OMG! Did I Just Finish Something?

I need to inform you that as of this afternoon I have completed the quilting on the 100 Meter Swim quilt. I have also trimmed it, but have not yet applied the binding.  I think it needs grey and I need to cut that out first.

So the quilt frame is open and ready to have quilts thrust upon it.  I spent the afternoon thinking about which one to put on the frame.  I don't have  a cat like Artemis to help me decide, and no way I am asking McGee to help me!

I fear that Swooze is rubbing off on me.  I need to become more like Patty. (who, by the way, has a quilt for sale that you really need to see.)


In a small win, I found the Twisted Halloween quilt that had the binding sewn on just before the flood last year.  Paula graciously sewed the binding on for me while I was wasting away in grief and loss.  It just needed a half of one side to be finished.  So I finished that up tonight.

Gonna check that off as a finish!  Take everything I can get!  A win is a win is a win, right?

The pattern is from Ami Simms class I took in Lafayette with Charlene, oh, 4 years ago maybe.  I have used the templates from that class to make several baby quilts.  I love the bright green and orange colors and the backing was a special find.  Perfect. It is one of my best quilts.

Someone asked me not too long ago, how do I do those collage photos.  Simple, check out Pizap.  Although I am giving away all my secrets!  It does make me look like I know some stuff, huh?

I still have to finish the binding on one quilt from Debbie, the guild mate who passed away recently.  I finished one last night.  Frank is doing his sleep thing tonight so I might just be able to finish that up tonight.

 And I looked up my Blogaversity and discovered that I created the  first post on 10-20-07.  That will be 10 years!  I guess I need a giveaway of some sort, don't I?

Something New on the Frame

I am hoping to put another quilt on the frame today.  That is if I can herd cats in the form of getting Frank to help. 

Although..............Carrie is coming over to go to the Farmer's Market with me.  I can rope her into helping me!  She owes me for all those years of loving and nurturing her when she was little.  Not to mention the 12 hours of labor.

Twisted Halloween

Waiting in the wings for quilting:

       

Locked and Loaded

The Houses Mystery and Enchanted Stars are in the queue as well, neither of which I can find photos for. 

I will let you know which one wins the Quilting Lottery.

Freezing Cold - Feels Like Halloween

Can you believe it is April 5 and we just had the heater go on?  In Southern Louisiana?  Where the last freeze of the year is the end of February?

So much for global warming!  LOL.  Al Bore should be hiding his head!

I was going to ride my bike to the Hospice meeting for my mother at noon.  But I think I will drive!   Brrrr!  When the front came though two days ago, it rained about 2 1/4 inches.  The winds were straight line winds about 50 mph, those are the most damaging but they are not tornadic.  It blew 4 branches out of my trees in the back yard.  And one was about 35 feet long!

What a perfectly awful day to be working today on the Ami Simms Halloween quilt.  I took her class about 3 years ago and learned how to use her ruler that gives you the wonderful whirly gig pattern.  I made so many of these Halloween blocks I have enough for a table runner as well.  Two if I used only 4 each!  Yes, more people to spread the love to!

Three more things to put into the pile to be quilted in the June Quilt Your Quilts Challenge.  I have not heard from anyone interested in joining us.  Nice prizes.  Maybe a million dollars worth of quilting advice!  I will pull some things together and see if it kicks your butt into action.  You know you really need to get those things quilted, now is the time to join in!

I finished the top at quarter to five, which is perfect timing because the dogs get fed at five regardless of what is going on.  DiNozzo is the self-appointed alarm that becomes increasingly louder and more irritating if ignored.

Off to eat tamales tonight!  Yeah!  Anyone interested in joining me?

I Found It.....Finally!

Just prior to Halloween, I was looking to finish up my Halloween Quilt started in the Ami Simms Class last year in Lafayette, LA.  (not Indiana)  And I searched high and low.  For days and days, into weeks.  I could not believe it was not in my Quilt Studio.

Some would say, If you saw the mess Quilt Studio you would wonder that I find ANYTHING in there......but I digress.

I also searched the dining room which holds the long arm things.  Which, I might add, is not in much better shape than the sewing room mess quilt studio.

No luck.  It was not anywhere.  So I searched again several weeks later.  This time I took every darned box down and apart and STILL did not find it.

Charlene says, Don't fret, it is there somewhere and will surface when it is ready.  She didn't know what she was talking about.  She was so wise.

Yesterday I get an email from friend Norma, which says, Did you forget your green box was over at my sewing studio?

Duh, yes.........I reply.  But when I arrived to pick it up, it was the Ami Simms Halloween Quilt pieces!  YEAH!

So now, my quilt blocks and I are reunited, along with my Louisiana Restaurants Cookbook (why was that even in there) and my flannel covered note book I had made this summer and took some notes within.


Thank you Norma, for caring for my box so it wouldn't be scared and afraid in the dark somewhere where I would never find it.  You took good care of it, I hope you made some of the recipes!

glen

News From Ami Simms about the AAQI Money From Houston

I contributed to the cause!  This is the one I bought!

And this came in from Ami SImms!

We are over the moon!

During the four and a half days at International Quilt Festival in Houston last week the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative sold 1,597 quilts earning $75,000 for the AAQI.

You can read more about it on our blog:

http://aaqiupdate.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/international-quilt-festival-rocked/

Or, for a quick and condensed version see our official press release:

http://www.alzquilts.org/tiqurabigmot.html

If you are a blogger or wish to share on FaceBook or any other social media, please feel free to snag text and pictures from these two sources.

Thank you for your on-going support of our efforts!

Ami Simms

Founder & Executive Director, Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative
More than $855,000 raised for Alzheimer's research since January 2006. Help us make a difference...one quilt at a time.

Ami Simms and Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

Go do something and get something for FREE!

She has arranged with The Quilt Show for the episode on which she appeared in Aug 2010 can be viewed for free.  You know the Quilt Show is a paid for internet show about Alex Anderson and that guy I really don't like.  (I wish she would go back to Simply Quilts!)  

Here is what Ami sent out:

Watch the AAQI episode of The Qulit Show for FREE.

The Quilt Show is now running episode #712 featuring the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative for FREE. This was taped back in August of 2010, so some of the numbers are a little out of date, but everything else is the same.

    Updates:

    The AAQI has raised more that $722,000 for research since we started back in January 2006

    The AAQI has received more than 10,000 donated quilts so far.

    

Here's the link: http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/shows.php/episode/712

AND

Vote for the AAQI at http://www.attorneyandoni.com/Giving_Back.html

This blog post will go out at 1am eastern time on June 6th. Feel free to scoop me and send this information (word for word if you like) out right away. Daniel J. Andoni, a local attorney here in Flint, Michigan, pledges 3% of his net profits to a local charity each month. Instead of deciding which deserving nonprofit gets his donation, he uses crowd sourcing: visitors to his website cast their vote for one of five charities. The one with the most votes at the end of the month wins the donation.

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is one of the charities listed for the month of June! We are off to a fabulous start, but it's the charity with the most votes at the END of the month that counts. To pull this off, we need to keep growing the numbers. Every vote counts.

Vote here: http://www.attorneyandoni.com/Giving_Back.html

Go do something and get something FOR FREE!  LOL.

glen:  whose mother is in hospice with end stage Alzheimer's Disease

Design Wall 9-26-11

Finally!  Something new on the design wall and a computer to post it with!  I have been having problems in both those areas recently.

This is Ami Simms Twisted Sisters block done in Halloween fabrics from a random visit to Hancocks and the appearance of that pale green fabric which you can really see much of anyway.  Isn't that how it goes?

The block involves some partial seams but Ami's way of doing things is marvelously easy.  And the template makes this block a spooky breeze to make.

Charlene and Ann and I attended the workshop in Lafayette with Ami.  She is wonderful. 

So far there are 20 but I have enough to make about that many more. I am debating on making this with a sashing and making two or making just one large one. 

What could I do with the second one......?

And just to show you that I really did hobknob with Quilt Celebrities here is a picture of us with Ami!  LOL.

glen 

Ami Simms Workshop in Lafayette

It was just as wonderful as Charlene said it would be! 

http://geemaswonderings.blogspot.com/2011/08/ami-simms-workshop.html

I actually like that picture of me laughing at her!  It must be the first time I have ever liked a picture of myself.  I guess we are all like that.

Ann and I were not without our problems as we attempted to meet for 7 AM to head out to Lafayette.  We both ran late but ended up getting there in plenty of time to find the church and set up our stations.  We got the added benefit of hobnobbing with Ami Simms for some personal time!

Ami Simms is the brainchild behind Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative or AAQI.  Thousands of quilters make 9 x 12 quilts for auction and sale.  Proceeds go to Alzheimer Research.  She has raised more than a half million dollars from these sales.  For more information or to donate or buy one of these marvels go to:

http://www.alzquilts.org/index.html

Oh yes, the workshop! I taught everyone how to get focus on a scatterbrained dog, how to extinguish a bad behavior and......oh, you mean the Twisted Sister Workshop!  LOL.

Here is everyone!

                                                    And here are Ann, me, Ami Charlene and Dottie hamming it up for the camera while Mary stole my blocks............

Twisted Sister looks difficult, but is not.  And that makes the block totally worthwhile to make!  It does use a template....and partially pieced seams.......well, maybe it is a bit difficult, but it was so much fun!  When I decided on Halloween fabrics, I knew Mary would be lusting after my stuff.  What I didn't know was that she was going to be there.  I had to keep a close eye on my blocks because between Mary and Charlene they nearly walked off several times.

Ann and I had found a perfect fabric combination for her TS blocks.  Of course you never know how it will come out until you actually put it together.  It was obviously a winning combination!  Check out her first block.

There were so many different combinations of fabric and ideas that all were fabulously different.  Throughout the workshop Ami was teaching, she never stopped working with individuals and pointing ways of doing things out to the group as well. She had a "train" of people following her as she walked through the class. 

Charlene worked in teals and browns.  This will be a DG quilt and I think it works for a guy graduate!  I do!  Boy, do those lights pup with that teal in the center!  What a great eye-catching combination. H  Her pallet was laid out on the table and I was definitely drooling. 






Here are some other blocks.  Some I know who they belong to, some I don't.  But they are all gorgeously fabulous!





This one will be exciting!



I love the colors here





Dottie




This was a strip material, wow!




Mary




Karen





Linda