Countdown - Day 9

Let's hear it for my student helper.  He helped me download Instagram and figured out how to use it so I can post directly to the internet while at the quilt show.  I will take most of my pictures with my regular camera but one or two with the cell phone.  They already have an Instagram account set up for the Quilt Festivals so it can be loaded up directly there.  If you're on Instagram and want to see what they had in Houston, go to #QuiltFestival.

So today's eye candy is from the 2013 International Quilt show.

I have been a good girl (well as good as I can get) and started my Bucket List Challenge for March which was redwork.  I know...I know.  Bonni, what are you doing STARTING the bucket list challenge with only a couple of days left in the month?  No wait....only ONE day left.  It just happened.  I had to wait for Bird Brain Designs to send me fabric since I lost what I needed to do the third panel in my redwork.  By the way, Bird Brain Designs...LOVE THEM!!!!!  They sent me more than enough to finish my project and sent it promptly and at no extra cost even though I volunteered to pay for it.  Here is the picture of the third section.  I will finish this up in a day or two (maybe over the weekend) and then start to put it together after my sewing area gets cleaned up.  It will be good to mark off another UFO.

That's about it today.  Break time is over and I have to get back to work.  We are to have rain on and off all day today.  While it's not April, it's pretty close though, the showers did bring May flowers.  This was taken as I walked across the parking lot on the way in to work today.

I hope everybody has a good day.

The Countdown - Day 10...

10 days from now I will be getting on a bus and headed to the International Quilt Show in Rosemont, IL.  :)   So, to keep me psyched up for it (like that would be hard), I am going to post/repost (since I posted them in 2013) at least one picture each day from when I last attended in 2013.

Today's picture is of a Yurt.

Wouldn't you love to spend some time in there with all that inspiration?

I also found a website that had posted the floor plans and who would be at the show.  I quickly printed it up, highlighted a couple of places I wanted to check out and highlighted them on my floor plan.

Ummm.  Ok. perhaps I highlighted more than a couple of places.  In true fashion, they are spread out over the whole area so I am guaranteed to be exhausted on the way back home.  Good thing I'm not driving.  I will be on a bus.  Of course once the bus brings me back to the quilt shop in Rockford, I'll still have to drive home but I will have rested up by then.

I'm making a list and checking it twice or would that be thrice.  Have to have extra batteries for the camera and phone and bluetooth chargers.  Maybe a snack and my knee wrap.  So much to do and always so little time to do it.

One last picture from 2013 for today.  More tomorrow as I count down to my fun one day vacation.

Yes, that's a quilt!

Happy Eater everybody!

Didn't work too much on crafting today since it was Easter.  I did get some cross stitch done and then I noticed that I might be using the wrong color so will try to figure it out tomorrow.  In the meantime, I cam home to my comcast cable (for tv) not working again.  Guess I will be calling them again.

Don't think that I am complaining.  I had a delightful day of relaxing and theng oing to my sister in laws for Easter dinner.

Here are some pix from her dinner.  I always love her tablescapes.

Off to one side she also had a little topairy.

Here is my lovely hostess.  My sister in law Mrs. Bobbie Bromeland.  :)

My oldest Nephew was hiding  but I caught him.

You can see the ham being cut up in the background.  It was VERY yumy.  Bobbie is holding cornbread croutens for our salad that had just come out of the oven (to crisp them up).

There is usually too many people to all hold at one table so four people were eating in the living room.  Don't feel sad for them...they got to go get their food first!

That's about it.  I hope everybody  had a great day.

Tahoe Tote Quilt Class Report

Yesterday was National Quilt Day but it was also my Tahoe Tote Quilt Class.  It went from 10-3 but actually the instructor was so good and everybody was helping each other so much we ended around 2.  That was good because it gave us time to look through Quilter's General Store.  They were giving everybody a 15% discount for National Quilt Day but since we had a class on that day we got 20% off whatever we bought.  Gotta love that.  I was busy doing my tote so I don't have a lot of pictures.

Here are some of the bags that the instructor and friends made to show the pattern

 Here is our wonderful instrutor.  She was so helpful.  She went around the class and helped pressed our seams or helped pin or cut out out what we needed.  It kept us all on track.

Some people didn't show up for class which was kind of nice because that meant more room for others.  Most of the tables had two people at them so we had plenty of room.

We cut out the material at home so we didn't have to cut much out (more trimming) in class so we could concentrate on sewing.  My friend Connie took the class also so here she is holding up my first part that I had sewn together.

Of course I made her hold her pattern up also.  Her fabrics are actually tan and light brown so it didn't come out very well.  Notice how she is covering up her face?  She hates pictures being taken of her.

She knew that I'd get a picture of her face sooner or later so this is her reaction to it.

I don't think she noticed I got her in this picture.  hehehe

What we did have to cut out was our Stabilizer.  The pattern called for three different fusible stabilizers.  It was recommended that we use Soft and Stable.  Some of the ladies used two layers of this but Connie and I decided to use only one layer of it.  Two layers would have been VERY hard to sew through and my machine wouldn't like it.

What was different to cut out the corners (so it boxes it) before you sewed the area.  In other patterns you sewed then cut it out.  Not sure which I like better.

Doesn't it look funky?!

It wasn't long before I had the stabilizer sewn to my fabric..  Yeah we were a little messy on the table but we were busy creating so that's ok right?  hehe.

As you can see, the fabric was doing some gymnastics while we tried to sew things togther.

While I was sewing my handles and pockets, my instructor pinned my lining in for me.  She was always looking for ways to help us out.

By 2 I had finished my tote.

The inside has six small pockets.  I have blue fish on the inside of my tote because never knew what to do with that fabric!  LOL.

Remember me saying we got 20% on whatever we bought?   Well this is what I bought (besides another blue water solable pen).  It was marked down 50% so it was only $5 per yard.  I'm not sure what I'll use it for so I only got 1 yard.  Wasn't that good of me?  I showed so much restraint!

But then here is what else I bought!  I don't know what I'll use this for but I couldn't resist it for $6.  There are two identical panels so I could use it for a lot of things.  Somebody said a pillow.  I might use it as a center for a wall hanging or even perhaps part of the back so if I wanted to turn the quilt/wall hanging around I could.  :)  It too is going into my stash until I figure it out.

I hope you enjoyed the pix.  I'll have a lot more to share after the International Quilt Show on April 8th.  :)

Have a wonderful day and....

HAPPY SPRING!

Making Progress - organization?

Don't get too excited...I'm not organized at home yet.  What I did, today, was get more organized for my Tahoe Tote bag class on Saturday.  I took my fabric to work and scanned it.  Then I printed it up in color and I think you get a better idea now on the colors.  Here they are.

The lining fabric

After that I printed up the diagram that came with the pattern and cut and pasted the fabric to the diagram so I knew which fabric went where.  THEN I cut up some extra off the pictures of the fabric and wrote on the back what I need to cut from that fabric.  Sound confusing?  It might be but I hope it will help.  So here are the results of that little organization project.

The hand will be the dark blue (like the blue making up the T in the picture)

What do you think?  Tonight I am going to try and cut out my fabric so it will be all ready to pack up on Friday.  The class is Saturday and I hope to leave the house around 8 a.m. to make the drive and arrive in plenty of time.

What are you working on?

Woo Hoo!

Hello everybody!

I can't help but be excited for a couple of events that are coming up.  Yes, I get to do something exciting!  LOL.   Actually I do a lot that is exciting to me but might not be for my readers.  :)

Ok.  Where to start.  Let's see.  I was on vacation and was sick the whole time.  Actually I still have the cold but it is a lot better.  This morning I woke up and could barely move my leg.  Somehow, in my sleep, I must have hit it somehow so today I have a wrap on it.  No, that's not the exciting news.  I'm getting to it.

What is exciting is I just realized that on Saturday I am going to a quilting class in Rockford.  It will be held at Quilter's General and it will be on how to make a Tahoe tote bag.

It has six inside pockets and 21" long straps .  I'm not going to put a snap closure on it or anything since I like my totes open.  The finished size SHOULD be 4" deep x 12 1/2" tall x 15 1/2" wide at the top.  I'm still deciding what fabrics I'm going to use.  I keep changing my mind.  We will be using fusible interfacing so we'll see how it goes.  I might make a couple of them if it turns out ok.

That's not my only good news.  In April I'll be taking another day off work and guess where I'm going?   I'm going to the International Quilt Festival in Chicago.  I will be going on a bus from the Quilter's General and it will be a one day event.  Of course I will take pictures.  I might not have money to buy anything but I CAN take pictures.  It wasn't too bad for a cost.  $39 which will cover my transportation, ticket to the show and a few snacks.

Here is the link to Quilter's General in case you are ever in the area and want to check them out (they are across from a mall!).

http://www.quiltersgeneralstore.com/index.htm

What else have I been up to?  I've been collecting BOM patterns.  Notice I say collecting since I haven't had a chance to work on a lot.  I will post up some pictures of a couple more blocks from the Splendid Sampler soon.  Two blocks come out each week but I can't keep up at that rate.  I only have a couple done.

Remember me working on some bucket list projects each month?  This month (gah - can it really already be half gone?!) the bucket list drawing was for redwork.  That deserves another WOO HOO!   I love Redwork.  I tried a new redwork project but hated it so I threw it out.  Yes, you heard me right.  It's ok though.  It was done on some scrap fabric so cost was minimal.  Then I remembered a Bird Brain Design that I had bought but never finished.

I have finished two of the three redwork pieces but then couldn't find my background material any more for the third panel.  I finally gave up and emailed Bird Brain Designs and they were kind enough to send me more background material.  Now I can pick it back up.  Here are the two pieces that I have done.  I need to do the snowman now.

That's about it.  I'll let you know when I get something else done or work more on some cross stitch.

Have a great day!

Feeling better and tons of embroidery floss

I am feeling a little better today, or rather tonight since I just started to feel better about 1 hour ago, but I did manage to get up to take my sister in law Bobbie out for her birthday, which was March 1st.

I took her to Ellington's  which in the Holmes Student Center.  Th eSchool of Family, Consumer, and Nutrition Sciences' FCNS 320 students serve 3 course luncheons on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the spring semester.  I figured it was something that she wouldn't have been too yet and I was right.  It's nice to be able to sit at a table which is covered by linen tableclothes and napkins.  Today they had a three students from the School of Music play in the background which was also nice.

You can learn more about it here:

http://niu.edu/ellingtons/aboutus/index.shtml

What did we have?  We had excellent food!

Starters:

I had Kohlrabi Carrot Soup (Kohlrabi, Carrots, and Onions seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley)
Bobbie had the Spring Harvest Salad (apples, blackberries, and feta cheesew ith a blackberry balsamic vinaigrette)

Entrees:

We both had Braised Short Ribs which were so tender we almost didn't need to use a knife on it.  It was served with Roasted Kohirabi and potatoes.

Desserts:

Bobbie had Blackberry Sorbet (fresh blackberries pureed and chilled topped with mint)
I had the Blackberry Cheesecake (vanilla wafer crust fillled with cheesecake batter and chunks of blackberries)

What they called a table item was a dinner roll (classic bread roll served with butter) which was served with dill butter.

We were so full by the end of the meal so we decided we had to go for a walk.  We walked to my  car and then drove over to Michael's and she helped me pick up my floss for the cross stitch project (Bookcase to Heaven).  I managed to get all but 4 skeins which is pretty good.

What have you done today?

Finished the Adinkra Blocks

Still feeling a little under the weather but I am getting better.  Tomorrow will be busy so I thought that I'd post my finished Adinkra Blocks.  You saw them before I had stitched them but now they are all stitched down.

I have a couple more days to vacation so we'll see what else I can get done.  Time for more cold meds and then get ready for tomorrow.

I hope you all have a great evening/day.