Quilty News

It's been a couple of busy days getting unpacked and reorganized after our trip. Yesterday I had to make a trip to the grocery store. It was senior discount day and, due to poor planning, I ended up there right at noon, and so the store was mobbed. It would have been the usual painful trip except I got in line to check out behind a very, very old woman. She noticed I was purchasing orange juice, and informed me that it would make good Mimosas. Then she told me how to make them. Okay, so that saved the day. I hope I'm that much fun 20 years from now. When I got home I started in on a mountain of laundry, but managed to get it all done by day's end.

Despite all that domestic drudgery, I had some time in the sewing room yesterday afternoon. I caught up on just one of the Tiny Tuesday blocks. This is Sally Trude's tutorial, and it was excellent. Even with Sally's great tutorial, my block took the entire afternoon to make.

Just finding a good fabric for the eyes took absolutely forever. And then...to add insult to injury...as soon as I had the beak sewn together, the owl started telling Knock, Knock jokes. I remember when Sally made her owl quilt, she was having a problem with the owls telling Knock, Knock jokes all the time. I'll admit being skeptical at the time, but no doubt about it. Here's just one joke the owl told me.

Owl: Knock, Knock 

Me: Who's there? (And, honestly, how can anyone resist saying it?)

Owl: Hoo.

Me: Hoo who?

Owl: You talk like an owl!

And I'm here to tell you, it only went downhill from there.

With so many distractions, I only managed to get one block sewn yesterday. The only saving grace was the arrival of this book. I saw it when I visited the Stitchin' Post on our way home Sunday, and decided to purchase it on Amazon. I'm interested in modern quilts, but always wonder how people find inspiration or know what to do with abstract art. Whenever I attempt something like that on my own, I end up echoing that old David Letterman bit: Is it anything? So, enter this book. Lots of good info and ideas.

Some of you have asked how Matthew is doing on his Guatemala adventure. I think this picture says it all. Matthew is second from the right. Does he look like he's having fun?

Yesterday was his birthday. We've been able to communicate via text and video using the Whatsapp app. What a marvelous world we live in! I tried calling him yesterday morning with no luck. He messaged me later in the day to tell me he was on an "adventure," and he would call later. Along the way, he sent me these images from a fabric shop in Guatemala. That's his friend, Lyndsay in the image below.

Look at the incredible colors in those bolts of fabric. Lyndsay explained that all of this is hand-dyed, and hand-woven. Here are some pictures of the quilts from the fabric store.

Amazing, huh? And I'm touched that they thought to send pictures, knowing I would enjoy them.

Okay, so I have just one other thing to tell you about. In my email this morning was a Google alert about a Quilt Block Challenge going on at the Virgina Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg, Virginia. You might remember that we visited the museum while we were traveling in Virginia last year. You can read my blog post about it right here. (Scroll down...it was a busy day.)

Here's the blurb from their website explaining the challenge:

Here's a picture of the quilt from their collection:

It's a fundraiser for the museum. It costs $5 to submit a block. When the blocks are made into a quilt, it will be raffled off to raise even more money. And heck, $5 seems a small price to pay. I love participating in these "quilting community" events. You might remember that I participated in the Astronomical Quilt Block Challenge when quilter Karen Nyberg was aboard the International Space Station. If memory serves, 22 quilts were made from this challenge and put on display at the Houston International Quilt Show a few years back. Here's the quilt containing my block. It was thrilling to see it there.

Then recently, Meg Hawkey requested "signature blocks" from friends. Last week, she posted the quilt she's making from all the blocks. I tried increasing to size of this image to find mine, but I wasn't able to. Nevertheless, it's fun knowing it's there.

Edited to say I spent some more time looking at this image, and I found my block...just to the left and a little below center, circled in green. Fun!

So anyway...I'm going to submit a block to the Virginia Quilt Museum for inclusion. You can find all the information about the challenge right here, including the free download for the requested block.

That's all I have for you today. After working my tail off for the past two days, I'm taking today to be an NBS day (Nothing But Sewing). I'll get caught up on my Tiny Tuesday blocks, and I'll make a block for the Virginia Quilt Museum. If there's still time left in the day, I'll get to work on some other block...maybe April's block for the Garden Sunshine BOM.

What's going on in your sewing room today?