Alive and Well in Las Vegas

I am in Las Vegas and have limited access to the internet. Not sure if I will be able to post until I get back in California on Friday but am taking lots of photos to share then.

California

I am in California - Seal Beach to be exact. I woke up this morning at 4am and it is now 12:15 on Saturday morning - at least in Georgia. Here it is only 9:15. I thought I would post a few photos from my sister's house.
This is a quilt called Almost Twilight. We made this quilt several years ago at a retreat in Wisconsin. Mine is exactly the same only different.

Here is another exactly the same only different quilt. Mine is made with all black background fabrics and Robin made hers with dark background fabrics.

Here is a quilt hanging in the living room. Great circles.

I love this one. The fat ladies are just about my favorite all time block.

Here is the quilt ladder in the library. We bought this a few years ago at the Glendale Quilt Show and barely fit it into the car to bring it home. Great place to display/store quilts.

Bottle Tree

I have been wanting to make a bottle tree for a long time. I have been collecting bottles but obviously don't drink enough wine because I have a very puny tree so far. I did find that Trader Joe's has sparkling water in blue bottles so that is my plan - drink lots of water so I can use the bottles on the tree.

I really want only blue bottles on the tree but I am using green ones also for now. Hopefully I can replace them eventually with blue.

Bill planted the tree trunk several weeks ago but finally got around to drilling the holes for the sticks to hold the bottles a couple of days ago. I need lots more bottles for it to really look good. It is great with the sun shinning on it.

I have been collecting photos of bottle trees for at least a couple of years and now I finally have one!

Purse Club

I taught purse club last night. There were six students and 5 of them made a variation of the grocery tote.

This one is the happy result of a cutting error. Instead of making in wider than tall, this one is taller than wide. It has a new "green" fabric on it. She plans on making them for all the people she works with for Christmas.

Here is a standard grocery tote. There were 3 made last night using the word fabric.

Another grocery tote with slightly different handles.

Kim made hers with dog fabric - perfect for a trip to the pet store or to buy dog food.

One more grocery tote.

Lisa worked on her Summer Bag and finished it last night. She started it last month but hadn't put the zipper in yet. That is done now and it is a nice bag.

Next month we are going to feature a tote made from charms. Should be fun.

Allatoona Guild Meeting

Yesterday was the regular business meeting at Allatoona. We showed our challenge quilts. The one below was made by Mary. It is the only one I got a photo of.

Next was part of regular show and tell.

This was yet another one of the mystery quilts from our Redtop retreat.

This is Chris' version of the BOM we did last year. She made several changes to represent her life instead of just following the pattern.

This is a bright quilt made by Terry. She loves bright colors and has such a great color sense.

Here is a scrappy bargello from a pattern by Bonnie at Quiltsville. I have mine put together but still waiting on the border to be sewn on.

I spent the rest of the day working on customer quilts. I am frantically trying to get a couple more done before I leave for California bright and early on Friday.

Bad Storms in Georgia

We had big storms last night. The thunder and lightning were happening at just about the same time. It rained really hard and lots of wind. It was over in about an hour. Bill was at his bowling night so it was just me and the little doggies. Chula gets so scared that I had to hold her until it was all over.

The electricity went out several times and finally the electricity and cable both went out. The electricity came back but it took several hours for the cable to get back.

When I went out to the garage this morning to go to guild, this is what I found - a big pile of tree limbs.

After Bill came home from work, he went out in the yard and finally found where it came from. It looks like the tree got hit by lightning (I told you the lightning and thunder were at the same time). This is a very tall tree - I guess it isn't quite as tall as it was yesterday.

This is the third tree that has been hit by lightning since we moved here nine years ago. The first time was the only tree in our front yard. It was a 80 foot tall oak. The lightning split the tree down the middle and we had to have it removed. We now have a 15 foot tall maple. Quite a difference. We have a hundred or so trees, but only one in the front yard.

The next time was a tree in the side yard and the top broke off and ended up in the street. The tree survived. It looks like this one will survive also.

While I was looking for where the branches came from, I saw this bird's nest. It is hard it see what size this is but believe me, it is big. Not sure what kind of bird we have around here that makes a nest this large. It is really up high in the tree - way above the top of the house.

Halloween Quilt - not mine

Here is a wonderful quilt. It is being held by Maetha, the owner of Tiny Stitches and will be part of our festival of holidays we will have during Christmas in July. The quilt was made by Terry. She is another local longarm quilter and makes many wonderful samples for the shop.

Here is a close up.
The legs are three dimensional and hang from the broom. I think this quilt would also look great in my kind of colors - brights!

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler - Elm Creek Club

We have an Elm Creek Club at Tiny Stitches. We meet on the first Sunday of each month. This year we are working on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. We started in January so this is our 7th month. Each month we "assign" 4-6 blocks. There are 140 blocks in the quilt so this isn't really a one year project.

Following are the blocks of some of the club members.

The ones above are soft colors and lovely.

These are a little brighter but still very color coordinated. She is using batiks on a background of Southern Belle in cream.

Wanda is doing hers in 30's prints.

Cyndi started late so has some catching up to do but her blocks are wonderful.

The blocks above are all hand pieced. She is determined to make the whole quilt by hand.

Mine is going very slowly. I am using batiks on Southern Belle also, but my Southern Belle is white instead of cream. I have already posted all my blocks since I haven't actually made any in the last couple of months.

I assigned 6 new blocks this month - I guess I should actually make some of them.

Another Flying Geese Table Runner

Here is one of my student's table runners. She brought it in to show me today. She did a great job of piecing the 36 flying geese. We worked a little on sewing straight and when she got it - she got it! The points are great on her table runner.

While she has a love of soft colors, her husband loves brights - guess who picked out the fabric for this table runner!

4th of July in Georgia

Today was the 4th of July and the largest 10K in America was held in downtown Atlanta. Every year, I decide that I will do the Peachtree next year but it never happens. There are over 55,000 people but it is still hard to get in. You have to submit your application on the first day or you have no chance. A lot of people walk it, or run/walk and am sure I could survive that. Maybe next year.

Bill had to work today so I did some sewing and quilted a while. He called and asked for a cake so I made a sour cream poppy seed pound cake. Also, since it is the 4th of July, we decided to make ice cream. I couldn't find a recipe I really liked, so made up my own. It turned out pretty good.

We also have a tradition that we eat hot dogs on hamburger buns. This is left over from my childhood. My parents always had their high school friends over with their families and we always had hot dogs on hamburger buns. You split the hot dogs down the length before you cook them on the grill. I am not sure why we had them that way - probably because long ago someone forgot to buy the hot dog buns. Any way, it wouldn't be the 4th of July unless we had them.

Every year we talk about going to see fireworks but never make it. I guess we will watch the fireworks at Centennial Olympic Park on TV later. We did decide that if we ever do go somewhere it will be to Stone Mountain.

Paint Chip Challenge - Quilted

I spent some time quilting today. I got a quilt quilted for Ronald McDonald turn in next month. It is a bright children's quilt. I am going to try to get the binding on it before I got to California.

Here is the Paint Chip challenge quilt - quilted. I like how it turned out. The quilting makes the center look like it is trapunto.

Here is a close up of the center. Actually, I am quite pleased with it. I just have to put the binding on and take it to guild on Tuesday.

Another Look at Last Year's Raffle Quilt

This is the raffle quilt for ECQG from last year. It hung at Nashville and was raffled off during our quilt show last September. It was won by Linda who is one of my quilting customers. Of course, she bought the winning ticket from me. She was so excited when we called her to tell her she had won.

This quilt is truly a work of art. It is all hand appliqued by women from the guild and I had the honor of quilting it.

This is the center of the quilt. The gazebo is based on the gazebo that is in the center of the downtown square in Marietta. You can see a little of the gazebo here. It is in the left photo. I stitched clouds in the sky and pebbles in the walkway. The pebbles are one of my favorite things on the quilt.

Here you can see the bricks at the base of the gazebo, as well as the bushes in front of it.

This is one of the beautiful appliques that surround the center. Each was done by a different person so there are very slight differences in color and placement of the flowers.

Here is the lower left corner of the quilt. It is hanging at Tiny Stitches for a couple of weeks. Linda has several grandchildren and has had the quilt packed away since she won it. It isn't the type of quilt to put on a bed where children are around and she doesn't have a large enough wall to display it.

I think it is the quilt I am most proud of the quilting on. We didn't win a ribbon for it but we did make a lot of money for the guild with it and made Linda very happy when she won it.

Quilt at NQA

I got a photo of Charlotte's Star Light, Star Bright quilt hanging at NQA with the ribbon on it. This is the quilt that won first place in the Duet Wallhanging category. One of my friends was there so she managed to take a photo and email it to me. Wasn't that nice of her.