Charming Girls project for September

This bag is the project I wanted to complete this month for the Charming Girls challenge. I had purchased the charm pack and the pattern a couple of years ago and it has just been sitting in my sewing room. I really like the way it turned out, I am going to give it to my Mom for Christmas. I always make her something and these are her colors. Hope she likes it.

Ouch!!!!

I should have realized yesterday when I developed a toothache about midday that there was a problem. I never have toothaches. Late yesterday afternoon I took some Tylenol, and that seemed to do the trick; until I woke up this morning and it was even worse than it had been yesterday. Shortly after getting to school I called my dentist, who luckily is just up the street, and they were able to work me in this morning. After a short stop there, they sent me on to the oral surgeon for a root canal. I was terrified, I don't like strange people looking in my mouth. The oral surgeon was extremely nice, and the actual procedure wasn't that bad. When I got home and the numbness wore off, I wasn't very happy, but thankfully I had a good, (no great) book that I was almost finished with, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It is a truly wonderful first novel. The story is set in Mississippi in the early 1960's during the Civil Rights movement. A young college graduate is writing the story of the maids in Jackson. I grew up in Mississippi without a maid, but it is very accurate, and disturbing at times. I would highly recommend it.

What I did on Retreat

This is one of the quilts I worked on at camp last week. It is from the Jelly Roll book, the name of it is Hidden Stars. The blocks are basically log cabin blocks until you get to the last couple of "logs" then you start adding the pieces that make up the starts. I really liked the way it turned out. It is from a jelly roll that I bought last year at the Fat Quarter Shop when they were having a sale. It is hard to tell from the photo but it is Christmas fabric.

The other quilt that I worked on was also from a jelly roll. This is a pattern that my sewing group did last year, or maybe even the year before, that I didn't do. I really liked the pattern but didn't want the kit, so I bought the pattern then found this Moda fabric that I liked. I did make the quilt bigger. The pattern only called for six blocks, the blocks are really big, but I made nine blocks and added an extra row. Of course that meant that I didn't have enough backing for the quilt. Luckily I was able to do a search on line and get enough to finish the backing. I should add that I was able to make three more blocks because I had two jelly rolls. I had in mind that I would probably make it bigger, don't know why I didn't buy more backing fabric at the time. These are the only two quilts I have made using jelly rolls, I can see now why they are so popular. The fact that the strips are cut for you definitely speeds up the process and enables you to get to the sewing part much quicker.

Give Away

Check out the great giveaway on my friend Pat's blog. She is celebrating her 150th post.

Carpenters Needed

Yes, I am looking for a carpenter to help build an ark. I can't believe how much it has rained in the last few days. Atlanta was has been in a drought the last couple of years and we definitely needed the rain, but this is a little excessive. I got up this morning thinking what an awful day to head back to work after my wonderful adventure, and as I was pulling into the school parking lot I heard on the radio that school was delayed an hour and a half. I didn't worry too much since I had been out, I thought on well I can catch up on things. But it was not to be, about 45 minutes later school was cancelled. Our principal encouraged everyone to leave before more roads were closed. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get home because of all of the roads that were closed. At least I already know that school is closed for tomorrow, I guess that means that I can sew.

Most Excellent Adventure

I can't remember when I have had such a good weekend. I just returned from FFA land with Sharon and Shannon's most excellent quilt adventure. Each year these two wonderful ladies sponsor a quilt retreat at the local FFA camp. It is so much fun. This year they outdid themselves. I have been kicking myself because I decided not to do the retreat project, big mistake it was beautiful. It was the Starlight Express from the Jelly Roll book. I will be on line tonight to order the material to make one. The one in the photo above was made by Sharon out of 30's fabrics, it was stunning. The fabrics everyone selected were so different, yet they all turned out great. Marty decided to do her star out of batiks, it is the one on the left, her background is going to be black. That is going to be a stunning quilt. The other two stars in this photo belong to Becky who is using a cream background. I have to admit I thought her fabrics were not too exciting in the jelly roll, but after she started putting them together, they looked great.

A couple of us, were doing other projects. I worked on a couple of different things, a Bonnie Hunter trade I had started during the summer and a Christmas quilt from the Jelly Roll book. Karin worked on a Sassy Sixteen, while Cindy worked on Glory Bound and Buckeye Beauty. It really didn't matter what we were working on , we had a great time. Check out the photos:

(that is my sewing space with the camo dropcloth. )

Blue Ridge Quilt Show

On Saturday Joe and I headed up to our cabin outside of Blue Ridge for a short get away. On the way up he mentioned that there was a quilt show at the old Courthouse and wanted to know if I wanted to stop. Well of course I did. The quilts were beautiful. We had been to a show there a couple of years ago, that really didn't do much for me. This one was much better. There were lots of different kinds of quilts both antique and new. I included photos of some of them. The show is on through the end of the month if you are up that way and interested.

Thimbles Weekend

Last weekend was Thimbles, it was so much fun. I am really trying to limit myself and not get carried away buying the kit each month. I did cave in and buy the one for September, Scrappy Nines. It is one of our fearless leader's designs. The kit was offered in three color ways, the red/white, blue/white, and a black/tan version. I liked all three but finally decided on the black/tan one. I am trying not to have red in every quilt that I own. I only managed to get all of the pieces cut out on Friday night. The kit for the black/tan was put together a little different and I wanted to get it cut out, although I did make one mistake and have to borrow from Pat's mistake pile. That is what happens when you try to talk, read directions and cut fabric at the same time. There were some great quilts in process on Friday night. Here are just a few of them:

There are so many talented people in our group, I love to see what everyone is working on.

Labor Day in Mississippi

I have lived in Atlanta almost 22 years, and it somehow became a "tradition" that I always went home to my parents house for Labor Day. When I first moved here, I worked in the retail world and it was the last long weekend before you started gearing up for the holidays. I was a nice time to go home. Although it was often been a time when bad things happened, several years ago on this weekend, my grandfather had a heart attack that he never recovered from and last year my dad died on this weekend. My mom was really glad of the company. Joe and I did a lot of little odd jobs for her. She is feeling much better, it is almost 3 months now that she has been off of the chemo and is doing much better. My mom has quite a bit of land that she rents out to one of the local farmers, he puts his cows to pasture there in the summer. I enjoy watching them, it reminds me of when I was growing up and we had all kinds of cows, pigs, chickens and other assorted farm animals. We also visited the newest attraction in Corinth, the Corinth Contraband Camp. Corinth is a very historical town from the civil war, the Battle of Corinth, the Battle of Shiloh (which is only about 20 minutes away) and the Battle of Farmington. (Is it no wonder I like historical fiction.) I really didn't know what a contraband camp was, it is where slaves would come, after leaving their masters to be protected by Union Soldiers during the war. I don't think a lot of protection actually went on. The site is still under construction. There are 6 bronze statues that show what live was like in the camp the eventually there will be a cabin and interpretative signage. It is one of the few camps still in existence today. The statues are really nice, and they were done by local artists. We had a great weekend, visiting with my mom and various relatives. Back to the grind tomorrow.

September Charming Girls

I can't believe we are already into September!! This thing called work has really cut into my sewing time. I have done very little sewing in the last few weeks since school started back. I have pulled out a project to do for my Charming Girls Quilt Club this month. I bought this charm pack several years ago and this pattern and have just never picked it up to make. I decided that my mom would probably like this, the colors are her colors. I am thinking that it might be a Christmas present. After looking at the pattern and the charm pack I did realize that I don't have enough squares, but I have some of this line in my stash so I think that I can make it work.

Hope everyone has a great long weekend. Joe and I are headed to Mississippi for the weekend.