TENNESSEE

These are a few of my favorite things.

New York Beauty Quilt

August class

September class

Two blocks from the Cinco de Mayo pattern by Karen Stone.  

Freaky Friday

Yes.  This is "our" cat, as of September 4th.

I was told, "I found it at the football game Friday night, so I named it Friday."  Yes, look closely at the tag, it says Friday.

Amanda also said, "We are going to share him".  She and a friend are going to share him.  So sharing means a portable litter box, food, and dishes.  Amanda bought food, litter, toys, a collar, and an engraved tag for Friday.   To date the cat has stayed more than his shared visitation time at my house.
He is a cutey, and he has a few stories to share.

September 14 is "take your cat to work day".  Who knew?

Friday decided to hide in the truck and go to town as Tracey was on his way to work.  When he got to town, Friday decided he didn't want to go to work and instead he decided to go for a walk.  As luck would have it, the other side of the tag has Amanda's phone number on it.  (Maybe I do have a responsible child, she is smart when it comes to pets.)  Monday was also the pre-planned day to go to the vet.  Friday did not make himself available until after 5 pm when the vet's office closes.  (Maybe the cat is smarter than the responsible child.)

 

Storms and Quilting

What do those two things have in common . . .

I can't believe it.  I attended a performance and a class with Sherri Lynn Wood.  She is amazing.  Her recent book - The Improve Handbook for Modern Quilters - has caused a creative quilting storm. Please check out her blog at daintytime.net.

A dozen ladies gathered at Fancy Tiger Crafts in Denver, Colorado, Saturday evening for Sherri Lynn Wood's performance.  She demonstrated a few of the techniques from her book.  She made it look so easy.

A few more ladies gathered at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds on Sunday for a class.

It was so much fun.  Sherri Lynn Wood is a talented quilter and teacher.  I learned new tips, tricks and techniques.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend of fun.

The Floating Squares score - a few examples.  The tiles on the floor of the Exhibit Hall blend in perfectly.  

My example is the blue and white on the right.  (I know there is a lot of orange in other examples and I didn't pick orange for my squares.  What was I thinking?!?)

Before our trip to Denver, we had a rainstorm that flooded our neighborhood.  

Flood - ten feet of water in a gully and running across our street Wednesday evening (7:00 PM).  

No flood - twelve hours later Thursday morning (7:00 AM).  

A few days later as we were leaving Denver - a beautiful rainbow.  

I have many new ideas and I'll be quilting up a storm.  

Memorial Day Eve

Is there such a thing as Memorial Day Eve?

Today it rained in town and snowed on the mountain.

And that's Memorial Day Eve in a nutshell.  

Cancun Oasis update, pins, and painters tape

Yesterday, I worked on pin basting the Cancun Oasis quilt.  This is a photo step-by-step . . .

The top is face down.  I am trying something a little different.  I usually "quilt" on the top, but this time I am going to "quilt" the back.  The backing fabric has a wave pattern I will try to follow the design for the quilting.  

 I use blue painters tape to hold down the top, hold down in place on the kitchen tile floor.  I don't want the layers to shift out of place.  

 I tape the corners and sides, carefully not to stretch it.  

 I place the batting on the top and pat it down.  (More blue painters tape - to mark the 2 1/2 " for ease in lining up when cutting things like binding.)

I used my ruler and marking pen (of course it's orange) to draw the corners of the top.  I want the back of the quilt to match with the top of the quilt.

I had plenty of fabric left over from the quilt pattern so I made improv sections for the back.   I hope this will work.   I want (I hope) the corners match up with the corners of the top.

 Oh look, more blue painters tape repaired the end of the kwik klip tool.  The dog chewed on the clip tool.  (I can't rotate this photo.)

 I store my pins in pretty tins - small pins and large pins.  

 I pin about every 5" or the length of the kwik klip tool.  

 This quilt took lots of pins.  

 Pins. 

 Pins. 

 Pins.

 And more pins.  

 After (heavy) pinning, I turned over the quilt to see the top.  

 I am using white thread to quilt Cancun Oasis.  

And I'm ready to start.  

Cancun Oasis Quilt

I can't wait any longer.  I have to show you.  It's not finished but I can post process/progress pictures.
My inspiration was the pool at the Grand Oasis Resort in Cancun, Mexico.  Spring Break 2015 was a great vacation.

This is my version of the Placid Curves pattern from Modern Neutrals by Amy Ellis.  I made this quilt top, lap top size is thirty blocks.  I think it is 55" X 65" approximately.

I like the way it turned out.  I had plenty of leftover fabric and I wanted to see what would happen if I changed one of the measurements for the block and I came up with this.  Not much difference, and not what I expected.  Maybe in the future I will make another quilt with the change and see if the whole quilt top would have the look I expected.  This small portion is eight blocks.  

I want an improve style backing.  I think the back is taking longer to finish than the top.  

I finished this project and returned it to my boss.  His mother started this quilt many years ago.  Now it is complete.

It went to a long arm quilter.  She did an amazing job.  I sewed the binding and the sleeve.  

I will leave you with this beautiful picture of wide open spaces in Wyoming.