Lots of Eye Candy!

Two very busy days just passed. Yesterday after church in the morning, I spent most of the afternoon and evening cooking and baking. I'm program chair for our quilt guild this year and I decided it would be both fun and economical to cook the meal for the workshop I had scheduled for today. I've now instructed my husband that the next time I plan so many things to do in a single day he is to remind me I'm nearly 63 and on oxygen 24/7. He doesn't seem to think he'd be all that successful and he's probably right. Still...........

I made a huge pot of what my family calls "stew", but what is actually a beef-vegetable soup. After I started that simmering, I made dough for butter semmel dinner rolls to go along with the soup. Then I had to make a big batch of pie crusts to put in the freezer, since I'll be baking four pies on Wednesday for our church's monthly chicken and noodle dinner.

After that was done it was time to stop and get my fabric and supplies ready for today's workshop. Then I stirred up dough for the cinnamon rolls that would raise over night. Remember I promised the guild I'd bake them for every workshop as an inducement to get people to enroll.

Then I baked 5 dozen dinner rolls. And got more supplies ready for today. Okay..I also took a break and watched Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters and later the first episode of the new season of Big Love. That was over at midnight and then I had to form the cinnamon rolls and put them in the pans to continue raising. Got up at 6 to bake them this morning.

I'll probably do it all again sometime, but not tomorrow!

Now on to the fun stuff you'd rather hear about (as opposed to my whining about being tired).

We are fortunate as a quilt guild to have lots of very talented members. One of them is Jan Campbell. She is also one of our most productive quilters. I sometimes think I get quite a bit done, but Jan just leaves me in the dust! When I started working on my programs for this year I was happy when she offered to conduct a Stack 'n Whack workshop and give a trunk show.

I have no idea how many quilts Jan has made over the years, nor even how many Stack 'n Whack ones. All I know is A LOT! And she is also one of our most generous quilters, donating lots of her work to community quilts and other worthwhile causes.

The workshop was so much fun. We had twelve members and it is always so amazing to see the unique talents and tastes individuals bring with them.

Here's some of the promised eye candy from the beautiful blocks made today:

First the only picture I got of Jan as she instructs one the participants Ida was first to get a block completed

Myldred Phyllis Marie Norma This is the interesting fabric Elma chose to work with

And look at her cool blocks! Theresa cut up Laurel Burch panels..who would have thought to use panels?

Hazel
Ida block #2

Phyllis block #2

Shirley

Stephanie made slightly smaller blocks

One of the very cool blocks..or block segments from Theresa's Laurel Burch panels. She thought you couldn't use it because of the letters. I think it will be one of the neatest blocks in her quilt! What do you think?

Stacia

Marie block #2

Stephanie block #2

I didn't make the same blocks as everyone else. You always have to have one oddball in every group, right? I purchased the fabric below last fall with the idea of making a One Block Wonder quilt. When I asked my husband if he wanted me to use it to make regular Stack 'n Whack blocks or the OBW, he voted for the later, so that is what I worked on today.

Because it will be sewed together in rows of half hexagons to avoid Y-seams, it's necessary to make all the blocks and decide on their arrangement before sewing any together. So I just laid the blocks I had done on the table to get a feel for how the quilt might develop. I think it has possibilities.

And here's another I started a long, long time ago. It was a small piece of fabric I picked up in the remnant bin. I did sew the blocks together using Y-seam contruction. If I ever get it finished it will be a wall hanging.

Jan's trunk show was wonderful. It was hard to get good pictures but you can see more of her quilts and other pics taken today at the workshop in one of my Photobucket albums.

This is one of my favorites among her Stack 'n Whacks. It's called "Bills Babes". And she made it for her father. The first picture shows only a quarter section of the quilt.

Hey. I'm thinking that blouse Hazel has on would make great Stack 'n Whack blocks!

And here's a closeup in which you can hopefully see the border fabric which was used to make the blocks. Isn't it great?

She ended her trunk show with this amazing antique postage stamp quilt. Hopefully if you click on it, it will enlarge enough for you to get some idea of the fantastic work. The hand quilting is superb and the quilt itself is in perfect condition..made in the 1920's.

Aren't quilters just the most fascinating bunch to spend a day with? I'm glad I didn't have to pick a favorite from the blocks made because it would be an impossible task. They were all wonderful!