Missing Snow Family

Some of you know about my missing Snow Family.  For the rest of you, here is the story.  About 2 years ago Judy Heyword  came to our town and taught a class on her pattern, Snow Family.  It was a one day class, so we did not finish in class.  I worked on it for several months.  The top was finished in time for QSC quilt retreat last year (2010), so I took it to show Judy.  I put in back in my stuff at retreat and lost it.  Got home and could not find it any where.  I put out a lost and found ad in the QSC news letter.  E-mailed everyone in my class.  No where, no one had seen it.  About 10 months later I found it in a Barns and Nobles bag ( probably put there to keep clean) on my desk, under some other stuff.  Yes, I needed to straighten up, a lot.  Wednesday, I have finished quilting and sewed tiny buttons on for the eyes and mouth.  It is hanging in the living room for Christmas.  It really looks great and I am very happy with my Snow Family.  Click on Judy's name to go to her website for this pattern and much more.

Merry Christmas and Happy Quilting,
Vicki

Christmas presents

Two Cuddle quilts for nieces in Texas.  Their Dad got back from Afghanistan around the first of Aug.  on Labor Day, they lost their house to the fires in Bastrop, Tx.  Right now the family is living in a camper trailer.  So, I thought cuddle quilts would be the right size.  And they are perfect.  Their mom said one liked blue and one liked green, so as you see that is what I did.  I used the multi colored cat print on both and blue on one and green on the other.  I made the back coordinate.   I think they look great.

The pattern is from Mary Johnson and you can find it here: http://www.maryquilts.com/quick-strippie/

I am sure these quilts will be loved for a long time.  PS:  that is dear hubby playing Kilroy, peaking out from behind the quilt.  He is a great holder upper for quilts.

Merry Christmas and Happy Quilting,

Vicki

T-Shirt Quilts

I made 2 t-shirt quilts for a customer for her granddaughters for Christmas.  They are so cute.  She will pick them up tomorrow, I hope.  I had a local embroiderer, Ben at A Stitch in Time<  do a block for each, saying love from Grammy.  They turned out great.

Merry Christmas, Vicki

Bonnie Hunters Mystery 2012

Well, there are no pictures to post.  Sorry folks,  I am sitting this one out for awhile.  I have too many other irons on the fire.  I am saving the pattern for later.  I am sure I will want to make it.  I have made the last 3 mystries.  So, taking a break to finish my Georgia Burnsteel quilt.  Well worth the break.

Merry Christams to all,
Vicki

Tan Quilt

Susan's Tan quilt.  She said is was boring.  She likes color so it was hard to make this wonderful quilt for her daughter.  I think it turned out great, if I must say so myself.  The quilting added to it and it looks great.  Merry Christmas to a lucky gal.

John C Campbell Folk School

I have been off blog, as opposed to off world, for a few weeks.  Lets catch up.  I spent the week of Nov 13 at the John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC.  If you are wondering what it is or where, click the link and check it out.  They teach all kinds of crafts: pottery, wood working, blacksmithing, cooking and quilting for just a few.  Of course, I took a quilting class.  With Georgia Bonesteel from ETV fame of Lap Quilting with Georgia.  She was a great teacher on ETV and was even better in person.  The quilt we made is called Scrap Soup.  You can make it scrappy or not.  Mine is scrappy, coordinated, kind of. 

Here is mine in progress.  This much is sewn together with another section ready to sew together.  So, I am about half way thru the top.  The little green things at the top of the rows are number labels to keep it in order.  It is hard to tell, but the background is scrappy navy and dark gray, almost black.  The flowers or as Georgia called them, diamonds are a little coordinated.

Here is Georgia holding up a child size quilt in the same pattern.  I think this would make a great baby quilt.  Notice the scraps are all in the background and the flowers are all the same.  It had a very clean cool look.

This is every ones quilt on display the last morning we were there.  They are all beautiful.  See the 2nd from the right??  This was our over achiever, she just lacked sewing a few rows to having her top finished.

This was a great group of gals.  I met new friends and had a great time.

Oh yes,  the food was great.  I mean really great.  Fresh, green, not institutional food at all.  And best of all, I didnt gain any weight, yea!!!

Almost forgot to add, Georgia is writing a new quilt book.  She hopes to have it out in about a year.  This pattern should be in the book, so keep you eye out for her new book.

Happy Quilting, Vicki

Crumbs!!!

A little blurry, but at nite the light is bad.  What do you think of my crumb blocks.  I want to put sashing between them, otherwise they mush too much.  So I am testing sashing.  From left to right: red, purple, black with navy below it, and yellow.  I think I might go with the navy, since I have a bunch of 1 1/2 inch strips already cut the scrap box. Just thought of lime green.  Will try tomorrow when the light is much better.  There will be one more row down the side and then borders.  Just ran out of room on this table cloth design wall.  I have to pin everything on or they start falling off when I add new ones to it.  Do you see the 16 patch black and white check in the middle?  That is left from a border of a Christmas wall hanging that I really need to get quilted.  There are 9 patches left over from RRCB, Bonnie Hunters mystery quilt last Nov.  Wonder what her new mystery will look like.  We will have to wait and see.  The first clue goes up on her blog Nov. 18. Check out Bonnies Blog if you want a mystery that will turn out great.  I have done 3.

Happy Quilting,
Vicki

One Block Wonder

Up date status on my One Block Wonder.  The blocks are on the design wall.  It is a stack and whack type of thing.  My fabric sure has a lot of orange in it.   This piece of fabric was very slippery and I have had a lot of trouble working with it.  Especially cutting it out.  I almost trashed it.  Now I am to far into it to trash.  A lot of these quilts have cubes added, but I decided not to at this point.  But subject to change.  You know a woman's prerogative is to change her mind.

The great thing about quilt retreat is seeing all of the friends I have made all over our state.  I always try to eat my meal with a different group, so I can visit with lots of them. 

Happy Quilting, Vicki

Tie Quilt

Customers quilt made from men's ties.  A group of ladies did these and then drew names for the blocks.  My customer won.  They lost their house to a fire last year and the blocks were one of the few things saved.  I put a spiderweb in one block.  Every crazy quilt should have a spiderweb. Some straight line quilting and a few feathers made each block different.  I think it turned out very well.

Crumbs

If you read the posts before this one, you will know why I am behind on my Crumb quilt.  Here are the blocks, trimmed, stacked and ready to do something with them.  So, Jo, I am still working on it.  I have 85 blocks.  Now I need a plan to put them together.  I didnt make any letter blocks.  That will be for when I have more time to play. 

I am going to John C  Campbell Folk School in 3 weeks for a whole week.  Guess who the teacher is?  Ok, I will tell you.  Georgia Bonesteel!!!  I am soo excited.  I need to get my fabrics ready.  I am going to make my quilt scrappy, so I really just need to pick out my back ground.  Georgia sent pictures of what we are going to be making, to help us decide what fabrics to bring.  I am not tell you now, it will be a surprise. 

Hope I am caught up on the blog for now.  Happy Quilting, Vicki

Quilt Retreat

This past weekend was QSC (Quilters Of SC) Pieceable Retreat.  This is an annual retreat for quilters from all over South Carolina.  We had a record amount show up, over 300.  Lots of new classes and lots of fun was had by all.  I took a One Block Wonder Class that was fun.  It is interesting to see everyone's fabrics, they were all different.  One of the things the teacher, Beth Karr, did was take us on a field trip to the venders, in groups of five.  She had each of us pick out a fabric or 2 that we thought would make a OBW.  Then she discussed the whys and why nots of each fabric.  What a great idea.  And YES, I went back and got the magnolia fabric!!    Here is a picture of mine from the class, the orange and blue fabrics.  See the strip to the right side, that is what I started with.  It is amazing what comes out of these.  The bottom is one of the other girls in the class, sorry cant remember which one, but great fabric.

 This was from 2 fabrics with the exact same print and colors, except for the background.  One was cream and the other blue.  This quilter made a set from both and combined them.  What a great idea and doesnt it look great??

Here is Jodie's.  She used a fabric with planets and stars.  Looks like Star Trek.  Great fabric.   Some of my pictures came out dark, so I cant show you all of them.

Next are 2 that Beth, the teacher, has made.  The others came out just too dark.  Guess it is about time for a new camera.  The light was good in the room and I think the flash was working ok, but you never know.



Last, but not least, we had special guests in out class room.  Meet Roada and Rhoda.  They are quilt traveling rodents.  They are supposed to be porcupines, but I think they are too soft for that prickly job.  Roada lives with Joyce and Rhoda lives with Beth.  You can follow their escapades here roadaftripp.blogspot.com/ .  Hope you enjoy the travel of the R sisters.

Happy Quilting, Vicki

Shirt Quilt

This a customers quilt.  She made this from the shirts of her granddaughters father, for the granddaughter.  she said she added the strips to go across the quilt to make to long enough for the queen bed.  I really liked this quilt. Scrappy and memories, together.  I used gold thread and a simple design. 

Enjoy , Vicki 

T-Shirts

Finished a t-shirt quilt for a customer today.  It really looks black.  Well, it is not.  It is a navy modelly.  The back is black.  This is what the granddaughter wanted.  Was quilted with black thread.  Really hard to work with.  I hope I dont get another black one again.  This will be a graduation gift from grandmother.

Happy Quilting,
Vicki

Orangeburg County Fair

Our county fair is the only quilt show in our area.  So we get great quilts.  It was the first week in Oct.  I know, I a little behind.  Anyway, here are some pictures.  Enjoy!!

Sorry some of them are sideways.  I just cant get that figured out.  I think I need a better photo program.  But you can still see how beautiful the quilts are.

Not Lost

No pictures for now.  I am not lost.  Life got in the way of my quilting this week.  My Dad had to go back in the hospital.  He has surgery on his Achillies tendon 4 weeks ago, had the cast off 1 week ago and the insision came open and got infected.  They had to go back in and debribe it.  Now he has a vacumm thing on it sucking out the infection. ULCK is right.  He may need plastic surgery to replace skin.  And they may have to repair the first surgery.  Wont know until they get rid of the infection.  So, please think of my Dad.  He just turned 82 in Sept. and is in good health.  He has always been very active and I know this has slowed him down a lot.  My stepmom had been taking great care of him.

Hopefully I will get some new pictures up this week.  I am playing with my crumb blocks today, between football games. 

Happy Quilting, Vicki

Red Star at Nite

So, What do you think?  My own design!  Yes, I know traditional, but that is ok.  I have been wanting to do something with toile, so here it is.  I was inspired by Charlotte Angotti, after seeing her at Greater Columbia Quilters in Aug.  She used large prints with large snowball blocks to show them off.  So, off I went.  I have also wanted to do a red quilt.  Two for one.  Still have to put the binding on.  Out of the red, so will have to be the black.  Originally I was going to use the white with black as the inner border, but it didnt work, so I used the red from the binding.  Like it allot.  Tried to quilt free motion, from the front of the longarm, couldnt see where I was quilting. I used white thread.  So swapped to a pano and worked great.  So busy you cant see the quilting anyway.

How do you like my name for the quilt?  I am new at naming quilts.

Happy Quilting, Vicki

Crumb Along

What is this??  Jo over at Jo's Country Junction is hosting a crumb along.  She is showing how to make different crumb blocks.  Something new every Tuesday.  I got a late start, so just got the first week finished and started on the 2nd week.  The first week was Flying Geese.  I used bonus half square triangle to make my wonky geese.  Then just built the block up so I could square it up to 6 1/2 inches, which is the size of the ruler I am using.  This is very freeing, because you dont worry about matching seams.  The "Crumb" are left overs and scraps", dont throw it way, crumb it.  LOL

The next ones are Wonky Stars.  I used the dregs of my 2 inch squares to make these.  I day dregs, because I have been using these up on other projects.  May have to cut some more from the larger scraps.  I need some lites.  I really like these.

Next is a heart block, I will work on that this afternoon.

Happy Quilting,

Vicki

Mug Rugs

Mug Rugs,  I need to make some gifts, so here they are.  The finish 8 x 10.  I used scraps from my 2 inch strip bin and fused them to solid backgrounds.  The I just straight stitched around them, running off the edges and jumping from block to block.  Another strip from the 2 1/2 inch bin made the binding. Warm and White batting.  I think they look great.  I got the idea from Karen at Quilt Frenzy  scroll down and you will see why.

Customers Quilt

Another quilt finished.  This is Dottie's quilt.  Dont  you just love the strippy quilting and the border fabric.  This is a great quilt.  I enjoyed working on it.   Wish I could remember the name of the pattern.  Dont worry, it will come back to me, probably at 3am, LOL.

Not much else going on, so Happy Quilting,
Vicki

Fur Baby

I just had to share this picture.  Ranger, hiding under my feet.  DH caught a good picture of him.  He is a silly puppy. 

Bow Tucks Purse

Or should I say tote bag.  I finally made a Bow Tucks Bag.  These have been all over the Quilt Board.   So, I ventured out.  When I went to Knoxville to the AQS show in July, I bought a kit with the pattern to make this bag.  Saturday I started, Sunday afternoon I sewed some more.  Finally got all the parts made.  Here they are.  The directions say to use fusible fleece, which I did, and the quilt as desired.  I quilted the sunflower part in a diamond going sideways grid and the dark bottom just straight lines.  I quilted the lining further apart with a square grid on point.  Using purple thread.  I do like it.  But boy this is taking forever!  Some of the folks on the Board are make 4-6 in a weekend.  How did they do this?  Well, my friend Susan, Yes that is Susan in Aiken, told me I didnt have to do all that quilting if I used the fusible fleece.  DUHHHH!!  Susan knows.  She make lots of bags and teaches bag classes in Aiken.  I am not in Aiken.  So sorry!!

Anyway, here it is Tuesday.  I had to finish quilting Dottie's quilt yesterday.  I finally got all the parts together.  I still need a button for the closing, but that will come.  And I would like some beads on the bows.  Will have to raid my sons scout stuff to see what he may have, you never know.  So, the unveiling!! TA DA Love it!!!  turned out great.  But next time, I wont quilt it. 

Happy Quilting, Vicki

DPN

Dottie's Disappearing Nine Patch, set on point.  Quilted with Texas Fan pano from Linda Taylor, gold thread.  Looks great.  I just love this one.



Happy Quilting, Vicki

Orangeburg Quilters Guild

At our Orangeburg Quilters guild about every 3 months we all make a block and then draw for it.  Everyone has to win before your name can go back in the pot.  This is the latest block.  The block is 12 inch finished.  We laid out the ones turned in so far (not due until Oct., mine is finished).  They look great.  I am not eligible, so I may just have to make this one for myself.  I love the 3D effect.

Didnt get to sew this afternoon.  Thunderstorms!  Then was cooking supper, just started, and the power went off.  So...... we had to go out to eat.  Stuffed the food in the fridge.  On the way out we found out what knocked the power out this time.  A car hit a main power pole.  I am sure there was more than one car involved.  And I am sure there were injuries, if not fatalities.  Most of that was gone, just the power company and a patrolman to help with the traffic.  There was a smashed car in the ditch.  I did say a quick prayer for whoever.  And I felt bad about fussing about the power company, again.  It wasnt their fault this time.  This is the 3rd power outage in about 3 weeks.

So, hopefully I will get some quilting done tomorrow.

Happy Quitling, Vicki

Charlotte Angotti

This week I have felt much better.  Yea!!!  I was able to go to Greater Columbia Quilt Guild for the monthly meeting.  I was really looking forward it it.  The guest speaker was Charlotte Angotti.  You can see her here. http://www.charlotteangotti.com/  She is a nationally know teacher and has moved to SC.  Charlotte is funny and talented.  She had us laughing so much that I had tears just flowing.  I thought Joyce, sitting next to me would fall on the floor laughing.

Here are a few of the quilts she showed.  I cant tell the stories, you have to here them from her.  I would probably get them wrong any way.

Happy Quilting, Vicki

Summer Cold

Last week I got a summer cold.  No pictures,  you dont want them anyway!!  LOL   So, not much going on.  Now DH , Wayne has the cold, Ulck!!

Wedding Trip

WOW it has been a few weeks since I posted.   Lot of stuff has happened.  My nephew Jon married Robin on Aug 5.  So, we took the train to Northern Va. almost to DC.  What was supposed to be a 9 hr ride was 11 hrs.  I was tired, pooped, exhausted, leg cramps, ect...... You get the idea.  There was this big guy sitting on the first seat of the car that snored all the way there, I mean all the way! except for potty breaks, then he would sit down and start up again.  It was like a chain saw or worse.  We got on in Charleston, SC and he got on in Florence, SC.  He was still snoring when we got off,  in Alexandria, Va.  He didnt even wake up!  Must have partied all nite the nite before.  We got the the hotel about 10:15pm.  The first thing I did was jump on the treadmill for 15 min.  I had to stretch my legs, they hurt so much.  Then a Tylenol and sleep.  Forgot, we accompanied my Dad and step mom on the train.

The next evening we went to the rehearsal dinner and it was great. Sat with my sister and her husband, Dad and step mom, us and a friend of theirs that came from Ok. for the wedding.   This is the Grooms cake.  Lord of the Rings theme.  My sister made it.  She did a great job.  The bottom was chocolate pound cake, the middle was yellow cake and the top was red velvet.  What a great cake.  We were on the 2nd floor with the Occoquan River running behind the  building, a beautiful view. 

Here is the Happy couple after the wedding.  This was during picture time, so quality isnt great, but I love it.  Isnt Robing beautiful.  I loved her dress.  The wedding was held at Old Bridge United Methodist Church in Woodbridge Va.  A great church if you are in the area.  They will be living in Woodbridge.  Robin is a teacher, 6th grade, and Jon is an IT guy.  Jon is about 6'4" and Robin is about 6", so perfect match.  Other stuff matches great, too.
Here is another picture with my sister, Terri and her husband Dave.  They are all good looking folks, dont ya think.

The trip home on the train was much better.  We made it in 9 hrs and no snoring.  I had a great time with my family. 

Happy quilting, Vicki