The brown bag fat quarters....Chapter 3...

After two posts on here and a lot of very-much appreciated feedback from many of you, I am going with the assortment pictured here. You may gasp and say, "What is she DOING?" Don't worry...... I will explain below the photo. Click on it to see it in greater detail.
A quilting friend who is known to be wonderful with color and does stunning quilted pieces stopped by my blog (at my request) and looked over all the combos I'd selected. She said the photo above is what I should do.....a combo I'd never have come up with on my own. She told me to take that photo and change it (with my photo program) to black and white and look at it that way....which I did and which I'll show you below. When I did that, it became apparent that I had a good blend of one light fabric (the dotted one), two mediums (the prints) and one dark (the green). Seeing them in black and white, she told me, allows you to see the color "value" of the fabrics...and you can see what is going to "read" as light, medium and dark and see if you have a good blend. At first I was skeptical of those two prints in the same quilted item, but even when I put them side-by-side, they do look fine together....and no matter how I rearranged those 4 fat quarters, each one looked good alongside every other one. So...this will be it. I wonder if the person who GETS my brown bag will be horrified when they see this combo??? LOL I will be eagerly anticipating when we get our fabric back MADE into something in July. Oh...yes...here is the black and white photo in which you can see.....1 light fabric.....2 mediums....and 1 dark. I'm sure it will work (but, of course, the person making the surprise for me with these fabrics can also add others, so that could change EVERYTHING!!!)

Hmmm......follow-up to brown bag post.....

Gee....I'm glad I asked all of you for input on yesterday's post....really I am. Those of you who said I like the more muted colors are correct. As for which of those 4 was my least favorite, it was D (the group of all dots)......because it didn't have enough "oomph". (I love dots, though.) There were a couple of suggestions that involved juggling fabric around. They both involved Group A.......which looked THIS way on my post yesterday: (click to see the fabrics better)Gene (who is an artist and has a good eye for color) suggested I get rid of the green (which made my heartbeat go crazy as you know I LOVE green fabrics)....and he thought I should use the blue from Group B instead to bring out the blue in the focus fabric....which would result in THIS: (again, click to see the fabrics better). We will call this the GENE Pool of fabrics!!! (Pretty clever name, huh??)
Then.....Nancy....who is a dotty, blogging friend....loving all things polka dotted.....suggested I take one of the polka dot fabrics and use it in Group A....but she didn't tell me which ONE to use and which fabric to pull OUT of Group A. So...I played around and came up with THIS, which I will call Dotty Nancy. Please click on this one and look at it close-up.What do you think? I could live with either of these OR with Group A as it was originally (and is the first one pictured above). I could also live with Group C from yesterday (which was this one):
I have eliminated yesterday's Group B from this process.....I do like the focus fabric in that group, but overall, it is just not ME (which most of you realized)...and Group D with all the dots was too boring with no focus fabric, so that is eliminated now, too. So...which do you like best of these two......Gene Pool or Dotty Nancy??? Gosh...I love all you bloggers who are willing to help and point out things I miss about fabric combos. If I was making this item myself and knew WHAT it was going to be....a wall-hanging, table runner, or whatever, I'd have an easier time choosing fabrics, I'm sure. BUT..... for this project, I have to choose something that would look good as anything that the person makes for me...and that seems a lot harder!!!

I'll be "brown-bagging" soon......

I'm going to be brown-bagging soon and I need your help in choosing my LUNCH. No....just kidding. I'm not taking my lunch with me to work (because I am retired and don't GO anywhere to work now...just work out of my home), but I'm doing a fun guild activity. Maybe some of you have done this with your guilds. You sign up at a meeting and take a brown bag (that is empty).....like this one.....

The directions say to take your brown bag home, fill it with 4 fat quarters you like and put your name inside the bag, staple it closed and bring it to the next meeting. At that meeting, the brown bags will be redistributed and you will take one home that is NOT your own. You will then use the 4 fat quarters inside there (and can add other fabrics, if you wish) to make something for the person whose brown bag you have. We have 5 months in which to do this, so it's plenty of time and you can make anything.......but bigger than 12 inches if it's a wall-hanging or something like that. So....I have started to look at some fabrics I have here in order to decide on the fat quarters I will send away in MY brown bag to be made into a surprise for me. I'm having trouble deciding, so maybe you can look and tell me what you think.........and maybe NONE of these are good and you'll tell me I need to go buy something new before the next meeting or that I need to substitute one of the fabrics but you like the rest of that group. It seems this guild has made many different things in their brown bag projects.....wall-hangings, table runners, purses, pillow covers, etc. It should be a fun experience. Please look at what I've "auditioned" in the photos below and tell me your feelings about them, okay? They are grouped in no particular order and there is one that I now don't really like for this project, but I'll leave it here just to see what kinds of comments it might generate. Please click on them to see them in greater detail as it might help with your comments.

GROUP A:

GROUP B:

GROUP C:

GROUP D:Thanks for your help with this!

My wonderfully fun class on Monday.....

I absolutely LOVED my class with Gyleen Fitzgerald on Monday. (Click HERE for her website.) She gave a lecture first at our guild meeting on her newest book.....Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings (which you can see on her website). She had ALL the quilts from the book there to show us and to describe how she finished them for the book. (She had acquired them in various stages of completion and some went back to the 1920's). It was a fun and fascinating talk. She sure keeps everyone's attention. This first photo is one of the quilts....the front of it.......and then the back....Gyleen does backs that can actually be used as fronts.......and each one is terrific.I took several photos of quilts but overshot my flash on some of them......and wish I hadn't as some of them were better shots than these previous two. Next is a photo of 3 of us who made blocks for the quilt by which we are standing. It is a quilt Gyleen has featured in one of her tiny books (In This House) as well as she has a pattern for it. In the photo (left to right) are me, Kaye (click here for her blog), another gal from guild named Pat (no blog) and Gyleen. My block, in case you were wanting to know, is in the 3rd row from the top...2nd block from the left...a yellow house with a cat in the window.
Below, Gyleen is holding a top made from the blocks from the free Block of the Month she designed that may be found on her website. It is based on tiles.......pretty crisp-looking. I may decide to make these, because we all know I don't have enough projects already in progress. hahahahaHA I didn't think to ask Gyleen if the fabrics in this are any of her hand-dyes...as she does beautiful hand-dyes (on top of being a writer, designer, teacher AND holding down a fulltime job as some kind of engineer, I believe). I wish I could bottle her energy...that's for sure!
The last photo (below) shows my project from class........no borders yet. It's Gyleen's Batik Star Tesselation pattern.....REALLY a fun pattern once you get the hang of it....and easy, too (again, once you understand how to do it). I am NOT one to do lots of colors...I usually pick one safe colorway and everything is pretty much "matchy-matchy" but I trusted Gyleen and took chances with this and like it a lot so far....although I will be the first to admit it is really WILD. (Nothing like a scrappy batik to look wild, I guess.) I will show it again once I get the border fabric chosen and done (and I am going to spill a couple of stars out into the border the way she showed us to do it). As I have told you before, if you ever get the chance to hear her speak or take a class from her, go DO it. (I think she may be at the Houston show teaching this year...unless that was last year and time has just flown by!!! LOL) Check out her website, too (at the link above). If you take a class from her, she provides support to you via telephone and email until you are done with the project, so you are not left dangling with unanswered questions...which is terrific. I am currently picking her brain about borders for this piece! Gyleen...if you are reading this, thanks for being such a super quilt designer and teacher (and lecturer).

BBQ at a quilting pal's house.......

Last evening, Quilting Nana (Kathy from the Creative Urges blog) and her hubby had a very nice BBQ at their house. There were many interesting folks there including some people from her hubby's community theater group as well as some of her quilting pals (also friends of mine) from the quilt guild. The food was plentiful.....all kinds of snacks and salads, sausage sandwiches, BBQ'd chicken, and yummy desserts. DH and I had a wonderful time....thanks for inviting us, Kathy & Bill.

Here is a photo of the 4 of us from the guild who were there.....standing are me (Pat!!!), another gal named Pat (VP for the guild this past year....no blog) and Kathy (our hostess last night and secretary for the guild this past year). Seated is Carole (no blog) who was a founding member of the guild and its first president. We chatted away and our husbands had to make silly comments about our stashes and fat quarters and waiting in the car while we are in the quilt shop......stuff like that. They just do NOT understand, do they? :) Oh, yes......look below......as there is one more photo for you today.....

This is a follow up to yesterday's blog posting. Some of you wondered whether or not those gals swim in the ocean or just stand at the edge. They DO swim in the ocean and swim IN those dresses. (They don't wear their head coverings in the water, though.) This is a photo taken a bit later in the season last year. They are not supposed to have their faces photographed so we try to stay at a distance and use a zoom lens. The young man in the photo is also Amish or Mennonite. If you look closely at the dress of the gal nearest to him (click to enlarge the photo), you can see how wet it is. They go all the way in the water in their dresses......I'm thinking it must not be very comfy to come out and sit in a soaking wet dress for awhile! And...in case you were wondering, they do NOT drive horse and buggy to the beach. (The beaches are a bit far away from their homes here for them to do that.) If they are Mennonite, they do drive cars...mostly vans.... and tend to transport several people at once. If they are Amish, they will hire a driver and car to take them places that are too far to go with their buggies.

Productive day yesterday.....

Yesterday I spent most of the day sewing on gifts for the holidays. Because some of those folks look at my blog, I can't show photos....yet. I will show them after the gifts are received, though.

My guild is having a UFO day at the January meeting. The way this works is.....those who wish to participate in it sign a "contract" 9 months before this particular meeting. On the contract, you list the UFO's you will complete and show that day. Well...I put 4 items on my contract and have NONE of them completed. My hopes of getting any of them done are fading quickly....since the meeting date is January 5. I am consoling myself by saying that I will shorten show-and-tell time by having a few less items there that day....and then everyone can get home sooner!!! LOL (The last time we had this UFO meeting, the show and tell was VERRRRRRRY long....I mean almost excruciatingly long.....and some were unable to stay for the whole thing.) I think, though, this year the plan is to only show a favorite one or two items instead of ALL the UFO's you completed. (Some gals last year had 10 or more items to show.)

I realize I need to get a picture post on here soon.....more interesting that way, so I'll try for that tomorrow.

The Guild's Auction and Luncheon

Yesterday was the quilt guild's auction and pot-luck luncheon. (We have two auctions a year....a "treasure" auction where folks bring in quilting and craft items they no longer want in June, and this one where the items are all finished items......handmade or store-bought....that are suitable for gift-giving.) A good time was had by all. I am relieved to report that there WERE bids on my scarf and I believe it was sold for $10. (I always worry that nobody will like what I've donated and there will be no bids on it!!!)

The luncheon, as always, was spectacular. We don't sign up for any categories, so it always amazes me that there is a wonderful variety with no extreme duplications.....from appetizers right on through to desserts....and yesterday was no exception.

This was the first month of our year-long Secret Sister program, too. I hope my gal enjoyed her gift package from me. I got a nice one from MY Secret Sister (trail mix, a snowman candle, and 2 batik FQ's in shades of blue)...and have no clue yet who she might be. We do this until November, when we will reveal ourselves and go out to lunch as a group.

End of a rainy day.....

(Information about scarf construction is below)


Today we had church and then music practice. (Gary and I are in a folk group and we play the first Sunday of each month and on special days.....will play twice on Christmas Eve, so we need a lot of practice sessions right now.) After that, we came home and I finished up making the turkey soup that I had simmering in the crockpot. That hit the spot on a rainy day.

Tomorrow is my quilt guild's Christmas auction and luncheon. I made a scarf using MaryAnne "Moonbeams in a Jar" Drury's tutorial (posted on Cotton Spice - you must scroll down a bit on the page to find the tutorial). It was a fun and easy project and I think people will bid on it tomorrow. Above is a photo of it. The idea is not to need a purse when you take a walk....put your tissue and house key in the pockets...maybe a few dollars if you are walking to get the newspaper or a morning cup of coffee. Cute idea, isn't it? I don't know why I used such bright colors...not my usual choice, but I'm sure it will appeal to gals who like BRIGHT....and it is so soft and warm....double layer of fleece...nice and cozy!