Thrifting In Winston Salem!

I blogged yesterday about my "getting away from it all" at home and heading out to have lunch with Lisa and Karen.....such good sports at dumping all on THEIR "TO DO" lists just to indulge my desire to have some gf chat time over some good food.

We went to a place we've frequented a couple times before (and will again!) Nawab....the best Indian food in Winston! Really...I always leave there full to the point of pain, so maybe it's not a good idea to go there.. :cÞ

We sat and gabbed and ate and chatted and laughed and ate some more. At which time I asked which was the best way to get to Peter's Creek Parkway from there...and Karen's eyes lit up. "Are you going to the Goodwill Clearance Center???" She hadn't been before..CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Well, she was in for an awakening, Quiltville style.



This is the beautiful new Goodwill in Winston....it has a career training center, a retail store on the right, AND the clearance center on the left!



This was our entrance! Quite the nice building, don't you think?



Upon entering, and grabbing a cart (A buggy, if you are in the South...) THIS is what you are greeted with! Miles of bins on wheels, stuff piled high! An overwhelming sense of "OH MY. WHERE DO I START!?" And you have to be willing to DIG...and DIG...because there is no rhyme or reason to anything. You've got to know that the BEST finds might be at the bottom of one of these bins, so you can't just casually walk by and GLANCE...you've gotta get IN THERE!



Karen found some wool clothing items for Lisa who does rug hooking (Yeah, she's gone to the other side and taken up with the hookers! *LOL*)And we spent time laughing about really WEIRD items, and finding things that we would even take home and wear ourselves..it was really fun!



And what did we pay? Signs hung from the ceiling telling us that clothing was $1.39 a pound, or if you bought 25lbs or more...it was $.99! I suppose you could get friends to go with you and get that much...I have a confession to make, the first time I went to find clothing I could repurpose into quilts, I came home with 35 POUNDS of clothing....so I got the bargain that day!



If English is your second language, there is this sign to help you too!



To check out, you simply wheel your cart up onto the scale, and someone will ring you up!

All in all, I paid about $10.70 for what I came home with. That's 12 articles of clothing....from shirts to skirts to pajama pants. That averages .89 cents a piece. Not bad! My treasures are ready to be put through the wash so I can cut them down into useable pieces for quilting. It was definitely a SCORE day!

BELLS & WHISTLES!!!!!

I just hit 1000 followers!!! WHOOOT!!! But where are the flags and bells and whistles and confetti? Shouldn't there be an email or something to let me know who this person is?






Thank you thank you! I'm glad to have you along for the ride! (all of you!)

Sew & Tell Tuesday, From Memphis TN!

I'm in the midst of making lunch plans with two local friends, Karen & Lisa....and because we are going to be enjoying some much needed girlfriend time, I'm going to be away from home and projects for the afternoon.....

So I decided today would be a good day to leave you with some lovely eye candy! I dug way back in the pics that people have sent me, and I decided that today will be a show from pics that FOREST JANE sent me!

That's FJ's heart wallhanging above, and she had this to say about it:

And here's my wallhanging that I made to hang at the library on Valentine's Day. After I took it to a guild meeting they all wanted to know where I got the idea. I posted the link to your site on our bulletin board (and website) and they all caught the Bonnie fever from me. :-D

Here's one still in the block stage, by Stacye R.

Forest Jane wrote:

Here's some pineapple blossom quilt pix for your site. They're all made here in Memphis TN. Sandy C. made these two:

About the next photo she writes:

I've also attached one of my brother holding a strip twist quilt I made for him

Looking at everyone's pics always leaves me SO inspired! Thanks FJ for sharing the pics with me...for those who didn't know, Forest Jane is the designer of all of our mystery and other logos. She does an awesome job behind the scenes at Quiltville!

Vintage 80's & 90's!

Remember when all there WAS was VIP and Cranston prints (And some Peter Pan or others..) for quilting with in the "early days?" If you've been quilting for nearly 30 years like I have, chances are these fabrics will strike a chord in your memory.

The year I graduated from high school, 1980, I spent the summer involved with Musical Theatre. I was in the chorus for Music Man. I had to make COSTUMES! My costume was a very full gibson girl kind of outfit, with a very mutton sleeved blouse with lace, and a very full flounced skirt, underskirts, petticoats, etc.

These were the kind of fabrics that were available! And when I was done......guess what I had left? SCRAPS! Oh, I loved that outfit....I loved being in musicals! But not long after that in 1981 I moved away from San Jose, headed to Idaho, got married, started a life.

The SCRAPS from my clothing sewing came WITH me when I moved....and many of my first patchwork projects incorporated these scraps from things like my costume sewing.

When I presented a couple trunk shows at Tiny Stitches in Marietta, GA a few weeks back, I was gifted with a large brown paper sack with handles...CHOCK FULL of these kinds of fabrics, 80's & 90's....which bring back so many memories to me! Just look at these! ONE OF THESE...is the exact same fabric I used for my skirt in that play. There are a couple of yards of it! I feel like someone has gifted me with a piece of my young adulthood....that 18 year old girl who had no idea which way her life was going to go, just on the brink of "too scared to choose any path lest it be the wrong one". Remember being that girl?

Sometimes I still think I am that girl....and this brings me all the way back to her, and I can look at her in the mirror and now say, so many years later...LOOK! Look how far you've come! Look at the path you've been on, you never dreamed this was possible, did you?

I'm sewing some of these browns into the brown/blue quilt I'm piecing on. It's been a great journey. I'm glad that young girl is still along for the ride.

Quilts a Quiltin' at the house of Quiltville!

I loaded the top with the "Extreme" border this morning..it's getting quilted today! Or at least as far as I can go today....

Busy busy busy quilt, it's getting a lovely all over design.

I wish I could show you the whole thing, but you are going to have to bear with me with just parts and pieces and small glimpses until the next book is out in Feb!

I got home from DC yesterday evening....lovely drive, just a beautiful day!

I was so tired though, that I was asleep by 10pm...and I slept all the way until 9am this morning! You know, there is a lot to be said about sleeping in your own bed, the window cracked open for a bit of fresh air, two kitties, one on either side, purring away.

It just beats hotel sounds, snoring from the room next door, wall ac/heat units going on and off, the sound of people in the corridor, and all. And the fact that I didn't have to wake up to an alarm this morning made it that much more blissful!

I'm smiling going back over all the fun times we had in class this past week. Some of the students got sneak previews of a couple of the quilts that are coming in the next book, toward the end of class I pulled them out to do some binding...Gotta grab every minute!

My next outing? I leave Thursday for Smith Mountain Lake, VA, for the Virginia Consortium of Quilters! It's going to be a fun weekend of classes by many teachers from all over, I guess it's similar to a State Symposium, and I'm happy to be a part of it! This time I won't be driving up the dreaded I-95, It's more Scenic, up toward Roanoke! Another lovely drive.

I had a friend who used to live in Roanoke (They moved! BOO!)and I have always loved the Blue Ridge mountains up there...just unbelievably gorgeous. If there was one place I could pick to retire and STAY PUT...that would be it!

Back at the machine.....enjoy your Sunday!

Fabric Fun!

At my Texas Braid class with the gals in Indiana, I absolutely fell in love with the wide variety of fabrics the ladies had brought! Many with stories of where the fabrics came from, be it inherited from their mother in law, cut from their own old dress they had saved from the 1960s (That story was such a hoot as we all got a piece of this goldie-hawn-esq circa Laugh In frock!)and other places where fabrics had their origins.

Fabric is so fun because it has MEMORY to it. I love working through my scraps because of all the memories they bring to mind as I pull this piece that was in my son's baby quilt when he was born, my other son's high school graduation quilt, all those kinds of things. Can't you just pick up a fabric and remember where/when it was used?

Kathy sent me a lovely envelope full of such fabrics...Just look at these! I love the funky greens with orange flowers, and who wouldn't like the pink vintage cowboy novelty fabric? CUTE!

Thanks Kathy for sharing your vintage treasures with me! I can't wait to see where they will end up in my quilts!

Virginia Bound in Virginia!

We had such a great time on Wednesday I wanted to share these pics with you!

The most fun thing of teaching a class, especially a SCRAPPY class like this, is to see the color ideas that students come up with, whether they are digging deep into fabric they've had "FOR.EVER." or recycled fabrics they are finding a use for, or scraps they've inherited from someone, or just a color way they have always wanted to dry and finally have a catalyst for doing it.


BurkeVA2010

The pics might be a bit washed out..we had a WONDERFUL bank of windows in our class room looking out on the spring weather outside, and it was shining in on us as well, so this is the best I could do, thanks to the camera on my phone!

What a lovely day we had, and I am sure that there is going to be a wild array of wonderful quilts being made from the time we spent together!

Thanks Ladies, it was a blast!

Spring In My Hood!

The changing of the seasons always fills me with a sense of wonder. I love living in a place where I get to experience all four seasons, but really, If I had to put them in order of preference, I would list SPRING as my favorite....even though it tends to pass the quickest, turning from bare branches and brown grass to full blown green and hot summer within just a few short weeks (if not sooner! Remember, it was 90 on Easter here!)

Fall would be my next best...when the leaves turn their gorgeous shades of rust, red, yellow, orange....but then the nights are shorter, and the days shorter, and I'm not willing to rush into that right now either!

These are some pics I took while on a walkabout the neighborood a few days ago. I think I've mentioned this before, but when I leave town for a few days and come back, it is easy to see how much has changed in just those few days!

As always, things I long for in spring, like the blooming of the Bradford Pears pass so quickly.....and now it is the DOGWOODS that are showing their true beauty...with the exception of the few short weeks in spring where the dogwoods boom, The trees just really seem to fade into the woodwork (or the woods themselves!) around here...but for those few short weeks when they DO bloom...oh, they are glorious!

The lots in my relatively small neighborhood are LARGE with the smallest being about 1 acre. I live off a small culdesac with only 5 homes on it. When the trees are in full leaf, I don't even see my neighbors because my house is down in its own littler "holler" as we like to say.

My favorite place is my walk along the main road in the neighborhood where I am greeted by wonderful old wood fences around a pasture, a barn, and other outbuildings that have been there for who knows how long.

I especially love this humongous old oak tree that provides wonderful shade in the summer, and glorious color in the fall. There hasn't been livestock in this pasture since I moved in, but I imagine at some point there could have been horses or goats or whatever.but I just love the country feeling of being out where I am.


Spring 2010
Come take a walk and see where I live!

I had a lovely class in Burke, VA yesterday.....and the lecture/trunkshow went super! Today I'm off until a guild meeting tonight, so I have put the do not disturb sign on the door and I'm sewing away!

It's a gorgeous day out there, and I'm really tempted to get out and about and do some sight seeing in Old Alexandria, but I need machine time too, so I'm a bit torn. Maybe I'll sew for a few hours, and go out in the afternoon before I have to be to Centreville to meet with the ladies at the school at 5 to set up for tonight's lecture.....

Whatever you get up to today, enjoy the beauty around you, and find SOME time to stitch SOMETHING every day!

Oscar in Blue & Brown.....

Oscar feels neglected because I haven't posted much of him lately, and since I am on the road, I'm going to indulge him by setting this up to post while I am away!

If this first pic looks stripey, it's cuz the sun light is coming in through the window blinds! We are so happy to HAVE sunlight, we aren't going to worry about photo stripes, are we?

Of course, this is the blue/brown/neutral shirt pile that I've made a big mess with.....I have so many shirts that have not been cut up, that I went digging through boxes just trying to find the right colors. That's always like a treasure hunt because I forget what I've put IN those boxes in the first place!

That one blue indigo shirt by his head is a GREAT ONE..just look at this!

It reminds me shirts I've seen Tonya wear....What do you think Ton? Is it you or isn't it? Too bad, I'm cutting it up! *LOL*

These are some of the browns I've got too...the one little floral is actually a pair of Old Navy pajama pants! It's a GREAT old fashioned looking print, isn't it? And I like the tan shirt too....something very masculine looking about it. It's nice to find things that aren't always plaids or stripes. Something to add interest...something fairly boxer shorts/hospital gown kind of funky print! *LOL*

Of course, now I have to deal with not only threads and strings from cutting UP the shirts..but with Oscar hair too. ^..^

COMPLETELY GOBSMACKED!!

(with a subtitle of....Things that Come in the MAIL!)

Yesterday Sue P wrote:

You could always put a holler out for your followers to find certain colors you have a hard time finding.

I'm up north in Finger Lakes, NY.

Sue P.

I've had boxes show up with no return address before....just a UPS or Fedex or Priority Mail label...so it's no joke, even though it gets lots of laughs at my lectures! So I had to laugh when Sue said..put out a holler for dark brown shirts, because I can just imagine that I'll be drowning in them in no time!

But imagine my surprise when I opened up THIS box Monday. You know, I feel kinda bad because it sat in my front hall all day yesterday. (Guilty guilty guilty!) I got home from a trip on Saturday night, pulling into my driveway around midnight. I went straight to bed.

(After looking at my new carpet that was installed while I was gone...I asked for carpet the color of DIRT..and I am happy to say this pleases me! I think Buddy and Sadie approve too, and it's a good thing, since they are the reason I need dirt-colored-carpet!)

I slept til nearly 10am, and DH and I spent Saturday morning running errands. You know the usual? Sam's Club, Target, Dicks Sporting Goods (his choice, not mine..I sat there and poked through my mail on my phone just nodding and going "Uhhuh, oh really, yes that's nice..." while he shopped for a new baseball mit. What do I know about mits? About as much as he knows about thimbles...and I did make him stop at Joanns where the notions wall was 50% off, so I could inflict the same kind of pain on HIM that the sporting goods store does to me!

By the time we had lunch (I'm a sucker for Chili's bottomless soup and salad, it comes with chips and salsa and I like the Enchilda soup)and made it home..I was still so knackered from this trip that I took a long afternoon nap. Which brought us to late afternoon!

And you already know from yesterday's post that I was off cutting and kitting to the wee small hours Sunday night BECAUSE I NAPPED! :cD

Today I hit the ground running...no cutting has been done even though I plan on it later. I had to work on the website calendar, tackle more email, arrange future travel plans, finalize everything for my trip tomorrow, do the mail order, start packing for tomorrow.....

When I came back into the house after the post office run, I decided it was time to open the box and see what goodies were in it! Ummmmm...there is a letter....and it says...

As someone who obviously appreciates quilts, I hope you can recycle these for donating or just repair, rennovate, etc for your own or other use.

Thanks.

Wait. No name? Just Thanks? OH. MY.

The box had everything wrapped in black trash bags. I mean, it could be ANYTHING in there?

But look what I found!!!


antiques in the mail!
The first couple were wonderful utility quilts made out of simple panels of whole feedsacks sewn together. Made quickly for warmth and tied or machine quilted...they don't look like they have been used hard. I'm sure lots of quilts like these wore out with the using through hard times. The fabric in them is so good, I'm thinking I might be able to repurpose it somehow, but for now, I'm just folding these and admiring their colors and textures!

The next black trash bag contained a lavender 30's railroad crossing quilt..I saw the hand quilting stitches and nearly cried! In fact...I think I did...cuz Jeff came running down from his room to find out what was going on!

And it just got better the farther I went into this big box! The one that really made my heart sing is the Sunflower quilt from the late 1800's....There just aren't words to describe how it felt to hold this quilter's work in my hands, knowing she is long gone, yet her stitches remain.

I have no idea if these were collected quilts? Or if they had been passed down through one family? I just don't KNOW!! But I do know that I will cherish them and love them and fondle them and dream over them, and love their fabrics, their colors, their quirkyness...

I left comments on each picture in webshots...so you might need to click the link to get over there and look at them in the album instead of just watch the slide show..but..man...I'm just humbled, and tickled, and awed, and....I don't have words to thank the person (whoever you are in Annapolis!) for gifting me with these wonderful quilts. THANK YOU!

Kitting Up!!

Remember that brown bundle I got in Indiana?

Well, it's been sitting here on my cutting table because I didn't know exactly what to do with it. The pieces range in width from 4" on up to 8"...some are full width of fabric, some are half...it really is a SCRAP bundle! But sometimes just having something out on the table will get things running around in my brain and inspire me in a color way I hadn't really considered doing before!

Until yesterday afternoon, that is!

That bin of muslin was still under the table from cutting for the reproduction 30s/40's project. (uhoh...why has this gone on the back burner!?)

I'd been cutting up some shirts that had found their way home with me, mostly in shades of blue and brown as well, and BAM! I knew what I had to do!

Really REALLY brown shirts are hard to find. They come in shades of tan, beige, all the way up to kind of an oak color, but unless you are the UPS guy, you just don't find dark chocolate brown shirts....but the ones I do have really look GREAT against some of these other browns that came in this bundle, the recycled fabrics add such a feeling of "utility" to otherwise "too perfect off the bolt" fabrics.

And muslin? What can I say.....I love antique quilts, and sometimes the other fabrics we have been told by the quilt police to use, such as Kona Snow, or really pretty cutesy all from the same line shirtings just are too......designer? I'm not sure. I want good contrast between the plaids and stripes and recycled fabrics, and the ones I've purposed for use from this brown bundle...and I love all the various shadings of muslin that are coming out of this bin! UTILITY! Yes. I think I'm going to like this. If muslin was a staple in quilts from the beginning of the days of patchwork, then that is what I am going to use now to give me the feel I want!

So this is what I spent hours on yesterday, kitting up, getting ready to leave for the DC area tomorrow. DC in the spring!! WOOT! I so love driving up through Virginia, it is one of my favorite places for a good long scenic drive.

Thoughts on the subject of "recycling"....Wouldn't you consider fabric that is given to you by a friend who doesn't want it any more as recycling? Would you consider fabric you've taken out of a kit to use in another project instead.....recycling?

What about a big bag of 1980's calicoes that someone brought to a trunk show just for you because you were the only person they thought would want or use it? *LOL* Is THIS recycling? I've got these great vintage 80's browns that came in such a bag. They are lovely!

As I ponder the text for the next book, does recycled fabric really have to come from CLOTHING I have taken apart to fit that category? Sometimes I think re-purposing fabric that has sat there intended for another project, but use it instead for another by switching gears in the same category.

And sometimes you just have to add new fabric (Like from this brown bundle)to your collection of recycled-from-a-previous-life fabrics to spice it up, and as long as the combination gives me the feeling I want, I'm okay with it.

At some point, I'm going to have to stop, repack the trunk show, load the books in the car, tackle the mail order, throw something for dinner in the crock pot (I haven't tried that lasagna yet, I think today might be the day)CLEAN THE HOUSE, and get a good night's sleep so I can leave in the morning!

But first....more cutting is calling my name!

In search of more thimbles..

I posted this on the Quiltville facebook page about a discussion on favorite thimbles. It is something that comes up and around every once in a while because we all find things that we like that work for us....

I use these cheapie plastic ones the most...they are comfortable on my finger. I don't like metal thimbles, something about the feel of that metal needle against the metal thimble can give me the creeps like a fork scraping against a plate! And then there is that sweating thing, and no room for my nail.

I've tried leather ones only to have the needle work it's way through the leather and into my finger. OUCH! I know they have "coins" in them now to help that, but the leather ones always made my finger sweat too. And that room for the nail thing again!

I've had expensive $50 thimbles that were going to be the "cat's meow" in my mind, because they were beautiful and had designer names on them...but...they were still metal even if silver, the scraping feeling was still there, my finger would still sweat, even with an open nail thimble, and then the thimble would slide around.

And those expensive designer thimbles are HEAVY! I didn't like that at all.

Then there is the story of the EXPENSIVE designer thimble that went missing for YEARS, creating much panic and dismay on my part, only to be found in a FLOOR VENT about 10 minutes before we left South Carolina on our move to North Carolina. I just think $50 is a lot of money for something that I am going to worry about losing, and doesn't do as well as the cheapie plastic one I can get at Walmart or Joannes (on the notions wall, for those looking...use your coupon or go when notions are 1/2 off) and I don't worry if I lose them!

Not to mention...how many of these can I buy for that same $50 to $60 that the designer ones cost me? I'd rather spend my money on FABRIC! (Or Chinese food, but that's another addiction....)

I've never had the needle go through the plastic ones, and though they are a hard plastic, they seem to grip the needle. After a lot of use, you can find the dimples worn down and/or obliterated, but they are so cheap it is easy to toss one, and replace it with another.

Which is what I am about to do right now! I've got a flight to catch this afternoon, and my thimble top is all grooved up, so I'm going on a walk about to the Walmart that is down the road about 1/2 mile in search of a replacement so I can happily stitch my way home on the plane :c)

I know there has been discussion about using pony tail holders to keep thread on a bobbin when traveling, but here I tamed this wood spool of YLI red quilting thread (GO RED!! YEAH!) with a pony tail holder for the same reason! This quilting thread is a bit springy and there is no groove to catch the end in to keep it from unwinding, so the pony tail holder did the trick!

These are the cheapie scissors that have traveled to France and back with me...with no problem. No problem with them in the USA either, but even if there was, it wouldn't bother me..they were in a 3 pack for $3.96 or some stupid price in the sewing notions aisle at Walmart as well. (Probably not far from the cheapie plastic thimbles!)

I need scissors that are sharp enough to give a good clean cut on the end of the thread so it is easy to put through the eye of the needle. Those clover pendant thingies (or dental floss container cutters) always leave me with frazzled ends, and no amount of wetting the thread, or strategic poking can get a fuzzy frazzled thread end through that eye. So I risk taking these because they cut clean to the tip, making threading easy.

Got project? Check! Got book on mp3? Check! Got granola bar, an apple, a couple of tangerines, a zip lock baggie of animal crackers? Check! Got gum? Check!

And off I go!



PS.
This is not a paid advertisement or sponsored anything by any thimble company out there, this is just what I like to use to get the job done!

PSS! After all that walking (which I needed anyway) the thimbles could not be found at this walmart...truth be told..maybe since they got rid of the fabric departments they've even scaled down on what notions they carry, and I'm not happy at all! Pffft!

The Tale of the Traveling Quilt....

Just a preview on the hand quilting project!

An update on the one that is traveling with me....and I wanted to share this with you because I've had to switch some gears on it.

First off, I'm quilting this with red thread because I happen to love red thread! I think the colors I use most in my hand quilting are black and red!

Second off....I struggled....all the way around the first round of fans on the quilt center...because the fabrics are so busy scrappy, I had a hard time seeing my stitches and where I was echoing the design!

But..I persevered. I did manage to go all the way around the outside of the center (I'm going to be doing something else in the borders..not sure what yet)and then I flip-flopped! I am now quilting from the BACK SIDE of the quilt. I can see my stitches on the back side..My placement is much more even because I can see where I am going! So...tada. I've done this before, and I'm doing it again, and it might be something you want to try for yourself.

I also know this works really well if you have a backing fabric that has a neat design that you can outline with stitches...Say you have a backing fabric with large flowers and you outline them by quilting from the back, you get that neat effect of the flowers on the front, outlined in your stitches! So this is another thing I want to try.

And I am also reminded of a pre-marked whole cloth quilt I bought at Mary Jo's a few years back...I wanted to use that as the quilt BACKING and quilt it from the back so that the design would appear on the front, but I haven't found the quilt I want to do that with yet, and there is that whole "CENTERING" thing that I hate to do in case I get it off somewhat, you know? But the idea is still there.

SO..I'll continue to quilt from the back on this, working my fans around and around toward the inside of the quilt center in a spiral, and they will end up where they end up. And THEN..I'll turn it back over and probably quilt my borders from the front so I can see what I'm doing easier there...

Where there is a will, there is a way!

Hanging Rock State Park....

Easter Morning we decided to do something a bit out of the ordinary for us. This whole new "no Easter baskets or egg hunts" stage of life, you know?

Something we've always wanted to do since moving here was visit Hanging Rock State Park, which is about a 40 minute drive from my house. I mean, who wouldn't be enticed by this blurb on the Park's website:

Not far from the cities of the Triad area, off the four-lane highways there's another North Carolina to be discovered—sheer cliffs and peaks of bare rock, quiet forests and cascading waterfalls, views of the piedmont plateau that stretch for miles.

So off we went. The first "SHORTS" day of the year! Water? Check! Granola bars for energy? Check!

I tell you what, these trails were steep! They seemed to go up and up and up...BOTH WAYS! We saw some lovely waterfalls, (which you hike DOWN to, and then back up)And the trail to Hanging Rock itself goes up and up and up...and once you get almost there, there are something like 386 steps you have to climb to make it to the top.

I couldn't go farther! If we had done the Rock first before the falls, maybe I could have but man..I was beat just getting to the stairs!


So..it was still fun, even if I wimped out. We'll try it again. And it was a great little photo op space, you know? To think all of this within driving distance of my house for crying out loud. We could see all the way to Virginia :c)

Show & Tell!

I'm sharing the Eye Candy!

One of the very very fun things I absolutely love is when someone sends pics of the quilts they've made from tutorials I've put up! It is so inspiring to me that you would even take the time to do this. And I've saved them, in a folder called "pics to upload" that has gotten fuller, and fuller....

A while back I had tried to put the quilts on a "slide show" thing from webshots, only to find out that some people could view it, other people couldn't...and I'm not sure what to do about it yet, so I am very behind in uploading new things to the page galleries. I'm still working on that. I thought maybe just a link to a gallery page that would hold thumbnails and you could click the thumbnail to view the big pic....but this all takes TIME, and I don't have it. Right now I need to be quilting and finish the projects for the sequel to Scraps & Shirttails, and putzing with computer stuff takes time away from that.

So I had an Idea! Every week or so I could have a show and tell day and share with you the lovely quilts that people have made. I can't give you a set-in-stone day either with my schedule, but just now and then. What do you think?

Sew here we go!

This is Mary's Beary Wonky! She said she was inspired by the crumbs tutorial...and I love how this is fairly color planned! It's something that I haven't done myself yet, because I am such a "kitchen sink" throw everything in scrappy girl! Great job Mary!

These next 3 pics are from Cathryn! She said, after making these 3 quilts, and starting on "Patches & Pinwheels" that "I am only now seeing my scrap boxes reduce. It is a slow diet, but a fun one! Ha." This is Oklahoma Backroads, and I love her springy colors!

Cathryn's My Blue Heaven just SINGS! This is one of my most popular classes because we use both the companion angle ruler and the easy angle ruler in this class. The whole quilt comes from 2.5" strips and squares!

Cathryn's "Jared Takes a Wife" I've always loved this Blackford's Beauty block, and her colors just bring the ocean to me...I love blue and green together!

And last but not least is Barbara's Patriotic Bricks & Stones! Great job Barbara! I don't remember if this was a soldier quilt or not, but it is GREAT!

Thanks ladies for sharing your Show and Tell with me....I am definitely now ready to go and sew some more!