Where is everybody?

[Sherry B.]

Geneva, welcome to the Northwest! Have you been to the quilt shop in Prosser yet? I've heard lots of good things about it but haven't been there myself. Hope you enjoy your new home.

[Annis C.]

I'm still moving from my 37 year old city home to my new home in the country an hour and a half away. It's a slow process moving 1 car load at a time so I'm starting to take 2 trips a week now. I still check in on TQS daily. That's about all the entertainment I'm getting lately, not counting all of the grandkids b-day parties, including one today. I'm hoping to get most of the moving done this summer so I can get back to quilting in the fall. And the building that was damaged by the ice storm last December is finally starting to get repaired and turned into a retreat center. I finished editing the floor plan last night, I think. It's going to have room for about 24 retreaters so I need to make more bed quilts. That will keep my busy for awhile. I'm enjoying reading about what everyone is up to.

[Rita C.]

Margo I am delighted that you are back at it again! 5 quilts? Any change of some photos?

BJ your quilt looks beautiful. I think 'Aprille' is a good name as Robin suggested. And then you could do a quilt for each month and call it your Chaucer series, LOL.

Geneva you must be exhausted from building and moving, your energy will come back. I have found mug rugs a great way of keeping the hand in even when I am tired or short on time.

I think TQS needs another exchange to create a bit of excitement. Does anybody have any suggestions or would anybody be interested in volunteering to organize it? I live too far away and the postage from the USA to Ireland has doubled at least in the past year so that's not practical. However, I was thinking about what I would personally enjoy doing as an exchange and while trawling the net today I came across a free pattern from McCalls called 'The House That Kaffe Built'. It is a quilt of miniature paper-pieced houses. I think the pattern calls for 30 houses but it is a mini quilt so one could increase the number easily. Wouldn't it be fun to have a quilt full of all our TQS friends houses? It's just a suggestion

Here's a link to the pattern
http://www.mccallsquilting.com/mccal...at_Kaffe_Built

[Robin G.]

Rita, what a fun idea! But how to do it so that it wouldn't become such a burden for someone to handle. I wonder how it would work to treat it like those chain letters you see: Start with some number of names on a list, then you make a block and send one block to each of the names, say 5 or whatever number we agree on, add your name to the bottom and take off the top name. Or something like that. I usually ignore those types of emails or letters, so I might not be describing it correctly, but maybe it would work in this case?

[Norma H.]

I have been quiet for some time. My parents are getting really old now so I have been driving a lot between them and my home (2 hours drive). They are 90 and 91 and still live in their own home, but there are challenges now, that I have to deal with. The last week, though, I have been in the UK to experience rose gardens and that has been a wonderful week. I feel refreshed now. Not much sewing as my garden is big and everything is growing very fast. I try to keep up with the weeds. A lot of hard work.
It's so nice to see your familiar faces. I promise I will be back with new projects.
BJ, I love your quilt. I wonder how it will look without the golden border because I liked that a lot, too.

[Carol G.]

I've been enjoying the Shipshewana Quilt Festival this weekend! Lots of beautiful quilts. Didn't get to hear any speakers or attend the Schoolhouse this year. But I met up with a quilty friend from Illinois, DH & I came from Michigan Friday & are camping. Spent a little money at the local shops - fabric & foods. LOL

I have been coming here more lately because my longtime online forum seems to have completely gone to facebook. I thought it didn't seem real busy here, so if you regulars think so too, that explains it.

[Margo C.]

Be careful what you ask for! Photos? Apparently I have been in a mood to work with solids recently, and I would consider all of these to be "quickie" quilts that require little pinning and little angst about perfection! :roll:

I have made quilts for all of my nieces and nephews when they graduated high school, and now I'm on to the next generation!
This is for a great-niece who graduated last week. These fabrics are gradated hand dyed fabrics. (Sorry I can't remember the manufacturer.)



This is for a 6-year-old great-niece who has outgrown the last one I made for her. These are fabrics that I hand-dyed myself about 10 years ago.



And this is for the newest member of our family who was just born last month. His mother sent paint chips for color reference, and they were a dark midnight blue and deep burgundy!

[Margo C.]

My "little" brother specifically requested a quilt that is long enough for him to flip under his legs and feet. I hope this is long enough! :lol:



This is an older TQS BOM that I'm ready to part with. It will go to a sister-in-law who had a car accident last year and is still recovering her injuries.



And finally, this actually was a top that I pieced in 1994. I got it quilted and entered into the special exhibit called "Ruby Jubilee" in Houston this fall.
I still don't know if it's been accepted into the show, but if it is, it will travel with IQF for the next 2 years!



So....that's what I've been up to. What about you???? Photos please!!

[ANNE E.]

Wow Margo your sewing machine must be red hot. Beautiful quilts...the red and white one is gorgeous.
Glad you have your mojo back.
Anne

[wendy w.]

Wow wow wow Margo I love your quilts. The hand dyed strips are amazing I keep looking to work out the design it's gorgeous

BJ yours is gobsmackingly good as well, I love the use of paint and it's richness wow. No wonder you're quiet you've had your head down working.

Talk again soon it's night here. Sweet dreams all xx

[Deborah W.]

It is good to hear what everyone has been doing. Margo--your quilts are beautiful. Rita--another exchange sounds wonderful!!! I love house blocks and if they were small enough to mail one in a standard envelope then the postage is not too outrageous! Here in Canada postage just went up AGAIN! It is $1.20 for a letter to the US and $2.50 overseas. I think that is a bit extreme especially when a letter we received at work took 3 weeks to come from a city 35 minutes away!!!!

We just finished out school year yesterday so the last little while I haven't done any sewing except the Friday Sew-along I am doing with Heartspun Quilts. Summer is my sewing time and I am looking forward to getting back to quilting.

[Betty J.]

How delightful to hear what everyone is doing and has been busy with. I hope more people share. The nice thing about the mug rug exchange was people could make one or ten if they wanted, and no one was burdened with having to put it all together. Perhaps you can think of something equally as fun and unburdensome--small house quilts as small as a mug rug or large as a 15 inch block? I don't know.

[Betty J.]

Margo, your quilts are beautiful and the newer ones have kind of taken on a modern look.

[Rita C.]

All beautiful quilts Margo. Love the no angst idea. Each of your quilts is a gem. I love the one you made for your brother, but I love the more modern looking ones too. They are all so gorgeous and anybody would be happy to receive any one of them, lucky family.

I haven't done too much this year so far - hard to believe it's almost July already :roll: - the BOM keeps me busy with thinking up Christmas alternatives. I have made a few quilts though. I set myself a goal to make a quilt for each of my nieces and nephews for their 30 birthday and also a quilt for each of my siblings for their 60th birthday. I made this one for my niece using 2.5" squares and HSTs and the shoe-fly quilt was a baby quilt for her son.

(Sorry about the quality of this photo, I took it at night.



I made a quilt for the Quilt Alliance 'Inspired By' contest - there's a photo of it on my blog here on TQS and I made this lap sized quilt for a friend recovering from surgery. I think I posted a photo of this here before but can't remember so here it is -

Quilting my WotRott quilt took up quite a bit of time too.
I have also made a few mug rugs which are always great fun to do. At the moment I am working on a quilt for my nephew which I have made out of shirts. I will post a photo when it's done. I also have to make something for my sister who will be 60 in September.

[Margo C.]

LUV them all, Rita! Isn't it fun to make quilts for people who appreciate them!