I just started a new yahoo group called NeedleworkFleaMarket. It is a place where you can sell charts, books, fabric, thread, etc. that you no longer want. And there is no middleman. You can also buy items from other needleworkers and search for items that you might want to buy. To get to the group, google yahoo groups. Then search for NeedleworkFleaMarket where you will apply to join. All the sales and purchases are between you and the seller or buyer. I based it on another yahoo group called SewItsForSale. So if you want to de-stash a bit or are looking for a certain pattern, join the group! Any questions, let me know. Nancy

TIME FLIES!!

Of course, I have been meaning to write since I last took pen to paper in January. Where has the time gone? I think I need to write less but more often. My friend Denise and I have been working on 3 quilts for the Golden Retriever rescue, As Good as Gold of northern Illinois, auction. It was held last Saturday night at the Brookfield Zoo—in  lovely meeting rooms. The first photo is Denise and me on stage with the auctioneer. Our quilt is on the screen. We printed photos of 30 rescued Goldens onto fabric and incorporated them into our quilt. It was auctioned for $1350!! We used the pattern Turning Twenty Around the Block. We were one of only 10 items in the live auction—including a trip to Africa. Our other 2 quilts were in the silent auction area. We started out this quilt with 16 Golden photos, but the dogs were so cute that it turned into a queen sized quilt. Now that it's over, I finally have some free time. 

The photo below is Denise and me celebrating our great auction price. We were taking phone videos of the auction when were dragged to the stage.

I bought a quilt stand to better display the quilt. It was very visible when you walked in the door of the venue. We were very proud of it and all our hard work. I had ordered the printable fabric from a Nevada company which has apparently gone out of business. When I called to complain that the 30 sheets were not 8.5" x 11" as advertised, no one answered my calls or later emails. We had do to a bit of adjusting in the blocks to accomidate (sp?) the crudely cut fabric. It's all a great learning experience. Now I'm thinking about what to do for next year!

Off to yoga class. Working on my mom's medicare/doctor bills this afternoon to try to get them organized and to figure them out. What a puzzle medicare is. We had to file an extension on her taxes so I could get the quilt finished in time for the auction!! Now no excuse to tackle it all! Talk soon. I sure hope so. Nancy

Happy New Year 2012

Wow! It's been a long time since I last blogged. It's never a dull moment around here, and I always seem to be busy with my 2x/week yoga classes, my Tuesday morning stitch/knit group, my neighborhood book group, my once a month sampler group that has been meeting for over 25 years, and life. I've been stitching most every night and lately have been sewing the cording on various Christmas ornaments. Will find those photos and post them soon and round up my other stitching projects for you to see.

This is some of what I have been doing since May.

I am the Bandanna Chairwoman for the As Good As Gold Golden Retriever Rescue group here in northern Illinois. Last spring several gals and I made a bunch of bandannas. They are about 22" square. These are each given out for a $5 donation to the group. We cut them out of fun fabric, serge them on a serger to finish the edges, iron them and then get them to the people who man the "meet and greets" of which there are over 25 in the Chicago area. Since there is a large membership meeting at the end of January, we will be getting together soon—me and other volunteers—to sew more for the coming year.

In the summer our next door neighbors moved to a retirement area nearby so that they would have a house on only one level, and I made them a quilt. The pattern is "Turning Twenty" made with 20 fat quarters. Fast and fun but a great size.

For my niece Corey's bridal shower in July I made another Turning Twenty quilt.

 I actually began to like brown! 

Showing the backing fabric that I found at Wal Mart! The quilts in the background hanging on my design wall are Quilts of Valor that I need to quilt. They're still hanging there. 

My niece Corey got married in October. This is a Strip Twist quilt from Bonnie Hunter's web page Quiltville. Even though the blocks appear to be "on point" they are not. I asked Corey what color she likes, and she said "brown" so here it is. A zillion different fabrics. It is a king.

My quilt guild had a small quilt auction in October. I made this turkey quilt and it is about 24" x 24" as I recall. Love the tail feathers. It went for a decent amount of money.

I made this quilt below from neckties and men's shirts for the auction. One of my best friends who was a guest at the auction purchased it for over $100! It's lovely to know who has one's things. Notice the tie labels around the border. Used 24 different ties.

This tie quilt was also for the auction. I wondered how the bright colors would sell—not as much as the conservative one. I used black velveteen for the sashing strips, and all the other fabric was from silk ties from the Robert Talbot tie company in California. I had purchased various leftover tie fabric from their company store. Beautiful, beautiful fabrics. Needed a very dark black and cotton wasn't as dark. Used 36 different ties.

IN THE KITCHEN—Hung some of my smaller stitched pieces. Had them framed under glass to preserve them. The 2 Quaker pieces are from a company in France. The 2 black background pieces are from Carriage House Samplings as is my adaptation of the Needlewoman sign which I stitched on 18 count linen needlepoint canvas. I hooked the rooster rug years ago. The blackwork piece on the left is an adaptation of two bookmarks from a magazine published years ago. I added other designs like the whale and mermaids and also a lovely verse. It is one of my favorite pieces that I have finished.

XMAS—During the first week in December I hosted 3 holiday lunches. This encouraged me to put my decorations up early and to get the house in shape for guests. It was a great idea to have the parties 3 days in a row as all I had to do between parties was wash the dishes and table cloth. I had them catered which was nice as I hate to cook.

This is my tree. I keep it in my kitchen. I have made 98% of the stitched ornaments.

I set up my table with all 11 of my brass candlesticks—both antique and new.

Needed an easy, non-messy project for my sampler group Christmas party. These were fun to make using old buttons from my button jars. They are 2 pieces of felt glued together with a glue stick. I searched online for the design I wanted and resized the designs on my copy machine. The half pearls were from Michaels and already sticky on the back. On some we used different sized pearls. The buttons we stuck on with Zots used for scrapbooking. They are small circles of a sticky substance and work great. You stick the button to the zot and then stick the button with zot to the felt. No messy glue and everyone was able to finish her projects. 

I gave out the doves as favors for my yoga group party on Monday.

For the book group I decopauged (sp?) 12 clear plastic ornaments with pages from an old paperback version of Pride and Prejudice. Had to have a book worthy of the ornament! I first lightly sanded the balls and then pressed the pages to the mod podged (sp?) balls and painted mod podge over them. Later I sprinkled clear glitter over the surface of the balls. My friend Marcia made little tags for each ball, and I used a nice silver ribbon as the hanger. They were a bit of work, but I was happy at how they turned out. I made sure that each ball had the words "Pride and Prejudice" on it.

My 3 grand children—and we're expecting a little girl in March!

Yes, that's her pet rat, Pinky!

There never was a cheerleader in my family!

My 2 daughters and me in mid-October celebrating Katie's 40th birthday.

Have spent the last few days cleaning out my computer room, shredding documents, going through my stash of books, and figuring out how to get rid of more stuff from my house. I want to get rid of some of my sampler books and will put a list of those remaining in my collection in the next post. I am also clearing out about 40 quilting/quilt history books to be taken to my quilt guild rummage sale on Tuesday. The proceeds go to the guild treasury, but I will have gotten rid of them to worthy buyers!!

Wanted to catch up in this post. Hope to get my act together to see you back here soon. --Nancy