Do You Know The Way To Sante Fe?

Remember Flower Power? Love this shape!

Okay I know that is not the name of the song, but the rhyme part worked. As you read this I am on a plane to New Mexico with my mother in law Nancy, my sisters in law, Jan, Ellen, Kate, Ann, Denise and Denise's mom Gloria.
I will be back next week. I was going to try and blog but decided to give it a rest.
We are going to the Georgia O'Keefe museum, can't wait!!!

Kelly

Diary Quilt Tuesday

I know it has been a long time since I posted anything but a lot has been going on here! First of all I was deathly sick again and in bed for 4 days......I was afraid I might not get this block done. 
Yesterday was my daughter, Caitlin's birthday. She is my little ballerina, so this block represents her. She started taking dance when she was 4 and stopped her senior year in high school. It was a big part of our lives.

An almost similar pose....this was taken when she was 4 and she was a bluebird......25 years ago! Where does that time go?

I wouldn't call her a daddy's girl, but they do have a special bond of respect and love.

She survived, braces and school pictures...

and 3 older brothers...........

she also provided drama from time to time....

She will always be our little princess.

She's all grown up and soon to become a wife. She got engaged this weekend and we all are so very happy! Congratulations Jim and Caitlin!

 Maddy helped with the cake.

Do you think we could fit one more thing on there? Notice the ballerinas.

I think they will live happily ever after!

Kelly

Keeping It Real

Kelly

Diary Quilt Tuesday

I did have this done on time and ready to go but got sick again. This time feels way worse than the last time. These are leftovers from a block I made at our get away. I really do like it and it was a lot of fun to make.

I used straight line stitching, my new favoarite and followed each section. The lines are random, not perfect.

Well it is almost 3 am and I can't sleep. Everything hurts and aches plus the head ache won't let me sleep. I am going to the Dr later today and am hoping she can give me something. I am supposed to be leaving for Sante Fe on Thursday. If it is anything like the last time I may be skipping the trip! I am a little bummed out about that, because I have always wanted to go. Fingers crossed!!!

Kelly

Quiltini Getaway

I am leaving tomorrow for 3 days to hang out with the Quiltinis, (it rhymes with martini) that is what we call ourselves. It will be heaven to sit, sew, talk, drink wine and eat good food. We also walk every morning and talk about everything under the sun.

I am only bringing 1 project to work on because it needs to be done.....a quilt promised to my brother in law. It is a good chunk of time to get a good start on it.

While I was packing my things up, I came across my hexagons. I am at a crossroads with these darn things! I have enough done to make a nice wallhanging or I can go back to my original plan and make a large quilt. Any opinions? Has anyone made a large one? Was it crazy hard to quilt?

My Diary Quilt block will be posted on Wednesday. I wanted to try and get it done before I left, no such luck. We also have very limited internet and phone access where we go, so no distractions!!!

PS Who ever thought I would get over 1500 hits on my post about band aids? It struck a real nerve!

Kelly

Keeping It Real

Hope I made you laugh!

Kelly

EEEEWWWW!

Now how great of an idea is this for a quilt? One of the members of Calico Cutters, Nancy Powell made this for her husband. A very guy quilt, don't you think?

Implosion #3 Beth Barron

Today after guild we went to the Wayne Art Center to see the Art Elements show that featured some very prominent art quilters. What do you think this quilt is made of? Look closely.....

Band-Aids....used Band-Aids.....used Band-Aids that she found....here and there....ugh! some of them still have blood on them and who know what else! I am really curious to know, how you all feel about this kind of art. On the one hand it is totally pushing the envelope but on the other hand eeewwww.

I guess to each his own but would you pay $9,000 for this? Inquiring minds want to know..... I just read part of the description, some were hand stitched. I hope you are not eating while you are reading this.....

Diary Quilt Tuesday

Let's just say the girls were not into "helping" me make a block. I am not even quite sure what Maddy's drawing is on the right....hmmmmm.

Last night at Penn Oaks Quilt Guild we had a speaker who talked about the Civil War and brought her own Dear Jane quilt that she made. I am drawing a blank as to what her name was......if anyone knows tell me and I will add it.
Her name is Nancy Long form Willow Valley, thank you Nancy R. for sending me the info!

A very interesting fact I learned last night was, during the Civil War the south produced 3/4 of the WORLD'S cotton!!! Did you know that? We would then send it to England where they used it to make textiles to sell back to us. She had lots of those kinds of interesting little facts and she was wearing a lovely dress, complete with hoop skirt.

I went to the book store today to get my husband some books and look what I found! I knew she had a book coming out but did not realize it was this soon. I am looking forward to reading this one tonight.

And I found this magazine which looked kind of interesting too.
What are you reading???

Kelly

Busy Week

This week has been all about kids. Yesterday we invited the neighbors over for an Easter Egg Hunt and dinner. It was a sunny but windy day. The kids had a great time.

We have a great tree line to hide the eggs,

This week the grandkids and I had a tie dye session........don't they look bored? Look at those weeds in the background.....

They did enjoy it.

I think they did a great job!

Even though I have 4 kids of my own, I have forgotten how hard it was to keep them occupied! We would jump from project to project.

There was no way we were doing a sewing project. Maddy took a time out from the kids to go down to "her" sewing room and work on the design wall.

She loves taking scraps and pinning them to death on the design wall. A sewer in training...

These are the quilts that myself and several other ladies made for a book that will be coming out soon. Bob, the designer and author of the book, had us all over for a party to celebrate! The food was great, the company even better. We all had fun.
I will post pictures of all the quilts as soon as the book is out.

Now that the Easter bunny has gone back home, life should settle down a bit and I can get back into the sewing room. I am looking forward to tomorrow's diary block. I have 2 little helpers who are designing the block for me.

Kelly

Keeping It Real

Kelly

Diary Quilt Tuesday

I will tell you right away I am not thrilled with this block. It is supposed to represent my redbuds which opened almost an entire month early.
The bark is a little too dark and the flowers are lame. I am not changing it....that was a part of my "rules".

I do know that some of them are going to be dogs and this is one of them.

Now to look at the positive the quilting is not bad? Oh my!!

Now I need to ask all of you who watch Mad Men..............what do you think of the first 2 shows? I feel like they are a little slow but think it will pick up. Next question has Betty Draper/January Jones really put on that much weight or is it fake? My husband and I almost did not recognize her. I know she was pregnant when they filmed this season but for some of the time it almost looked fake. Anyone know?

Kelly

Keeping It Real

Just because I needed a good laugh...they are sitting on chairs in case you didn't know.....

Kelly