Finishes for OMG at Elm Street Quilts

 I am linking with Elm Street Quilts for her One Monthly Goal Completion tally.  The Come To Jesus in the quilting world.  I think it really helped me, because i would have continued to put off binding that Santa quilt, like I have for the last 11 years.

You know, the other day I found out that Patty of Elm Street Quilts does not live on Elm Street.  Hmmmmm.

Also I realized that if you are going to be a quilter of any note you need to be named either Patty or Julie.  Isn't that weird?  There sure are a lot of Pattys and Julies out there in the quilting world.  But just how many quilters do you know named glenda?  Or glen?

Not many, which is one reason I have always hated my name.  I should have stuck with the nickname my brother gave me, Sissy.  But I don't really see myself as a Sissy.  Or the one my father always called me, gaggie.  No, not like gagging, but more like gog.  Or grog.  You know, I do miss hearing that.  Only two people ever called me gaggie, and I miss both of them.  Diane lives a couple of cities over in Covington.  And I don't get to see her often, but when I do, she always calls me gaggie!

But I digress.....Finishes.........

I projected four goals.......and I finished all of them.

1.  Bind Santa - Done     

2.  Quilt at least one quilt - done (and I quilted two actually for extra brownie points!  I should win something just for that).  Next month my goals should be to bind these guys.

I did quilt the Improv Strpes but I must have put that photo somewhere really safe  because I cannot find it in my quilt photo anywhere.  So you need to just take my word on this one.

Or go  here and check out for yourself.  







I do have the Triangle Quilt to show, front and back.  Make it larger by clicking on them.

3.   Quilt for the Naval Cadet Ball is finished and delivered for the Big Raffle!







 4.  Do some embroidery on the One Road Thru Town for the CFAL Journeys Show in 2018.  I still can't believe I am so far ahead of having a piece ready!  Usually I am sitting in the venue while everyone is hanging stuff and working feverishly to get the piece finished!

Like I said, I should win.........because I went above and beyond and quilted that extra quilt in there.....Patty, you listening?

Tops and Backs

OK, Swooze, my dear.

I have the 100 Meter Swim on the frame.  And I have 4 quilts with backings in line to get quilted.  Five really, if you want to add Sawyer's quilt in there.  Carrie likes a striped backing made from home dec fabric.  At least it is not that heavy!  I am goin to try that for the first time.  Home Dec.  A new twist.

You know I was having a tough time finding a backing for the Improv Stripes?  Well, in the box from Charlene was this amazing ZEBRA fabric!!!!  Yes, it is perfect.







Batik Reflections needs a binding.  As
does the Santa Quilt. I just need to cut binding for the Santa, I think I have it already for the Reflections quilt. 





Thursday and Friday, Charlene came to play with me!  I made Sausage Leek soup and we spent a lot of time just chilling.  Last time she came she brought a pattern we could work  on together.



Man, two of us, both experienced quilters who have made  amazing quilts, could not figure out this  crazy block.  First of all, the cutting directions were incorrect.  Once we got that straightened out, the placement of the collar on the shirt was pretty iffy.  After ripping 3 times and re-cutting a collar unit twice, we both were so frustrated.

It is a cute block, and I will give it another try this week, but it may not happen in the end run.

I went to the doctor Monday, he says it is nothing more than allergies.  Well, I say, give me some  powerful meds because my throat is killing me!

Charlene brought me two boxes and a big bag full off the final installment of my fabrics.  Oh, Lordy!  This is just one box!


I just finished putting it all somewhere.  In the end I was trying to match coordinating fat quarters to make some quick quilts and get some things moving out of the room.  I don't think another piece of fabric can fit in here.

I need to get my Husqvarna machine back to finish this Tribute to the men who put their lives on the line for us daily.  The Janome is just not agile enough to quilt the curves.  It is loud and heavy and frustrating.  But right now it is the only one I have!

 My cousin asked me if I could donate a quilt to the raffle to raise money for the Military Moms to provide funding for cadets at the various academies to attend some event.  So I pulled these fabrics.  I need to make two quilts, since I wanted to make her one for Christmas anyway.  I had just ordered these Navy seals from some ebay person.

Military fabrics are so expensive.  Anyone have a better priced source for Navy fabrics?

And all the hurricanes!  Oye!  The ones in the Atlantic don't bother me!

In the yard yesterday Frank found this Orbweaver guy.  He is probably the size  of my palm and has a web that stretches from the River Birch tree to the Deck.

Today my throat is better but my head hurts.  And my ears are very loud.  They ring all the time, but right now they are really loud!

Santa is Quilted

Now he needs binding!

These are the things I remember about Santa.  The Challenge was to use the 4 or 5 fat quarters someone sent you.   Mine did not go together at all!  So I decided to use them as disparate units.  (I learned that word in my Social Work classes.) 

The letters, the stars and Santa himself came from EQ blocks I enlarged.  (I learned that word from my scale.)

I was afraid the quilting would ruin the face and beard, but I really like the way it looks on those solid areas. 

Oh, and I originally was going to quilt it in long lines of snow and icicles, but I loaded it on the frame the wrong direction.  I debated taking it off and re-affixing it lengthwise.  And decided against it.  I figured after 9 years Santa just wanted to get done!

Quilting Santa Today

I went over to the Quilt Haus and cut the borders for the reflections quilt, the backing for Machine and a backing for Reflections.  I also trimmed QR Codes so I need to just put the binding on that one.

Then I came home and contemplated the quilting on the Leaf Quilt.  I need to contemplate a bit more since I want to do some custom quilting on that one.

So I pulled Santa.  Mostly because I had a piece of batting I uncovered in the infamous Corner.  I guess I had sized the batting for a particular quilt sandwich, which has long since been separated from its innards.  And since it was pretty close to the Santa top lap  size, it got commandeered.

I did this quilt for a challenge with the CyberGuild I belonged to a number of years ago.  It was 2007, and I have them listed under the Christmas Challenge, but I can't remember what the parameters were outside of Christmas.



I can think of several ways to custom quilt the areas of Santa, but you know, I think I will just do a simple straight line and circle idea I saw on one of the blogs recently. 

It will look like snow is falling and icicles are forming. And the world will be right.....

Santa and Satan and a Design Wall

Oh oh.  Did  you know  Santa and Satan are spelled with the same letters?  Don't ask me how I found that out today, but I did.  Satan aside, we did some really good work today.  By lunchtime we surpassed the number of photo packages we did last year!  This is our second largest fundraiser for or spay and neuter programs.

I know we hit the 100 package mark but I not sure how many we went over.  Charles picked up the computers after the last person checked in and Carrie and Hugeaux had come in.  I was taking a load off my aching feet and talking with my GrandDog.

We had face painting and cute little girls all white and red.








We had strollers full of 10 little dogs.....yes, 10 little dogs all in one double stroller wheeled themselves in.   About half of them were poodles.

We had HUGE poodles too!  Look at these beauties.

Cole, does this make your tongue drool?

 We had dogs with 3 legs and those with 4 legs.

This white guy is a Clumber Spaniel.  you don't see those a lot.  They were my doggy clients from a while back.

Look at these cute faces!  Both have golden hair, red bow, expressive eyes.

 Santa had his elves working with him as well.  This one does our newsletters!  No way could I pull that outfit off as well as she does!

 At the end of the day even our dog wranglers seem a bit crazy!






 And we had Cavaliers who WERE related to me and some who WERE NOT related to me. 

My feet are killing me!


I had a chance to finish up 8 more of the 100 blocks last night while Frank was watching football, LSU I think. That makes it 20% done right now.  But I can't stop.

So this is what  my design wall looks like  

Check out Judy's blog to see what others are working on.



For the Stash Report I am going to call the inflow of Pat's scraps and the outgo of my blocks as a wash, since I am cutting up the bits and bits and pieces of incredible colors.  Why are his scraps more exciting than mine?

I am just loving these 100 Modern Blocks of Tula Pink.  They are so addicting.....

Santa CAAWS in Baton Rouge

A fabulous way to support local animal rescue and support Spay and Neuter Programs is to have your dog's photo taken with Santa CAAWS again this year.  Proceeds go to supporting our shelter animals as well as our Low Income Spay and Neuter Program in the community.

Our doglets always get no Santa CAAWS because we set up the day before and get the dogs done so we can work the whole day without dogs.  Who knows what McGee would eat if he had to stay the whole day!

Stop by our location at Cortana Mall Entrance 3 (by the old Mervyns store) between 9 and 4 on Sunday November 10, 2013 and get those photos made.

Mari is a professional photographer who donates her time and camera skills.  Choose from a number of cards or one of our photo packages.  Or both!

There will be Santa CAAWS himself and our two ditsy elves to share the camera lens with you.  Or just your dog, our just your kids.  We love kids too!

Please come, we desperately need funds to continue our work.  This year we have S/N over 1000 animals in the community and found loving homes for nearly 150 cats and dogs.

I have been a very bad girl..........

I really have!  And it was so much fun!

Ann and I decided to ditch the sewing at Red Stick yesterday in favor of meeting the owner of the newest shop in town Mia's Fabric Cafe, Anita.  And her daughter.  It was so nice to finally meet the two of them.

Maylee back

Maylee sashing and cornerstones

Mia's is having pretty nice sale on fabric, as you can imagine.  And I indulged like a heathen!  I have 15 yards to ADD to my stash report on Sunday.  But what beauties they are!  And most have some sort of a plan.

This is for the baby quilt I will start soon for Maylee.  Remember Cutesy Pie Maylee?


These crawfish beauties are just the right combination for a spring quilt for South Louisiana.  I think they are supposeed to be lobsters, but no self respecting Louisiana girl will call them that, they are crawfish plain and simple.

Golden dots for the binding of Matt's Saints Quilt.  It neesds to get done soon, I am sure my cuz Karen will be calling soon for our Exchange Dinner.  Hers is finished, but Matt's hangs in there!

These are just because I coud not resist stripes and grey checkerboards.

Then at the Remember Me Christmas Party we had such wonderful food.  Lillian and her committee did a fabulous job with the food and the decorations.  When I walked into the room I saw a table covered with beautifully wrapped prizes.  One stood out to me, it was huge and bright green with red Santas bounding all over it!  It called to me.  I answered.  I wanted that big prize!

It was like a Christmas miracle come to life.  After 30 years of cruising and playing bingo cards on those cruise ships, I finally won a BINGO!  Lillian called the final number that put me into BINGO range and I exploded!  Pat already had the huge green present in her arms to deliver to my overflowing excitement! 

This is what it was!  Snapware!  Glorious Snapware!  Oh, I see organizational greatness in 2013.

Most everyone got letters from Santa telling them they were on the Naughty list and should not be watching for Santa this year!

It was a great Remember Me Party!

What Day is This?

Last night I went to the guild meeting.  Only there was no guild meeting, I was the only one there.  I called Ann from the empty parking lot and said, there is not guild meeting tonight.  It is next Tuesday.

She says, I know.

I said, why did you let me come to the meeting if you knew that.

She said, I thought you were being silly.

And I did feel pretty silly in that parking lot.....alone.......in the dark.......listening to my Book On Tape.

I am so busy today I may not get a chance to post anything, so enjoy your day and check your calendar twice to make sure you have the right day!

On another note, our Santa CAAWS family photo turned out PERFECT!  I can't wait to show it to you.  She sent the proof just now and we look soooooo good we could be in pictures!


glen

Another reason I have no time to sew......

For the last two days CAAWS has done the Santa Photos at PetsMart.  Friend Dan was the Santa again and I took pictures today.  Mari took them yesterday.

Here are a few great ones.



Hugeaux the GrandDog



And of course, my beautiful GrandDog Hugeaux.

I am totally tired.

 



glen