Went to see "The Big Frog"

This morning, I got up early and drove down to see "The Big Frog".  It's a small shop that does photo transfers on T-shirts, etc.  Bonnie told me about the shop last Spring and it has taken me this long to get my information together for my quilt labels.  While I was about it, I decided to make some photo transfers.  Since the price of photo transfer paper went up so high, I haven't bought any in over a year, so I thought I'd give this option a try.

I'm having them print my information for 12 quilt labels.  I'll be busy for the next week, sewing on labels. 

Researching history for my quilt labels

Researching the history for my quilt labels has been a great challenge for me.  I hope to keep better records in the future.  It has been quite difficult to piece together when I started a quilt, was it a guild class and who was the teacher, when did I finish, who quilted it and the finish date and choosing a name for the quilt.  This Blog has been an amazing help with many of the details.  As a founding member of our Quilt Guild, I have saved over 240 monthly Guild newsletters, which have many details of all our events.  

12 more days to finish

My post title is "12 more days to finish" but it is not possible to finish everything on the list.  However, I can make an attempt, so that I can start with a fresh New Year of 2016.  I am most excited about making a couple of Photo Transfer wall hangings and getting labels made for all my quilts.  I'm taking my fabric and thumb drive down to the "Big Frogg"  after Christmas for them to transfer the info. & photos to my fabric.
Today, I plan to finish the binding on the quilt for a little baby boy and then type up all the labels for my quilts.  I'm sure I will be amazed at how many do not have labels.

Merry Christmas and a New Year with many blessings.

Design Wall Monday

Good Morning--I stayed up last night until about 3:00 this morning, waiting and waiting for the storm to pass through our area.  It was very windy yesterday but who could complain, we had sunshine and over 75 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday.  All the leaves that had been placed in the street for pick-up have now flown back into everyone's yard.
However, yesterday morning, I discovered this beautiful sky.....it wasn't there long.

Sunday Morning Sky

This morning, I can finally reveal a couple of projects that I had been working in late November and up until last Friday afternoon.

Gift for a special little boy

The hand prints are from this special little boy's classmates and teachers.  Several of the teachers had designed the layout of the quilt top and had all of the hand prints on the white fabric panels.  All I had to do was sew the panels together and machine quilt it.  I was surprised that I was able to stitch through the paint in a few places where the paint overlapped the seam allowances.  I hope you noticed how the hand prints in the center created hearts.

 Next up...

Gift for Guild member

In early November, it was brought to my attention that one of our Guild members was turning 90 years young in December.  Several years ago, one of our Guild members turned 90 and she was given a Signature quilt.  Each member made a block from her favorite color (purple) and signed the block.

Well, how many guilds have members who are turning 90 and can still attend the monthly meetings.  I was just going to have everyone sign a 5" square of white muslin.  But, when I took the blocks to my weekly Sewing Group, Denni suggested sewing 2 squares on the diagonal to opposite corners and then when the squares were sewn together, it created a scrappy little 4-patch.

My Design Wall Monday dated Nov. 16th, 2015, showed piles of leftover scraps of HST that were cut from the original 2" squares which created the little 4-patch blocks between the signatures.  I used these leftover scraps to create the pinwheel blocks in the borders.  The border and the pinwheels finished at 2".

Needless to say, our guild member, Edith and her daughter, Pam were quite surprised as were most of our guild members.  I had passed the blocks around at the November meeting, which just happened to be my birthday, so I gave everyone the impression that they were signing the blocks for me, since I love Signature Quilts.  I had to do it that way because Edith was at the Nov. meeting and she signed one of the blocks for her own quilt, which I placed near the top of the cake.

I have two more surprises to complete before the reveal for those quilts.  Before I fall asleep at the computer, I'm linking up with Judy at:    Patchwork Times.com 

Design Wall Monday

Oh, what to put on my Design Wall this sunny Monday morning?  Presently, everything I'm working on this month is a "secret".  I discovered this sampler wall hanging waiting to be machine quilted and decided to bring it up to the fore front today.  I also noticed I had a picture of  it for DWM in Dec.2013.  Well, here it is again.  It measures 30 inches square.

Sampler of Scraps

Today, I'm off to purchase more fabric.  I need a special color for one of the "secret quilts", so I can make the binding.  This secret quilt needs to be finished by Friday.

I had wanted to be involved in the new Bonnie Hunter Mystery this year but I believe I need to get caught up on what I've started.  I'm beginning to feel I bit overwhelmed with all these many UFO's.

See what others are creating this Monday by stopping by:  PatchworkTimes.com

The Sharing Bowl

This evening, as I was looking through some emails, I came across an email about the "Sharing Bowl".  My mother and her sister shared this bowl every other year over a span of 35-45 years.  There were no markings on the bottom of the bowl.

Sharing Bowl

Bowl turned upside down-side of Sharing Bowl

In 1976, I asked my mother, Sally, where she got this bowl.  She was still living on First Avenue at the time.  She said that it was a “sharing bowl” between her and her sister, Eddie.  She wasn’t sure what year the “Tradition” began.  My guess, is sometime during 1930-1940.

One Christmas, Sally would fill the bowl with English Walnuts that she and Donald had grown on First Avenue or something special they had made.  The bowl was given as a Christmas gift to Eddie & John (my Aunt & Uncle).

The next Christmas, Eddie and John would fill the bowl with something special that they had made or grown on their Apple Ranch.  The bowl was given as a Christmas gift back to Sally and Donald.

Every other Christmas, the bowl would travel back & forth.  Every other year, the recipient could enjoy the bowl for an entire year.

In hopes of keeping this tradition going, I gave the bowl to my cousin, Karen to start the tradition again and keep it going between her and her twin sister, Karolyn.

There is still time, to start the tradition in your family too.......

Reverse Birthday Surprise

Cute little chicken for Fall

Tuesdays are always a day to gather with 15-20 ladies and sew for those in need.  We have a great time cutting, sewing, chatting and sewing some more.  Elaine was the first to tell us about "Reverse Birthdays".  I had never heard of this new way to celebrate a birthday.  Instead of having everyone give you a gift, you present gifts to everyone in the group.  Since the gifts are from your heart and hands, you do need to plan ahead.
Elaine made drawstring bags to hold our sewing machine cords and foot pedal.
Judy made 2 1/2" crocheted hearts with a pretty little ribbon attached.  It will be a darling ornament.
Nancy V. made scented candles wrapped in a little bag.  Another bag held yummy cookies for us to share.

I was next--so my surprise was a "Chicken Parade".  "22" little Chicken pin cushions took over an entire
round table.  I guess I should have taken a picture of all of them at the table.  I did take some pictures at home that I will share with you today.  On Oct. 19th and Oct. 26th, I posted pictures of tiny log cabin blocks and mentioned that some of the blocks were not the same size but it did not matter.  I know that would have made me wonder how that would work in a quilt.

First 11 Chickens on Parade

   

Close up for 3 center chickens from above photo

Close up of same 3 chickens from back 

Close up of chickens from side and tail feathers 

Close up of more chickens

I went to a Quilting Retreat back in 1999 and Sylvia Ballard taught me how to make the little chickens.
The last time I made a batch of chickens was in January 2013 and posted on this Blog with pictures at that time.