Throwback Thursday - Tropical Jazz & Tropical Sunrise

In 1999 I took a Stack and Whack class taught by a member of The Flower Valley Quilt Guild.  We used Bethany Reynolds' book "Magic Stack-N-Whack Quilts".  The fabric I used was a beautiful (and bright) floral, tropical print. I was intrigued with the technique and absolutely loved the blocks resulting from my fabric choice. 

I didn't take a lot of photos of my work then, but I think you can see the variety in my hexagons in this closeup. 

I let it live in my sewing room for a while as a UFO.   A long while.  I didn't want to make any more blocks so I added borders to make it bigger (68" by 98"), hand quilted it (heavily!), finished it in 2004, and called it "Tropical Jazz".  I really love this quilt.  So does my sister.  She called it "Barb's quilt" from the minute she saw it..   

   






















"Tropical Jazz" was juried into The Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza in 2006, and since my BFF lives near Phillie she got to see it on display and even sent me photos!

In 2007 I entered it in the Circle in the Square Quilt Guild's exhibit "Quintessential Quilt", and it won 2nd place in their Large Quilts-Innovative category.

Because it was going onto the guest bed it needed a companion quilt to hang over it on the wall.  I made a center block for a Round Robin .....

..... sent it off, and the rest was added by quilty friends so that it finished at 55" by 55".  I hand quilted it, named it "Tropical Sunset", and put it on the wall.  You may have seen it in this blog entry about Round Robins.   (Barb decided this was her quilt, too!)  

By 2011 I was just a little tired of Barb calling these her quilts every time she was at my house.  I decided she was right and gave them to her.  Not really.  I decided because I love her I wanted her to have them.   To say she was surprised is an understatement.

Well, I guess I had more photos than I thought I did!  I hope I didn't overwhelm you, or worse, bore you with them all.  If I did don't tell me.  I had fun reliving it!

    

More About the Grand Rapids Quilt Show

I'm so glad I went to the AQS Show in Grand Rapids last week.  It was well worth the effort.  This was only the second year for the show to be held in that city, and it was a wonderful experience as I shared in my last post. 

Among other exhibits Patricia Campbell was honored with a special display of her work, Miniature Quilts from the National Quilt Museum were presented, and the Tentmakers of Cairo were there demonstrating and selling their work.  They were really fun to watch.

   
Some of my favorite quilts were a part of the Ultimate Quilt Guild Challenge.  From the Across the Square Quilters in Charlotte, MI whose Challenge was "Under" I liked.....

.....Under Cover by Carol Randall.

From the Quilt Artists of Kentucky in, Berea, KY whose Challenge was "Give Me a Hand" I liked.....

.....Give Nature a Hand by Betsy Ellen Terrill.

From the Davies Manor Quilters in Memphis, TN whose Challenge was "Fairy Tales" I liked.....

Pied Piper by Deborah Trimm.


And from the Milwaukee Art Quilters in Wauwatosa, WI whose Challenge was "Color Wheel Opposites" I liked.....

Coy Koi by Sonja Lambach Pavlik.

It was fun to shop the 350 plus vendors and see the newest and most up to date offerings from the wide world of quilting.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of the colorful pre-cut strips offered by this vender.  Pretty, huh?

This vendor made me think of my friend Barb.  She would have turned around and headed the other way if she had seen this chair!

Even though we had stopped at every single vender at least twice, we still needed to visit a few Local Quilt Shops on the drove home.  With all that shopping I still didn't end up with much of a haul.  I behaved myself. 

I took advantage of show prices on Superior threads, bought a Needle Nanny, some Mistyfuse and a few other things, including a show T-shirt.  The thing I'm most looking forward to using is the set of numbered Q-Pins for marking blocks and rows once they are up on the design wall.  No more taking them down and getting the order mixed up on the way to the sewing machine.  I hope!

Excuses, Excuses.........And a Finish!

Excuses, excuses.  Or should I say, Reasons, reasons.  I have been too busy to sew lately let alone blog about it!  I guess I should have just been blogging instead about my crazy life, at least then you would know why I'm not sewing.

The last sewing I did was at the June retreat I told you about.  Here are a few of the things that have kept me busy the last several months.

Two of my sisters, Barb and Dee, came to see me for a weekend.

My sister, Debbie and her girls, Natalie, Carrie and Emily, came to see me for a weekend.

Hubby and I took our grands to Seattle for a week to visit our son, Aaron, and see the sights.

We spent a week in Destin, Florida with our son, Adam and his family.  

I celebrated a birthday!  


This is what my sewing room has looked like for over a month.  It was turned into an extra guest room and it has stayed that way.  Hard to sew like that!

The one thing I did manage to finish was the NewFo I started in May.  It was a completed top so it only needed hand-quilting and binding.  That's not work, though.  That's therapy! 

And here's the reason I managed to get this one quilt completed at all.  Little Gracee Mae-Rose, our newest great-niece.  After all, every new baby needs a quilt!

This has been a whirlwind summer.  One last thing will keep me from sewing this week - the AQS Quilt Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I'm going with my sweet friend, Faye, where I know I will be inspired and motivated to get sewing again.  I feel pretty certain that I'll be in my sewing room when I get home from that.  

Sisters Trip 2012

This year it was Barb's turn to plan our trip, and we all decided it was the best one yet!  She booked our weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City the weekend of The Renaissance Festival.  The lodge has a humongous indoor water park.

Hubby couldn't believe it, but my sisters talked me into going down one of those crazy slides!  I was terrified, but I have to admit it was fun. And, NO they could not get me to do it twice!



Saturday morning I stepped into the bathroom while Dee Dee was showering and said, "I'm just taking a picture of you to put on FaceBook."  You should have heard her scream when the flash went off!

This is how Barb puts her makeup on when there is only one mirror for five people.

I had bought T-shirts for us, but ordering online makes it difficult to get the right size and they were way too big.  We all decided they would make better PJ's so Carol modeled one for me.

None of us had been to a Renaissance Festival before and we loved it.  You do see some interesting people there!

It was not always easy to tell the customers from the performers.

Even so, the costumes were great.

The fairies were especially cute!

Debbie and Barb were flirted with.....

.....Dee Dee braved a snake around her neck.....

.....Carol did some shopping.....

.....and I got a cute shirt that totally fits my personality.  (It's hard to get a picture of yourself when you are the resident photographer!)

Five hours was not enough to see everything, but we gave it our best shot before we were totally worn out.  That night we ordered pizza for dinner and played cards in our room.   I really do "heart" my sisters!

You can see more photos on my Flickr page if you aren't already tired of us!   

Oh, Those Sisters of Mine!

You may remember my sisters.  I made each of them a quilt.  Not one of them can sew a lick.  Or sew on a button for that matter.  They must really love me because they decided to make me a quilt.  And from the photos of them working on it, you can see that they had lots of fun!

This is Carol.....

..Barb..........

..Dee Dee..........

..and Debbie.

They surprised me with it at a family bridal shower, and the word "surprise" is an understatement!  They also gave me a framed collage of the above photos and a few others.  All my nieces and great-nieces were in on the surprise so they were there that day, too, which made it very special.  To say I was sobbing almost hysterically is also an understatement!

Some of the fleece squares are tied together on the front, some on the back.  They used the same "technique" with the labels.   In some places the squares are tied together so tightly that the whole section is one big pucker.  And in case you are wondering what to do if you have one extra square leftover..........

Please don't anyone tell them that it is technically NOT a quilt.  I could not love it more!!

I know I am showing a lot of pics, but it was hard to eliminate any, and you have to see the labels.  

So, there you have it.  My special gift from my special sisters.  I love them bunches!  

Oh -- one more thing.  You have to see how much style this "quilt" adds to my home.  It totally blends in with the contemporary decor, don't you think?