Spring quilt Festival

Ok I am going to get my post done now so I don't forget.Check out the side bar for more of the blogger quilt show.!  Here is one of my favorite quilts that I have made. I call it Susan's Vacations Interrupted.  I started out my quilting journey by buying a Rubbermaid tote of 2½" squares out of  all sorts of fabric at an Estate auction in a box of other fabrics. Some very thin and sheer, some poly cotton blends, but beautiful in their own way. I thought I want a Trip Around the World. Well not having a pattern in hand I just started after about 5 rounds I realized I was never going to have enough squares of one color to do what I wanted. Plan B had to start. Of course I had to get a plan B first. I had no quilting room (yet) and worked off a card table in the living room. I dug through the box of goodies I purchased at the auction and there was a stack of  9-patch blocks. OK now what oh oh I have a couple yards of this cream... now I spent days sorting out the little cut squares, putting all the like ones together and coordinating ones around them. I had to figure how many of each color, darks, light and such. This process went on for weeks maybe months all the while I started collecting quilting magazines researching quilting on the net. Graph paper became my friend and I started to draft out my new quilt, I made the mini trips connecting them all with the cream and interrupting them with the 9-patches.

I figure mini trips are my vacations and nothing I do goes off with out some sort of problem thus the interruptions. So the cream represents my path through life and all the mini trips are my journeys, with the 9-patches as all the obstacles I have endured along the way. This quilt has over 2200 pieces and I have to say one of my favorites. I gave this to my oldest son and sometimes wish I hadn't. I look at this and think of all the time and what it means to me and wish I still had it. but then reality hits and I realize every quilt I make has some sort of meaning to me and I can't keep them all so I let it go.  I do  borrow this one when I do trunk shows. I think how far have I really come from this first quilt (OK real close to being first) I still refuse to throw fabric away and will make a quilt out of anything. I still got to estate sales and buy up old fabric and blocks, no matter the condition or quality. (yes I do shop at my LQS too)  I do now have a dedicated room for sewing and I now cut with a rotary cutter. I own book after book but have never made a quilt from a pattern in them. I even have EQ6. Yes I have come a long way but when it comes down to it, I still love to draft out my patterns with my graph paper and stroke the fabric as I yay or nay it in the pattern process.

Give away

OH OH this one is the one I want to win. Who wouldn't. Check it out Bitter Betty's such a cool blog. Loaded with interesting info.

Mystery! Selvage, Anniversary

Well the Mystery is ironed out and I think I will start the 1st of JUN posting it here. This is a traditional pieced that is simple enough for a beginner but yet interesting enough to keep the advanced quilter intrigued.

So JUN 1 I will post fabrics requirements and then the first of the month there after I will post steps. I will leave the steps here on the blog for a couple of months only.

Well the selvage wall hanging  is growing. I have decided to use all the different colors of poly cotton blends that I have and do a set of four of these blocks and then just see what this turns out to be. I think it will be a beauty, but sometimes what I think I see is not what it turns out to be at all. BUT with just this small sampling I think I am going to like it. I have found (of course there may be more hiding) 5 other different colors and then some colors have slightly different shades and I haven't decided if I want to use them or just stick with the one shade. I guess I will take it one set of 4 at a time.

It was my anniversary this past weekend! Perry sent me these gorgeous roses at work. I counted them and there was 9, I thought how odd, we have been married 10 years. but then I decided I couldn't fault him I mean he did remember without any prompting from me. In fact he reminded me. When I got home from work I left them downstairs and went up to the family room to see him and thanked him for the roses and casually asked him how many years we had been married. He stated 10 so I just had to ask why then 9 roses. It seems the florist shorted him one rose. The receipt was for 10 so they brought me one more.   Yep I got a good one!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is Carols, for her grandaughter, she says she has one more to go. I will miss seeing her grandchildrens activities. That is the one thing about T-shirt quilts all the cool things you get to read and just imagine what the child is like and how they dealt with their every day life,  but I guess that is the way of life.

This is Martha's. Her sister in AZ does the embroidery and then Martha pieces it together than I get to quilt it. I have decided that I want one like this, maybe not this pattern but a hand embroidered one. So Martha and I are working out a deal. I will buy the blocks and she will embroider them for me for quilting. I love bartering!!! Now I just have to go and decide what pattern I want. This could take some time I have saw some just lovely ones.

This is Margie's, she grew up loving the Beatles so she had to make something to honor them. She asked for just meandering hearts but I had to go that extra inch for her and do soem stencil hearts in the border. I mean could I really just meander the whole thing? Well I guess I could have but I just felt that the border should have something special in it.
I know I have more to show you but since it is Mothers Day (Happy Day to all of you out there) I am going to make this quick and will be back later or tomorrow.