Recycle, recycle

I thought it would be fun to show you some of the things I use for quilting that are free. I take the foam meat trays, wash them in the dishwasher, and use them to lay down strips that I am using in a quilt. Easy to grab them and sew away. The little trays are good to put almost anything in, but I keep them near my machine to throw in those little half square triangles that are left over from sewing. Talk about recycling!! The triangles idea came from Bonnie of Quiltville. I think most of you have heard about using chopsticks, but you know they really work.

Has it been a week already!

Time flys when you are having fun. Fun is quilting. I guess I was having too much fun because I did not realize I had not posted in a week.

Here are some pictures of things I have worked on. The purple squares will be a fast quilt because I am only putting borders around the cheater squares. The green and orange tops are stashbusters. I used Quiltville's patterns to use up some stash. I am considering tea dying the green top because it seems too something (word used when I cannot explain why I do not like it). I am not an orange person but do like the orange top. I am considering appliqueing a pumpkin and black cat to the lower right corner. This will make it a Fall quilt.

I am still plugging away on my Quiltathon blocks and slowly making progress. I must, must, must work on my applique blocks for my class! Sigh, I think I am afraid of starting because I will not do a good job. The backgrounds are done, the applique cut, but no appliqueing yet.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

Blues Clues Came to the Party

Blues Clues made it to the party. An hour before the party there was a huge thunderstorm with lightening and sheets of rain. The rest of the day was beautiful. Madeline was so excited about her party and was non-stop the whole day. Her aunt Michelle made the great birthday cake and a friend of my daughter's made the delicious cookies of dog prints and 3's. There was pizza and chicken and, of course, salad to make you feel that you were eating healthy!

The excitement is now over and grandma can get back to quilting.

An older quilt

This quilt was made from a pattern in a Thimbleberries' book. The pillow also is a pattern from one of her books. I had quilted most of the quilt but became impatient to finish and decided to just tie the borders. Of course, looking back I should have just quilted all of it. Unfortunately, I can do very little hand needle work now because my fingers and hand become very numb after a while. Bummer!

The picture does not do the colors justice. It looks rather washed out.

Today is my granddaughter's Blues Clues birthday party. She was 3 on Friday. Should be a fun time. I will take a picture of her Blues Clues birthday cake made by her Aunt Michelle and show them next time.

My nieces work and a quilt

I wanted you to see the work of my niece, Suzy. These are gifts from her for various holidays. I do have more but will share it at another time. My niece is very talented. She had me go with her to a painting guild. It was fun but I had to choose between finding time to paint or quilt. As you know quilting won out. The rag quilt is one of 3 that I made. While I like rag quilts, I do not like the lint!

If you look closely, you will see the pledge I used to dust the end table. Since you are company, I had to polish and straighten up!! :)

Slow but Steady

This was part of my day. I had to get blood work done for my colonoscopy and my checkup by my surgeon. It is always a problem because they can only draw blood from one arm. I have always told them that the only place that works is my hand. Of course, today this was not the case. After trying 4 times in various veins, the technician said she was determined to find a vein that worked. I laughed and said, thanks!! She did apologize and said she did not mean it like that. We laughed. What else can you do when being tortured. Thank God, the fifth time worked.

I had been busy babysitting and do not have anything much to show. I have been working slowly on the blocks from the Quiltathon given by Patchwork Times. I am using batiks from my stash.I guess I am not Quiltathon material because I cannot work at quilting as as fast as others. I admire the quilters in blogland who turn out so many quilts in a short time. I will have to get motivated because there are many different quilts I want to try.

At the quilt show, I bought black and white fat quarters; 8 total. I am anxious to use it, but have not found a pattern I like. Any suggestions out there in blogland?

Prize winning quilt

If you need a lift, just go to Mark Lipinski's blog. Check out the link to the quilt from the NJ quilt show.

Goodbye Mike

My brother-in-law was buried on Wednesday, so I have been in a little bit of a funk for a few days. Funerals are a mixed bag. You get to see friends and family that you have not seen in many years. There is laughter and memories, but then there is the sadness of saying goodbye. I had to remind myself that life is a gift and we should enjoy it and not waste time dwelling on the inevitable. As a breast cancer survivor, I have been lucky. DH says, it is a good day if you wake up in the morning, make the most of it.

Last of the quilt show pictures

1. This picture of the appliqued quilt, does not do justice to the exquisite work done. Each bird is layered applique to create the colors of the birds. I do not think I would have the patience to create something like this.
3. The second quilt was a memory quilt. The third quilt was a fun quilt, bright and cheerful. The fourth quilt was appliqued for the quilt maker's son who is a veterinarian. The last quilt would be great for using up stash.

I hope you enjoyed the quilts!

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More of the Quilt show

This is one of my favorite quilts. It was hand painted by the former president of the guild, JoAnne Powell. The painting is of her granddaughter, Hazel. If you double click on the picture you can see a closeup of the quilt. JoAnne Powell is from the same town as I am. If you have the March/April issue of Quilter's Home, you can see her son, Reid, on page 15 under the heading Marry a Quilter's son. Hope you enjoy the other quilts. The one that looks like a chinese latern was made by a 15 year old girl and won a ribbon as you can see. I have 4 more that I will post later on. Enjoy.

ELIQ's quilt show

My camera is not the best but Frieda's Hive blog reminded me to take some pictures. It was hard to choose from so many beautiful quilts but here are a few samples. I took closeups so you could see the detail. The ladybug is all appliqued. I loved the colors of the squares. My camera did not do it justice. The asian quilt was taught by Mark Lipinski and used dimensional pinheels. Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville would appreciate the tiny leftover half square triangle quilt. The applique quilt was wonderful. I tried to take a closeup so you could see the details. There will be more pictures in my next post.

Quilt show

This weekend is the Eastern Long Island Quilt Guild's show. It will take place at Suffolk Community College in Riverhead. I have plans to attend on Saturday. I usually come back all enthused and ready to tackle my quilting. That's a good thing!

It will conflict with my Saturday library group, but maybe I can show up late because we are driving out there early in the morning. I will be looking forward to seeing the vendors and looking at fabric and notions. My friend calls me the notion queen.

The weather is supposed to be hot and humid this weekend so going early is good. Anyone out there have plans to attend the show?

gardens

I forgot to tell you to look at Mark Lipinski's garden. It is lovely. If you need a good laugh, read his posts. He is so funny. He has the blog from pickle road.
http://marklipinskisblog.wordpress.com

block

This is the 5 th block for our group's block of the month. I took a picture of a notion I bought at Patchworks in Sayville. It was only a $1.50 but it is a great seam ripper. I should know because I am a master at having to rip out seams!

I thought I would include pictures of my lone peony flower and irises.

Shower

I thought I would post a picture of a quilt I decided to make at the last minute for a baby shower. In order to get this done, I had to put aside the Quiltathon quilt. Judy will be taking the instructions off the internet in a week, so I better hanker down and work on it next week.

The baby shower was for my nephew's wife. The birth of this new baby is bittersweet, but life is not always a happy ending. I hope our family will be able to have contact and love this new baby to pieces.

The shower was at a Chinese buffet. The food was good! One problem, I can not quench my thirst.