Halloween Quilt

My friend, Debra sent me some Halloween embroideries last Tuesday which I used in this quilt:

I don't think I've ever finished anything so quickly. I worked on it every spare minute, had to go out of town Thursday and half a day Friday. It certainly is not a perfect creation but I love it: the colors, the funky embroideries and the primitive feel of it.

Tennessee Waltz

Years ago I made this quilt with the intention of having my aunts quilt it for me. However, before they could get around to it, or before I could get it finished, they moved out of the old neighborhood and no longer quilted. So it sat in a closet for years, until finally Debra got her long arm quilter and whipped it out for me one afternoon. :-)

Now it's hanging in my new office, and I think it looks super.

One UFO down, many more to go....

CQJP and TAST Week Two: Buttonhole stitch

This is a very conventional use of the buttonhole stitch but I promise embellishments are coming. 

What else have I been inspired to do:

A CQ block for a future AAQI donation. I came across an embroidered handkerchief and immediately did this before I got cold feet about using it. 

This is a future AAQI donation, too. The embroidered bird  is one of several Debra gave me awhile back for future AAQI quilts. Using my blanket stitchery skills here! 

While I was walking yesterday I had a couple more ideas that I will share later. I had a thought about how to collect all the TAST stitches and more Alzheimer quilts. I'm keeping file of ideas since this is going to be a busy year and I'm going to have to turn those out fairly easily. 

Blogger seems to be jumping back and forth between new and old blogging. I've heard from others that they were unable to leave comments for the past couple of days. I had that problem on Friday - I hope it's fixed because I love hearing from fellow quilters. This morning, I was getting both the old and new way of posting photos. 

Today is my annual outing with my daughters and sister in law. A couple of weeks after Christmas we pick somewhere to spend the day, have breakfast, and shop. For the past couple of years we've gone to Ikea and Atlantic Station. This time, the girls wanted to do Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza. At those two posh places, I doubt much shopping will get done! Ca-ching, ca-ching! I rarely go to Buckhead any more - that's what happens when you move to the 'burbs: you lose your edge - so this should be fun. I lived for several years in the Peachtree Hills.  

Have fun stitching!

Inspired

A few weeks ago I was in my favorite quilt shop with a friend. We were picking out fabric for a quilt she wants me to make for her when another quilter walked up. I asked her what she thought about the colors I had chosen. Of course she offered an opinion! :-) Later my friend said, are all quilters like that - you're all so friendly and helpful to each other. I said, you know, for the most part, yes. It's like this online community of friends (and notice I did not put quotation marks around that word) we have here. Yesterday I got a call from Debra to talk through my malaise about the cq project. I came away with new ideas & a fresh perspective. And in several ways, a confirmation of some ideas I already had been mulling over. Sometimes my biggest problem is a lack of confidence. It was very generous of her to spend about a half hour talking through ideas and helped me get over some obstacles, amidst the Chrismas music & shoppers at Publix ;-) - so thanks - as always, Debra! (That yardstick has a very long reach!)

So I sat down to dive in to the cq project, turned on my machine and - snap, crackle, pop - the overhead light went out and so did the machine. I thought a fuse had blown but no. DH thinks the ceiling fan shorted out for some reason. It's only the side of the room my sewing machine is on, oddly enough. But then I think this house was wired by circus clowns. I won't tell you what the guy found when we were doing some remodeling a couple of years ago. Okay, I will tell you: he found live wires behind some paneling under the stairs. Yes. Live naked wires. It's a miracle the house hadn't burned down  - or that he didn't get electrocuted. I guess theyve been there since the house was built 30 years ago.

I have to make mac & cheese for a lunch party today. Hopefully DH will get the overhead fixed and I will be able to sew this afternoon & evening. I'd love to get 3 blocks finished. It seems doable but you know, this is NOT as easy as it looks. But it's a great challenge and mental exercise for me getting way outside my comfort zone.

Meanwhile, I have been looking at what others are doing and everything is so fantastic. This is going to be a great year!

December 2011 & January 2012 AAQI

Here are my December 2011 and January 2012 AAQI quilts. Very easy & simple but I imagine I'll be making quite a lot of this type of quilt for them this coming year. The first quilt is December 2011 and the second will be submitted for January.  Debra sent me a number of machine embroideries awhile back and this is one of them (my daughter fell in love it).  I'm trying to get some easy quilts done to submit to AAQI next year.  Once I've done 6 months worth of the Monthly Challenge, I may take the pressure off and drop out of that challenge, just concentrating on my $1,000 pledge. I'm more than halfway there but it may take next year's Houston Festival to reach the goal. There are just so many quilts being submitted at this point, people have a lot of choices. But that's perfectly fine with me. I know they sell tons at Houston and I'm happy to contribute.

Now that I'm ahead of that game, I plan on getting blocks ready for the CQJP 2012  and Take a Stitch Tuesday challenges. I'm joining a great group of quilters/stitchers and I'm excited and looking forward to a year of getting to know them all. Keep up with our progress at the Tuesday Stitchers blog. I'm honored to be part of this group!

Getting up a 4 am is not unusual for me but this morning not only did the dog need to go out but I got up to redo Stella's bandage by myself. Fortunately, she was uncharacteristically calm. I didn't eve have to hold on to her, she just sat there and meowed a few times. She did keep looking at me but it was more of a "Gee, thanks. That thing was nasty" look. Not like the other day:

 I don't know if you can see the eyes but they are totally dilated. When I see eyes like that on a cat I generally move slowly away.....

This is what teamwork can do. I handed this quilt top over to Debra at the Houston Quilt Festival. Some of the prints were in my stash but many of them were from other quilters, and sent to me by Debra. So it's a collaboration of a number of quilters, most of whom do not know each other. But we love to quilt and we love to donate quilts to worthy causes.

Finished quilt - pieced by me, quilted by Debra.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quilt Sale!

My Internet quilting buddy, Debra is having a big quilt sale during the month of June. She has a selection of quilts for sale for $100 on her Etsy shop, Debra's Design Studio.

Also: tomorrow, June 11, she will feature her quilts in a Showcase on Etsy. Check out the Showcases here. She is generous enough to list a couple of my upcycled tshirt quilts as well.

You can't beat the prices for these items. Go take a look!

NOTE: Debra's Showcase will not be on the page until Saturday, but the link above will take you there.

Debra Spincic

If I'm the first person to nominate Debra for this award, I'll be amazed.

I don't know anyone who works harder at her art than Debra, or anyone who is more creative.

Not only that, she is the most amazingly generous and thoughtful person I've ever known.

Debra leads the way and inspires the rest of us to contribute to causes such as Quilts of Valor for injured servicemen, quilts for a local homeless women's shelter, Homeless Teen Quilts, quilts for the Teen Pregnancy Program at a local high school (you can click the link on the sidebar to see the posts).

I wanted to nominate her for this blog award for her leadership and inspiration to others, as well as her generosity with her time and resouces. When she's done with one service project, she goes looking for another one.

And on top of all that, she's incredibly optimistic, forward thinking, and supportive of other quilters' efforts at not just quilting but.. blogging.

(Debra might be my last and only blog reader. I hope to meet her in person at the Houston Quilt Festival one of these days and thank her for sticking with me.)

Thanks, Debra, for helping to bring out the best in us quilters!