Thanks to our Veterans.......


In honor of the many Veterans of all our wars, I'm repeating my Memorial Day post . Thank you for all the freedoms you've given us and the sacrifices you and your families have made.

http://quiltingwithamarmaladecat.blogspot.com/2009/05/today-is-day-to-remember.html

HAPPY EASTER

Sharon and the girls, Katie and Patsy Cline

Let's be reasonable...

is the title of a post from a blog I follow by Sheryl at Quilting Tizzy.  I have to say I agree with all her conclusions, which is why I am posting her button and the links to her post here. 



It's up to you to read all the materials involved and decide how you feel about the issue of whether a fabric or pattern designer has the right to control the use of the fabric in their design lines or their patterns.  My feeling is this:  once I buy the fabric or pattern, it's mine, and I can use it any way I want - whether to make items for myself and family or to sell.  Especially fabric.  If I have to face the possibility of a lawsuit because I made a quilt or tote bag and sold it to a friend (or anyone)  from a fabric that is "restricted", I'm not gonna' buy it. 

So go and read Sheryl's post and her other connected posts and see what you think about this growing "restriction" issue.  If you agree with us, post her button on your blog, too. 

Thanks,
Sharon and the girls, Katie and Patsy Cline

Karen Combs --- Stolen Quilts! Pass The Word!

Copied from Bonnie K Hunter's blog, Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!


This blog network of ours seems to have become an avenue for getting info out on stolen quilts.


While I am so glad to be able to help, each time I post something about the ever increasing numbers of stolen quilts I fel sicker and sicker ---who is next?


These are the quilts of Quiltmakers that I have admired and revered for years and years. It’s making me second guess the way I travel with my quilts to the point where I feel like I am bordering on insanity.


I’ve been asked to help spread the word in hopes that we might find some leads in finding Karen’s quilts.


Her own blog with the full story can be found HERE. She writes:

It is something every traveling quilt teacher fears, her quilts will be stolen or lost. Unfortunately, it has happened to me. I’m heartbroken. . . please share the images and story below. I hope they will be found.

On March 16, 2012, sometime between midnight and 6am at the Courtyard New Braunfels River Village, my rental car’s driver window was broken and my teaching suitecase was stolen. The hotel is located at 750 IH 35 North in New Braunfels, Texas. The police were called, they stated the break-in looked like the work of a professional.

It was a “smash and grab”. The vandals did not know what they were taking and it will have no value to them. It means the world to me. . .

Inside the suitcase were the quilts from my popular Patchwork Illusions class. I also lost all my teaching supplies and step-by-step demos for the class.

If you live in New Braunfels or anywhere in Texas, please check local yard sales, flea markets and pawn shops for the quilts. Everyone, please forward this blog posting to every quilter and quilt shop you know and ask them to forward it to everyone they know.

If you find one of my quilts or quilt blocks, please contact me atkaren@karencombs.com

Thank you for all your help,
Karen

Please forward this post to EVERYONE. Be watching things like Craigslist and Ebay ---let your twitter peeps know, the news groups, email lists, quilt guild members, facebook, message boards – you guys know the drill ----we have been doing this too often, and we will keep doing it to get the word out.

This is one thing we CAN NOT get numb to --- we HAVE to remain outraged with this repeated scenario and do what we can to bring these quilts back!

Thanks for all your help in spreading the word….we have an awesome network of quilters to help get the word out ---


Copied from Bonnie K Hunter's blog, Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!

Please go to Karen's page and see her beautiful missing quilts and help, if you can, by spreading the word.

Thanks,
Sharon and the girls

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Clover and Violet are starting another...

sewing and quilt-long this month, the Garden Steps: Stitch & Quilt Along.  There will be two quilt options this time, a full quilt which will measure approximately 51" x 68" and a baby quilt which will measure approximately 34" x 51".  So click on the link in my sidebar and make a note on your calendar so you don't miss out!

My two quilting groups had another Super Bowl Sunday sew-athon and a regular sew-athon this month.  On SB Sunday, my friends and I made traveling iron caddys to carry our hot irons home.  The pattern came from Husqvarna but of course, we had to change it a little, lol.  Aren't these neat?

Lynne's bag

 

Mary's bag



Linda's first bag



Linda's 2nd bag - back



Linda's 2nd bag - front



My bag inside....

and outside.

Patsy snooping in Lynne's bags

Of  course Patsy Cline has to be right in the middle of everything!

Our fire hall sewing on Sundays has resulted in lots of really neat Christmas tree table runners using the Half Hexie Ruler that we bought at Missouri Quilt Co.  I saw the tutorial they posted on You Tube and had to have it.  So easy to make and you can use your scraps and there are so many ways to vary it..

This is Ann's completed TR.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This is Linda's completed one.  Aren't they neat?
Mary decided the trees needed a trunk, so she added it to her's and then everyone else decided they wanted one too.  So a slight change to the pattern, but still very easy.
 
Jill brought the quilts she had been working on for her two daughters-in-law for Christmas, so we could she how they turned out. Aren't they gorgeous? She is so talented.  This is a picture quilt with the 3 boys pictures inside the the stars.

and this is her Elden batik quilt.  Not something I want to try...way too complicated for me.

Here are some more pictures of our quilt club members projects over the last couple of weeks. We have so much fun when we get together and everyone does such different things. We inspire each other and push each other to be better quilters and friends.


Donna G's stitchery


Gail's beautiful stitchery quilt for her Joe's Christmas present.

Donna G's shamrock

Jane's house quilt

Bonnie's Bee Hive quilt

Joan's Batik Swap Blocks Quilt

Jane's Batik Quilt

Jane's NYD Mystery Quilt

Until next time...

Happy quilting from Sharon, Katie, and Patsy Cline

2012 OPAM or One Project A Month...

Two years ago I signed up for the OPAM Challenge and did fairly well on completing projects.  Then last year I didn't get in by the deadline, but I thought, "I can still participate, but just on my own".  HAH!!!   I find if I don't have a deadline or some one to push me a little, I can be a very lazy crafter!!  It's so easy to just sit at the computer and cruise the web, or play games, or do jigsaw puzzles--anything, other than work on projects.  So this year when I saw Kris and Peg were taking signups again, I hurried over and signed up.  I have tons of UFO's to get finished and I need that little extra excouragement to keep my nose to the grindstone.

 

 

The idea of the “One Project A Month Challenge is pretty simple ... To try to finish at least ONE craft project by the end of each month. This can be something you’ve had partly done for a while (a Work In Slow Progress WISP), a pattern you bought ages ago that you finally get around to making up, or a completely new project. This is meant to be a low-stress challenge  - if you don’t finish a project every month  - that’s fine! Sometimes life interferes with our plans. Some projects are meant to be long-term and have a LOT of work involved, like a quilt or an embroidery. The main aim of the OPAM Challenge is to give everyone a bit of a motivational boost and to give us all a big cheer squad to encourage and inspire us.

 

So with help from my friends in OPAM-ville, this year I hope to have lots and lots of finished projects.  I'm off to a good start so far, lol, I have one project already done.  I can't show it yet, because it's part of a swap and hasn't been delivered yet.  But I'll post a pic as soon as I know my friend, ------------, has received it.

 

Until next time,

Happy Quilting from Sharon, Katie, and Patsy Cline

 

 

More goodies for us...

Val Laird Designs has a wonderful BOM for 2012 that starts today and continues all year.   "Thoughts in Thread" is a wall quilt measuring 34 inches square and consists of nine blocks. Each month over nine months, she'll give you the pattern for each block, then in the tenth month you will receive the finishing instructions.

Coming in July 2012 will be a new project from Denise Russart, the Christmas Town Sampler. It's a collaboration with four very talented quilting friends:  Judy Laquidara (http://www.patchworktimes.com/), Sheryl Till (http://quiltingtizzy.wordpress.com/),  Susan Neves (http://7and7.wordpress.com/) and Denise will each be presenting different parts of this quilt.  It’s part Block of the Month, part Mystery and part Blog Hop.  

The Raspberry Rabbits also have a new BOM starting, The Adventures of Harrington and Hannah BOM.
Each month on the 15th, they will bring you a new block featuring stitching, wool applique, and patchwork sashing. The January Block, Harrington and Hannah give a carrot to a friend is up now.  I probably won't do the wool applique, but I think the design will look great just stitched!

Off now to work on my stocking project for a friend.  Until next time...

Happy Quilting
from Sharon and the "girls"

Some new Freebies for us....

FaveQuilts has put together its very first free eBook of free quilt patterns! The 12 Awesome Free Quilt Patterns and Small Quilted Projects eBook has over 50 pages filled with applique quilt patterns, patchwork quilts, and small quilted projects. Whether you're a novice quilter or you have years of experience, you're sure to find some free quilt projects that will keep your sewing machine humming!

 For 2012 Aurifil Threads will have a whole new set of designers bringing you blocks of stitchery each month for free on their blog!  January is Roseann Kermes of Rosebud's Cottage, with a darling Snowbird stitchery.  Sign up for Aurifil's newsletter and you'll make sure to get your free stitchery every month!

Cindy Carter at Quilt Patterns from Seattle has another new free quilt for you to help celebrate Valentine's Day.  She's just starting it now, so don't get behind.  And if you've never been to her site before, be prepared to spend a LOT of time there!  She has tons of adorable free quilt patterns there for you.

Until next time...
Happy quilting from Sharon and "the girls"

Happy New Year !!

    

The girls and I hope you all had a great Holiday Season, no matter how you celebrated.  We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's Eve hubby and I ushered in the New Year with a delicious lobster dinner with baked potatoes, corn, and Italian bread.  Yummy!  Of course, the only time we have lobster is about every other year at New Year's--too expensive for our strict budget, lol.  But once in a while we indulge ourselves.  Of course hubby never stays up to watch the ball drop, so the girls and I saw the New Year in and then went to bed in anticipation of the next day.

New Year's Day was spent with 6 of my quilt club girls at Ann's house.  We sewed along with the Planet Patchwork NYD Mystery .  Ann served us breakfast and a great lunch of baked spaghetti, tossed salad, garlic bread, and a yummy vanilla wafer pudding.  Between that and the snacks, lol, we all sort of got behind in the clues.  Jill was the only one who even started sewing the rows together to see what the pattern might look like.  I think she had one row left to go when I had to leave.

Most of us got our blocks sewn, but with other dinner commitments that day, we all had to pack up and leave at different times, so we'll probably end of finishing the top at Joan's house on our normal Wednesday sewing day.

But what a lot of fun and laughter we had.  And we got another to chance to say goodbye to our BFF, Diane, who is deserting us for the warmth of a Florida winter.  Traitor!  Just think of us back up here in the frozen North, Diane, while you're down there lolling around in your bathing suit!

Here are the pictures I took yesterday.

 

The last picture is of my blocks as I was almost done with them.  I had a jelly roll from Kansas Troubles called Kansas Winter, so that's what I used for my blocks.  I love their fabric and colors.  I have several more jelly rolls, layer cakes, charm packs, and turnovers in Lynne's other lines.  You should stop over at her blog and say hello.

Until next time...

Happy Quilting and may your New Year be filled with peace and joy,

from Sharon and the girls, Katie and Patsy Cline