Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you! This will be my last post of the year. Today, on Christmas Eve I finished a very last minute gift. Not unusual for me but at least it's not midnight!

Happy New Year, too!

Twelve Days of Quilts--Day 12

Hey! I never said the twelve days would all be in a row. So here....after missing a day or two is the last. This one is a Christmas gift and I hope to deliver it to its recipient tomorrow. I just finished the binding tonight and will sew the label on in the morning. A couple of years ago we (members of the Civil War Club at the Cotton Patch) gave each other 12 inch blocks for birthday gifts. As I made them each month I also made one to keep. I had about 8 when the year was over. I also made some at the Pat Speth workshops I attended. I'm pleased with the outcome. It was quilted by the talented Donna Titsworth.

Day 11--Again

I just realized what a lousy picture that was in my last post. So here it is again. Clearer this time, I hope.

Twelve Days of Quilts--Day 11

I'm nearing the end of "The Twelve Days of Quilts" so I thought I should show a Christmas Quilt. I'm sure I've shown this several times over the years but here it is again. I made it as part of a block of the month at The Cotton Patch in 2005. It had 9 blocks. My friend Coleen added Tradition, Joy and Worship to hers and thought that was a good idea so I added them, too.

The Marler Christmas Village resides on the buffet below the quilt.

Twelve Days of Quilts--Day 10

There are really two quilts in this post, but I'm going to count them as one day since they are small and hang close together. These are in my sewing room hanging way up high above my shelves of fabric. The one on the left is hand pieced (English Paper Piecing) and appliquéd using different size hexagons--the smallest being 1/4 inch. I made the other one as part of a Nine Patch Challenge in my guild a few years ago. I won a third place ribbon.

Twelve Days of Quilts--Day 9

As promised, here is the quilt my grandma made for me. She made the top and my mom hand quilted it. It's appliquéd and embellished with embroidery paint. Remember that? It came in tubes. Hey, it was the 60's or maybe the early 70's. It's not in as bad a shape as I thought it was, but has a few stains. I used it in college and my kids cuddled under it in the 80's.

Twelve Days of Quilts--Day 8

My paternal grandmother, Bertha Ward, pieced this quilt in the early 60's. I had a dress made of the fabric in the close up picture. It was one of my favorites and I also had a dress of the same fabric, only in pink.

Grandma made each of her 5 children a quilt top. This one was made for my dad and mom. My mom hand quilted it not long after it was pieced. She hardly ever used the quilt. But she always let me use it when I visited her in the later years of her life. (My dad passed away in 1978.) Mom knew I loved the quilt and gave it to me some years before she passed away.

Grandma also made each of her 19 grandkids a quilt top and started on her great grandkids' tops. My oldest daughter was the third of her greats and I believe it was the last quilt she made (around 1980). She and Grandpa quilted it in straight lines on her sewing machine.

Perhaps I'll show the one she made for me tomorrow. It's been in the closet for many years. It's well worn.

Twelve Days of Quilts--Day 7

If I wake up on my left side, this is what I see.  Sometimes I lay and count the circles on both quilts (yesterday's and today's) before I get out of bed.  I get a different number every time.

Twelve Days of Quilts--Day 6

If I wake up on my right side this is what I see hanging on my bedroom wall.  Tomorrow I'll show what I see if I wake up on my left side.

12 Days of Quilts--Day 5

Let's leave my guest room for a while. We may go back there later.

This is a wall hanging I made several years ago when I took a class from Darci Ashton on Hawaiian Appliqué. It has never hung on a wall, but stays mostly on my coffee table. Not that I can ever see it there because I'm not one to keep a nice, neat coffee table. Where else would one pile all the quilting magazines and handwork in progress?

12 Days of Quilts--Day 4

Another quilt in my guest room. I started this one when I was in high school and finished it on September 11, 2001. It holds a lot of history. I won a UFO (unfinished object) contest at my guild that year for the longest finish on a UFO--33 years!

12 Days of Quilts--Day 3

This quilt is on the wall in my guest room. By the time I finish showing all the quilts on my guest room, you're probably going to get the idea that I LOVE irises.

12 Days of Quilts -- Day 2

This is my first appliquéd quilt. It resides on my guest bed (with the door closed so the cat stays off it). I finished it in 2004 and won the Sweepstakes prize with it at the Tulsa State Fair that year.

12 Days of Quilts

We're slowly recovering from the flu (and Tim also from bronchitis now, too). I'm regretting not decorating the house for Christmas 2 weeks ago because now I don't have the energy to do it. Our kids have promised to come over and help but because of their schedules it looks like it will be another few days before we get it done.

So I've decided to post 12 days of Quilts to cheer myself up. I've probably posted pictures of most or all of these quilts before but maybe there are some of you who haven't seen them.

I'll start with the one that's currently on my bed because it's nice and clean (I spent the day purging my house of flu germs).

Feel free to come back for the next 11 days to see more quilts in my house.

Flu!

Here's Skippy. She's the only healthy creature in our home. Last week when Tim came home from work early he displayed all the signs of flu--sudden onset of chills, fever, sore throat, body aches and cough. Our doctor wasn't in so I took him to Urgent Care where he tested negative for flu. 3 days later, my teeth were chattering and I had fever.

Since we weren't getting any better we went to see our doctor today and we tested positive for flu. He told us to expect it to last 7 to 10 days! We're fairly miserable---no, we are VERY miserable!

I've picked up a needle and thread twice, but just can't seem to stay interested.

New appliqué project

I've started a new appliqué project. I decided I'd really like to try to design something of my own. But everywhere I look for ideas I end up thinking I could just use some else's design. So in the end, this quilt will probably have some blocks of my own design and some blocks that were inspired by other designers.

Here's the first one (my own design):

Quilt tops

I dropped off these three at Kat's house today to be quilted. One table runner, one wall hanging and one full sized quilt (which is not sewn together in this picture). I usually quilt my own small items but am just not in the mood. I have other things I need to be doing.... Like decorating the house for Christmas. Hubby came home from work early today with flu-like symptoms so I may be needing to offer a bit of extra TLC.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving and Merry (early) Christmas. We had a very nice day on Thursday with all our kids, sons-in-law and grandboys.

But now I'm in that limbo week. I feel like it's too early to decorate for Christmas. I'm not in the mood to shop. Most of my neighbors have decorated their houses (before Thanksgiving--whatever happened to celebrating one holiday at a time!?)

Even my Christmas cactus thinks it's time to start celebrating. I think I'll go sew. Please don't call me Scrouge!

Baby quilt

I just got the label on this today and delivered it to the father of the baby (who happens to be my chiropractor). The baby will make his appearance tomorrow. Exciting times for them! They've been through a lot the last couple of years (including the loss of two precious babies).

I quilt a little "love" into my baby quilts. Can you see it in the light brown square in the close up?

I made this quilt entirely from the scraps leftover from Timothy's quilt and I still have enough left for another. Maybe I bought too much!

Exciting News....again!!!

Here's my quilt (right) hanging next to Sharon Schamber's "Best of  Show" at the Georgia Quilt Show a couple of weeks ago.

Now for the exciting news.....my quilt will once again hang with some FAMOUS quilts.  Yesterday I received news from the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky that my quilt has juried in to a special exhibit entitled "Quilts of the South Central US" .There will be a total of 18 quilts from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.  The quilts will be on exhibit from January 17 to April 2, 2013.  I'm excited beyond belief.  I've visited the museum a couple of times and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have a quilt that would be "good enough" to be on exhibit there.

Now....I want to show you some close up shots of Sharon's quilt. 

You can see the piping inbetween the gold.  The piping is about 1/8 inch wide and criss-crossed.  The dark that you see is the black curtain behind the quilt because the piping work is open like lace!

The quilting and thread work on this quilt is AMAZING!

Another detail of the piping and quilting.

So....I guess I'll see y'all in Paducah sometime between January 17 and April 3!  ROAD TRIP!!!!
By the way....I started my married life in Murray, Kentucky where Tim was a senior at Murray State University.  A fellow student took us to dinner in Paducah for my 20th birthday.  Back then it was just a little river town.  Then quilting took over the town.  I can hardly wait to visit it again!

What's Been Going on This Week

2 blog updates in one week. That just doesn't happen much anymore but since I'm learning how to blog with my IPad you might see me here more often (but probably not! haha).

We had a freeze last night here in northeastern Oklahoma. Last year we barely had any winter at all so after our long hot summer some of us are welcoming the cooler weather.

My hibiscus survived last night and my mums are beautiful again this year. I picked the rest of my miniature roses so I could enjoy them another week.

I had a birthday this week. Decades ago I loved cake (and I still do). I'm assuming my big brother did, too from the looks of these pictures of my first birthday. I haven't figured out how to put pictures in any particular order so I'm afraid you'll just have to sort that out yourself. If there is anyone out there blogging from an iPad who knows how to do that, please HELP ME!!

I started a new quilt. I've had this pattern for years and finally decided to use it. I got it all cut out and one block made. One down....19 to go.

The owners of the shop that I work at are away at market in Houston so I'm helping hold down the fort while they're away. It will be exciting to see what they come back with. My BFF is also away and will be returning tomorrow or Monday. She's been gone over 3 weeks so I will be quite pleased to see her soon.

Another busy week is ahead of me. So until later....

Georgia Quilt show

The show is over and I'm back in Oklahoma trying to recoup from 6 days of fun and excitement in Georgia and North and South Carolina.

You may be able to see from the picture that I have a little pink ribbon on my quilt (right under the white card).
It's a "Staff Pick" ribbon which means that the staff of the corporation which put on the quilt show picked it as one of their favorites! Not only that, they liked it so much that they purposely hung it right next to the "Best of Show" quilt made by the FAMOUS Sharon Schamber because they told me they thought it deserved a place of prominence! Sharon's quilt was stunning! She's won multiple BIG awards including "bests" at Paducah and Houston.

To say that I was excited is an understatement. My sister Greta was there with me and she was like my cheerleader! She was telling everyone she saw that " my sister made that quilt"!

I accidentally left my camera cord in Georgia so when I get it back I'll load pictures of the show so you all can see. But in the meantime check out the website http://sewingexpo.com/GeorgiaQuiltShow/QuiltContest.aspx

Atlanta, here I come!

Just a few more days and my sister and I meet up in Atlanta for the Georgia Quilt Show. Remember, I have a quilt entered in the show.

She and I have signed up for a class taught by Jean Ann Wright. Also , a friend from the Atlanta area is taking the class with us. I've spent the last week or so going through my stash pulling out fabrics for both of us to make a log cabin style quilt. She's a "newbie" when it comes to making quilts. It was lots of fun sending her pictures for her to approve what I pulled out for her. Since we don't always have the same tastes, I was pleased that we were able to do it without too much trouble. Little sisters can sometimes be LOTS OF TROUBLE! Just kidding, Greta! She and I are looking forward to a great time together. Can you guess which stack is hers and which is mine?

Wish me luck on my quilt!