A quilt for my husband

 I made this quilt for 'Joe, the Tool Man", aka my retired shop teacher husband, for Christmas.  The idea for the quilt came from a 1995 Debbie Mumm book entitiled "Quick Country Christmas Quilts.  It hangs on the door leading to his basement workshop. 

Fun Hats For a Good Cause

A few weeks ago, a group of local stitchers helped Joyce makes fleece hats for children in the cancer ward at a PA hospital. The hats keep the children's heads warm while they are going through their treatments (and hopefully, put a smile on their faces as well). In three days, the busy group made a total of 58 hats (not all shown). Nice job, ladies!

Photos courtesy of Kelly Jackson at I Have a Notion.

More Scrappy Valentines

These hearts are a fun way to mix and match leftover fabric, ribbons and trims, buttons or beads. I have also made individual hearts to send as valentines to my granddaughters.

Scrappy Valentines

This is a great way to use up odds and ends of fabric just in time for Valentine's Day. Hearts do not need to be red or pink! This project came from Two-Hour Mini Quilt Projects by McKenzie Kate. This can be adapted to any size.

Alexander's Quilt

Some very good friends have a new grandson so, of course, he needed a quilt. Unfortunately, his mid-November birthdate was a time challenge until I went to a quilt shop in Lafayette, LA. I had been told his room was being decorated in a jungle theme. This quilt shop had a wonderful wide stripe of jungle animals. There was also a coordinating leaf print. Anya had shown me this simple stripey quilt and I knew I had a winning combination!

Sewing Outside the Line

Several months ago, a new group called the "Out-of-Line Quilters" came into being. We're just seven stitchers who wanted to get together as a group to help each other stretch our artistic quilting skills. As our first project, we decided to challenge each other to create something beautiful out of what some of us might consider to be "ugly" fabric. Of course, "ugly" is in the eye of the beholder.

We drew names and then gave the other quilter four fabrics that were out of her usual comfort zone. A recognizable amount of at least two of the fabrics had to be used in the final project. We were free to add other fabrics and embellishments as we saw fit. The only other limitation was that the quilt could be no longer than 16 inches on any one side.

What you see in the above photo are six of the seven finished pieces. The seventh piece didn't make it to the photo shoot because the creator was kind enough to stay home and not share her cold germs with the rest of us. But you can see and read about the seventh piece on Susan's blog here. And be sure to read about Madalene's on her blog here. Anya shares the story of her quilt on her blog here. Perhaps non-bloggers Peggi, Dori, Nancy, and Louise can be talked into writing about their process here on this blog.

We all agreed that this was a great way to start off with our group and our creative minds are already working on our next project.  What will that be?...We'll let you see the results in a couple of months.

"The Perfect Iron" saga continues...

Seems like everyone has been blogging about their search for the "perfect iron". Most, like me, have a graveyard of old castoff irons. We've tried every brand available, including the expensive so-called "best" ones on the market (we won't mention any names). Still, they spit water all over our fabric, leak from places they shouldn't, and fail to heat up like they should. And so, the search goes on...

I'm here today to tell you about my latest purchase (and this is just my own individual opinion - no one has encouraged me to post this, so please take it as such and make up your own mind.)
I just bought (or rather, my dear hubby bought it for me as an early Christmas gift) a Reliable V50. I first read about this iron on the IHAN blog and it sounded too good to be true. An iron that pumps out lots of steam, but doesn't leak??? Yeah, right - I've heard that before! I was hesitant to try yet another iron, but Kelly assured me that they really are as "Reliable" as their name says, so I decided to give it a try. I have to tell you that so far, I'm really amazed! Because this iron has an internal steam generator, you can get steam at any temperature - and without spitting! You can also operate it dry, but just have to push one button to start the steam flow, then push it again when you're done and the steam stops. So simple! And talk about steam!!! Besides quilting, I also make bags and purses and need lots of steam to shape these bags. This iron sure does the job! (Just make sure that you only turn on the steam when you need it, because if you leave it sitting and steaming, you'll go through lots and lots of water - might even steam up the windows in your sewing room!)

And like most quilters, you probably hate the auto-off feature on your irons. Every time you get up to press a seam, the iron has turned itself off (again!) and you have to wait for it to re-heat. Well, Reliable has taken care of that problem too! You can override the auto-off function by holding the steam button down for 8 seconds. Now the auto-off function is disabled until you unplug the iron. It's the best of both worlds!

If you'd like to read Kelly's review on the IHAN blog, you can find it here.
Happy Ironing!

The Eye of the Quilter- Houston

One of the features of the Houston International Quilt Festival is a photographic exhibit called "The Eye of the Quilter" which shows how quilters look at the world. Many of us use our photos in our quilts or make quilts inspired by our photos. Last year the exhibit theme was 'Reflections' and I submitted a photo of a zebra in a water hole which was accepted into the exhibit. This year the theme was 'Friendship' and I sent a photo I took in Tanzania last year when a Maasai herdsman took my husband by the hand to inspect his herd of animals. I just got word that it will be in this year's exhibit in Houston. Neither of these images has led to quilts yet, but I might need to consider the possibility!

Come One, Come All

Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild member Gretchen F. plays one of the lead roles in this wonderful play...
Check Hamilton-Gibson Productions' website for details on tickets.

I hear there are quilts on stage....


Grace and Glorie from Hamilton Gibson on Vimeo.

Scrappy Linus Quilts

I used green and yellow scraps to make two quilts for the guild's Linus Quilt Outreach.
The top quilt was made with leftover blocks from the lower quilt. I found that pattern in an April 2008 McCall's Quilting magazine, designed by Holly Holderman.

Another UFO Takes Off!

Just finished this little quilt to give to friends moving away from Wellsboro. We'll miss them and a quilt might remind them of us. It's a good example of why quilters need a stash! I bought this nice floral stripe several years ago, thinking of some sort of simple and traditional layout. Then I took Dianne Kuhns' class at the lake house on the machine made Cathedral Window blocks. In my stash I found a background that's more golden than it looks here, and two each of green, blue, yellow and rose, taking the colors in the stripe's flowers. The center of the four patch is made using the Cathedral Window technique, so it 3D. I found enough beige for the background and inserted two floral strip pieces to make it wide enough. Nice to have another project out of the closet and on its way.

Great Opportunity

Well-known art quilter Laura Wasilowski will be presenting a program at the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild's meeting on Friday June 3rd at 7PM in the fellowship hall of the First Presbyterian Church on Main Street in Wellsboro, PA. The meeting and Laura's program are free to the public. Come for what is sure to be a very enjoyable evening! Visitors are always welcome! There may even be a spot or two available for her workshop on Saturday.

You can learn more about Laura on her website or blog.

Many Hands Make A Cool Quilt!

Edited: The squares in the individual bingo blocks were made and arranged as shown in this link.

This WIP is a joint effort by members of the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild here in north-central Pennsylvania. These 20 (or maybe 24 -- I can't remember) blocks were made by guild members for a quilt bingo game at a guild meeting a couple of years ago. After the meeting, all the blocks were collected and put away for a future charity project. Some were made into placemats and table toppers, but these remained.

A couple of weeks ago, at a guild charity sewing day, Barb and Lynn sewed the blocks together into rows, Peggi then added the black sashing and border and now Angie is working on the quilting.

Once the binding is on, the quilt will go to someone in the community in need of comfort. And all those involved in making it can feel good about what they've accomplished. Nice job, ladies!