to the drawing board.

Do a doll quilt for MUV for August.  I might have two to do since they had a last minute sign up.  We'll see.

Do something fro Brenda in the Xmas exchange.  this actually doesn't have to be mailed in October so can put off for a little bit.

And the drawing for the bucket list was today....it is Bargello.

I didn't do the bucket list of seminole piecing so must do Bargello.  IF I have time (you reading that Kat?) I'll go back and do something with seminole.  LOL.

Of course there is also Dan's Quilt but that is an ongoing thing.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Tea 101 at Bab's and Coco's Tea Emporium LLC

What a delightful afternoon I have had so far.  Just got back from Bab's and Coco's Tea Emporium LLC who was having their first class entitled Tea 101.

I learned a lot about the tea and their handout was great.  Now if you aren't a fan of tea, you can skip this whole blog entry because I am going to talk and the seminar/class and post pictures from it.

First of all I apologize to Babs and Coco for any misinformation that I might give.  It is due to my leaky brainpan and not their presentation.  So with that said, let's begin shall we?

Did you know that you can't call something (or shouldn't) tea until it has Camelia Sinesis in it? Some other tidbits that I picked up (you should go to their next one if you are in the area)....

1.  Camelia Sinesis is easy to grow and has a lot of varieties although it is a single species.

2.  The highest yields come from lower altitudes and the highest quality comes from the higher altitude.  That is what they call Monkey Picked (the higher altitude ones).  It is called monkey picked because it was said that only monkeys could pick the leaves because it grew in such a tall place.  Note to Bonni:  sign up for the class when they talk about the legends and stories about teas.

3.  Lots of things influence the tea - geography, season it gets plucked in, tea bush variety, cultivator, method of leaf manufacture and, of course, the humans makimng it.

4.  After tea is plucked it needs to be withered.  That is warm air that is circulated around and through it to cause the leaves to wilt.  That takes around 12 hours.

5.  Green teeas are put into tsteamers that will kill the enzymes and guarantee that no oxidation will take place.

6.  Tea is rolled either by hand or a mechanical roller.  Why does that remind me of the stories of rolling cigars?

7.  The leaves or rotated on ribs in a machine to gently bruise the them so they open up their juices to the air.  Another method is to put on the leaves on oxidation tables so that they can come in contact with enzymes in the leaf.

8.  The tea on the store shelves (most of it anyway) is actually the dust and fannings from the tea.  That comes after the teas get put through something call a rotor vane.  That tea is called cut Tear Curl (CTC).

9.Then it has to go for drying or firing.  Think putting it in a pan, or steam it or bake it.

10.  It has to be cooled quickly

11.  the leaves get graded along a series of mesh tables.  Think sorting sieves.  the smallest like fannings and dust drop through smallest holes and are used for teabags.  Now don't get me wrong.  The store bought teas are good also and can be used for a variety of things besides just drinking.  If i want to tea stain a piece of muslin, you can be sure that I won't be using my Celebration tea but will use regular lipton tea instead.

12.  The tea has to go through a tasting and cupping process to be graded and evaluated and then samples are put into tins and sent to brokers.

13.  A professional tea taster will sip and spit up to 450 cups before lunch.

Other interesting things:

type of tea depends on what you do with the leaf when it is plucked.  It is broken up into two divisions:  eastern and western.  A cute note that was said:  The eastern name for white tea is called Dance of the Leaf because of how it opens up.  The western name for the same tea is called something like Agony of the Leaf because of how it opens up and dances around in the water.

They talked about White, Yellow, Green, Oolong, Pu'erh (think poo-air or was it pew-air), and Black teas.  Also about Herbals and Tisanes Rooibos (yucky in MY opinion), Honeybush and YerbaMat and Roasted Mate.

Yerba and roasted Mate come from Argentina (at least the ones they carry) and is like coffee.  In Argentina they drink it out of a gourd and you mix it with water until it becomes almost like mud and then sip through a straw.

Some people prefer the second or later pressings.  George Harrison, one of the Beatles, preferred the third impression and his son used to think he just messed up the first two.

Green teas are not all alike.  Those from Japan are grown by the ocean air and water which influences their taste.  China green tea is different.

Oolong teas can be brewed several times (see above about George Harrison).

I came away with more knowledge about teas and also a new tea to try.  I bought Imperial Soldier's Pu'erh which is a pu'erh with a citrus burst.  It has pu'erh tea, natural citrus essential oil, lemon verbena, and lemon grass.  I haven't opened it up yet since I had three cups of tea at the tastings (grins).  Perhaps tomorrow.  A Pu'erh tea comes from China.  It can be white, green or black.  Originally there was an unknown bacterium in their water and ground which caused the tea to ferment after it was made.  In other words, the tea improves over time (think like wine improving or females with age...hehehe).  Now some factories spray that bacterium on the tea to enhance it more.  The Pu'erhs can be compressed into bricks or fun shapes.  They had small birds nests at the store but they can be large sizes (think dinner plates) also.

Now for the Pictures.

The people start to arrive.




The Store is nice and clean and quite open.  Their displays are not crammed in so you can see what they have.



You can see in this picture of my favorite tea (Celebration), that they have little jars next t the teas so that you can smell them.


People are now starting to sign in for the seminar. 



Coco (nick name) gave a good presentation to a full house.


Once she started to talk about the different types of tea (green, white, etc) Coco passed around the little jars so we could smell samples of each.

At the end, we kept Babs (nick name) busy at the brewing station.



Scones were also made and offered.  They sell the scone mixes there.  It was VERY YUMMY.  I tried the cranberry and vanilla scones and was hard pressed not to take them and run.  Not dry at all and had good flavor.  A nice complement to the teas.

Everybody was friendly and I think everybody enjoyed it.  There were people representing a variety of ages (yes, even a young baby and a young lady who REALLY knew what she liked and how she liked it) to the elderly.  Was it a perfect presentation?  There was room for improvement.  For instance the passing around of the teas could be reworked a little bit.  Perhaps to have more room or limit the size of the class.  Still overall it was a solid A presentation and this was their first so they have time to improve. 

I will watch for their next class and/or tasting and see if I can attend.



Thursday, July 28, 2011

I Won!

Today seems like a day where I can shout "I Won!"  It is a good day so far.  I didn't get to go to the luncheon afterall but that is ok.  I've been to enough of them in the past and I'm not planning on retiring soon (even though I can still go after I retire) so there will be plenty of times to have the free meal.  :)

I *did* get today, a table runner from TealFalcon.  This goes back to the April Quilting in the New Year Swap.  Better late than never.




I'm thinking of taking it to work and putting it on my pull out tray of my desk.  I have one on the side that faces the door.  I usually put candles or flowers etc on it so this might work out well.

Then yesterday I received my doll quilt for July.  It's a cute Sunbonnet Sue pattern.  I like how she did the stitching on it also.








The other cute thing in the package was she included some corn themes fabric.  I'm always relating DeKalb to being in the middle of Corn Country.  It's appropriate.



Another reason why I say *I won* is that I found out I literally won something.  On Angie's blog:

http://quiltingreadersgarden.blogspot.com/

How exciting is this?  She was talking about applique needles and she was going to give some away.  This is awesome stuff.  Can't wait to try them.


As nice as this is....it's not getting anything done.  Time to put in 15 minutes on Dan's quilt.  I am having to redraw it.




Saturday, July 23, 2011

Tired Fingers

Whew!  My fingers are tired today.  Not sure if they will cooperate with me tomorrow so I'd better update this blog tonight.  :)

I finished doing the stitching on the redwork turkey.  It's been pressed and tomorrow I will sandwich it.  If things go right I might even quilt it tomorrow and then on Monday put on the binding.  I will use the same backing material I did for the sunbonnet doll quilt.  it looks good with the redwork.


After that I worked more on the Fiddlehead project.  I've got the design all done and started on the border.  That border is all black and I will need more sharpies in order to finish it.  I also need to go back in the middle of the design and touch up some of the black.  The pattern instructions said to stipple on the black.  I don't know how to do stippling but I also think it is also close work which I'm not sure on.  I'll have to think on how to finish it.  I think I will be heat setting the ink before quilting and am debating on whether or not to use textile medium on it.  If you are reading this, please feel free to give an opinion.

Tomorrow is breakfast with mom and then back home to work on something.  Not sure yet what I will work on.  Perhaps I will take a day off of actual stitching and look to see what fabric I will use for my next project.


Friday, July 22, 2011

Nolee liked her table runner

Before I forget....Nolee sent me a pix of her using what I sent her in the Quilting in the New Year Swap.  She said she loved the table topper and it is currently being used.  :)


She also said that she made that crocheted table cloth.  Another talented lady!

Further progress on Fiddlehead

I've now managed to get about half of it done.  Before heat setting it I will go back over a couple of the areas.  The design is starting to stand out now i think.


Once the pattern gets transferred, it is kind of relaxing to just fill in the background with the Sharpie.  :)  I was thinking that this type of a pattern reminded me of some Hawaiian applique patterns and they might be good for this also.  I'll have to check what I have on hand.  I also will be checking out Walmart for other colors of sharpies besides just black.  Sharpie comes in a variety of colors and it might be fun to experiment.

I also made more progress on my "I'm not a turkey" redwork.  Here is it.


He might be trying to hide that he's not a turkey, but he's headless yet whatever he is.  LOL.  I have to do some satin stitch for his disguise but since it is on my embroidery floor stand, I can easily go and pick it up and take a few stitches and put it easily back down again.  I do that stitching over by the TV which has a comfier chair and gives me a break from sitting in the computer chair all the time.

My CyberQuilter yahoo group had a posting that was interesting.  Pilot has a pen that is erasable.  When heat is applied the ink disappears even off of fabric according to this report....

http://ivoryspring.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/a-new-way-of-marking-pilot-frixion-pens/

Walmart is suppose to have them so I will go and check them out also.

That's it for now.  Catch up with everybody later.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Quilters Garden blog

If you get time, jump over to Quilters Garden blog and read about the new applique needles that she tried and loved.

http://quiltingreadersgarden.blogspot.com/2011/07/applique-thursdays-72111.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AQuiltingReadersGarden+%28A+Quilting+Reader%27s+Garden%29

She says they go through the material like butter and is doing a give away for them.  Wish me luck.  If you haven't read her blog, go there because she has interesting stuff including Applique Thursdays.  Yeah Yeah, I can hear some of you saying now...No wonder you like her... She does applique.  :)

I'm working on a new project.  I'll explain it tomorrow though.  Here is a sneak peek though.


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Busy Day at Work

I haven't posted much after the weekend since I was so busy.  I've been looking at different patterns to come up with ideas for doll quilts and wall hangings since I'm those swaps.  I will post an idea after i audition some Japanese themed fabric for one of them.

Another thing that might interest you is Kat's blog entry.  Go check it out.




She has some pictures up there about curved log cabins and also shows how it can look as a border.  I might have to do log cabins (haven't done them yet) and use them as a border.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Goodies in the mail

I received my block from Maggie today in the mail.  She also did a Kansas City Dugout from Rhonda's list.

The pink in it is more of a shocking pink and really stands out.  It's nice and cheerful.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sunday quilting

Just got back from mom's and now I'm ready to start crafting again.  It was Kerm's day to pay for breakfast so I didn't even have to make biscuits and gravy.  I consider this my "free weekend".  LOL.

It has been a good weekend.  As you know, if you've been watching this blog, I finished the princess feathers.and they will be mailed out tomorrow.  I also finished my doll quilt.  it was somewhat simplistic but it still gave me problems.  I think overall it turned out cute.


Today I will be working on Savannah's birthday present which needs to be finished by the 24th.  I might finish it yet today, not sure yet.  Perhaps I'll have a Harry Potter marathan going on because I don't have to concentrate on those movies.  it will be in the background running.  Before that though I will turn on the radio and listen to my classical music.  Sundays is baroque music and I like to do some applique while listening to it.  It is a good way to unwind (for me anyway). and let my mind drift.  That is when I come up with ideas for new projects. 

I'll keep you posted, in the meantime, have a delightful day.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

sewing and movie day

I started out sewing today on Nolee's princess feathers and it is all done except for whip stitching or something the corners.  For making such great progress on that, I treated myself to the movies.  I went to see Harry Potter.  It was good to see it on the big screen and had just enough humor in it not to take away from the seriousness of the plot line (yeah, there's a plot line...the book said so).  Saw some movies that I am going to watch out for also.  Captain America for one looked good.  Of course it is a pulp one so it has a good start.

After the movies I went to the dollar store and picked up some poster board and duct tape.  Wah Lah!  I have a new cheap, make shift design board.  I haven't put the flannel on it yet but it worked out pretty good.  I picked up 8 pieces of foam board (20 x 30) because I wasn't sure how large I want it to be.  I simple put two pieces of foam board together and put one strip of duct tape on it to keep it together.  I have extra of both material if it gets destroyed and for $3 a pop easily replaceable.  I can also add more of the hinged poster board to this one section if I want to make a larger one. 

I used clothes pins this time to test it out.  Don't look at the messy table and apartment in the background.  LOL.



Notice since it is "hinged" it stands up by itself and I could stand it up the other direction also if need be.


And it folds up for easy storage.   It is light to carry around and fits in the car easily.  This might work out afterall.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day before payday.  Thank the powers that be! THEN it hit me.  My next two paychecks will be small.  Miniscule is probably a better word.  They will be for only 8 days each.  Now the good news is that it means I get paid quicker.  Of course the bad news is that those paychecks won't cover all my expenses.  What was it the doctor was saying about don't get stressed?  Sigh.

Anyhoo, I worked on the doll quilt today.  It will be pretty simple actually.  Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam holding a heart between them.  This is what it looks like so far.  Hope to finish stitching the redwork sometime tomorrow.


There will be a row of  Xs along the bottom of Sue's dress.  I am debating on how to finish it.  I'll do the squares like I did for the redwork eagle.  Finally found some background that will work nice.

Feeling tired and stuffed.  Went to Ruby Tuesdays and had their salad bar.  Still full at 10 p.m.  Will go to bed soon and not set the alarm.  That's a nice thought.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

darning foot

I have decided to learn how to do free motion quilting before the end of the year.  Ok, before February anyway.  LOL.  I found my darning foot as I was also told it was called, and tried to put it on the machine.  You'd think that it would be easy wouldn't you?  I've been changing out the the sewing feet on the machine for over a year now.  This is the first time that I've tried to put it on.  I managed to get it on....in two different positions no less and not sure what I'll do.  Whomever reads this, if you know the right way, let me know.  LOL.

The first picture here is with the bar going underneath the screw that holds the needle in, etc.  (No, I don't know all the proper names to the pieces .  That I am sure is NOT the correct way because it doesn't like to stay on that way.  Good hint isn't it.



So, after fiddling with it, I figured out a way to get that little hook on top of the bar.  That is where I think it is suppose to be (no, I can't find my owners manual), but then there is another thing which I don' t think is right.  Notice in the picture how much space there is between the foot and the table.  That is in the down position. 


That orange handle is a magnet tool.  You can also see some of my scribbles done....I mean my FMQ threads (in black) so it IS able to stitch in this position.  Is this normal?  I would think that you would want the foot to either be riding on the fabric or barely above it.

On a similar topic but a little different, I found a quilting system that I might get.  I am still looking into it.  It is suppose to enable you to do similar to long arm quilting but with your own machine. 

http://www.flynnquilt.com/

Look at the video.  The guy doing the video is boring to listen to and the video is slow but overall it DOES show what you do, how you do it, etc.

Did I mention the system costs $150?  THAT I could handle a lot easier than the Long Arm prices.  Don't worry Shel, you'll still get my BIG projects.  :) 


Monday, July 11, 2011

Last day at 54

My, doesn't that sound dramatic.  I think I will veg the rest of the night and take an allergy pill.  Doesn't that sound exciting?

I did manage to finish up my block for Rhonda's July swap block so it will go off in the mail on Wednesday. 

I am almost done with the top for Savannah's birthday present.  She is my 8 year old pen pal (step daughter of good friend).  This will give you an idea of how it will look.  the back fabric will be the mauve/pink of the circles.  I have to put the black corner pieces up to hold the picture of us in it.  That way she will be able to swap out pictures when she wants to.  I'll probably put a black binding on it.


I have almost finished Nolee's table topper also.  I think that I will be putting a narrow dark brown border around it and just do echo quilting (only one echo).  Can't finish it until I get more batting.


Here is a close up of my stitching.


I have changed my mind on the doll quilt I have to do.  Think it will end up being redwork.  Hopefully I will be able to stitch that this week.  I want to get started on next months doll quilt because I think it will be a fun pattern (an elephant with some flowers).  I can't do it for this month since my partner likes red and I wanted to so sunbonnet sue/sam.  I am now thinking of doing it in redwork.  I'm sure I stated this before but I'm still trying to convince myself that is what I am going to do.  I'll make up my mind by the weekend.

Time for the allergy pills.  Wonder what the office is planning tomorrow.  I know they are up to something for my birthday.  :)

Friday, July 8, 2011

Stubborn Quilter on the road to finishing a project

I could have said stubborn women but I'll blame this on quilting instead....this time. 

What is it that makes us (ok, me) think that I can get through one project/block without resewing?  Take the latest block that I did for Rhonda's July Block swap.  It is going to Maggie who I had last month also.  I was right on track with the colors since we had talked about it early in the month and I actually had some fabric that would work.  I chose a pattern that I had wanted to learn to make and had her colors and off I went to cut and sew.

First stop light....it was a long one.  Had to throw out the first set of fabrics becuase it didn't look good with the pattern.  Did I change the pattern?  Noooooo, I changed the fabrics.  The second set of fabrics I also had in my stash so back on the road.

Second stop light.  The second set of fabrics didn't look good with this pattern.  Ok...ok.  I changed the pattern.  There was another pattern similar but different enough that I could work with the fabrics that I had chosen. 

Proceed with caution as I come up across a crossroads.  Do I proceed with my normal speed when I start these or should I take the long and careful road.  Long and careful won out and I set up a sechedule to only do one row of 2.5 squares a night.  That way I wouldn't get burned out and hopefully wouldn't get bogged down in mistakes.  Things were progessing along nicely and I dared to speed up.

OOPS!  Speed trap!  Sped up and had to pull over and unstitch a couple of squares.  It turned out that when I was looking at how wide to make the blue and brown fabric, I mixed up two different sizes.  Got those recut, resewn and then attached.

FINISHED LINE!


That was taken with my new phone which is:


Time to gt back to learning about this new phone.  What it will take to get some ebooks on it etc.  Sigh.  This will be a long process.  I just know it will.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

The ending of a Thursday

Whew.  Here it is the end of Thursday (well close enough) which means the end of my work week.  Even though it was only three days it seemed like it was 7.  On the bright part, after a rough start, it ended pretty good.  I managed to get some work problems figured out and everything is set up for the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh McNair Students visiting on the 19th.

I went out to eat with my brother Tony.  We try to do that every Thursday.  This was pretty good also because he had been looking for a new place to live since they will be tearing down his current building.  He finally found something and he has a storage unit even so things seem to be working well in that regards also.  Since we won't see each other again until next Thursday he decided to give me $20 for my birthday.  He didn't have to because this week he also bought me another 6 quilting patterns.  A couple of them are really cute. 

After I got home (had breakfast skillet for dinner) I took inventory on what I wanted to work on.  I really wasn't in the mood to do quilting or stitching but I'm glad that I did.  I managed to keep to my schedule for appliqueing  one princess feather each night. I also managed to work on the block swap (Rhonda's).   I have four out of six rows all sewn together.  I will do one more row tomorrow and then the last row Saturday or Sunday.  Probably Sunday since this is my gaming Saturday.. I wanted to keep going but am trying to avoid tearing out and pacing myself better.

Now I have to work in the Baltimore blocks more.  The July one came out and it will be relatively easy to do.  Just have to work it into the rotation.

Time for bed.  I'll write more tomorrow.

Niters.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Slow Quilting

Slow Quilting

I like this article. It does point out that one of the nice things about quilting is that there are so many methods for us to choose from and that there is room for everybody no matter which you do choose.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

More favorites and updates

As I'm waiting for the work mail to arrive, I thought I'd quickly sneak in here and post a few more of my favorites websites/blogs to visit. 



http://www.patchworktimes.com/          especially design wall Mondays
http://www.freepatterns.com/                 - check out July 5th.  Teddy Bear’s Paw Quilt.  This might have to be one of my doll swap quilts.  It is too cute to pass up.


I know the last one is longer but still check it out.  Has great pix and ideas on it. 

What do I like in a site?  Hard telling since my mood changes.  These that I've posted have caught my eye enough to bookmark them, follow them, and/or keep me interested in going back to see what is there.  Ideas like a different theme or topic for each day of the week or lots of advice.  Ok, I'll be honest, I'm addicted to free patterns also.  LOL.

Speaking of patterns, here is what I'm thinking of doing for the doll swap.  My partner likes red and sunbonnet sue.

 

I did this in EQ7 and am still working on it.  The red is an actual fabric that I have and scanned into eq7.  I'm not sure i like using the red for the border.  Might have to use a different color for that. 

Here is also an update on Nolee's table topper for the Quilting in the New Year Swap.  I've started doing the stitching and it's not looking too bad.  Thanks to Shel for suggesting the dark brown for thread.


I plan on doing one whole feather (the two units together make up one feather) a day.  That way I'm not pushing myself and rushing so that I get sloppier with my stitching.

Oops.  time to get back to work.  New student helper starting today.  Didn't know that but I can work with it.  LOL.

The start of another project

My 10 year old pen pal, Savannah, also has a birthday this month.  Mine is the 12th and hers is the 25th so I thought I'd do a little wall hanging for her. 


It is sort of hard to see the colors in this.  The circles are a pink/mauve colors (she loves pink).  Underneath the "friends" will be a picture of her and a picture of me.  I have to cut out the corners that will hold the pictures yet.  That way she can change out the pictures with different friends if she likes.  Wish me luck on it. 

Time to do some work so I'll write more later.

Have a great day.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy Fourth of July, 201

July 4th.  A big day in our history.  There is quite a bit of controversy as to weather our Declaration of Independence was signed on the 4th but it really doesn't matter.  The 4th is the day that we all celebrate.  Wikipedia also had an interesting little note (if you believe them).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_%28United_States%29

They said:

"In a remarkable coincidence, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents of the United States, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Although not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, James Monroe, the Fifth President of the United States, died on July 4, 1831. Calvin Coolidge, the Thirtieth President, was born on July 4, 1872, and thus was the only President to be born on Independence Day."

A good friend of mine was also born on the 4th and I was born on the 12th.  July is a good month.  :)

Lynn Brown has a cute table runner pattern for free on her website.  It's simple so anyone could do it.  it's also a little different.  It also would be easy to adapt and change to one larger wall hanging, etc.  If you are interested you can go to her website.  Also check out her other free patterns.  She has some BOMs that are nice.

http://lynbrown.com/

As some of you know, I recently joined CyberQuilters yahoo group.  I have learned a lot from that group and it is worth checking out (IMO).

A couple of friends have started to blog now and their blogs look like they will make interesting reading.  One of them is my friend Shelley (grins) who is trying to start an at home business for long arm quilting.  Follow her adventures at:

http://rockymtquilts.blogspot.com/

Shelley will probably be the one who I will send my large quilting projects to so she can quilt them on her Avante.  Of course that is also incentive for me to DO some large quilting projects.  That might mean I need to cut back on some swaps but not yet.

Kat also has started a blog and you'll probably find her writing style both interesting and easy to follow.  I have enjoyed her writing and suggestions on CyberQuilters and also her blog.

http://scrapboxquilts.blogspot.com/

Well I'd better stop here and get back to some projects.  My design wall (oohhh.  I have a design wall?) has m project for Rhonda's block swap on it.  It's all cut out and now I have to sew the 2.5" squares together. 

Need to wind a new bobbin of thread first though. 

Until next time.....

Happy Quilting everybody




Whew! Time for a break!

I have been busy these last few days.  I even got out my sewing machine and did some 9 patch blocks so I could continue on with Fleur.  Do y...