My New Project for September -- Baby Quilt

Not a lot of sewing has been going on around here lately.  But a whole lot of life has been happening!

Everything from taking the grands to Seattle for a week.....

.....to vacationing in Destin with our son and his family and some of the boys' friends.....

.....to having knee surgery.

And the other night we made s'mores in the courtyard here at home.

Aidan really enjoyed them.  I think everyone did.

Gavin is at the stage where he doesn't want any photos taken.  He humored me.

I did get an actual quilting project started this month for the 2013 NewFo Challenge.

These three blocks are for a baby quilt and the fabric might be for the border.    I have all the blocks finished and the sashing is cut, but that's as far as it is right now.  Baby quilts usually get completed around here, though, because there's a definite deadline on those.  That means there will probably be photos of a finished quilt soon!

I'm linking up to Barbara's Linky Party.  You might want to take at look at what others are working on.  

My New Projects for July and August - Nephews' Quilts!

I did actually start a new project in July, I just couldn't get the blog written within the seven day window in order to participate in that month's 2013 NewFo Challenge.  I do want to tell you about it though, so I'm including it here with the August project.  

The July Project -- When my sister-in-law, Debbie, passed away in 1999 she left behind this embroidered quilt top.  I saved it all these years so I could do something with it for her children.

I cut the center out of it and used some of the border stitching to make this quilt for Debbie's daughter, Ashley, in 2010 and blogged about it in this post.

I have 18 blocks left over to make a quilt for Debbie's son, Jason.  

My friend Shirley, who is a genius with her EQ designing program, came up with several designs for alternate blocks for me and I chose this one. 

Then she designed the alternate blocks for me complete with measurements.

So basically, the work for my July project was done by someone else!  LOL  That's okay.  I'll do the cutting, sewing, and quilting!

The August Project -- My nephew Josh asked me to make a wall-hanging based on the character Link from The Legend of Zelda computer game.  I found some pics online of the items in the game....

....and then sketched them out on graph paper.  

No, I do not know what all the items are.  I had to ask Josh!  I'm going to make a block for each figure and then use them in a border around a pieced center of Link.  

Getting the sketches done and buying some of the fabrics is as far as I got.

But it's a start.  Another start. I need a few finishes!!

I was going to link up with Barbara's Linky Party, but it looks like the deadline was early this month.  I'll be a little more on the ball next month. (I hope....)

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!

Home From Quilt Week in Grand Rapids

After 10 plus years of attending the AQS Quilt Show in Paducah I decided to try something different this year and drove up to my friend Faye's house in Michigan so we could drive to the AQS Grand Rapids Quilt Show together. 

Grand Rapids is a Cool City with Hot Art!

They have art everywhere.  On a corner on Pearl Street. 

"Albert Einstein Between Theorems" by Jim Dolan.


There's even art in the Grand River under the bridge --

At least I hope that's art!

And they really did welcome AQS Quilt Week.  Everywhere we went we were made to feel special.  Discounts and special offers from hotels and restaurants proved they really wanted the quilters there.  The Amway Grand Hotel was fabulous, and all the employees went out of their way to make us feel at home.  

There were organized tours for the quilters to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park.   I wish we could have spent an entire day there.  

The sculptures were incredible and the grounds were gorgeous.  They have a pretty amazing Children's Garden, too.  Here are a few of my favorite sculptures from that day --

 "Espaliered Girl" by Laura Ford

"Disk in the Form of a Desert Rose" by Amaldo Pomodoro

and "Listening to History" by Bill Woodrow.

I did actually take a few photos of flowers --

And I was inspired by this window in one of the greenhouses --

Actually I see a quilt there.........


One of the best parts of being at the quilt show was spending time with good friends that I don't get to see very often.  All of these ladies are online friends, but we have known each other so long that I forget that's how we met!

Faye and Bon --

 Angela and Rilla --

 This is already a little picture heavy, so I think I'll share the rest in my next post.  Maybe I'll actually show you some quilts!

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.