Fay School Quilts

Been busy the last couple of weeks finishing up quilts for the Fay Schools in Houston. This school has a gala each year and moms volunteer to get a quilt made for the auction that goes on at the gala as a fundraiser. This first one, I just quilted the top, the mom will add the pictures over the quilting. Did kind of a free hand flame meander on this one.

Patchwork Friends Bee

What a nice day! The Patchwork Friends Bee took a field trip to my studio Friday for a little workshop taught by Nancy V. She showed everyone how to make those cool quilty pillowcases. We had everything from Susan's cabbage roses (which we all decided needed a whole bedroom full of these roses), Helen's Elmo & red pillowcase and all the others.

Apparently, the camera I was taking pictures with was not mine, so I didn't get pictures of everyone with their finished project. I'll try to get those and post later.

I did get pictures of some of the ladies quilting charity quilts on my longarm. I think we got 4 of them quilted that day.

I love the look of concentration! Susan V. is feeling much more confident and getting quite creative. Each quilt had them doing everything from stippling to loop de loops!

Geri is looking over Arlenes shoulder and giving her expert advice. I think it was 'breathe' ! Lisa is looking on from the other side of the machine and ready to take another turn.

There is a cool little tea room down the street from my house, (IdylHours.com) where we all took a break for lunch with wonderful selections. I had the creamy zucchini soup and spinach pie. No room for dessert, so had some to go!

Charity Quilt Challenge

I'm in several quilt bees, and one of them came up with a 'challenge' where everyone in the bee used a yard of fabric (from the same bolt) and have 4 months to put together a quilt top using at least 4 others fabrics. Well, I tookI took the idea to one of my other bees, (otherwise known as the Thursday Night Bee) and had just gotten in a bolt of some wild fabric.

Rules are simple.

1. Have to recognise the original fabric (in other words you can't cut it up so small that you don't recognise it)

2. Use at least 4 other fabrics from YOUR own stash.

3. Complete it the top in 2 months

4. Have to donate it to the comfort quilt project a the April Guild meeting.

We had bee at my house Thursday, and got 5 of them quilted on the longarm. A couple others were quilted already. Since we are going to let the guild vote on which one they like best, I won't show any pictures until we have the vote. They turned out totally different!

How about you? What a great idea to take back to your guild. Challenge your sewing groups to get their creative juices flowing!

UFO's and Stashbusting

OK, it is after Christmas, I have a few days before the new year, and it is time to start considering goals and objectives for next year. I have had a huge list of UFO's and Ready to quilt items listed on the side. How many new projects will I start? How many projects have I comitted to? Oh, and the block exchanges and Mystery quilts !!

Right off the bat, my Monday Bee is doing a Charity Challenge where everyone gets a yard of the same fabric and the challenge is to complete a charity quilt by a certain date, and we all turn them in a future guild meeting. They have also discovered Dear Jane. Mine has been sitting since 2005 (see http://www.shady-wood.com/quilts/dearjane/index.htm for my DJ Journey).

I've joined a BlockBuilders Bee with Greater Houston Guild. They do 4 block exchanges each year. My Thursday Bee (original name huh- we meet on Thursdays!!) will probably do several exchanges and quite a few charity projects, not to mention road trips and retreats!

So, the question really comes down to, do I WANT to finish those UFO's? Do I just need to prioritize the list? Do I just need to cull out that list and just give in to the fact that I may never get them done?

With the new studio, I actually have room to get projects out. The ones that I really want to complete, I will set up a 15 minutes a day type of commitment to work on them. I find that actually works, and it is amazing what you can complete.

Stashbusting - Charity Quilts Benefit

Our Thursday night Bee has been very busy the last couple of weeks. We participated in the guild Community service sew-in at the end of April, then had a couple of our own sew-ins at my house to finish up several Comfort quilts. At our May Guild meeting we turned in a whopping 25 completed quilts. Pictured are most of them hanging on Nita's fence before we turned them in.

Pictured at left is Michelle "adding the love" to the quilts as we fold them up and get them ready to transport.

A lot of this fabric is donated to our guild/Bee from our personal stashes, people cleaning out a loved ones stash, or maybe the need to downsize. In any case, we accept fabric donations, and any fabric we don't/can't use gets passed on to Carolyns' church who will use it in their missions work to help teach young women to sew.

Kudos to the Thursday Night Bee at West Houston Quilters Guild!