Gettng the Word Out

Slowly, but surely, I'm spreading the word about my book. I did a couple of book signings this past week. One of them was at a quilt guild meeting. I'd given a program and workshop for this guild about 15 months ago, so it was fun to revisit them and hear from some of the members how they completed their workshop project and what they eventually did with it. From the workshop, they were familiar with the scrappy piecing technique explained in the book and were delighted to see what else they could do with their scraps using the technique.
The other book signing was an impromptu one. A friend's Senior church group was having its monthly meeting. She suggested I come to the meeting and give a little talk along with showing my book. I didn't have much time to prepare what I was going to say and I knew that there would be men in the group. So, I began my talk by asking people to share quilt-related memories. I took along some of my 30's scrap quilts to talk about, and showing those brought up even more memories! Both men and women told about quilts that their aunts or grandmas or mothers made. It was fun to listen to their stories!
During each book signing event, I love to hear and see people's reaction to the book. So many of them get so excited for me, having been published! That makes my day! :)

Snow Day

We finally had lots of snow yesterday into today. I measured about 6"-8" when I was out shoveling this morning. Schools in the area are closed so that means my usual Wednesday activities are canceled. Yippee! More sewing time for me! I'm celebrating by working on a scrappy snowman block. Perfect, don't you think?

Making Progress

I'm hard at work on my niece's quilt, and I'm really making progress. The nine-patch blocks are going together quickly, now that I have the Thangles squares all done. The quilt contains 20 main blocks and each block uses 16 Thangles squares. That's a LOT of Thangles squares! Sewing the Thangles and cutting them apart is easy. Removing the paper and trimming off the corners always takes a bit more time.
For three days last week, my quilting buddies and I were on a "retreat". We met at one's home each day for concentrated sewing, good eating, and lots of laughs. (Her husband was off golfing where it was warm!) The first project I wanted to accomplish was removing the paper and trimming the corners on my Thangles. As soon as I pulled them out and started tearing paper, I had 3 friends there helping me! Made quick work of that job! Isn't it great to have quilting friends???? But now they expect to see a finished quilt top the next time we get together!

Back to Stitching

I'm finally back to my stitching! After more than two weeks of concentrating on income tax laws and tax software, it took a little time to get back to my sewing. You know what helped? Touring a few quilt shops and picking up a few new pieces of fabric for my current projects. It also helped to spend an afternoon with my quilting buddies!
I'm back to working on my niece's quilt. See my posting titled "Final Day of Camp" for a picture of the basic block. The block contains Thangles units, and I have made all of them. Now to tear off the paper and trim them up. After that is done, I should be able to piece the blocks quickly.
I'm also working on a Sunbonnet Sue baby quilt. I'm hoping that it will be my next pattern in my "Thanks, Grandma" series.
And I'm making a new little quilt top for my granddaughter. Check out the quilt that she is sitting on in the taggie pix. My daughter called after Christmas to check to see how to wash that little quilt. Seems granddaughter had a touch of the flu and the quilt got the brunt of it! I told my daughter to use cold water and the delicate cycle in both the washer and dryer. She did, but when the quilt came out of the dryer, several of the seams in the quilt top had pulled apart. (See picture above...) Talk about disappointed! I chose that fabric because of the cute frogs on it--the nursery is decorated with frogs, ducks and chicks. But, the fabric came from Wal-Mart and was not especially tightly woven. The fabric for the new quilt top came from a local quilt shop...hopefully it will wear better! Stay tuned for a picture of the new little quilt.

The Taggie Blankie

Maybe by this time, my granddaughter has had time to really "get to know" her taggie blankie. These pictures were taken when I first gave it to her. It is light-weight enough that she had fun flipping the whole thing around, not necessarily by any tag. Grammy made it into a hat for her--she didn't seem to mind! She has certainly learned how to pose for the camera!

Withdrawal Symptoms

I am suffering...I haven't worked on a quilt project in a couple of weeks! I have been immersed in INCOME TAX LAW! I've been teaching the refresher course for the AARP TaxAide volunteers locally and every night I've been studying just to keep ahead of what I'm teaching the next day. BUT today is the last day and I'm definitely planning on getting the sewing out for this weekend! Stay tuned...I'll let you know what I'm working on. (And, I finally took the Christmas pix off my camera, so you'll soon see granddaughter with her taggie blankie!).

Holiday Wrap-up

The past couple of weeks have been busy ones! We thoroughly enjoyed having the Oklahoma kids visit for a few days before Christmas. I was able to have lots of cuddle time with the 9-month-old granddaughter during those days! Priceless!!!!
I didn't wrap her taggie blankie--I wanted to witness first-hand her reaction to it so I gave it to her before Christmas. She wasn't sure about it. So she didn't immediately pick it up and start playing with the tags. I guess she needed some time to get used to it. I received a Flip video showing her playing with the taggie blankie once she was back home. She was flinging it all around, from one hand to the other, sometimes holding onto the tags and sometimes just grabbing the blankie part. A hit? I'm not sure, but I had fun making it for her!
Christmas found our whole family in Illinois, visiting our other daughter. It was fun to see the two granddaughters playing together. From there we drove to visit my parents in Wisconsin. One of the first things my mother asked about was my book...she was very anxious to see it and was very impressed with the finished product! Glad I could make her proud! :)
My applique projects went along on the trip...was nice to have some needlework to do. I accomplished quite a bit! That's the great thing about hand sewing---it is VERY portable!