The Quilters of Morning Star!

It seems as if every day there is a quilt show in my inbox! I love each and every email that comes with a photo attached, and I just received one that I want to share with you!

Not just because it’s Christmastime, but just because I know there are countless others who are involved in this kind of service ALL the time, not thinking that their efforts add up to much, but when combined all together, we can accomplish great things!

Carol’s email came to me with the following story:

Bonnie, I took your Crumbs class when you were in Charlotte earlier this year (June?) for the NC Symposium.

The ladies at my church (Morning Star Lutheran Church) have been making basic tied quilts for 3 years for Lutheran World Relief. Each year, they have made more quilts and this year, over 150 were made.

The ladies decided last year that they wanted to make a "real" quilt for our youth minister who was donating fabric samples from the company she worked for. The samples are used in the quilts along with other donated fabric. We made her a kind of a wonky square in a square. It was an easy block to teach everyone -- very few are quilters -- and then I could square up all the blocks before putting them together.

Early this year, we made a string quilt for our minister of music. That was another easy block to teach that could be squared up.

The last two quilts to be made were for our 2 Pastors. After taking your class, I taught them how to make your stars. We probably had 20 women making stars. Then the stars were squared up to finish at 8". We also mixed in some words using Tonya's alphabet. (I made those blocks.)

Just thought you would like to see the quilts. I've attached pictures of the 2 quilts for the Pastors -- they were similar, but not exactly the same. I have also used both a star or a letter to make 4.5" coasters -- fusing the star or letter to timtex, fusing a backing, and then satin stitching around the outside. (Like the edges of fabric bowls were finished.) The coasters are pretty cute! I don't know how many stars I've made, but it's definitely a lot! Thank you so much for your techniques and your class. I enjoyed the class at the time, and have definitely put what I learned to good use!

Regards, Carol K.

P.S. I've also attached a picture of all the quilts from our church before we packed them up for shipping.

Thank you for sending the pics, Carol! The story is so inspiring, just look at all these quilts ready to be donated!

Chocolate Chip Blondies!

While I’m flying home from Vegas back to good old Winston Salem, NC, I thought I’d leave you with one of my favorite recipes….for the holidays or any time. Let’s face it, some of us who are on the go all the time, don’t even have time or the desire to roll out sugar cookies and decorate them. It was fun when the kids were little, but I’m so busy I need something I can dump in a bowl, stir, and dump in a pan and bake! And it needs to have easily readily available ingredients. ((No -- sorry, I’m not in the mood to grate or pulverize crystalized ginger for anything at this point in my life!))

However, these smell so good while baking, everyone will forgive you for being a slothful holiday party pooper in the kitchen!

Chocolate Chip Blondies

Ingredients for a 13x9 inch pan

• 1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Grease the bottom of a 13x9 inch baking pan.
3. Combine brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl just until blended.
4. Combine flour, baking powder and salt, and add to the brown sugar mixture.
5. Stir in chocolate chips and spread the batter into the greased pan.
6. Bake at 350ºF for 18-20 minutes.
7. Cut into bars.

The key is to not over bake them….slightly gooey is best! And of course, real butter is a MUST! Feel free to stick some walnuts in there as well….even better!

Enjoy!

Color Me Delighted!

We have a BOOK COVER!!

Scraps & Shirttails II!

Continuing the Art of Quilting Green!

Brian did such a fantastic job with this cover..I just love it! When you thumb through the book you will see how we tried not to do an "old fashioned scrap quilt draped over a wagon wheel" kind of reproduction feel, and even though the quilts can look very vintage, we showed them ALL in very modern, sleek surroundings. They are graphic and beautiful and colorful, and go so well with today's trendy retro decorating schemes!

I've always felt that quilts are a timeless accent, and it really comes across in this book! And I had the best time being there for my photo shoot too....I'd like to schedule more of that in the future!

We go to print NEXT WEEK. The 21st is the projected date, and I'm all a-flutter!

There are 13 LARGE quilts in this book to help you use up your scraps, stash, and collected recycled fabrics. ((You know I don't do place-mat sized quilts!!)) All of them have easy construction, and we’ve included information on using the easy angle/companion angle/tri-recs rulers for maximum ease of making your scraps work in useable sizes. Of course, regular rotary cutting sizes are given for those who prefer other methods.

Weeeeeeeeeeee! It’s coming so soon! I can’t wait!

And another great thing happened today….

You know, the CRUISE that I am doing with Pat Sloan and Sew Many Places sold out within something like 8 weeks or less from the time we announced it. That is for this coming November, 2011.

I just got off the phone with Denise at Sew Many Places, and we are doing ANOTHER CRUISE in AUGUST of 2011!! So if you are on the waiting list for the November cruise….you will probably be contacted about the availability to come with me in AUGUST instead! It also leaves out of Baltimore, and is going August 7-14. More info on that as we know more, but I’m so excited to be going TWICE in one year! We are also working on tours for 2012, and I’ll let you know more as I know more as well.

And for you RRCB’ers ((That’’s Roll Roll Cotton Boll for those who love abbreviations!)) Part FIVE is set to go live in the wee small hours of tomorrow morning. Are you READY??!!

And with that….I’m off to take a nap before Dad and I go see Jersey Boys tonight! It’s a great day all around!

Love from Vegas ---

Word Play Quilts Update!

I mentioned in an earlier post that Tonya has encouraged me to carry her book "Word Play Quilts" in my Quiltville Book Store!

I've sent in a rather LARGE order to Checker, and my invoice says that they are expecting delivery on Dec 30th, so it looks like it will be the 1st of the year before I have them in my hot little hands. I sure can't wait!

Tonya has mentioned to me something about signing book plates to go with the books, but I bet she would be happy to send you a personalized one if you send her a self addressed stamped envelope along with your request, but we are still working out details. I do know that it will be impossible for her to sign your book personally if it is coming from North Carolina from me....when SHE lives in Florida! ;cD But we will work it out one way or another.

It's going to be a great year for great new books!

Favorites of the Season!

 

I’m waiting for Dad to get ready so we can get out and go! I hear the sound of his electric shaver coming from the bathroom at our hotel, and it brings back SO many memories!  Remember those Norelco ads for the shaver that santa rode on? I loved those ads from way back when!

 

I’m also seeing ads for things like 24 hours of “Miracle on 34th Street” or the “Christmas Story” with “You’ll shoot your eye out!!” fun.

Christmas is a time for snuggling in and watching favorites!

These are a couple of ours!

Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and fred Astaire is SO CLASSIC!! It’s a black and white movie, and I’m really glad they never colored it.  The song “White Christmas” originally came from this movie, and there are lines that we find ourselves quoting all the time from it! 

I had to laugh just last week as I was waiting for a flight and someone over the loud speaker said “Linda Mason, Linda Mason, please see me at the podium”.  There is a whole  “I’m Linda Mason.” “OH, LINDA MASON” scene in this movie that is just so funny. If you haven’t made this one part of your yearly Christmas Video Ritual, please do!

White Christmas is another one…Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye! CLASSIC!

Others around our house include all the “Home Alone” movies, and other comedy silliness.

What are the standards at your house for holiday viewing?

Today we are looking at renting a car and doing out and about things..the bridge, the dam, and other things that are not within walking distance since today will be the warmest day! I love an adventure!

Seam Guide Gadget Questions!

Val asked after I posted Clue 4 of Roll Roll Cotton Boll last week just WHAT this gadget was next to the presser foot on my machine:

I believe that I’ve talked about this little guide before, but here’s a recap in case you haven’t seen me sewing!

This is my trusty old Bernina 1080. The older “metal” berninas have built in screw holes in the machine bed, and you can screw a seam guide in place thanks to these holes. Older machines used to come with these guides too, I have several old singers that had these guides in their attachment boxes, and holes for them drilled in the machine beds. The newer plastic machines? I don’t think they have holes, but I could be wrong. This kind of seam guide won’t work if you DON’T have a whole pre-drilled for this kind of attachment already in place.

If your machine has holes for screwing down a seam guide, check with your machine manufacturer to see if a part is available.

For the bernina, it comes as TWO separate parts and you’ll need both. One is the guide itself, and the other is the screw. ((You think they would package these together?? What’s the deal with having them separate??))

I’ve been using this for years and years, and actually like it BETTER than that #57 foot that has the built in guide on it. The thing I don’t like about the #57 foot is that the knife edge guide thingie doesn’t stick out in front of the foot FAR enough to really guide the fabric. You can see how far this guide rests in front of the foot..it works like a fence, yet I can still see where I am aiming. I use it with my regular #37 foot.

Here is a closer picture from my leaders & enders page on my website.

There are so many things that we have available to us to help us get that “right” 1/4”..and this is one that I really love.

Loving Vegas with my Dad!! He’s on his laptop on the other bed while I’m putzing on mine, and it is so nice to relax!

And OH!! I should have a book cover to post in the next day or so! I saw 3 different ones to choose from today…I can’t wait to show you! And did I mention my other big news? Scraps & Shirttails just went into  its 3rd printing! Wooooot! This means so much to me, and I hope the same for its sequel and for Adventures with Leaders & Enders too!

The Eagle Has Landed!

But not without a HUGE TO DO!

If you haven’t guessed, my last post had me at Chicago O’Hare International Airport! Yes, I know this airport like the back of my hand, and it is probably one of my favorite ones. I just find it very user friendly. I love the tunnel between the C & B terminals…I often go down there with my ipod on, and walk up one side of the moving walk way (Not on the walk way, but the corridor beside it) and down the other, just walking laps…..we call it the Terminal Treadmill! What else is a girl supposed to do on a 2 hour layover? You can burn off mega calories just walking!

I also love that it is not a CARPETED airport. If you’ve ever had to pull wheelie luggage over carpet in an airport, you know what a DRAG that is….literally

So, today I walked and walked and walked…..my flight was delayed due to the flight coming IN being delayed. But we finally board, and after we are all in our seats, we find out there is a problem with the galley door where the food service items come in. The “Locked” light wouldn’t illuminate or something…So…..wait for a part….and wait for paperwork.

After this was done, we get the notice that another light in the cockpit has gone bad, one of three….((don’t ask me the proper term for this, I was told what it was, but I can’t remember exactly!)) and we had to wait for a replacement part for that….and more paperwork….

And while this was going on, the pilot comes on and says ‘”Folks, there is another flight that has been cancelled and we are taking on their passengers too”….So that delayed us more…All in All..we left that gate and arrived at our destination 2 hours and 15 minutes late. But I’m not complaining! It was a heck of a lot faster than driving once we got in the air!

We finally landed, and this is what I saw!

Any Guesses yet?!

This is the view from my hotel window! The sun was caught just right in those reflective buildings! Do you know where I am??

I’m in LAS VEGAS!! I’m here with my dad who flew up from AZ to meet me and spend a few days together. We haven’t had a trip together just the two of us since the time I went to Washington DC 4 years ago! Last year I visited AZ and we were all together, my two brothers, my Dad and myself, but this year it’s a daddy/daughter year!

I had planned to go see him in AZ, but he had a problem with his motorhome flooding due to a broken pipe, and this came up as an alternative. Flights into Vegas were cheaper than Phoenix. Hotels are definitely cheaper than Phoenix….and we are planning on seeing some shows, and walking around and enjoying meals and spending time together.

We’ve got tickets for Mystere tonight, and Jersey Boys on thursday…the rest we are playing by ear!

PS...for now I've removed the "background image" from the blog, so it should just appear plain white on grey. Until I figure out what to do that is!

Where Is She Now?!?

It’s 9am where I am! That means 3 hours ago I was in Greensboro, NC!

But WHERE am I now?!? Any guesses? Does THIS help you??

How bout THIS!?

If you haven’t guessed by now…..maybe THIS will tell you:

I’m on my way to SOMEWHERE! And some of you THINK I might be going to a particular place, but you might be wrong because some plans have changed!

This is short…but was funny!

I sat next to a guy who was so rocking into his music that he actually played AIR GUITAR with both hands while reclining in his seat! I didn’t know how to catch him in full action, but I was listening to my ipod, and remembered that it has a camcorder in it. I think you can get 9 seconds of his hands moving, and a whole lot of oops..that’s hexagons! I was trying to be discreet! But it was SO funny. Is there such a thing as inappropriate public display of air guitar? Though come to think of it he seemed to go between drums and cymbals and guitar as well.

Maybe he thought the same thing of me. Is quilting an appropriate public display? PDQ! Public Displays of Quilting! Too fun….

So, I’m sitting here going through mail, listening to my own music on my own ipod, stitching more hexagons and waiting for the next leg of this trip! Any ideas yet? Are you curious?!

On another side note, I got an email from someone saying they read my blog in a reader, and it is too hard to read because of the background. I don't know what to say about that because the center column of my blog is white..where the text goes. The inner border is opaque and readable on the blog, the border, well it's a border..so it's how your reader is reading it as to why you have patchwork all over the place and can't read the text. I can suggest two things:

1. Click to the blog to come read it where it reads beautifully or
2. highlight the whole post and read it with white letters on a highlighted (highlit?) blue background.

That's all I can think of. I had to change my blog format a bit to comply with blogher, but at the same time I don't want a boring blog! LOL! I am curious to know what readers you are reading in if it is NOT working for you, so feel free to drop me a note if your reader has everything obscured..

A Bit of Sewing….

 

I’m off! Heading toward my secret destination! Can you guess where I am headed?

 

But last night ((Monday eve)) I was able to get some stitching in. I made 4 basket blocks for a group project we are working on.  The instructions said to make the 10”  baskets in brown, and the tops in floral, with a white background. Here I am on the other side of the fence hoping that *I* followed the rules right!

 

I took the fabric with me to stitch at the beach but you know what? That Janome machine just kept eating my triangles and I couldn’t get a good 1/4” to save my life. I came home with the intent to sew them on my trusty old Bernina. I know that we all have machines we love….our “go-to” machines that we can count on to get the job done, and this is just the way it is for me.

 

I love that Janome for many things…for the thread cutter especially, and the knee lift, and the wide open space to fit big things in.  If I ever wanted to do fancy stitches, they are there. It is my main machine for paper or string piecing. But when it comes to piecing, sorry Janome, you are getting passed by!

 

But just for the same reason we have different sizes of screw drivers, many sets of dishes, and scissors in various sizes for different projects, I just need a different machine depending on the job.  I don’t think there is one machine out there that does it all, but I’m sure you will attempt to correct me if I am wrong! LOL!!

 

I want to share with you a pic that was sent to me! Becky writes:

Hey Bonnie,  on one of my yahoo groups they were talking about your current mystery And when I came to 'check it out' I saw the rewrite of Christmas Lights.  I just wanted To drop you a quick note and picture.  There were 5 of us that did it last year when
It came out in the mag and the goal was to have the tops completed for our guild Christmas party. I am sending you a picture.  Mine is the one with the light outer border of Christmas
Balls. Thanks!!  We so enjoyed doing it. Oh by the way.  I'll see ya in March at Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge TN. Later!
Becky Wynne
Hermitage Tn

Thanks so much for sending the pic, Becky! They all turned out so great!

 

And of course, I’m writing this post a bit early, setting it to post later….gotta get to bed tonight, got places to go tomorrow (And by the time you read this, I’m well on my way!)

One More Try

Well, adding a linked picture from somewhere else on the web didn’t solve my problem, so I’m still tweaking what I need to do to get the feed to show up in sidebars with pictures!

Though, something tells me you will click to read whether there is a picture or not, knowing there WILL be pictures on the post…but STILL!

Oh, the problem I was having with blogger was FINE in Chrome, but still WRONG in Firefox. I thought it back to the last time that it worked in Firefox on my laptop, and it was BEFORE firefox did an automatic update. So I’m reinstalling Firefox to see if that helps some of the problem. Just can’t get the hang of Chrome..where is my regular toolbar? it’s just tabs! I need things in plain view

I’m uploading this as a draft…trying something else with a picture…so pardon multiple test posts today until I get this sorted out!

I wrote this post in Live Writer, saved it to blogger as a draft, copied the text from the draft, posted it into a new message and uploaded the cat pic at the top through blogger. Let's give this a run and see where and how it shows up!

Lovely Monday!

I’ve said before how much I love Mondays…and it still stands true! After a busy weekend, a quiet empty house and mundane Monday chores are just life centering!

I have filled up the “to-do” list for today with things like:

• email with a cup of my favorite Good Earth Original tea
• Laundry ((running as I type! I’m so glad I don’t have to do this by hand on a washboard in the river!))
• Book Orders
• Post Office
• Bank

I have a couple basket blocks to finish sewing up for a project for a friend….

This is a shot of our sewing space at the Beach House! The table was plenty big…and you can also see who had the biggest MESS! That would be ME!

Yes, there was plenty of sustenance on hand! I love the Dove Dark! The secret is not to BITE it, but just let it melt in your mouth and see how long you can make it last

This is one more shot of sunset on Friday night…..ahhhhh! Saturday was cold and rainy and we stayed in ALL DAY! Do you get the sillies with your quilt friends when you get together? The kind where you laugh so hard you don’t know if you can hold it?

This was our funny: I have a bing app on my iphone that plays 100 hits by year….and they list ALL the years from something like 1947 through today. So I told Lisa to PICK A YEAR. She chose 1988. Okay. Good year…we start listening.

They start playing SOME obscure song that we KNOW was never in the top 100 of anything ((but rejects!!)) So…this is where the funny comes in. Did you ever watch “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”? Remember the card game they play at the guy’s mom’s house? We started doing it with the music on the bing-thing. If it was a song neither of us heard of, we’d yell “Bull-Sh*t!!” and change to the next song. It was SO funny….I guess you just had to be there. The funnier part came when we switched from my bing app on my phone to Lisa’s regular ipod with her own music on it, and I forgot and still wanted to cry “Bull!!” at it…LOL!

Naps were taken after lunch! LONG naps! And when I woke up, Lisa was on the couch doing handwork to the Indiana Jones marathon on the USA channel! PERFECT! The machines got no more work out Saturday night, as we decided to stay in ((rainy and cold)) and just hand sew while oggling at Harrison Ford Take Out Chinese and a movie Marathon? More perfectness-in-quiltdom!

We left Holden Beach behind yesterday after lunch…well, after waiting for the dishwasher to run its course so we could turn off the water for the season. Remember, our whole point in going was supposedly to help with the winterization! I sewed hexies all the way til dark while Lisa drove….man, I love those heated seats in her car! We did have to make a North Carolina Pit Stop at Krispy Kreme, dontcha know?!

I have to admit that I am “SKIPPING” guild meeting tonight. It’s the Christmas Potluck, and I would just like to stay in and have a nice quiet dinner with my family. I think that is okay, don’t you?

Besides, tomorrow I am leaving for an “undisclosed” location! I thought it might be fun if I play “Where’s Waldo” and have you guess where I’m going! And if you already know the answer, then you are not allowed to comment! LOL! I’ll post an update from there with pictures and see if you can guess ;c)

So….with this Windows Live Writer thing…((I’m writing in it now)) I’ve heard from some people that there is a problem with the signature at the bottom of my posts not showing…you know that little automatic graphic that has my name? Do I really care about that? No. I figure you know who I am whether it has a fancy fake signature at the bottom or not. That’s just blog-clutter when it comes right down to it.

But the other thing that IS missing, is when my blog is listed in someone else’s side bar. Or on my feed on facebook. If I write the post in Live Writer, the pics aren’t uploaded via flickr (not sure if this is the reason, but all I could think of) and then there is no pic to go with the post. So….I’m trying to think on how to solve that.

If I upload this to blogger as a DRAFT I can tweak it from there. If I use blogger to insert the top picture of the post….doing the others in Live Writer ((is this sounding like too much work just to get a pic to show in a sidebar or facebook?!?)) will it pick up that pic and post it. We’ll see.

Someone also told me that in Live Writer I need to double-space between my paragraphs because when it transfers over it shoves the paragraphs together. PFfftttt. So it’s a tweak in progress. The best thing for me so far is to be able to write the posts offline. And I think I’ll like that, especially when I am using up time on my wireless aircard to write a live post.

I’m about to upload this now….and the pic I am going to insert from blogger is a pic of the tea I love at the top of the page..if that shows up in someone’s side bar, or in the blog post on facebook, we’ve got that sorted.

Gotta love a computer adventure! Happy Monday, everyone!

Trying out Windows Live Writer!

I am trying the windows live writer, and not sure what I’m doing, but I like how it shows me exactly what the post will look like on the page. It shows my blog background and everything…..I’m just writing in the center panel as if it were really my blog! It's an "What you see is what you get" kind of editor, so we will see how this goes!

I did download google chrome for a browser, and it seemed to work fine with blogger.....my editing options were back again with the old editor as with the new, but I think I want to play with windows live writer for a while...mainly because I can write the posts offline ((Like when sitting on a plane or in the airport?) ) and then send them either live to blogger, or save them as a draft in blogger and then I can go in and post them, or post date them from there. Options. I like options. ((Yes, I like options, even if it means learning new things sometimes!))


We took some lonely back country roads to get to where we were going on our way from Winston Salem to Holden Beach, NC…..this is what we call a North Carolina Traffic Jam! :cD

Wow, as I’m looking at this editor, there are all kinds of neat things….photo albums, videos, maps, post tags, emoticons!!
TABLES!!

Projects started	projects finished	projects given up on!

Yep! this could be neat!

I can round off the corners of the pictures and change the style! cool!
As we crossed the cause way, this was our view! Can you see the sun setting? There is nothing more peaceful than a beach in winter! We dropped our stuff off at the beach house, and went to a little seafood place for dinner. The special? Grilled tuna and grouper, served with conch fritters! I thought I had died and gone to heaven…..if we go there again, it’s more conch fritters for me, those were so yummy!

Tiled picture! WHOOO! Yep, definitely a fun editor! This was my view at 7:50am yesterday morning. Cold and crisp, but blue sky and sunny! This is the view off the back deck. I just love the sound of the crashing waves on an empty beach. Nobody’s boom box, no one’s tents and wagons full of coolers and beach stuff, no one’s trash and yelling..just the sound of crashing waves and birds. Bliss!
Lisa and I worked on our projects all day, and we’ve got quite a bit done!

I’ve added two more border sections to the hexagon monstrosity..it looks pretty weird right now as I’m working in sections. The picture to the right shows the sections…I’ve got 5 more of the upper one to do, and only one more of the lower one. There are 6 of each section to complete that border around the center medallion. I spent time before coming to cut some more neutral hexes as I am using more of those than anything else right now. I sure love how this is coming out!

Here is Lisa walking Miss Girl Shelby! It was so cold on this walk I had to keep my hands in my pockets….but we loved it!

Look at that Sunset! You can’t see it but there is a pier in the distance. When the sun hit the water, we knew it was time to turn around and beeline it back for the house…..

Ahhhh! Home Sweet Beach Home! At least until Sunday morning when we have to return back to the life of the living! But until then, there is more sewing to be done, and I’ve played with windows live writer long enough for now!