I've Got Mail!

I got mail today!  And I'm so excited!  I received my copy of "String Fling" by Bonnie K. Hunter.

Bonnie even autographed it!  The first project I want to do it the Santa Fe String Star.  (You can see part of it on the cover of the book.)  It starts out with you making 200 of the star point template.  That's just the template.  Then you make them into string blocks.  This one's going to take a while to make....

The Omaha Quilters Guild Quilt Show

Last Thursday evening I met my sister and a friend at the Omaha Quilters Guild Quilt Show.  An amazing show as always!  I'm going to show you a few quilts that caught my attention, but there were sooo many, that I couldn't take a picture of everything.  (Sorry this is so late, but I was having trouble placing pictures on the page.  Does that ever happen to you?)

 This quilt is called "Victorian Floral"  and it was made by Karen Hradec.  She found a pattern for a needlepoint stool cover and converted it to fabric. The picture below shows a close up of one of the flowers.  Beautiful.  Even the black background is made up of tiny little black pieced squares.   

This quilt reminds me of the quilt made by Grace Snyder, below.  It's little half square triangles.  It's beyond amazing to me.  

Just a few more....

Sunflower

Tree Farm by Dori Towsley

Purple Blue Persuasion By Yvonne Wilson

Nebraska Winter by Susie Jorgensen  (A wool quilt)

Mother's Gloves by Carol Ann  Murray

Update

We had a great time at the Family Reunion on Father's Day.  So good to see family that you don't see very often.

Tuesday was Quilt Guild and we had a wonderful speaker and trunk show.  Our guest was Carlene Buck and all of her wonderful quilts.  Go check them out, you'll be glad you did.   The most amazing quilts she saved for last.

Holocaust: A Hate Movement

 Her quilt  "Holocaust: A Hate Movement"  is a very amazing quilt.  There are more details about it on her site.  When we first came in to the room, the swastikas jumped out at me.  Then I saw the Star Of David blocks and I knew there had to be a story.  Carlene visited Israel in 1992 with a church group and visited Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Museum.  It was then that she knew God wanted her to make a quilt about the Holocaust.  Later she visited the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and this was the vision she had.

Another view of the Holocaust quilt.

Close up of two blocks.

Tonight I'm off the the The Omaha Quilters Guild Quilt show.  I'm ready to be inspired again!

Busy, Busy, Busy, Again

It has been busy, busy, busy, again!  This past weekend the Bluffs Art Council sponsored a quilt show.  My friend Jeanine, Jean, Rachel, myself and some other ladies worked to get the show put together.  What an amazing show it was.  I do have a few pictures from Saturday after we were pretty well set up.  I say "pretty well" as more quilts came in on Sunday that we didn't realize were going to be there.  But we did well!

 We didn't have any quilt frames to use for hanging the quilts.  Sharon, one of the other ladies, said she had been to a show that they showed the quilts on chairs.  For as small as this show was, it did turn out very nice.

 We also borrowed quilt stands for some of the quilts.

And we did a bed turning.  The top quilt is an older yo-yo quilt.  It was sooo heavy.  Lots of beautiful quilts!   When you are a behind the scenes person, you worry about so many things.  But all in all, it was a very beautiful show.

Monday I sewed and sewed and sewed.  I am now ready for borders on the Orca Bay quilt.  My friend Jean took this picture for me, she even had it on her blog.   Won't be working on it much this weekend, we have a Family Reunion and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are coming a few days early.  Happy sewing!

Table Topper Hot Pad

I finished the blueberry hot pad for my friend yesterday.  I used Insul-Bright for the lining and it's the perfect size for a 9 x 13 pan.  I also finished the binding on the carrot hot pad.

I really like the pop of color this adds to the table on the deck.  Hope Mary Jo likes the blueberries.

This And That

I did a little of this and a little of that yesterday.  Did a little sewing on Orca Bay, sewed some of the 4 patches together, and made a table topper hot pad.

I've been sewing 2 inch squares together as leader and enders.  Yesterday became the day to put a couple of blocks together just to see what they will look like.  I'm liking it!

Here is the table topper hot pad.  After dinner I sat on the deck and hand stitched on the binding.  It was a beautiful evening.  This little kit came from Log Cabin Quilting in Exira, Iowa  It's a hostess gift for a friend.  When I showed it the my husband, he thought it was a little bright. I had picked up two kits that day and the other one is blueberries and it is a little more subdued.  Since I have the other kit, I decided maybe he was right about how bright it was and will make the other kit up today. (I'll keep the carrots!)

It's Back!

My machine is back!  All ready for me to spend the summer sewing.  I'm so happy and excited.  I do have a few things to show you.  I didn't totally waste my time while the machine was in the shop.  (Even though I did spend a fair amount of time on Pinterest.)  First up, my hexies.

I finished cutting out the yellow centers I needed for where I am at with this project.  I currently have 52 hexies cut and ready to be put together.  Not exactly sure how many I'll need as these are big hexagons, but I am trying to make it for a king size bed.  So... if I make one flower a week, I'll have them done in a year.  Do I want to make that kind of commitment?  Should I make that kind of commitment?  I know I can handle it during the summer, but once I'm back to work, it will be hard to keep up.  I'll think about that one some more.

I made a few more string blocks.  Love making these as they are so no mind for me.  Great for when I want to take it easy but not think about whether I have my points or seams matched.

These are the little four patch blocks I've been sewing up as leaders and enders as I work on the Orca Bay quilt.  Speaking of which, I think I have about 4 more rows to go and then its border time!  Hope you're enjoying your sewing/quilting time!

Startitis

What is it about getting so far into a project, that suddenly, I get startitis.  Is it because the current project is getting close to being finished that I start thinking about what to do next?  And with that thinking, I get all excited and want to drop what I'm doing now and start the next thing?  Actually, I think that's what happens.  And in the past I have dropped the current project in favor for the new one.  Which is why I have so many UFO's.  It also didn't help that Bonnie Hunter came out with a new book that has me sooo excited.  I want to make the Santa Fe String Star!  (And yes, I did pre-order the book.)

Late afternoon yesterday, my husband, myself and the dog took a walk to the mailbox.  On the way back my husband spotted this little guy in the mulberry tree.

He still has lots of his down and he had a death grip on the tree branch.  Not sure if he fell out of the nest or if he was learning to fly.  We could hear one or both of the parent birds calling.  When I took the dog out again about 2 hours later, he was gone.  Hope he managed to fly away as I didn't see him on the ground under the tree.