Knot What It Seams by Elizabeth Craig (Sutherlin, OR)

Knot What It Seams by Elizabeth Craig
This was a quick and fun read.  This is the second in a new series by Elizabeth Craig about a small southern town filled with some unusual folks - a sheriff that would rather be reading Thoreau than catching a murderer, an elderly driver thinks sidewalks are part of the road when she drives (pedestrians beware!), a mail carrier that likes to use people's mail to blackmail them....and then there's the quilting guild called The Village Quilters that is made up of even more quirky members.

The main and the more sane character is Beatrice, a recently retired folk art museum curator from the city.  She is also a new member of the guild, but a novice quilter.  She finds herself in the middle of a mystery involving dead quilters, quilters' with extreme competitive attitudes, judges with even larger egos and opinions of what they consider a show quilt.  In the meantime, Beatrice's next door neighbor and leader of The Village Quilters is busy trying to lure some of the best quilters from the other guild.  There was more talk of competing than quilting in this story, but I still enjoyed it....quirky characters included!  It would be a dull world without them.

On The Cutting Board

Speaking of quilting...here's what I have been up to for the last few days.  I'm almost done with the two owls.  I just need to quilt them and they will be ready to list in Etsy.  

Owl Mug Rugs

I finished appliqueing the lion to the Jungle Stars quilt and I have started working on the elephant.

I used permanent fabric markers along with crayons and some embroidery to accent the elephant and lion's face.  

And, I started working on the second quilt with the same design using paper foundation.  It certainly goes together a lot faster than most of my quilts.  I have three rows done within a short six-hour time.  That includes setting up and breaking down my sewing areas.

I had more of the focus fabric for this quilt so it will have six blocks across and six blocks down.  I don't have to worry about adding borders like I did to the Jungle Stars.

Scrappy Happy Days (Sutherlin, OR)

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a wonderful week filled with family and friends.  

This will be my last post before Christmas.  My next post is due on Christmas Eve, so I'm taking the day off.  I'm hoping to celebrate this holiday with our son if the weather allows him to travel.  Fingers are crossed!  In the meantime...and when my fingers are not crossed, I plan to catch up on emails, blogs, and get more quilting done.

On The Cutting Board

I went to the Craft hour at the Community Center yesterday.  It was nice to sit and sew while listening to the ladies talk.  No one else was quilting.  One lady was knitting slippers, one was making cross-stitch Christmas ornaments, and the last one was making hats using a large loop & hook.  It may have been a few years since I have been to a Project Linus session with my ol' quilting buddies, but I was able to get right back into my relaxed routine of stitching, listening, and checking out everyone's projects.

I took along a UFO to work on for my first meeting.  I have been meaning to add a penguin to this snowball quilt for a long time.

I don't know why I was procrastinating with this one.  The penguin was done in no time.  Now that the border has been added, all that is left is to do is to quilt it.  Well that and I need to find some fabric for a backing.  It's too bad I don't have more of the penguin fabric for the backing.

I have also been spending a lot of time working on the tumble blocks quilt.  I have two more rows to do, but I will be short one block.  I ran out of the two center/main prints to finish the last block.  So the last one will be a solid block and I am going to applique an elephant and lion into the plain block.

I'm still working on that scrap bag that never seems to shrink.  I'm pretty sure the scraps are multiplying when I turn my back on them.  I'm beginning to think the scraps are related to Gremlins.  Never feed or water after midnight!....They multiply!  Below, I have cut out blocks for more Crazy 8's quilts.  I like using the pattern for the random block pattern making it a quick quilt to make.  So far, I believe I have enough for two tops.  I haven't counted the squares yet.  I'm not sure I will be adding applique to the tops.  I will wait to see how they look when they are done.  They might be too busy for applique designs

This is my favorite Christmas video.  Enjoy!

If the video doesn't work here, you can click on this link:  

White Christmas by The Drifters

Happy Holidays!