Happy Halloween

Hope that everyone has a wonderful, safe Halloween.  I'm working in the ER so you never know what I'll see today.

 

Happy Quilting,

Shelia

Mom's First

Recently my mom made the comment that she would like to learn how to use the longarm.  She truly seemed excited about the thought of being able to do some of her quilts on the machine.  So I decided that the two habitat for humanity quilts she had pieced would be just the project for her to learn on.

Here is mom as she gets started quilting her first quilt herself on the longarm.  So very proud of her at 76 years old using the longarm for the first time.

 Here she is working her way down the border.

 Taking her time and really getting a feel for the machine.  I set the machine on stitch regulator and she did great.

 Driving right along.

 And finished.......YIPPIE!  Great job mom!

Here is a little binding trick that I use when sewing on a binding.  If you machine has a knee lift you can do this trick.

I put my binding on a roll, here I've used a piece of pvc pipe cut to 2-inches.  You can wind your binding around the pipe.  Then put the piece of pipe over the knee lift.  As you sew the roll will unwind as you need it and keep your binding from running all over the floor.  I've used this trick for years and love it.  Let me know if you use this and how it works for you.

 And now mom's finished quilt!

I think she did great for her very first machine quilted quilt!  I just realized that she has never quilted one on her domestic machine either, so it is truly her first machine quilted quilt.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

More Family Day

We had such a good day visiting with everyone and of course eating some great food. 

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who is always supportive of me and my adventures.  Thanks Roger for giving me such a wonderful family!

 Mom and Paul Jr.

 Mom and I cutting up outside on this beautiful day!  So enjoy the time we get to spend together.

 Me and Paul Jr.

 Diaper change time for little Anthony and he and I had a blast on my bed.  That is my turning twenty halloween quilt I made in 2008.  Just love that quilt.  Isn't he just the cutest punkin in the world!!!  hehehe!

Happy quilting,
Shelia

Family Day

Today is family day at our house and I am excited to get to spend time with my grand children and great grand son.  My mom and brother are also coming over today.  It's a great day!

Sorry for the long post and there are lots of pictures.  My blog serves as my journal and I have it printed each year, so pictures are part of my memories.  I've realized how precious pictures are with so many family members no longer here.

So first here is mom making her family favorite fruit salad.

 Many family member fight over the leftovers at every family gathering.  One of the one's who loves it the most is my niece's husband Jerry.  Below is the picture I texted to him.....hehe....he couldn't be here today because he had to work........mean hugh!  He said he would get me back!

 Next are some of the family pictures we took today.  I've decided to take pictures at every gathering no matter what it is as I realized that some of my pictures taken recently were the last one's of some of our loved ones.  So don't take any day for granted.

Here's my grand daughter Haley, me and little Anthony my first great grand son.

 Next is Haley, Me, little Anthony and his uncle Roger III (my oldest grandson and Haley's brother)

 Haley, Roger, Anthony and Roger III

Roger and Anthony

Haley, her grandfather Roger and Anthony

 Haley, me, Anthony and my mother great-great grandmother Betty.

 Isn't he precious!

Here is Anthony and uncle Roger III

 Me, mom and my brother Paul Jr.  Paul looks so much like my dad's side of the family.  He favors my grandfather Ben so much!  Miss all them Adams boys, dad, Uncle Virgil, and Uncle Don!  Going to be a tough Christmas this year without them and Uncle Bob.  They were they guys that kept so many tricks going on everyone. 

It's been a great family day.  Hopefully next month everyone will get to be here.
Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Quilting With My Friend Debbie

Today my bee friend Debbie came over to have Roger do her brakes on her car.  So we had a wonderful morning quilting, laughing and talking together.

 Mom came over today also and sorted the fabric that my mother-in-law Alberta sent to us.  She had a blast going through all of the beautiful fabric.  She sorted it into colors and then into her pile and my pile.....hehe....so fun to see her going through all of the fabric.

In between working on my crown royal quilt and having fun with Debbie and Mom I baked a Chocolate Fudge Cake for Saturday.  The grand-children and my new great grand son are all coming over for lunch tomorrow.  So excited.  We celebrate who ever has had a birthday this month on the day we get together.  So today is my oldest grandson Roger III's 19th birthday and he requested chocolate fudge cake.........so here it is!

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Another UFO In Progress

Another one of my projects that I chose to keep was the Crown Royal bag quilt that I started May 22, 2002.  This was a quilt that my husband had requested and I thought would be very cute.  I had pieced 16 of the blocks so far and had pieces cut out for another 2.  But I needed to add more fabric to be able to piece the rest of the blocks.  I've searched through all of my fabrics and was able to find the fabrics that I initially started with so hopefully I will have enough to get it finished.

But before I can piece more blocks I needed to de-construct some more bags for pieces. I'm using the bag pieces as the center and the star points in each block.  I turned the square on point so that I could have the signature read correctly in the blocks.

Then to de-constructing more bags for pieces I need for the additional blocks.

 When I cut down beside the serged seams it gives me the large front piece.

Then I cut out the other serged seam which leaves me with a full back piece and a long piece which serves as the gusset of the bag.

 Here is my pile after de-constructing a few bags.

 I'm also taking the cording out of the bag top, haven't decided quite yet where I am going to use them on the quilt, but who knows.

 When I originally started this quilt I was cutting the block pieces using Marti Michell's templates.  So I am continuing to use them for block accuracy and cohesiveness.

Here is the blocks so far.  I'v cut some flowers out of the bag material and trying it on the design board to see what I think prior to sewing the blocks together.  I'll have to study this a while before I decide.

Happy quilting,
Shelia

Catching Up.

The past week has been crazy.  I've been out of internet and phone service since last Monday......grrrrrr.  Don't realize how much you use something until it is not there.

The poor repairman spent the entire day here Friday.  He arrived at 8 a.m. and started out with replacing some connectors, then saw that my modem was ancient....hehe....hey like I said it still worked.....until last week anyway....so why replace it?  Then when replacing the connectors and new modem didn't fix the problem he moved on and found that the signal was too weak.  Then he added an amplifier to our line.  Still not working.  Then he went into the crawl space under the house.  Now this is where I draw the line.  I showed him the entrance and told him there was a light switch just inside the door......but after that he was on his own.  This girl does not crawl around in spider and God knows what else infested places.  With my luck I would crawl face to face with a s.....ke?  and you know I don't do those!!!!!  He just laughed.  I told him that if he screamed I would be glad to call EMS and have them pull him out.  I'd take care of him when he was out but I'm not coming in after you!!  hehe.  Luckily he didn't need any emergency services.  But still didn't fix the problem.  Next he went down the lines outside to the utility pole on the back of our property to see how the signal was there.  About 2 hours later he decided that he had to run all new cable form the pole to our house....OMG!  So finally at 3 pm we had internet service and phone service back.  Wow..what a day. 

While he was working hard I spent some time in my studio cleaning up some of the stuff from the quilt show.

At the show Kim's mother Gail brought me some pillowcases she made for the children at Shriner's Hospital. How sweet she is to help in this endeavor. Each year we make pillowcases to give out to the children at the Greenvile Unit of Shriner's Hospital for Children. 

The children love the special cases which are just for them.  It gives them something cute in a very medical environment.  My friend Margaret also brought me some pillowcases for the children.  How awesome to have these ladies think of this project during the busy quilt show.  Thanks a million for your love and support!

I'm spending some more time today in my studio, then working out at the gym.  Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Highlights From 2012 Quilt Show

Another quilt show has come and gone.  I am always amazed at the talent that is in our quilt guild.  These ladies sure know how to make a beautiful show come together.

We had numerous demonstrations during the show but due to me being in the silent auction I was only able to capture a couple of pictures, but here goes...
First below is Debbie Clarke teaching her One Seam Flying Geese technique

Next I was able to capture our wonderful Jean Bryant teaching her Reversible Quilts technique.

Below are a few pictures, by no means all of the show, of the beautiful quilts that were on display.

Mom's Orca Bay Mystery quilt.

 My braid quilt.

 My Kaleidoscope quilt.

 Debbie's watercolor braid.

 Suzanne's granny's square quilt.

 Yvonne's canning shelf quilt.

 Regina's beautiful quilt.

 This gorgeous Texas quilt Suzanne made is definately a show stopper.

 One of Debbie Clarke's beautiful watercolor quilts.

 Suzanne's miniature cathedral windows.

 Another beautiful miniature quilt.

 Just love Suzanne's machine cover she made....and she won a 1st place ribbon for it.

 My patriotic table runner in memory of dad.

 One of the quilts in the Pal Sloan class projects.

 Best Of Show....

 Suzanne's Seven Sister's quilt which she carefully finished hand piecing and hand quilting won Best of Show, 1st Place in the category and Seniors Choice award.

 Another one of the Pat Sloan class projects.

Regina's hens wool piece was beautiful.

 Susan's beautiful triangle quilt that she pieced during the olympics.

 Regina's native theme quilt.

 

There were so many beautiful quilts that I was not able to get photos of all of them, this is definately just a small bit of the beautiful quilts that were there.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia