Cimarron Valley Quilters Sew In

In April my friend, Carol, and I went to Stillwater, OK to join up with the Cimarron Valley Quilters' Guild to celebrate their 25 years as a guild. They held a 25 hour sew-a-thon at a local church. It just so happens that after we planned the trip, Carol's brother-in-law was assigned to be the new pastor at the church. Well, once the ladies saw Carol's last name, that was the topic of the retreat. My daughter, Kelleigh, is a freshman at OSU and she joined the guild so she could be connected with other quilters. These ladies have been so kind to her and welcoming her into the guild. What an outstanding guild for such a small town and we will definitely be joining up with them again.

I got a few things pieced while I was there. One was a Sudoku quilt top. It came in a kit and you had to finish the puzzle to find out where to properly place the pieces. The fabric line is Central Park by Kate Spain and the sashing is Stone by Kona. Stone is a great color that goes with so many of the new modern lines.

I participated in a swap from Happiness is Quilting where we made 9 witches feet to switch out. I finally got them all into a quilt top and the border is a piano key style. It was so fun to swap and I love how they all turned out. When you join a swap you "get what you get" which may not always be up to your standards. This one was definitely a great swap.

The ladies at the retreat were working on so many wonderful quilts. The gray, black and red one is my favorite! It is a row quilt and they do it like a swap where one person makes the same row several times and then switches rows with the others in the swap. They did this more than once so I will show you different colorways.

CVQG makes several raffle quilts each year to raise money for their guild. One that they were doing was an English Paper Pieced Grandmother's Flower Garden. They each make a certain number of flowers and then piece it all together. It was just beautiful!!

Kelleigh worked on an art project for school making flowers. She also made and owl and worked on a lap quilt.

Carol was busy talking and making connections with the church members. I don't know how much she got done. She did quilt a Storybook Quilt for a friend and I will post that later. She also worked on a Seminole pieced towel which she is a pro at doing. They always turn out so beautiful. The guild provided a kit to make this adorable pin cushion which Carol did get done. It is a free pattern off of The Pattern Basket website.

On our way to Stillwater, we visited four quilt stores and there is a really nice one right there in town called The Quilting Post. I look forward to visiting Oklahoma again!

Recycled Swap

Our small group from the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild held another swap last week. It was to fit on a 8 1/2 by 11 inch acrylic frame and be made with something recycled. The idea of putting it on the frame was great. You just make the quilt and bind it with a sleeve that the frame fits into. Very fast and easy.

I did my swap out of the new Denyse Schmidt line. It was a recent topic on twitter and blogs and Ellyn decided we needed some since there was a bit of controversy involved. Using the flip and stitch method made the quilting so easy. My daughter doesn't realize I used one of her t-shirts as my recycled requirement. The flower and the BLOOM were made from the back of a her shirt.

Angie loves to embroider and I was the lucky one this time to receive one of hers. The hexagons are from one of her antique shopping adventures. The saying is perfect for this time of year and I love how it looks vintage.

Richard claims these Crown Royal bags were given to him. What a great way to re-purpose these nice bags. And we all know who is the best quilter around so, of course, his quilting is amazing!

Just by looking at these colors, those who know Sarah would pick this one out as hers in a heartbeat. I definitely have to try a dresden plate someday. The recycled buttons are perfect for the center.

Janet was working on some blocks awhile back not knowing what she was going to do with them. She decided to chop them up and use them for this swap. I love how modern it looks with the clean lines.

Swaps are really fun and it is nice having to play by a few rules. We had a great time at our small group and we looking forward to playing again in July. With Quilt Market coming up, our group is busy scoping out how they are going to stock the stores so we are taking a small swap break.

Just One Star

There is still time for everyone to contribute to the Just One Star program hosted by Moda. They are making 100 quilts in 100 days to give to men and women who are injured in the line of duty while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The deadline is May 1st and just about any quilt store in the area would take your donation of blocks. Click the highlighted link above for all the details. Here are the ones I made and when I went to turn them in at The Quilt Asylum, there was a basketful already.

The hardest part was not trimming them down to make them look nice. They ask that you don't trim them that way they can square them all up to be the same. Way to go Moda and all the quilt stores and quilt guilds that are promoting your efforts!!

Pictures

I have been spending quite a bit of time going through pictures for our big "6th Grade Graduation" event. I do not really get the whole thing but somehow it got started that our 6th graders should have a graduation ceremony. Well, I have found that our fourth child does not seem to have nearly as many pictures as the other kids...no surprise. While trying to find pictures, I ran across these that I took of some of my mother-in-law's decorations for Christmas. By the time we arrived at her house, the tree and things were already down since we were there for New Year's Eve. I love these ornaments that she displays in a bowl and she told me they were many years old. They were a gift to her and she still treasures them.

As long as I have known her she has cross stitched...

One of her nativity sets is by Jim Shore and since I am a quilter, this is exactly how I like to picture baby Jesus, the wise men and the shepherds.

It has been fun going through pictures even though I don't seem to have what I am looking for. I really need to scrapbook and journal before I forget all the stories that are behind the pictures.

Pillow Play

A few weeks back I participated in a Pin Cushion Swap through The Quilt Asylum. They held another swap which was 16" Pillow Covers this past week. It was really exciting to see what designs everyone created.

This year I had chosen my "word for the year" to be SIMPLIFY. I just decided that I was adopting this word and adapting it to my life. I have even been enjoying a podcast about the Amish people and the wisdom they have to live a simple life. Well, due to 3 recent funerals of 3 very young people, another theme for the year kept haunting me. My new phrase is "everyday is a bouquet". Life is precious day to day and we are granted a fresh new bouquet each new morning. This is how I came up with my pillow design. It was adapted from a Nancy Halvorsen design with a few minor changes and definitely my own spin on fabric choices.

LaDonna made the the pillow cover that I received. It is a simple pieced cover but the workmanship is superb!! Her points match perfectly and the quilting is precise. I couldn't be happier with what I received and will use it to remind me to slow down and make my sewing projects more accurate.

Here are a few of the other ones that were swapped out.

It is always nice to get a group picture. I appreciate that people took time to participate in the swap making it a fun evening.