A Parade of Friends' Quilts

Over the last month or more, I have accumulated several pictures of quilts made by quilting friends. It seems a good time to share some of those with readers. Prepare for a little quilt parade!

Basket Quilt made by Terry.

Monkey Wrench quilt by Becky.

 

Red and White Sampler made by Becky.

I cannot stress enough how valuable these friends are to me. Besides being wonderful human beings, they provide endless encouragement and inspiration. Our shared love of quilting may have brought us together, but true friendships have grown through getting to know them more closely. 

Now, one quilting friend goes back much, much further than the others. Sharon and I taught English at CHS for 30 years, and formed quite a strong friendship even before becoming quilting enthusiasts. The love of quilting has served to strengthen that friendship and to keep us close in retirement. Here are two recent makes from her - not totally finished just yet, but you'll still get a "feel" for them.

Scrappy 9-Patch made by Sharon.

 Not wanting to waste a single bit of 3 Sisters fabrics and other similar prints, Sharon began piecing these 9-patch blocks and setting them with Kona Snow. It is a fabulous way to use up scraps and they look so perfect when scattered about in happy little 9-patches. Sharon has a show-stopping border to go on this quilt, and you can be sure it will be shared here in due time.

Christmas Trees and Stars made by Sharon.

Remember earlier this fall (or late summer) when Sharon and I were both making Alpine? Well, Sharon wasn't done making trees as you can see above. She combined dark green trees with Christmas-y red and green stars and then used some holiday yardage to create this strippy quilt. Her plan is to add shiny buttons at the top of each tree and then use this as a wall hanging. Totally eye-catching in her holiday decor!

There you have it, friends. A tiny quilt parade for your viewing pleasure. Can you see why I never run out of inspiration? These sweet friends boost me in so many ways.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Another Retirement Quilt

In keeping with the tradition of retirees in our group of close friends, tonight we presented Pam with her Ohio State Buckeye quilt. Notice her scarlet and grey lei? We all had one!

Here are a couple of better shots of the quilt.

For this Buckeye quilt, I took on the responsibility of binding it. All free time this week was spent applying a very pretty red bias plaid. I love plaids on the bias for bindings.

Our history for retirement quilts began in 2001. The first quilt was for Kay who loves blue and white quilts - we made blue and off-white, and she was thrilled. We always make the same pattern. So far, I believe we have done 6 retirement quilts.

Last year, Lyn got her green and brown quilt in March, and I got my Kaffe quilt in May.

We use the same star pattern, but each one always looks so uniquely different - quilters know that the choice and placement of fabrics makes huge differences in a pattern, but it still amazes me.

Even more amazing is the friendship we all have. We all taught/teach at the same high school and bonded over our love of quilting. Three of the group still teaches, but they know when they reach retirement, they, too, will be getting a star quilt...just what fabrics will we use? That will be the surprise.

Monday Morning Accomplishments

The quilting girls from Frankfort got together this morning at Terry's to make bags. They had purchased a pattern called The Two-Hour Tulip Purse by Janice Pope. When we met on Friday, we agreed to have our bags cut out, our interfacing and batting on, and markings made, in order to be sure we would finish in 2 hours. Since all of us were making the "jumbo" size, we needed to have some advance work out of the way.

I managed to photograph 4 of the 5 bags.

This one of fabric from Westminster Fibers is mine. *big grin* I really like it! Notice the polka dot lining. I really like it, too! I am especially pleased that my bag stands up, even the handles. I dislike bags that, when placed on a surface, collapse into a blob. This has enough stiffening in the interfacing and batting that it holds its shape. Now, as it is used, that may change, of course. We shall see, we shall see...

This very springy one is JoAnn's. It still needs to be pressed, but you get the general idea.

Sheryll made th is black and cream bag. Nice long straps, which I will copy on my next one!

Terry's is green - the fabric is Kansas Troubles by Moda. I don't think the color in the picture is very true, actually.

All of us agree that this first bag gave us ideas for slight changes or modifications we will make when we do another one. We are so excited to do a second bag that 3 of us are getting together Wednesday afternoon here at my house to do just that!

After a Long Absence

My sister Sandy is not a quilter, but I am sure she appreciates their beauty as well as the time it takes to make them. Even so, she does follow my quilting blog and yesterday informed me that it had been awhile since I'd updated. Hmmm...10 days, to be exact. I have good excuses! It's been a busy time of year, and we have had the most amazing April weather (so far), too many other things seem to have taken precedence over blogging!

So, 'Hi Sandy!,' and here we go.

I mentioned in the previous post that I bought a couple of Charm Packs in Coshocton for the April Schnibbles called 'Tagalong.' I've finished the main part of it and have cut the inner border, but have not yet attached it. Then I still need to cut and arrange the corner blocks and the outer border. Here is my Tagalong so far:

I'm using a Kansas Troubles line called...hmmm...something with Butterflies in it...I will clarify when I post the finished project.  *Edit: Butterfly Garden; if I'd just looked back at my previous post I would have found it. duh... I just love the pattern. It is a smaller version of 'Tag Sale,' which I made several years ago and which I keep on my guest bed. I hand-quilted Tag Sale, but I am not sure which way I will quilt Tagalong.

Another activity that  has taken up some of my time is my two-day Shop Hop experience with my quilting friends from Frankfort. I've only been with them since last July, but I always have such a great time with these girls! Before I entered the picture, they'd been meeting every other Friday morning for quite a while. (I should ask them how long.) Anyway, I sure am glad they've accepted me into the fold. 

We went to a 7-shop hop in northern Kentucky and western Indiana - just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. We stayed in a lovely town - Madison, Indiana - at Clifty Inn, a state park overlooking the river. Over the next several days, I plan to blog about the shop hop, as I was a good blogger and took pictures at every shop.

I will tease you with 2 today. Here you see my mound of purchases piled onto my ironing board. I mostly bought fat quarters, as I had no real burning desire to add major yardage to my stash. In addition, I bought a purse pattern, a book, a sweet little snipper scissors, and grommets for the purse pattern.

I seem to be in a reproduction fabric mood lately. It's been awhile since I picked up any brights/moderns.

Here is a shot of our hotel, the Clifty Inn, located just outside Madison, IN.

Quilting Day at My House!

Tomorrow (Tuesday), two very close friends and quilting buddies will be here to work on a surprise. It will involve these:

And since it is a surprise, I cannot say another word about it!!

;-)