Monday, July 30, 2012

Thanks everyone...

I just want to say a quick "Thank You" to everyone who left me a comment on my blog or sent me a personal email following my last post about the tornados here.  It means a lot to me that so many of you offered prayers and well wishes.  As of today there are still parts of the area without power, but thanks to other communities sending in utility workers to help, things are getting back to normal quickly.  Still no loss of life and very few injuries reported, so that is the most important thing. 

On a happy note...don't forget today starts the Think Christmas Blog Hop.  Ten lovely bloggers have a post up today sharing blocks and projects for your Christmas gifting, as well as chances to win some nice prizes.

Also today, Clover & Violet have put up info on a tutorial they are offering for making a darling bedside trio.  Two baskets and a table mat to add some pretty chic to your nightstand or dresser. 


Then check out  everything Sew Lux Fabrics offers.  It's a new site for me, but I signed up for their newsletter and can't wait to delve into their archives.  They have quite a few free tutorials on their site, including a cute pumpkin block tablerunner for Fall. 


Until next time...
Happy quilting with Sharon and the girls, Katie and Patsy Cline

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Elmira area survives 3 tornado strikes...

My friend Mary and I had gone to get an ice cream cone when the tornado hit here on Thursday. We rode the storm out parked behind the concrete building, but the wind and rain was so bad at times we could not see right across the street. Then the hail started-but luckily it was small and only lasted a few minutes. But the wind rocked my SUV like it only weighed 2 pounds instead of 2000 pounds. Really scary.


Once we decided it was safe to start home, we had to dodge flooded streets and huge trees down all over. The 4-lane highway thru the center of town was like a battle zone. We even had to drive up on the medium to get around the trees down across the road. And what huge trees they were! Root balls as big around as a car were pulled up like nothing.  One aluminum building was picked up by the wind and tossed over a chain link fence and came down with bushes and limbs across the highway we were on.

Wires down all over, but only one I saw near my house had fire burning. The tree had been struck by lightening and split off a large limb that took down the power lines. The fire scorched the tree but then the wire was on the wet ground snapping and popping around with sparks. Scorched the ground, too, but the wet put the fire out.

A local fire equipment company had part of the roof torn off on the way to Mary's house.  Her street had trees down on both side and several sets of wires down.  The top of a huge pine tree in front of her house was snapped off like kindling and, thank God, was laying across the yard away from the house.

After I dropped Mary off at her house, I had to do a lot of backing up, turning around, and detouring to find streets open to get back to my house. We had 2 big limbs down across the driveway and some flashing torn off the peak of our roof on one side, but thankfully that was all.  Two houses down from me a huge maple tree had been knocked down onto the roof of a house and another huge pine tree was down across the road.   I watched the fire department, electric company, and city crew working til after dark struggling to get my street open because it is a county highway with lots of traffic.  And traffic was backed up for hours with alternating the one small lane open while they worked.
We went Thursday and Friday without power, but again, luckily the tornados had cooled off the heat, so it wasn't in the 90's like it had been before the tornado came thru. We didn't get power back til after 9pm last night and I waited til today to fire up the computer.

But we're fine and that's what counts. Pretty much all cleaned up and DD's friend came today and put the flashing back on the roof peak that was torn off. Limbs are out on the edge of the street and yesterday I cleaned the porch and chairs and picked up twigs and tree debris from the back yard. Today my back is hurting so I am taking it easy so I will be ready for our quilt group's monthly get-together at the Fire Hall.
Here are pics of some of the damage around us.

























 

Elmira College Campus

 

Brick building partially demolished

YWCA and County Courthouse

Ernie Davis Statue standing surrounded by downed trees

Building blown onto Clemens Center Pkwy

Thank God there was no loss of life here or in the other 2 communities where the tornado also hit.

Until next time...

Happy quilting from Sharon, Katie, and Patsy Cline







Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Santa's coming....

over at Bronwyn Hays' blog.  She's offering a gorgeous free Christmas quilt called The Wish Quilt
It has lots of beautiful stitcheries that can be used in other gifts such as tablerunners, placemats, and pillows.  Part One is up now with a materials list, layout, and the first stitchery.  If you sign up for her newsletter, you'll be notified when the next part is ready.  I love all her designs and you will, too.

Marjory over at Peck's Pieces has the third block in her Spooky Hallows Halloween quilt ready for you also.  I've been saving these to do sometime in the future, when my UFO list isn't so full  (yeah, like that will ever happen, lol).  Love the black cat - reminds me of  "JD", my black kitty who went to the Rainbow Bridge the year Katie joined us.
Make sure you check out her other free patterns.  She has a beautiful Romance Series of appliqued heart blocks and a Fluttering Series with butterflies.  A visit is well worth your time.

Until next time...
Happy quilting from Sharon and the girls, Katie and Patsy Cline


Thursday, July 19, 2012

Puppy cam...

Meet Holly’s Half Dozen.   

These six Golden Retriever pups were born on June 24th and have already begun very important work — helping to heal the invisible wounds of our Nation’s Combat Veterans. Recovering Service Members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the National Intrepid Center of Excellence in Bethesda, MD are engaged in the critical task of socializing the pups through puppy petting. The litter of five girls and one boy will spend the next two years lifting the spirits of Wounded Warriors and giving them a therapeutic and purposeful mission. By volunteering to train the pups through the Warrior Canine Connection program, these Warriors will both address their symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress and prepare the pups for future lives as service dogs for their disabled comrades.


Tune into the Warrior Canine Connection whelping box over the next 8-10 weeks to feel the healing power of the human-puppy bond brought virtually to you by Dog Bless You.

http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/player/service-puppy-cam
 
They are adorable--I've spent too much tme already watching them.  And what a great project for our veterans.
 
Until next time...
Happy quilting from Sharon and the marmalade kitties, Katie and Patsy Cline
 

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Orphan blocks...

Do you have any in your stash you'd like to get rid of?  Do you like to make mini quilts and doll quilts?  Do you like to sew for little girls? Then check out the Get Your Mrs Claus On Project  going on over at Debbie's Stitchin' Therapy.  These are 2 of her doll quilts made to dress up doll cradles and beds given to little girls in need at Christmas.



This is the second year of this project, so if you'd like to participate, contact Debbie and let her know. 

Another thought...if your town has a Christmas gift program for needy children, maybe they could use these little doll quilts to add to their packages.  That way you would be helping local girls but without the postage costs.  I'm sure an organization like The Salvation Army would love a donation of doll quilts for their Christmas baskets.  I know I have a small stash of odd blocks that never made it into quilts--I'll have to go search them out.

If you like vintage redwork patterns, Floresita at Vintage Transfer Finds is sharing with us.  These patterns are in the public domain, so they are ok to share, but you could search forever and not find some of the ones she has in her collection.  Her last post was a collection of 7 DOW (Day of the Week) lambs.  Here is one, isn't it sweet?

Perfect for stitching up a set of towels for a Christmas gift.

On my Scrappy & Happy Yahoo group, we've been making and swapping strippy signature hearts.  It's the first time I've tried this foundation-piecing technique, but after I got the rhythm, I liked it!  It was fun, fast, and I used up a whole lot of scraps.  Here are the hearts I've made so far.  

 Can't wait to do more of this technique.  And I have lots of scraps to play with.

Until next time...
Happy quilting from Sharon, Katie, & Patsy Cline






Saturday, July 14, 2012

A few of my friends...

and I went on a bus trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival a couple of weekends ago.   It was an exhausting trip, but we had a great time.  Between all of us, we brought back lots of  fabric and patterns that we hadn't seen before.  But  besides the shopping was the display of beautiful quilts we saw.  These are a few of them.















This one makes me want to get started on my 30's quilt.

This one had gorgeous hand quilting.
This guy had a dimentional sleeve with a knife on his arm.


This was really neat-a honey comb full of bees.
See the close-up below.
 

There were lots more quilts, but by the time we had to get to the bus, this picture about sums it all up for most of us, lol.


So until next time,
Happy quilting from Sharon, Katie, & Patsy Cline