This is exciting for me. I met Paula the day the original quilt shop opened on August 30, 2008. The first quilt top I made was almost identical to one she had just done! It seems we have similar conservative tastes. More often than not we get to say hello as she will pop in right when I am there. She is a prolific and precise quilter SO I am very pleased to longarm one of her beautiful quilts! Thanks, Paula! Your quilt is gorgeous as usual and the pattern is so interesting!! The longarm pattern is baptist fan almost.
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Here is Marilyn's latest quilt using the "Take 5" pattern once again. She uses some of the metallic butterflies fabrics, some of the clouds fabric like I used on the back of Gislaine's quilt. I like it, Marilyn! I like it a lot. Great work. I promise to try to get better photos to do this quilt justice. "Take 5" is a pattern where each of five fabrics gets equal play in the quilt and each block contains all five fabrics. Here Marilyn is dragonflies and clouds. Longarm design will be dragonflies of course!
Beautiful work, Donna! I love the bright colors in this happy quilt. Longarm pattern is Deb's Swirls with light pink thread on top and light yellow on the back.
I picked up four quilts at Ye Olde Forest Quilt Shoppe last week. Two are repeat customers: Donna Roberson & Marilyn Pusey. Paula Ginn is a neat lady I met the day the original shop opened back on August 30, 2008. The fourth quilt is a stark/crisp black & white quilt and the one I will do today. I really like this design! And some quilts are just fun to photograph even if the color is off..
My neighbor, Becky McRee, entrusted me with a treasure. She has long had a quilt top made from her daughter's dresses when she was a child!! I will longarm and bind it for her...sometime! LOL. You know how it is this time of year. When I asked Becky (husband Raymond) McRee for the okay to post this, she shared this information: "The person who made the quilt top was Raymond's mother, Martha McRee. She made this when she was in her late sixties or early seventies. I had saved the dresses and gave them to her. As I told you she made a Bonnet Girl quilt first and then this one. She would be pleased that you shared this with your quilting friends. Becky" Becky has graciously said there is no rush on this so I can focus on quilts wanted by a certain special date later in December. Thanks Becky!! It is now Dec 14th and bitterly cold outside at about 10 degrees with some serious winds. Great weather for quilting if nothing else. Dec 18: This quilt has taken longer than most but that is okay. It is one of those quilts that is worth every minute. I have been tentative about working on it but the longarming actually went quite well. When viewing these pictures here, I noticed for the first time that one block is different from the rest. Can you find it?
Dec 19: Squared. Ready for binding. Dec 20: Binding attached to the front. Working on hand binding to the back. Be finished soon now! Dec 22: Finished and delivered! I am going to use the same 16" blocks used in the last Ye Olde Forest quilt finished on November 22nd. The backing will be the pine needles. Both the main fabric and the backing are from Moda's Winter On Walden Pond fabrics. Jan 16 (2011): Drew the design in EQ7. My fabrics are not photographing accurately but this is the general idea. Dec 09 (2011): Pulled this out of the closet. Plan to start cutting it out ... at long last. I cut the fat quarters into 2.5" and 4.5" strips, 3 each. Not sure about this plan. Dec 11: Been playing & planning. Trust me, I have asked for Joan's help!!! LOL Revised PlanOf course, I planned & purchased fabric for a new project while at the quilt shop yesterday. I managed to NOT do that last week, but couldn't resist two weeks in a row. THAT PLACE IS WONDERFUL & DANGEROUS!!!
I am very content to have days without adventures!! Yesterday was not one of those days though. I had a lovely drive to Greensboro to the quilt shop, stopping just before I got there for some lunch for Kelley and coffee for both of us. I dropped off the 3 quilts and started shopping for backing for Shar's quilt. What a find!
I got my wallet out to pay Kelley, leaving it on the counter (I think), then decided to shop for another quilt project before paying him. About this time the only customer during the time I was there came and asked me what the most expensive sewing machine was that the shop carried. Kelley took over and dealt with that man until he left sans a purchase of course. We searched for fabrics to match the main fabric featuring cabins that I wanted for my quilt. We cuts lots of fat quarters and other larger pieces. Finally, it was time for me to pay. I could not find my wallet anywhere! We searched and searched. Finally, I called Chase to see if anyone had used my credit card. Oh yes, they had, at a nearby convenience store to the tune of about $170.00!! I was able to tell Chase that my last legitimate purchase was McD's and when. I called my bank and canceled my debit card and checks, then at Kelley's wise suggestion, filed a police report. When I got home this morning, I had three calls from a number I did not recognize. When I returned the calls, a man named Frank had spotted my wallet on a road in downtown Greensboro with my business cards blowing down the street. That is how he got my phone number. WOW! The things missing included my driver's license and the two credit cards. He said he will return my wallet to the shop!! The wallet has sentimental value in that it is quilted and one I purchased quite awhile back at the shop. THAT is what I would have missed the most. LOL. Really! It felt really funny though to realize I had no access to money and no identification for the trip home. I was planning to purchase food for my Thanksgiving meal on the way but couldn't!! Nonetheless, I am very thankful for a helpful son-in-law, a daughter who bought me dinner, housed me over night & loaned me a few dollars for breakfast on the road! I am also thankful for the four quilts I brought home to longarm this week, for my home itself & for all my wonderful customers!! I am thankful for the understanding and assistance of Chase and NC State Employees Credit Union. And I am especially thankful for Frank and his kindness and caring enough to go the extra mile to retrieve my wallet. That kind of thing warms the heart far more than the thief who most likely just wanted some gas, beer and cigarettes. I have an online friend who saw and loved my Metallic Butterflies when I announced I am officially in business. I suggested she check out Marilyn's to see more quilts made with this fabric line. From that point on, it was blue and lavender or nothing at all. Alas, I called Ye Olde Forest Quilt Shoppe & searched the internet, but was unable to find any of these fabrics. THEN, my kids (Joanne & Kelley) just happened across some of these fabrics set aside months ago. Beautiful yellows, reds, greens, oranges and golds ... AND blue and a bit of lavender. So I set about to design a quilt around the fabrics I now had on hand using only the two fabrics--4 half yard cuts & 5 fat quarters of blue and 1 half yard cut & 2 fat quarters of lavender. Yikes! Well I came up with something and my friend said, "Yes! I love it!" The longarm pattern will, of course, be dragonflies.
"Why dragonflies?" you might ask. JRGarland, in the same online community, named a dragonfly character Shar after her. (BTW, the mouse in John's stories was named after my then online name--BlueWhite (BW for short). BlueWhite is no more but I am now YouBet.) Unbelievable News!! I found a bolt of the lavender fabric at the quilt shop yesterday. We had all missed it before!! So the back of this quilt will be lavender with metallic gold dragonflies while the front will be predominately blue with metallic gold butterflies, dragonflies, bees, ferns & flowers. Actually, some of this beautiful holiday fabric and red backing came in with the Steelers quilt, just not quite enough. Got the rest today. I will be longarming fifteen 13" circles with a simple design inside. The fabric does the rest all by itself. Don't tell Joan, but I am so glad she is doing the binding and not me!! Try though I have, I cannot find a way to show the stitching. Oh well.
This week I'll be longarming three more quilts for Ye Olde Forest Quilt Shoppe. Below are before and after pictures of each quilt.
I just received another impeccable quilt tops from Joan Taylor. This continues her football theme, this time the Steelers. To change it up a bit, I slanted the football from upper left to lower right on even rows.
![]() Give a cabin dwelling quilter a bit of fabric ... You see, there was a small piece of fabric on the counter at the quilt shoppe from the Wizard of Oz collection. "What is this with the writing on it?", I asked as I reached to look closer. "You can have it if you want it", my daughter said. Kool! Now, in case you didn't already know, I named my cabin Shanti Niketan which means my abode (niketan) of peace (shanti). And I just happened to have a block pattern with a beautiful dove on it. With some casual time on my hands this afternoon, I put it all together. I have invited several quilters to the cabin to spend a day longarming together. Nancy is the first to take me up on my offer. She brought a quilt and together we got it done. Nancy had the opportunity to see what it is really like for the longarmer. Who knows. Nancy may have to just buy her own now!! I really think she is ready to solo. We discussed plans for how to help each other profit in her own niche. Time will prove the fruits of our delightful day together. So glad you came up, Nancy!!! Wishing you wonderful success with all your quilting ventures.
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