This Week In Review

Yesterday,Wednesday the 11th was my mother-in-law Alberta's 78th Birthday!  Happy Birthday mom-2.  She was spending the day with her grand-daughrer Amanda in Orlando, FL being a tourist and having a great time. 

Mom and I started some of the list we need to complete after daddy's death.  We got probate opened so we can get some other things off of our list. Many thanks to my cousin Teresa for all of her assistance with this part of the process.  We made many stops during the day to get things changed at the bank and such.    Busy day but productive.

At our quilt guild meeting on Monday night I was reminded of my UFO clean out I did earlier in the year.  Remember all of the sorting and decisions to keep or give away unfinished projects????  Well one of those projects which I had the top pieced and 3 of the borders on so far and it was suppose to have another border of chevrons on it which I had pieced but did not like.  So I decided to donate the top to our Habitat for Humanity philanthropy project and let someone else either add more borders or just quilt it.  This quilt was one that I had started in a class back in 1993.  It was a block of the month class that I took with the founder of our quilt guild, Mary Isbell who passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer.  Mary was a long time quilt teacher in our area and very active in the Quilter's of South Carolina guild.  She will be truly missed. 

But back to the top, one of our members, Yvonne took the top as I had pieced it, quilted it and gave it back for our Habitat for Humanity project.  So now it is a finished project that someone will receive when they have their home dedication.  Our guild provides quilts for the Habitat for Humanity in Greenville County and each person in the home being dedicated receives a quilt.  It is an awesome project that we have been doing for over 4 years now.  That is a great ending to a UFO that I almost threw away.  Here is a link to see the chevron border I had pieced to go with this quilt.  http://www.quiltinginsouthcarolina.blogspot.com/2012/01/here-is-my-list-of-ufo-groups.html  I think I will make this into a lap quilt with some spacers.
See your taste in fabric and quilts do change as you get into quilting.  This was pieced my second year of being a quilter.   

Now onto the next fun things.  Pat Nagle, Eleanor Burns sister who travels along the East Coast for Quilt In A Day came to do a lecture, trunk show and tips class for us last night.  We met at the Fountain Inn History Museum.  She did a wonderful show.

Below is the quilt for the newest book Eleanor has written, Tales of First Ladies. It is a beautiful quilt.  She explained from the book how each block was made and showed wonderful techniques to make them quick.

 Beautiful eagles in center block.  She used hand turn applique in the center block.

 Here is a miniature of the same quilt, she used Harrison Rose pattern as her medallion center.  Those are 6-inch blocks around the medallion.  Gorgeous.

 You as with any sampler quilt can take just one block and make a quilt with that one block.

 Eleanor also has a new braid pattern which in Eleanor style was a quick piece.  She had these in 4-5 colorways.  She said that when she got started it went so quick that before she knew it she had pieced 5 quilts.  Now that is a great pattern.  Just like Bonnie Hunter's braid pattern which uses the corner stone, this one is truly a quick piece project for something you need to do and get done in a hurry.

 Here she made a miniature braid.....OOOOOH so cute.

 Here she made a miniature dresden plate quilt.

 Lots of quick project ideas were given, like this fan table runner and she had patterns and rulers for each.

 She even made another miniature dresden plate in batiks.....ooooh.

 The book gives history of the first ladies which was interesting as she told the stories.   Here is a link to purchase the book.   http://quiltinaday.com/shoponline/books.asp

I've got tons of errands to run with mom again today.  We are starting off at the social security office to get that changed.  Hopefully it will not be an all day things there.

Grab some time today to do some quilting.
Shelia