Road Trip !!

Road to California?  No.
AQS in Paducah?  No.
Quilt Con?  No.


Desert Lily Quilters Guild Quilt Show in Yuma, AZ! 




Most every year, on the second weekend of January I travel to Yuma, AZ to visit my quilting-buddy and snow bird Auntie and help out at the Desert Lily Quilt show.  This year I'm taking my quilting pal, Charlotte-the-Tall with me... yep, the two Charlottes on the road.  
Thelma and Louise?  More like Mutt and Jeff.  I'll let you figure out who is who.

It's a long drive from So. Cal. to Yuma, AZ.

The landscape is rugged, but with a rugged beauty.


As we drove, we chatted away and solved all the world's problems; world hunger, global warming, the next door neighbor's barking dog.




 

And, truth be told, Yuma is a nice little town...in the winter...Not sure I could handle those summer temps.

The Desert Lily quilters are a very talented bunch, but the MOST talented of them all is my very own Auntie,
Nyla Stoughton.

She won first place AND the Silver Dollar award (100 Silver Dollars) for her "Birdies."
A set of 12 wall hangings, one for each month, hand appliqued in wool.

Nyla Stoughton

She is so talented.  I am blessed to call her "my auntie", quilting buddy and mentor.

Charlotte Smith, Charlotte Q (me) and Auntie

Tomorrow, I will post more show entries...beautiful, all.

Welcome 2018 - The Year of the UFO*

I am associated with a number of quilting Facebook pages:  Quilt Along with Pat Sloan, Scrappy Girls Club; Panel Quilts; Thrifty Quilters .... there are tons of quilting-related Facebook pages to choose from.

It is so fun to follow these pages!  I get a lot of inspiration as well as making friends.

A consistent theme for the new year seems to be finishing up UFOs.

And if that is not enough to motivate you.... Pat Sloan is having a "UFO Challenge."

If you want to participate in Pat Sloan's challenge, click HERE.

Even though I did finish a few UFOs last year, I have more... So I think I'll jump on the UFO band wagon.  How about you?

I spent a little time this afternoon putting together my list.  They are not all quilts, but they are all sewing projects.











 So here we go! UFO completing into 2018.














*Unfinished Object

The Party's Over

"The sky is falling!!" yelled Chicken Little!!!!

Do you remember the scare of "Y2K"  All the computers in the world were going to stop working; planes would fall from the sky; the Stock Market would crash.
"Stock up on food and water!!!" they warned.

Here we are, SEVENTEEN years later! (And, BTW, none of their predictions came true.  Everything was just fine. But didn't we all run around like Chicken Little?)

Who would have imagined that 17 years would fly by that fast!

And that is exactly what happened to 2017.
The Year flew by in a blur!!


Now that the year is kaput, what do I have to show for it?

UFO's completed in 2017

Nephew, Joseph's tee-shirt quilt.
Gifted at Thanksgiving, 2017.
Only two years after his graduation...don't judge.











Grandson's quilt.  While technically not totally completed, it IS at the LAQ and so still needs binding, but it is close enough.

Baby Sister's Wall Hanging
This cute, cute, cute little ditty made me chuckle and think of my baby sister... I do so miss her and my dad, who lives next door.

She opened it Christmas Morning and said she loves it :-)






 


New Projects started and completed in the same year!! 
(what a concept!)








Piggy Wall hanging in memory of my mom, Dona, and in honor of my quilting buddy, Aunt Nyla (mom's sister.)

Baby Quilt for my D-I-L's sister.  This was a last minute project that I put together while traveling for business.  The little family now in North Dakota...good thing I put minky on the back.















Pat Sloan's "Let's Go Sew" I made just for me, to hang in my sewing room.

Last, but not least, various and miscellaneous fun stuff.

Fabric Snowflakes; pillowcases; Flip & Stitch Wreath

Projects on the list for 2017 that will roll over to 2018

Splendid Sampler Quilt

Another sister's house warming quilt.  I had hoped to get it to her for Christmas.  Now I'm aiming for her birthday...July.

I'd like to say this is the only UFO on the list, but I don't want to start out the year telling a fib.
 






 



Happy New Year, Everyone!  May the new year bring you many happy hours in your sewing room.

A Labor of Love

Creating a quilt is a lot of time, energy and money.  But the look on their face when you gift it....Priceless.

I gifted the tee shirt quilt to my nephew on Thanksgiving day.  He hadn't even noticed his mom had snuck the shirts from his closet... he was so surprised.  And, even though it doesn't look like it, he really liked it.

It's worth it, isn't it?


With the completion of this quilt and the near completion of my grandson's quilt, I've run out of quilt steam.  The sampler quilt I'd hoped to finish for my sister and gift at Christmas just is not going to get done.... I will make her a table topper instead and regroup the quilt projects for 2018.

That does NOT mean I won't be in my sewing room...I'm just going to concentrate on small, fun items between now and Christmas.

There's No Place Like Home

Three weeks, four cities, six planes, three Uber cars, two car rentals (drove 871 miles), three hotels (stayed one week with favorite Auntie, see previous post), 147 billable hours...but I woke up in my own bed this morning.    So glad October is done and I'm home for a while.

I had BIG plans for finishing up a couple of projects while on the road.... but the best laid plans of mice and men...
I did get the tee shirt quilt for my nephew all bound and it is ready to be gifted on Thanksgiving.
But that is all the progress I've made.

Now I'm home for a while....hopefully until January.  It's time to get back on track.
I hear my sewing room calling my name!

On my design wall in this picture, on the right.  BOM blocks I made WAY back when I first started quilting (8 years ago?)  My next project.  Put 'em together!!

"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow."- Anita Desai

That is especially true when I have the pleasure of traveling to cities on business but I am able to spend time with friends and family, also.

Spokane Clock Tower

This past week I was in BEAUTIFUL Spokane, WA.  I love Spokane!
I could live in Spokane.  It's a nice, little city.

The weather was beautiful with the trees changing colors.  They have nice quilt shops.  AND, my quilting-buddy Aunt lives in Spokane.  (And, now my cousins also live in Spokane...double win!) 

Aunt Nyla @ Charming Charlies being silly.

So I had a very nice week of work and play in Spokane.

My Auntie is a Quilting Machine!!!  She is always working on something. She wins ribbons for her quilts.  Here are a few of my favorites. (And, trust me, these are only a few!)

Jewels of the Universe....Stunning!!

She let me pick one of her quilts while I was there (I now have three.)

It is called "Yuletide Joy."  One block for each month, all hand appliqued with the blanket stitch.

Too Cute!

Thank you, Auntie, for teaching me to quilt.  I love you.

And, people, don't forget to label your quilts..... someday you and I will have graduated to heaven.
The people coming behind us will need to know where these creations came from...

We're In The Club House Turn

OK, folks.  How are you doing on your Christmas Projects?

I have three projects to be completed by Christmas.  Well, one needs to be ready by Thanksgiving, Joseph's Tee Shirt quilt. And, I'm happy to say it went to the quilter yesterday!  Yeah!!

Read About it HERE
and Here
and here

Get the Pattern HERE

Quilt number two, The Splendid Sampler.

I started the Splendid Sampler, let's see..... ah, well, quite a while back, more than a year.  It was a Block-of-the-Week-For-a-Year quilt along sponsored by Pat Sloan ...104 blocks.  My finished work will not have all 104 blocks.

It needs to be finished and in the mail to Tennessee by December 15.  My sister and her hubby just bought a new house and I want her to have a lovely house warming (and body warming) gift for Christmas.

This is what I have so far.....

As you can see, I have a ways to go..... keep your fingers crossed.

Finally, I decided to finish a UFO (and truth be told, all three of these projects were UFOs) for my baby sister (different sister....I only have 6).  I will admit here (because my sisters don't read this blog) my baby sister, Joy, is my favorite.

Joy & Dad Summer 2017

She and the hubbs live in Kentucky, next door to my dad.  A little shout out for her here... since my mom's passing almost a year ago she (and the hubbs)  have taken good care of dad.... Thank You, Sis (and thank you hubbs.)

Miss My Sister
 by Bloomin Minds 

It's a wall hanging.

Shouldn't take too long, right?

I'm headed out on a business trip next week.  I'm planning to take Miss Ellie with me and work on one of these projects, which ever one needs the fewest number of items to tote along to get it done.

Happy Sewing.