Sewing marathon--Quilts on every floor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been doing major sewing for the past 3 weeks on multiple quilts.  I finally finished piecing a Quilt for Matt Keeler who got married last August...I almost got it to to him and his wife Karen by their first anniversary!

When I was in SLC last, Autumn and I bought fabric for Arin's Wedding quilt from the Buffalo gang, and I've been working on it for a couple of weeks, but got it delivered to Einerson's today, and we'll get it tied tomorrow.  It's pretty bright, but we hope she loves it.  It is a pieced nine-patch in African motif prints.

Fallen Officer Quilt.  Our guild made the blocks for a fund raiser quilt we are making in  memory of Kevin Orr.  I've just got the borders  to add on, after I make 4 large corner stars, and then the Orrs are going to tie it and take it back to the National Conference in October.  The dark blue print has different police badges on it.  I'll get a better pix, once I finish it.

Last night I started a baby quilt for Andrea and Tyler...This is the finished cowboy quilt, so he doesn't forget his western roots.  Maybe I should have made one with Caterpillar tractors on it--since that is a family motif !  Their first little boy is named Jess Addison.

  I was happy to hear that Laurie's quilt qualified for the State Fair, and she entered it last week.  We don't know yet how it did.  (She got a red ribbon and $6!)  This is before we got it quilted and bound.

County Fair Blue Ribbons

I delivered four quilts to the county fair just before we headed north on our Idaho trip.  All four of them earned blue ribbons, and the Eagle Scout quilt and  Aztec Sr. Citizen also got a special Honorable Mention award, thus earning me $23.












 

Here are the other two:  

July 4th Quilt Show and 5 K

After Daniel's baptism July 2, we drove back to Blanding.  We hauled back 25 of the State quilt frames in our car. I was home just an hour before going to the Wellness Center to prepare ahead of time, so that the setup would go smoothly that night.  I shouldn't have worried so much, as we had about 10 people come to help.  Kathy Hurst was there to help with the decisions and questions we had, as I'd never set the whole thing up before. Picture #1 shows the Quilt of Valor which our guild made for the National Guard and presented at the awards program.

We hung about 100 quilts between 8 PM and 10:00 -- that included hauling down the frames for the 2nd floor and setting them up.  I was so pleased that it went so fast.  Sunday afternoon some of us came back and changed a few things, fixed the labels, and decorated the entrance.  It looked lots better by the time we left.  Steve brought up our wagon which he had repainted for Toni Lacy who did a patriotic display of a children's parade.  He also hauled up flowers on Monday, as well as helped put bring in frames and set them up.  We were there 2 hrs.  He, along with other husbands and sons, was a huge help.  Sun. afternoon Steve helped me put up sandwich boards and signs outside on two corners.

This is what it was looking like by the time we left Sat. night.  We had lots of help, and made lots of progress.

Monday, July 4th, I got up at 5 PM, to get ready for the 5 K walk, and get the last things loaded up for the show.  Danelle and I started our walk at 6:09, and finished up at 7:03...so I was way happy with how we did.

Went home long enough to water, change, and clean the kitchen then I spent the rest of the day until about 5:30 at the show.  Steve saw the parade, and then brought me something to eat.  The show turned out great and we had good traffic; it was cool, so who could complain.  This is what the entrance looked like:

The quilt I made for CJ was actually the top vote getter, but some of the votes went in Patriotic, and others in traditional, so it affected the final count.  But it still took 2nd place in Traditional.



Hailey's Happy Quilt

We had 170 people fill out the Voters choice ballots.  It took us forever to count them.  Gave cash prizes to 1st place and ribbons for 2nd and 3rd.    Hailey's quilt is for her birthday this month.  I made it from T-shirts she had collected, and used fusible pellon to stabalize the shirt, and do iron-on prep work.




Navajo Stairs



Purple Posies Griddle Cake

Here some of the other quilts I completed this year that were in the show

Aztec Sr. Citizen

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What do you do in the Wintertime?

Though January and February weren't as wintery as last year's snowbound experience, they still provided lots of time for solitary efforts sewing, writing and designing.  My main efforts involved documenting my "life in stitches."  Though it started out as a simple listing of quilts I had made, in an effort to motivate our quilt guild to document their wonderful creations; soon it took on a life of it's own. 
  Fortunately I had already pulled together many of my quilts onto a blog of their own, and someof the leg work was done.  But I soon discovered that what is OK resolution for a web page, can be way inferior to the quality needed in book publishing, and many of the photographs I had to refind, and then rescan at high resolutions.

   After the first two books came back, I realized that my sewing experiences involved much more than just making quilts.  This idea was triggered by a slide I had scanned that showed mom wearing the silk dress I had made for her, and Nancy wearing a gingham dress I'd made, as well as myself wearing one of my favorite hand made dresses.  So the idea for "stitches" expanded dramatically. 

I was surprised at how many pictures I actually had of early sewing from the 50's and 60's, as well as photos of my little boys wearing things I had crocheded, knitted and sewn.