Remember Me Fat Quarter Quilt Exchange

One of my quilt guilds, Remember Me, had our annual Xmas Party on Tuesday.  Every February we exchange bags of 13+ fat quarters with the idea that the person will make a quilt top from the FQs. 

The top two quilt tops were made and exchanged by members, and for some reason I did not take photos of the rest of them......hmmm.i

I drew Crissi's name and she drew mine!!  Hers was a set of very traditional fabrics nearly identical to the year before.  I did a paperpieced star for her.  

Absolutely amazing  !

And I felt so inadequate for the first time in my quilting career!

Chocolate Chipolte Bacon Beignets and Cambodian Art

 This morning we had breakfast at Batch 13 (Chocolate Chipotle Bacon Beignets) and headed to the Cambodian Art Sale.

It was part of the Mission from the Methodist Women who travel there monthly bringing supplies to the school they support.  Lots of had embroidered purses, back packs, jewelry and hand dyed scarves.  I bought a fish purse and some bead bracelets.  Frank gave
them the rest of the $20 as a donation.  I can see some Christmas presents down the road!

Later at home, I told Frank he had to take care of all the dogs
.  That meant I could have uninterrupted time in my studio without having to let dogs in and out.  I could concentrate and complete my thoughts.

I got so much done in the afternoon.

I finished the first round on the Cotton Robin and packaged it up for mailing off to Christa in Virginia.

I got the Modern Robin round finished up and boxed for the meeting on Monday.

I did the Lotto Block for Remember Me for the April Meeting.

I did the Lotto Block for the Modern Guild meeting for Monday night.

I did an improvisational piece for my Fiber Exploration Group this month.







 I passed out some letters like E, T, H, I, L and O.

I asked the members to use those letters as inspiration and use the shape  to

create a piece for the next meeting.

I am really happy with what I have so far on my project.  Being
able to work improvisationally is incredible.  You start out with an idea.  I work with a What If...... style.  What if I add this color....yes or no.  What if I add white......oh no!

I wanted a cityscape.  Then I wanted to add a factory to my piece.  I guess I am into factories since I have one in my blue jean road piece as well.  

I kept trying to add white into the mix and it kept kicking it out!  After looking at it for a while on my design wall, I may be able to add some in by doing a ladder grid under the last row of grey.  I can try it a bit in the next day or so.

Sawyer is sick, so I get to have him tomorrow.  So long planned day........

30 Day Performance Challenge, Swim Class and A Quilting Challenge

Thursday is the culmination of the 30 Day Performance Challenge at the Southern Oaks Athletic Club.  This is a neighborhood workout/swim/tennis/leisure club where we are members with along with some friends and family.  To promo a new piece of equipment that does a sonograph of your body in a pre/post comparison of fat/muscle body make up.  Really interesting. 

You go in, get scanned.  Get really bummed out.  Work like a dog in classes for a month with a personal trainer.  Get scanned again.  And compare.  The winner gets bragging rights and a free month and some other stuff.

I told the trainer today when I left, no matter what happened at the test on Thursday,  there is nobody who has worked harder or gotten further than I have in this month.  I am in a class with two of the facility owners, three class instructors, a twenty something, a thirty something and a forty something. 


Yep.  Nobody's worked harder.  I am definitely stronger, thinner, more muscular and leaner. 

Sawyer and I started swim classes on Monday.  He is a natural and I got to show off how great I looked in my new swim suit.  They took promo photos to use for the brochures for the Baby Buoy Swim School. 

Sawyer floated on his back and on his front and kicked and loved the water.   He reluctantly wore some swim fins. Ate the floating ducks with relish.

I love the photo of him with the rings.  He is definitely headed for the Olympics!  I think I will save this photo and show it to the world when he stands on the podium accepting that gold medal while the American National Anthem plays proudly in the stadium!

The new quilting challenge for Remember Me Guild is to make a two color quilt with either the Kona Color of the the Year Tiger Lily or the Pantone Color of the Year Ultra Violet.  Trouble is, I can't find any place that has any amount of either one.  And the Purple one is scarce as hen's teeth.

Any ideas where I can get some? 

I know what I want to do.

Sewing at Paula's

Tonight is the night for the REME Challenge.  This is the Black and White Plus a Color Challenge. I got the binding on this one done last night while watching Dancing With the Stars.

Cynthia and I joined Paula this morning in her Quilt Haus.  I cut out the pieces for the next challenge. 

The next challenge is to take a single block and change whatever you need to in it to create a secondary design.  I have the most amazing thing.  I have won at this guilt before, several times.  And this time I will slay them!  LOL

I can't show you either one right now, but tonight I will show you my Don't You Love Her Madly" quilt with the WINING RIBBON!!!!!!!

Yes!

Pat and the Amazing Quilts

I have a friend, Pat, who makes amazing quilts.  Pat works all week in a wonderfully busy job, and comes home on Friday, sets up the 1975 Bernina on the dining room table.  Cutting is done on one end, sewing on the other. The family eats at the snack bar.

A quilt top is finished in a weekend.  Most quilts are sent to Charlene for quilting, remember her?  She did the Ellies Quilt for me.  But the combination of the two minds is what creates the beauty in these quilts.

27 of these marvels were shown at a guild meeting last night.  Interestingly enough, the guild is one of the most traditional of all the ones here in the area.  Among their ranks are quilt historians, civil war experts, museum docents and some incredible applique experts.

And the show was all about MODERN!  There was a lot of silence.   And a lot of gasps when they realized that Modern quilts are still quilts too!  Some eyes were opened that night!

I don't think minds were changed, but they did see how their beloved blocks could be used differently, put in modern fabrics, new colors, enlarged, skewed, flipped, spaced out, spaced in, twisted and stretched to create a new look.

Modern.  It was an incredible show.

Want to know the most amazing thing about the whole night, Pat is a man!  His wife works and gives him money to buy fabric!  LOL.  And she does not sew a stitch!

Who wouldn't love a man like that! Sharing a fabric addiction?

Bring it on, fellas!

My Alzheimer mother and the silent auction

The Remember Me Quilt Guild Auction competes with the River City Guild Auction every year.  But this year REME decided to move their shindig up to July and get the jump on River City.  And let me tell you, they most certainly did!

Tonight was their Country Fair at REME.  It is a huge auction of tons of fabric, notions, gadgets, quilts, and food.  The Cake Walk was just like I remembered in Elementary School!  And I stayed away from it!

I did win $128 in stuff at the Silent Auction and bought about $13 in stuff at the table.  But never did I win anything in the  30 or so Door Prizes they gave out.  I just don't win those things! 

And I picked up a whole cloth quilt to learn hand quilting.  I have been wanting one of these and have nearly bought one for $79.99 several times in the last few years.  Here was one for $10!

My friend Jo Paula won the First Prize for her Bonnie Hunter Pineapple Blossom Quilt!  She was totally excited!

Valerie racked up some nice fabric batches to start her stash with.  Now that she is quilting she needs a stash.  When she was collecting her winning stuff, she came to me with a totally puzzled look on her face.  She was holding a bread basket that she won but had never bid on.  LOL.

It reminded me of when we brought my Alzheimer Mother to the Michael Young Fest.  I guess I can tell this now.   I bought $10 in raffle tickets and gave them to her.  I told her to find some things she liked and drop her tickets into the buckets next to the items.  She wandered around the room happily dropping tickets into buckets.  I stopped paying attention at some point. 

All of a sudden i realize that she is taking tickets OUT of buckets and putting them in OTHER buckets. 

I can tell you that there were a lot of really confused people who won stuff they never dropped tickets in for.  We still laugh about that one.

There are so many ways you can have fun at the Quilt Fairs and Auctions.  And if you want some good laughs, I will lend you my mother!

glen