Playing the Name Game

y good blogging friend, Sue over at Quilt Times, made an interesting observation on the last post. She commented on the similarity of the names of the various quilting friends - all the hostess names mentioned in the last post began with "Sh-". Well, I'm forever getting tongue-tied with all these similar-sounding names, and it occurred to me that perhaps a bit of clarifying would be good for readers.

One group of 8 friends, many of whom quilt, are the Frienzies. We all taught together at CHS and  have formed a tight-knit bond over the years. Two of the Frienzies are Sherrie T. and Sharon P.

A second group of quilting friends are the 5 Frankfort Girls; I have been with them for a couple of years now. In this group we have Sheryll H. and Sharon O.

Now, every week I get together with long-time friend and fellow English teacher Sharon P. (of the Frienzies group). We taught across the hall from each other for nearly our entire careers, and we are both adjunct faculty at OUC. We should have been sisters, I think. We finish each other's sentences, know what one means when we really can't think of what to say, read each other's minds, all those types of things. It gets a bit weird to think of how alike we are, in some respects. We have similar tastes in quilts and fabric, have travelled many times to Europe with student tours, read a lot of the same books, and enjoy the same types of movies. Bizarre, right?

Well, that sort of explains all the confusing "Sh" names. I am forever saying the wrong name and I know them! It really must confuse readers who don't know them. I just hope the "Sh" girls understand. Hopefully, this clarifies the Sharon-Sherrie-Sheryll-Sharon confusion!

Ok, on to getting caught up with recent quilting endeavors. Last Tuesday, I spent the day at Sharon P's house. We are re-establishing our weekly sewing dates and I am so glad. It really keeps me working on things when I otherwise would procrastinate or get side-tracked. An added bonus is getting to visit with a dear friend. Quilting lends itself to chatting and catching up, wouldn't you agree?

Sharon had pulled out a UFO from about a year ago. I love the fall colors and the scrappy nature of these fabrics. It's a quilt with 2 blocks - the 9 patch and the snowball. Notice that the 9-patch is just random and not the typical 4light/5dark or 4dark/5light combinations. I think it will be wonderfully cozy when it's finished. I can see this being a quilt meant for snowy days, thick novels, fireplace fires, and mugs of coffee or hot cocoa. Mmmm, I love quilts like that.

I worked on my French General star quilt. I need 30 of these star blocks and I have 23 of them done.

With this quilt I am knocking 2 items off the 2011 Goals list over there on the right. I wanted to do something with the wonderful stash of French General fabrics I had accumulated, and I wanted to make a Christmas quilt. I believe this quilt will fulfill both requirements, so give me credit for a double, right?

I got as far as I could go on those blocks when I realized that I didn't have enough hour-glass units cut and sewn to finish. I had a back-up plan! I put the French General away, and got out the OSU t-shirt quilt I began last summer and put the entire top together. I thought I'd taken a picture of it, but I'm not finding it, so maybe I didn't. I will get one ASAP - I really like how it's looking!

Going to Sharon's house is always a delight. Even though we have so many things in common, like I said above, she vastly outdoes me in two areas - decorating and cooking. Her house is full of colorful quilts, large and small. I took pics and will follow up in my next post about them all. You are going to love it. As a cook, Sharon has few to rival her. OMG, I have enjoyed many a meal at her table - she makes feasts look so effortless, yet always done with such flair! Very talented, she is!

Happy Quilting, Friends!