Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Dress

Here's a side/back view of the dress. Stacy's future MIL hand sewed on all those satin covered buttons! That should earn her some major points! Here's another view. It was quite the process blending 2 patterns together to make a young bride's dream dress. I finished all of the quilts I need to take with me & am mostly packed. I guess it's been really hot in Fremont, 100 degrees a couple days ago! This Nana doesn't dare. Can't wait to see the Birthday Boy!
See you in a couple days!
Nana Sharon

Tears of Joy & A Thank You

Wondering where I've been? Hum the "Flight of the Bumble Bee" song, that's what I've been up to! This beautiful applique quilt belongs to Barb. She made it as a wedding gift for a very lucky granddaughter. I got a call from her yesterday. She loved the quilt so much it made her cry. I've never had that happen before & was sorry I couldn't give her a hug. Thank you Barb for doing such beautiful work that inspires me to do what I love!
She talked about feathers in this space. I'm better at leaves, so a leaf wreath seemed perfect. The borders are sometimes a challenge for me. I think I need a pedicure. She found the pattern in this book from 1988! Got a chuckle when I read who the publisher was. I also has this come in the mail last week. I saw the frowny face & wondered what that was all about. The message inside was "Rain , Rain go away. Better go to a movie!" I can do that. Thank you Secret Pal for the nice surprise! Hmmm, a self made card. Who could it be? I still have a couple quilts to wrap up before take off tomorrow to Nanaland. It's hard to believe our Little Mister is 2 already. I'll be sure & post while I'm there.
Nana Sharon

Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Cupcakes Are Coming!

Last week I was driving here. Down the street from this. And saw this. Be still my beating heart! I almost had to pull the car over. Could it really be a Cupcake Store? A closer look & yes they are going to have hard ice cream too. Dad craves hard ice cream sometimes & this will be a close place to take him. Joanna & I are crazy about cupcakes. We have our favorite cupcake blogs. Seattle's
Cupcake Royale , Bake It Pretty, & Cupcakes Take The Cake . I've made a couple great recipes that were on the Cupcakes Take The Cake blog. Have fun looking.

In case you haven't guessed where it's at yet, it's in downtown Stanwood. Down the street from the police station. I'll keep you updated on when they will open.

I'll be back soon. Another quilt & a thank you(that sneaky Secret Pal) to post.
Sharon

Vintage Valentine

This is Dorothy B's beautiful Vintage Valentine quilt. She is one of the CIQ queens of applique. Isn't it divine? I had a lot of fun quilting it. Lots of "swirly girly" going on in the blocks. If you want to see the pattern click here.


Mr S & I are going to the Harvest Jubilee today. Fun, food & local farms.
Single digit countdown, 5 days until I'm in Nanaland! Hope you have a great weekend!
Nana Sharon

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Slideshow & a Quilting Rock Star

Jenny & I are big fans of Jessica Brunnemer, Jessica's Quilting Studio. I love going to her Flickr site for inspiration. When I saw her at Innovations on Thursday, seriously , my heart skipped a beat! I called Jenny & told her "Jessica sighting". She is a very talented young quilter. Hope we didn't embarrass you Jessica. It was nice to meet you! Jenny's on the left.



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Batting Drop

Wanda from Heartbeat Quilting brings batting to Innovations for us to buy. It's great because we save the cost of shipping. There was just one slight problem. We were parked several levels down from where the batting was. Leave it to Jenny & Pam to come up with a great solution.

They were parked on the first level of the parking garage & the batting was in the parking lot on the roof. Pam dropped 5 rolls of batting down to Jenny. She did a fine job being very careful to drop them on the side & not crush the tube inside the roll. They loaded theirs into the van & then came across the street to get mine down to me.

I parked under the Convention Center 3 stories down from where the batting started. It sure was easier than carrying the awkward roll down stairs across parking lots.

I'm sure you are asking yourself, Why didn't they just move their cars? Wanda went down to get batting certain times during the day & we would've had to find another place to park & pay more for parking!

Laundry & quilting are calling. Later! Sharon

Food Fun & Friends

Friday Jenny & Pam came down to Innovations. (I'll do a separate post for quilt pictures & a special video!) They are two of my very talented quilting friends. After we had looked at quilts it was time to eat. I had take out from a great Thai restaurant on Thursday & we decided to go there. Indocine is in downtown Tacoma right across from Union Station. Everything about Indocine is wonderful. You have to go! The food has just arrived & we realize that we are going to be taking lots of food home! These are the Honey Glazed Walnut Prawns. One of their house specialties. Pam ordered Spicy Siamese Noodles. You can order your spice level preference, so don't be afraid! Jenny had a delicious Green Chicken Curry. On the way there we passed this. hello, cupcake Isn't this bike cute? Of course every cupcake store has a cute cupcake girl! Trying to decide which ones to get. Luckily they had little take out boxes. On the way back we had to get our batting. It's a whole post of it's own. I'll try & get at it soon!
Thank you ladies for the fun day! Being gone made the time go faster. Only 11 days to go!
Nana Sharon

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Every Quilt Has A Story

We all know that every quilt has a story. This 9 patch memory quilt was pieced by Virginia. I got a call in August from her daughter asking if I could have it quilted by Sept. 16th. I would need to bind it and also make a label. My schedule had room , so I said yes.

Many of you know that when someone says the quilt top is made out of clothing scraps that some of us might be running straight for the bottle of Zanex. I waited patiently for the top to arrive & was pleasantly surprised! It was such beautiful piecing. All seams neatly pressed open, corners matched, no "mountains" in the middle of the quilt! It was my lucky day.

Virginia was a seamstress who made clothes for her daughters. They were living in Hawaii at the time she pieced this. Her husband was in Korea serving in the military. Her daughter, Katie, has pictures of herself in the dresses made from the fabrics that are in the quilt. While I was quilting this it was like a trip down memory lane. I saw fabrics like Kettle Cloth & Trigger mixed in with the bold florals.

Tomorrow is Virginia's 88th birthday. She's has had a lot of changes in her life this past year. A husband who is now living in an Alzheimer's facility & she in Assisted Living. Not easy as some of us know. So tomorrow I'll be thinking of Virginia & her memory quilt & hope that the quilt brings her the love & comfort she deserves on her special day.

I'm sorry the label is so bright. The camera & I are just not getting along these days.
It's off to Innovations for me this afternoon. I'm happy to get off of the roller coaster for a couple of days & have some "me" time. Don't worry I'll give a full report with pictures of the quilts when I get back. I have Hero Quilts on Saturday , so be patient. That "super woman" cape of mine is getting a little tattered.
Little Mister's new name is Houdini, more on that later too!
15 days & counting..................Nana Sharon

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Fall-O-Ween Blog Hop

It's time for another Blog Hop. Have you done one before? They are lots of fun. Sometimes there are free patterns, helpful hints & you get to visit great blogs! Head over to Gudren's blog to check it out & I'll keep you posted.
16 days & counting..............................Nana Sharon

Saturday, September 11, 2010

The Final Tally-64

Here's Susan with some of the 64 quilts she quilted for American Hero Quilts. There are 2 more stacks on the floor. I had trouble getting a good picture. You know, weird stuff in the background, lighting, ya da, ya da. Isn't this incredible? We can't thank you enough Susan! These are some of the beauties that will be given to wounded soldiers. Stunning center to this one. Half square triangles & squares. How simple is that? This one was a little kit we made up from a huge fabric donation we got from Mary D. Thank you Mary! Love this! A Roxanne Carter pattern. Joni did a great job piecing this one! The Snohomish Senior strip group made the squares, they got sewn into big squares with sashing at one of our Sew Days the, I made a border using 5" squares. It's always a challenge to make small quilts bigger. We hit the jackpot with Pat Speth's new border book. The dedication of quilters is amazing. As always, thank you for all you do.
Sharon

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

It's Official, I'm Crazy

It started in April. A friend's daughter is getting married in October. Would I make her dress? In particular this dress. So after several e-mails & phone calls the answer was yes. They shopped for patterns. One similar to the body & bottom of the dress, the other for the (much sought after) sweetheart neckline. The white dress on the McCall pattern was the base for the top of the dress. We all went together & shopped for fabric & the perfect lace to go around the bottom of the dress. Sorry I don't have a bigger picture. I wasn't sure if she wanted anyone to see her in the dress yet. This is the train with the lace. She was really happy with how it turned out. It will have satin buttons all the way down the back, even on the lace train. Her almost MIL volunteered to sew them all on!I've made lots of wedding dresses. The last being Joanna's in 2004. I somehow forgot how long it takes, totally underestimated the amount of time to hand sew on all the lace(18 hours). I do enjoy the process of all of this. It's just that darn roller coaster sucked me in a few times & wouldn't let me off. You know how it goes.

I promise I'll get more pictures later. The wedding is Oct 4th, so I won't be there. It's Little Mister's birthday celebration that weekend.

I'm going into Stanwood for a photo op this afternoon with all of the quilts Susan quilted during her Quiltathon for AHQ. I will be sharing them tomorrow in a new post.

On the countdown to sunshine. 22 days to Nanaland.....................Sharon

Monday, September 6, 2010

Quiltathon Update

This center of this quilt was made by the Snohomish Senior group that made regular contributions to us for AHQ quilts. I used Pat Speth's new Nickel Quilts & Borders book using 5" squares. Some of our fabric donations look really good in small pieces. Here is Batting Mountain along with quilt tops & backs waiting for their turn on Susan's machine. As of Saturday she had finished 39 quilts. Hooray for Susan! Here's a video of Susan & her Statler in action.

I'll post a final tally later in the week.

Sharon

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Wedding & Baby

Jennifer made this quilt for a friend's wedding gift. Aren't they lucky? She took a class from that Wild Woman, Judy Irish. Check out my "helper."
The fabric had a subtle western theme. You know how much I love leaves. Thought they were perfect in the large diamonds. Did a ribbon question mark with leaves & big "swirly girly" quilting to fill in these monster spaces. Actually "big" spaces provide excellent quilting opportunities! Here's the back of the star. Kim needed to make a baby quilt with a lady bug theme. Isn't this fabric cute? She got it at The Quiltmaker's Shoppe. I used that new design I told you about here. Head over to Green Fairy Quilts & check it out for yourself.
Had fun Skyping with Little Mister today. He was coloring. He must have said "Nana" at least 10 times. I say "what Andrew" he says "I color". It doesn't take much to put a smile on this Nana's face! They grow up so fast!


Can't wait to see the little monkey later this month. 24 days & counting.........................

Nana Sharon

Friday, September 3, 2010

AHQ Quiltathon

Susan Palmer has dedicated 1 week to quilting American Hero Quilts. Here is one of the many she has finished so far. She started on Sept. 1 & will quilt every day through the 8th. She got fellow guild members & fellow long arm quilters to join her. A quilter in Sisters Oregon e-mailed a commitment to quilt 25 AHQ quilts this week! Our Stanwood-Camano Hero Quilters have given her 50+ and 50 from a group in Coupeville. I am going to help tomorrow with taking quilts on & off the machine. I'll take more pictures & post an update later this weekend.

All of the quilts go to wounded soldiers, mostly at the Wounded Warrior Unit at Ft Lewis. Some have been sent to Bagram in Afghanistan. Check here & here for moving testimonials about these lovely quilts. You might need a kleenex.

I"ll be back soon. 26 days & counting...........................Nana Sharon

Thursday, September 2, 2010

My New Alarm Clock

Here are the latest additions to our family. Every morning around 6 the racing begins. Thumping, running & jumping on the bed & all over the house. Bella(on the left) & Puma. Bella is a very sweet little girl who loves to be held. Puma's not quite sure about being picked up, but he's getting better about it. Mr S picked out their names. Actually it took a couple of days to come up with a boy name I liked.
About 3 weeks ago we lost our darling DC. As Mr S says "The rodents in the neighborhood are celebrating." It was just too quiet & sad not having her around so off to CASA we went. The reader board said 13 kittens. It was our lucky day. The "kitten room" was a blur of activity & color. We picked out our 2, filled out the 3 page adoption application & they were ours.

They look really innocent in this picture. Not always the case. As you can see in this picture. The bathroom door is always shut now. I got tired of cleaning dirty paw prints off of the sink & counter! This is an innocent picture. So sweet when they are sleeping. I look forward to their nap time. The best is sleeping on Mr S & his quilt in the recliner!
So far they have turned the computer off twice by stepping on the surge protector , stepped on the pedal of my sewing machine making it sew(thankfully nothing under the pressure foot), scaled the sliding door screen to the top, & basically the whole house should be renamed "Szekely Speedway" for all the "racing " that goes on.
If you need a new pet be sure & check out your local animal shelter. There are lots of animals waiting for a good home.
Continuing my countdown, 27 days til Nanaland!
See you again soon. Lots of quilts this week..................Nana Sharon