The Final Tally-64

Here's Susan with some of the 64 quilts she quilted for American Hero Quilts. There are 2 more stacks on the floor. I had trouble getting a good picture. You know, weird stuff in the background, lighting, ya da, ya da. Isn't this incredible? We can't thank you enough Susan! These are some of the beauties that will be given to wounded soldiers. Stunning center to this one. Half square triangles & squares. How simple is that? This one was a little kit we made up from a huge fabric donation we got from Mary D. Thank you Mary! Love this! A Roxanne Carter pattern. Joni did a great job piecing this one! The Snohomish Senior strip group made the squares, they got sewn into big squares with sashing at one of our Sew Days the, I made a border using 5" squares. It's always a challenge to make small quilts bigger. We hit the jackpot with Pat Speth's new border book. The dedication of quilters is amazing. As always, thank you for all you do.

Sharon

It's Official, I'm Crazy

It started in April. A friend's daughter is getting married in October. Would I make her dress? In particular this dress. So after several e-mails & phone calls the answer was yes. They shopped for patterns. One similar to the body & bottom of the dress, the other for the (much sought after) sweetheart neckline. The white dress on the McCall pattern was the base for the top of the dress. We all went together & shopped for fabric & the perfect lace to go around the bottom of the dress. Sorry I don't have a bigger picture. I wasn't sure if she wanted anyone to see her in the dress yet. This is the train with the lace. She was really happy with how it turned out. It will have satin buttons all the way down the back, even on the lace train. Her almost MIL volunteered to sew them all on!I've made lots of wedding dresses. The last being Joanna's in 2004. I somehow forgot how long it takes, totally underestimated the amount of time to hand sew on all the lace(18 hours). I do enjoy the process of all of this. It's just that darn roller coaster sucked me in a few times & wouldn't let me off. You know how it goes.

I promise I'll get more pictures later. The wedding is Oct 4th, so I won't be there. It's Little Mister's birthday celebration that weekend.

I'm going into Stanwood for a photo op this afternoon with all of the quilts Susan quilted during her Quiltathon for AHQ. I will be sharing them tomorrow in a new post.

On the countdown to sunshine. 22 days to Nanaland.....................Sharon

Quiltathon Update

This center of this quilt was made by the Snohomish Senior group that made regular contributions to us for AHQ quilts. I used Pat Speth's new Nickel Quilts & Borders book using 5" squares. Some of our fabric donations look really good in small pieces. Here is Batting Mountain along with quilt tops & backs waiting for their turn on Susan's machine. As of Saturday she had finished 39 quilts. Hooray for Susan! Here's a video of Susan & her Statler in action.

I'll post a final tally later in the week.

Sharon

Wedding & Baby

Jennifer made this quilt for a friend's wedding gift. Aren't they lucky? She took a class from that Wild Woman, Judy Irish. Check out my "helper."
The fabric had a subtle western theme. You know how much I love leaves. Thought they were perfect in the large diamonds. Did a ribbon question mark with leaves & big "swirly girly" quilting to fill in these monster spaces. Actually "big" spaces provide excellent quilting opportunities! Here's the back of the star. Kim needed to make a baby quilt with a lady bug theme. Isn't this fabric cute? She got it at The Quiltmaker's Shoppe. I used that new design I told you about here. Head over to Green Fairy Quilts & check it out for yourself.

Had fun Skyping with Little Mister today. He was coloring. He must have said "Nana" at least 10 times. I say "what Andrew" he says "I color". It doesn't take much to put a smile on this Nana's face! They grow up so fast!

Can't wait to see the little monkey later this month. 24 days & counting.........................

Nana Sharon

AHQ Quiltathon

Susan Palmer has dedicated 1 week to quilting American Hero Quilts. Here is one of the many she has finished so far. She started on Sept. 1 & will quilt every day through the 8th. She got fellow guild members & fellow long arm quilters to join her. A quilter in Sisters Oregon e-mailed a commitment to quilt 25 AHQ quilts this week! Our Stanwood-Camano Hero Quilters have given her 50+ and 50 from a group in Coupeville. I am going to help tomorrow with taking quilts on & off the machine. I'll take more pictures & post an update later this weekend.

All of the quilts go to wounded soldiers, mostly at the Wounded Warrior Unit at Ft Lewis. Some have been sent to Bagram in Afghanistan. Check here & here for moving testimonials about these lovely quilts. You might need a kleenex.

I"ll be back soon. 26 days & counting...........................Nana Sharon

My New Alarm Clock

Here are the latest additions to our family. Every morning around 6 the racing begins. Thumping, running & jumping on the bed & all over the house. Bella(on the left) & Puma. Bella is a very sweet little girl who loves to be held. Puma's not quite sure about being picked up, but he's getting better about it. Mr S picked out their names. Actually it took a couple of days to come up with a boy name I liked.
About 3 weeks ago we lost our darling DC. As Mr S says "The rodents in the neighborhood are celebrating." It was just too quiet & sad not having her around so off to CASA we went. The reader board said 13 kittens. It was our lucky day. The "kitten room" was a blur of activity & color. We picked out our 2, filled out the 3 page adoption application & they were ours.

They look really innocent in this picture. Not always the case. As you can see in this picture. The bathroom door is always shut now. I got tired of cleaning dirty paw prints off of the sink & counter! This is an innocent picture. So sweet when they are sleeping. I look forward to their nap time. The best is sleeping on Mr S & his quilt in the recliner!

So far they have turned the computer off twice by stepping on the surge protector , stepped on the pedal of my sewing machine making it sew(thankfully nothing under the pressure foot), scaled the sliding door screen to the top, & basically the whole house should be renamed "Szekely Speedway" for all the "racing " that goes on.

If you need a new pet be sure & check out your local animal shelter. There are lots of animals waiting for a good home.

Continuing my countdown, 27 days til Nanaland!

See you again soon. Lots of quilts this week..................Nana Sharon

This Week's Quilts & a Garage Sale.

I have to say, my favorite quilt this past week was Sandy's "Who Brought Dip". This veggie medley popped with her black inner border. Doesn't it make you want to go to the Farmer's Market?

She said to "do my own thing". I have never done freehand veggies before, so I got out a book & practiced drawing some veggies. I couldn't resist putting in a few bugs. There's always bugs in my garden. I also added lots of leaves. This caterpillar took a bit out of the leaf! I tried everything from carrots, onions, tomatoes, peas, radishes & more. It was really fun. This is a new pine cone panto I used on Diane's Alaska quilt for her husband. I have a quilt of my own I want to use this on. For a fun new quilting design go to Green Fairy Quilts blog. Judi posted the best little video of a Flower Swirl design she does. Aren't quilters the best?

If you aren't busy tomorrow(Saturday) stop by Aunt Mary's Quilt Shop for her annual Garage Sale. Our Hero Quilt group is having a table full of goodies. All of our money will be used to buy fabric & batting for American Hero Quilts.

I'll be back soon. It's almost time to start the countdown to Nanaland for Little Mister's big birthday...................Sharon