I've been looking for a challenge that several friends did a few years ago.  I've been finding lots of unfinished projects instead of the one I'm searching for. 

This is a round robin I did with Jo Short, Judy Dunn and Nellie Kobelt.  Whew, it's finally finished. 

Now either I keep looking for the challenge or try to finish some more of the unfinished projects I've found. 

 This is how we spent our Monday evening.  We pulled (or started to pull) across 268 Highway at a nearly blind corner.  Either the oncoming traffic was speeding or Dennis didn't judge it right. 

The pictures don't look as bad as it is.  It's undriveable since the rear wheel is bent toward the back.  Rolling, it was like riding a bucking bronco.  The other vehicle had to be towed also since there was fluid running out it and the hood was pushed up.  Our truck was towed to Briggs Body Shop in Lawrence today so they can make an estimate and start working on it.  We are renting a Ford Focus until it is fixed.  Not a very good vehicle for hauling had to our horses. 

Fortunately, no one was hurt.   The policeman said ours was the third accident he had worked in an hour.  Must be some kind of a record for Osage County. 

At the embroidery group, we all brought in a 20 minute Christmas gift idea.  Mine was for these hot pads. 

Made from six 8" squares.  Fold four of the squares either on the diagonal or vertical.
Then lay one whole squares right side down, insulbrite, whole square right side up and then layer the four folded squares overlapping them.
Sew around the square with 1/4" seam.  Then zig zag. Trim corners and turn the folded sides out.  Or if you have  a serger you could serge around and skip the seam and zig zag.  If you want a loop, fold a piece of ribbon in half and insert in corner between second whole square and folded squares before sewing. 

   Finally finished the top for my Quilts of Valor quilt.  I'm taking the backing home tonight to wash it.  Then it will be on to a QOV quilter to be quilted. 

Glad its mostly done. 

 I finally had a chance to mess with my embroidery machine.  There were no quilts staring me in the face as the customers had waited until the last minute to bring them in.  Yea!!! Gave me a chance to use the Brother machine at last. 

I used the big feather motif and then flipped it and did it again just below the first motif.  Now I find that I could have put it into my computer and did it how I wanted and then loaded it onto my machine.  Instead I sat in front of the machine and stopped it before it did the swirls as in the first motif.  Quite a learning curve for me.

I bought some crystals and a couple of star studs at Springfield Leather to add.  Just have decided if it will happen or not,

ANNUAL ELK FALLS WEEKEND

Here three of us are working on Kathi's binding about 10:30PM during our Elk Falls weekend.  (Colleen was taking the picture.)  We finished Kathi's quilt in time for her to give it to her college nephew for his birthday.  Yea!!! 

He had asked her to show him how to quilt.  So she had him cut and sew together the top of a Turning Twenty.  Then she had it machine quilted.  She sewed on the binding and Sharon and I helped her do the hand part on the back.  Of course, we gabbed (and laughed) all the while.

Best weekend of the year!  We decided it ended too quickly and next year we will make it four days instead of three. 

Sharon

 These are my crazy friends from way back in school in Gardner.  Of course, they don't really look like this. 

We found these masks at the Red Buffalo in Sedan, Ks.  Colleen (3rd from left) and Kathi (left) thought these would be fun for gifts at Christmas to some of their family.  Then we put them on and showed them to Jane Fry, where we were staying in Elk Falls.  Really freaked her out and we all laughed so much that we just had to have pictures of us all.   As one of my friends said, "it was the best $4. that we spent".  Hope their families have as much fun with them as we did. 

Colleen

Kathi

Me

Wish I had pictures of these silly women as they really are so that you can see how eerie these masks make us all.

 These are the quilts that won the Moda Bella Challenge that I entered. 
Left is first place, right is second place and below is third place.  I think mine could have used more piecing in the background. Just a guess. 

No wonder sales were down at market.  This is our aisle at 11 am on Monday.  Not a buyer in sight.  It's really hard to push your items to the ghost in the room. 















This is the aisle as of 2 on Sunday.  Again no buyers.  Attendance was down 30%.   But I think it was more.

My booth at Fall Market.  You can kind of see the two new patterns.  To the right is Crescendo.
At the back of the booth you can see two colorways of the Double Twist pattern.  There has been lots of good feed back on the Crescendo pattern, even from my printer's receptionist in Emporia.  So I guess it's a keeper.  haha

This is our lovely demonstrator, Jane,  in the booth at Fall Wholesale Market with her two pet spiders.

Unfortunately, this is the aisle about 2 o'clock.  No buyers in sight.  The vendors are enjoying visiting with each other though.

Ok, today just was one of those days, I left my vinyl at home and I copied JEF instead of PES.  So Jane loaned me her thumb drive and then helped with getting my embroidery machine to know what I wanted it to do.

The note pad cover turned out pretty good if you don't look inside.  The leader, Bonnie, said, "use the same color bobbin as the top".  I heard her say it, but it took about a hour to sink in.  So my stitching on the inside is white.  Every project is a learning experience.

I need to use my machine more often.  Just when I learn how to do something, it sits for a few weeks and I have to learn it all over again.

Woohoo!  It's finished and photographed.  All I need to do is add the label.  Then I can enter it into the Moda Bella Challenge.  There were times this summer when I began to wonder if I would get it done on time.  The swags took forever to piece.

The title is "A Ribbon Runs Through It.".

Also, got the booth assignments today for fall market.  They insist they are going to have it.  At least the convention center was never under any water.  I'm in booth 111.  So right up front.

Jane and I have a friend who keeps teasing us about making him a quilt.

Well, this is it!  He's a big time fisherman.  Of course, I doubt that this is exactly what he meant, but I think it suits him with his likes.

It's the reverse applique technique that I learned in the Rob Appel workshop given by the Kaw Quilters Guild.  Makes  a quick fun project.

Whew, finally got the contest quilt off the machine.  Now the clean up on the back.  Had to use a white batting even though the BG is black.  It was showing through on the white areas.  Binding, sleeve and photo are the next steps.  The deadline is the 12th.  So I must get a move on.

Can you believe this is August in Kansas.  We are being spoiled with these temps!

Whew, it's finally on the quilting machine!  This is my entry in a contest and I was beginning to believe I wouldn't make the September 12th deadline.

Now all I have to do is quilt it....which will take some time, bind, add a sleeve, make a label and photograph.

I'm once again reminded how much lint and threads black backgrounds collects.  I'm delinting it as I go along right now.  And I'll have to redo it several times more before it's completed.

The Kaw Valley Quilt Guild donates 100 doll quilts to the Salvation Army each Christmas time.  Here is mine, hopefully the first of several.

The Kaw Valley Quilt Guild had a speaker, Kim Lapacek, in July.  She runs "Project Quilting". Her enthusiasm was contagious.  So I decided to give my creative juices a chance to run a little wild for the July entry.  Her theme was "Summer Sizzle".  

Around here the lament is "it's so hot you could fry eggs on the sidewalk".  The title of my quilt is "Hazard of Cooking on the Pavement".

My husband was even game on getting the tread on the quilt.  We found that painting the tire and running it over a piece of cardboard only printed the center of the tire.  So we both painted the tire and then we carefully laid the quilt over the tire and patted it down.  

Threading

Have you ever had trouble threading your needle.....who hasn't.

Next time try turning the needle around so that you are pushing the thread through the opposite side of the eye.  Needles are made by pushing the equipment through the needle to make the eye. Sometimes it is smoother on the side where it starts through the needle rather than the side where it comes out.

I bought this pattern in Paducah just because I had a specialty ruler already that was used in this tablerunner.  It was fast and I only had to buy fabric for the background and backing.

Today, was a day of learning for me and others. Kaw Valley Quilt Guild held a workshop with Rob Appel of Man Quilting from California.

It was a reverse applique class. Something I had contemplated but just never had the starting point.

Rob is a very energetic speaker and teacher.   And the program helpers from the guild made it a much easier day with all the help on having the tables set up ready for us and ordering and picking up lunch for all.

I had a wonderful sandwich from Wheatfields in Lawrence, cranberry and turkey on walnut bread. My mouth waters just remembering it.

Now I just need to finish my zebra with free motion quilting in the negative spaces and a binding.

Thanks for a wonderful day!!!!

Jane Anderson is teaching a machine embroidery class the second Wednesday of the month at Overbrook.  I need to really use my new embroidery machine and so I took the class.

I think I only made one major mistake.  I didn't trim the shoe above the zipper before I started the satin stitch.  So trimmed it afterwards and now it has this fine fringe.  I'll just have to live with it.  The whole bag was done in the hoop, even making the bag.  I only have to blind stitch the lining where it was turned right side out.

I did learn lots, like how to restart when the bobbin runs out, how to go back to a previous color etc. I'd better use it again soon so I don't forget all these lessons.

      These two table runner tops were sewn this week.   I'm hoping that my website will be operational soon.  When it is, these two tablerunners will be downloadable patterns when it is finally up and        running.  They are quick and easy to make.                                                                                                    

     

An easy and cheap way to control the thread on your bobbins is in the picture.

Go to your discount store and purchase the little girl ponytail scrunchies.  Just slip them over your bobbin and you've got it.

Last night was a very stormy night but we just received small hail and hard rain.  Fortunate for us but others are without homes and electricity.  Hope this isn't a harbinger of the spring to come!

While waiting for the new tablet upgrade to my Gammill, I finally finished the Maywood Woolies flannel quilt.  The kit was just the woven part, but I wanted it larger so I had to order more background and some polka-dotted red for the inner border.

It will make a good throw for the couch when the cold wind blows.  And it may be that long before I get around to quilting it.

My Gammill has died again on me.  I think it needs a new hook assembly and it's been ordered.  So that give me time to experiment with my embroidery machine.  It's fun and does most of the work itself.

My biggest learning item today was that if you are using white fabric and white stablizer, but sure to work with the fabric on top.  About half way through the playing, I realized that I had the tear-away on top.  Glad it was just play time!

Three of us went to Missouri Star just to see it.  One had been before but the other two of us were newbies.  It's quite an operation with individual stores sporting a different theme such as this one was all florals.  Others stores were batiks, backings, primitives, etc.  This is a real boon to a small town.

The day was supposed to be in the 60's and we all believed the weatherman and just about froze as the temperature on the bank said 37. We are all from Kansas and after a life time of weathermen predictions, we should know better.
I got several things but the other two did a much better job of shopping.  What a fun day with friends.

The picture is of the wall art in the floral shop.  It's actually just a wood frame with sticks wedged into the frame.  And the lights are bare bulbs with wire petal shapes for the shades.  Really unique.

OK these two disreputable characters are my husdand, Dennis and Amy's husband, Kevin.  They were our tailgate party for customers at the shop's Super Bowl sale.  I bet they are glad it was a nice day and they didn't freeze out there cooking hot dogs.

UGH!!!! Just back from Hawaii and now I hear were are going to have freezing rain and snow.  Where's the plane, I'm on my way back.

 Ok, we just got back from Kauai, Hawaii.  You'd never guess that I like the flowers there.

So many different hibiscus..es  hibiscus..i.  I don't know how to plural the word.  But I liked every one of them.  

Then there were more.

 And more.....

Ooops!  A tiare slipped in there.  They smell Sooo good.

 Another tiare

 Then there are plumeria

And finally, one last hibicus.