Evergreen Quilt Show 2011

Well, we survived another show! The quilts were amazing. This guild always has such a wonderful variety of talents - so many different styles and tastes.
Some of the quilts...(I'll try to add a few more every day for a few days...we had around 200 entries!)

All kinds of busy lately

Biggest news! I have a new car - new to me anyway. Nerve racking! I just about threw up when I started signing all those papers. And I was nervous as this was the first car I looked at! Now - just seems to me that a person should suffer for a couple of months in the process of buying a car. I knew that I wanted one with enough room for sewing machine plus fabric/clothes/and everything else that one takes to a retreat. Also maybe an ironing board. And - maybe a spinning wheel...I keep thinking about joining a spinning guild. It couldn't be silver (my last one was silver and I never felt safe in it, same color as the roads, the clouds, the rain). And I wanted room for friends to ride and haul their sewing machines too.

The salesman showed me the Kia Rondo - and it was just exactly what I was looking for. Too much fun...now I hate to go to work, just want to keep cruising. But now I HAVE to go to work - I have car payments!
I got my flying geese quilt done in time for our guild's quilt show - the 21/22 of May at Kent Commons if you're in the area. Even if you're not - it should be a show worth traveling to see as we have some wonderful artists in our guild. The featured artist this year is Barb Frazier and her work is amazing! Mine will never be that - but done is good too!

And I joined this year's group of round robins at our guild. Only I'm in the group that wanted to do a row quilt. Terrifying! Took me ages to decide what I wanted for my starting row. Now I have worry about making something that will do justice to everyone else's work. Anyway - my starting row is below. We trade every 2 months,and there's only 5 of us, I'll keep you posted.

this and that

Just a quickie today. A few pictures to share:

I was quilting @ Trains in Tacoma.

1st - the Kaffe quilt...I'm really getting hooked on this fabric, thanks to my friend Amber.

2nd, the star quilt from Shibori - I love how this turned out. (with pink John Deere Backing - is that a hoot?!?)

my instructor for the day:

Barb Frazier (who's also our featured artist at our quilt show in May).

and last but not least - our guild's Block of the Month - won by my friend who gave them to me as she knew how I lusted for these blocks. Can hardly wait to piece them together!

A Mixed Bag

I finished the latest KAL from Skacell - but I can't enter. I didn't use the chosen yarn - It was a self striping in brightish colors that just didn't strike a chord with me - BUT - I had some Fortissima that I had dyed with Kool-aid. I put it in the dye still in the skein so that the outside would be darker than the inside. It worked!

I knit the socks so the darker color was at the top fading to the lighter - I should have made the leg longer and the color change would have been more dramatic. I wasn't crazy about this sock pattern in stripes, but I really like it in this yarn. It has a nice lacy look. And it had a garter stitch short row heel that I think is my new favorite heel. Very easy to do, nice effect on the sock and very cushy on the foot. Check out the web site for the KAL.

Right now I'm modifying her 2nd KAL pattern. It was for mitts and the ribbing was twisted and the stitches were twisted. So I'm trying it in toe-up socks. I'm only a few inches in and I really like the effect. I'll post pictures in a day or two.

The other thing I wanted to share today is our Guild's Block of the Month for April. Amber W designed it and it is going to be a very dramatic quilt!

She's designed it so you can make 5 blocks at a time - bright soilds with black. I REALLY want to win this one. I can't imagine all the different colors that people will chose. With black sashing, this will be amazing. I'm probably going to make one of my own - but not till I see if I win the drawing at Guild next month. I never win the Lotto, maybe I can win this!

Tomorrow I'm off to spend the day quilting at Trains, so sometime next week I'll have some finished quilts to share. The Kaffe from my last post is going to be the first quilted...still have to decide on what color binding. So wait and see.

Interesting Week

Well, this week was definitely different! Tues., I was standing by my desk, reaching into my overhead bin when the clips in back gave way. I think what it hit was my glasses as the damage to my face seems to lay where my glasses would hit...

day 1-you can see the steri-strips and a slight discoloration on my cheekbone.

day 2- the color on my cheek is getting brighter, but the swelling is going down.

today (Sat morning) the bruise has 'matured' - to use the ER doctor's words. I should make quilts that arehalf this colorful!

but I received some lovely flowers! Roses from a co-workers and daiseys from the people who make the bins!

But I do have a finished quilt top to share with you. The pattern is called "Fat Friday" and I made it out of Kaffe Fasset and similar fabrics. Can hardly wait to get it quilted!

It's been months, hasn't it?

Lord love a duck, I didn't realize it'd been this long since I've added to this thing. Some days - I've been busy. Others - I've just been sidetracked, either quilting or knitting - - or both.

Acutally have gotten quite a bit accomplished and I'll add some pics shortly. I finished some mittens and then made the mistake of looking in Ravelry for mitten groups. I found a WONDERFUL one. http://www.ravelry.com/groups/i-make-mittens They have a thread/challenge going - to make 11 pairs of mittens in 2011. Actually there are 2 threads...one where pictures/patterns are posted. Another where they're posted and you can comment/discuss. I'm already on pair 6! Easily distracted right?

One pair I made doesn't count as I started them in 2010.

These were so much fun - even tho they're way big on me...from the book Mostly Mittens.

Since then I've gone on to make fun mittens, warm ones, difficult ones. check out the thread and I know you'll be inspired. And everyone has posted links to the patterns - they're all enablers!

THINGS HAVE BEEN BUSY...

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Actually, they really have been. I am moved and settled in. I was sick for a while (there's a really nasty cold going around this winter...), and I've been to 2 retreats, been busy knitting and quilting and....

Pictures will be posted in a couple of days, but it does amaze me how time just slips away. And I'll be brutally honest here...A couple of times, I've sat down to update the blog, opened up Free Cell just to get my brain going while I pondered what to write...and the next thing I knew it was time to go to bed! Another time or two, I opened up ravelry to get inspiration and once again, next thing I knew it was time for bed.

But I have to tell you - if you've joined ravelry, you have follow the thread "Ugliest FO" in the "For Love of Ravelry" Group. What a group of optimists! Some of these things, the knitter had to know a few rows in that this pattern wasn't working...but they persisted, in the futile hope that more yarn thrown at it would turn it into something lovely. I identify with these people (I have my own ugly object posted too) and I revel in their optimism. We should all live our lives like that - know that if we keep on keepin' on, it'll turn out beautiful...no matter what the evidence says.