AAQI Update

For those of you who haven't heard the news yet, this is the last year for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI).  Click HERE to read a news post that reveals all the details of their "Sprint To The Finish" program.
My "Dare To Be Different" quilt has sold, and brought in $65 for Alzheimer's research.  The buyer sent me an email, filled with compliments about this little quilt, and even told me where it will reside once she gives it to a dear friend.  It's so nice to hear where these quilts end up.

The last two quilts I sent in have not been processed yet, but once they are posted on the site, my wish is that some lucky shopper will scoop them up into their shopping cart and they'll be shipped off to new homes as well.
So if you'd like to help fund Alzheimer's research, there's still time to make a quilt, or buy a quilt...  It's a great cause!

Tasting Table Tuesday - Trip Report

I don't know about you, but it seems like I've been running full speed throughout the holidays, and things are just now starting to feel normal again.  I found the perfect cure for my annual PHS disorder (that's Post Holiday Stress).  It's called RETREAT - and it's WONDERFUL!

As I mentioned earlier, I had never been to a retreat before.  It always seemed like it was a lot of work to pack everything up and set up somewhere else to sew.  I didn't get it...  But now I understand.  I'm sure those of you who go to retreats know what I mean.  Yes - it's a lot of work to pack, but there's just something about spending four days with a group of great women who share common interests.  And I mean it when I say "great women".  Everyone got along beautifully and we thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.  Thanks for including me, ladies - I love each and every one of you!

Here's the whole gang, with each of us holding something we were working on.  Isn't Leisa's quilt in the background gorgeous?
We had oodles of great food (and are now in the process of sharing all our recipes), had lots of fun and interesting conversations, watched a great movie, and we sewed - and sewed - and sewed...  then sewed some more - with lots of laughter thrown in, of course!

 Here are two more beauties on the design walls, ready to be assembled - Megan's on the right and Ann's on the left.  Stunning!
And here are the projects that I worked on...

I still have to add gray borders around the sides of this quilt.  It was so much fun to have everyone's input while we played around with the color placement!  I'm really happy with our final decision.  I know the picture is a little fuzzy, but it looks better in person.  I used some Andover Frippery charm squares and paired them with dark gray.  I hope to do some special quilting in the gray whirlygigs in the center.

This one is also made from Andover Lucky Penny charm squares, paired with a medium gray this time.  All half-square triangles, arranged in a chevron pattern.  Not sure if I'll put a border on this one or not - I'll see how it looks after the blocks are all sewn together.

Next up is a little AAQI quilt.  My regular readers will remember that I made a personal commitment to make and donate a matching mini AAQI quilt each time I sold a quilt in my Etsy Shop.  I sold two quilts in November and I thought that Retreat would be the perfect place to work on these mini quilts.  This first one is made with Tula Pink's Neptune collection.

And here is a picture of the original quilt that was sold.

And this is the second mini-quilt, made with Bunny Hill's Puttin' On The Ritz fabrics, in gray and cream.  I like how the words "Baby" and "Dream" appear in some of the cream squares.  That was lucky, because I have absolutely none of this cream fabric left - only scraps of the gray - it was close!

And here is the quilt that inspired it.

Last up is yet MORE blocks made using Tula Pink's Neptune fabrics.  I've made two quilts, a huge patchwork duffle bag, several purses, the mini quilt above, and other little odds and ends with this fabric and I still have lots MORE!  I still love it though, so I'm sure I'll keep on using it.

So that's it for my trip report.  Now I have to unpack all my sewing stuff and settle back in to my Cotton Cellar to get some work done.  And I don't care how much work is involved - retreat was FANTASTIC!

Edited to add:  Thanks for all your recipe suggestions!  They all sounded great.  I finally settled on two recipes I found on Pinterest - an egg, sausage & cheese casserole, and a yummie fruit salad.

Cheers!

Tasting Table Tuesday - Show & Tell

The MLQG Quilt Exhibit is only 3 weeks away and it looks like I'm finally going to meet my deadlines.  All that's left to do on Haberdashery is to hand-stitch the binding and hanging sleeve to the back of the quilt.  Whew!!!  This project was tough.  I started quilting it a few days before we left for our fishing trip and after several agonizing hours, I quit.  I walked away from the machine, folded up the quilt and gave up.  For some reason, the Juki I normally use for my quilting absolutely refused to sew more than a few inches without breaking the thread.  I tried every trick in the book - nothing worked.  It took me 2 hours and many many thread breaks, just to quilt one block.  Talk about frustrating!!!  So I quit.  I don't like quiting...  I stewed and stewed about it, then went to visit a quilting friend.  It really helps to have another quilter to talk to at times like this.  I had so much time invested into this quilt, with hopes of entering it in our exhibit next month, and I couldn't finish it...  I could have cried....

Anyway, to make a long story short(er), I decided to give it one more try, but use my Bernina this time.  First block, no thread breaks - 2nd block, no breaks - 3rd, still no breaks!  Over the next few days I finished the whole quilt with ZERO machine problems!!!  Like the ads say - "nothing sews like a Bernina".  The only hard part was wrestling this heavy quilt through the small throat space.  That's why I bought the Juki - there is  more room for the quilt.  Most of the time the Juki works great and I love it - but it has it's days...  It obviously doesn't like the silks and bulkier necktie fabrics in this quilt, that's for sure!

So now I'm dreaming about the new Bernina 7 Series coming out in September.  Ten Inches of Throat Space!!!  They're not as expensive as the previous 8 Series, but still pretty pricey.  But I can dream, can't I?

I also finished my AAQI quilt for the Exhibit.  All of the entries in this category will be donated to AAQI at the end of the exhibit.  My entry is called "Dare to be Different".  The squares are all 1 inch, and it's quilted with a 1/2" grid of straight lines, and the overall size of the quilt is 8 1/2" x 10 1/2".  I really love how this one turned out.

So if you're in the Wellsboro PA area during the month of September, stop in and see our exhibit at the Gmeiner Art Center.  You'll be blown away by the quilts, I'm sure!  See you there!

Trip Report

It's raining as I'm writing this.  Pouring, in fact.  This is our last day of our trip to our fishing camp in Canada.  Did I mention that it's pouring?  What a miserable way to end our trip.  We got here last Friday and the first 2 days were unbearably hot & humid.  You'd break into a sweat just sitting doing nothing.  The heat broke on Sunday but it poured all day.  Almost made us wonder why we came!  But then we had three lovely days of sunshine, blue skies, comfortable temperatures, and the previous 3 days were all but forgotten.  We caught a few bass...

listened to the ospreys sing for their supper...

and watched the loons frolic in the lake...

This one floated along right beside our boat for quite some time.  They are so beautiful to watch and this guy was obviously quite comfortable with our presence.

Now it's raining...  still...  We thought the storm had passed, so donned our rain gear and headed out for one last fishing session.  I don't mind fishing in a warm rain shower, but this was ridiculous.  It POURED - buckets and buckets of hard rain dumped down on us.  So that's it for today.  As soon as it lightens up a little we'll pull the boat out of the lake and start packing up for an early departure tomorrow.  We plan on coming back at least two more times this summer, so we might catch that big one yet...  if it doesn't rain...

Have you been following the Olympic Games?  We only get 2 TV channels here, and all that's on is the Olympics.  It's interesting to follow the Games from a Canadian perspective.  They have been interviewing the Canadian athletes and it's very interesting to hear about their backgrounds, and the towns they're from, especially for me, being Canadian born.  I've been a US citizen since 1994, but my Canadian blood still runs deep.

There was a interesting story on the news here about a group of quilters in Kelowna, British Columbia who made and donated quilts to people in Newfoundland who were affected by Hurricane Igor last year.   They interviewed the quilters and the recipients of the quilts.  It was such a touching story.  One of the recipients said it made her feel "rich" to be the proud owner of such a beautiful quilt.  She was so honored to receive it.  It's nice to be reminded about how special our quilts can be, and the satisfaction we receive from gifting them.  Here's a link to the news report if you're interested...

Our local quilt guild is having their semi-annual Quilt Exhibit next month here in Wellsboro, and one of the categories is called PolkaDots & Plaids for Progress - Quilts for AAQI.  Each mini quilt will be donated to AAQI at the end of the show.  I brought my supplies with me and got a good start on mine here, yesterday afternoon.  It's called "Dare to be Different" and I can't wait to share it with you when it's done.  Each quilt in this category has to contain at least one Polka Dot fabric, and one Plaid fabric.  Of course, I didn't have any plaid fabrics in my stash, so I had to beg from a fellow quilter, and she came through with the perfect one for my quilt.  I hope to finish it shortly after we get home, so check back soon for pictures.  I'll have Haberdashery finished by then too, so I'll post pictures of both.

I did a little knitting this week too.  It's a great way to pass the quiet afternoons here when we're not fishing.  My daughter picked out a skein of gorgeous hand-painted merino wool yarn ($$$$) and I offered to make her an Infinity Scarf with it.

Well, I've learnred a very important lesson.  Never use a shiny metal bowl for your yarn if you're knitting outdoors.  Monday was our first nice SUNNY day here and I thought it would be nice to get a little sun while knitting.  I left my good ceramic yarn bowl home, for fear of breaking it in travel, and used a stainless steel salad bowl that was already here in the camper.  The inside of the bowl is polished to a mirror finish.  Sunshine - mirror finish - I bet you know where this story is headed!  I hadn't been knitting five minutes yet when I smelled something burning.  I looked up at the trailers to see where it might be coming from, then noticed the smoke rolling out of my yarn bowl!!  I grabbed it quick, but there was already a black, charred spot about the size of a dime right in the middle of my ball of yarn.  Fortunately, it didn't burn all the way through, and I just wound off the damaged part and salvaged the rest.  Lost a few yards though.  Why couldn't  I have been using cheap stuff!  This is probably the most expensive yarn I've bought!  But lesson learned.  I'm now using a black hard plastic bowl.  I've made some progress though.  I'm not a very fast knitter, so it's going to take me a while to finish all 100 inches of this scarf.  Now if I can just keep from setting it on fire again....

Tasting Table Tuesday - AAQI

Is it Tuesday again already?  How time flies!  Especially when you're having this much fun.  I spent a WONDERFUL week with my daughter and grand-daughter, although it wasn't entirely restful.  The yard sale was tons of work - as they always are - but we managed to get rid of a fair amount of "stuff".  The leftovers are all loaded in my car ready for donation and/or consignment.

Now I'm busy getting ready to quilt Haberdashery.  I finished basting it today - now I just have to clear off my table and get my Juki ready and I hope to finish quilting by the end of the week.  We'll see...

You may have noticed the "AAQI" in the title of this post.  If you haven't heard of it before, it stands for "Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative".  Created by Ami Simms, this organization sells and auctions small art quilts and uses the proceeds to fund Alzheimer's research.  It's a wonderful organization, and you can read more about it by clicking on this link.

I made and donated my first and only art quilt for them last year.  It's an 8" x 10" mini-quilt inspired by...

... this My Guy quilt that I made as a gift for my stepson,

and it was so easy/fast/fun that I vowed I would make several more.  So much for that promise...  As usual, my ideas for these small quilts always got put on the back burner because I was always busy doing something else.  Each time I finished a quilt I thought "hey - I could make a great mini-quilt for AAQI with the scraps!" but that's as far as I'd get - just a thought.  Somehow, I always find a way to finish the "must-do" projects that have deadlines attached, but the things I dream about doing always get postponed.  Am I alone here, or do you have this problem too???

Anyway, I decided to come up with a way to prioritize these important little quilts and I think I have a plan that will work.

As you probably know, I have an Etsy shop called "Cotton Cellar" and one of the categories in my shop is "Quilts".  My plan is to make and donate an art quilt to AAQI each time I sell a quilt on Etsy.  The mini art quilt will be a spin-off of the larger original quilt - either in design or fabric, whatever works at the time.  And each quilt is submitted to AAQI with a story, so the buyer of the original quilt will have the option of having me include a special sentiment in honor of a loved one if they choose.

By making this commitment public here and on my Etsy shop, I hope to have the push I need to make these little quilts a priority in my work schedule.  I'll post something here on my blog whenever I make one of these little quilts - hopefully soon - all I need now is for someone to purchase a quilt from my shop!

Here's a link to the AAQI listing for the Mini Black & Tan quilt that sold, if you're interested...

Cheers!