And our guild had a show last weekend, too!

I was busy coming home from Paducah because I drove straight to our guild's show to help tear down on Sunday. And then I went to Awana as I didn't have a sub for my group...and then I crashed when I got home...

There were some beautiful quilts made right here in my area and I had a few minutes to enjoy them before tear-down happened.


I didn't have a quilt in the show as I just didn't get it all together to get a quilt to someone else so they could enter it while I was off gallivanting in Paducah. I was represented as I did do one row in this quilt:



I did the row with the birdhouses and the bird on a branch and flying geese to make it the right size row :P She got a 2nd place in the group quilt category (at least I assume that was the category!).

I'm already working on my ideas for next year...but I'm the Quilt Show Chair next year (pray for me!) so who knows what all I'll be caught up in before I can finish a quilt!

I think I'm recovered from the bus trip to Paducah

I am one who takes a while to recover from trips and ones with hectic days added on the end totally wipe me out.

Now I feel human again. And the mean mom can crack the whip and get those kids back into the swing of things (HA!).

I pulled out my bag of goodies from Paducah and petted the fabrics all over again. Oh what fun! I have some background fabrics as I am always low on those, some lovely blues as I was almost totally out of blue, a stripe to finish off some children's quilts, a fun kid's print and then some fabrics for the obnoxious fabric swap that I am hosting on the about.com quilting forum. Most of the fabrics were from Eleanor Burn's Fabric Frenzy Tent and the back room at Hancocks of Paducah.

I get a kick out of obnoxious fabrics. They don't always play nice, but sometimes they are the right little thing to set off a quilt design. AND they make interesting quilts when you cut them up small and throw them all together :)

I also have a Sharon Schamber DVD, a mini quilt kit from John Flynn's dd, a hat pattern, a pantograph (never tried one before), a binding ruler (will I remember how to use it?), a (free) ruler from renewing my AQS membership, a couple of FQs (one was free) and a jelly roll that was marked down.

The bus trip had lots and lots of prizes donated by the sponsoring quilt shop Patches and Petals in Cadillac, MI. I was one of the last door prize winners and I received this kit...all the fabrics for top and binding as well as the pattern. This was one I really liked when it came out, so I'm tickled to be the recipient :) I love the sailboat fabric.


The only downside is that now I have to add all that fabric to my stash report :( Guess I need to get into the sewing dungeon and USE UP some fabrics to balance this out!

Back from Paducah

no pictures yet...but it was wonderful (and too short a trip).

More later.

The quilt is unfinished and still on the frame *sigh*

I have been working on this quilt for a long, long time. It is a leaders/enders project so it hasn't taken too much out of me as I was able to work on the piecing while working other projects.

I doodled quilting designs every since I decided what to do with the fabrics and this is what I'm working with...though it is going slower than I expected...it might be because I had to clean my house a bit more than usual (I'll be out of town next week in Paducah and FIL is coming here) AND dh's car broke down. So I've had extra distractions that, added to my homeschooling and regular routine, kept me from quality quilting time :(  I felt the pressure to finish it was lifted when dh's car broke down and just set the quilt project on the back burner.


Most of the fabrics are from some Obnoxious Fabric Swaps that I hostess a couple of times a year on the About.com Quilt Forums. I have found that if I cut them up into tiny pieces, and sew LOTS of them together, they lose some of their obnoxious flavor :)

The story of this quilt begins with those fabric swaps. Some of the fabrics are...UM...hard to work with. Some of them just don't work in our stashes, so we cut them up and share them with others.  Some are just weird like the alien, the farm animals and - who really wants a fly on their quilt? and what are those frogs DOING?

And then there are the ones that you wonder what the designer was thinking...why did you combine THOSE colors? And what is up with using flowers to make fish? snakeskin...EEEWWW!


We have a great time with those obnoxious fabrics, but I had to cut them up and sew them before they started to rebel and take my peaceful fabric with them! I did add bits and snatches from other projects and some pieces that were old stash that I wasn't sure what to do with them...

Why is it the novelties are the easiest ones to call obnoxious? Is it because they are for a targeted clientele and the rest of us just don't get it?

Homeschool Conferences make me happy

I know, wimpy picture...but we didn't take many at the homeschool conference. A friend is looking over the vendor hall (you can only see 1/2 of it here). I didn't see it all, and I wish I could have had a FULL day to look it over!

We went to the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati last week. It was wonderful to be there with approximately 4,500 other homeschooling families.

They had a GREAT line-up of speakers covering myriads of topics. It was hard to find time to cover the vendor hall because I wanted to soak up the workshops! AND we had tickets to see Tim Hawkins...what a delightful evening we had laughing so hard we were wiping tears from our faces!

I now have the bulk of our curriculum purchased/ordered for next year. Science will be DLO Chemistry for Princess Sunshine and Life Science for the Boybarian from BJU and we'll be working through Sonlight's Core 5 with the Boybarian and Core 200 with Princess Sunshine. I ordered Teaching Textbooks for both of them. I'm still unsure what I'll use for LA for the Boybarian, I really didn't spend enough time in the vendor hall looking over my options!

I think I will be setting aside money for next year, I really, really enjoyed going to this conference. It beat CHAP hands-down as I was able to hear the workshop speakers :) Though many of the workshops were overcrowded and people were sitting on the floor and lining the walls, we could still hear and be encouraged and learn (it was like diving into an ocean of information in some sessions!).

Tuesday is NOT my favorite day of the week

It is too much running for a laid back mommy. We have piano lessons in the afternoons, the Boybarian has evening activities at the library, Princess Sunshine has Venture Crew (co-ed Boy Scouts) and dh is usually off practicing music with a gospel quartet, so we can't divide and conquer, I get to ferry them to and fro (activities in two different towns, btw).

This week dh was even out of state at a funeral *sigh*

April 12th Design Wall Monday

This is what is now on my design wall. It is an old UFO...I still have lots of blocks to make (I can't even remember how many). I've got all of the HSTs made but still have to sew the blocks together. This one is calling my name, begging me to finish it. I'll give it a holiday name of some sort as our quilt show next year is Holidays. I think Flag Day will be my inspiration holiday, what do you think?

Confession time...this is what was on my design wall...I took it down this morning so I wouldn't be looking at it for another three weeks. I have to start sewing the borders for this quilt (I love, love, love the batiks in this quilt, btw) but have way too many other things going on in my life right now.

This is the project I'm working on this week. I WILL have this done, including the binding, so I can enter it in our guild's show. Since I am leaving for MI (and then Paducah!!!!) next Monday morning, and I need to connect with someone to enter it for me...I will be focusing on this quilt!

Later this week, if I get this baby finished, I'll tell some of it's story :)

For more design wall inspiration visit Patchwork Times

Oh What Fun!

We spent several days away from home last week on an extended field trip. On Thursday we went to the Creation Museum and had a great time. First we wandered in the gardens in the cool drizzle...it will be so much nicer later on in the year...and when the weather is warmer!

We saw these Chameleons and had to laugh as the one walked right over the other one's face - in slow motion. Wouldn't you be bothered if someone walked right over your face?

We also spent time (and money!) in the bookstore...they have such cool stuff!

And we thoroughly enjoyed all of the sculptured animals and people all through the museum. I just couldn't resist taking a picture of the entrance to the bookstore :)

Design Wall Monday

not much new...my design wall LOOKS almost the same, though I fixed the pesky 1/2 square triangles and now have the field of the quilt sewn together. I probably won't start working on borders anytime soon as I have a busy couple of weeks coming up...

The only thing to show for this week is:

These are 3" blocks...and are up in the next clue in my Mystery Quilt.

Visit other design walls from Patchwork Times

I will be off to a homeschool conference later this week and Paducah in two weeks :) I think I love April (though not the busy-ness!).

Busy Week...

My sister and her children were visiting over their Spring Break and just headed off to home this morning. What a whirlwind! Five children in the house all trying to make themselves heard...well, no in depth description is really needed, eh?

I did work with the four oldest children in a Writing Game RPG and they were so excited they were discussing possibilities and characters way too late into the evenings. Two of them were writing prolifically so they could level up.

I need to work out a new adventure before we are all together again in the summertime! How to work in some comic relief (two players are 6th grade boys, 'nuff said) will be a great challenge for me...I think I do better with the adventure.

Now to catch up on some things I meant to work on in spare moments...but concentrated on family instead.