An Important Day Today

Today my sister in law Janet is donating one of her kidneys to her brother in law David. If you could send some good wishes, thoughts or prayers that would be great. She is doing an amazing thing. None of his siblings matched but his sister in law did! She is in great health so our hopes are high that everything will go well.
I will be back later today with a picture post of our guild meeting. Sue Reno is the speaker and she has some wonderful work that I will share with you.

Kelly

Falling Behind

Isn't this pretty? It is my part of the Longwood Garden Quilt. I picked hibiscus to do. It is due in October.

We are doing this one machine applique. Believe it or not I am more stressed about doing it on the machine than by hand. We also are to add stitching and embellishments if we want.

I have made very little progress on the guild block for the raffle quilt. I made the huge mistake of taking 2 blocks.....I think I may be returning one to the meeting and let some one else help out. It is also due in October....

These look like purple eggs to me...hughhhh.
Do you ever over-extend your self  by volunteering? They are both for good, worthwhile things that is why I am doing them but........it always seems like that is when I have a great idea I want to try out, when the plate is full, of purple eggs.

I am signing off as,

Flashback Friday

My grandsons, Griffin and Elliot made some mini quilts yesterday. Griffin's (6) is on the left and Elliot's (4) is on the right. Now I have to fuse them and I told them they could help do some sewing on the sewing machine. They did a great job. I think Elliot enjoyed using the scissors!

I just dumped out the fabric and let them go for it.

Hard at work!

Did you know that today is a very special day?  It is the 25th anniversary of.......

Bueller......... Bueller.......... Bueller.....
Our family loves this movie and always watches it when it is on. If you have not seen it make sure you do!

Kelly

Postcard Tutorial

Have you ever tasted a Jersey tomato? They are one of the best I have ever tasted, they are legendary!
I had some emails that wanted me to do a tutorial on my post card. I decided to do something different because I don't want to make the same thing over again.

To make it easy and fun, spend some time getting ready. Pick out fabrics and fuse some fusible web to the backs of pieces 5 x 5 or larger. It helps the creative part flow.

After you fuse it take the paper off. I really like Wonder Under, but use what you like. Save that paper you can use it to keep fusible off the ironing board.

We want the post card to be stiff so use heavy interfacing like Timtex, which is pretty rigid. You can find it at a store like Joanne's. There is also some that has a fusible side that works well too. Cut the interfacing to about 5 x 7 . The post card we are making will be 4 x 6. Cut a piece of fused fabric and fuse it to the interfacing. I am using a hand dyed purple.

Next start cutting your shapes....I didn't trace or draw anything. It makes it exciting to see what you get! This is where the prefusing comes in handy. You can just keep cutting until you get what you like without having to stop and fuse fabrics.

The crown is put under the tomato.

For the star I cut a circle and then cut it into a star shape. It is not perfect but I think it makes it look more realistic.

A curvey stem and some leaves.....

Some sunglasses.....

Add some machine quilting......nothing special to do, treat it just like a regular quilt. I did use my free motion foot and outlined the background and the tomato parts. I would choose a light colored thread in the bobbin so it does not show through too much.

Turn it over, trim your threads and fuse another piece of fabric to the back. Trim it down to the 4 x 6 size and you are almost done.....If your threads show through, use 2 pieces of fabric layered on top of each other.

Use a walking foot and stitch a satin type stitch along the edge or you can also try a button hole stitch. I set the stitch length to 1 and the width to 3 on my Bernina. If you want it a little thicker go over the edges twice.

This is another one I made all trimmed up and ready to finish off the edges. This is another fun project that kids would enjoy as well.
Now send this off to some one who would love to get a little work of art!

Kelly

Miscellaneous Tuesday

My Almost Red and White quilt is done. I spent the better part of 3 days machine quilting. It is 91 x 91, I don't think I want to do that again! I need to get a better picture....
Remember last week I told you one of my friends made the Karen Stone pattern like mine, Yellow Bird In A Blender? Well I was wrong, she made a different one. Cynthia sent me this picture of the Karen Stone quilt she made.....amazing!

Another friend Terry whose quilts you have seen here needs to start a blog. We keep trying to convince her but she has not given in....yet. A few weeks ago she had a wedding to go to. Like all of us she went shopping for a dress and here is her shopping report, get ready for a good laugh!

OK, deep breath. Report on the dress. I seriously need an ExcessFlabEctomy. After I dropped Kelly off, I stopped at Steinmart. I found a fairly simple black and white print dress that I could get on. Notice I say "get on" because I realized that I was setting the bar too high for myself by wanting to look, if not actually 'good', at least--acceptable, or at worst--not screaming horrible. My new standard is, can I hang the darn garment on my body and not be arrested for indecent exposure? or ridiculed for truly awful taste as in the  "lumber-jack look" debacle.  Then I remembered, some of my friends (remaining anonymous) have touted the miracles of "Spanks." So I trudge back to the lingerie department and spend one of the most torturous hours of my life, attempting to determine the correct size and the optimum configuration of this "product" on my body. I decided nothing less than the knees to chin model would make me look like a sleek seventeen-year-old again. I grabbed handfuls of flab from various body sites and stuffed it into the sausage casing suit. This is not fun. Peeling all clothes off then putting on clothes again to go back to the rack for some other size or style. Nothing fit quite right. I bought the dress and went home. Yesterday, I shopped from 10 am to 5:30 trying to find a dress that didn't require 'flab compression.' No luck. Returned to Plan B and scoured the stores for Spanks at Concord Mall. They have many Spanks "Wanna Be's" but no Spanks. Profanity cannot begin to describe my frustration. I return home and have a large glass of wine. This morning I Googled "Spanks" and found they are sold at Nordstroms. Aaaaarrrrgh. An hours drive to Christiana Mall in Delaware and $98 dollars poorer, I am a reluctant, kicking and screaming member of the Spanks Club. All this for a $23 dress from Steinmart. Two fully lost days. How can people enjoy shopping for clothing? There are millions of people in the stores and honestly, they seem so happy and excited, like they are enjoying themselves. And I see just lots and lots of people with way worse bodies than mine, buying clothing like they'll never have another chance and everything fits and looks great and money is no object. Clearly, I was meant for better things. As for you all seeing the dress, not in this lifetime, sistahs.

I think we can all relate at one time or another! Thanks for keeping it real Terry!!!

Last but not least, Happy Birthday to my son Dylan, who is 33 today! Love you!!

Kelly

Post Card Swap

I am participating in a postcard swap over at The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap . I made mine yesterday because they are due in 2 weeks. The way time is flying I was afraid I would forget! The recipient of my postcard lives in England! I am not telling her name so it will be a surprise. I am anxious to see what my card will look like.
Kelly

Hershey Kiss Quilts

I went to the Hershey Quilt Show yesterday and Thursday. As always the quilts are aboslutely wonderful. Enjoy the show!

55,000 crystals on this one! It really sparkled.

 Kelly