only FIVE?!?

I want to start this post by acknowledging something I found quite remarkable!
You may remember that last fall, Timeless Treasures fabrics and equilter.com collected quilts to be given to victims of  Hurricane Sandy.  I sent in a quilt I had made some years ago, but had never found a home for.  I have done this in the past.  Sometimes you get a brief note from the agency collecting, but more often, the gesture is its own reward.
Last friday I got a small package from Timeless treasures fabrics. I knew I hadn't ordered anything, but thought maybe I won a prize from a blog I commented on or something.
Inside was the charm pack on the right and the note below.

 


So not only did Timeless treasures give their warehouse and manpower for this effort.  But they collected the names and addresses of the donors!!  I think I will look for Timeless Treasures fabrics a bit more often when I'm shopping.










Saturday at the Museum Quilt Guild meeting we began a UFO  challenge.  This is to encourage everyone to finish their projects to be shown at the quilt show in October of 2014.  We were each allowed to bring/ sign up 5 UFO's.  Here are mine- most are somewhat recent projects.  None are things I haven't showed before.  But so that they are here where I can be held accountable, I am showing them again.

I started this one at a workshop I led with members of the guild, maybe 3 years ago? (It might be 4!)  I finished assembling the blocks at the retreat in 2012, added the borders that summer, and then couldn't decide how to quilt it.  So there it has sat.

This is from the Xcentric workshop with Anita Grossman Soloman in 2011.  I ran short of fabric so I made strip sets to make enough blocks to make a decent sized quilt.  It only needs to be quilted.  (shocking, right?)














I just got the block for this made at retreat this past February. You may remember I was trying to decide how to border it.  Once that is done, the quilting will be something simple.

This one is new.  I took the workshop with Marija Vujcic in June.  I have most of the applique shapes traced onto the fusible.  But then something else pushed in front of it.

And last but not least, the portrait quilt I started in the workshop Mary  taught at guild in May.  I haven't touched it since then. 

( I was not the only one showing a bag of fabric, oddly enough!)












Kathi had arranged with a member of one of her other groups for us to see this SAQA trunk show.  It is part of the "This is a Quilt" exhibit.   It was amazing to be able to see these works up close!

One of the other members held this up and said it looked like me! 
This is called "Footprints" by Lin Mei-Hui

I have seen Susan Else's work before, but it never ceases to amaze me!

 

This was a favorite, mostly because of the quilting.
It was untitled by Terri Stegmiller.

The detail in this tiny portrait amazed me.  It is called "Luka's Eyes", by Kate Themel.

I think this is my favorite piece. I don't know why.  I guess because I look at the tiny pieces and wonder how she decided what colors to put together and if the layout has any meaning or is completely random.
Art quilts kind of amaze me, because I have trouble with them at times.  There's no pattern. You have to decide every step.  So how did this artist, Maryline Collioud-Robert decided.  The title is "Graffiti Stamps".

The link above takes you to the entire trunk we had.  If you go here, you can see all of the quilts in the other trunks, too!




I fell off the roundup wagon this week. I couldn't tell what was garden and what was weeds.  I comfort myself by saying it's only a little bit.  But we all do that, don't we?  We justify our use of things we know we shouldn't use by saying we only do a little.  But how much of a difference would all of those "littles" make? 

On the plus side, I finally relented and got a swiffer wet jet.  I did not buy the cleaning pads.  I came right home and looked for someone who must have made reusable ones like I use for the sweeper.  Sure enough!   The do it yourself divas had it!  If you google it, there are plenty of other ideas, including a towel with a hole in it and binder clips!  I hate spending money on garbage!  Plus I don't have to add to the piles of garbage poor Wall-e has to clean up!

I am grateful for:
Friends I can rely on
Bubbles
Fresh picked apples
Finding just th right music to suit my mood
A phone call from Mary!