Off to the Amish quilt shops.......

Tomorrow (Monday) is the start of our 3rd annual quilting trip to the Lancaster, PA, area.  A small group of us gals rents a house for 4 nights and we shop and sew and eat and have a grand time! I wonder what I'll put in my Amish shopping bag this year?  (Those of you who follow my blog know that this bag always brings back an amazing array of pretty things, and I expect it will be no different this year!)

Bloggers Quilt Festival....

It's fall Quilt Market time, so Amy is graciously hosting another Bloggers Quilt Festival!!!  Click HERE to go see it.  I'm entering a quilt that will be given as a Christmas gift to my daughter. She has had a rough year.  After trying for 9 years to make a marriage work with a bi-polar husband (who then began self-medicating with alcohol), she decided it was time to make a break.  This has been hard for her and her daughter (and also for us, as her parents)....but...things are looking up.   We have always teased her when we go out to eat, because she almost always says, "I'll just have salad."   SO...I had been collecting veggie fabrics and thought this was a good time to make her a quilt with them.  It's a simple design...just squares on point.... that I first did in EQ7 (using colors where my different fabrics would go...orange for the carrots...light green for the lettuce, etc.).  Like this....

Then......I made the quilt and I was very happy with the way the veggies "popped" with the black background fabric.   (Bad camera work...the quilt really isn't out-of-square and the colors are nicer in person.) We have carrots, broccoli, red onions, various colored peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and lots of lettuce!

I had a friend with a long-arm machine quilt it (a no-blog friend) and she did an outstanding job and actually changed thread colors several times so the threads on all the veggie squares would match the fabric....pretty nice of her, don't you agree?  The last photo above shows her quilting. (Click on it to see it in greater detail.)  I tried to get the photo positioned below this paragraph, but you know Blogger....acting temperamental again and not letting me move a picture!!!   That picture was taken before I put the binding on the quilt.  For the binding, I used the same green as the backing as it ended up looking the most "right" to me when I audition some other choices.  I hope my daughter likes her quilt for snuggling under while watching TV this winter.  Oh, yes.....the name of the quilt, of course, is:   I'll Just Have Salad.      Now be sure to go back to my link above and check out the other quilts on Amy's blog and maybe you want to enter one, too.

Tonya "tagged" me....

Tonya tagged me with a Versatile Blogger award...thanks, Tonya.  I am supposed to list 7 things about myself and then pass the award to 15 other bloggers.  (Hmmmmm...might have trouble with that part of it.)  Okay...let's try to come up with 7 things.

1.  I am in a handbell choir at church and really enjoy it (although at times it is a bit scary when we have a difficult piece of music).
2.  I live about 3 hours away from my daughter and grandkids, so I don't see them often, BUT when I do see them, it's usually for extended visits and not just a short period of time (so that has its benefits).
3.  I enjoy scrapbooking but it has taken a back-seat for a LONG time to my quilting.
4.  I love to read and have enjoyed having a Kindle for about a year now.
5.  My husband and I love Walt Disney World and hadn't been in many years....took a trip there last winter and expect to get there a few times in 2012....once with the grandkids who will be making their first trip there!
6.  I am lucky to have made the acquaintance of a few gals who are really great long-arm quilters and they have added much beauty to my quilt tops recently, so I get to see my quilts FINISHED!
7.  I am a retired teacher who expected to be fully retired when I moved from NJ to southern DE, but....I somehow ended up with a part-time medical transcription business.....which will probably end in 2012 as the doctor for whom I transcribe is FINALLY getting herself onto electronic records......THEN I can be fully retired and resume some scrapbooking along with my quilting.
Now...I can't decide which 15 names to tag......so...here's the deal.  If YOU read my blog on a regular basis and comment on it fairly regularly, consider yourself tagged!  Those who fit that description KNOW who they are...so I'll be watching your blogs to see if you follow through on this.   :-)

Flaky person wanted......

Too bad some of you don't live closer.  We find we will have an opening on our soon-to-occur quilting trip to the Amish area of PA.  We are a small group but we have a lot of fun.  (That is why we need a flaky person as a replacement...someone who isn't afraid to be silly, ya know?  Because we are not all about "serious" on these trips!!!  Hope you're not shocked to hear that...LOL)  The gal who can't go is not really a quilter...but...in spite of most folks thinking she is a serious gal, she fit the "flaky" category (I have photos to prove it!) and was willing to join us in our silliness each day.  She put up with going to fabric shops, too....lots of them!   I guess it's time to dig out my Amish shopping bag.......you remember this from the two previous trips.....

My...my...isn't THIS stylish?

Quite a "necklace", don't you agree?  What a way to be in style!!!

 Well......it is a necklace of sorts.  It's a BINDING necklace.  I got the idea from a blogging friend, GARI.  It is not only stylish, but it's quite functional, too.  It is a piece of PVC pipe with  some cord strung through it (long enough to hang around my neck and be at a level that works for me).  After I make my binding, I tape it with masking tape onto the PVC pipe....wind it all up on there....and then, when I'm putting the binding on my quilt, it unrolls easily and doesn't leave me juggling all that binding (and usually dropping it in the process).  It makes binding a lot easier!   So......maybe you'd like to make yourself one of these stylish necklaces too!  The nice part is that my necklace frequently has a different look....a new color....each time I bind another quilt.  

Something was in my mailbox.....

I had nearly forgotten that Julie had been "cleaning house" (or at least her sewing room) and I had been lucky enough to win something from her.  This is a picture of it....a mini Halloween runner complete with the wool felt with which to make it.  It is really cute! I will enjoy doing this, I'm sure. Thanks, Julie!  

Also....please go back to THIS post of mine and re-read it as Johna'Lee really needs more blocks. She has now extended her finish date to the end of November, so if you hadn't yet read about this, please go there and tell her I sent you and please consider helping her with this very worthwhile project.  I know I have a lot of followers here....nearly 300 of them....and if even 1/4 of you would go and read that post and each make just one block, she would have 75 more blocks toward the rest of the quilts she is making for the family of that young man who gave his life for us in Afghanistan. This is a way we can really touch some hearts and help them heal.

Secret Santa time....

If you look on my sidebar, you will see Santa peeking out from behind a Christmas tree.  I am joining a Secret Santa event that sounded like fun.  If you want to know more about it, just go over to that little picture and click on Santa and you will be taken to a blog that has all the information!  Thanks for all the kind comments on my sock dilemma in my last post.  I am trying to find someone locally to help me, but if not, Margi has kindly stepped forward to offer her help...and I'm very grateful to her!  (Gotta love bloggers!!!)

Discouraged........

See this photo?  Let me tell you a story about it......   

I am not a knitter...I've tried and just cannot get comfortable with it.  I do know how to crochet, though, and while I am not an expert, I am certainly at least an intermediate level crocheter.  I LOVE knitted socks.  I researched online and found that this book is supposed to be a good one...yielding nice crocheted socks that are comparable to knitted ones.  I made a special trip to get it in Dover (40+ miles from here) and also bought some sock yarn, a hook in the suggested size and split-ring markers (all pictured here, too).  When I came home, I eagerly wound one of the skeins of yarn into a nice ball.  Then....I did a gauge swatch...had trouble as the crochet hook seems to want to split that sock yarn.  :(    After I was sure the gauge was right, I tried to start one of the sock patterns and struggled and struggled and came to realize I couldn't do it.....the yarn kept splitting with that darn hook.  I tried one other pattern with the same results. SO.....now I have come to the conclusion that my socks need to be knitted, but I am unable to do it.  I am hoping I might find a kind knitter in this area who will do them for me.  If I do...and if she (or he) also crochets, I'll be happy to give that person the sock crochet book...as it's obvious I'll never use it and maybe someone who is an advanced crocheter would have better luck with it.  I'm discouraged as I LOVE this particular sock yarn...the colors and the feel of it...and I'm still hoping to end up with a pair of socks from it...somehow!!!   Wish me luck, okay?

Update on memorial quilt project.....

Some of you might recall a recent post in which I asked some of you to send blocks to a woman whose soon-to-be-son-in-law was killed in Afghanistan a week before coming home....and a few weeks before his planned wedding.  She is making some memorial quilts for her daughter, who was to be the bride, and for his family and she was wanting quilt blocks to be sent to her.  Some of you said you'd send blocks...and maybe some of you didn't see that post but would LIKE to send blocks.  If so, please look back a few posts on my blog and all the info is there. This photo is just a few of the blocks she has gotten.  If you wish to see more of what she has received, click HERE to see a post in which she shows several photos. (She has talked of this project in other posts on that blog, too, if you wish to check out more posts by her.)  I hope she gets enough blocks to make all the quilts she wants to make.  I think it will be a help to all those who are mourning this brave young man.