………..is absolutely beautiful and perfect for me!   Now I can enjoy my night time wine in the manner I deserve!  Thanks so much to my good friend the Divine Miss Maureen.

The “box” it came in is pretty darn cool, too.   I’m going to browse the website Designs by Lolita to shop for some Christmas and birthday presents.  In addition to the hand painted decorations, there is also a cocktail recipe called Princess on the bottom of the goblet.  It calls for peach schnapps, vodka, white wine, and lemonade.  Since I love peach bellinis, I think I’d like this also.  Cheers!

If that title didn’t pique your interest then nothing will!!

My friend and quilting buddy Janice and I traveled to Houston to  THE SHOW in 2007.  While there Janice purchased a pattern called Aardvark and a set of fat quarters to use with it.  She also added fabrics from her stash once she began the construction.  We don’t know why it is called Aardvark but it’s a pretty cool quilt.  I quilted it for her yesterday morning and she came and picked it up right after lunchtime.  I quilted large echoed swirls all over to counterpoint the straight line piecing.  My camera battery was low and the colors in the pictures look washed out.

While I was at Jolene’s two weekends ago I purchased a pattern called Jack at the Gate.  Here is my version of it.  It’s  a small wallhanging or little table topper size.  I did a few changes.  The middle pumpkin was up on the fence top but to me looked like it was floating.  Two of the pumpkins had Jack o’ Lantern faces and I wanted mine to just be for fall and not Halloween.  Isn’t the fence fabric great?  I did this one all from fabrics in Jolene’s stash.  Corky says the knot holes on the fence look like bird poop. 

And finally – studio pics of the studio cats, Lucy Lawless and Calico Patchkat.  They sure are good company when I’m working alone and the very best quilt inspectors ever!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween weekend.  Jolene is coming in and we’re going to have a quiltathon with lots of treats and no tricks.  She’s bring fresh apple turnovers and fritters and jugs of cider.

That’s the name of the pattern of this quilt.  It was pieced by Betsy, one of my TTT gal gang.  She took the class from Anita Bowen at Pieceable Retreat in the fall of 2008.  Betsy is planning to give it to one of her daughters for Christmas.  She wanted custom quilting but not heavy.  I did stitch in the ditch around each block part and then used a circle template and a ruler to give it a very formal, traditional quilting pattern.

Callie Cat loves to get under the quilts when they are draped over the rails of the longarm and play hide and seek.  She inspected the top and back of this one and gave it the Kitty Kat seal of approval.

My friend Maureen and I both love autumn – the crisp cool days, the warm bright colors.  I just quilted this one for her – she wanted it simple but evocative of fall.  So……….oak leaves tumbling and swirling across a patchwork of wonderful fall color.

Can’t you just smell the cider and pumpkin pie!!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words……………………….

This is another one of Jolene’s……………………………

Triple cables in all of the white logs………………..

surrounded by a bajillion little pebbles………….

Ruler work and a leaf and swirl vine in the red logs……………

Bottom left corner………..design flows to same in top right corner

Sure hope Jolene likes it………she’ll see it on Friday.

Here is a sweet little quilt made by Betsy.  She won the guild Block of the  Month in February.  The quilting is all freehand – it was fun to do and while not very complex it really enhances the quilt.

This week I’m working on one of Jolene’s quilt tops.  This one is for our show in March.  It has great areas for some fancy quilting and I’m doing my best to rise to the challenge.  I’ve done a triple braided cable in the white logs and now I’m pebbling the rest of the background around the cables.  I’ve got about two more hours of pebbling to do tomorrow and then I can move on to the red areas.

This summer Sheila told the TTT group about a Habitat for Humanity house in Summerville, SC that was being entirely built by women.  Sheila asked us if we would be interested in making quilts for the family that was getting the house.  The answer was an unqualified YES!!  So Sheila contacted the director of the local Habitat for Humanity project and was put in touch with the girl who was going to recieve the house when it was finished.  She is a single mother with two daughters, 12 and 14.  Sheila got information on colors for each quilt and brought that to the group.

We perused our many books and patterns and selected three.  We pulled fabrics from our extensive stashes and made fabric selections.  And for most of the summer we had Habitat quilt project days at the studio.  Once the quilts were pieced I quilted them on my longarm, Prince Charming.  Then someone in the group volunteered to do the bindings.  Joanne made us beautiful embroidered labels.  We only had to purchase backing for two of the quilts.

Thursday evening we delivered them to Denice.  Isn’t she beautiful?  We placed each quilt in it’s proper room and they look lovely.  The fourteen year old was sound asleep – she will get a big surprise when she awakens!

I’ve made many charity quilts since I began quilting but these were really special.  Habitat for Humanity is such a wonderful organization.  Everyone deserves a nice, safe place to live.  And the recipients of the house have provided sweat equity for their own place plus other habitat houses in addition to receiving a house with a manageable mortgage.  I donate to Habitat on a monthly basis and encourage everyone to become involved with this effort.

The applique on this one was exquisite.

Since I started longarm quilting four years ago I find that the pictures I take at quilt shows are usually of details of quilting that has caught my eye. 

This one is SO CUTE!!

 I have six close-ups of the best of show at Jacksonville but don’t have a full picture of it!!

But I did take  pictures of some

quilts that caught

my eye -

 I was in a bright

 and happy quilt mode

 that day.

While we were in Jacksonville at Quiltfest we also visited The Olde Green Cupboard quilt shop.  Not only did it have thousands of bolts of fabric and patterns and books and great samples and excellent sales people – it also had fabulous displays of home dec items in a seasonal theme.  Since I LOVE fall I was just captivated by all the beautiful eye candy and inspiration.  I highly recommend a visit to this shop if you ever have the opportunity.  I’ll be back later this week with some quilts pics from Quiltfest. 

In 2006 Pat Sloan visited Cobblestone Quilters Guild and one of the classes she taught was Mama’s Garden.  Jolene and I both took the class.  We both finished our tops sometime in 2007.  I quilted Jolene’s for her and she put it in our 2008 show and won a ribbon.  Here is Jolene’s version which she calls Nanny’s Garden.

I’m trying hard to work one of my own into my quilting schedule every month.  Not much of anything got quilted this summer except charity quilts due to my traveling.  But I did get my version of Mama’s Garden, which I have named In My Garden, quilted in early September.  I have the perfect wall to hang it on………..as soon as I get a rod installed.  Let’s hope that doesn’t take another year!  So here is my version.

I’m heading out to Jacksonville, FL today with Cindy and Janice to attend the Jacksonville Quiltfest.  I’m looking forward to seeing lots of beautiful eye candy and of course, shopping!!!  I’m hoping to find the perfect fabrics for my class at Pieceable Retreat in October.  I’m taking a class called Fabricating Nature and I’m going to try to reproduce some of the daylilies in my garden.  In fact, the picture I’m using in the class is the one at the header in my blog.