In addition to thread painting...

The following were handed in at my guild meeting this evening. Two quilt tops with Liz B. fabric. Four pillowcases and a bunch of preemies (most of them made with Kathy F. fabric). One quilt as you go yellow/blue unfinished blocks contributed by a guild member. Another snoopy cheater panel (oh so cute).

I've been thread painting all week.....weeewww....is that a lot of work. I haven't ruined it yet, so only time will tell (see my previous post on Creative Challenges.) I'll post an update soon. Our guild is taking a bus trip to the PA Quilt Extravaganza in Oaks, PA on Saturday, September 19th.....can't wait.

Creative challenges...why oh why?

Ok, so I thought I was a better quilter than I am and decided about 6 months ago to enter a quilt in the Quilting Natural Florida II (QACDG.org) Spring 2010 exhibit. A picture of the quilt is due to them on October 1st....nothing like waiting until the last minute, is there? Anyway, I was born in Florida and my husband and I visited in Spring 2008 where I took some interesting pictures. Here's one from a hiking trail at Fort DeSoto Park:



When I came upon this scene, it looked like a fire had destroyed a bunch of palm trees. When I got home, I found out that the park regularly does this to keep the palm tree population to a minimum. What struck me about this picture was the contrast between the blackened tree trunks and the vivid green new growth from those charred trunks. Here's my Phase I interpretation of that photo:

The green crocodile batik on the left hand side will be the border for this quilt. I still have a long way to go with thread painting and other artsy techniques for making it look more like the quilt in my head. If I could start over again, I'd have done a lot of thread painting on the sandy area in the lower part of the quilt....hindsight (oopsy). So, I'll just have to do the best I can with what I have and go from there. If it doesn't get ruined while I'm thread painting, I'll send the picture and hope for the best. If it does....well then I've already learned alot. Your suggestions for saving this creative mess (I mean challenge) are welcome.

Getting back in the groove...

Affectionately known as my 100-year project, the applique in this quilt top was finished at small group (Spoolgirls) on Tuesday evening. It actually only took about 9 months to do the hand applique (only at our every-other-week meetings). Even though my stitches are too big, I'm pleased with the results. This pattern is from from Pacific Rim http://www.prqc.com/patterns.htm. Now, all I have to do is sandwich, quilt, and bind. Let's hope it doesn't get waylayed in my quilt cave and really become a 100-year project :-). So, it's time for decisions....how am I going to quilt this one?....what's my next applique project to do at the meetings?...and, what's the meaning of life anyway?



I'm reading a new book: "A Lion Among Men" by Gregory Maguire. This is Volume 3....volume 1 was an allegory on the life of the Wicked Witch of the West (yes, from Oz)...volume 2 was aptly named "Son of a Witch." This one is examining the life of the Cowardly Lion in Oz before Dorothy happened on the scene. I just thought I'd share a question from this new book that sort of describes how my mind seems to be working now that I'm experiencing the later part of my fifties: "Who knows when memory, unbidden, will burst out and take hostages?" I suspect all the chatter in my guild about losing memory as we grow older is really just selective memory that hides when we need it, but allows us to remember things we haven't thought of in years. Woah, that was deep....maybe too deep for this quilting blog?




Here's my contribution to this week's Service Projects Workshop....a bunch of preemies, one quilt top with donated fabric from Liz, one cheater panel from Ellen (the snoopy dogs on the panel feel like real fur), and a Linus quilt (made with UFOs donated to our guild.)

Surviving Universal & Disney

Finally....I'm starting to get over my hiatus (I mean, vacation) to Universal & Disney in Orlando, Florida. Hot was the operative word! But, my son, Mike, and his friend, Mason, enjoyed themselves immensely. Just a quick punny point....my son's last name is Dixon...so these two are affectionately known to me as "Mason and Dixon" :-) Making them get up early in the morning paid off because they were able to ride their most-prized rides several times before the waits got too long. Here's a picture of Mike and Mason in front of the Universal globe and Mike and me waiting to have lunch at Bubba Gumps.

After two days at Universal, we were ready for the crowds at Disney. If you read my previous post, you'll know that my one goal was to get a picture or two of my son, who happens to let me get lots of a picture of him with his hand in front of the camera. Teenageship is definitely NOT one of those times that pictures are welcome. Hopefully, he'll look back at these sometime and appreciate his youthfulness. In the following picture of Mason and Dixon having lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, Mike looks like he's trying to say to me....enough of the pictures already (at least a close up of this one is my souvenir of his new braces! Oh, and I got the bottom two pictures as I accidently spotted them hurrying to take one more trip down Splash Mountain.

So, what did I do? I attended all of Disney's musicals, rode a few rollar coasters, shopped without hurry, enjoyed myself watching people, and took pictures of flora and fauna. Here's a few of my best pics of the flowers in Universal and Disney:

The three pictures of lily pads on the right were taken right after a rainstorm in front of the China pavilion at Epcot. Wow, I'm just going to have to make a quilt of that last one with all the glorious veins and the water droplet at the center.....someday. My final pictures are of birds. I found myself in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom taking pictures of birds, who didn't seem to mind the crowds around them.

Off to Disneyworld with two 16-year-old boys...

Here are a few quilts I'll be dropping off at our service project workshop on Thursday.

The left column has a hot balloon cheater panel made into a Linus quilt, 2 Linus quilts made from UFOs donated to our guild, and a bunch of preemie quits. The right column has three fat quarter Linus tops made with fabric donated by Liz B.

...then it's off to Disneyworld. My son, his friend and I will be avoiding blisters, afternoon thunderstorms, and sunburns to be entertained by Mickey Mouse. We haven't been there since my son was 7 years old, so this will be an interesting trip. I'm getting too old for those rollercoasters and I've been to theme parks with teenagers before....so I'm prepared to enjoy myself watching every show and generally enjoying the parks. The miracle of cell phones will allow them to ride themselves silly while I do my own thing. My only goal will be to take one picture of my son (preferably with his new braces showing :-) and his friend . Hubby is staying home (that lucky guy) with the dog.

Lancaster Always Gets Me

After I got it all together and laid it out, it is a lot of fabric! Who can resist Hoffman batiks at $6 a yard? Obviously, not me! :-) For just a little excuse, I've already started designing (roughly) my guild challenge which is not due until March. The theme is "Diamonds are a girls best friend" and the quilt must have a black background and at least 10 diamonds showing on the quilt. Just a little peek at the design....my dog, Misty, will be in it. Hence, I bought a lot of reddish browns in Lancaster. Here's Misty in her favorite pose:


My quilting guild, Friendship Star Quilters, in Gaithersburg, MD kicked off a new quilting year on August 3rd. I brought the following charity quilts to that meeting:


On the left side are a bunch of preemies, and two linus quilts. The sunny yellow quilt and one more like it were donated to the guild by Kathy F. The three quilt tops on the right were made with fabric donated by Liz B.

Hershey Quilt Odyssey: Exquisite

What a wonderful weekend for an outing! My friends, Chris and Diane, and I drove to Hershey, Pennsyvania this weekend for Quilt Odyssey 2009.

We met a bunch of fellow guild members for lunch at the Hershey Grill and had some very sinful desserts....Creme Brulee and Reeses Peanut Butter Pie (Wow!)

The quilts were so exquisite at the show (aren't they always exquisite here?) that I had to go back and look at the quilts twice. Here's a sampling of a few of my favorites:

No trip to Pennsyvania would be complete without a visit to Lancaster's quilt shops. We spent the night there and shopped all the next day. I guess I'm going to have to get busy making some more quilts because I bought enough fabric for several quilters. Don't we all?