Phil Beaver Workshop

Those of you that know me, know that I don't 'need' to start any more projects. But OMG, I have found a new calling. I took a 2 day workshop with Phil Beaver through the Greater Houston Quilt Guild last week.

Picture to the left is Phil in front of some of his pieces. He's telling us that WE are going to be able to make these beautiful sunflowers and poinsettias! Yeah right!




Here we are 'watching paint dry' literally! We laid out the class' painted fabric edge to edge, sprinkled rock salt over them, spritzed them with water again, and now waiting for them to dry. We did all of this BEFORE lunch the first day. These were absolutely gorgeous. As they dried, they got better and better.


This orange one is one that I made so I could do pumpkins! I was able to get two sunflowers cut out and laid out before I had to leave to go to the West Houston guild meeting that night.

Phil is looking at Mary Jo's layout. She did sunflowers and several pumpkins. Can'twait to see how these turn out.

A couple of my friends that WEREN'T in the workshop want to try this, so look for more to come!!

San Antonio Visit

What fun! Daughter Rachael and her husband flew in from Atlanta, and we drove straight to San Antonio to visit other daughter. Can't remember the name of the town, but ended up being pretty close to Fredricksburg, lots of shopping in neat little shops. Nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant, saw turtles swimming and so on. Beautiful day, not too hot, low humidity (OK - low for Texas). Then we went to the Kendall county fair, saw the tail end of the rodeo, fireworks and local bands playing.

Harley (far left) cooked the most tender venison steaks out on the grill along with some chicken. Couldn't remember venison tasting so good!

Will Work For Batiks !

My budddy Gail just turned 50, and as her best friends we had to do some embarrassing things to help her celebrate! Linda made the hat and provided the jewelry (including the tiara). I photoshopped a picture from her 49th birthday and added the "Will Work For Batiks" across the top, and had it printed as a poster and framed it. She was thrilled with and promised to hang it in an appropriate place in her new studio! We all had fun watching her open her real presents after we had lunch in a nice little tea room in Baytown, TX. Happy Birthday Gail !!

Not Quite 101 Uses for Batting

Ever wondered what to do with those pieces of leftover batting? Well on several of my Longarm quilting lists have been submitting suggestions and "Karen O. in Texas" has compoled the list and posted it on her website. She is trying to get 101 ideas, and right now, there are over 60 suggestions.

Here is an Excerpt:
27. Use them in the winter to "chink" leaky windows or make draft stoppers.
28. Then there are biscuit quilts, raggy quilts, raggy jackets, etc.
29. Wrap it around the broom and use it to knock down the spider webs. Just throw it away, no messy broom bristles.
30. Wrap it around that casserole you are taking to the potluck. If it leaks, just throw it away! (96" goes around a lot of times!)
31. Cut it a bit smaller than your lamp base and protect your table.
32. I also use them to clean the wheels and tracks. (on a longarm machine)
33. Removing chalk marks on quilt tops.
34. I use small, potholder size scraps to erase the black marker lines off my white board. When the batting gets dirty, I just throw it away.
35. I give it to a friend that uses it for stuffing in teddy bears and animals she makes to sell at bazaars and craft sales.

Click here for the full ( & updated) list. Don't forget to check out the last suggestion of what to do with packaged batting!!! LOL! Thanks Karen!