What's Happening??

Well another day of catching up on what's been happening here at the Chandler house.
The last 14 days have really been a blurr for me.  I've worked 12 of the last 14 days........whew!!  Both hospitals have really been short staffed and I have had to work alot of extra time........but in the long run it will help me meet some goals quicker.  (and you know somewhere that will include some fabric).

We had quilt bee at Suzanne's house Friday night.  And boy did I need that de-stress time.  It is always such fun to be around the girls.  We laugh so hard sometimes I think I will die.  But what better medicine for stress than laughing your butt off with good friends.

Suzanne finished a secret project last week at my house and quilted it with the long arm.  I can't reveal the project at this time because it is going to someone very special in her life......but later I will post a picture of this gorgeous quilt.

Sue finished piecing a top from scraps.  Can't see Sue behind the quilt, but she is hiding there somewhere.......wish I could hide behind a quilt top.....hehehehe.

That is also Suzanne's Carolina Chain quilt hanging over the couch back.  Beautiful.

 Last week on my one day off I (dah) decided that I needed to clean out some of the spaces in my studio.  Boy do I have a mess now!!  I started gleaning through my patterns that I've collected over our years of traveling.  Every time I go into a quilt shop while traveling I feel I should support them......so of course I come out with fabric and patterns.  Which is great until you have drawers of these lying around.  So I have gone through them and decided which one's I'm still interested in doing and those that I don't feel I will make now, due to changes in what I like, I'm going to donate to our guild's hospitality chairman to use as door prize gifts.  I think I'm going to do my books the same way. 

We've had a lot of rain lately and my flower garden is taking off. Below are my siberian iris which are all blooming now. Beautiful.

Below is a picture of what Debbie was working on at Bee Friday night.  I tried to get these in order but this program is really being a pain in the you know what!!

This is a sample for a client's new fabric line.  Beautiful work Debbie.  It is so inspiring to be part of such a talented group of ladies.

This weekend Roger and our son Roger Jr. are going to a race in Richmond Virginia.  So guess what I'll be doing.......QUILTING with my bee girls!!!!

We're quilting Friday night, all day Saturday and even Sunday if they feel the need for more time.  I'm so excited.  Several are bringing over quilts to go into the longarm and I also hope to complete some quilting this weekend.  So I have got to get busy and get my room cleaned back up for all of the excitement.

Hope you have a great week,

Shelia

Secret Quilt Project Revealed

The secret quilt project has been hard to pull off since Kim is at my house several times a week. But we did it!!  Kim is my friend who has her third recurrence of breast cancer.
I presented Kim with her quilt on Monday and she loved it. 

This is Kim and me with her Kozy Kat Quilt.  I used pinks from my stash and my bee girls brought pinks from their stash.  Suzanne helped me piece the blocks.  Thanks Suzanne for all the help piecing.  I used pinks from my 3.5 x 6.5 inch scrap bin to do the border, worked out great.  Whew.....another project off the list.

I plan on finishing the machine quilting on my poster round robin this weekend and hopefully doing some more piecing on the roll roll cotton boll quilt from Bonnie Hunter's mystery.

Have a great quilting day,
Shelia

Got Some Catching Up To Do

Spring is finally here at the Chandler house.  This is my azaleas in the front yard.  They are gorgeous right now.

 Friday night the 8th we had quilt bee at my house to help get Sue's Orion Star quilt finished.  Here she is working hard to finish quilting the quilt.  It turned out beautiful.  This was Sue's first quilt to do in the longarm.  Very talented lady.

 Suzanne decided to piece on her red, white and blue quilt.  She is using another Bonnie Hunter pattern from http://www.quiltville.com/ .

 Thursday night, the 7th of April, part of our bee taught at the Foothills Piecemaker's Quilt Guild meeting.  We call ourselves "peeps" when we are at our bee, so it just makes sense to call our teaching "The Traveling Peep Show".  We had these shirts made that we wear when we teach this class.

Left to Right:  Susan, Sue, Suzanne and Shelia

Susan taught making your own labels and how to use pens & ink to color those labels.  Beautiful!

Sue taught binding and sleeves.

Suzanne taught how to use computer programs to produce your own labels and how to print and set the ink.

I taught Tips and Tricks.  We all had a lot of fun.  Each time we teach we have some people different teaching due to our work schedules, but always fun.

 Below is a close up of the shirt.  Cute hugh!

Have a great day quilting,
Shelia

Got To Prune That Stack of Strips

I just emptied my bin of 2-1/2 inch strips onto my cutting table.  OH MY!  I have got to start using these strips and trim down this pile.  I'm going through the pile and picking out red, white and blue strips.  I think I am going to make some patriotic quilts.  Maybe that will trim down the pile a bit.

It is a beautiful day today.  77 degress here in Greenville.  I just love spring.
Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Weight Loss Group

Left to right:  Lisa, Marcia, Tamara, Brian and Shelia.  We are now officially the weight loss group at work.  We all weighed in on Saturday morning to start off.  We are each putting in $20 per pay period into a pot.  The contest is for 12 weeks and we are using the formula for percentage of body weight lost to determine the winner.  At the end of the 12 weeks the person with the greatest percentage of weight loss will get the $600.  Yahoo!!

The weather is getting prettier now so hopefully I can get the bike out and start riding.  I could buy a lot of fabric with $600, or batting or whatever.....hehehehe.

I didn't have time this weekend with working to get the binding on the secret quilt, but I'll get it sewn on this week and hopefully completed with a label to give to the person next week.

Off to work......

Happy quilting,
Shelia

April Fool's Bee

Tonight started off with a bang, we were able to get together for quilt bee tonight.  Sue, Suzanne, Susan, Debbie and myself.  Debbie brought some wonderful pizza and salad from Olive Garden, Sue brought some chocolate oatmeal homemade cookies and Suzanne made some wonderful triple chocolate brownies.  YUM YUM!
We always have a great time laughing and sewing when we get together.  Then my mom called to say Dad needed to go to the ER due to pain from trying to pass a kidney stones.  So off I go to meet them.  Here is Dad with his nurse Caren ( a wonderful nurse I work with in the ER)  Thanks Caren for taking wonderful care of my dad.

 This is Sue's quilt in the long arm.

 And you know you can't leave some people alone for too long before they start getting gitty!!  Some of my scraps found a new home on my design board while I was gone.  It was great to hear all the laughing when I returned.  I love this group and they truly are Family!

The girls stayed and kept working on their projects.   Suzanne squared up the secret quilt while I was gone so I could get the binding on, Sue put her beautiful Orion's star quilt in the longarm, Susan was cutting out applique pieces for her next project and Debbie was working on a client's quilt.  And Debbie brought more fabric for us to pour through....Yoohoo.

Dad got to go home and I was able to return to the group.  Then off to bed to work Saturday.
Happy Quilting Ya'll
Shelia

Giving Up Quilting

That is a BIG OLE APRIL FOOL'S!!

If you know me, you know that isn't happening!!  Just wanted to check your reflexes.  Ha Ha!

Actually one of my things to get done today was placing in my scrap stash all of the little pieces that were left from doing the Secret quilt.  I use Bonnie Hunter's scrap saver system.  You can read about it here on Bonnie's website.  http://quiltville.com/scrapusersystem.shtml .  It is a great way to tame all of those smaller sections left after cutting out pieces for a quilt.  I usually finish a piece of fabric into the sections as I finish cutting out a quilt.  That way I don't have to re-press the fabric to cut into scrap sizes.

Below is a picture of the front side of my quilting table and the bins holding my scrap stash.  Each of the bins is labeled with the size of squares, strips etc., that it holds.  With the pieces already cut it is a great time saver when you are in need of making blocks, borders quickly.  I used pink & white scraps from the 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch bin to make the border on the secret quilt.  It worked out great, and boy was it fast.  You'll see it when I post the pictures of the quilt on Sunday.  You'll have to overlook the messy table top as this is where I am cutting the new additions to the bins.   (and like you haven't seen a messy quilt table top before....hahaha).

Got tons to do so I'll say.....Happy Quilting for now.  Don't forget to check out Bonnie's website.  She has tons of patterns using her scrap saving system and they are free.  So go ahead........tame that scrap bag.

Shelia

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yesterday was another great birthday.  I was thinking about sleeping in for the morning but Roger, who has trouble keeping a secret from me very long, wanted to give me my present at breakfast.  So he awakened me to have coffee with him before he went to work.  He and my cat whiskers were waiting for me to enter the dinning room and see a huge present on the table.  I think whiskers was just as excited as I was to open the box.
Below is my present, already in it's place on our bed.  Roger had purchased me quilt which I had seen and loved.  A friend who's wife, who loved and collected quilts, had passed away many years ago had been cleaning out closets and chests.  He and his children had all picked quilts that they wanted to keep and he was selling the others.  Each child had already picked 8 quilts each.......they have 6 children.......and this was one of the ones that were left.......wouldn't you have loved to see all of the one's that were already picked.

The stars have a flower appliqued in the middle.  I just love it.  The drop has elongated triangles and scalloped edges.  And wonderful hand quilting.  My bed is queen size and it goes to about an inch off the floor.

Wow, I think I have some of that fabric in my stash from years ago...
Roger took me to P. F. Changs for supper last night.  We had never eaten there before and it was great.

We had the P. F. Chang's for Two.  We each had a bowl of Egg Drop Soup.  Everyone is always talking about the lettuce wraps, so we had Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps for our starter.  Yum Yum.  For my entree I had Mongolian Beef, it was wonderful.  Such great flavor and steamed white rice.  Roger had Sweet & Sour Chicken with steamed white rice.  We shared both and they were delicious.

Then, if you weren't already stuffed enough, you get to pick a mini dessert.  I had the red velvet cake and Roger had the chocolate cake.  Both came in square shot glasses......which you thought....what is this, but believe me it was enough and delicious.

Another wonderful day with my hubbie.

Tomorrow the bee girls are coming over to sew.  I hopw to get the binding sewn down on the Secret Project.  Hope you have a great day quilting.

Shelia