Orchid Show

I will be the first to admit that I’ve been a little spoiled this year compared to the rest of the country when it comes to winter snow.  We missed most of the major storms that seemed to batter certain areas of the country.  This week has made up for some of the storms we missed.  8” of snow on Monday (a tough 1-1/2 hour commute home), an icy 2 hour commute home on Wednesday, a long commute to work on Thursday due to an accident on icy roads that closed the highway over 5 hours, and 2-4” of snow predicted for today’s commute.  I’m ready for spring!!  I am soooo looking forward to the orchid show this weekend at Michigan State University.  To feed my need for spring, here are pictures from the show 2 years ago.


 



























 
This last picture is not a real orchid.  It is actually made from clay plastic.  It looks real, doesn’t it?

If you’re in the area of MSU in East Lansing on Saturday or Sunday, be sure to check out the (free) orchid show put on by the Greater Lansing Orchid Society.  It also includes a vendor show where they sell orchids--very difficult temptation to resist!!

On the quilt front, I’ve been working away daily on the comfort quilt.  I can’t believe that I’ve just about completed it in 2 weeks.  The binding goes on this weekend and then I’m done.  I’ll post pictures after the gift is given.  Meanwhile, I’ve completely neglected your blogs over the last few weeks, so I have a lot to catch up on.

Take care, and THINK SPRING!

Busy Weekend!

Thanks to everyone who suggested a quilt pattern for my comfort quilt.  I decided to make a disappearing nine patch along with some log cabin style blocks to fill in the rest of the quilt.  For the nine-patch, I went with 10” squares and ended up with big 14” blocks after cutting.  I figure I will only need 12 blocks along with a 5-6” border to get a good size lap quilt.  I got 9 blocks done over the weekend, and will finish 3 more this week.  I’m kind of making this up as I go along.  I LOVE the disappearing nine patch blocks!!  I had never done these before and they were so easy to make.

I told DH on Saturday morning that I was going shopping for fabrics for the quilt.  He pointedly looked at the wall where I have my stash and said “you’re going to shop for fabric”?  Yes, I said, because the colors in the this quilt are not colors I have on hand.  This was the first time he had ever made reference to my stash.  Hmmm…maybe it is getting too big?  Nah…he has just as much “stash” as I do only he calls it “home improvement materials and tools”.

Here is the fabric I purchased.  Lots of soft greens and pinks with dark red and green accents .  I love the red paisley.  Yay, I finally get to use paisley in a quilt.


I took the blocks to work so people could sign them.  I decided that this was going to be a “hope” quilt, so I found lots of inspirational messages & quotes of hope on the internet.  I printed them out and took them to work with me.   I gave everyone the choice to put whatever they wanted on the quilt, and offered the “hope” quotes for those who wanted to pick one out and use it along with their signature.  I thought this would be much more comforting for her to be able to read some of the messages as she is going through the treatment.  I think it is going to be a beautiful quilt, if I do say so myself!  I’ll take pictures next weekend when I finish the quilt.

Now, what to put on the back?  I wanted to use Minkee, but the LSQ owner kind of talked me out of it. Said it was difficult to quilt unless I “pinned the heck out of it”.    She thought that flannel would be a better choice for the back. As you know, I’m not too good at the quilting part, so I’ll probably do something simple like cross hatch or stipple.  Has anyone used Minkee for the back of a quilt?   Is it easy or difficult to quilt?  I really wanted to use something soft for the back of the quilt, and I love the feel of Minkee. . .

Then, yesterday we were planning to go to a nice dinner at a local restaurant, but that didn’t work out for us.  DH said at about 4:30 that he just didn’t feel right and that his heart had been racing for about 3 hours, and his hands were shaking.  He said he was going to drive himself to the urgent care.  I told him “no way” was he going to drive himself, and I took him to emergency.  Good news is that it wasn’t a heart attack and they don’t “think” it is anything serious.  He is going to have to wear an “event” monitor for the next few weeks to see if the problem recurs.  But we spent 4-1/2 hours in the emergency room.  Uggghhh.   

Hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day.

Need Help!

A co-worker just received some pretty devastating news yesterday that she most likely has Stage 4 cancer, and will start treatment in March after more tests to see if she is strong enough to handle the rigorous treatment.  We are all praying for her.

A co-worker and I want to make her a comfort quilt, and only have a very short time to do it.  I need any help you can give me with a quick & easy pattern.  I’d like to gather signatures from our co-workers to incorporate into the quilt.  I plan to go shopping this weekend to gather what I need to make the quilt, and prepare some blocks for signatures on Monday.  I’m thinking pre-cut layer cakes or charm squares might be the way to go, but am open to ideas with FQ’s as well.  Large block sizes will probably be a good thing. 

Any ideas or links where I can find a pattern?

Thanks for your help!

Something new. . .

I seem to lost the urge to quilt lately.  But I am happy to report I have been able to make a few more blocks to complete my pinwheel UFO. 


All I have left to do are 3 more blocks to complete this final border row and I’ll be finished with the top.  I need a quilt show to get my mojo back!!  Well, there is a shop hop next weekend, maybe I’ll check that out.

As for the something new, I decided to try my hand at knitting. For  a long time, I’ve admired the knitting that Rudee does.  She’s an awesome knitter.  So, I was in Lobby Hobby one day and this soft curly yarn was just calling my name.  So, I bought it.  I pulled out my trusty Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Needlework which showed me how to cast on.  It felt very awkward, as did the first few rows of stitching.  The stitches were very tight, but after the first few rows, it got a little better.  I am very slow, but everyone has to start somewhere.  This is what I’ve done so far
I don’t think this will replace my love of quilting, but I’m glad to be doing something creative.

Take care, and pictures of quilts on your blog would certainly be appreciated!!