The Round Robin Finale

My camera & my computer stopped talking to each other. I finally took them into Best Buy & the Geek Squad fixed the problem. 

The last of the Round Robin quilts that I had to work on was Carol's. She had started with the purchased raven block screen print by local artist Cindy Shake. Sorry I don't have a picture of what it was like before I got it, but what I added was the upper & left side borders. I also added the little streaks of green & the centers in the leaves.

Here is Carol with her block.

Jackie..

Jan..

Mary Lee..

Betty B...

Rena..

Mary G. She got lucky...her's is finished quilted & bound!

Me with mine & my new hairdo from Sean in Seattle.

I took my piece home & tweaked it a bit. I moved the last applique' to a spot that pleased my eyes better, & I spritzed the top with a bit of green ink. I may do more...I can't leave anything alone.

We had the gang over for dinner a couple weeks ago.

& here is the latest quilt fresh off of Lily. Too big to take a decent photo. It's about 6 feet tall & 13 1/2 feet long. My pal Mary Lee made it for our airport.

She drew several designs about flight that I quilted on top.

I've decorated for Christmas & getting packages ready to ship.

Super Fast & simple Quilt Project for Longarm

For the latest addition to the family, I needed to make a fast, simple & fun quilt.

I layered the back, batting & solid piece of fabric on top, 

Then I cut skinny strips with a wavy rotary cutter & quilted them down as I went.

The result was fun & it has limitless possibilities. All kinds of designs could be made this way. Think of how many comfort quilts could be done!

The Giving Quilt

Jennifer Chiaverini has written another Elm Creek Novel. I read it while I was on vacation. It makes me wish that Elm Creek & all it's quilters were real. I'd love to sign up to go to this place & meet these people. She has moved back to the present time, & a week of camp centered around making quilts for Project Linus. The project is real, & the characters feel real. She weaves a beautiful story with new characters introduced, & old friends brought back. 

I picture Sylvia much like Helen Kelly, who used to write articles for Quilters Newsletter. I went to one of Helen's lectures once, & learned so much from her.

It's another warm cozy, easy read. I really enjoyed it.

I got back from Seattle over a week ago, but it feels like only yesterday. We had a great time, & I'm already looking forward to our next trip. I'll post photos later. Spent a lot of time holding the baby.

I worked hard this past weekend on the biggest quilt I've ever worked on, & it's been a somewhat trying experience. I'm not sure how I'm ever going to photograph it, unless I can go with Mary when she hangs it at the Airport.  I haven't forgotten about the prizes I owe, they are on my "To Do" list.

 Happy Halloween all!

Post #700 /Birthdays/ & the winner is...

Today is both my DH, & my DS#1's birthday. My how they grow up fast. Below in the stripe shirt is Brandon, next to his sister Michelle, & brother Corey. Brandon turned 40 today (somehow that makes me feel older than anything else ever has!). He is on his way to Portland, OR today, & we will be meeting them in Seattle Wednesday night. I post some grown up pictures after the trip.This picture is how I see my children every time I dream about them. Gosh I miss them.

To calebrate the day, we drove down to Girdwood, here is looking across Turnagain Arm (part of the Pacific Ocean), to Hope, Alaska under the clouds over there. Trees that still have their leaves are gold.

In front of the Double Musky wine bottles decorate a tree.

This is what it looks like every day  before they open the restaurant. It's been listed as 1 of America's top 10 best restaurants.

We had a great meal, & Warren enjoyed a piece of carrot cake for his birthday.

At home on the quilting front, I have a bit of a problem child on Lily right now. My friend Mary made the biggest darned quilt I've seen since Don Locke's Last Supper. It is big & unwieldy, & the boarders are a tad tight, with the center wanting to poof out. I've layer extra wool batting on top of the cotton batt in the center to try & solve the problem, & now I am quilting it into submission!

Hopfully it will work out ok when I'm done.

I cut out all of the messages from the last 3 postings, & had Warren draw 2 names in celebration of this 700th post. The winners are, Stephanie Briggs (& since she's right here in town, I decided to draw a 2nd name), & it was rvquilter. So contact me at akquilter1@acsalaska.net, & give me your address. I will send you a prize by the end of October (since I'm working the next 2 days, then leaving town for a while).

 Thanks to every body for the nice comments. 

Robbie Joy Eklow was a lot of fun. We found a lot of common ground & I told her she needs to bring her husband next time & stay with us. The guys can fish & we can dye fabric together.

Neck Purse for R & post #699

Saturday I made this little neck purse for our ALCQ Guild gift for our next teacher, Robbie Joy Eklow (shhh, if you know her, don't tell her). She will be up here teaching next weekend. It's my own hand dyed silk chiffon, done shibori wrap on a pole with small stones. The silk retains it's shape nicely. I filled each little stone shape with bits of black batting & Angelina fibers to pick up glints of light. I also trapped Angelina under black chiffon, layered on black cotton for the body of the purse. I like it so much, I'm tempted to keep it & make another. (But I won't).

When I first learned this rock wrap technique from my friend Sandy Winfree, I wanted to do it to make a quilt with wild  (purple-blue) Lupine with it. I still have the silk ready to use, just haven't found the right moment to make it yet. 

Here is the last bloom in our summer garden, white Lupine standing tall against the white snow. Since the snow fall, it's grown colder (in the 20's this morning), & the snow is still on the ground, but the good news is that we've had 2 days of sunshine since the snow dropped. The snow & sun are a welcome reprieve after several months of wet rain.

I just realized this is post # 699, so the next post will be # 700. Leave a comment on one of the last 3 posts & when I post # 700, I'll draw a name for a winner of one of my pins & earring sets.

Bad Grandma

I just realized, I hadn't posted this momentous news on my blog! I had Facebooked it when it happed, but hadn't done any blogging in weeks!

Introducing our first grandSON... Sean Patrick Bates Jr. with his mommy, my DD Michelle. We will be flying down to Seattle to see them soon. He was born 10 days ago already!

He is grandchild #5, but the first boy.

First Snow/Fresh Face

This is what we woke up to this morning. Yes it's snowing in September.

Frost  Snow on the pumpkins!

Sun is starting to come out now, so it probably wont last. It's 42 degrees & starting to slide off the new roof.

This is the next Round Robin quilt top I had to tackle. It belongs to Mary Lee. There will be one more round on it after me. Hmmmm....

Here is where I went with it.... Yikes! I added the strips down the 2 sides, & blanket stitched the appliques that Mary G. had just fused on.

I also added a little free-motion threadplay around the guys in the boat to reflect the flowers on the upper area added by Jackie (to help tie them in & make more sense).

Hopefully Carol will be able to add something good to make it finished. I kind of wanted to chop it up & re-sew ala-Rayna Gillman, but didn't have the guts to do it on someone else's piece.

You might also notice that I'm playing around with the blog. Thought it needed a fresh face, & a bit of updating.

Quilt Show Weekend

Last weekend was sunny, but chilly in the morning. We had to scrape the windows.

The annual ALCQ quilt show was lovely.

The Conoco Phillips Atrium is a beautiful venue.

Barbara Lavallee was there signing posters that she did to support our "Teddy Bear Tea". We are celebrating our 10th anniversary in February, & Barbara did a special poster to help raise some funds for the Tea.

We had over 60 quilts in the small quilt auction.

Here are a few of the quilts in the show. This one was by Sandy Winfree.

Bryan came to the show & hammed for my camera. He's growing a beard for the Fur Rondy beard competition this winter.

I loved seeing this girl's hair in front of the quilts.

This quilter used Shiva Paint sticks.

There were several of Carrie Payne's girls around, & here is Carrie. This was the first time I actually got to meet her. I've read her blog, but she attends the night group, & I never get to the night meetings (too tired in the evenings to function).

Here is a shot of the last minute bidders just before the bidding closed. Cathy on the right, holding the sheet, bought my crazy quilt.

Follow the link below to see the viewers choice quilts.

 ALCQ quilt show.

I've been busy working in the studio on my days off. I've finished 2 projects & started a couple more, but can't show them until next month.