Home Today

This big fella (my DH) had some surgery this morning for "trigger finger"...too many cops & robbers games as a kid. He is under my care and following directions...otherwise, no pumpkin pie tonight. Leverage.

Ah, Gardening

It was so great to get into the garden yesterday for some evening weeding and seed planting.

First I weeded this garden, where there was already some garlic and cilantro planted in the Fall; then I planted some snow peas and onions.


Then I weeded out this garden and took most of the arugula out which had gone to seed. I left some of it so that I could collect seeds later. Scallions are growing on the right and there's more cilantro and green leaf lettuce. They have all been there since Fall, but have just started growing again. I cut down the green leaf lettuce which should give me one or two more cuttings for salads.



This bed was where most of the garlic grew all winter. As soon as the leaves are mostly brown in May, we'll harvest them and use the bed for some of our summer veggies. That new bed to the left is for, among other things, asparagus.

It's like heaven working in the garden again.

Cold Sassy Quilters

Last night I was a guest of the Cold Sassy Quilters in Commerce, GA where I presented my Stretching the String program. The ladies seem to enjoy my string quilts, and I enjoyed the ladies.

Their upcoming raffle quilt was part of show-n-tell...


Quilting is alive and well in Georgia!

Linens

This week I took a little time to soak some of my grandmother's linens in a Vintage Linen Soak product. It took away the odors from storage and brightened them quite a bit. When I was a child there was nothing better than hanging laundry on the line with Memere.

Quilters Galore

Yesterday was a day of quilt meetings; one in the afternoon with the Quilting Arts Alliance in Athens, GA, and one in the evening at which I taught a program for the Cotton Boll Quilters in Covington, GA.

The QAA always has a great show-n-tell. MaryAnn showed us some of the lovely items she'll be selling in May at the Craftavaganza in Athens. Paula (below) showed us more of her beautiful work and gave us a program on machine silk ribbon flowers and machine beading.


Unfortunately, I had to leave early and missed the machine beading segment.

Sylvia brought in a piece of machine needle felting which she made following Paula's last QAA program...

Then last night we drove to Covington for the Cotton Boll Quilters meeting. The ladies put on a wonderful casserole dinner 30 minutes before the meeting started and we all had a feast.

I gave my Stretching the String program...



Wonderful quilt guild!

Quilters in Stitches Quilt Guild

I was invited Monday evening to give a program to the lovely Quilters in Stitches Quilt Guild in Grayson, GA. I had the opportunity to give a program to this group in 2009 and was excited to be back.

The program topic was "Stretching the String", which is about string piecing. If you're a quilter, you know that a "string" is a tapered piece of fabric, usually a scrap, that can be sewn to a foundation with other strings to make a quilt block. You can see a string-pieced quilt here.

You know the best part of visiting other quilt guilds is to watch show-n-tell.


This lady made a beautiful garment bag out of home deco fabric.


This quilt was made entirely out of scraps.

This lady took a tote pattern and changed it to make a purse with a flat bottom and many pockets. The covered buttons on the front were a good embellishment.

This quilter had a wonderful Sashiko quilt that she made from a pattern by Sylvia Pippen Designs. I wasn't familiar with Sylvia Pippen, but on her website I recognized her new book, called Paradise Stitched.

Here's one more look at the guild meeting with their lovely raffle quilt on display.

Thanks ladies, I had a wonderful time!

Opportunity Blocks

Today I have been working on combining some "opportunity" blocks I purchased at the Pensacola Quilt Show. The guild collects blocks from members for about 12 months before their show and then sells each of the blocks for $1.00 each. It's a great opportunity to purchase blocks for an easy quilt.

This year the block was this lovely string star (below) made up of 4 small rectangular string blocks and a center square.


I'll use these three blocks for a sample for my "Stretching the String" program and class.


The blue and light yellow blocks from the layout above will be used for a small give-away quilt.

These blocks are ready for narrow purple strips between rows and then a purple border plus an outside border.

I bought 26 blocks in all and will get a sample and 2 small quilts and still have some leftover for later use.