Catching Up

I apologize for neglecting my blog for the past couple of weeks!  Sometimes life just intervenes, doesn't it?   I have not been very creative or done any quilting since my last post. 

My quilt bee, The Whacky Ladies,  met on March 1 with only three members present at Carolyn's house, but we had a great time.  Carolyn is making log cabin blocks out of gorgeous fabrics.

I took a picture of her pattern, but can't read the name of it.

Irene brought me her beautiful charity project to quilt for the Quilts For Kids program at Capital Quilters Guild.  It is the Warm Wishes pattern again.  She tried to machine-quilt it herself, was not happy with the results, and picked out all the stitching.  I hope to work on it and a customer quilt next week when things get more back to normal, I hope.

My Anything Art Bee also met last week on Monday at Roberta's house.  I was so pleased to see that Ruth-Ellen is continuing to make great progress on her Pamela Allen-style quilt that she started at my house in January.  I love that she has broken up the flat-looking green with additional fabrics, pathway, and fence.  The quilt hanging on the fence is actually a small piece of beading in the grandmother's flower garden pattern. 

Our technique for the month was metal work!  Roberta has a full set of tools in the garage workshop, and an amazing collection of metal cans to cut into jewelry, purses, and other ornamentation.  Here is an example of a framed mirror that she decorated with flowers and leaves punched from soda cans and painted with alcohol inks and Sharpies.  You can see my hand snapping the photo in the mirror!

Toni opted to work on a similar project.  Ruth-Ellen worked on making a book cover from a metal tin, and I worked on a metal cuff cut from a cookie tin.

I love that we experiment with new techniques at these meetings.  Several times I have found out that I have no interest in pursuing the technique or, more importantly, purchasing books and materials.  I did not really like cutting metal, pounding metal, or filing metal.  Ruth-Ellen managed to cut herself within minutes, and I was very wary of doing the same.  I brought home a cuff, but forgot to take a photo.  It is home and I am currently in the mountains.

Roberta has a very friendly cat named Lola who was posing for me next to a very funky cat sculpture that looked a lot like her.  It does not show up well silhouetted in the photo.

We got up here to our mountain cabin yesterday afternoon.  It makes us so happy to cross the creek to our "family compound" in the North Carolina mountains.

We have only been one other time this winter, when we enjoyed a snowy weekend. This time it is bright and sunny, although a bit breezy. We wrapped up and went for a ride up the mountain on our Gator.

Even though the creek must be near freezing, it did not stop the intrepid Kasey from plunging in for her refreshing drink from the sparkling mountain water.

One good shake, and she was ready to go!
 

I still have many pictures from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival to share with you.  Here is my favorite quilt from the show, Star Struck, an amazing piece made from three-fourths inch hexagons in a rainbow of colors.

I made a point of photographing the identifying labels for each quilt, but wouldn't you know the maker's name is left off the picture.  Fortunately, it was a big award winner, and I found the award list online.  The maker is Cheryl L See.

In addition to the tiny hexagons, there is added embellishment such as flowers.

And Elvis was in the house!  The King appeared several times among the myriad of colorful hexagons.
 

Here are a few more detail shots of Star Struck.

 
And here is a quilt that my husband loved when he saw the picture.  He has this thing for sheep-LOL!



Crazy Sheep, by Debora Konchinsky



The handwork that embellishes her felted sheep patches is just beautiful.

That's it for today.  Hope this long post makes up for my absence from the world of blogger for awhile!