First Day of School

Here are some of the pictures from granddaughter's first day of school (Pre-K).

Guess you can tell who's proud of their new backpack!

Outside the school.

At her table and feeling like a big girl. 

With the rest of the class.

1st Day of School

Here's some pics of granddaughter's 1st day of school:

Quilt Show

I had forgotten I'd taken some pictures at the recent Victoria quilt show until I discovered them while looking for someone else. I have few spare minutes this morning so I'll get them uploaded to this post.

This one is the "Rabbits Love Chocolate" BOM from the LQS.

The quilt on the left is a sampler of the shop hop blocks from the Houston International Quilt Festival -- I don't remember what year these are from......

There was a one-block wonder class done at the guild last year--may have been where these two originated.

The last one was my favorite. Wish I would have taken more pictures of it. The colors were so warm and soft, and the piecing was excellent.

Happy quilting,

Carolyn

Rotten Dogs

Just thought I'd share what I came home to after church tonight. I stopped at the grocery store after work and got everything put away except for one bag. Left for church. Came home to this:

An overturned bag and a carton of dog food with the top gnawed off and licked clean. Who'd have thought they could smell the dog food through the packaging? I was a little annoyed but probably should just be happy they didn't eat all of them. Although... I can't remember for sure how many I bought, and there may be one missing. Rotten little creatures......

Table Runners

Where has the time gone? I am happy to say that I've gotten lots and lots of things made, finished up some block swaps, and have several UFO tops completed and ready to quilt. I have been on a table runner kick for several months now....I started last year and was able to get some made in time for Christmas...here are pics of three of them, also pics of the recipients:

Melanie is a dog groomer (also a dog lover) so her runner has dogs.

Julia and Nichole got coffee prints to match their kitchens.

After the first of the year, I made two runners for a table runner challenge sponsored by one of my on-line quilting groups. These were my two entries:

Neither one was the winner of the challenge, but I am happy with the way they turned out.

About this time, I saw a short demo at my local quilt shop for a really fast, easy pattern, and I was hooked again! The pattern demo coincided with Easter prints going on sale at the fabric store where I work, and the result was lots of Easter table runners:

I have made several more from the book Let's Do Lunch by Terry Atkinson, but don't have pics as they are not quilted yet. It's a really great book with lots of great patterns; I recommend it to anyone who is looking for patterns for quick gifts. I bought mine at the Calico Cat Quilt Shop in Lake Jackson, Texas, so I know you can get them there if you are interested.

December BOM

I have been a bad blogger. This is always the busiest time of year for me, and there are so many things I have let slip the past month. I did, however, manage to get the December BOM done. This is the 20th and final block, so now I can sew all my blocks together with the sashing and red cornerstones and have a completed quilt top.

The December block is from Quilterscache and is called Red Cross 2. I used a light background with my Civil War reproduction fabrics, and this is what I ended up with:





The fabric in the background is what I picked to use as sashing. All of my blocks are done in reds and navy blues, and the sashing fabric is a lighter blue with a navy print. I'll be using the same red as the block centers for the sashing cornerstones. I am going to lay out my blocks as soon as I finish this post and get some sashing strips cut so I can get this one finished! I'll post a picture of the top as soon as I get it all together.

Carolyn

November Block of the Month

I got a BOM made for November--just one more to go to meet my goal of 20 blocks! I already have the sashing fabric picked, so I'm almost ready to start putting them together. I liked the block from Quilter's Cache called Home Circle because it had a technique that none of the other BOM's have used yet. The instructions show it made in one main color plus a background color; I used three colors plus a background color. I used the same red I've been using for the center, a red and navy print for the 4-1/2" circles, and navy print for the squares that make the ring around the center square.

To make the block using more colors, I cut twelve of the 2-1/2" background squares, and eight of the 2-1/2" navy squares. I cut the 4-1/2" squares from the navy and red print. I sewed one of the background squares to the corner of the 4-1/2" squares

and then sewed a navy square to the opposite corner. You sew on the diagonal line you drew on each square.

Trim off the excess fabric between the sewn line and the corner.

and press the remaining triangle to the outside. It should look like this:

Now, add background squares to the other two corners.

Trim the excess fabric and press the triangles out and you have something like this:

Here's a picture of the completed block:

On page two of the instructions, there is a link to a quilt that is made from different bright colors with a light background that would make a cute scrap quilt. On page one, it tells you how many blocks will make a Project Linus quilt which would be really cute.

Happy sewing,

Carolyn