Actual Quilt Content!

Okay, so the quilt content is not of MY doing, but it is quilt related, and the quilts you are about to see are WAY beyone what you'll ever see me do.

When I went to the annual gathering last weekend, there was a display of some challenge quilts that some of the chapters had participated in this past year. We did a vote of viewers choice. Can you guess which one was the winner?

The participating groups were given a quilt panel to use in a quilt. The quilt had to be (I think) a maximum of 160" total of all the sides, and at leat 6 people had to work on the quilt.

Vermont Foliage

The two things and I spent a few days in Vermont earlier this week. I was happy to see lots of nice foliage still hanging on for us to see. It seemed like the foliage in our little town was already past peak, but on the ride from CT to Vermont, the ride up I-91 thru Western Mass. was fabulous. Once we got into Vermont, we went down the mountain, closer to the river and the foliage down that was was more beautiful and brightr. Even as we traveled north up to the Norwich, VT/Hanover NH area, the foliage was beautiful. I'll share a bunch of pictures with you all, since I know that not everyone is fortunate enough to live in a place with this annual color.

Note: I know that one of the pictures is in there two times, but there is SO much html because of the pictures, I don't dare attmept to delete the duplicate, because I'm sure I'll mess something up.

GHQG Annual Gathering

So today was the Annual Gathering of the Greater Hartford Quilt Guild. I mentioned yesterday all about how this works, so I won't again today. I did however, want to share some pictures and stuff. There was a very nice turnout today for the meeting, there had to be about 200 members in attendance, there were 10 vendors and two good speakers.

The speakers were
Mary Mashuta and her twin sister, Roberta Horton. Yesterday (Friday) they each taught an all day class, and tomorrow they will each teach a class as well. Today, they gave lectures. The morning lecture was Mary, talking about using Stripes in Quilts, with lots of slides to see. No quilts though. The afternoon lecture was by both Robert and Mary, and was called something like "Shared Experiences, differing perspectives". They talked about how they each work (slides of their house even!). Mary has an assistant who helps her to cut things out, do the grocery shopping and the cooking. Roberta sends all her tops out to be hand quilted. Each of them works in a separate studio, even though they live in the same house. I did get the impression that stash raiding does take place! LOL. They talked about places they visited and experiences they had, and then they shared the different quilts that each made based on that particular experience. It was very interesting to see how different the quilts are. Then they showed about 6 or 7 quilts each. It was interesting to see how much sibling rivalry seems to go on between them....I can just imagine that it might be very intersting to be a fly on the wall in their home!

One of the things at Annual Gathering is that there are always lots of door prizes. When you arrive you get a program, and if your program is marked with a numbered sticker, you win the corresponding door prize. I won! My prize was a batik panel donated by Batik Tambal. I looked at it for a long time, and I think I'm still not sure what it is! I asked a lot of people, and most people see some sort of an insect. Responses were: a butterfly, a dragonfly, 'some kind of bug', two bugs, a hummingbird drinking nectar and of course one not-to be named quilter who said it looked like someone drank too much last night. The only thing I could think of was a guy whose head is exploding! I wonder what that says about MY state of mind that I saw that???? What do YOU think it is???

A fabric shopping trip!

Well not really, but I seem to manage to turn everything into quilting .

Yesterday I went to Ikea for the first time in about six months. Probably better that I don't go so often! I had noticed new FABRIC in the most recent catalog, so I had to check it out. I managed to have a few hours with no children, so I went and treated myself to a Swedish Meatball lunch and a bit of browsing...and I did find the fabrics that I wanted! One of the ones that looked nice in the catalog, was a much heavier weight than what would be suitable for quilting, so I didn't get that, but look at the yummy ones I DID get:





The red one is 47" wide and 118" long,and cost $7.99, it was prepackaged in the area with kids curtains and comforter covers. Thing One tells me it is hippos. I'm not so sure, but it is cute anyway.

The bright ones were $3.99 a yard, and they are 60" wide. These are definitely destined to become backings, because so many of my quilts are just a hair too wide for 40" fabrics, and I hate to piece the backing (I'm too lazy), so wider fabrics are perfect!! The one with the little designs is 5 yards long, and the big fans is an 8 1/2 yard piece...I grabbed all they had of the big fan one because I've wanted to try machine quilting from the back using the fabric pattern as a guide for my quilting lines. This would be great for that, I think.

Its pouring here, and I have a wicked sinus headache, so I am off to bed! have a great weekend!!!

Happy Birthday, Thing One

Wow, how time flies. Thing One is 11 years old today. Happy Birthday, sweetheart. Now go clean your room.


Today I played with this little thing online, and made a family portrait!



No quilting today. I spent the day laying around the house, getting nothing productive accomplished. Ah well, maybe tomorrow!!

40 Years Old

Happy Birthday To ME!
On Wednesday, I turned 40 years old. Does that mean that I have to act like a grown up?
I went out for my birthday to Joann Fabrics, and I bought myself a bit of fabric for the background of my Lets Go Fly A Kite quilt. I was also looking for some fabric with kites on it, but I was unsuccessful. I did buy my Quilters Home Magazine, along with two other books.





Then my DH went out for a while, and came home with two books for me. He always gets nervous buying me quilting books because I already have so many, but this time he bought two that I had never even seen before! Good Job, honey!






I also received a few other gifts: My grandmother gave me this fat little book filled with cookie recipes...lots of very different ones I've never seen before. I see some baking in my future!



Mom gave me a handy bag for luggng quilting stuff around. It has a place for a rotary mat, ruler, rotary cutter, a binder thing built into it, a number of pockets and a big zippered compartment for quilts or fabric. Very handy to have!

And my Aunt Mia (more like a sister to me than an aunt, she's the youngest of 7 and only 4 years older than me) gave me a wallhanging for my living room. When we were at our weekend reatreat back in May, she made the quilt and now it's mine! I kept hassling her that it should have been for me because it was just my colors, and it was meant for me all along! LOL.




We are having a birthday party this weekend for me, my DD and my Grandmother...mine was Wed, Grama's is today and DD's is on Monday. We'll see if there are more presents then! Probably not, but you never know! :-) The only present I want is more hours in the day for quilting!!!

Two wonky little wallhangings

Well, I'm back from Disneyworld, and I think I've finally gotten caught up on my sleep!

We went to Vermont this past weekend for Columbus Day. Oh My. I always forget how crowded our little town gets during Foliage Season (and all holiday weekend and all during ski season), but the traffic was just horrendus. When there is only one traffic light in town you don't expect a traffic jam, but it was SO backed up it wasn't even funny. The three miles from our house to the traffic light took almost 30 minutes... And did I mention that it was 86 degrees on Saturday? It barely gets that hot in the summer!!!

Anyway, I did some serious sewing for Tonya's class this weekend. These are what I came up with:

Next up: some of the quilts made from purple blocks donated by one of my online groups and by my real-life guild. I think I have enough blocks for about 6 quilts which will go to WAS and WTIL.