A Precarious Position

At the very top of my over crowded quilt rack, sleeps WillieNo!  Don't worry, he won't fall, he has his little needle claws dug deep into my QUILT!  

Benefits of this spot you ask?

• Afternoon Sunshine
• Highest position possible in the room.
• Gets the stink eye from Me
• And head shake and sigh from Pete

All very valuable in picking the perfect site.

Meanwhile I finished a quilt for our Flying Geese Quilt Show in October.  This is Fractured Fruitcake Sampler.  Here is a little tutorial for the blocks.  Click Me!  They are pretty simple, made from half-square triangles.  The tough part for me was keeping the quilting symbol.  I usually complicate everything to add "interest" but being done in time feels good too. 

 So per my husband's suggestion simple quilting, simple binding and of course he was right, but don't tell him I said so.





















Turns out that brown is a guy Christmas color, who knew?   Pete and my cousin Tom seem to like this one a lot.  We won't point out that there are pink and purple in the border as well.  hehehhee.

Anyway, fun project, cheery Christmassy and done!

Thank you all for stopping by.  Hope all got to do some quilting this weekend!

All my best,
Aunti Nicole

One Note - Cool Tool!

Inside of Office 2010 is a really cool tool that I have found to organize my life and of course my quilting projects.   One Note is a notebook type project that is totally interconnected.  Here I'll show you....

 I created several notebooks, see along the very left of the below image.  Quilting projects, Household, Guitar Lessons, Vacations.  Each notebook has pages that you can drag from one notebook to another. 

On the pages, you can type text where ever you put your cursor.  You can insert images and move them around just by dragging. Todo, tasks, meetings actually show up in Outlook and are connected so when they are finished on your task list in outlook.

Above is a little project I am working on, there is a sample I found on a blog, I have her blogsite written down so I can give her credit.  Then my little variation of it and plans on what to do with it.  

I have created tasks so that next time I go to a quilt store, Outlook gives me a list of stuff I need for my 15 or so projects that are up in the air.

This was a project done with my Bee Splendid group.  She gave us some samples and then some fabric an we had to make our own strip.  See my idea and my final on the right.

You can keep your notebook on your computer or share it on the web with other people.  Make it password protected and a whole lot of stuff I haven't had to use yet.

You can simply email a page from your notebook directly to people who you want to share it with.

It will also be listed as one of your printers, so you can print an email or image and have it create a new notebook page or go to an existing page.

I love organizational tools because they allow me to juggle more balls ;]  

If you don't have MS Office 2010, I believe Evernote is a similar tool but has fewer features.

Have a great week and hope you get to sew.

Love Aunti Nicole

EZ Quilters - August

Last week our monthly EZ Quilters meeting was at Liz Isom's house.  Her house is so fun to visit.  She is quite the collector from antiques to quilts to small handmade objects, many by her.  I could just wander around her house for days looking at everything she has collected.   and she lets me touch stuff ;]

After looking at these pictures, I have decided that I really need to work on my photography skills.  But hopefully you can get the gist from these candid shots.

Sandra Usher had a lot to share.  She has been a busy girl this summer, with her visiting 10 year old grandson, but she still managed to get some beautiful quilts completed.  This quilt has cameos of little baby angels and scripture.  This is a gift for one of the ladies at her church.  The soft florals are her MO and she does some beautiful work with them.

Here is another she made from the leftovers fo the previous one.  Just gorgeous!

This one is a gift for her brother's library.  She did some fabulous quilting on it and used some different textured fabrics.  The pictures don't do it justice, it is such a treasure.

Next was Liz Isom.  This one is a piece she made for her brother who is a wine connoisseur and she made this applique quilt for him.

She does some beautiful work with panel fabrics.  I don't know where she finds these but it is amazing what she does with them.  The way she quilts it, its hard to tell where the panel stops and the piecing begins.

This is a wool quilt that she recently completed.  It is just stunning and again the photo just doesn't cut it.  I just love her work.

 Next up was Sharon Sutton.  She has a real love for Christmas and scrap quilts.  Here you will see how wonderfully those two go together.  This is a string quilt.  My photo shows it a little dark but it is really bright and just lovely.

Here is another string Christmas quilt by Sharon.  She is really good at making scrappy look planned.










My pal Joan Rossen has been diligently working on this tumbling blocks quilt.  She asked is there a way to do this by machine? We couldn't think of anything.  The fun part here is that when I showed her this picture, the 3D really pops out.  I think its hard to see when you are too close to the project, as in putting in every stitch one at a time.  You can see that a black border is starting to develop around the outside.  Can't wait to see this as it progresses.


 

Here is my show and tell.  Its little about 12" block.  I got the idea from One Day in May, A Wreath for All Seasons  http://onedayinmay.typepad.com/one-day-in-may-creations/2011/06/a-giveaway-where-everybody-wins.html  

It is such a pleasure each month to visit with these ladies and see what has been cooking up in their quilt studios.

With my sewing machine out of commission I have been working on hand projects and as you know they go more slowly.  I finally got it back and have been sewing all weekend.  So hopefully I will have some more to share soon.

Hope you all get to quilt this week.

Love Aunti Nicole

Long Beach Quilt Festival

Had a great time at Long Beach Quilt Festival with Hilary.   

Vendors - The usual suspects were all in the house.  I test drove a few long arm machines and gathered data for the future.  There were more wool vendors than I had seen before.   Some beautiful patterns for wool that are looking less primitive, which I like.  

Only made two purchases.  I decided to try to lightly fuse the wool pieces to prevent fraying so I'm going to try the Mistryfuse.

Also replaced the PQF Thimble that I bought last year and WillieNo! managed to hide. 

Show was layed out very nice, in groups of like type quilts. It was just the right amount to prevent sensory overload.  Unfortuately a lot of the quilts said no photographs, so I can't share all the ones that I liked.  There was a wonderful Baltimore Exbhilit with about 20 incredible Baltimore Album quilts.  Just Gorgeous.

I did take pics of a few that had a special interest for me.  I need to get the names before I post them.  

But here are some that I know...  from my Flying Geese Quilt Guid

I am so sad that I did not get a better picture of this one.  This is my friend Pam Hadfield's gorgeous applique quilt.  She does fantastic work.

My friend Julia Renault's quilt

and friend Becky Reed's gorgeous whole cloth.  

Wish you all could have been there to bump into, but maybe next time.

Have a wonderful week and hope you get to sew.

Aunti Nicole