Fall, leaves, pumpkins and quilts

Here it is fall already and we are happy for it. Today is a perfect football game day. The weather couldn't be more agreeable. I couldn't resist the beautiful mums for sale a a nearby store.

Tomorrow our church unloads a portion of a semi truck of pumpkins. They are grown on an Indian reservation and shipped here. We sell them and donate the money to American missions. This year I bought some Martha Stewart stick on faces so I don't have to cut open the pumpkins.
I just returned from New Jersey where I attended the American Quilt Study Group's annual seminar. It is one of the highlights of my year. The papers presented were wonderful and the tours were super! I always return pumped up. I roomed with Mary J-P as I have in the past couple of years. She is delightful and we get along well. There just isn't enough time to go and see all you wish you could. In one of the pictures you will see a darling quilt which I helped create for the AQSG endowment fund. I sent my block back to Xenia Cord who graciously put the quilts together. Many ladies participated by making blocks and sending them. The finished quilts were auctioned Sat. night and I purchased the one my block was in. I love to do challenges like this to help worthy causes. Had to include a couple of the beautiful antique quilts I saw in New Jersey which are just above.

To the right is the Endowment quilt.

January, 2011
How did it become another year so quickly? Well, while I was sleeping, I guess. Just a quick note on our Christmas his year. It was spent with my dear sister, Carol and her DH, Barrie in California. Carol and I haven't been together on Christmas for over 50 years. Can you believe it? When she left home in her late teens, she went to CA, got married and soon had 3 sons to raise. Neither of us got back or forth very often, between CA and Ohio (where we were both born and raised) because of our families and money constraints. So now that we are a bit older we felt it would be a lovely thing to do. Brian and I had a super time and although we didn't do lots of touristy things, we did lots of cooking and visiting . We also went to Los Osos, which is 3 hours to the south of Los Gotos, their primary residence. Los Osos is their small, cottage-style second home very close to the Pacific. That was so fun too!
Elva, my dear friend, and I are back to teaching the "girls" more quilting. It is so fun to watch them learn and become excited about creating. Last fall we had some wonderful quilting angels looking after us. Sheryl and Bob Smith from, Accent on Sewing, a nearby shop, generously donated a large amount of fabric to our class to be used in the girls' projects! You can' imagine how delighted we were! The prints are so pretty and the girls love the brightest ones for their choices. We thank Bob and Sheryl again from the bottom of our hears for making so many people happy! God bless them!
Before I went to CA I got a cute wall quilt or table topper done. I just love it, but wanted my sister to have it. She was delighted and used it right away. I have plans to make myself another but probably will never find as cute fabric but that's OK. New ones come out all the time, it seems.
One of my on line friends, whom I know in person as well as cyberly (is that a word?)is Jan from the Dakotas. She sent us on line instructions for a 10 minute table runner. I had to make one right away. Cute and double cute! Thanks, Jan.

May Flowers and Beautiful quilts

Brian and I got 72 mondo grass plants in around our oval island in the middle of the driveway. We also put in 3 Knockout roses which do well down here in our humidity. I planted in our 2 areas around the pool and just put in mostly caladium. Absolutely no sweet potato vines. Last year they grew into the pool and we had to keep cutting them. I swear they grew 2 feet over night!
I had fun in late March as I went to Ohio to visit DD (dear daughter) and her family and then on to my friend Karen's. Karen had a purse kit all ready for me to make a purse along with the gals in her class. All our purses came out so cute. It was the first time I put in grommets. Karen and I also worked on matching Kaffe Fasset quilts form his new book which Karen gave me as a gift. I brought my light colors of Kaffe and she used the darks from her stash. I made the light blocks and she made the dark which we then swapped. I have a picture of it but as you will see it is far from being done, but you will get the idea of it.
I have included pictures of our first group of gals and their "Dresses" quilts. Some of the gals who have sons substituted shirts and pants for the dresses. I am always amazed at what the gals come up with. You will see some gals in our newer group of sewers working on their strip quilts. They did very well with them. I am very proud of all the work both the newer and the more experienced students are doing. Elva and I want to start another group in Sept. We have several girls who really want to learn who didn't make it this time.

What are you all up to these days? It seems that spring brings many jobs and chores, like planting and cleaning out closets, to light. My dear husband and I planted 71 mondo grass plants around our oval island in the driveway. We also planted 3 Knock out roses in that area which also contains our fountain and some sega palms. My sister in CA suggested that 2 rows of mondo grass would look even better. Well, maybe next year. Here is SC it is hot and muggy much of the summer and it will soon be too hot to plant. I haven't put in nearly the amount of plants I unusually do. It is going to have to do.
I had such a good time at my friend, Karen's home back in March. After visiting with my daughter and her family for several days in Ohio, I went to visit Karen who lives about 45 minutes from daughter. Karen had a purse kit all cut and quilted for me. Several of her students and I made our purses in a class she taught. I mean how great is that to have a kit ready to go! She and I also worked on a Kaffe Fasset project out of his new book, which she gave me for a birthday gift. I provided all the lighter color strips and she used her darker colored strips. We got much of the quilt finished. I have had some other things to do, and haven't finished mine yet. It is really a beauty and I have a picture of it not sewn all together yet. But I think you can see where it is going.

January is busy!

The Holidays seemed to end quickly and everyone got back into the old grind. I finally got the other two pictures on this post so you can see Mary and Isaiah at the Festival just prior to their leaving for Mexico. The little girl in the picture is a friend who danced with Isaiah. The next picture is of my Salsa quilt. I also posted a picture of my table-runner for a swap I am doing online. Tonight the gals are working on their fusible applique of "Little Girl Dresses"quilt which I posted a while back that I made. I have adapted the pattern so that the gals who have sons can make the pattern with shirts and pants or shorts for their boys. They are finding that zig zig is quite hard to do. I have been having them practice, practice until they are happy with their results. Then they can make the pattern. We will see how it goes tonight.

Best New Year Wishes!

Our New Year is starting with a real cold spell. Many parts of the country are having very severe cold weather. Here in SC it is cold too. I wear my fuzzy jammies at night and my woolly sweaters during the day. Some winters here are so warm that I rarely wear any of my old, warm clothes from Ohio. My old cashmere sweater feels mighty good today. I think it is suppose to warm up soon. This is wonderful quilting weather, especially if you have bindings to sew on. You can sew them on while the quilt keeps you warm over your lap.
Since Christmas break, our group of quilters from St. Cyprian's have met once again to finish their rag quilts. They are coming nicely and will be welcome by their families during this cold weather, so they better get them done this week! We are moving on then to a fusible applique project. During the month of Dec., a festival for Our Lady of Guadalupe was held for the members of the parish. My friend Elva (who speaks Spanish and is my interpreter) invited me to go and be part of the celebration. It was truly wonderful and so enlightening to see these families come together and put on a play, singing, dancing and eating! They transformed the plain, well used hall into a fairyland of beauty! I included some pictures of little Isiah and his dancing partner doing the Mexican hat dance. It brought the house down! There is another picture of Isaiah and his mom, Mary, who left for Mexico a couple of weeks later. Mary was a super student of ours and I hated to say good-bye to her. The very bright quilt that I call "Salsa" I made in Nov. and Dec. Those aren't the colors I usually go for, but this bright quilt I really love. I am now working on one of my UFOs (unfinished objects) that I started at least 10 years ago. It is "Oak leaves and Reel", which is a favorite traditional pattern. I am making it in all contemporary colors. It is very scrappy and will require over 500 half square triangles in the borders. Yuck! Maybe I don't want to finish this after all.

Moving right along