President's Blocks

I have been President of Bear Creek Quilt Guild since Feb 2012.  I took over for a friend who had a sudden cross country move.  It was daunting initially but soon I realized that everyone is willing to help and offer advice.

I was supposed to be doing Special Projects which is BOM, fat quarter raffles, etc with my friend, Twana but she carried most of the work as I got busier and more distracted.  Jane and Dana from our bee pitched in on every idea we had for Special Projects, making samples, and completing projects.  It made the year fun and I felt less guilty because Twana had their support.

My son, Paul, died suddenly in July and recovery for the whole family is a slow and painful process.  In early December I told friends and siblings that I felt I had turned a corner on my depression.  I began to be interested in quilting again but in the last week or so I felt dragged down again.  Perhaps it is the holidays…

Tues, December 18^th was the Guild Christmas Potluck.  It was a night of fun and laughter.  One lovely surprise was the ladies gave me 58 double friendship stars as a thank you for being president.  I could hardly wait to get home and put them on the design wall.  I can’t work on the quilt until after Christmas but I am eager to play with these blocks.  I don’t know, but I think I will add sashing.  These blocks were a lovely gift that has done a lot to renew my enthusiasm for quilting and life.

 

 

Crafting with Loralie and Kearstyn

My granddaughters were here for Thanksgiving.  We had a fun visit in my crowded little apt.  My sister, Jeanne, had sent felt candy canes and we decorated them together.  I meant to buy glitter and other items but forgot so we worked with fabrics and marking pens.

 

Still working on first step of the guild mystery

I am liking the fabrics together.

 

nine patch challenge

A friend and I are both doing little nine patch quilts and we are challenging ourselves to do beautiful quilting.  We both watched Lisa Calle's Divide and Design DVD http://www.stonehousequilting.com/shop/product/divide-and-design-conquering-your-quilting-agoraph/

So I grabbed fabric from my stash and this is the nine patch.  The background is a pink I originally bought to line a large tote.  I was trying for a blended type quilt which is not really my style.  I am not thrilled with the little quilt, but I hope it will look better with quilting.  I haven't added a border.  I am not sure which fabric I will chose.

 

 

 

 

Paul Joseph Burrell 6/22/71 - 7/27/12

This is a quilting blog – a journal about my quilts, and inspirations.  I haven’t posted because moments after I posted vacation pictures in the last entry I received a call that my son was being rushed to the hospital.  He died 5 days later.  It is sad and as his wife said – I have my breakdown moments.   This blog will continue to be about my quilts – but I can’t continue to blog without acknowledging our family heartbreak.

Pictures from Greenville, ME vacation 2011.

and my sweet boy

Vacation with Grandchildren

Danielle, Brandon, Kearstyn, Loralie along with Paul and Melynda went with me to visit Kentucky.  We stayed in a cabin at Jellystone Park and visited caves in the area.  I opted out of a canoe trip and one trip to Mammoth Cave, but swam a lot with the littlest one, Loralie.  She grew braver and more adventurous in the water and by the end of the week was on her own with her waterwings.

Selecting Fabrics

So there is another mystery coming and for me it is not really a mystery.  Special Projects, at my guild is doing a 3 part mystery starting in August and I am one of the people who is making up samples.

It requires 3 fabrics with the background a 3 yard piece.  I didn't have any 3 yard pieces in my stash as the only large pieces I have are dark prints that I use for backings, so I went shopping.  I did it spur of the moment but I knew I had several different blues in my stash that would work for the dark fabric that I needed 1 and 3/4 yards of so I just needed a background and another piece 1 and 3/4 as an accent.

I originally selected the light blue and yellow batik as my background but then I switched backgrounds when I selected the yellow.  I auditioned several blues from my stash and this is what I decided on:

At one point before I went shopping I thought about breaking up an old UFO and using those fabrics for this mystery.  In 2010 I took a class in Eleanor Burn's Day and Night and used three fabrics in the one block I made.  I thought I could use that fabric and eliminate a UFO at the same time.  Unfortunately I had precut the fabric for the quilt, so I couldn't use it.  Also I bought the fabric in 2005 or so from Eleanor Burn's tent sale in Paducah so it would be difficult to match the teals.  It is light teal on a creamy white, dark teal and red violet as an accent.  I don't think the red violet shows up well in this pic but it is a nice color combo