Grandmother's Blooms

So glad to call this one finished. It's been a very long term project. I started it in the 90's and started a push for the finish last year. Pardon the feet and fingers in the photo. I was hoping to photograph it on a bed, but I wanted natural light and it's too cloudy for that today.

Here is the back-

and some detail-

I love the crinkly feel and look of a just washed quilt.

I've mentioned my foray into furniture painting in previous posts. I was delighted to read about other quilter's furniture painting adventures from Belinda and Wendy. I finally have a few pieces to show you.

Before

After 

This dresser was a lot of work. I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Country Grey and Old White. I found it on Craiglist and plan to sell it at a local thrift shop that I consign with.

Before

After

We (my DH helps me) decided to take the scalloped trim off because it was brittle and already broken in some areas. I found this table at an estate sale in my neighborhood. I used ASCP Paris Grey as the base coat and Old White for the stencil and just a whisper on the trim. I hope to sell it at the thrift shop, too.

I'm not a big stencil person, but I like it on this coffee table.

I saved my favorite for last.

Before

After Stripping

After Painting and a New Seat

My neighborhood does a clean up day in the spring. Put anything on your curb and they will pick it up and take it to the dump. We have regular biweekly trash collection, but they won't take just anything. The night before this special pickup I drove through the neighborhood to see what I could find. Score! I found this gossip bench (telephone table). I have absolutely no use for this thing, but I love it and plan to keep it! 

My DH reupholstered the seat. I love it! 

I used Scandinavian Pink for the first coat and Cream for the second coat. I probably could have distressed it more.

This post has been linked to ELIZABETH & CO. 

Now back to some quilting stuff. I won these fat quarters from Doniene. Thanks Doniene! Check her out. She has a wonderful blog and has been doing a fabric giveaway every month.

Quilting Cousin

I just spent a fun day of chatting and quilt sharing with my cousin Mary from San Diego. My poor parents had to put up with a day of "quilt talk". They seemed to enjoy our show and tell and my mom kept us well fed. Here we are with our current handwork. I love that deep pink heart in her wool work, a new love.

I have another quilting cousin in Oregon. We all hope to meet someday for the Sisters show. I'm a little jealous because they keep in touch via Facebook. So far, I've resisted Facebook because I'm worried about the time I'll spend with it. I already spend more time than I "should" reading blogs. Are you on Facebook? and do you find it very time consuming?

Mary showed me her beautiful quilts on Facebook. She also had a file full of dozens of antique quilt tops that were GIVEN to her by a genealogy friend. The quilt tops were made by her grandmother, Daisy. While the woman had interest in her family genealogy, she was not interested in the quilt tops. Lucky Mary! They were mostly early 20th century quilts and an uncompleted, but still beautiful, crazy quilt. This quilt was my favorite. I love this setting and the bubble gum pink is irresistible.

I hope those of you suffering from these high temps in the states are faring well. Last Friday night the Washington, DC area was hit by a derecho. Derechos are very damaging wind/thunderstorms. We were watching tv and there was a warning at the bottom of the screen about severe thunderstorms. All of a sudden the power went out and we could hear the wind. I wouldn't say it was like a train, though some in the area did. It was loud and scary nonetheless. We lost power for 49 hours. It came on late Sunday night and we realized our AC wasn't working. Temperatures were around 100 humid degrees all days so we were really sweltering. Our neighbor hooked us up to his generator some so we didn't lose much food and had a fan going at times. When the service people came Monday afternoon to fix the AC I had to turn them away because the power had just gone out again. That lasted just 6 hours so it wasn't too bad. We had every window and door open and every fan going overnight. I was so hot I didn't care if we got robbed. I made sure the 3 dogs were on the ground level with the hopes they would scare anyone away. Though I expect they'd more likely welcome them in. ; c ) All in all we were lucky. Several lives were lost and many trees and limbs caused severe damage to homes. One large tree in our neighborhood fell smack dab over the bedroom of the neighboring home. I'm sure those people won't be in their home any time soon. We also heard of a young family in our neighborhood who had just settled on their home and moved in that day. They had a large branch fall on their car and lost power for days. What a welcome! We've had record setting heat all week and this Saturday we are expecting the mercury to hit 104 degrees. Ouch! Looking forward to next week when temps are forecasted in the cool 80's.

Stay cool!

More Quilts...

from the 2012 Quilters Unlimited Show-

 Organic Log Cabin #3 by Jenny Emery

 Organic Log Cabin #4 by Jenny Emery

Jenny had a quilt at the two AQS shows this year. She's a very talented hand quilter. Love those spirals!

made by Jean Whittig

Lately, I've been feeling a bit like the woman with the apple bottom. I finally got back in the pool today and swam some laps. It's been a few months since I last swam and it felt good.

 Made by Carla Schardt.

What a hoot...

Machine pieced by Glennda Shriver and machine quilted by Judy Hendrickson. Pattern by Susan H. Garman. There are 11,520 pieces in the body of the quilt! The 9-patches are 1 1/2 inches.

I'm still machine quilting by 30's hexagon quilt. I finished one more flower for my new hexagon project-

I also lined the drawers to my refinished card catalog with wool I picked up at the quilt show-

The wool is just what the drawers needed.

Flag Day in the USA

My daughter took us to Artomatic last night. It is billed as D.C.'s biggest creative event. "1,300 artists and performers take over an 11-story building and turn it into D.C.'s biggest creative event". Well, actually it was across the Potomac River in Crystal City Virginia, but close enough. I wasn't crazy about a lot of the art displayed. I was actually feeling downright old and out of it. This piece, however, really caught my eye. It is by Jonathan Woods and we spent quite a while looking at all the labels he used to make this image of the flag of the United States. Most, if not all, of the labels were from aluminum cans.

 Cool how he got the ripple effect by using darker reds and lights.

Some labels were already divided into red and white like the "Old Milwaukee" label above and the "Budweiser" label below.

The aluminum can tops (and it looks like one bottom there in the top right of the photo) represent the stars.

 This one is made from credit cards. Click on it to enlarge. Then hit escape to come back.

I wonder where he collects his materials and how long it takes to get enough of what he needs.

I like this.

A Red and White Challenge

The quilt show committee had our wrap up meeting last night. Lots of talk about what went well and want didn't. We also received our exchange blocks and a challenge - have a finished quilt by the end of February 2013 for exhibit in our 2013 show in June. Oh, boy! I don't like working under a deadline. I like making my own deadlines that are purposely loose! I have to confirm this, but I'm pretty sure they want the completed quilts no bigger than 40" x 40". The blocks will be 6" when finished. I'm thinking of just adding small half square triangles, flying geese and 4 patches for sashing. Any suggestions? I think maybe someone dropped out because I received two of my basket blocks back. I know a lot of the gals have purchased more of the red Jinny Beyer palette fabric so I think I'm going to just use what I have left over and add other reds. We'll see - I don't have an abundance of reds in my stash. I also want to add a dash of gold here and there so the gold in the cardinal's beak and the chrysanthemum's center don't seem so lonely.

Looks more like red and yellow. Is it the lighting in my sewing room or what? We gave my daughter a new camera for her graduation so she gave me her old one. It's a DSLR and I'm planning to take an online class to learn how to use it. I read good reviews about Shoot FLY Shoot. Do you know of any good online photography classes or resources?

Here's what's in my machine-

I firmly believe in having the right tools for the job. If my stitches look good, it's because of the Bernina Stitch Regulator.

This has been a very long term project. I know I started it in the 90's. It very well could be 15 years old. It's good to see the finish in sight.

My youngest son graduates from high school this Friday so my daughter is up from Georgia for the week. I put her and her art degree to work-

She's doing an internship at a graphic design firm in Athens this summer. Then she and some high school friends plan to go to New Zealand for a few months with World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF). Ah, to be young again!

A Quilt Show

The 39th Annual Quilters Unlimited Quilt Show for 2012 was this past weekend. They never disappoint. I took lots of photos so I'm going to split it up into more than one post. Sorry for the poor photo quality. I took some with and some without flash and I didn't get a good photo of some beautiful quilts despite all the photos I took. Here are some of my favorites-

appliqued by Nancy Karpowicz, machine quilted by Kathy Gray, pattern by Corliss Searcey

 Cheryl Kotecki and Dorry Emmer and other round robin members

 made by Diane Kirkhart, she's an award winning hand quilter, pattern by Carol Sherer

 members of the Fairfax chapter

Lisa Ellis taught her techniques and in return she asks that participants donate at least one quilt to AAQI

 Lisa Ellis

Trudi Sommerfield

Debbie Taylor

This was made for a challenge - incorporating a vintage block into a new quilt.

 vintage block

new blocks are batik!

From the same challenge-

hand pieced and hand quilted by Lura Alsalam

 Always love the dawgs-

 made by Barbara Pinocci, based on a pattern by Darcy Ashton

pieced by Betty Bottjer, quilted by Marlyn Leebove, pattern by D. Smith and S. Maxwell

pieced by Lynn Munch, machine quilted by Lori Kepley

Julia Renken

I love the simplicity of this quilt. In her statement Julia noted that when her husband saw this quilt he said "Now that is what I call a quilt!"

pieced by Glenda Shriver - all 11,520 pieces! 9-patches are 1 1/2" finished!

machine quilted by Judy Hendrickson

pattern by Susan H. Garman

 Gigi Corbin already finished her Building Houses from Scrap challenge quilt

made by Joan Peake, pattern by Lori Smith

I've been piecing the back to my 30's hexagon quilt. I've known for a while how I want to machine quilt it so I just need to baste it and get it in the machine. I hope it turns out the way I plan.

My DH and I hit a couple yard and estate sales this past Saturday morning. Here are some of my new treasures. An old wooden ironing board to put my "stuff" on. I saw one at the quilt show going for 8 times as much as I paid and that is what the tag said - "great to put your stuff on". In the tin below are silk threads, safety pins, betweens and 5 thimbles. One says "Tuttle's Family Elixir Kills Pain". I get so excited when I find things like this. I guess I'm easy to please and a cheap date. It was our 28th wedding anniversary. We did go out to dinner, too!