I WON! and other things, including Texas (pt 2)

My Quilted Jacket

 Lots of things to chat about today.  First, I won the Weekly Themed Quilt Contest at Quilting Gallery.  Thanks Michele and Thanks to The Fat Quarter Shop for the prize of a $25 gift certificate.  I will have fun using this gift certificate.  Oh decisions, decisions. 


Second, and this really should have been first:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER!  My oldest son is 21 years old today!  He is off at college, so I can't celebrate with him, but, we celebrated in Texas over Spring Break.


While in Texas, we visited the Dublin Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant in Dublin, TX.  This is the oldest Dr. Pepper Bottling plant.  It is also the only Dr. Pepper plant that used the original formula with Imperial Pure Cane Sugar instead of artificial sweeteners.  I quit drinking Dr. Pepper years ago because it was 'too sweet'.  Well, I drank Dublin Dr. Pepper, and, it is so smooth!  Just the correct amount of everything.  My son, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER! , has had Dublin Dr. Pepper, and we have made the cake and icing (shown in the picture).  It was really good.  So good, in fact, that that is why we went out of our way to stop by and get more Dr. Pepper and cake/icing mix.  We got enough to give as gifts, too. Unless you are in the Dublin area, you can only get these products online.  Well worth it.

Dublin Dr. Pepper

Lastly, a special Thank you to all of you who voted for my jacket last weekend.  I wore it Saturday when I was at a local thrift store, and another quilter stopped me and asked how to make it.  I gave her a tutorial right there in the shop.  It's so much fun to meet other quilters and share our hobby.  Quilter's are great!  Thanks again everyone!

Weekly Themed Quilt Contest

Hello Everyone!  I'm entering the Weekly Themed Quilt Contest at Quilting Gallery this week.  The theme is Wearables.  I'm entering my quilted jacket seen here.  You can vote (one vote per ip address) by clicking on the purple button at the very bottom, left of my blog that says 'Weekly Themed Quilt Contest' on it.  I made this jacket several years ago.  I made two at the same time.  I gave the second jacket to a dear quilting friend of mine, Ann, who has given me lots of fabric, books and patterns over the years.  I quilted the jacket on my Janome that my dear hubby bought me.  I used one of the fun stitches, a leaf on a vine stitch.  This is one of the few things that I have machine stitched.  It took me two weeks to make the two jackets.  Quick for me!  I added the cuffs to the sleeves since I am tall, and so is Ann.  I don't know how to construct clothing, so, this was a big learning curve for me.  I love to pull this jacket out in the winter when everything is dreary and gray.  It really brightens things up.  Please take the time to vote for me (or whomever's  entry you like best).  PS:  I had a really  hard time uploading the picture to Quilting Gallery.  I sure hope it worked and they got the correct photo.  We'll see on Friday morning, won't we.

Trip to Texas (Part 1)

Blue Bonnets in Texas

 Spring break in Texas!  Yipee!!  My home state.  I am usually too early to see any Blue Bonnets over Spring Break, but, since we traveled through central Texas and the Hill country, we got to see some.  These were at Inks Lake near Burnet, TX.  My brother has a house on the lake.  I miss living at the lake.  We lived at the lake when I was in Junior High School.  I loved it.  We had screened in porch on the water.  I loved to sit there and read on rainy days.  It was so peaceful.

Ducks at Inks Lake, Texas

 I took this picture from my brother's dock early on Sunday morning before anyone else got up.  We've camped at Inks Lake State Park since college days.  There is a big group of my brother's friends that still go camping there every summer.  My boys went each summer until we moved to Illinois.  It's just too far to get them there now.  They sure do miss it.  This was the boys first time at Inks lake in many years.  We got to go out in the boat on Saturday afternoon.  It was a beautiful day.  Sunny and warm.  I even borrowed shorts from my sister-in-law, since it was so warm. 

Spider in web on boat dock

I DON'T like Spiders!  Now, since I've said that, there was a beautiful spider web with 2 spiders on it on my brother's deck steps.  I used the flash on my camera to get the web in the picture.  The spiders never moved the whole time I was on the deck (THANK GOODNESS). 

I have lots from our trip to Texas.  I'll probably blog about it for days.  I brought home some goodies from the trip. 

PS:  I mitered the borders on the 'Fat Cats in the City' quilt for Betty the morning we left on the trip.  Betty has seen the quilt top and loves it.  Now to finish the quilt on the quilt rack so that I can get it quilted.

This weeks sewing accomplishments (sew far)

Fat Cats in the City

Pineapple Blocks the Easy Way

     I've been busy sewing this week.  I'm making the quilt 'Fat Cats in the City' from Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting.  It was a bonus quilt in the May/June 2010 edition.  I am making this quilt for a friend of mine in Tulsa.  I learned how to embroidery so that I could add the cats faces.  They are so cute.  I wish the picture showed more detail.  I'll show more pictures when I finish the quilt.  I still have to miter the borders and figure out how I'm going to quilt it.  I'm thinking a combination of hand and machine quilting.  I can only 'stitch in the ditch' on the machine.  My free motion quilting is pretty bad, even after a few classes.  Oh well, you can't do everything.

     The Pineapple blocks were taught by Marilyn at quilt guild on Monday.  I couldn't post before now since my dear hubby had my camera in New York City this week.  Marilyn learned this method over the phone from a friend in Canada.  It is so simple.  Check out my tutorial.  I made the two floral blocks for the tutorial, and the red and yellow block at guild.  It really was fun and easy.  No paper piecing!  This would be a fun block for a block exchange.

      I've also been working on the string spiderweb quilt blocks.  Pictures and links are in an earlier March post.  I'm almost done with piecing the 80 blocks.  I'm hoping to finish piecing them in the next few days.  I'm hoping to get the quilt top finished at the next Quilts of Valor sew-in. 

Pineapple Block the Easy Way (Tutorial)

Dear Blogland.  I received an e-mail this morning that this block is copyrighted.  I honestly didn't know.  A friend showed me how to make this block.  She had a friend tell her how to make the block over the telephone.  None of us knew that there was a printed, copyrighted pattern for this block.  In my defense, I did Google search for this block before I sat down and created my tutorial.  Nothing came up.  This is wonderful block.  The correct name for this pattern is

Sew Simple Pineapple by Karin Hellaby and can be found on the Quilter's Haven web site.  I am sorry for any infringement on someone else's pattern.  I try hard to give credit when I can.  I am a firm believer in someone's copyrights.  I believe in paying for what someone else has created.  They did all the hard work, they deserve something for their efforts.  Again, I am so sorry about this.  It was an honest mistake.  Please check out the Quilter's Haven web site for this pattern and even more patterns.

 If you are in the USA, you can order these patterns at Landauer Corporation.   If you look on the Quilter's Haven website, under distributors, you can find places to purchase Karin's publications.  There is even a distributor in the Middle East.  These links DO work.  I've just ordered Karin's Sew Simple Pineapple block, and I also ordered Karin's Fast Flying Geese Quilts book from the Landauer Corporation web site.  

Enjoy Karin's quilting methods.  I surely plan to enjoy them.   

 Cheryl

finished block

Spool Pin Doily's

Spool Pin Doily's

Spool Pin Doily on my 1896 Singer 15 treadle

 Look what I got  in the mail yesterday!  Aren't they cute!  Thanks Linda!  The spool pin doily's will decorate my vintage sewing machines.  I've already put one on the 1896 Singer 15 series treadle that I use.  It is the treadle that I will be making the Disappearing 4 Patch TOBE's on.  A TOBE is a Treadle On Block Exchange.  The blocks must be made on a people powered machine, either treadle or hand crank.  I signed up for two sets.  We have to use muslin and civil war reproduction fabrics.  Mine are all cut out.  Now to find the time to sew them. 

The Wild Game dinner at church went well.  We had dishes with pheasant, venison, duck, turkey, and lots of other meats.  My favorite was the gumbo with shrimp, chicken and venison sausage.  YUM!  I brought some of the leftovers of that home. 

I did get some crafting done this weekend.  I embroidered 2 cat blocks for the 'Fat Cat in the City' quilt I'm making for Betty. 

fabrics for the Disappearing 4 Patch TOBE

Thursdays Thrift Store Fabric Finds!

 Look at the quilt I found while thrift store hopping yesterday.  Isn't he cute!  I don't know who made him, but '2006' is written in ink on one of the back corners.  I'll admit, I'm really bad about labeling my quilts, too.  The cute little hand quilted find was only $2.99!  I just couldn't resist. 

 I found these fat quarter sets at another thrift store.  There are two fat quarters in each set.  You can't tell it in the picture, but, the top fat quarter is a brighter green, and the bottom fat quarter is a slightly different shade of the same print.  These were only $0.50 for two fat quarters.  I went wild and bought 20 sets.  I'm glad that I'm signed up for a Santa block exchange with my quilt guild.  I signed up for two sets of blocks.  These will come in handy.  I may give some of these away.  Anyone want a giveaway!?!

 More Christmas fabric!  These sets had three fabrics per set.  More fabric for the Christmas quilt.  Each set was only $0.75.  I purchased 10 sets of these. 

Most of the fabric was seasonal, floral or panels for aprons or vests, etc, which we can't use for Quilts of Valor http://lolqov.blogspot.com/.  We'll have to see what Rita and the girls will use this for.  Maybe I'll add it to my 'strings'. 

Today will be a busy day.  I'm cooking 5 lasagna's and 5 stroganoff's for the church's Wild Game dinner on Saturday.  I'm making them with venison.  Yum!  I don't know that I'll get much sewing done today.  Oh well.  PS:  I added the 'Can I get a Whoop Whoop! button (and several other's, too).  Check out the links.