My Juki machine

Veronica has been sewing away on her beloved Juki sewing machine.  She started with a challenge last Wednesday.  Her friend Carol said they were going to use up some fabric!  Veronica told Carol she was in.  Veronica decided she wanted to get rid of her yellow fabric stash.  She doesn't like yellow, but she sure does have a ton of it.

So she cut cut yellow till she had over 100 2 1/2" strips for the pattern Carol said they were working on.  Then off she went to the sew-in that Dayton Quilt Guild had.  They sewed all day, they raced sewing fabric strips.  They were maniacs!  But they were having fun.  They talked about all the memories in these fabrics strips.  A few came from some friends who have passed away, but there were still some great memories of shopping trips and "what the heck possessed me to buy this fabric".  At night she came home to work on her mini stars.  She says they're a beast, she has so many seams using her tiny scraps, but her Juki sews right thru them like shes sewing butter.  Butter, Yum!  Sorry, this bear loves to eat.

She's been working on a lot of stuff, she even sewed mini yo-yos on the drive to Louisiana for her granddaughter's birthday party.  Then she worked on hexies going the other way.  Shes says she's cleaning up fabrics, using them up, putting them in quilts so they'll leave her house.  She does have a lot of fabric.  She's challenged herself to get it done. 

Shes' s got the orange challenge going with Mattie, Quiltsmart's owner. If you're interested in joining the Bitty Lone Star Challenge, you can find that on Bear Thread Design's Instagram at BTDQSFall Lone Star Challenge.  You've got time, it doesn't start till October 1st.  She's thinking of new challenges.  We'll see how long she keeps this up.  Stay tuned for more adventures with Veronica and Jaggie.

A Look in "The Box"

Where has the time gone?  Oh, yes, we've been busy quilting away.  Trying to empty "The Box". Well, let me tell you about "The Box".  It's just an ordinary white box that says UFO'S 1990's.  At first, I thought it was from outer space, but then Veronica explained that it was a box of unfinished objects.  So why isn't it called UO?  Right?  Even this bear knows that unfinished is one word.  Silly humans.  So, anyway, in this box there were lots of unfinished quilt projects.

Veronica pulled out something she called a watercolor quilt.  Looked like a bunch of squares to me.  She said it was a bunch of squares but when she finished it, it was a really cute wreath quilt.  She said it's a little more yellow than she wanted, but she's happy that it's done.  Well, at least the top is done.

She also found some quilts partially completed from a week of classes with Trudie Hughes, way back in 1993!  Now that's like a thousand years ago.  She said one only needed the border, so she got that one done.  She said it was already cut for her.  She had 4 others that were partially sewn together and some that were cut.

She found some paper piecing papers, she said they would be little stars when put together.

She's been happily sewing every day, and half the night on her Juki DX7, she's in hog heaven now that she's got her Juki to sew on.  She says her Juki is the gift that keeps giving.  It gives her hours of fun, fun, fun.  I hear her singing I love my Juki, I love my Juki, I love my Juki.  Every once in a while, I hear say, I love that the thread cutter is on the foot pedal.  She says this saves her so much time.  And the light is so very bright. You can see everything! Oh and that presser foot that comes up when she stops sewing, it's amazing!!!  She was up to 4 this morning sewing.  I even took some pictures, they were kinda dark, but she's at it again, so I'll get some more this morning.

Stay tuned to see the rest of the quilts from "The Box" as she finishes them.

Almost Done

I hope everybody had a great Christmas day, we took the day off, and as soon as Veronica gets up she'll finish Wednesday's project.

Why is she working on this so diligently?  Well,on Tuesday, January 6, 2015, she'll be the guest speaker at Bay Area Quilt Guild in Houston,  They meet at Mount Olive Lutheran Church located at 10310 Scarsdale Boulevard, Houston, Texas  77089.  She's got lots of quilts to show, so come on down to visit the guild and check out her quilts.  She has mounds and mounds of blocks that haven't been put together, so she thought she would try to get some new quilt tops to add to her lecture. See you there and don't forget to check back about lunch time to see her top.

Yummy batiks

What do you do when you have ends of strips left over from strippy batik quilts?  Stand back and watch.  Veronica had a crazy idea, yes, this has been a crazy week.  She's going to cut them into skinny strips and then she's going to make...

something.

Stay tuned, she'll have one on Monday.  See you then,

Crazy Veronica

So again, we found these when we were looking for her lost pattern.  She was going to make a flying geese quilt with different blocks that use flying geese units.  She found a book that had flying geese blocks in it and now she has collected more than 150 patterns for different blocks.  She wants to make a quilt, or I guess several with all of her different blocks.  So these are the first ones on her journey.  Is she crazy or what?  Well, if you know her, you know the answer to that question.        

She must have been in a yellow mood.  

These are blue and yellow.  You know she's got to have her blues in there.

More blue and yellow.  I think she's got them pinned together in groups for her quilts.  What a crazy lady she is!

Back to her blue and whites. 

Bags of flying geese units.  At least she's using different colors.  I was afraid they were all going to be the same color.  How boring would that be.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm???????? 

More "found blocks"

So this is another exchange that Veronica did.  This was way before 2001, how do we know, well, because she didn't live in this house when she made these blocks for the exchange.  They were building this house, so it was late 1999 or 2000.  Actually we think she this this several times, because she has four big bags of blocks.  Oooooo, say that real fast three times.  Ok, never mind, you know this bear has a mind that wanders.  

Pretty blues and yellows.

We took these out of the baggies.

These too.

Is it my eyes, or did I take a blurry picture?  Must be my camera.  I'm an excellent photographer!

Well see how many quilts she makes from these.  Can you guess where these are now?  You're right!!!  Her January quilt cruise box.  Stay tuned...

Last year's Mystery class with Bonnie Hunter

Last January, Veronica and her two friends Susan and Susan went off to Fabric Fanatics in Plano, Texas.  They were going to take a class with Bonnie Hunter and it was a Mystery!  So they loaded up all three of their machines, tons of fabric strips, because they were all made with 2 1/2" strips, clothes and of course snacks and off they went.  They spent two nights in the hotel and had a blast in the class.  Veronica was sick, so this is all she got done in the class.  One block put together and parts for another one.  She wasn't sure about the orange and she really doesn't like black, so...you guessed it, she never finished.  Well, she says she's going to, so this is going in her "cruise" box for January as well.  We'll see how much she gets done.     

She's not sure about the cheddar, but I kinda' like it. What do you think?  It does use a lot of scraps, so that's good.  Maybe she'll get her pile down.  I'll bet she is going to use some of the strips we saw on yesterday's blog.  What do you bet she will?  A bowl of berries?  I'm in serious need of berries.
She forgets that this bear gets hungry when she gets into her quilting.  

See you soon...

Look What We Found

Wow, look at the treasures we found while looking for a pattern that we've lost.  We found these
2 1/2" strips and 5" strips.  Veronica says she remembered she was in a trade a lonnnnnnnnng time ago.  The instructions say "Summer 2000", so it's been a while since they did this exchange.  Now that's she's pulled it out, she's going to take it on her cruise in January and use them up.  So we'll see what she comes up with.  And no, we never found the pattern.
    

Here's a close up f the 5" strips.

Here are some 2 1/2" strips.

Check back to see what she makes.

Lynn Roddy Brown

Last Wednesday we had Lynn come to our guild for a lecture.  She is great.  Here are some of her quilts.  If you've never had her at your guild, you should bring her in.  Lynn is also going to be an instructor on a cruise that Veronica will also be teaching on in April.   She is so funny and has the most incredible scrap quilts.

Retreat Pictures

Here are some retreat pictures from the week long retreat Veronica went on.  Here is Jaggie with a few 5" purple Sawtooth Star blocks.

This is the top, minus borders.  Veronica poached fabric from another quilt and got he borders on before she went home.   

This was her next project.  A mini, mini Mariner's Compass.  

As you can see, it is only 6". 

This is her Birds In The Air quilt top.  It is pretty big.  

This is her Blue Ridge Beauty exchange blocks.  She did this exchange with her group from the Bay Area Quilt Guild.  It is from a Bonnie Hunter book.

Here is Jaggie with a 38" Lone Star using Quiltsmart interfacing.  

Here is the finished top.

Here I am with a stack of tops Veronica finished.  

I don't know about you, but I'm pooped.  Here I am catching a snooze while the ladies eat dinner.  

Ok, these are some of the other quilts that were made at retreat.  

This one belongs to C.

This one is V's.

Here is P's.  We really do know their names, but we don't like to put their full names for safety sake.  Better to be safe than to be sorry.

Retreats are a lot of fun.  If your guild has a retreat and you have never been, try it out.  We had lots of laughs, lots of good food, and great memories that we won't soon forget.  Veronica is off to another retreat on Thursday with another group of ladies.  Look for those pictures next week.  

Here is another one of Veronica's tops.  

Here are the stars with the borders.

This is her shades 4 patch.  

What fun we had.  Thanks C. for making room for us at the last minute.