Shirley Anne’s Heart

Posted By drsao on November 9, 2008

As you can see from the pictures, we had a WONDERFUL November meeting of our Country Piecemaker’s Quilt Guild in Powhatan, VA.  The Show ‘N Tells were SO INSPIRATIONAL – and Catherine had LOTS of creative goodies to show  this time!  I especially loved her pin cushion flowers and needle and pin “wallet carrier things!”

In case you wonder why some of my pictures are a bit strange and ill staged – it is because everyone seemed to be a bit “modest” about holding up their work and they had their masterpieces up and back down before my camera could register!   I NAMED THIS THE TWIRLING SHOW AND TELL BEHAVIOR.  :):)   And……I loved the way Catherine HID behind her work – but you can still see that smile in her eyes PEEPING OUT FROM BEHIND HER CREATIONS!  I did get faster at taking those pictures with practice!

I liked all of the quilts today – especially Jane’s DISAPPEARING NINE-PATCH and Linda’s QUILT OF VALOR.  There were several cute baby quilts donated this month too.  I really liked this month’s STRIP OF THE MONTH CHALLENGE TOO!

I WAS QUITE IMPRESSED WITH THE QUILTED POSTCARDS TOO.  Maybe I should retire so I could have more time to do COOL STUFF!!!!

Merci taught us how to make felted pin cushions and I think she inspired many of us to try it!  I know I am inspired!  As can see by the excitement on the faces in the pictures, several lucky ladies  won pin cushions…..THANK YOU MERCI.

I had a great time and there were some SERIOUSLY FANTASTIC YUMMIES!  And we ended by viewing the DVD of the retreat….oh my, Sara and Steve have done some fantastic editing work – REALLY WONDERFUL.

Enjoy the pictures….and click on them to see the full view!

Category: Country Piecemakers, Nov 08, Quilt Guild | No Comments »
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Posted By drsao on November 6, 2008

It’s that time again when I share SOME of the things that I have been working on…….

First – here are the MODA BLOCKS for month two….THE SELVAGE STAR BLOCK is purported to be an original new block – not on record as having been recorded before!

MODA Selvages Month 2

Quilters Corners NOV. BOM

And here are my December Online Yahoo Block Exchange blocks for the Decentralized Log Cabin for December – and this is my last month to be in this swap – December marks a year of making Log Cabin blocks……..how time flies!

December Log Cabin Yahoo Swap Blocks

I have sewn a few blocks for the Colonial Piecemaker’s Cancer Patients quilt project……and I have TRIED to make a cat block…..I made this up and I am thinking it SORT of looks like a big fat cat (my objective) … what do you think?

I wanted it to be a BIG FAT CAT with a little head – HM….did I overdo the big fat body part?  I will have to think about this a bit.  I know that I can do applique but I really wanted a FOLK ART PIECED CAT BLOCK.

OH yes, this is too funny – I TRIED to make a Christmas Tree block for the Colonial Piecemaker’s Quilt Guild Block of the Month Exchange but it didn’t work for me…..my Christmas Tree fabric ended up with the trees sideways – and my total block isn’t the correct measurement….so I did something wrong!!!

Christmas Tree Block Gone Wrong

Oh well, now I have two orphan blocks – one of a cat and one of a Christmas Tree Gone Wrong!  Oh well, it was fun trying.

Stay tuned – there is always something fun going on here!

Category: Colonial Piecemakers, Future Quilt Inspiration, Moda Selvages 08, Quilter's Corners BOM, Quilts in Progress | No Comments »
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Posted By drsao on November 6, 2008

It is pretty hard NOT to love cats.  What personalities!!  My DH bought two nice little kitty beds……….

Two Cute Little Blue Kitty Beds

Brand new – clean, soft, beautiful….and where have Tonto and Daisy May been sleeping?  In my basket of Christmas fabrics!  Well, what can I say?  We quilters know how WONDERFUL it feels to touch good fabric…LOL.  🙂

Daisy May and Tonto sleeping on my Fabric

Midnight and Hannah Fay are Friends

AND…it looks like Cuddles has made friends with Hannah Fay as well!

Cuddles and Hannah Fay (Peeping out from the Chair)

And it looks like Oreo is making TENTATIVE FRIENDS with Daisy May – at least they seem to be sharing their climbing tower!

Daisy May on top and Oreo on the bottom

And Pepper – well he LOVES everyone!  Pepper is looking for Tonto – who sometimes sleeps on the bottom bunk of the little doll bunk bed!

Pepper is on the bed with Daisy May looking for TONTO

And in case you are trying to keep score – let me put it into a MATH SENTENCE for you (you can tell that someone was a substitute teacher today!)

3 cats + 3 kittens + 1 dog = 7 very wonderful furry people

I just couldn’t help taking some pictures of the fall colors on the VA trees …..the leaves just take my breath away.  After spending 20 years in California, seeing the seasons change is a big thrill – one of my FAVORITE THINGS!

Grandangel's House

My House

A Tree at School Today

And I have to say that it was a great thrill to experience HISTORY BEING MADE on election night.  No matter what our party lines might be, it is hard not to feel the elation of this event in light of the past hundred years of African American history.  It makes me proud to be an American.  All things are possible – even though we might not always BELIEVE that this is true.

Our 44th President and First African American President 2008

Category: Cats and Dogs Furry People, Fall Leaves, Life Comments, My Favorite Things | 1 Comment »
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Posted By drsao on November 2, 2008

Today we had our last meeting for our 2008 Thimbleberries Club at QUILTER’S CORNER and we got the instructions to put our quilt together.  Now it is PUZZLE TIME…..we put all of our monthly assignments together and – voila – there is a beautiful quilt!!!!  I just can’t wait to see it.

Mary did finish her Thimbleberries Lakeside quilt top already and there is a picture of it in my picture gallery!!!!  (THE LAST TWO PICTURES IN THE GALLERY are the Lakeside Top and the Assignment for November!)

If you haven’t been in Thimbleberries Club I recommend that you run to sign up because it is just SEW SEW SEW MUCH FUN!  There are two groups meeting on the first Sunday or the first Monday of the month at QUILTER’S CORNER.  Sign ups for the new 2009 year start November 15 so we are all HOPING that we get on THE LIST before the club is full!

ONE  of the things that I like about Thimbleberries Club is all of the extra ideas and patterns that we get to put into our notebook each month.  Susan or another member usually does a demo and teaches us something new and wonderful!!!!!  They even make the extra projects so that we can see them – as well as making the block assignment for the next month.

Today was special because we got to see pictures and the fabric for the 2009 Thimbleberries Club Quilt and  we also got to see Susan’s pictures from the HOUSTON QUILT SHOW AND MARKET.  Oh, was that ever fun!

ANOTHER thing that I like about Thimbleberries Club is that we take turns bringing in FUN FOOD.  I had to take a picture of our “CHOW LINE” today – we had molasses cookies with pumpkin dip (in a pumpkin), chili, chicken corn chowder and a lot of other goodies.

A THIRD thing that I like about Thimbleberries is that we get THIMBLEBERRY BUCKS for attending meetings, doing our assignments, showing something at show and tell, shopping (wow is that ever the hard part…. 🙂 LOL) and also for doing a demo or bringing in refreshments.  THEN AT THE CHRISTMAS PARTY we will have a great auction and BUY THINGS with our BUCKS…..now isn’t that GREAT!!!?

The FOURTH thing that I like about Thimbleberries Club is that we get to see all of the wonderful SHOW AND TELLS – it is inspirational.  I have pictures of several of the SHOW AND TELLS FROM TODAY!

The FIFTH thing that I like is being with all of the wonderful quilters who come to QUILTER’S CORNER.  Quilters are creative, nice, and LOTS of fun!!!!

Here are my pictures……I HAD to sneak a picture of Susan because she hides from the camera.  Only her EYES are showing above my Split Nine-Patch Chicklet Quilt!  MY BAD for sneaking her picture (but notice that I didn’t say sorry!)  Her husband even smiled at me when I took his picture sitting in his car listening to music (it looked a lot like sleeping to us!!!)

Today I shared my OLD VIRGINIA ROAD QUILT TOP with the 112 flying geese around the border and the SPLIT NINE-PATCH CHICKLET quilt top that came from a YAHOO BLOCK EXCHANGE.  (These are the two pictures right before the CHOW LINE.)   That SPLIT NINE PATCH EXCHANGE was a lot of fun and I am going to quilt this one myself!  Wish me luck!

Oh my goodness, this blog entry reads a bit like I am doing a commercial for QUILTER’S CORNER or THIMBLEBERRIES – no, I am not an employee of anyone (except  Chesterfield County – substitute teacher)    just a very happy customer.  🙂

Category: Future Quilt Inspiration, Old Virginia Road, Thimbleberries 08 | No Comments »
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Posted By drsao on November 2, 2008

We had so much fun on Halloween.  We had lots of trick or treaters and handed out lots of candy.  I think it is one of my favorite holidays – love the decorating – love the costumes – and I love getting into my annual witch’s garb.  This year I had a new hat with spiders on the veil – it kept startling me all night – out of the corner of my eye I kept seeing a spider!!!!

I had a rude awakening though – here I am thinking that I am in a great disguise as a big bad witch and all of the neighborhood kids came up – recognized me as their substitute teacher right away – shouting out my name!  Oh well!  🙂

Here are some pictures of our celebration……grandangels, neighbors, and Pepper (our dog) was checking out Cooper (5).  Note the picture of two witches – we are both grandmas to three of the grandangels in the pictures, Leanna, Sarah, and Cooper…….!

The weather was just perfect and everyone had a great time.  I even ate a few pieces of chocolate.  I am not sure what the definition of a few is – but more than two!!!!!  LOL

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