Monday, November 26, 2012

Mystery Time!



Right around Halloween, Bonnie issued the fabric requirements for this year's mystery, Easy Street.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/10/find-yourself-on-easy-street.html

 I didn't have enough in my scrap or yardage stash but I do have enough of these Civil War fabrics and decided to use them instead... no buying of fabric needed! So the wait began... and I have kept busy with customer quilts and working on other UFOs... like Orca Bay (last year's mystery that I'm making as a Leader/Ender!)  The clues for the mystery began on Black Friday!.... the idea being it is better to be inside sewing than out there in the crowds!

But life always gets in the way... last year it was my Uncle Tom.  This year... the passing of my husband's Uncle Hen had us driving north on Tuesday for his funeral.  This 91 year old single man has been helping or caring for family and friends since... forever!  I missed the Mason's honor ceremony at the viewing the night before, but he also had a military honor ceremony at the grave site and the church set out a lovely lunchoen for us. He will be dearly missed! For dinner we stopped at a local restaurant to crack open and eat some Maryland Crab in his honor!

Since we were already there, and there wasn't enough time to rush home and prepare our turkey, we stayed for Thanksgiving dinner hosted by hubby's brother, Walt!.  It has been a number of years since most of the family was together and it was good seeing everyone.

I missed the early morning start on Clue 1 on Friday, but with a giant mall across the street from our hotel... and me not sleeping and being up at the crack of dawn... I wandered over and participated in the madness buying 4 tops for me and 6 pants for hard to find sized hubby!

We made it home safely over the weekend and I made a dinner for #1 daughter, boyfriend and grandson on Sunday.  I have last week's customer work to catch up on so I  decided to burn the candle at both ends and got up early this morning to work a couple hours on Easy Street before getting back to customer work.

I cut 18 strips of the constant (pink) and 6 strips each of the background fabrics


I sewed 1 strip of pink to 1 of each background fabric then sub-cut into 2" twosies

Using my Orca Bay as a Leader/Ender I'm sewing the twosies together to make four-patches


29 four-patches done!  163 to go!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Miss Fabulous

This awesome young lady is Madison Hill.  She is a high school senior who loves to compete in the different pageants offered in the area.  Two years ago she looked around and realized that girls with disabilities did not have the opportunity to experience the thrill of pageantry and decided to do something about it.  Last year she organized and held the "Miss Fabulous Pageant"  for ladies, young and old.   Cosmetology students helped with hair and makeup.  Students dug into the back of their closets and donated dresses they would no longer wear and dresses were donated from local shops so that everyone who wanted could participate.  I missed it last year, but that's not surprising....I have a son.

Well, this year the pageant expanded to include gentlemen escorts! That pinged my radar!

CBT the local tuxedo rental shop donated the use of tux's for the event and the guys looked very handsome!
Mary Kay representative Donna Sherrill helped with the girls make-up.  First National Bank representatives (sorry I didn't get their names) took pictures and printed pictures of every contestant to take home a memory.  Many individuals donated time and energy  and numerous business donated various items for gift bags.    Awesome Eagle... the Tennessee Tech mascot joined the festivities also!

Blake being escorted across the stage by Awesome Eagle


There were some 40-50 contestants... male and female... and for several hours on a Saturday afternoon got a chance at their "15 minutes of fame"....  Channel 2 news Nashville sent a cameraman to film the event and interview Madison.

A local church was hosting a youth retreat and came with signs and cheering voices to fill the auditorium.


I don't have time to edit all the pictures now as I'm getting ready for Santa's Workshop next weekend and it's crunch time getting customer's Christmas quilts done.  But go on over to my facebook page and if you tilt your head one way or another you can see lots special  beautiful people with happy faces.

Matthew needed no help from Awesome Eagle to dance his way across the stage!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Easy Street

Bonnie Hunter, scrappy quilt designer estraordinaire,  has announced the beginning of her next mystery quilt, Easy Street.  Check out her blog for more information. 

 http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/10/find-yourself-on-easy-street.html

She has listed required amounts fabric in her color choices for this project; colors which I do not have....apple green...turquoise...purples.... gray.... white with black.
But, since this is my quilt, I am allowed to choose my own colors... she gives everyone "permission" to personalize the quilt to suit our own needs.

My scrap stash doesn't come close to matching the size of hers so I have decided to dig into my Civil War fabric collection for yardage ....green, blue, purple... pink instead of gray and cream with black instead of white with black.


While Bonnie was on QuiltCam last night I sent her an email with a picture of my fabrics to ask if they would be suitable and was pleasantly surprise to hear her say they would be perfect!

Wooo! Woo!  Thanks Bonne, you made my day!

Now I work on customer quilts and other projects (like last years mystery, Orca Bay) and wait until November 23 and the release of the first mystery clue.


Sunday, November 4, 2012

CCQG "Southern Charm" Quilt Show

This weekend was Cookeville Crazy Quilter's Guild Quilt Show.  I forgot to take a picture of the Guild member's challenge entries, Southern Charm, but hope to get a copy from someone in the guild who did. 





The gymnasium floor was covered with racks of quilty goodness everywhere you looked!





 There were 11 vendors from quilt shops located throughout middle Tennessee and "my" Nolting dealer from Ohio, Mike Holodnak.






Look at all these wonderful door prizes,  hand made by Guild members






 





For the Guild's 20th anniversary members made Turning 20 quilts, seen here hanging from the loft railing.





I didn't have time to run around and take pictures of all the beautiful quilts and booths but here are pictures of some of the items for sale, made by Guild members.

 








Throughout the day, members gave demonstrations using a variety of quilt tools

 There were several presentations called "Project Turnings" showing just a few of the many projects members have made throughout the years.

Scarecrows

Twist & Turn Pillows

Turning Triangles

Looking through the Gate

We were very pleased with the turn out and heard many complimentary reviews.  I look forward to a bigger and better show in 2014.