Coasters for Guild Retreat

We are going on a retreat Feb 1-3! The theme of the retreat is Quilter's Tea Party and I am in charge of decorations for the tables. Today at sew-in we made 34 coasters - we need about 16 more but I can get them done in an afternoon.

At each place, we are putting a coaster, a teacup and a cloth napkin. Mary made the napkins using her serger out of some teacup fabric that I had in my stash. I am not sure why I had so much of it, but I did. I must have thought I would use it as a backing but the napkins look great!

I had done nickel swaps over the past couple of years and pulled out all the blue and yellow nickels I had and we put the coasters together today. With 4 people working, it went very fast.

I have a surprise for the group at the retreat - we are going to decorate hats! What would a tea party be without hats! That is enough for now, will post more after the retreat.

2006 Round Robin Calendar

For some reason, I am fasinated with Calendars and alphabets. When the opportunity came up last year to participate in a Round Robin Calendar, I jumped at the chance. The rules were loose. Provide a calendar to alter and work on the first month before sending it off. I looked at lots of calendars but finally just made one on my computer. I printed out the months on the right side and left the other side blank.

This is January. I used images that reminded me of New Years Resolutions that we all make. Used MLK's picture out of the Atlanta paper for his birthday. Also managed to fine a couple of small phots of Yorkies that look like Max.

Christine did the February page. It includes several polymer clay objects glued to the page. She also made a cute fun fold book on the right page.
Effie did March. She included a tag in a tea bag envelope and comments on the calendar of what she did during the month. I love it.
Felica did the April pages. Another colorful page with comments about her month.

I will post more pictures tomorrow. I still have December to alter because we had one person drop out right at the time we started and it was too late to recruit a replacement.

This project was really fun and I would love to do it again.

November and December Calendars

Here is my calendar from November. Not much added to it this month but the peachs are from the election. Everyone in Georgia wears them after voting on election day.

The quilt pictures are from a class that my guild had with Marti Michell. As program chairman, it has been a busy year and she was the final speaker. I make nametags with a photo of the project on it. The students seem to get a kick out of having the project on the nametag along with their name.

Of course, December is a busy month. I got some new stamps and managed to stamp the D in December backwards so went ahead and did a couple of the other letters that way on purpose.

This makes 6 months that I have managed to keep up with the calendar and it has been fun to decide what to do each month to make the basic calendar. I usually use post-it notes as a mask for the paint or stamp pad and have played with different techniques but want to try more new things in 2007.

Sock Monkeys

Sherry saw a sock monkey on my Christmas tree and asked about him. Bill has a small collection of sock monkeys and other sock creatures that sit on the computer desk in his office. There are old and new sock monkeys, plus a rabbit, an elephant, another bunny and monkeys in costumes.

I have fabric to make him a quilt out of sock monkey designs. I need to put it on the list to get done this year.

One Last UFO for 2006

Here is a trip around the world quilt that I made several years ago, again at the bag ladies class at Tiny Stitches. I used to go almost every month but rarely actually finished the quilts. I am trying to get caught up with the ones that I have partially completed.

When I first got my Gammill, I quilted this and several others but never got the binding done. Of course, I have lost the fabric that I meant to bind the quilt with but I found a nice plain yellow that worked fine. I can't imagine why I don't get the binding put on after quilting but it has something to do with sewing it on by machine and struggling with the bulk of the quilt - I just avoid it as long as possible.

I really love the handwork part of binding, it is just the machine part that I dread. I am going to try to get the binding made when I finish the quilt top from now on so hopefully it won't take as long.

I used a feather panto on this quilt and it turned out great - it has a lot more yellow than the photo shows and is really pretty.

Christmas Gift from Mary

My friend Mary made this beautiful quilt for me for Christmas. She first made it for a sample for Tiny Stitches, where we both work. I fell in love with it and I guess she knew how much I liked it. I think she actually made a second one for me and kept the original for herself. How lucky I am to have her as a friend. We have a good time working at the quilt shop and also belong to a guild together.

The pattern for the quilt was from a recent Fons and Porter magazine. It is made with chenille and regular quilting fabric for the 4-patches. It is backed with flannel and does not have batting in it. It is the perfect size and weight for taking a nap - one of my favorite things to do. I have already tested it with a quick nap on the couch today.

The quilt shop got new carpet today and tomorrow I will be there bright and early to help put the fabric back. That should be a fun time!

Another Ornament Exchange

I love ornament swaps - I just can't resist signing up for them. This is the ornament that I sent for an exchange with the FiberArtPostcard group. I sent out 4 and have received all the ornaments sent in exchange. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of them and they are on the tree. I can't remember which ones came from this exchange.

My tree is getting very full. I don't have room for a larger tree but maybe next year I will set up two. I just have to put every ornament on the tree, no matter how old and simple they are.

The gingerbread man is made from felt, with buttons, ribbon and dimensional paint. They turned out cute. Of course, there is one on my tree.

I added about 10 new ornaments this year - most are handmade but I did get a couple of Jim Shore ornaments and a beautiful crystal snowflake.

More Ornaments

Here are the ornaments I got in exchange for my paper doll that was posted a while ago. Each person in the exchange had a type of ornament that they needed to make. Of course, mine was paper dolls. The above ornament was an ATC. It is made from paper.
This is a beaded ornament - isn't it great!
This one was fabric - but she added beads and stuffed it.
This one was made from a match box. It is hanging on the tree partially opened to reveal the scene inside
Lastly, here is the polymer clay ornament. It has lots of beads also.

This was a really fun swap. It think it really worked that we were assigned a type of ornament - gave us a great assortment.

I went out shopping today to finally finish up the last of the Christmas shopping. Still need to get a few packages in the mail. Not sure if they will make it in time but at least they will be on the way there.

Gift Exchange and Artist Trading Pins

Here are the pins that I received in the ATP swap. I made four but only sent in three to be traded because I want to keep one for myself. These are so different and each one is wonderful. I have been wearing the Christmas one for last few days and have gotten many great comments on it.

I really love the little doll pin and can't wait to start wearing it but think I should keep it until after Christmas. The last one is wonderful also and will look great on a sweater.


I belong to the Georgia Crazy Quilters group and we decided to do a gift exchange this year. Here are my gifts before getting wrapped and on the way. We had 9 people sign up so we each made 8 gifts.

These little zipper bags were made using prequilted fabric that I had in my stash. It is a really pretty asian fabric. I made some of the bags with the front of the fabric and some with the reverse side. They are different sizes as I just cut up the fabric and started sewing. I have a whole plastic tub of zippers so just used ones that looked good with the colors of the bags. I found out that I like the zipper pull to be on the flat side of the bag, not at the point.

So far I have received a checkbook cover, bookmark, needle case, covered photo album, thread with pincushion and can't wait for the other 3 to arrive. It has really been a fun swap and not too much work for the pleasure we are receiving.

Last of the Calendar Round Robin

This is the last of the calendar round robin. I got behind and finished up two calendars to mail today. It was a lot of fun and I really like the work done on mine. I will try to post pictures of it in a few days. This is Effie's calendar. It was a weekly one instead of monthly so there were several pages for each month. The pig was already on the calendar so I just added to it. Second page was from magazines and stickers
Loved the dog - he just needed a few additions.
Tiger was on the calendar - added the cat photo to it. Right side is winter trees.
Sweet little kitten on left. Since this was the October round, I did a page for the Day of the Dead. I love Day of the Dead.

This is the right hand side of Christine's November calendar. I had fun with pictures of fabric from the Hancocks of Paducah catalog.
I used the cover of the catalog for the right side of the page. Very colorful!

Christmas Ornaments from Ruth

Here are two wonderful ornaments that I received at quilt guild last week from my friend Ruth. She makes beautiful paper pieced quilts with flowers and birds. I love both of these ornaments and they look great on my tree.

Christmas Tree

Here is a photo of my Christmas tree. I love each and every ornament on the tree. Most of them are handmade, from the ones my kids made many, many years ago to ornament exchanges from this year. We had an ornament exchange at quilt guild. While it was suggested that we make ornaments for the exchange, it was permissible to purchase one.

We played the left, right Christmas story game and there were about 45 ornaments exchanged. I ended up making a folded fabric pinecone and my friend Ruth received it. I got a box with 3 purchased ornaments in it - they were lovely and look good on the tree.

I think my favorite ornament is one that my daughter Christina made in school over 30 years ago. It is a pink yarn octopus (except it only has 4 legs) and sits proudly on the tree branches each year. If you look closely near the top of the tree, right in front, you can see it.

Artist Trading Pins

Here are my Artist Trading Pins for a swap on ClothPaperStudio. They are 1/2 the size of an ATC which means they are 1 3/4 inches by 2 1/2 inches. I used a red fabric as my base, added steam a seam to it. Then I sprinkled on cut threads and confetti. Topped that with organza. I then used some of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine and stitched all over the piece. I guess I should mention that I did all this as a large piece and cut them into smaller units after all the stitchin was done.

Next, I fused the completed fabric college to Peltex/Timtex, cut into the correct size pieces and then satin stitched around the outside - twice. Lastly I added the pin attachment to the back and a small charm on the front. I sent 3 of them off to be traded but kept one - just couldn't send it on.

Another Wacky Devine Nine

Here is the first Wacky Devine Nine quilt that I made. It is made out of flannels on both the front and back and is every so cozy.
It was quilted with a spinning feather panto and was made for a class sample at Tiny Stitches.

Black, White and Lime Green Quilt

The quilt is finished! It is much brighter than the photo shows. There are 9 black and white prints in the body of the quilt with a lime green inner border and a different black and white for the border. It is bound with plain black.

Here is a close up of the borders and part of the center. I quilted it with a panto called curling feathers. It gives great overall texture to the quilt.

This is a photo of the surprise backing. It is a lime green dotted flannel. It makes the quilt warm and cozy.

I am making up kits for the quilt for Tiny Stitches and taking it there today to be displayed. In the kits, I am not including the lime green so the customer can select the inner border that they want. I think it would look great with a red inner border or whatever their favorite color is.

The pattern is called Wacky Devine Nine by Two Wacky Women. One of the wacky women happens to be my sister. I make a lot of her patterns for the shop. This is the second quilt I have made from this pattern. I don't think I posted a photo of the first one but will look for it.

Another UFO - Batik Log Cabin

Here is a closeup of the quilting and one block of the Batik Log Cabin. It was started several years ago as a "bag lady" quilt at Tiny Stitches, my local quilt shop. I then quilted it at least 3 years ago, maybe even longer.
You can see the quilting better here. I used a panto called Angel Wings. The backing is a wonderful batik of many colors.
Here is the whole quilt. I can't believe it took so long to finally put the binding on it. Of course, I couldn't find matching fabric for the binding but there was enough of the backing fabric left. It looks pretty good.

I really love the batiks and the shop continues to get more and more of them in. Would like to have some of all of the them, but just can't justify buying and storing them all.

About batiks - my FiberArtBee met last Friday and we used soy wax to start batiking on fabric. We used kitchen utensils and stamps, etc. to wax the fabric. Next month we are going to actually dye the fabric so I will show pictures then.

Also, I finished quilting the black and white and lime green quilt last night. Need to get it bound and into the shop.

Halloween Brick Road Quilt

Halloween Brick Road Quilt
Cute Scarecrow border for quilt
I actually made the body of this quilt about 5-6 years ago. It was the first quilt I made from a class at Tiny Stitches, my LQS. It has lots of bright kids prints and was made from the Yellow Brick Road pattern. I made all the blocks at the class but didn't actually get the top put together for almost a year.

Once it was pieced, I had to quilt it. After I first got my longarm, I did a lot of practice quilts and this was one of them. I quilted around the scarecrows in the border and did a meander variation in the body of the quilt. I got my Gammill in 2001 and probably quilted this quilt in 2002.

It has sat on a stack of partially completed quilts ever since. All it needed was binding and I finally got that done last night. Unfortunately, this is not the only quilt that was waiting for binding - there are at least a couple more. Of course, there is a large stack of quilts waiting to be quilted also.

October Calendar

Here is my October calendar. I wanted more color and used acrylic paint but it was a litle messy around the squares. At least I was able to write something for every day - it is getting to be a little more of a habit each month. This morning I set up the November calendar and got caught up with the last couple of days.

I finally put binding on a very old Halloween quilt yesterday. It was the first bag lady quilt I made at Tiny Stitches several years ago. I have about 1/2 the hand part of the binding done so hope to finish tonight. I will take a picture when it is finally finished.

Paper Doll Ornament Swap

I am doing a Paper Doll Ornament swap on one of my yahoo groups and here are a couple of my creations. Obviously made from playing cards. I think they turned out real cute and I hope the others like them. In this swap, we have 6 people and others are making ornaments from
ATC
Matchbox
Polymer Clay
Beads
Fabric

It will be fun to see what the others do with their ornaments.

October Zaps

Here are my zap cards for October. The first one is Halloween. The skeleton is plastic and stands out from the card. There is a spider web in the corner and a small skull picture on it.

The second card theme was hands - I got a defination of hands and then a photo of hands using a keyboard. I put a fake gemstone on the ring. The last card is for the them of playing cards. I made playing card dolls by cutting them up and gluing. Hope my friends like them.