Shirley Anne’s Heart

Posted By drsao on January 25, 2010

Day two of the THREE DAY MARATHON OF FUN took place at Augusta Cole’s CUTTING BEE on Saturday.  I went last year and had so much fun that I have had it on my calendar for a WHOLE YEAR!

The morning had a bit of a ROUGH START…..see Catherine and I were at a Memories Galore Crop Friday night until midnight and my car was FULL of scrapbooking STUFF (four suitcases and roller things because you NEVER KNOW what you will need.)

SOOOOO when I got home (after midnight) on Friday night I unloaded the scrapbooking equipment and loaded the CUTTING BEE sewing stuff for Saturday…..and when I say stuff I mean that my car was FULL.  Well, it was a little LESS FULL than it should have been because when I got to JoAnn’s where I was meeting Catherine, I had this “NAGGING FEELING” that I had forgotten something.  Sure enough my guardian angels had alerted me to the fact that I had LEFT BEHIND my entire basket of fabric – yes 10 half yards of light fabric cut into strips and 10 half yards of dark fabrics cut into strips!  I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT.

Catherine was SO NICE THOUGH and suggested that she just drive me home to get the fabric….you know you can’t just do all that “STRIPPIN FOR NOTHING!”  We decided to drive through the BURGER KING to get breakfast to “EAT ON THE WAY”…….only BURGER KING FAILED TO OPEN.  It was entertaining though as Catherine “CONTINUED” to talk to the Burger King speaker – not aware that no one was there.

“HELLO, is this where you order breakfast…..where you exchange money for food……hello, this is me trying to order my breakfast….now this is me driving away to the next window WITHOUT ordering breakfast….yes, here I go…..”   You had to be there to see the humor, but I was laughing so hard.  We compromised by going to McDonalds………

Finally we made it to St. Matthews – a beautiful cozy room at the church was all set up for us!  And we were even early….but of course Catherine has a GPS in her head….she drove right to it and didn’t even need my GPS nor did she need my multiple sets of GOOGLE MAPS!  Very impressive!

We were met at the church by twin boys who were SO POLITE AND SO NICE.  They helped us carry in our “STUFF” and they were ever so careful!  Of course, I did take their picture!!!

Then the fun began – we got to walk up and down beside the tables where there were rows and rows of strips of LUSCIOUS FABRIC and we picked up what we wanted – MISS AUGUSTA told us how many strips to pick up with each pass through and we thoroughly had a grand time. 

Then the hard part came – deciding WHICH of the many quilts to make.  Augusta had a fantastic display of lots of quilts that could be made with the combination of 2 1/2″ and 4 1/2″ strips!  Let’s see, I am going to make another MILKY WAY, HIDDEN PINWHEELS, and SUMMER JEWELS…..OH YES AND I LIKE THE SIMPLE CROSS…….oh it is SO HARD to decide!

We really learned so much too.  That is always wonderful to learn new techniques to make your quilts better……Saturday we learned how to use special rulers to square up our half square triangles and I think the best part was learning how to cut a row of strips into 2 1/2″ squares at the same time with absolute accuracy.  THANKS AUGUSTA!

Steve Cole made us lunch and we had SHOW AND TELL…..and the day ended way too soon.  I am already looking forward to NEXT YEAR!

Category: Augusta Cole Quilt Patterns, Augusta Cutting Bee 10, CATHERINE, Future Quilt Inspiration, Life Comments, Quilts | 1 Comment »
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Posted By drsao on January 25, 2010

Friday night was JUST THE BEGINNING of a three-day-marathon of fun….and I mean marathon.  🙂

Catherine and I met at Memories Galore from 6 to 12 on Friday for a NO FRILLS CROP….that means we ate snacks, instead of a meal.  Take a look at the pictures below and you will see the most amazing cupcake ever – it looks like ONE BIG BLUE CUPCAKE but it is actually several cupcakes – YUM!  Thanks Carrie!

Every hour there was a SPECIAL SALE….whoohoo…..and every hour someone won a prize.  If our name was pulled out of the basket we got to  choose two or three treasures from the gift basket.  Now I know why kids have so much fun getting something from the TREASURE BOX at school.  Catherine and I both won a trip to the gift basket.

One of the highlights of the evening was my learning to do IRIS PAPER FOLDING.  Catherine taught me.  It LOOKED SO COMPLEX that I had zero expectation that I could pull it off, but she was so SURE that I could do it…..and I did.  I made a pear….and it was similar to paper piecing when you are quilting – only you are doing it with paper folding.  I love the PEAR that I made – all I need to do now is to put on a stem and a leaf!

I have NEVER HAD 6 hours go by so quickly….but then when you are sharing the evening with a stand up comic (actually Catherine was a SIT DOWN COMIC) the time just flew by.

Here are a few pictures of our FRIDAY NIGHT CROP!  (They call the parties CROP AND SHOP because you CROP your pictures and SHOP for the COOL things that you need to make your scrapbook pages!)

Category: CATHERINE, Life Comments, Memories Galore Crop | 1 Comment »
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Posted By drsao on January 21, 2010

I finished my Haiti Quilt this morning before I went to school.  I made it all – the piecing and the quilting and I think it will be my last machine quilting for awhile.  It looks pretty bad – maybe a little better than a crib quilt that I tried to quilt last year – but still, not good enough to make me think that I will attempt it again!!  I used a walking foot and did stitch in the ditch – and it can’t be much more SIMPLE than that – but my machine stitches were not even – sometimes they were tiny and sometimes long and I have no idea how to fix that!  Anyway, maybe a little child who has no quilt will not care so much that the stitches aren’t straight!  I named it FLOWERS OF HOPE and used all fabric from my stash that had flowers in it.

 TA DA……it would have been cuter had I NOT quilted it myself!  🙂  Oddly enough, I am ENJOYING my hand quilting adventure.  I do a little each morning before I leave for work ……while I watch THE TODAY SHOW.  I really look forward to this time to just sit and relax after I am all ready!!  (I know this is weird – I love the hand quilting but not the “EASY” machine quilting……:)!

Flowers of Hope Quilt

I also got my Confetti Quilt put together – this is an Augusta Cole pattern minus the decorative border.  I pieced the blocks for that border but decided not to put them on – I decided to make ANOTHER Confetti Quilt and do a better job matching my corners before I spent more time on the border.  I really love all of the colors!  I am going to make the back of 12 1/2″ squares – all blues – ONWARD I GO!!!

Confetti Quilt

I am really excited about the CUTTING BEE this Saturday hosted by Augusta Cole.  That is so much fun!  Each participant takes different widths of fabric strips and then we trade them…..:) 

Category: Confetti, Flowers of Hope, Quilts Finished in 2010, Quilts in Progress | 1 Comment »
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Posted By drsao on January 17, 2010

I got this e-mail from EQUILTER LAST NIGHT and thought some of my quilter friends might like to help too.

 YOU CAN ACCESS THE WEBSITE AT www.equilter.com

Live from Japan – A Plan for Haiti Relief Quilts
I am writing to you today from the Hotel Granvia in Kyoto Japan, where a group of 30 quilters is joining me to tour the art and history of Japan…and attend the Tokyo Quilt Festival!

We are following the terrible news about Haiti from here, and everyone here feels the same way I know you do – what can we do to help?

I have contacted the director of Mission of Love 

YOU CAN READ ABOUT MISSION OF LOVE ON THE EQUILTER.COM WEBSITE

and Kathy has agreed to ship and distribute quilts to those in need, in Haiti. We are still putting together the details but for those of you who wish to send the comfort of a quilt, here is the plan:

Mission of Love is backed by the Federal Government’s Denton Program – airlifting food, supplies, etc. to those affected by disasters. You can send quilts directly to MOL in Ohio, or if you are near us in Colorado drop your donation quilt(s) to the eQuilter offices and we will ship them to MOL in Ohio.

Over the years, Mission of Love has distributed thousands of quilts from eQuilter customers to 9/11 families/survivors, Pine Ridge orphans, and Katrina survivors.

If you want to have confirmation of delivery, please obtain a tracking number when you ship the package so you can confirm delivery yourself. This is a massive project and there are no extra resources to confirm delivery. Likewise do not expect a thank you letter from the recipient. They cannot afford even a stamp.

Put a label with your name, your location, and a message of hope on the back… and know that when the quilt is placed into the arms of someone in desperate need, they will read your message and receive your prayers and comfort.

As you know, eQuilter gives 2% of all sales to charity, with an emphasis on orphans, children and families in need, and disaster relief. This week we will give the entire 2% to Doctors Without Borders, and will send the money out immediately for aid.

I’ll be blogging about Japan and Haiti this week, posting images on my photo page, and you can follow our travel diary on my Twitter and Facebook pages.

Did you catch my latest 2 videos?
If not, see my Quilting Arts TV excerpts on Japanese Fabrics, and French/Italian design inspirations.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

contact customer service at register@equilter.com or call USA Toll Free 877-322-7423 or 303-527-0856.
eQuilter 5455 Spine Road Suite E, Boulder, CO 80301 USA

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Posted By drsao on January 16, 2010

Screams, laughter, blood, sweat and tears – that describes my day!

Screams at Sarah’s basketball game today – she made four baskets and I was SOOOOOOOO EXCITED.  I think EVERYONE in the church could hear my elation!  WAY TO GO SARAH – turns out #13 is a LUCKY NUMBER!!!

Go Sarah Go!

Silly Picture of Erin and Sarah

And if that weren’t enough excitement I spent the next few hours with the Virginia Scrappers – we meet at the same church where Sarah played basketball today.  We were displaced from our regular room because of the basketball picture taking process, but we had a very cozy room upstairs. 

I worked on my Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt today and I am almost finished and looking forward to hand quilting it….I HOPE!  I heard “RUMORS” that Marla abandoned her hand quilting career on her Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt after one hexagon…..:)  So, now I am very worried about my own future success!  🙂

Putting all fears aside, I got a lot of physiological exercise today – screaming at the game and then with the Virginia Scrappers I laughed so hard that my ribs hurt!  Catherine was on a roll telling the funniest jokes EVER!  *Don’t ask……!    We missed Sheddy – but we got a good laugh recalling her semantical blunders with her group in PA! 

Patsy's GORGEOUS CHALLENGE Wallhanging

Catherine gave us VALENTINE HEART CANDY

 THANKS CATHERINE FOR THE HEART CANDY!!!!

And YES, I really did take a picture of the curtains in our “SEWING ROOM” at the church!

The curtains - very cute - had kitties on the fabric!

Catherine bought these for Cooper!!!!!

Cooper was THRILLED and he says that he is going to send Catherine one of his VALENTINES!!!! 

And he says he HOPES Catherine doesn’t mind, but he doesn’t really WANT to send these valentines to his friends and did I think that Catherine would mind if he kept them all to play with (except the one he sends to her.)  Oh yes, and he hopes Catherine won’t mind if he gives his candy hearts to his teacher because “he has been wanting to give his teacher  some of those candy hearts for a long time now!  AND….DIDN’T I WANT TO TAKE HIS PICTURE TO SHOW CATHERINE!”  I did.

THANK YOU CATHERINE!

Leanna says THANK YOU, CATHERINE, for the candy hearts!

Sasrah says THANK YOU, CATHERINE, for the candy!!!

Catherine's media supplies

Congrats on the new job - YEAH!!!!!!

We are all so thrilled for Patsy – starting her new job Feb. 1.  What a wonderful bit of news!

Carmen must be laughing at Catherine's joke!!!

Joy is working on her Thirties Something quilt in the corner!

Aren't these the cutest BEAD BUBBLES on this pillowcase!!

Carmen was ready to reject this block – but after putting it on our design wall we ALL agreed that it was great!

We like Carmen's block!!!

OK – so now for the BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS PART OF MY DAY.  When I got home I decided to practice my hand quilting…….I stabbed myself SIX TIMES *yes, I counted – and each time I bled a HUMONGOUS  amount – I STABBED!  SERIOUSLY.  I need not mention the sweat and tears part – but look at what I accomplished in ONLY THREE  HOURS.  Do you think that one day I will look back on this HALLOWEEN WALL HANGING and declare that this is how BAD my first hand quilting project looked – but I am much better now???  LOL

Actually, I did think it was fun and I am going to keep practicing!!!!  If you click twice you can see how uneven my stitches are….I wonder if I did a running stitch instead of the rocking quilting stitch that it would look better?  No – I think I will keep working on it for a bit longer.  I might get the hang of it and hopefully this will happen before I run out of bandaids!!

sao's Hand Quilting

Category: CATHERINE, Hand Quilted Halloween10, Life Comments, SAO's Grandangels, Virginia Scrappers | 2 Comments »
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