Thank You.

This is Memorial Day. A Day to honor all our Men and Women that have paid the highest price for this great Nation. As I watched the news tonight watching all the different Memorial services around the country, My heart swelled with pride and my eyes with tears as I know how much each and every family of all our bravest have sacrificed. God Bless each and everyone of us and this Beautiful Country we call home because of so many.
Thank You.
Charlotte

Saturday was basting day Sunday was Catch up day.

Here's the birthday girl. She is such a fun little girl. She is truly one of the reasons I get up every day. She had a Sponge Bob Cake.

The pictues below are of Dawn's Quilt. Back and Front, she is in the background. She is the one that got me back into quilting so many years ago. She took this pattern from a class she took. I think the book was called French Braid.

To explain the pictures above and below. Sometimes the best made plans fall apart. Well mine sort of did for today. Dawn and I were supposed to use the whole day basting our quits. hers is on the right. mine is at the bottom.Well My 2 year old Grand baby got sick Thursday and her Mom's plans to go to Maryland to visit with her family was cancelled. So My darling son, wanted to go ahead and have her birthday today. Today she turned two.Picture at the top. Yes I wanted to have her a party but had thought we would have it in a couple of weeks. So my basting day was cut very short. And it has started to rain so the lake where they were going to have it is now out of the question. Darling Husband told them they could have it at my house. At least while I was down town basting away on our quilts he was straighting up my house. We were able to get Dawn's completely basted and mine is together enough to continue on my kitchen table when I have nothing else to do. Like that ever happens. To get to play with my fabric I am always neglecting something in the house that should be done. This quilt measures 115 inches by 105 inches. It is for my king bed. Catch up day was today for my April Birthday Block for

the swap I am in at Quiltingboard. I hope she likes it.She wanted primitive. I used plaid homespun, mustard

yellow with dots and tea dyed muslin. Which I did myself.

I will now start cutting for step 5 in the OC mystery. Yeah. Thanks Bonnie.

Have fun doing what you love,

Charlotte

Charlotte's Red Fern Baskets

I haven't posted in a couple of days. I have made all the little baskets for my other office wall hanging. 10 total. It will be placed on a column in my office that is 22 inches wide. I just love this look. The only piece I cut that had not been cut for another project was the red. I just couldn't in my own quilting brain cut up fabric for strings to go around the little baskets. I am leaning toward calling it Charlotte's Red fern Baskets. The red looks like it has little black ferns in it. Also my husband, Jerry once lived on a street in Indiana called Red fern. Non of this fabric has been prewashed and all the strings I have ready to sew have been washed. I still can't bring myself to mix the two. Call me too cautious. One day I may be able to throw caution to the wind and just create. I have been plugging away hand quilting the little quilt I made last weekend. I know, I have started 2 things and have not finished 4 yet. But my office is a priority. I will complete the sewing of the rows of my string quilt tonight.

This weekend Dawn and I will be using the conference room tables at work to baste several of our quilts that have been finished for awhile. There are 3 huge conference tables in one room. I will be able to get my king size square in a square basted. She has a braided quilt to baste. I have no idea how I will quilt that size quilt. I have 2 DM neither have a large throat. I could just quilt on the machine what I can and finish the center by hand. I should have thought of this problem before I put the thing together. Then I could have quilted it in 2 pieces. I will just baste the heck out of it so I can start where ever I want.

Charlotte

Charlotte's Basket

In the wee hours of this morning, I made my first Charlotte's basket block.

It measures 6 1/2 inches now. I haven't started putting the setting string tris on because

I don't have any strings put together right now so that part will have to wait. I had all these tiny
1/2 squares left from a project that I was working on last 4th of July when Bonnie and I got together for a sewing play date. You can see the blocks as I worked on them on the wall behind us. Anyway, that is why all my backgrounds of the 1/2 sq tris are the same. This quilt was the first time that I had been able to get additional bonus tris from a design. That quilt which I call The Queen is a snowball pattern with a different setting. I used 2 1/2 inch squares on the corners and double sewed and wound up with a bunch of bonus little half squares. Too cute to throw away. You might reconize the border and some of the fabric if you look hard enough. Some of the same fabric that my little quilt is made of.
anyway, that is why all my backgrounds of the 1/2 sq tris are the same. My first quilt Decade which was a square in a square design I made using triangles cut from a square and sewn around the square.

The reason for no strings put together at the moment you might wonder? I just completed sewing all my string blocks into rows for my latest quilt which I am considering calling Black tie affair. The blocks are actually a type of bow tie block sewn together. But when sewen together you lose the bow tie. So I might have to change the name.

This is just a sample of them while I was first making them and was trying to see how they would play together. It turned out that I made enough blocks for 9 rows with 8 blocks per row. I haven't decided if I am going to do something in the black squares.

Bonnie, Thanks a million for making my idea come to life. You are the greatest. I am really going to love my little baskets. For anyone wanting the pattern Bonnie has it on her website in her blog Dated May 3, 2007. at Quiltville.com

Charlotte

Quilting Saturday

Good afternoon, Today has been a wonderful quilty day. I put the boarders on my little wall quilt and started the hand quilting on it too. I also completed the last of my spinning star blocks for Quiltville's Orange Crush Mystery. My wonderful friend Dawn came over and she sewed on the Carolina Cross Roads that she started after I finished mine.

My first Tiger Lillies have arrived.

I am so excited that I got to do some hand stitching on the little quilt. Gee I have to name it so I'll stop referring to it as the little quilt. It is the smallest quilt I have ever made. It measures 24 x 24 inches.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe weekend.

Charlotte

Friday evening the start to the weekend.

Good Evening, the weekend is here. I am on call again tomorrow. Hopefully it will be like last Saturday, Quiet quilty day. I recently took an office position and now have a very small office to decorate. I started a little quilt to hang. I am using the type of blocks that I made in part 2 of Orange Crush. Those little blocks are so cute. I have made 36 from the Chocolat line and another bundle of fat quarters from A day in the Country by Fig tree designs. My Ya Ya friend, Donna in Ca. sent them to me a year or so ago for Christmas and Birthday.
There must be something wrong with me. I have trouble cutting into my stash.
She doesn't wash and I do but I chose not to wash this and so I have not cut into this part of my stash until now. This will be a small hanging and I don't plan to have to wash it often. I am to the point of deciding boarders. I arranged the blocks in a sunshine and shadow setting. I tried lots of different settings but I like the sunshine and shadow best. I like it and the blocks are so easy to make using Bonnie's technique that I plan to start a larger one as leaders enders. You can see all of Bonnie's wonderful creations at Quiltville.com. When I figure out how to get her on my side bar she will be the first.

Update on Mystery 2. Orange Crush from Quiltville.com

I have finished all of step 3 and have 7 blocks to sew together for step four then I will be finished with all the steps before the next clue comes out. Oh my did the world just stop turning! I am the worlds slowest at my quilting. I start way more than I finish. I have been trying to finish 2 before starting anything new. That doesn't mean quilting and binding too.

Charlotte

Woody alarm clock has no snooze button.

Good morning, Bonnie suggested I get a fake owl and put near where the wood pecker is serenading me in the am. Yes, again today. The good thing that came out of my woody alarm clock this am, I was able to sew for 45 min on step 4. I will be finished with it before the next clue comes out.
Kimberly and I went to WM last night to get a few things needed for my office. We couldn't find an owl. So I guess I will have to go to Lowes. We then met Jason at Chilie's. Jason is Bonnie's oldest son. I am so lucky to see my daughter happy. They make a cute couple and they act like they enjoy their mom's company. How many mothers can say that?
Have a wonderful Wednesday,
Charlotte

Monday back to work.

GoodMonday morning, I am happy to report that I was able to get my 15 min of sewing in this am before work, Yippee. I am not an early bird but thanks to a little bird I was up before the clock went off. Woodpecker on the gutters. Helppppp. What should I do? He woke me up Sat. too. That was ok since I wanted to get up early to sew. I went to bed late last night 1:15 am. I took the Mother's day nap that everyone kept telling me too.

The quilt that Kimberly was covered up with in the Mother's day post, was calling my name. I made a little mistake on the batting. I let a friend get me a wool batt when she went to the Maryland Fiber fair a few years ago. Well the batt must be for a comforter. Real fluffy. I started hand quilting with reg. quilting thread and was having problems with my stitches. So I changed to #8 pearl cotton. I am also using the stab/stick method. The rocking motion on that batt just doesn't like me. I also have been nursing a bad tendon in my wrist. With this stitch I don't move my wrist and I can get my stitches even. Since I am using the pearl cotton the quilting is looking like trapunto. Kimberly loves it and so do I.

No I don't live on the beach, a girl can dream can't she? I absolutely love water it centers me and gives me such peace. Anyway this was the sun coming up at Myrtle beach a few years.

Quiltville's mystery Orange Crush

I have been working on the second

Quiltville

mystery (Orange Crush) My colors

as you can see have no orange

anywhere. What to call mine,

Bonnie's Mystery # 2 of course.

my step 1 the four patches. Real scrappy the kitchen sink,

To use Bonnie's phrase, The fabric of my life/stash.

step 2 the Birds in the air blocks.

Then came step 3 which I am

using as leaders enders for step

4 so almost done.

Happy Mother's day

Today is Mother's day and I wish a beautiful day to every Mother. There is a storm going through right now. It woke me up and so what better thing to do when you can't go back to sleep? Blog or sew. I took these pictures yesterday. Under the unfinished quilt is my DD, Kimberly. Can you see her face? She was taking a little nap before getting off to work yesterday. The other picture is Garfunkle, He is 15 years old. He is sleeping in my string container on top of some completed blocks that have some black in them, I know I'll have a white kitty fur mess when I start putting those blocks together. Funny how everyone in the house including the animals winds up back here in my little habitat when I am sewing.I get up to iron and the next thing I know there will be no place for me to sit. I can't go anywhere without the dog, Darla following. I'll put a picture of her up in the near future. The quilt that Kimberly is snuggled under has been in the making for a long time. She asked for it a long time ago too. When she sees me starting another project she will ask, Who are you making that for? Most of the time, no one in particular and she usually gets it committed to her. I am very lucky that she is a patient person. Because it takes me a long time to complete most of my quilts. My son on the other hand is not patient and does not know the meaning of delayed gratification. He does seem to be able to pull some from deep within when taking care of the babies. He has a soon to be 2 year old and an 8 month old. Both girls. Pictures of them later too. I can't get everything posted in 1 day. Time to sew now before everyone starts getting up to go to church. Charlotte

On call Saturday

What better thing to do when you are on call and can't get involved with a messy project or sweaty house work. Quilt. I am currently working on Quiltville's Orange Crush Mystery. Bonnie's site is Quiltville.com. If you haven't browsed her site you are missing something.

I too am a scrappy quilter. My reason: I don't understand color very well. Even as a child when coloring my pictures never were the master pieces that my class mates were. So throwing everything and the kitchen sink in works for me. Just a few of my scrappy creations. My very first I have not picture. I made it when I was 11 or 12 and it was a string quilt. I didn't appreciate the work back then and I used it to death and abused it also. I laid out in the sun on it and let the dog sleep on it 15 years later and that was the end of it. The one in the picture is a square in a square and I called it Decade because from start to label it took me 10 years to finish. I gave it to my daughter and she has a real appreciation for it. She watched me hand quilt it for 6 months off and on. She even sat beside me and when I would get the needle stuck she would pull it through with my hemostats.

I guess it is time to get back to the old Kenmore, She loves the attention she gets. I hope the Bernina doesn't get jealous.

Jumping off the deep end.

I am jumping off the deep end at 2am. May 10, 2008. Starting a blog for things that interest me and of course what ever gets in the way that I have an opinion about.

This will be a pretty boring blog as blogs go but I am not a computer/tech person. I am learning as I go.