New Quilting Experience

After 15 years of participating in our local quilt guild, Grayson Country Quilters, I finally decided I better "pay back" for all the help I've gotten from these wonderful quilters. So this year 2011, I agreed to be the new president. My fellow officers are Sidney Christensen, Gail Glover, and Bobbie Holt. They are wonderful! and I so appreciate their good ideas and help.
Sidney constructed a guild blog the first month we were in, and it has been a huge help to everyone, plus a place to showcase our quilts. http://graysoncountryquilters.blogspot.com/

At our first two meetings we had the ladies help tie baby quilts which we are giving to the local hospitals for new borns. We made about 24 quilts for this.

Our next service project was to put together a quilt to be used for cancer fund rising that the college rotaract club is doing. I found a beautiful pink quilt top on e-bay which the guild completed. Jeri did the machine quilting, and I did the binding.

Last Fall's projects--2010

One of the patterns we taught the sisters in Ganado, while we were on our mission was this variation on Courthouse steps.  Done with the right colors it replicates a Navajo pattern.  It works great with denim, or kakai weight pants.  All of these were cut from great finds at the flea markets.  I haven't finished it yet, but the top is all done.

This next quilt is the one I did a workshop on in Sept. I had this much done in August, and almost have the next set of blocks ready to add, but haven't had time...so much to do. I actually got the batik print over 10 years ago in Mexico..so it's been a long time finding a home.

Reddirt Retreat: When will the projects get done?

Last fall EveLyn Perkinds, Bobbie Holt, and myself drove up to LaSal, Ut to participate in an overnight quilting retreat.  It was so fun, and we learned a lot.

Here is one of the projects almost finished.  It was made from a stack of "griddle cakes"  Forty 10" x 10" squares.  I cut mine from my stash of purple fabric.

I've seen some of these "stack and whack" type quilts set together with narrow black sashing, which I think would have subdued this quilt a bit.  It seems a little busy to me.

This will be a baby quilt.  It's called "The Wave" and is also a good pattern to use up stash.  I need to add one or two more columns to it.

Eagle Quilt Presented to CJ Dec. 4

At the Christmas party for our Wasatch Front families, I presented CJ's Eagle Scout Quilt to him.  He is our oldest grandchild, and will be the first to earn this award.   This particular quilt is one of the hardest I've made, so I hope he will take good care of it.

CJ and his brothers and cousins whom we hope will also be Eagle Scouts





Santa's workshop..

Getting ready for Christmas.  Just got this puppy dog quilt finished for Logan...as I think she deserves something more than a cactus!

More kids quilts

I made baby quilts for Travis and Hinckley, though the girls cut out the blocks. and did some of the finishing work.  Here are the two Wiggles and Giggles, which go pretty well with these two cute babies.









Jeri Montella quilted Travis's  with sports ball motifs



Travis and his big brother Ethan.. Sept. 2010



Hinckley's was quilted with bikes and trikes on the back



Hinckley and Grandpa, Oct. 2010

Lone Star Eagle project

When our oldest grandson, CJ, was getting close to earning his Eagle Scout award I decided I better shift into high gear.   He is the pace setter for lots of other scouting grandsons, so I hope they will follow his good example.   It took me a full week to piece together the eagle part of the quilt, and I had to go visit Shauna Hurst and Julie Hawkins several times to figure it out.  It was easily the hardest piecing job I've ever done, but it was worth the effort.  I had this finished by April.

  Since he hadn't begun his final project, I let the Eagle "nest" for about 6 months, before I worked on it again, as I wanted to make sure he was serious about earning it this year.  Setting in the right angles and triangles around the eagle was also a little tricky, but not as bad as I had imagined.  I had Cathy Cosby do the machine embroidery of his name.

Next I made a modified court house set which created a southwest design which I really liked.  This went clear around the quilt.  I hired Jeri Montella to quilt it, using a customized pattern of the scout motto, stars, and fleur de lis.  On the outside border she alternated eagles with the scout symbol.  I love how it turned out.  It is bound with angled striped material matching the main colors.   The total cost of fabric and quilting was around $300, in addition to the 90 hours of labor.

   The finishing of this quilt, actually helped me find about $450 which I had put in an envelope in preparation for our cruise on Oct. 4.  I had searched the house for two days, and could not find the envelope with the money in it.  Part was in Euros and part US money.  Finally in desperation, I prayed that while I went to work on finishing up the quilt, I might be inspired to know where to look. 
   I had not decided on the backing for the quilt, and started looking through my stash.  After checking the cupboards and not finding anything quite right, I went to open the lid of the wooden chest on th back porch, as I moved the sacks off the top, I noticed an envelope had slid down the side be the check and my sewing cabinet...IT WAS THE LOST MONEY ENVELOPE.  BOY, THAT PRAYER WAS ANSWERED QUICKLY.  I WAS SO THANKFUL, I HAD DECIDED TO CALM DOWN, PRAY, AND SWITCH JOBS!!