FREE PATTERN

I have posted my one and only pattern for you as a free gift for a temorary amount of time. Please do not use for personal gain, just for your personal enjoyment. I drafted this pattern many years ago when I owned a quilt shop and intended for it to be a Block of the month. I ended up with 4 blocks only. It incorporates many techniques so if you make it, you get a little experience with many sides of quilting making. I have made this quilt 3 times and am posting all three versions so as to give you some insite as to what you want your quilt to look like. Also a close up of one of the blocks.---------------------------------------------- ENJOY! If you make my quilt I would love to know it and how it turned out. Also if you could tell me if the instructions were to your liking, or how I could improve them. Thanks!

FIRST BLOGIVERSARY

MARCH 20th was one year since I started blogging. I MISSED IT!! I am sure it's because this year has flown as usual. The old er I get the faster time flies. Remember when you were a kid and you thought it would be forever before your birthday? Now they come up so quickly it's scary!! Oh well--this has been really fun and I have grown. I have learned alot about cyberworld, friends around the world, and myself. I want to thank each of you who visit my blog, and mostly the ones who comment now and then. I have tried to post items of interest to you and not too much family stuff. Quilting is the focus of my blog, but family posts just have to slip in ever so often. I love visiting your blogs and finding out what you are doing these days. I am so inspired. You keep me going and help me keep up with the latest quilting ideas.

Computers still amaze me. My dad gave me my first computer in 1980s. This was long before each household had them. My boys were little and he wanted us all to learn what he realized hat would be the future. THANKS AGAIN DAD! I miss you.

HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY TO ME! I will try not to miss it next year

Starched Edge Applique

Update--Learned of a product called Stable Stuff that is used by Ricky Tims in place of the Freezer Paper in this technique. It is a wash a way paper stabelizer. Have any of you used this product for applique? Love to hear from you-----

Also read of a metal paint tip that you can use on Elmer's glue bottle so that you can dispence a very small dot. I looked for these at Michael's ---no luck.

FOUND THESE SUPPLIES AND MORE AT http://www.sharonschamber.com/ just FYI. Ordered them all -----AND MORE!!

Back to work on my Applique Quilt after talking with a friend at The Compass Centre retreat about problems I was having. She showed me how she prepares her pieces by painting starch on the edges and pressing them over freezer paper templates. I tried it there, but didn't really get into it until I got home and sat down with all my supplies to see how I could work it out for me. You paint on the starch with a 1/4 inch stencil brush or any other stiff brush you might happen to have (even a Q-tip will work), then you use a styletto to help you turn under the edges over the freezer paper templet using an iron. My friend used her right hand to hold/turn the fabric while using the iron in her left hand. I found that it was easier for me to do the opposite. seems I just needed that iron in my right hand. As you get that iron started, you can press with your index finger (or a tool) right on the edge and as you swing the iron around, those edges just naturally go right where they need to be.
OK--I have one block done with the freezer paper applique where the paper is left in until you stitch the pieces in place then you spray water on it, slit the back and pull the paper out. I have one done with the paper pulled out before the pieces are stitch down, illiminating one step. Getting To Crazy that explains the technique. Also P3 Designs sells a video. I will report which I think is best. I am thinking that pulling that paper out is going to be a ----well, you know.

Hot Flash Tour, 2008

One week after the Wackie Pac returned from the Cruise, four of uf attended the "Hot Flash Tour" sponsored by The Compass Centre, a retreat center in Mr. Calm, Texas. We received fabric for a mystery Quilt, spent one day shop hopping in Dallas/Ft Worth areas, and then went to see "Menapause, The Musical". The day was so much fun and the musical was so funny we hurt from laughing so hard. Back to the Centre and one more day of quilting. If you haven't spent any time at Compass Centre, you should check it out--a great place to retreat.

To explain the picture above--the fabric is just right for a "Hot Flash" mystery quilt, but just not my style. The three friends and myself pooled our fabric and made a larger quilt to give back to Melissa Picha, the owner of Compass Centre as a keepsake. I did, however, want a remembrance of the occasion, so the morning I was leaving I went through the trashcans and gathers the scraps from all the quilts made the days before. The above quilt is the result of using up those scraps. It is small about 20 x 24. I think I have heard people call quilts like this confettti quilts. It really was fun. I just kept sewing little pieces together until I got pieces big enough to use. I think it is representative of what it feels like to go through the "change". Don't you? Mixed--=(*&^%+_ocnfused)&^#$%bewildered8746330HOT8859-93005.

This is all the fabric that was left. Actually, it looks like more than it actually was. The pieces are really tiny.

I' VE BEEN TAGGED!! THANKS, NANA

I have been tagged by Nana!! I am sew excited!! I have never been tagged before!!.. The tag is weird and.......you will never guess.......WACKY! This just suits me to a tee!! First I will post the rules, then tell you what is weird and Wacky about ME. Then It Is My Turn to TAG. I will just HAVE to tag my Wacky Pac friends. I don't think they have been tagged before either. They are definately WACKY AND WEIRD!! Here we go------

THE RULES:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

1. I am a member of the Wacky Pac Quilers of Texas. A very special group of 9 who beyond loving to quilt, love to laugh. Went on a quilting cruise Feb. 24th thru Mar. 1. THose people cruising with us will never be the same---LOL.

2. I am a Museum Curator. Within the last 6 months, I set up displays in a new $500,000 building and I have to admit that it looks pretty darn good. I love history, geneology, and collecting antiques. Other interests are gardening and spending time with my family (imagine that!) I also love 50s/60s music.

3. My husband and I use to square dance. We grew out of this phase. But we could swing with the best of them.

4. I own a white English Bulldog named Louise (aka-Lou Lou).

5. My husband and I own a cattle ranch. I pen, herd, feed, help birth, bottle feed, or check cows almost every day of my life. Quilting is my--------lifeline!! And I don't want to make one about a COW!!!

6. I have two quilt patterns that are unpublished. I am a scrap quilter who finds it very hard to make a quilt by a pattern. I would much rather "wing it". And BTW--when I read...I go to sleep!

7. I love my newest hobby--blogging. I have made many new friends and learned so much from all of your blogs. I have never taken a computer class. Everything I know I have learned by just clicking and trying and a little help from my friends. Nana told me how to link, although I think I have done it before, but I forgot how--LOL.

Now for my tags--

Ravelly1-Rhonda

HumbleQuilter-KathyE

Jerri

Pieces of time--Su Bee

My Quilt Life--Joan

Linda--Living4Quilting

One Piece at a Time-Pieceful Jane

Thanks, NANA, for tagging me.--I appreciate it and I hope I did it right--Molly

I haven't blogged in a while--SHAME ON ME! Since the Wacky Pac returned from our Wacky Cruise, I just haven't gotten "back in the groove". I couldn't post all my pics, so decided to pick one of my favorites. Kathy and Kathleen standing on their balconys. Their rooms were 3 and 4 rooms down from mine. Isn't the water beautiful? We had such a great time!! I took 2 quilting classes, both applique, as that is where I am most lacking in skill. One taught by Robyn Pandolph and the other by Mary Jo Yackley. Mary Jo's was called Painterly Applique. The technique used painted fabric and back basted applique. She taught us to choose a certain part of the fabric to shade the applique piece. Robyn Pandolph's project was a journal cover. The technique is needle turn applique--very small circles and very skinny stems. All the pieces are glue basted in place so that when you start stitching, you don't have to stop for more steps. I enjoyed both very much. I finished Mary Jo's project on the ship and continue to work on Roybn's at home.

This is Robyn's example. The background is pieced and as you can see, the pieces are very small. Next photo is mine in progress. Roybn uses Guttermann silk thread for her applique. It is not fine thread and I have a hard time keeping it from showing. Robyn says to match the color to the fabric so that it doesn't matter if it shows. More later-----........