What Do You Think?

I finished the quilting on this little HST quilt.

Some of you had asked to see what I brought home from HMQS. Well, here is the haul--a couple of bloc-loc rulers, some silk thread to attempt quilting on some very tiny quilts, little bits of fabric and LOTS of Primitive Gatherings patterns. Then there is that 1" clamshell stencil, which I put to use on this quilt.

The clamshells look upside down to me in the first photo, so here you get the proper viewpoint. : )

Now for the binding, and that is where I need help. I wanted to use that orangey-coral color to bind it (give it a little pizzaz, right?), but I have no yardage of any of it. These HSTs were gifted to me, so I have no more of the fabric than what you see here. I searched the repro stash and was surprised to see that I couldn't match it.

What next? I pulled out  a couple of scraps I had of one of the blue prints in the HSTs, but there wasn't enough. I had no other blues that seemed the right shade for this, unless I went almost navy, which I didn't want to do.

I found a brown that blended well enough, but appeared rather blah.

If I pieced every scrap I have left of the border fabric, I might be able to bind it in the same fabric, but that would foil the plans I had for those leftovers.

As a last resort I went to my non-repro stash and found the perfect color, but in a rather large print for the scale of this quilt. It is across the top. Would you do me a favor and enlarge this photo and tell me what you think? Is it too much? Should I go with the blah brown? Or should I keep searching? I am so ready to finish this and move on, but maybe I need to be patient. I would appreciate your input.

Come to think of it, I have moved on--I have been ditch stitching on this basket quilt whenever I have a few minutes and can stay awake to stitch.
This quilt was made with scraps from one of my Mom's quilts.

I can't wait to put feathers in those setting triangles, and I think I might put feathered wreaths in the setting squares.

My blogging may be hit-and-miss for the next couple of weeks because these two happy people are arriving tonight and will be spending two weeks with us. I am so excited!!
They are making a cross-country move from New Hampshire to Oregon and will be stopping with us along the way.

The only down side to this is that I will most likely not be meeting up with my New England blogging friends again, but what a blessing it was to meet Vic, Grace, and Cyndi. There were others I had hoped to meet on future visits, but since I don't get out much, other than visiting family, the odds are against us now.

Now if you live near Eugene, OR, there may be someone knocking on your door sometime, wanting to meet you, and it may be me. : )

I drew a name from those who had asked to be included in the drawing for the snowman patterns and Janet Drennan came up as the winner. Congratulations, Janet! I will be waiting for your snail mail so I can send the patterns your way.

Until next time, 
Janet O.
(In the meantime, enjoy the view.)

May I Have Your Attention, Please?

If you commented on my last post and DID NOT get a reply from me it is because your profile has the "noreply" setting I warned about. I cannot contact you and could not include you in the giveaway. There were many of you this time around and it makes me sad to not be able to respond to your questions or include you in the drawing. I am not ignoring you, I just have no way to contact you until you change your profile settings. I tried to put out a message to you beneath your comment on the last post, but unless you check back (only one of you did) that isn't very effective. I don't want you left out, but there isn't much else that can be done without you fixing your setting. If you don't know how, send me a comment WITH your email address and I can direct you to an instructive post--or you can Google it. : )

That said, I will name the winner at the end of this post. They have already been notified.

On Friday I visited my favorite "over the mountain pass" quilt shop, and look what they had.

"What is it?" you may ask. 

It is a "primitive" letter holder.

But doesn't it do a sweet job of holding little quilts?

And it looks great sitting next to the clip, which I also got at the same shop on my birthday last year.

You can switch out the quilt in the clip in a heartbeat.

Now I know you can't all get to the quilt shop over the mountain pass (wish you could, you would love it), so I found a couple of places they can be ordered. If you go here you have to order two, so plan on one as a gift, or find a quilting buddy that wants the other one (or someone with a messy desk). Shipping on this site is free. The "per item" price will be cheaper on this deal.

Or you can go here and order just one. The shipping is not free, but it is calculated by where you are, so I can't say what that will cost you. 

I will say they cost less at the quilt shop over the mountain, but the travel expense might be prohibitive for some of you. : )

There are also a couple available on ebay at a great price, as of this writing. 


I got the baby sister of my giveaway quilt all finished up. You can see it in the front of the repurposed letter holder, above. And here it is with its big sister.

The patriotic bowl fillers I had just assembled in my last post are now stuffed and stitched and thrown in a bowl with a few others.

I have a large wooden tray that needs staining and then I can put these in it with a few other filler items. Just need to get out the messy stuff to do the staining job.

My little Christmas wool applique quilt is done. This was made using 9 of the 12 patterns from last year's Attic Heirlooms Ornament Of the Month. Obviously mine aren't ornaments.

 Let this quilt be a lesson to you not to quilt tired.  My quilting on the sashing is very wobbly, but I was determined to finish, no matter the hour. I am preferring to call the quilting "whimsical".
All of the cottons used in this little quilt are from thrift store shirts and much of the wools were also felted from thrift store clothing.

And where do you photograph a Christmas quilt in May?

In the Christmas corner of your sewing room, of course. 

Now for the winner--Denise (Count it *all* joy blog) was the second to the last comment, just before I closed the drawing, and she won. See, it can be a good thing to come late to the party. We switched out the two Primitive Gatherings Snowman patterns for something more Denise's style (can you say "pumpkins"?), so if you are interested in just those two Snowman patterns, say so in your comment (and be sure you have your email address included!!!!) and I will draw a name for those next time.

Until then, 
Janet O.

Drawing is now closed.
 

If my calculations are correct...

...this is little finish number 27 for this year. It has been over a week since my last post and this is about all I have to show for it. I went almost a whole week without touching my sewing machine.

 The quilting in the middle of this is just straight line, but I had fun in the borders.

Since the fabrics on the side borders differed from the top and bottom borders, I varied the stitching, too.
And I gave it a little more pizzazz with the deep red binding.
Anyone have a good idea for a name for this one?


Okay, I guess there was a little more stitching than this, but not much.
I found a few leftover bits that had escaped my notice previously, to make a couple more R/W/B bowl fillers.

And I used some leftover HSTs from the little quilt top in my last post to create a couple of baskets that may become bowl fillers or ornaments--I can't decide which. But all of these are ready to stuff and stitch closed. That is the sum total of my quilty content for this post.

I wanted to share my lilac obsession with you. The photo below shows the north side of my house with a row of 9 lilac bushes that have been blooming lately. When I have a window open on that side of the house the heavenly scent comes wafting in. I love it!

Yes, that is my dome home I am always mentioning. My sewing room faces those mountains in the background.

Sometimes I even think to go out and gather a bouquet to enjoy indoors. The darkest of the lilacs in this bouquet are from the row of five more bushes along our west fence line, which do not show in the photo.  That makes 14 lilac bushes--so far.

Beauty of Moscow Lilac

DD#2 and I are planning the purchase of a lovely pastel true pink lilac which I first saw when DD#1 lived in Moscow, ID. It was growing in the university botanical garden. I took this photo there. I think it has a soft, delicate look about it.

When my children were younger we loved the movie "Little Women" and my girls liked that the March family home had a name--Orchard House. So we named our dome Lilac House. I wonder if they remember that?

So if you stayed with me through the non-quilty content, there is something else I had calculated. Monday was the 5th anniversary of my blog, if I calculated correctly, and I wanted to celebrate all of the incredible friendships I have made through this curious place we call blogland. Pictured below is what I would like to share with someone as a token of my thanks to all of you.

I can't begin to express how much the friendships, comments, suggestions, teasing, inspiration, and whatever else have meant to me over these five years. You have enriched my life beyond measure!
Please don't publicize this. It is meant for those of you who are here with me on a regular basis, whether you comment or choose to lurk. But you lurkers will have to break out of your shell and comment this time if you want to be included. Come on, you can do it!

Leave a comment and MAKE SURE your email is attached to your profile or included in your comment, or you will not be included. (Google+ profiles seem to be especially prone NOT to have an email attached.) In your comment, tell me your favorite garden flower--or one of the top two or three, if you have a hard time narrowing it down. Lilacs, roses and iris probably make up my top three garden flowers.

I'm going to be lazy about this and say it will close when I choose to post again, which usually takes about a week. : )
Until then,
Janet O.

The giveaway is now closed.

Going the wrong direction, going to Graduation, and going to HMQS.

I am supposed to be reducing my pile of little tops. That was my goal as this year began, and I had been doing quite well. But the past couple of weeks has seen me add 4 more flimsies to the pile. You've seen the first three in recent posts. This is number four.

This quilt was assembled with gifts from friends. Most of the HSTs (which finish at 1") were from a bag of leftover small quilt parts that a friend gave me, and the border fabric was a gift from a blog friend, after I had admired it on her blog.

I love how it worked out. I think this fabric is the perfect border for the little HSTs. My thanks to Kim (no blog) for the HSTs, and Pat (Amity Quilter blog) for the border fabric. Now to decide how to quilt it!

It was a busy weekend. Friday DH and I were in attendance when our oldest son (child #3) received his Master's Degree.

It was just after I began this blog five years ago that he received his Bachelor's Degree. Since then his hair is longer, mine is greyer, and DH's hasn't changed. He never ages.

DH and I spent Saturday in the Salt Lake City area, about 90 minutes south of home. He dropped me off at the South Town Expo Center and I attended the Home Machine Quilting Show, while he did some test driving of cars.

The place was humming with activity. I didn't take any classes this year, but it was very fun to meet up with wonderful quilters, see beautiful quilts in the show, and shop some great vendors!

The Doans, of Missouri Star Quilt Company. Such genuine, down-to-earth people. A real treat to visit with them.

Visited Sandra Starley (Textile Time Travels blog), quilt appraiser, who always has a booth of yummy vintage goodies to peruse. I enjoyed studying the red fabrics in that signature quilt on the back wall.

Someday I would love to see Sandra's entire collection of quilts, but I don't know if that is even possible. Every time I see her there are "new" vintage quilts in her possession.

  
Irena Bluhm had a few of her beautifully painted quilts on display in her booth. She was very sweet to pose for me.

Jenny Pedigo, of Quick Curve Ruler fame, standing by her most popular quilt design. She is a very gracious lady, and an amazing quilter. Even though I am not a modern quilter, I have learned many quilting tips and been inspired by her beautiful designs on her blogs (Sew Kind Of Wonderful and Jenny's Doodling Needle).

This was the first time Primitive Gatherings has been to this show. I was excited. My friend, Jami, happened to have dropped by to shop when Jake agreed to a photo for my blog. This was my first stop in the morning and my last stop before I went out to catch my ride home. They received the bulk of my HMQS budget.
Jake and Amy were very helpful and patient with me. Thanks for coming to Utah!

I saw this sweet machine being used to demonstrate a product in a booth, and I wished I could bring it home with me. There seemed to be a purple glow coming from the booth that I couldn't resist.



After spending the bulk of my time in the vendor mall with my list of items to find, I took a quick trip through the quilt show. 

This was the top award winning quilt.

Read the description and then click on some of the small photos below to get a feel for it. The background appeared to be printed or painted. The buildings seemed to be printed on fabric and attached to the quilt. The people and animals were pretty incredible.

This quilt caught my eye. Love the colors and design. It was very well made.

Here we have  the entire selection of minis entered in the show.

These are the same quilts from the other end of the row. You can see the blue ribbon hanging from the top prize winner in this category.

I was a bit surprised by the selection, but I must admit that the quilting lines were so straight, and evenly spaced, and the use of color play in the threads was a nice visual addition.

It was a long day and I was happy to spend a few minutes relaxing at home that evening with my newest long-term project. This is a quilt I posted about years ago. I designed it for my youngest son as a memory quilt from his time as an LDS missionary in Brazil. Everything has meaning to his experiences there. He has been home almost 7 years, so it is about time I got this going.

I finally had a longarm friend baste it for me last month so I could get started on the hand quilting. Expect this to be with me for a year or two. I am not the fastest hand quilter on the block and my back doesn't allow me to spend too much time on it at once. 

Had a busy, full Mother's Day with family gathered for dinner, and Skyping with those too far away. I'm exhausted, but fulfilled after a jam-packed weekend, and ready to tackle another week. 

BTW, my 5 year blog anniversary is coming up very soon. Stay tuned. : )

Until next time, 

Janet O.