looking at past photos...

brings you into a new adventure with old friends. I had done alot of block swaps and round robins in the last 2-3 years since starting on line...(never realized just how many). I decided I had to put a few of them together and then I will quilt the tops when the cool wind starts...



This is the first one I was in when Fons and Porter had their Quilters Talk Forum there were 28 swappers which was a good sign up!! the theme was fall...earlier this year I also had done a swap of nine patches through a group that still exists that I have on my side bar....Quilters Last Resort. The nine patches are a wonderful memory of support that I needed at the time there were 30 swappers...I am starting to piece this quilt together with the 2 swap blocks...It is coming along pretting good.. I have nine patches as the corner stones for the sashing and I have the perfect boarder to go in all the fabric I am using is just from my stash...I will be done the top by the end of the week to post (not quilted mind you..I am not a super quilter!!)

The next one is a quilt a long I had done with the same group we were lucky to have a chance to find each other after the site went down to finish our quiltalong..I had never heard of this term before cyberworld was introduced to me. We picked blocks from a site Quilterscache and that would be a block we all worked and shared techniques on..


this other one below was done through a Yahoo group that closed as well and they we all went to Quilters Last Resort..This one is my favorite..I have finally found a layout that I can use for these wonderful blocks...I am hoping by the end of the summer I will have a few swaps done.

I will warn you this is not all of them but these are the ones that I am going to get together this is my goal for the summer plus the other BOM I am doing with Stitch in Heaven

I hope you have a chance to do a block swap on line. as you can see quilters are concious of their workmanship and try to make the blocks to size. The swap I am working on is going together like butter cause all the blocks are to size the nine patches and the blocks

I have just finished another set of 12 blocks for a canadian yahoo group that are cats but I am not allowed to show them till after Sept...some of the members view my blog..so I can't cheat.

next blog I will post the pics of my wonderful mini quilt I got and who it was from I have to download the pics...

Till later...thanks for visiting.. love your comments love your blogs..

Ranettee's giveaway-mini's for auction

Some honey buns are being given away go take a look and why cause she is going on vacation
Ranette's blog is here . good luck to you all.. she has a great home page fabric I would love to have ...some of these home pages are so gorgeous I love the effort they put into them.. mine is very plain.. but maybe one day I will dress it up.. right now.. I like just being plain..

My friend Shirley is also having an auction on her mini fibre art quilts.. you will have to visit her blog Here 50% of her monies will go to Wellspring not sure if you have them in the states..but they are all over Canada and are support for Cancer Victims....please visit her blog she has many photos of mini quilts and her art is truly amazing!!

have a great night sleeping..

what to do with a mini?

everyone wonders what to do with a mini.. well one thing is you can pin all your blocks with the pins you accummulate as you go to quilt shows...the quilt pins I get from these wonderful guilds are gorgeous I hope you can see them when I post the pic click on the picture and it will enlarge so that you can see better.

the cat pin in the middle is what my mother gave me when I was only 18 years old one of the only things I didn't lose. You can see Shrine pins there from my dad and also an angel pin that my mother gave me that is supposed to go in my van to watch over me when I drive.. but I think I am more dangerous with a rotary cutter.. this is in my sewing room.

This mini I won at one of the silent auctions at one of the quilt shows a couple of years ago it was plain and I thought it would be perfect dressed up as my pin saver
....and then we have below..you can see my mini's that i have accummulated here.. this is not all of them but a majority.. some I have made, the heart applique and hand quilting the 4patch mini and the stack and whack mini with the same material pink and chocolate fabrics the rest through quilt shows and their silent auctions and our Yorkshire Rose Guild auction, and Rouge Valley Guild auctions which brings me......(drum roll please)

We raised over $3000.oo for our mini auction this year... I think that is super for the 90 quilts we received and only 1/2 the guild we used to be (now only 75 members) that is a good chunk of change!! I am very proud of our guild everyone was very helpful and when hands were needed I only had to ask once and they were there!! I have to give a big "THANK YOU" to our guild!!

The yellow and green quilt I bought at a yard sale for 2 dollars and the cats love it this is their quilt to lay on the day bed. I have washed it many many times with no loss of color great fabric. The dried Hydrangeas are what I got from my garden last year..hope i have a great harvest this year...thanks for visiting and your wonderful comments you are great!!

I also wanted to post my postcards that I got from my Crazy quilt swap. I have had these since March everyone was on time!! (not me and usually I am not late) but they perservered and I didn't get my name up in headlights for being late.
Aren't they beautiful!!

I have started a critters and things blog you can go to my profile and see it there.. just wanted to keep this one quilt related and the other "life stuff" in the other...you will notice there will not be as much posted on the other one.. why?? my life revolves around quilting!! LOL

Silly Me!!

How dare I post a dessert and not put in the instructions.. got a few emails so here it goes...LOL

Rhubarb Delight

Base:

2 cups flour

1 cup margarine

2 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

Mix and press into 9x13in pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes

Custard:

1 cup evaporated milk

1/4 tsp. salt

4 tbsp. flout

2 cups white sugar

6 egg yolks, beaten

6 cups rhubarb

Mix custard ingredients well and pour over cookie base add the rhubarb evenly on top. bake 1 hour at 350F

Meringue:

6 egg whites, stiffly beaten

6 tsp.sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

Put meringue on top of baked rhubarb custard. Bake until golden brown 10-15 minutes.



My mother bought me this cook book in 1989 "The United Churches of Canada" Let's Break Bread Together. They have great receipe's that I have used for many pot lucks.



On another note you will see that I have posted some slideshows of the quilt shows I have gone to. I had not relized how many I have gone to till I sat and started putting these slides together. I still have a few more to add!!

Here is a pic of me and a quilt that I had at a show in Whitby. This is a Stack and Whack called White Bird why cause of the birds on the fabric. This church has you sign a book to donate you quilt to show at the next show. I will post the other pics a little latter in another slideshow.
I am not at my best I went right to the show after a night shift and had to wait till they opened!!

Quilt show Treasure

I have to show you this...(as you can see Molly can't wait to see it either!!) there was a lady that had her table full of different packages and I can tell it was from her stash!! She had wonderful packages of kits that she knew she was never going to make. I searched in there and found a package (should say big) of fabric that was from a kit but no pattern and then I found a pattern that was a type of paperpieced wedding ring that I know the kit fabric will be perfect for... but what was best of all is that I also found another kit and it had an adorable little kitten on the frontShe wanted $100 for everything..which I thought was a great deal.. I had only $85...so she let me write an IOU and she will see me at our guild meetings starting in Sept..she wants to check out our guild.
Well I started the kit right away.. don't ask me why it is really a kid quilt and I don't make kid quilts too often (rarely) but with my 2 new (used) chairs I wanted a cuddle quilt I have one that is my fav but wanted a bright one... after this shot I added prairie points all the way around with whatever fabric was left.
I changed the pattern a bit as well there was enough fabric to do it. It had the backing fabric, binding and all that fabric for the front..I think it turned out well!! now to quilt it up...

I also sent Merrybee's quilt in the mail with this label I found it a while ago on this site http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/ you can always find something for all occasions on this ladies site and she has lots of BOM's (free) happening right now!! I also got my mini swap quilt in the mail and Mary on the lake's mini.. so there was label making all week too... I would rather bind quilts than make labels don't ask me why!!

Then of course there is the rhubarb patch and I dove into that actually I called DH at home while I was working and talked him into pulling some rhubarb for me.. I had to train him how to do it over the phone...yes it is as good as it looks!! trust me.. a cookie crust and custard to mix with the rhubarb and then the mirange...yum!! next time I want to do strawberry rhubarb...yes I do cook too ya know.. just don't want to many to know about it then they want you to do it all the time...

I am still trying to get my shows organized it will be coming soon bear with me..

Catching up to do

I have some catching up to do there are a couple of months of photo's that I have to post with different events...but I have to organize the photos!! I have taken over 500 pictures in the last 2months!! of what you ask?? well what else but quilts. I have been to many quilt shows inbetween all else that is going on.
I have to post this picture first. My parents came a couple of weeks ago and in this visit they brought me their lazy boy chair cause Mom got a new one and I really liked hers.
If you ever have a cat that is shy and not a lap kitty get a lazy-boy. Molly "the stinker" has finally layed on my lap she loves when I get on this chair...but I have something better a pic of my mother in "her" chair. Mom is modelling a quilt that she was able to give to me from my Aunt who inherited from my Grandmother. It was made by my Great Grandmother with all the dresses of her 4 daughters and granddaughters. A beautiful Dresden plate! I am sure alot of you will enjoy this photo...I love this picture of my mom is she not the happiest?!! Nosey is with her right now SHE is a lap kitty!!

I also had some postcards to get done that were long overdue and thought I would post them. It was for a crazy patch swap I received beautiful cards and in return I had to send as many. Postcards are a great way to work with your machine stitch'n and using scraps.

Well this is the start of many quilts to post I have to make a couple of slideshows cause there are so many wonderful quilts. The year is perfect with the blossoms in the trees and everything green it makes the landscape wonderful to look at as you drive to the shows.

Don't forget to support your local guilds by going to their shows. The ladies work hard to present what they have accomplished and give us some wonderful ideas for our projects...on line is great but real live quilts is even better.

Almost on its way

I took a while with this quilt there are decisions that I was not sure of and wanted to make sure that they were right. I am not sure if anyone saw this at the beginning when I first started blogging... but it is a quilt that I put together with blocks from a nine patch and a bullseye swap that a member had participated in and then passed away. It was very sad for me and many of the members cause we all started in a forum called Quilters Talk by Fon's and Porter then it shut down abruptly and we lost all of what we had accumulated there.. pictures, tips and tutorials and friendships.
We were fortunate that members had started bonding and emailing each other and were able to let each other know of another group we all were heading to that another member organized...well we had problems with the "tech person" and that closed!! then another member decided that was it!! she and her hubby made another site and it turned out another member had the same idea so we now have 2 sister forums that have their own members running it with trusting originators to help make them a home. I have the links on the side bar Quilters Last Resort and Coming Together to QuiltIn all this transition and just settling in our dear Merrybee passed suddenly and we had the opportunity to meet her lovely daughter...Shelley.
Shelley said she had all these blocks and not sure what to do with them so I offered to do something with them. I got the blocks and thought I could whip it up for Christmas... didn't happen I had it planned and partially together but had 12 blocks left that I had to get in the quilt my motive was to use all the signature blocks none were going on the back of the quilt!! Plus it was for her husband so what kinda boarder was I gonna do.. that is what took the longest. Finally had that figured out and then I had to find a LAQ cause I sure could not machine quilt it..I kept practicing but there was no way I would only make a mess...my Friend Sandy Lindal (the one that did my mini earlier) quilted it for me with whimsical fluttering bees and flowers how perfect!! in the nine patches she used this wonderful scroll pattern and a great leafy pattern along the skinny boarder.
I have the binding on and now am making the signature block.. guess what it is you are right!! it will be a bee. I was able to get the pattern from

So on the note of friends I would like to thank everyone for their time out of their sewing and voting on which Miniwill go to my swap partner...it will be the thimble.. the reasoning makes sense.
The bonus all those that had commented are put in a little box and I pulled out #6 Mary in Lake Pulaski... will get the black and white one.. I know I didn't say it was to be a draw.. but with all the hands up on everyone wanting it I thought it was a great idea.. Mary I will email you for your address.. thanks again everyone for your wonderful time!!