Christmas 2010 quilts

 Black and White quilt for youngest daughter Kayla, 27, the first Christmas she wasn't at home. Superman fleece throw is for Super Kraig, her husband.

 Cody Dale, oldest grandson with his football t shirt quilt. Senior 2011

 Grandson, Christian also a high school senior 2011, not here when we took pics.

Jason , my great nephew graduated high school in 2010. His Granny, my sister Janeen and I made his t shirt quilt. We used lots of hunting and wildlife t shirts and included some artsy blocks using Indians because his high school's mascot for an Indian chief.

Mimi is ready for a brief rest from all the sewing and quilting. Lots of new project ideas for 2011!

Happy New Year

Colleen

Christmas tree skirt

This Christmas tree skirt is an early gift for my daughter Kayla and her husband Kraig. They won't be home for Christmas this year. We will miss them both but they won't be alone. Kraig's family will be visiting in 2 groups and their church family is awesome.

The pattern was for a table topper in a recent quilting magazine, sorry don't remember which one. Only 1 pattern piece and a lot of fun to make. I just split it and cut a circle in the middle and continued the binding and made ties. She loves these colors, all the colors of her decorations!
Happy Quilting
Merry Christmas,
Colleen

Merry Christmas " Holiday Decor " tour

Quilt Along progress

I am participating  in Thread Head's Quilt Along. This is so much fun! Finally I have caught up with Block #6 and have made several connecting blocks. Joanne is a wonderful teacher! I am making this quilt for an auction fundraiser for Stitching Memories Quilt Guild, for our Holiday Festival in Sept 2011.
We are joining our local Western Heritage Festival that same weekend and the auction will be held at their venue. We are hoping to have at least a dozen quilts to auction. A silent auction for smaller items will be held at our Festival, I am planning to finish the wool handbag with pansies  for that auction and maybe a table cloth too.
Joining the quilt guild has brought so many opportunities for service! There are pics of the raffle quilt "I'll Be Home For Christmas" on my blog. It is my original design and we are hoping to raise lots of $$$ so we can bring in more programs. Next year we are having Marsha McCloskey -  Feathered Star and Becky Goldsmith -  Whirlygig workshops. What an exciting opportunity to meet and learn from these Quilting  Stars!!!

What's on my design wall this week

Our oldest grandson Cody Dale #55 graduates this year. As you can see, Cody is the third generation to play football for the Duncan Demons!!! His Dad and PaPaw are wearing their original jerseys for this pic. I am making my first tshirt quilt with his football shirts, golf too. There are also shirts are from his middle school and some special keepsakes from a trip to Australia with the People To People program. That was quite an honor for him although it was hard to think about him being all the way around the world for over 2 weeks when he was only 13 yrs old.
Cody Dale is one of the sweetest most loving boys I have ever known, next to his Dad of course! This is a very special year for all of us!

Christmas Stocking Challenge

Our Quilt Guild had a Christmas Stocking Challenge at our meeting last night. Lots of beautiful stockings, sorry I did not take my camera. My wool applique original design won 2nd place in the applique division, I was so excited! We had judges come in and no one knew who made which stocking. To my surprise I won the Viewers Choice vote from our members! That means so much to me and look at the fabulous ribbons!!! The grand prize was a Thimbleberries Scrapbook! The perfect thing for pics of my quilts!!!

I plan to hang the stocking inside a wreath. All the plaid woolens are reclaimed, some actually from wool  scraps left from coats I made my girls over 20 years ago.

Cornerstone Early Head Start quilts

 The Cornerstone Quilters class started in July, we sewed through the hot summer months and into early fall. My beginner quilting class had 14 members from age 85 down to 12, actually 3 young teens! 3 members other than myself had quilting experience so lots of beginners, mother /daugther and grandmother/ granddaughter couples. Actually Abbey had both grandmothers in the class!!! and a very special GREAT Aunt, my sister, Janeen - LUCKY GIRL!!! I taught one block each class and we surrounded center panels with each members blocks. My first time to teach a quilting class. I wrote instructions and precut all the pieces to save time. We met 3 Mondays and 1 Saturday a month. The Saturday classes were intense teaching rotary cutting, squaring blocks, construction and layering. Also we brought our lunches and food and fellowship and lots of laughs! I machine quilted and bound all the quilts. We chose a bright primary color palette without knowing what the Head Start program would be providing for the play areas. These fabrics worked out perfect for all the equipment. You can't miss my granddaughter Abbey, age 12 in the flower bounce!

 The floor quilt for the infant area was made with our left over blocks from all the quilts!

 The murals were painted by high school art classes. Also no color planning with the quilts! God's hand again!!!

 Our first quilt with 4 patch and double 4 patch has all the names embroidered in the solid squares with a heart machine quilted around each name, Our logo in the center square. All the ladies enjoyed finding their names.

This week our church quilting group "Cornerstone Quilters" celebrated the Open House for Early Head Start. The quilts our group made will decorate the building and warm up the surroundings for 8 children and infants under 3 yrs. old. We had an enthusiatic crowd and refreshments provided by the ladies of First Presbyterian Church. Here are a few pics, I missed one special quilt, The Hot Air Balloons, so I am including an unfinished pic. It hangs on the wall at the entrance.
This project was quite a quilting success, many new friends were made and there were several precious ladies vying for TEACHERS PET. My sister Janeen won that contest, as always, my life in enriched when we work on something together.
Thank you, GOD for this outreach mission opportunity !
Colleen

Custom quilting - Raffle Quilt

An amazing gentleman from our quilt guild volunteered to do the quilting on the raffle quilt.I took some closeup pics to share.

 He replicated my poinsettia flower in all the red log cabin sections

 and echoed around the holly leaves

Outline quilting on the scenic prints really brought them to life. The thread was  variegated with green, gold and tan. PERFECT CHOICE!!!

I must say I was nervous sending my original design out to be quilted. He used a long arm quilting machine at our local quilt store. All I asked was to use the holly and berries in the quilting. Duane is a very creative free motion quilter.I never could have succeeded with the large scale of the designs in the red log cabins. I tend to free motion quilt on a small scale.
Thank you Duane for your meticulous and creative quilting!!!
Colleen

Family photo shoot!

 What a wonderful birthday present from our kids - Family Photo Shoot - with everyone present!!!
               DUNCAN DEMON PRIDE!!!

 Cody is a senior, he may play football in college and Abbey is 7th grade cheerleader! Lots of games ahead for us!

 All the grandkids!!! ages 22 to 2 1/2 yrs old

Dale and I and our wonderful children, thank you for the fabulous birthday present!

Raffle quilt progress

The raffle quilt is ready for quilting! I made some changes in the applique design, adding to the medallion instead of applique on the borders. The quilt should be finished and be displayed at a Christmas Tour on Dec.11.

Christmas quilt progress

I have been working on the Christmas quilt I am making for our Guild's Holiday Festival which will be held next year in Sept. A friend helped me make the log cabin blocks. I need to add the borders and start the wool applique. Hoping this original design will raise a lot of money for Stitching Memories Quilt Guild of Duncan, Oklahoma.

Wool pansies!

Today I have given myself a restful day after 9 days of family visiting. We have had so much fun, had family pics taken too. Before company came I had been rushing to finish the Teapot quilt for the quilt show and church quilts before that. I do need a rest!

Last week I made appt with my eye Dr. because I was having trouble getting used to my new glasses. Everything was blurry in the distance, closeup was OK. My eyes were 60% more nearsighted that at my checkup on Sept 7. He told me to see my Dr for blood sugar test, how surprised was I ???? it was 432, next day fasting # was 236. She started me on medication that should take it down slowly. I have a meter and check it 2 times a day.  I certainly had no idea that was what was wrong with my eyes, I have been very thirsty lately but had not connected that symptom to anything --- probably thought it was from too much machine quilting and piecing !!! LOL  All that lint you know!!!

I purchased this wool handbag at a craft show last weekend, wanting to embellish it. So today I have been cutting wool and gathering it for pansy shapes. I LOVE IT!!! I have ordered some taffeta, velvet and ribbon from Sue Spargo to jazz it up. Just pinned for now.

Fund Raiser quilt show

October 1 and 2 was the fundraiser for our local museum. $930.00 was raised by selling chances for a beautiful quilt. Here are some pics--- more tomorrow!!!