First March Finish

I finished quilting my One Block Wonder piece yesterday but was gone last night so didn't get the binding done until this afternoon. I haven't washed it yet and Tom's not home from work to hold it for a straight on photo. Perhaps I'll get a better pic later.

I've decided to call this "Imperial Gardens". Do you see my solution to not having enough fabric to miter the corners with the border stripe?
It's hard to decide which way I like looking at it best. I may have to put hanging sleeves on more than one side.

I did a looping stipple in the center.

And a regular stipple in the outside border. I used black variegated King Tut thread for the quilting in the inner border.

Two more Dutch Treat blocks finished Sunday night..

"Garden"

"Impala"

Not Enough Days In This Month

Not enough sewing going on the last couple of days. Yesterday was a post surgery follow -up with the eye doctor for Tom, followed by some grocery shopping . Later in the afternoon I had to bake some rolls for a funeral luncheon at our church this morning.

I had hoped to have one more finish for February, but simply ran out of days. In between other things I pieced the center of the One block Wonder quilt yesterday and added the borders today. I think I have fabric that will work for backing so hoping to get it quilted in the next day or two.

I didn't have enough fabric left to miter the outer border so have to do something creative to deal with the outer stripe. I think I know what I'm going to do.

I'm beginning to wonder..if I make enough of these quilts that I claim are "definitely not a Mary quilt" ...or "outside the box for me"...does that mean my style has changed and what I think of as a "Mary quilt" isn't anymore?????????

One more Dutch Treat block done Thursday evening. It's called "Sprites".

We went from 73º on Thursday to snow last night and today. My sinuses are screaming "foul"! The good news is we are supposed to be back to the 70's by next Thursday.

Chicken & Noodles

Today was another busy day. I baked four pies this morning using some of the pie crust dough I put in the freezer last Sunday. I made two French coconut and 2 custard. One of the custards really browned more than usual and the other I managed to dump a lot of cinnamon in one spot. But they all tasted okay I guess. The pies were taken over to our church mid afternoon for our monthly chicken and noodle dinner. We hold these six times a year, Oct, Nov, Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr. I talked about them in this post.

Though we are supposed to start serving at 4:30, by that time I'd already taken the money for 65 adult dinners plus all the carry out dinners and orders. By the end of the evening we had served about 119 adults and 9 children. I haven't counted up the carry out orders yet. So it was another successful event.


I had already eaten quite a bit of my supper when I thought to take a picture. This is what we serve for $6 plus bread, beverage and your choice of pie. Not a bad deal, huh? I was eating at my desk so that's why it looks kind of cluttered.

Back to quilting. This is what I worked on yesterday...more of the One Block Wonder blocks.

Last night and tonight I completed three more Dutch Treat blocks

Butterfly

Canada Goose

(looks more like a duck to me)


Chiclets

Tomorrow we are off to Ft. Scott early in the morning for Tom's first cataract surgery. I'm sure all will go well and we should be home by noon.

Hope everyone had as beautiful of a day as we did.

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!