I picked up a bag of patriotic fabric from a guild member that wanted to donate it to our church quilting group.  I began ironing it and cutting it into pieces to make Home of the Brave-type blocks.  But then I noticed Wanda's quilt on her website and thought that, too, would be an easy quilt to make for our group (which has a lot of NON-quilters which we are trying to convert! LOL).   I look for blocks that can be trimmed to a uniform size to make it easier on the one (usually me or JoAnne) assembling the blocks into a top.  But I see from the picture that I've put these two together in a way that they won't work the way Wanda's does.  Must recify that and be sure to mention that when we work on them in the church group!!

RaeAnn's giveaway on Stash Manicure

OK, so I REALLY don't wanna do this because it decreases MY odds (which are SUPER bad anyway given my lack of luck) but I'm gonna anyway.  RaeAnn's giving away this beautiful prize package over at her Stash Manicure blog where I've posted a couple of times.  Having won one of her beautiful prizes, I can attest to how absolutely fantastic they are!! AND if you run over there to enter and mention I sent you, I actually get an extra entry (if I understood her correctly).  So there ya go!  Get on over there and check out all the cute ideas for your stash!

WHOO WEE!

This has been a BUSY WEEK but I'm finally able to do some relaxed sewing today.  I had Quiltsitters and bunco on Monday, making homemade ice cream for our monthly dinner at the local Ronald McDonald house on Tues., a class on Wed. and quilting at the church yesterday.  We had a Home of the Brave 'sweat shop' going yesterday and got a TON accomplished.  I was able to assemble one HOB top and JoAnne assembled another.  So we have 3 waiting to go to the longarmer's and enough blocks to put together 3 or 4 more tops!  YAY!  But alas, no pix once again of the 'sweat shop'. LOL

So instead I'll show some progress from the Wed. class.  It was a fun class and I've been working more on this today.  I actually ordered another yd. of each of the 4 fabrics I'm using cause I wanna make it bigger.  (The picture is only 6 blocks).

   It's called inlaid tiles and apparently was a Quiltsitters handout from Mary Ellen Hopkins YEARS ago.  From what I understand, it was never published in any of her books nor was it published as a pattern.  I like it cause it LOOKS harder than it is!!  HAHA

Just a couple of photos from Quiltsitters today to share with you..

      

Both just easy, simple patterns, the first using jelly rolls and the second I believe using all the same line of fabrics.  Sometimes you just NEED the instant gratification, right??  LOL


     

Oh good GRIEF, what a DUNCE I am!!  I took a class this morning at the LQS, took my camera along and DUH!  Do you think I took any pictures?!!  NO!!  So I'm posting a photo I snagged from the author's website (hope she doesn't mind since I'm giving her ALL the credit) and will post photos of mine as I get it further along.  The sample at the shop was beautiful and come on, really, how could you NOT make a beautiful quilt if you're using batiks.  I AM as the author suggested (after all, that IS what her book's about..LOL) and used the butterscotch Bali pop.

There were 6 of us in the class and THREE of us were using butterscotch.  Yet they all looked so different.  One of the gals was using a dark burgundy as her accent and I think the other two of us were using gold. 

I had loaned out my 'go to class' machine and didn't have the heart to go take it back right now so I used my featherweight which I've not  used in a LONG, LONG time.  I forget what a nice machine it is.  I really do need to use it more often!!               

more from Irving

As promised, here are a few more quilts from the show..and NO, I did NOT get a call congratulating me on winning the raffle quilt!  BOO, HISS!  Oh well, I know SOMEONE'S happy even if it ain't me! LOL

The first one was made by  Sue Gray  and the next, a blue ribbon winner, was made by Patricia Yates.  The sign said all 3 of the Yates boys served in the military for 6 years each and this was a gift for the mother.  WOW, I really appreciate the service of that family!!




This one was the challenge winner (I guess it had to do with their "East Meets West" theme) and was a dragon made with LOTS of 3 dimensional triangles or prairie points or whatever you wanna call em.  It was made by  Carol Cook  and was very imaginative!
    



    

Irving Quilt Guild show

Ran over to the Irving show this morning and there were some nice quilts; took a few pix which I'll share today and probably tomorrow.

The pretty basket quilt was made by Nancy Stewart  and the Lone Star was Best of Show winner and also made by Nancy Stewart.

       

            
The postage stamp quilt was made by Helen Widener--she said postage stamp quilts were originally made to protest stamp prices.  I NEVER knew that (probably everyone else did, though--HA).  And the cute, whimsical little flower pots was made by Janie Merritt, titled Alaska Blooms (she said it was inspired by a painting she saw on their Alaskan cruise).

I have several more and will share them tomorrow.  Meanwhile, I'm sitting by the phone waiting for the call telling me I won their raffle quilt!  HAHA

Ooo, look what I found today!!  I was at the antique mall looking for a few more glasses to go with my mom's set (Fostoria) and ran across this GORGEOUS quilt!  Loved the colors and the stitching was to DIE for!  Only a couple of spots but was a good price so I could NOT resist!

        

I'll post one final batch of pix today from Sat.'s visit to the Gingerbread Trail and then will move onto other things! LOL

Love the way they're displayed, some hanging over the porch rails, some over benches (the center left one was neat the way they had it folded so you could see the feed/flour sack backing.  And I KNOW there were a bunch we missed!!

      

OK, thought I'd try getting a few more photos up tonight and hopefully more tomorrow--

           

       

Waxahachie Gingerbread Trail

My DH and I went for a ride down to Waxahachie today to view quilts along the Gingerbread Trail.  Waxahachie is a beautiful old town and it has a FABULOUS quilt shop (Common Threads).  There are just TONS of older homes, many which have been restored and are SO GORGEOUS.  During the Gingerbread Trail, there are many of these that you can tour and, in conjunction with, they hang quilts along the way.  I will share a few of the photos today and more over the next couple of days (just so you don't get overwhelmed, dontcha know?  HA).

UGH, things are loading SLOW so will try to add more later. 

Here's my First Friday BOM I picked up yesterday..this is #3.  I really think this is going to be a pretty quilt...LOVE the bright colors each month.  AND while picking this up yesterday, I also got two 'mystery bags' with fabric for the UGLY FABRIC CHALLENGE! LOL  Beverly goes in search of the ugliest (unloved, I should say) fabric she can find and cuts it into 1 yd. pieces.  You purchase said fabric for $2 (she hides them in brown paper bags so you don't know what you're getting) and attempt to transform it into a thing of beauty using a least a 1/2 yd. of it.  I got one I think's pretty cute (ugly IS in the eye of the beholder, right?  HAHA) and one that is 'interesting' for lack of a better word.  We'll see what I come up with.

A week or two ago, I mentioned a class I'd taken using a new ruler.  I initially started with a red/cream/blue colorway but those got put on the back burner (what's new, huh? LOL).   I had been working on a quilt (one of MANY) using my sizeable 30's stash and decided to start cutting 2.5" strips for the hexagons.  Then I ran across Jaybird's hexagon quilt along where she featured some different layout variations and of COURSE I had to try some of those.  I also wanted star point on my hexagons and had auditioned a few different fabs but nothing really struck me.  So first and foremost, here's the ruler...

I'm really liking it so far and actually found another quilt using this same ruler in a magazine I just bought called "America Quilts-Hometown Favorites" from McCall's.  This quilt is from The Quilt Company in Allison Park, PA and uses a red, blue, green & gold
colorway.  ANOTHER quilt to use up my stash--YAY!!





So here are a few of the hexagons I've made, the fab I chose for the star points (not a very good pix, sorry) and the hexagons laid on said fabric to give a bit of an idea how the points will look.  I think Beverly (owner of LQS) said it was called birthday cake or something