Showy Orchids!

We traveled home from Myrtle Beach yesterday, but got home in time to make a quick stop at the opening night of the Orchid Show at the North Carolina Arboretum. I wasn't going to take any pictures, but how could I resist!

I really don't know anything about the different types of orchids, but each year, I'm amazed by the variety, the colors, the sizes and shapes. I think the displays this year were better than ever. But rather than babbling on about something I know little about, here are some pictures, in no particular order, for you to enjoy!

This little guy was guarding one of the displays!And I snapped this as we were leaving at dusk. Imagine how pretty the blossoming trees would look on a sunny day like today!Spring is certainly happening in Western North Carolina right now! Enjoy!

WHAT I DID AT QUILT RETREAT

My followers have been clamoring for another post, so here I am again!

My excuse is that I haven't been home long enough to post anything, which is pretty much true this month. We were in Florida for a week, then came home for a few days and I was off to quilt retreat. After that we flew to Buffalo for a week, and now I'm packing for a week of golf at Myrtle Beach! I feel like I have been shuffling clothes from one suitcase to another and not accomplishing much else.

So, I thought I'd tell you a little about the quilt retreat. I went to Lake Logan, which is about a half hour west of Asheville, near Canton, NC. It's an Episcopal Retreat Center, but some of the local quilters have found that it's a very hospitable place for us to gather and be creative. We stay there from Tuesday to Thursday, have a spacious room to set up our sewing machines, and three times a day they feed us!

Lake Logan is a little "out of the way" from shopping, so you need to be sure you have everything you need with you. I generally pack a variety of things to work on, though there are some people who work on the same project all three days. So, anyway, here are the things I worked on while I was on quilt retreat at Lake Logan a couple weeks ago.

First, I brought a couple of little projects from the "Superior University" I am enrolled in. This is a program available from Superior Threads, and the basic idea is that for a monthly fee they send you a little project and a spool of one of their specialty threads to experiment with. For each thread you are supposed to systematically document how the thread behaves as you change the tension of your machine and vary the stitches. Once you have familiarized yourself with the thread, then you are supposed to use it in the project they suggest.

The January project was this set of coasters using their Razzle Dazzle thread in the bobbin. Razzle Dazzle is a heavier thread that is designed as an embellishing product. The batting in the coasters is also a product that they sell called "Soft and Stable" that looks like a thin layer of sponge sandwiched between black fabric. They claim that "Soft and Stable" is a good product to use for fabric purses and similar projects that require some softness as well as some stability... so the product is aptly named.

Here are the coasters and a close up so that you can see what the thread looks like. I was pleased with how easy it was to use and after completing this project I might be more likely to try this technique again.
Oh, I guess I uploaded another close up. You can see that the thread is very pretty... it has several shades and it's a little sparkly!

The February project wasn't quite as successful... or maybe it just didn't interest me as much. This project uses a thread called Rainbows which is a shiny variegated polyester thread and the project was to make a note card by "thread painting" a floral fabric. I didn't particularly think that the colors in the spool of Rainbow that I was given enhance the colors in the floral print... in any event, I kind of lost patience with this project. They claimed that making these note cards would be addicting. I didn't agree. But here's my effort anyway:

The biggest project I brought were my "$5 Quilt" blocks from last year from the now defunct "Material Things" Quilt Shop. The blocks were a total of 12 blocks of various sizes (6, 9 and 12 inch). I did not choose the color scheme or the patterns of the blocks, that was determined by the quilt shop. However as soon as I started accumulating the blocks, I decided that I could put them together into a picnic cloth... I guess the red, white and blue just made me think of the 4th of July! So I brought some compatible fabrics to the retreat and made some half-square triangles to fill in the spaces and I also made an additional 12 inch square to balance things out and I ended up with a 44 inch square quilt top. Just today I finished sewing on the last of the binding, so now my picnic cloth is ready to use!

I had a kit for a small wall banner, again with a patriotic theme. Hopefully this will get finished in time to decorate my door between Memorial Day and the 4th of July! I think it's about 14 x 18 inches. I couldn't do the quilting because I didn't bring the right colors of thread with me, but I did get the top put together and the project sandwiched.

The final thing that I worked on a bit is this "cheater cloth" panel that I bought last year in Albuquerque. The whole piece is about 20 x 40 inches and I thought it would make a nice table runner. I liked the colors and the design and the idea is that once it is quilted, it will look like it was pieced. Maybe some day you will see this on the table in my sun room.

Springtime in February!

This morning when I was driving to my exercise class, I noticed that there were some red bud trees in bloom. This is way early, I think, for that to be happening, but we are seeing some early signs of spring this year, that's for sure!

When I got back to our neighborhood, I noticed that the red buds have not started blooming on our circle, but the magnolia across the street is starting to burst! Here are a couple shots of that:

I found one lone crocus near our holly bush:

And our lenten roses have been in bloom for several weeks, as have the daffodils on our slope.

I noticed lots of new growth on the rose bushes and the butterfly bushes. The tulips are several inches high. Willow trees have gone from having that yellow halo to actually having some green leaves emerging and the pussy willow bushes are getting green, as well.

Don't they all know there is still another month of winter?

A brilliant idea!!!

We had some areas in our house repainted this week. Now you would think that two old people wouldn't be too hard on walls, but there are some places that just show signs of use no matter how careful you are.

One of those spots that really showed the wear was the area around the hooks that we use to hang our extra keys and my purse. Looking at the fresh paint in that spot between the hall tree and the half bath, just inside the door from our garage to the laundry room, I was thinking out loud about how we could protect the wall. I suggested some clear contact paper, which Russ thought was a terrible idea. (It probably was.) Then he said something which I thought was a brilliant idea. He said, "What about putting some fabric there."

So I went up to the sewing room, selected a scrap of rather neutral yellowish fabric, fused it to a rectangular piece of Pellon, folded the edges over and did a couple of lines of stitching and made a mat for under the hooks!

Then I just nailed the bike hook through the mat and into the wall. A screw holds the froggy purse hook.
I think that was a great solution to the problem! Now, why didn't I think of that?!

Craftsy Block of the Month

I'm doing the Craftsy Block of the Month. I was trying to get this logo on my sidebar, but as you can see, I haven't figured out exactly how to do that yet. So, until I figure it out, it will stay in this post, I guess. (It also seems to be changing my font, but I can live with that!)

These are the January blocks. The first one is the Asterisk Block and the second one is the Wonky Pound Sign Block.

The idea is that all the blocks for the year will fit together to make a scrappy modern sampler quilt. I wasn't so sure that I liked the idea of a scrappy sampler quilt, so I have decided I will do each of the monthly blocks in a combination of colors that I like and turn them into smaller quilts that I can use to practice some free motion quilting with.

The Wonky Pound Sign was supposed to have narrower strips, but I made them the same 2 inch (1 1/2 inch finished) size as the Asterisk, just because I thought they looked better a little wider. Since this is my interpretation of the Craftsy Block of the Month, I will feel free to modify wherever I want.

Now, I did enjoy making the Asterisk Block, so I made it in all the color combinations below. I will put this together into a single quilt that I can practice my free motion quilting on. I'm not sure if this will be the layout, but it will be something similar and I am thinking of putting 1 inch sashing between the blocks, likely in black.

I was feeling pretty good about my progress on this, as I am a master of unfinished projects. However, I just checked the calendar page and it is already January 29th. Yikes! In three more days the tutorial will be posted for the February blocks!

I made a preemie quilt!

After our quilt guild meeting today we had a work party to make community quilts.

Kits were provided for us to make "preemie quilts." These little quilts, measuring about 2 feet by 2 1/2 feet, go home with the baby after he/she "graduates" from their stay in the hospital.

The kit I chose seemed to be boy-oriented with sports balls and the blue backing. I went with just a random "scrappy" layout and didn't realize until I was working on the final row that I was a block short. I found a piece of fabric similar to the yellow... it's got a little more brown in it. Can you see it?

It's at the lower bottom corner. I guess because the printed fabrics are so busy, the mis-matched fabric doesn't draw the eye. The fabrics are all flannels, so it is a cozy little blanket.

It was a perfect little project for the time we spent there. It's nice when you can complete a project in one sitting, and it's nice to not have to remember to get it done before the next meeting!

We have a dedicated group of volunteers who store, sort and cut the fabric and put them together into kits. Who could resist making something like this now and then?

Bombs in the Hood!

Our nice quiet neighborhood has been bombed!!! Yarn bombed, that is... or yarn stormed, if you prefer.

No, I was not the perp. I suspect it was crafty Barb, but I will have to wait until I see her again to get the full story.

I think they are quite lovely, though.

Here are some photos of the trees and some close ups of each so you can see the detail.

Though I love the turquoise color scheme of the first example, I must say that I am quite taken by the creative use of granny squares in this second example.
And I'm thinking that the gold, orange and avocado yarn looks real familiar. I may have used some like that in an afghan in the 70's.

I must say it's rather interesting to see a bit of color in the trees this time of year. Maybe the two in my front yard need some bombing!