Quilt Going Home

I work with an amazing group of people. One of these wonderful gentlemen has a son, Michael who has served our country in Afghanistan.

Having survived several IED's, Michael returned home a bit battered and bruised with his arm in a cast. I can only imagine what he has gone thru and the difficulties his family has endured.

As a small token of my apprecitation, I am sending Michael a quilt. It may not be much, but it is my way of saying thank you for your service and sacrifice.


(In the box is the 'Bali Chop' quilt shown on an earlier post.)

BTW: (TSC)199-5=194

Mystery Quilt

Once again I have taken on a mystery quilt.

Kristina's web site was hosting a mystery quilt and I decided to play along. The project required 3 fabrics: a focus fabric, a contrast fabric and a background fabric. After much searching and with the help of a friend from work, MSB, I decided on a yellow bug fabric, a green seed fabric and a pink swirl fabric.

Ta-da-ha! This is one of the completed blocks. I haven't completed the assembly of all the parts, but I am quite happy with the results so far.

Well, the quilt show is over....

Family and friends, please take note. The next time a quilt show approaches, please remind me that I can not enter every quilt that I am currently working on. This year I was determined to enter 5 quilts, 3 of which were not quilted when I entered them and 1 was still in pieces. I worked diligently on them until the very last hour. The night before they were due, I was up until midnight finishing up the hanging sleeves and rounding up the pillowcases.

I am happy to say that my work paid off. In the large two person quilt category, I won! (Along with Shannon, aka Doodlebug.)

This quilt is titled "Never Again." If you have this pattern or kit, you will understand the name.

BTW : (TSC) 200-1=199

Getting Ready for the Show

Here is another entry for the CES Qult Show. I am sewing like a mad woman these days to get my quilts finished. I should have learned my lesson last time and not enter more than I can reasonably finish. This year I am trying to enter 5.

"Bali Chop" is made from two bali pops and is my own design, if you can call a block made from 25 squares a design. I quilted it last weekend at GSQ and I love how it turned out. My goal was to quilt it very densely so there was quilting in every block. It took forever and I'm sure the ladies at GSQ were tired of looking at me.
BTW: (TSC) 201-1=200

Quilting Friends

Thanks to all who participated in the Sisters Choice block swap. I received a wonderful assortment of blocks.

I have decided to enter this quilt in the CES Quilt Show in September under the "group" category. Problem is, I would like to place all the names along with location on the quilt label and some of the names are quite hard to read much less find. Also, I would like to make sure the names are spelled correctly.

If you have a block in this quilt, would you please drop me an email at vmaloy@gmail.com with your name and city, state/country.

The quilt show is September 18th and 19th in Alpharetta. Location is the Old Milton High School Gym. If you live in the Atlanta area or plan to visit around those dates, we would love for you to attend the show. More details can be found on the CES web site or drop me an email.

Charity Blocks

Doodlebug sent me an email the other day and asked me to be the tester for a pattern that she is going to use for a charity quilt. She is going to make a quilt which will be raffled off to benefit her favorite puppy shelter.

Here are my first two sets. (Notice that with each set you have a blue center and a white center.) I plan to make a few more sets after she gets the instructions and pattern posted to her blog site. If you would like to participate, I'll post a link to her web site when it is ready to go.

New Addition to the Family

If it is Friday, then Thelma and Louise are on another road trip. So, yesterday, piecrust and doodlebug were in pursuit of a featherweight. I wanted one which was pre-war and I found a 1937 gem of a machine. Her name is Myrtie and if you know anything about my family, you know where the name comes from. Gertrude nor Hazel fit and I sure wasn't going to use ThelmaLou. Thanks to Jerry and Karen for hunting these little jewels down and giving them a new life.

After we acquired Myrtie, we headed to Powder Springs in search of a new quilt shop. We found KQ, but had a difficult time finding the entrance. If you go in search of the place, turn into the Waffle House parking lot and follow the road around to get into the strip mall. It's weird, but it works.

Wouldn't you know it, I found several pieces of fabric that just had to go home with me.

Broken Star Block

My home quilt guild, Chattahoochee Evening Stars, is having a star block challenge. Tonight I finished one of my submissions. I do not know the correct name for the block so I am calling it Broken Star. This block isn't the easiest to make, but it did present some issues. When I make flying geese, the easiest methods make 4 geese just alike. As you can see, I have 2 of each color. Normally, this would not be a problem, but I was using a scrap piece of fabric and would not have enough if I did that. So, I made them the old fashioned way, one piece at a time. What a pain having to deal with the bias. My next block will be a little more conventional.

If any of the CES members are checking my blog site, don't look at this.

BTW-Happy Birthday E.J.

Thelma & Louise on a Road Trip

OK, we're not Thelma & Louise. How about piecrust and doodlebug on a road trip. Friday before last, we loaded the hotrod Lincoln and went south in search of a quilt shop, AST. I had never been there, but doodlebug had so I drove, she navigated. Good thing I was on a mission, otherwise I could have bought way

to-o-o much fabric.
My mission was to find sashing, cornerstone, and border fabric along with cream filler and the picture shows what I decided on. Forgot to get an inner border, but I think I can find a vivid pink a little closer to home.
This current project is assembling blocks from a recent block swap. With a block swap, you’re going to receive a large variety of colors and prints with no idea of where it will lead you. After assembly, I will post a picture.
BTW-Thread Spool Count (TSC) 202-1=201

Busting the Stash

If I tried to measure all the fabric I had in the stash, it would take me well over a year to do so. It would be a waste of quilting time. So ,rather than measure the fabric, I am going to measure my stash busting by counting spools of thread. I'll give you the number in a minute, but I need to put in a few conditions. First, this does not include the large spools I use on the serger and second, this does not include all the cones of embrodery thread, metallics, invisible or glow in the dark stuff. It does include the large Gutterman, Aurifil and Coats spools. Ready, (drum roll please.......) the number is 202.