Here are pictures of my finished Flower Book:

Once I got home from the  quilt show, I looked up blogs of some of the people I met. Leilani had hosted a ‘follow me blind‘ challenge back in January. I decided to not look at those posts, but to save them for later when I could do the challenge. In May, I followed her instructions doing one step a day for three days – here are the results. (If you want to do the challenge yourself – don’t look at mine – go to this link instead!)

Day 1: Make a little rectangle quiltlet.

Day 2: Fold the rectangle in half and stitch ends together. (Day 3, I decided this was the front.)

And this is the back.

Day 3: Involved bending wire. Which I decided to embellish. I didn’t have any thin wire, so Hubby helped to bend the shape for me.

Put it all together and you get this:

Thanks for the fun challenge Leilani!

I did lots of looking at vendor booths while at the quilt show and bought a few things. I also hung out at the demo area and got to meet several artists published in Cloth Paper Scissors and Quilting Arts Magazines. Talking with these gals and seeing their work up close was great!  Kelli Nina Perkins gifted me with one of her cloth-paper book marks (thanks again Kelli!)

The first booth I went to was the Misty Fuse booth, I pulled along several friends to that booth and told them how much I love that stuff! I bought a Goddess Sheet and was given a few samples for bringing along my friends! They did make purchases and the Misty Fuse Gal (sorry, I don’t remember her name ) said what a great start to her day because of us! Doors opened at 10:00 and we had made our Misty Fuse purchases by 10:20!  I also bought some dyed cheese cloth from Embellishment Village. What a fun booth! And used a pink piece in the above Follow Me Blind challenge.

This was my first Quilt Festival to attend in Chicago, altho I have wanted to go for years! Our local quilt shop, Pieced Together, hosted a bus trip. What a fun way to travel with a bus full of quilting ladies! It’s funny because once there, I found out the festival is planning to move to Cincinnati next year! I hope to go to next year too, as I live right in between Chicago and Cincinnati in Indiana!

Happy June everyone!

I bought this pattern from vendor Kaye Moore, while at the International Quilt Festival, Chicago, in April.

I changed it up just a bit by hand stitching yo-yo hearts to the background fabric and free motion stitching the saying.

I really love how this turned out! I am not a hand embroiderer, so I’m very tickled by my attempt at those french knots! This was playing and I hope to do more, learning hand embroidery!  The idea to free motion machine stitch the saying came from Rebecca Sower’s red thread sessions. Altho I have done free motion quilting, I’d never done free motion writing, but once I saw Rebecca’s session # 3, I knew that was how I would apply the saying for this project. (Thanks for the inspiration Rebecca!) And the last bit about this piece is the fabric is all from a swap/challenge hosted by Melissa of Ardea’s Nest. 8 of us swapped fabric and then use a piece of each of the fabrics in one project. I used the fabrics to make the heart yo-yos. Thanks for hosting the sawp/challenge Melissa! It was fun being a part of it and I’m just plain-o tickled with my piece!

And, I just kept playing with the hearts – this piece is not finished yet. I know, I need to learn some other embroidery stitches.

(Photography by Noel Schutt. Thanks son!)

Can you recognize the fabrics in these hearts?

I have a plan for these yo-yo hearts using a pattern I purchased from vendor Kaye Moore while at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago last month.

I’ll leave you with this one teaser. This is step one of a three step ‘follow me blind’ challenge.

Actually, as a little quiltie, I could count this as a finish as is!

Hoping tomorrow I’ll have my finished work to show you!

White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)

Toadshade Trillium (Trillium sessile)

budding White Trillium

Celandine Poppy

Dutchman’s-Breeches

Photos taken by my son, Noel.

Sorry to friends and family that a cropped out of this picture! I just wanted to zoom in on the birthday girl with her goofy smile!

Yummy Ginger ShortCake with fresh fruit and candles.

The blowing out of candles. (The picture singing was just too goofy to show!) We have here boy friend Luke B. Hall, sister Anna, friend Joel, Mom, Dad, and sister Charis round the birthday girl. Brothers Luke and Noel are present but not in picture.

There are also many of our extented family members celebrating in Feb – April. I think I have counted at least nine more of us celebrating birthdays during this time! So Happy Birthday to all of you!

I’m running late at meeting a friend for lunch – so I’ll post more later!

The is a sneak peak of an idea I’m playing with for a quilt challenge. Three Creative Studios: Passage.

The are a few of the many blocks my daughter has sewn for a bed size quilt she is working on. She is being very diligent!

Next are some blocks I’m working on for a quilt for my middle daughter. She chose the pattern – Goose Tracks and asked that the quilt be very blended. Blended, meaning that you can’t tell where one block ends and another starts. She also chose the fabrics – Ginger Blossom collection which are mostly large scale prints, and she added some smaller scale coordinating fabrics. This will be a very hot pink quilt once completed!  The Goose Tracks block have 29 pieces in each 10″ block. We decided to alter some of the corners, making some of the construction easier. Here are two blocks leaving out the pieced corners and two Goose Tracks Blocks with the pieced corners. The alter blocks will have one – three pieced corners.  We think it will blend very well this way!

And this last set of blocks is for a charity quilt. Chevron pattern in brights.

My two youngest girls both just started quilts. But I forgot to take pictures! Next time!