January BJP08Update

My inspiration and my January Bead Journal Project finally got done. Yes, I do realize that this is the first day of May. My time has been taken up with both my grandchildren playing ball, a trip to Paducah and life. My muse is silent, I think because of the yelling at the ballfield, that yelling is Mawmaw when Will and Gianni do well. The picture above is a play day that Will and I had in January. He loves to paint.

This is the inspiration for January - Will's finished painting. The lines were done by running a toy car through paint and then onto the paper. He really loves to do that and really I tried it, its fun.

This is my beaded project inspired by the painting. Lots of beading colors to choose from. I mixed the sizes of beads on this, not just seed beads, but a mixed lot of blues that were all shapes and sizes.

It was fun doing this one and I have the materials ready for my next beadproject. Time and my muse will return. Ball season ends in June and it will be too hot to be out and about so I look forward to having some fun beading soon.

Paducah, Kentucky

Today is a special day and I hope a special couple of days. Some friends and I are off to Paducah to the Quilt Show and MOST importantly to Hancocks!!! It has been about 4years since I went and so it will be almost new to me. The town is my favorite part - yes even above the quilt show. To walk its streets of so much history and to see the old homes and downtown buildings still standing. Paducah is a peaceful town to me. Well since I can't travel in my PJ's I will sign off and get dressed.
Off to have fun!!!!!

Quiltmania Projects

Recently I posted about a quilt retreat in Ferndale. We had Monday thru Thursday to work, visit, create, visit, eat, visit, well it was a retreat with a lot of old friends and new. I had 2goals during this time and made both of them, plus added one. The first
picture above is a paper-piecing class I took with Pat Wade. She is a wonderful, patient teacher, which we all need and want when we take a class. Won't this make a wonderful wallhanging?

The one goal I had was to get started on granddaughter Gianni's quilt. She chose the brown fabric with pink, off-white and green polka dots when we went to Cincinnati, Ohio last summer. There is a quilt shop in Waynesville, Ohio that is wonderful. This pattern will be a double pinwheel from Eleanor Burns Quilt in a Day Series (right!!!!). Anyone out there get a quilt done in a day - I want to meet you!.

The bottom picture will be the border blocks. The top picture is the inside blocks. In between I am going to use the green as an accent color. Haven't gotten that yet, but since I get to go to Paducah next week, surely Hancocks will have just what I need. And won't the search be fun?

The other goal I had was getting the backing done for my grandson Will's quilt and getting it basted. That has also been accomplished. If I could only get as much done here at home as I do at a retreat, life would be wonderful. However, at a retreat there are no piles, of dirty laundry, no phone calls, no television and not very many interruptions, except to eat,visit, play, eat, visit, play. Well you get the picture. If you ever have an opportunity to get away with friends, do it. Life is too short not to have fun.

Some Quiltmania Pictures

Last week I had the pleasure of going again to Saline County Guild's Quiltmania. Our guild has been doing this retreat for several years.
Above, seated is one of the teachers, Royce Stoker who was teaching Seminole Patchwork, which she is well known for. The next day Pat Wade did a class in Paper Piecing, which I will show later. That was the class I chose to take and so enjoyed getting perfect little pieces.

These two ladies have been in our guild for many years and have helped me on several occassions. Bobbie is in the plaid shirt and Billie is in the denim. It just dawned on me they both have boy sounding names. I talked Bobbie into taking the paper piecing class with me on Tuesday.

Everyone has their own table to put their sewing machines and cutting mats,etc on. You can see they cluster, there were several of these clusters around the room. You get there early and you get to set up a clusteror joine one. We all do a lot of roaming around visiting and oohing and awing at each others work. My next post will be of some of the work that was done there, but I wanted to show Cabe Hall where we are so blessed to be able to meet.

This is my friend Kelley busily working on her binding for some crazy quilt placemats she made earlier. She came out just to spend the day, which was an option if you didn't want to stay there all four days. Ferndale where it is held is a lovely drive of about 15 miles from Little Rock. It is so enjoyable to have someone cook for you for 4 days where you can concentrate on friends, quilting, and most of all having fun.