I'll be back on Friday with my continuing report on Mid-Atlantic, fear not.
What could be better than a day at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival? TWO DAYS!
My haul: 6 stencils, two FQ's and two pieces of pink fabric for a charm exchange. That's it! Pitiful.
Dinner out on Thursday was to a local Oyster Bar, Harpoon Larry's. Fresh seafood and made-from-scratch hushpuppies make this place a perennial favorite! There's always a wait, and it's worth every minute, too! (I ordered a crab cake, grilled; served up with the afore-mentioned hush puppies and delicious, fresh, tangy/sweet coleslaw... it ranked right up there on my "best-ever meals" list! The crab cake was made with only 1 ingredient--100% crabmeat. Yum!) 
Early to bed, outfitted in my flannel jammies, armed with a stack of new quilt magazines brought from home (I never seem to have time to read them there) and a steaming cup of Chai Spice tea I fell asleep dreaming about repeating the exact same schedule the very next day.
... of the quilt show at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival can be summed up in a word: "incredible".
There were traditional "wow" quilts, too! From this exquisite example of a Baltimore Album
to a wall quilt constructed of the tiniest hexagons you could ever imagine
: 
Read over the rules above for the "Priority" project, this is a cause we can all get behind
I'm off in the morning for Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA! Two of my "Troll Sisters" are riding with me; we'll meet up with two more after we arrive. You may be wondering why we're calling ourselves "Troll Sisters", it's not a name that we chose... but more of a bestowed moniker! When our small group 'retreated' at the end of last month to spend day and night sewing at Camp Dogwood we found ourselves sharing the facility with other groups, gathered there for the weekend. One of the other groups was a Church Council doing a long-term planning retreat. We saw them going back and forth for meals and meetings, they passed by our sewing room where we had our machines humming, our irons steaming and our projects spread out on every flat surface imaginable. We sewed late into the evenings and began early in the mornings, apparently our high-level productivity didn't escape the notice of said Council. One of their members, a woman, popped her head in to say "hello" on Sunday morning; she "oohed" and "aahed" appropriately over our quilts, as she was leaving she looked back over her shoulder and remarked:
I shall return...
... your presser feet, that is!
This foot provides me with consistent, even results every time. (I know what you're thinking... "why wouldn't she use this foot/throat plate ALL THE TIME... doesn't she concern herself with accurate seam allowances whenever she's piecing?") I am happiest sewing with a straight stitch throat plate and the patchwork foot, the stitch quality (to my eye, at least) is straighter, better. My blocks sew up true and square. But, when I need to sew many triangle units, so many small pieces with bias edges, I make this switch and haven't been disappointed at all; it's more work to set up, initially, but well worth it. Dig around in your accessory box and see if you have other options that might work for you. Sew a line, measure your seam allowance, move the needle accordingly (never assume you're sewing a 1/4"... there are just too many variables). I don't know if this combination of a #34C with the needle moved as I've described above will work for every Bernina, you'd have to make your own adjustments for your individual machine. Go ahead, take a good look at your feet... you may just find a wonderful surprise waiting... I did!
We had to replace our finch feeder last week; the type we have used in the past, with it's rainbow-hued perches, was wildly popular with the birds and what we expected to buy. It's been discontinued, always our luck, the lady in the wild-bird store suggested this one. I was a bit skeptical, the thing that helped to sway me over was the fact that this feeder holds 3.5 lbs. of seed, less trips outside for me to fill it! But, could the birds be convinced? Would they make the switch? It looked so completely different, and I knew they could be finicky. It took a full day, since that time it's been occupied full time. The finches fly in and take a place anywhere on the one-piece spiral perch, then they proceed to align themselves directly in front of a tiny opening to reach the thistle seed, this action typically moves all the birds downward and the bottom bird is then displaced, which sets off a flapping, fluttering commotion! This bird will then fly back up to the top, alight, and initiate yet another 'chain reaction'... this happens over and over, all day long. It would make a better video here than a still photo... you'll have to take my word for that.
There's a LOT of paper in here! You may remember my String-X quilt top from a few posts back. It's foundation pieced, and it went together quickly and well. I pieced all of those strings onto a stable, firm foundation; clean newsprint. Actually it's "packing paper" left over from a household move! At the time I was cutting all the papers to size for this project, and stacking them up, I remember some blog chatter re: old sheets vs. muslin for foundations. I didn't pay one bit of attention. I'm listening now! It takes a LOT of time (directly proportional to the amount of paper!) to remove this from the back. It tears away just fine, but I'm sure now that I'd rather not be revisiting every single seam contained in this top! It's a mindless job and I will persevere while talking on the phone or listening to the news for the next few days. Since these quilts will definitely be machine quilted, I will use muslin foundations in the future, the extra fabric layer won't hurt a thing and something that doesn't require removal will save lots of valuable time. 
... Quilter's Delight!
necessary to clear my name after posting so much about my UFO's lately. If any of you have read my blogger profile I mention there the fact that children's quilts are my passion, it's the truth. I would rather be making learning quilts for children than any other type. I bought a copy of Ami Simm's "Picture Play Quilts" back in 2000, that was the beginning of my love affair with novelty fabrics. The affection hasn't waned. This quilt, pictured at left: "Do You See What I See... Bee's Knees and Monkeys in Trees", is the latest one completed, it features 4 inch "spotlight" novelties and "all-overs" plus a crazy-pieced border. It received an "HM" in it's category at NC Quilt Symposium last June. Over the years I have made many quilts from the patterns in the afore-mentioned book, my goal is to make up one from each pattern listed (there are seventeen); I'm well on my way! It takes awhile to collect the necessary ingredients; many, many novelties. I started out by buying some and then joined a few swaps, that helped enormously in building my cache in the beginning.
I have more, folded fat quarters; filed for future use, or for swapping:
And some, too lovely to cut at all (!); like this Red Riding Hood print:
These quilts have raised money for auctions to benefit children's causes, and have been gifts bestowed upon some of the very special 'little ones' in my life. They can be played with, snuggled under and used as a teaching tool to reinforce counting, matching, color recognition and memory skills! What could be better than to share the love of a quilt with a child as they grow, and learn? Not one thing that I can think of!
"Hugs and Kisses" 2001 and 2003, respectively.
~"Rebecca's Quilt" 2002~
~"Child's Play" 2004~
"Sweet Dreams and Popsicles" 2006 (front)
Our church is redeveloping their website, it is really shaping up nicely. There are pages for committees and ministries to describe what's going on within the life of our congregation. We have a "Wedding Committee", they have chosen to use this photograph for their page; for a very special reason. As youngsters this couple met at Sunday School and grew up within our congregation, their families knew each other; they dated throughout high school and graduated. They went their separate ways. Seven years later fate brought them back together, at, where else? At church. They fell in love again, as adults, dated for three years and married in June of 2004.
I am completely inspired by this 22 minute video! If you ever have the opportunity to view this, don't miss even one second of the film! Our Pastor began our Church Council meeting last night by playing this DVD and I have to tell you, I think that those few minutes, at least for me, have been life-changing. "Celebrate What's Right With The World" is a narrative by Dewitt Jones, a National Geographic photographer who relates his own personal "believe it and you will see it" philosophy through words and stunning photography. I was captivated by the simplicity of the concept and how this can-do thinking translates to every aspect of life! This is a training film which is used, apparently, by groups, management firms, business leaders and untold others as a leadership development tool. Jones' approach helps one to recognize their own abundance and just exactly that in the surrounding world; plus how to be your best FOR the world. Everything had combined for me to be in the right place, at the right time, and of the right spirit to absorb the message fully last evening; I certainly don't think that was coincidental. Look for possibilities in everything, in every place today.
...with a suggestion of cleaning out the study on Sunday. My husband thought, on the way home from church, that it might be a good idea to go through our files and generally pitch and purge. I could think of a million things I would have rather done... like have a root canal ... but, "Sure", I agreed, "why not"? I figured it wouldn't take all that long. I've never been very good at figuring things like that.
... for fabric to border this top I found a few things in my stash closet!
It is, in actuality, square and true; photo "cropper" needs more experience.
I know I have some adorable little primitive stoneware-type button embellishments for this cutie. To tell you the truth I am afraid to go looking for them, I might just find more than I bargained for. Some quiltmakers tell the stories of their lives through their quilts, I seem to be telling mine through my UFO's.
A trilogy is a set of three works of art, usually literature or film, that are connected and can generally be seen as a single work as well as three individual ones.
Stepping around that machine to the right you can see the little cubbies for stabilizers and spray-on adhesives for embroidering. The "piecing" machine sits here, it is thirteen years old and it is on it's second motor! (Actually, third motor, if you count the 220V motor it utilized when we lived overseas!) It's the workhorse of the studio, these drawers hold all the machine accesories, bobbins, manuals and anything else I can fit into them! There's 4 feet of work surface behind this machine.
Continuing around the "Trilogy" there are two super-duty drawers in this, the third unit, that hold my portable machine and serger, supplies, etc. A place for everything... this is one of the benefits of being married to an engineer! We're now collaborating on a thread storage system. It needs to be easily accessible, I'm thinking wall-mounted, and preferably covered or somewhat enclosed to prevent dust accumulating on the spools. Anyone have any ideas? How do you store/display your thread? 
One more view, looking toward the desk area, where all the inspiration, for quilts and blogs, happens! Now, I need to get to work!
I heard that Phil didn't see his shadow and that spring is on the way. Has winter ended? Well, January has at any rate, and it's time to put away my "winter" dishes. I refrain from calling them Christmas dishes because I choose to use them not only in December but clear through the month of January. The pattern is a primitive one of snow scenes, as you can see. I'm crazy about these plates, cups and saucers, but I love the story behind how I came to have them even more.
