A Busy Week

Living with a senior in high school is so much fun. Emma has had an active school career, and this week exemplifies that. And, the reason I decided to retire in 2009 was so I could enjoy her school activities and be more involved in them. My older 2 kids didn't get that attention, and I regret it.

So, Emma had a part in the school musical, Bye, Bye Birdie. She played the Ann-Margaret character, Kim MacAfee, who gets chosen to kiss Conrad Birdie before he goes into the army. The stage adaptation of that old movie is quite funny, and several scenes had the audiences nearly rolling in the aisles.

My involvement was making costumes (2 skirts) and creating the program (8 pages, 750 copies, folded and stapled). I also volunteered to help with hair, since some of the kids were apparently clueless about hairstyles in the late 1950s.

Here is my star, Emma, with the boy who played Conrad after the show, where the cast does a meet and greet with the audience.

Can't you just see how much fun she is having? Not only does she love the limelight, she also has a positive attitude and a happy disposition, so she's just an all-around fun person to be around. I'm pretty proud of her, that's for sure.  *big grin on Mom's face!*

In other news from our household, my washer died this week. Crazy busy doing stuff on a deadline, and my washer goes out...that's a Murphy's Law if I ever heard one. Had a new one delivered on Friday afternoon, after I'd done 7 loads of laundry at the Laundry-Mat on Thursday!! I hate that!

I did manage to get to Quilt Group for just an hour or so on Friday morning. I grabbed the yo-yos, since I'd not been working on anything for the past 2 weeks. I do have some pics to share from the other gals, though. They'd been to a quilt retreat last weekend with the guild they belong to - gosh, they got a lot accomplished at this retreat!! Terry and JoAnn had some projects for show and tell.

JoAnn made this table mat, which she was binding, and...

This wall-hanging. The blocks are charm-square size, to give you an idea. Both of these projects are from scraps, and JoAnn is a master of using up her leftovers. She's created quite a lot of beautiful pieces from the scrap pile! Good for her!

Terry had several also:

This blue and white beauty. Love it!

Small projects with big impact. Love them all and seeing them gives me inspiration to get back to work on my own stash!

And Terry had one BIG project - BEAUTIFUL!! She's going to lend me her pattern when she locates it! :-)

Now, here is a new technique the two of them experiemented with: sew circles one on top of another, raw edges exposed. After batting, quilting and binding, they will wash their piece and Voila! the edges will fray and look all soft and cuddly. 

JoAnn did a small wall-hanging.

Terry did a larger lap quilt.

I think these will look fantastic when they are finished!

Happy Quilting!

Friday Morning Quilting Group

It was my turn to play hostess to the Friday morning group. Those every-other Fridays sure seem to come awfully fast!

I had no finishes to share, but the rest of the girls had several.

Sharon brought some hope for sunnier days to our dreary Ohio weather with her tablerunner featuring watermelon slices. We have had clouds, rain, snow, flood watches, and wind this week - we are weary of our long winter and ready for warm, sunny weather!

Sheryll was stitching the binding on this pretty wall hanging. She says that it goes straight in with her Christmas decorations, as this green and red star quilt is going to be used next December for holiday decorating.

Terry had two tops to show us. Both used related colors and fabrics - Civil War-themed fabrics of red, black, gray and off-white.

Good job, Ladies, for getting so much accomplished since our last gathering!

Friday Morning Quilt Group

I went upstairs to the sewing room Thursday afternoon to figure out what I'd work on at quilt group Friday morning. Gracie was cozied up  under the sewing machine, having a bath and looking very annoyed that I'd interrupted her quiet time.

I decided that I needed to finish the binding on Pam's quilt (which you saw in the last post). Isn't this a pretty border? And notice that fine, fine mitered corner. The bias plaid binding looks good with those swirly gee-gaws in the border, and the gently meandering quilting.

 At quilt group, we had 3 show-and-tells.

JoAnn showed off this great-looking table runner she is sending to a penpal in England who she's corresponded with since her school days - middle school or high school, I'm not sure, but it's been something like 30 or 40 years. Isn't that incredible? The table runner is of batiks, and I just love it.

Sharon hadn't gotten to share her Tulip Purse with us yet, so here it is:

And, Sharon also made a sweet little baby quilt for a soon-to-be-born grandbaby that she's waiting for.

You know how busy you are right before going on vacation? That's me, today. I've been rushing around doing lots of little odd jobs as we are leaving on a 12-day trip to Europe on Wednesday. I have typed up several blog posts to appear in my absence, so be sure to stop by to see what we are doing on our journey. 

I am also quite happy to see that the folks over at In Stitches listed my blog in the blogroll for today. Thank you!! And hello visitors!!

I hope visitors like what they see. If you leave comments, and I hope you do, please understand that they won't show up for awhile as I have the blog set to allow me to "moderate" comments. I had some very unsavory comments awhile back, so I am protecting the integrity of my blog by monitoring comments.

Okay, off to run a load of laundry and do some more packing!

Ciao!

Shop Hop Report - Day 2

So, we spent the night at Clifty Inn, a state park lodge on the outskirts of Madison, Indiana. What fun. The day had been unusually hot, so we were pretty well beat after lots of driving, 4 shops, a few potty stops and wong turns. Even with the GPS in Terry's car, we still encountered some inaccuracies. Minor problems, however. We made our way through day one in good spirits, but ready for relaxing.

The dining room at Clifty was very nice, and we had delicious meals which we topped off with a monstrously huge dessert, Chocolate Turtle Sundae - we shared this 4 ways! I couldn't imagine how one person would ever eat this alone. Lois, our waitress, was great - so personable and fun. It's amazing how a great waitress enhances the restaurant experience!

The next morning, after breakfast in the Clifty dining room, we headed out for the remaining 3 shops on the Shop Hop. First up was Loose Threads in Seymour, Indiana.

This shop was spacious and well lit - very inviting. It was here that I got my purse pattern and notions, solely because they had the sample made up for customers to see and "try on," so to speak.

Our 2nd shop of Day Two was Sharynn's Quilt Box in North Vernon, IN.

Here, I finally thought to take a picture of the participants in our group. There's Sharon, Terry, and Sheryll in front of the Quilt Box. This store was also nicely lit, and had the fabric lined up by color and displayed on a very long wall in the shop. Easy shopping. No obstructions to prevent shoppers' access to products. Fun store. Actually, this was the first shop at which I bought yardage - up to this point, I'd only gotten fat quarters. There were some very pretty fabrics I'd not seen before, so I ended up getting 3 fabrics. I'm sure it was the ease of access.

Here is the registration area and the gals at the Quilt Box. Each shop featured products at their registration areas, as well as access to a small snack and drink.Nice touches for the hoppers!

 The final shop on the Shop Hop was Quilt Bug located in Lawrenceburg, IN. There is a casino in this town, and the windfall for the town is readily apparent. There is building, construction and remodeling in every block! Here is a look at Quilt Bug.

And a couple of photos of the interior.

In my humble opinion, the shop hop was a resounding success. I had a wonderful time. We laughed ourselves into hysterics, we shopped, we ate, everything was wonderful! This was the first shop hop any of us had ever done, and we have already made plans for a second one next November in Ohio's Amish Country.

Quilt Group at My House

On Friday morning the 5 of us who form "CHHOW" - a little quilt group that meets every other Friday morning - met at my house. What a nice morning. We have been productive since our last get together. Here are some show and tell photos:

Sharon made this for her new granddaughter, Caroline. Not only is she a proud new gramma, but she also is a proud new owner of a long-arm machine, and she used it to quilt this baby quilt. I think she is learning quite well!!

JoAnn made this lap quilt to donate to the Quilts of Comfort cause. The rail fence design is a fun one; this one in blues is really pretty.

Terry has been busy making wedding quilts. This one was finished, and needed the binding sewn down, so that is what she worked on. The wedding was Saturday, so she was under deadline pressure!!

While she has that new long-arm machine, Sharon is hand-quilting this wall hanging called Abigail's Gown. The pieces are tiny, and the fabric choices are so pretty together. It will be gorgeous when finished!

My Quilt Group

Quilting just naturally lends itself to groups. Just how long have there been quilting bees, I ask you?

In a curious twist of fate back in June, I made the reacquaintance with a quilting friend from about 20 years ago. At that time, she was co-owner of a quilt shop in a town we frequently found ourselves passing through. In the course of reminiscing, she invited me to join her little group of quilting friends for a Friday morning get-together they have every-other week.

I accepted her invitation, and have come to find great joy in the hours spent with this little group. In addition to our Friday mornings, we have taken a couple of outings to quilt shops around Ohio, we had a day-long sewing marathon, and one of the girls had all of us and our husbands over for a dinner party.

The initials of our last names spells out "CHHOW."  A good name for a group, yes indeed.

On Friday, we had the following "show and tell."

This is Terry's quilt, which she made for her daughter.

JoAnn showed off this beauty. Notice her piano key boarder.

And Sheryll had this to share with us. I regret that I didn't get a picture of Sharon's little wall hanging.

Back in Business!

Playing around with a new computer is fun, but I am definitely a slow learner when it comes to technology, so getting my pictures out of my camera and into my laptop was a process. I learned that is called uploading (I can never remember the difference between upload and download). Anyhoo, the pics are in the laptop, and I assume that when I get ready to add one here in a bit, I will be able to perform the task. I think I am back in business. Whew!

For Christmas I received a few quilting-related items. One friend gave a little grab-bag of assorted goodies, while another added a ruler and a deck of Ricky Tims cards to her gift of wool socks. Here are the items, combined:

The pretty little thing with flowers and button centers is a needle book that a third quilt friend made. It is sweet in its simplicity, and I actually needed a needle book.

One of the really wonderful things to happen to me in 2009 was meeting up with a distant acquaintance quite by accident, and being invited to join her small group of quilters. She and 4 other gals meet every other Friday morning to sit and stitch. Upon learning I had just retired, she invited me to come join them. That was in July, and I have been with them ever since. The location rotates from kitchen table to kitchen table. The other three ladies have become brand new friends, and I am truly enjoying this group.

At our last meeting, the hostess asked us if we'd be interested in quilting for charity. She offered us the choice of any fabrics in her closet stash and had several simple quilt patterns copied for us. I selected 2 patterns and 2 fabric groupings. We are going to try to have these done in 2 or 3 months. I'm really sketchy on the details, and I really should get this straight...the exact charity; the exact finish deadline; does finish mean to a top or a totally quilted quilt? I will definitely need to confirm these details. At any rate, here are the 2 sets of fabrics I selected for the 2 I volunteered to make.