Close Of The Month......A New Beginning

Today has been a little hectic with lots of stuff on my To Do list.  The day started out at the orthodontist office having braces put on.  
Before picture

 After picture with braces on. 

Never thought you could get so many hands and pieces of equipment into a mouth at one time.  My lips are so dry now from the drying agent they use before they glue the braces on.  I will surely be using a lot of Arbonne night cream on my lips for the next few weeks.

 My beautiful calla lillies are blooming.

Tonight I hope to finish quilting on my kaleidoscope quilt and be able to sew on the binding tomorrow night with bee girls.  Hard to believe that tomorrow is June 1st.  This year has really flown by.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia 

Memorial Day Wishes

Hope that each of you have a safe and happy Memorial Day, don't forget to thank any serviceman or woman that you see today for their service to our country.  I am so thankful for the freedom and liberty that we enjoy because of the dedication and sacrifice each of them has given.  God bless you all!

Today I plan on quilting another UFO....my Kaleidoscope quilt.  Can't believe that I am already quilting another UFO.  Love this system from Pat Sloan.  I know that I have not been quilting alot in the past 2 months since dad passed, but I feel I am finally getting my head back in order and getting back on track.  Today the goal is to finish the quilting on this quilt.  Below is some of the progress so far this morning.  I got the quilt loaded into the longarm.

 Looks so good when you get a quilt loaded.....such a sense of accomplishment. 

 Today I decided to use my circle rulers for the first time.  I hope using circle quilting will help enhance the visual circle's you see from the pattern.

Getting started with the circles.  Using rulers is harder for me since I usually freehand everything on a quilt and I love to do that.  Holding the rulers still is more difficult than you would think.  But I think the effect will be great.

 Have a wonderful memorial day and happy quilting,

Shelia

Okay Girls I Get The Message!!

No I haven't dropped off the face of the earth.  My bee girls have been wondering where I am at since I have not blogged in quite a while.  Just having some rough weeks.  Trying to pull myself up out of some dark days.  Slowly but surely I'm arising from the blues.

But I do have lots to catch you up on.  Our guild makes quilts for Habitat For Humanity.  Each time we have a home dedication each family member receives a quilt from our guild.  I made some labels for the backs of the quilts for the committee to use.  Below are some of the labels I turned in to Susan.

I've been cleaning some today in my quilting studio.  Mom had surgery this past Wednesday on her left eye, removed a cataract.  She did great and now doesn't have to wear glasses on that eye!  What a miracle.  Mom has always had bad vision and worn very strong prescription glasses.  We will be getting the right eye done in about five weeks.  What a wonderful thing when she will be able to see without glasses.  She may have to use readers, but she won't be wearing two sets of glassess around her neck.

Last week at our guild meeting we had Mary Kay Mouton http://www.marykaymouton.com/ She wrote the book Flip Flop Paper Piecing
a great reference on miniature quilts.  Below is the quilt that she won best of show at the Ashville Quilt Show.  It is a miniature.  Each of the blocks in the border are 1-1/2 inches!  The second picture is of the entire quilt.  WOW!  It was gorgeous in person.

The next quilt is of "big O" blocks which are 2-inch finished and beautiful applique.

 On Saturday May 12th she did a class for us on piecing miniatures and she also taught us her applique technique.  Wonderful class.  I truly enjoyed the time spent in the class.  Now to piecing a miniature.

Roger has been painting his truck.  Below he has painted the bed of the truck and is now "wet sanding" it.  Sure seems like a lot of work to me, but he totally enjoys working on it.  Feel sorry for the person who puts the first scratch on it..hehe....sure hope it isn't me!  He painted it three colors, silver at the top with a red stripe then the black at the bottom.  It will be gorgeous when it is all done.

Better get back to cleaning and get my backing loaded into the longarm for my kaleidoscope quilt......yes it is going into the longarm today!

Happy quilting......and thanks for all the notes and e-mails checking on me......I am mending and back to getting myself together.

Shelia