Prepping for Camp!

Sparky and I are busy today making the sample quilt for my  "I Can Quilt!" Kids Camp...coming this summer at Sew Original, Winston-Salem, June 25-29.

I took the week off last week to get some long overdue tasks done around the house, not the least of which was painting the youngest's room (I bought the paint oh, a year or so ago!). It's now a gorgeous deep gold (ala Wake Forest). And yes, that means making a black and gold quilt is in my very near future! :)

Glad to mark some things off the list...but it feels good to be playing with fabric and thread again!

Sew Day!

Last Saturday the gals of Miss Bee Haven got together for a fun day of creating in the barn. Nane, our fearless bee leader, has the most awesome studio space in the upper level of her newly built barn, next to their historic log cabin in the woods. It's so peaceful there!

We worked most of the day on the string block quilts that are being made for the Neuro trauma unit at one of our local hospitals. String blocks are so addicting! There were 5 of us piecing and 2 tearing the paper foundations away, and at the end of the day we had one top ready for borders (go MR!), enough blocks for 4 more tops, and extra blocks going to start a fifth. This unit at the hospital has 10 beds, so we are well on our way to providing them with enough comfort quilts to go around.

 Also known as the "Troll Sisters" (you had to be there...it's a funny story how that name came to be), we each have a troll to watch over us as we create.  Mine, of course, has lime green hair :)  Bonnie found a bunch of these trolls on one of her many trips...we missed having her with us this time, as she was on a whirlwind of a tour across the country teaching.



Here our mascot for the day, Zorro Kitty, inspects MR's quit top. He approved it, 2 paws up. I love how these block go together. You can use any fabric anywhere, and with a common color used in the middle of the block you end up with a fabulous result! Bright, colorful...just the thing to bring some cheer to the patients who will receive them!
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PS.  All of the quilts will be washed before they go to the hospital! :)

Can't.....stop....!

Making string blocks, that is. :)

My "traditional" bee, Miss Bee Havin', is planning a sew day soon and we will all be bringing 8.5" string blocks to make quilts for the local hospital's Neuro Care Unit. I already had some wonky strips cut from the border of my batik BOM (um... blocks circa 2008? As soon as I get it quilted I'll be posting pics...it is SO ME!! And it's the first bed quilt I've made just for myself. It will be my retreat/travel companion :) But I digress.

Anyway, so I've been happily sewing away today. This is my kind of piecing...sew, flip, sew, flip...no seam matching! No rules! Perfect sizing when you trim it up!  What could be better?

:)

Of Heart and Hands

Once again I headed out to a wonderful event sans camera, so for your viewing pleasure may I direct you to Mrs. Goodneedle's blog to see the beautiful quilts on display at the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center. These quilts are the works of our bee, Miss Bee Haven and the exhibit is quite beautiful! Thanks Nane and Lisa for all your work putting this together!

Old Tyme Day

Yesterday my friends Martha Claire Henzler and Bonnie Hunter very graciously volunteered to help me with the quilting station at Lewisville Elementary's Old Tyme Day, a day of hands-on Early American history lessons for the third graders with things like candlemaking, blacksmithing, tin punch, and of course QUILTING! It was a fun day!

Bonnie was smart enough to have a camera on hand...hop over to her blog to see what we did!