The first looking foward to package has arrived.

Peg (Margaret) called me last night to tell me she was tickeled with the first something to look forward package. It came from Mike from N.J. and she thanks Mike very much. Peg was describing to me what he had sent - there were scraps of fabric running from Dorothy's shoes to corn. She said she was having a lot of fun looking at all the different prints and seeing fabrics she had never seen before.

I still don't have the turquoise and brown quilt quilted. I only have such a little bit to go. I do have binding already cut out for this quilt so that's a good thing.

You can see easier on the back how much I have left to quilt.

I spent last evening weed wacking and mowing. I ran out of time and light so I couldn't mow the back which has turned into a hayfield! The grass it really tall! I have not mowed the back yet this year and it is a mess, but look how nice the front looks!

Well that weekend went fast!

Saturday I went to visit my son and stopped at the quilt shop for their end of the month sale. I was told by my friend, Joyce, that the owner let anybody who came in the shop on Friday for the end of the bolts sale to go ahead and buy so the bolts were already picked over for Saturday. The sale wasn't suppose to start until Saturday. Here is what I did get.

Once I got back to the house is was cleaning time for the company that was coming Sunday. Bailey who belongs to the MQG came over Sunday afternoon and I helped her with learning free motion machine quilting. I forgot to take a picture of the quilts she brought over. The one she quilted with a walking foot and did a wonderful job! The other one she made these slice and switch nine patch with some wonderful orange fabrics and set them together with white. I helped her pin baste it and she was digging my big 8' x 8' table for that job! She had to use her dining room table or the wood floor to pin baste and of course worries about scratching the table or floor. I told her she could come over anytime and use my table. Baily is going to come back over with the orange quilt and I am going to show her how to make sewn miter corners for her binding. Right now she folds the corners into a miter so she was interested in learning another method. Bailey brought me a loaf of zucchini bread tied up in one of the orange fabrics she used in her quilt. I had a piece for breakfast and it is tastey!

I did work on machine quilting the turquoise and brown quilt between all the other stuff. I am about 3/4 done.

This week is going to be busy. I been slammed at work. I am taking Friday off to work Friday and Saturday at Miller's Dry Goods in Charm, OH for their anniversary sale. 30% off on fabric, thread, books, patterns, kits, and batting. It is always a good time to see everyone after 6 months since I last worked in October. I just hope I can handle being on my feet all day for two days. My stamina is still not where it was before my surgery. I did buy a new pair of Dr. Scholles gel inserts for my shoes since I will be on my feet. I put them in and what a differnce! I think they will help a lot.

Quilt picture I owed you from yesterday's post

Here is the quilt that I did not have a picture. I made this in 2004 and did not have a digital camera. The fabric between the stripes was my contribution and the rest of the small pieces came from my mom's stash.

I quilted a bit more on the turquoise and brown quilt

This weekend I am going to Dover to visit my son and hit the quilt shop. Saturday is their end of the month sale so I will have to check it out. I will also hit the bulk food store - I need to replinish some of my spices. I will do some house cleaning and then Bailey will be coming over for help with her machine quilting. It is going to be another full weekend!

My first MQG meeting

I had a wonderful time! There were 30 ladies at the meeting and everyone was sharing their stories. One of the ladies designed our chapters logo, but I didnt' get a picture of it. The logo is very cool - I will try and get it for posting.

We started off talking about family quilts. Here is one

We talked about current trends, what modern quilting meant, what excites us about quilting, and several other topics. We went around the room and showed our favorite quilt/sewing books and then we showed the quilts. I didn't get everyone's name to put to the quilts and I didn't get pictures of every quilt shown, but here is what I do have.

I think this lady's name was Theresa and she said she doesn't like to use the same fabric in more than one quilt, but she made this scrap quilt using fabric left over from other projects. She shook her head with disbelief and we all laughed

These next two pieces were done by Eva. The cream piece was colored with pencils and then a fixative was applied. The purple piece is silk and both were quilted on a longarm. Beautiful work!

This next top was made by Bailey - so cute! Bailey was struggling with how to machine quilt this. Bailey is new to quilting and after the meeting we talked and I told her I would help mentor her. She is coming to my house Sunday to work and I will help her with machine quilting.

Here are some other pieces that were shown

I showed my music quilt

My ode to Thor the god of thunder

and the family xmas quilt I made for Xmas 2004 which I don't have a digital picture of. I will hang it tonight and post a picture tomorrow.

All in all it was a good time and I am looking forward to next month's meeting.

My favorite books

I am going to my first MQG meeting tonight. I am to bring my favorite quilt books and the discussion will be about sewing machines. When I met Denyse Schmidt earlier this month she said that she met several members of the Akron MQG so I can imagine several of them will bring their autographed copies of her book. Here are the books I am going to bring

The Gee's Bend book was a library book at one time.

And the winners are ....

Mike for the fabric and Glen for the thread - congratulations and thanks again for everyone who is participating in this event. I will let you know Peg's reactions to all the support.

I started machine quilting on the turquoise and brown baby quilt. I am using a light turquoise/aqua thread on the top and bottom.

The ducks are back! I saw both the male and female. The female was rooting around looking for a better place to put her next. I sorry, but that is one dumb duck! The skunk will come back, but I guess the skunk has to eat too.

8th finish of 2012

The weekend flew by as I knew it would, but I did get some stuff done. The 8th finish for 2012 was delivered to the baby's mother and she was thrilled with it. I got numerous thank you's and several hugs. That is why I do what I do.

I got the backs pieced and now all 5 of the baby quilts are pin basted. Here they are laying on the bed in Peg's room.

I had posted a picture on April 16 of my scrap pile of backing fabric that I planned on using for the backs of these quilts. I wanted to use up these perfectly good pieces. Here is the before pile:

and the after pile:

The pile does look a bit smaller although with the after pile stacked neater I could be kidding myself! It does feel good to use up the smaller pieces and not let them go to waste.

Sunday night's fundraiser that my nephew's new band played at was a success. The woman who the fundrasier was for had lost her job and then diagnosed with breast cancer. So no insurance and two young kids and single. What a hand to be dealt. She has found a new job, but still no insurance. Check out the sign "Big or small save 'em all!".

I hung the linen piece up at work this morning. It is 42 1/2" wide and 41 1/2" high. I wish I could paint the wall like they do at the art museum for each exhibit. The dirty patched wall is a little distracting. So far everyone that has walked in has noticed that I changed the piece from what was hanging there before.