Finally finished...in February!

This is a "Christmas quilt" that I started several years ago. I pieced the top and never got it quilted. Since I recently learned to machine quilt on my new sewing machine, I decided to quilt this as a practice piece. I used different techniques on the different sections...some straight lines and some wavy lines with the walking foot, and some free motion quilting around the applique and the border. My "free motion" quilting gives a whole new meaning to the term! It's hard! I need a lot more practice on that. In any case, this was a good practice piece for me and I learned a lot, mostly things NOT to do. But it's done and I'll be able to pull it out next Christmas, all ready to go!

Help/Ideas

Monika, if I ever sent you this blog, please do not read this post!

One of my best friends in the world (Monika, pictured left) is having a baby in May and her bridesmaids are joining forces to make a quilt for the family. I have to come up with 4 9x9 panels to send. The colors should be blues and greens, but I think I can interpret that liberally if I want to. Do you guys have any good ideas for applique or embroidery for my squares?

Mom, maybe you could send me one of your Japanese embroidery patterns? I'm also thinking of doing a heart or sunrise for one of them.

Thanks for your input!

Friday Night in Cleveland, Ohio

Tonight I went to a Hillary Clinton rally at Brush High School with Kathy, Linda and Susan. Unfortunately, we were not able to get into the school, so we stood out on the street hoping that her motorcade would drive by and we could at least see her. After several trips to the car to warm up our feet, she finally arrived around 7 pm ..... we think. A bunch of cars and a bus pulled up, surrounded by police cars, and we guessed that she was in one of them. All in all, a little disappointing (and I didn't get there at 3pm like Kathy and the girls did!)

Kathy's Art Quilt

On Friday, Kathy took me to the opening reception for the Lake Farmpark Quilt Show. She entered her art quilt that she made of the hot air balloon flying over the vineyard! Here's a picture of Kathy with her quilt.

Old sweaters never die.....

Here is a picture of two scarves I made out of old wool sweaters. We did this at our craft group meeting last week. I'm going to send them to Lauren and Rob for a Valentine's Day gift - Robbie's is made out of a bunch of his old wool sweaters. When he moved all of his stuff out of our house, he left a pile of sweaters on my sewing table with a note attached that said, "Scarf for Robbie, please." The more colorful one is for Lauren, and Kathy provided me with a lot of the wool for that one. We had a great time and everyone left with a mostly-finished scarf.