UFO Update

Ok, I've got an update on Veronica's UFO adventure with her quilt guild .  They decided that since not everyone has a quilting machine, they are going to call it done when the borders are finished. Here are a couple of Veronica's completed tops.

This is a King size quilt top.  Veronica thought about putting borders on this and finish out those stars, just like the one below.  But geez, it's huge!  So......It's done!

All done, this one is smaller, so Veronica went ahead and finished the star tips into the border.

Another giant quilt.  Veronica was not going to make anymore King size quilts, but it just grew and grew and grew.  She's calling this one done as well.  How are your UFO's coming along?  More updates at the end of next month.

See you Monday.

Tip Thursday Sew Fresh removes cat urine odors!!!

Remember the story about this cat back on September 10, 2012?

It was about a call from a quilter who had bought 25 yards of fabric and her kitty did his business in the bag of newly bought fabric.  She used some Sew Clean, about half a cup and the lowest setting for water and she did get the smell out, but that got Veronica wondering what would get cat urine smells out. So...Veronica reached out to a manufacturing company who worked with her and the Bear Thread Designs team to create an odor eliminator that would remove the odor caused by time and animals. They actually used synthetic cat urine to test it.  Wow, what a test.  And yes, it worked great, all the cat urine smell was gone, gone, gone.       

Sew Fresh™ is an all-natural odor eliminator that removes odors without the use of scents or fragrances. The water-based cleaner is safe for use around children and pets.

We will be doing some Do You Know's on Sew Fresh in the coming Thursday's.  There are lots of uses for Sew Fresh.

So now we have Sew Clean and Sew Fresh.  Stay tuned to Tip Thursdays.   

Here's the quilt

or rather, what's left of it.  I love this quilt, and now I NEED  to re-make it.  I liberated it of it's other borders, by simply pulling....

I hate black fabric!!!  So for those of you who wanted to see the whole quilt, here's what's left.

As told by Veronica Cox to 

A Secret and Surprise!!

Hi all! Jaggie here! Michelle L, Veronica's daughter and I hijacked the blog to post this super secret message and surprise. Veronica's daughter is the Assoc. Editor, Gulf Coast of TEAinTEXAS, a cultural travel magazine for women and each issue has a quilting section where you can find out about a variety of quilting activities from shows and festivals to cruises. Their Fall issue is focused on quilting and coincides with the annual International Quilt Festival in Houston. 

So what's the secret and surprise?

Well the secret is that you get a sneak peak at the Fall Issue with this online digital preview HERE.

The surprise is that as the Quilting Coordinator, Michelle also wrote the Letter from the Editor as well, which she managed to keep from Veronica, though they talk 4 or 5 times a week!  

So, enjoy the preview and check out stories of Civil War Quilts, shop hops, holiday decorating and quilt shop news and activities.

Did you know? Three of Veronica's 2015 cruises are advertised in this issue. Book your cruise now and start 2015 off with an adventure!!

Black fabric

I've often told friends that I don't like black fabric.  I know a lot of people do, I just never seem to have any luck with it.  I've had 3 different quilts that have had black in them and they just shred and go away.  All three were made at different times, all the fabric was good quilt shop quality fabric, nothing cheap.  The first one was made by my mother-in-law for us and the black just shredded.  What do you tell your mother-in-law?  Good thing we're on pretty good terms.  It took me a few years to tell her, but I did.  And no, this quilt was never used or washed, it was small and just thrown up on the wall in front of the sofa.  The sun never hit it.

Next, I made another one with my friend Pearl.  We were working on a Strip quilt.  I had half of it sewn together and I had to rip it all out.  Made me ill.  Now all I have are squares, geez..........

Next I made a Trudi Hughes pattern, and Yes, the whole top was made and now I'm ripping that one, it's real easy though, you just pull on the fabric and it falls apart at the seam!

Yep, I don't like black.

As told by Veronica Cox to

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

I'm sure you've heard about the challenge.  Well Veronica got the challenge on Thursday evening. Yes, it was Scott who challenged her.  So on Friday evening she took the plunge.  Or rather she was dunked by her husband who says "I take great pleasure in doing this".  Hmmmmmmmmm, I wonder what that could mean.  So who did she challenge, it was a tough decision, Veronica's brother-in-law has this awful disease, so it took some thinking on who to challenge.  In the end, her nephews made the decision for her, yes, she will challenge all of the nephews to do this for Uncle Jim in Minnesota.

This is the way we do it in Texas!

Holy cow, that's cold!!!

 Will it ever end?????????????

Didn't faze those cows, did it?


So the nephews were dunked by their dads and then Veronica got the e-mail.  The entire L.... clan was getting together on Sunday to do the challenge.  Wow, that's over 100 people.  It was 6 sets of parents, so that's 12, plus their kids which is 29 cousins, plus, geez... over 100 grandkids and then the great grandkids, I think there were even a couple of great-great grandkids.  YIKES!!!!!!!  We had bar-b-q afterwards because that's how we do it in Texas!!!!!

Grandma would have loved it.

Idaho Beauty class

We had our Idaho Beauty class at Cactus Quilts this past Saturday and what a great time we had. This bear is getting to be a downright good teacher.  We had a great time with some of our regulars in the class.  We had  great time, as usual.  Here are some pictures.  Of course, here I am at the front of the class.

Here are Mary and Susan.













Piles of 4 patches.  Susan is half way done, she just needs her half square triangles and she can put them together.















Here's Mary's block.  Ready to sew it together.  Very bright colors, these are the ones Veronica used in Carla's quilt.















All done.  Do you see where Mary stuck me??????????????????????
Down here.

Was it something I said?













They are a tough class, I need a nap.

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it...

Yes, it's true, I just got my reservation confirmation for my cruise with Scott and of course Bonnie Hunter.  I'm so excited!  We get to go on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas cruise ship. I've got my room number, I've got one of those huge windows to look out at the sea and my bags are packed. I've got my Set and Sail paperwork, my luggage tags and I guess I've got to bring Veronica as she has the passport.  We're gonna have fun, fun, fun!  Hope you're joining us.  I need more of these days.

We're going to Belize City, Belize, Roatan, Honduras and Cozumel, Mexico.  We've been to Belize and the scuba diving there is amazing.  We've been to Cozumel like a million times since 1987, actually Veronica did her Open Water Certification in Cozumel. But we've never been to Roatan, and we're really excited.  I'll be on the beach while Veronica goes scuba diving.

      Or I can grab a kayak and hit the waves.  The last time we went kayaking we were in the Pacific Ocean, and it was so cool.

Maybe I'll be lazy and hang out in a hammock.  These are really hard decisions, well I'll have the weekend to think things over.  Hope to see you on board.  See you Monday.

Tip Thursday on Sew Clean

So here is a great tip from Sue out in Quiltland, she loves Sew Clean and she says that she uses a small bottle from the craft store with a small pointy tip so that she can get in to small areas, or really up close and personal with the Sew Clean.  She just pours a small amount of Sew Clean from her big bottle into this small bottle and she says it works great.  She says she tells everyone she knows about this.  Thanks for the tip Sue, I myself use a cotton swab to dab it on in small areas. I'm going to have to get me a small bottle, I think this is a great tip.   Sew Clean is an all natural spot and stain remover for quilts or other delicate fabrics.  Sew Clean is biodegradable, has no butyl or harsh alkalies.  If you are interested in purchasing Sew Clean you can go to your local quilt store. If you can't find it at your favorite quilt store you can purchase it from the Bear Thread Designs

website at www.bearthreaddesigns.com.      

So doggone cute

Ok, so maybe not dogs, but does so birdgone cute sound right?  No, not really, so I'm sticking with so doggone cute.  These are a gift from Sabrina, who was on Veronica's a Round Robin team. The blue one is Veronica's and the pink ones goes to her daughter.  Thanks Sabrina.

 

...Miles and Miles of Texas, or is it Piles and Piles of...

Half square triangles.  Yes, that's it, piles and piles of these half squares triangles.  What are they for you ask?  Well, Veronica wants to make Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Ocean Waves.  Bonnie's pattern calls for 5884 pieces.  Yikes!  That's a lot.  Best of all they finish at 1 1/2" and anyone that knows Veronica knows she loves tiny pieces.

So here is the pile Veronica sewed together in Charlotte as a demo on Janome's 8900.  These are all different sizes, and she just sewed and sewed.  She has been collecting waste triangles since 1990.  So she's got tons of scraps.

Down here are the unsewen triangles.    She's got piles and piles...

 Here are some solids, she'll just blend them in with the rest.

Wow, here are some oldies!

More oldies over here.


If you would like to make one along with Veronica the pattern can be found at Quiltville.com.  Veronica spent part of the day visiting with her friend Suzy and she cut these down to size, actually a little smaller than what Bonnie called for. Veronica cut these at 1 3/4", hers will finish at 1 1/4", she couldn't get anything bigger form her scraps. Bonnie's finished at 1 1/2". Veronica hopes to get some of it put together before her cruise with Bonnie in November 2014.

Stay tuned...

    

Cool Australian Fabric

Check out this great Australian fabric that Veronica received as a thank you gift from several Janome store owners who were in the states for Janome International Institute several years ago. She found these while she was doing her "deep" cleaning a couple of weeks ago.  She's been wondering what to do with them and it hit her.  She's going to use it for her next Round Robin. But then again, she has that Basket block she made for the Round Robin, and she's got that Lemoyne Star and she's got.... Ok, so that list goes on and on, but isn't this fabric great?

Here is a second piece.  It is pretty cool. 

I'm sure all these designs mean something, and we'll have to do some research, but just looking at them is great.

I'm thinking this is the Tasmania Devil, maybe.

Just really pretty fabric and it feels good, it's yummy.......