International Quilt Show - Cincinnati

Well, we will be off to Cincinnati today for the IQS.  The last 5 years it had been in Chicago/Rosemont, but this spring has moved to Cincinnati. Mom and I quite often travel with Hartzler Travel, why not let them do the driving.  Hope to have lots to report  on Sunday.

Flower Show pics

Boy has it been a busy month or 2. March was the month with 3 family birthdays and a trip to the flower show in Chicago.  My mom and I have taken several trips to Chicago over the years through a tour company, Hartzlers.  This time it was to the Chicago flower show at Navy Pier.  It was a nice show. The theme was backyard games.  So we were greeted at the entrance by this great bench made out of baseball equipment.

Bench made out of baseballs, bats and bases, Hmm, wonder how it would look done in Tiger orange and blue?



There were lots of different things going on at the show.  There was a cake bake off going on with different garden themed cakes around the showplace. A stone sculpture.  Dining floral displays.  I was surprised that there were no bonsai displays, but all in all it was a nice show.

Mom enjoying a little break from our Michigan winter.



While in Chicago, we were able to get together with my niece Jennifer.  Grandma's green beer was because that was the Saturday that Chicago has it's St. Patty's day parade.







All in all a good time was had.  Wonderful italian dinner and time to visit.









Chicago Flower show

Mom and I are headed to the Chicago Flower Show this weekend.  About 3 years ago I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show, the great grand mother of all shows here in the U.S.  And loved it.  We'll see what kind of job Chicago does with a show.  It's at Navy Pier.  We are taking a bus down on Saturday, hope to see my niece, Jennifer, who is living in Chicago now and then Sunday we do the show.  Next month we have plans to go to the International Quilt Show in Cincinnati.  That should be fun as well.

Wish I'd shoveled yesterday...

Nine inches... oh my aching back.  Now I'm wishing I had gone out a shoveled the first four or five late yesterday instead of having to do all 9 today.  Not a day off for me so hoping I can get out the driveway without shoveling this morning and then will do it tonight.  Ahhhh Michigan

Additional fabric choices

Yesterday was the last day of "Spring". No snow left on the ground and mild temperatures.  But no worries, today winter is back.



Yesterday I went out to Ken & Pamela's to help Pamela stencil a border in Miss Molly's room.  Molly discovered that you could peel off the wallpaper border in her bedroom.  So Pamela decided to stencil a border on.  That's one way to outsmart an almost 2 year old.  Also discovered that for now Molly is in a youth size bed, do guess Uncle Darryl's quilt should get finished first.  Especially since he and Anna have set a May 15 date for their wedding.  Got to get cracking.

Friday night I went to check on fabric for Jennifer's quilt.  Unfortunate the white floral almost totally gone so I opted for the orange floral along with 3 other prints that "go".

Now I just have to decide on a pattern. and maybe find one or two more fabrics, but this is a good start.

We have just one more go around in our block exchange.  Jo let me know that in Fons & Porters Love of Quilting March/April issue they have a Monkey wrench quilt set with plain shirting block between.  I'm doing my blocks in a positive and negative in white on white with my indigo collection.  Here are a few of my blocks.



Fabrics

My mother is in the mode of making "wedding" quilts right now.  My nephew is engaged and in my mother's mind the 2 nieces who aren't engaged yet, but in their 20's are on their way.  For my other niece who has been married for about 5 years, my mother made an embroidered quilt. 

Her preference in quilts is whole cloth quilts or embroidered quilts.  Neither takes cutting or piecing, which she doesn't much enjoy.  Early on my one niece made it known she would like a pieced quilt.  And she was specific about the colors: brown, orange, green and blue.  I know my mother had thoughts of primary colors and that is just not her bag.  This weekend coming home from a retreat, I and a friend stopped at a store and I think I found just the right fabric.  I am ok with the orange background print but think my mom would probably prefer the ivory background, but we'll see.

Guess I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Quilt Retreats

So how can anything be more fun?  Time spent with friends, doing something you love, a great work space and good food.

Some of the Variable Stars spend the weekend at the Hankard Inn at Pleasant Lake.  A few friends and relatives were also included.  There was scrapbooking, quilting and painting going on, lots and lots of conversation, naps, late nights and just time to decompress.

I got back our last mystery quilt from Wendy who quilted it for me.  This time I decided to go with some brights, quite different from my usual civil war reproductions.

I also finished putting borders on a mystery quilt from a couple of years ago.  I would never have thought of using greens and purples together, they just weren't in my pallet but I always enjoyed quilts at guild guild that were that color combination.  So for this mystery I decided to try green and purple.  I think it turned out good.  Looking forward to seeing what Wendy does with it. I think the pattern was called inlaid tiles.

I had planned to work on a quilt for my nephew, Darryl, this weekend but left behind my background fabric.  So I sewed as far as I could get with the fabric I had with me.  This quilt is a great scrap user.  It's going to be a queen size so I have a LOT of blocks left to make.

Last of all, in the box I took with my projects in were a bunch of 4 inch squares that I had cut after making a floral quilt for my sister-in-law.  They were all soft, faded looking florals.  I had along a medium green fabric that I had bought so I figures I would just sew the square with a narrow 1 1/2 inch sashing between and see how far I got.  Ran out of the green.  I have one more column to add, I think, the sashing horizontally and then a border.  I think this will be for my great niece, Molly.



Finally just a few pictures of some of the girls ladies at work.

Doesn't everyone look serious?  Nose to the grindstone.

Finally a couple of TA-DA's  Becky and Roxie finished a couple of projects.

Becky's finished quilt

Roxie's son-in-law's tee shirt quilt

Now, back to the work that pays the bills tomorrow. Updates on Molly and Darryl's quilts coming up.