Jaggie Goes To Alaska

Ahoy Quilters. I finally get to go to Alaska.  Last time Veronica went on a quilting cruise to Alaska she took her husband Kevin and left me at home.  Well, this time its a guys trip.  Yes, Kevin took me along with Scott and Sam.  We had a great time.

I'm so tired.  We partied all night.

We had so much luggage we had to get our very own van to take us to the ship.  My job was to keep an eye on it.  As you can see I take my job seriously.  Ok, maybe I'll close one eye at a time.

I'm awake, I smell lunch.

So off we went on our journey to the port in Seattle.  I saw our ship and I was so excited I could hardly wait.  Kevin had to grab me as I was going over the fence.

Then I met Penny and Dale.  Here's a picture of Penny, she's tired as well.  Do you see her? She's a 20 month old Chocolate Lab.  I like chocolate very much.  Sorry, back to Penny.  She tried to eat me too, but we came to an understanding.    She's got a good sniffer on her.  Can you see what she does?  She sniffs out explosives.  We spent quite a while talking to her and Dale, they live over in Canada and work both sides of the border.  What a cool job.  I wish I could sniff anything that wasn't food, but unfortunately, I can't.  I can sniff out berries for miles around.  That's Sam sitting next to Dale, I kinda like to think he's got my back there.      

After spending time with Penny and Dale, our sewing machines arrived and it was time to get back to work.  Penny sniffed and I had to unload the truck, she's got such an easy job.  (sigh)

I'm really not sleeping guys.  I'm just resting for one teeny minute.







Next we went inside to check in and I got to meet some great ladies.  They wanted to make sure I could find my lifeboat, so they put a bracelet on me that let's everyone know where I need to be, you know, just in case......

























After I got my bracelet, we sat for a bit and then we got to get on the ship.

Let's go!!!  Let's go!!!  Let's Go!!!!!!!!!

Kevin seems happier than Sam.
Smile, Sam, you're in pictures now.

All ready.  I got my Sail and Sign card.   Let's go!!!  Follow me to quilting fun.  I get to sew on Janome 8900's.  I'm so excited!!!  Please take me the ship and to Scott, he's got the machines.  Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go.

Ok, we're finally outside and I ran into Moosie.

He's not so big, I think I can outrun him if I have to.

Ok, we're getting on the ship and to our first make and take.  Stay tuned for more adventures.......

   

We made our own Batik fabric

So back on May 16th we told you about our batik fabric that we made in St. Kitts.  It was a mess, we didn't want to show it until we cleaned it up a bit.  It had dried beeswax all over it and was too embarrassed to show it's face. So we boiled it a few times and washed it a few more times and finally dried it.  Here it is.

Veronica made this one with the turtles.

Kevin made this one.







Mary, who taught us how to make our fabric made this and gave it to Kevin.  I think she was a little sweet on him.

We were invited to come back and spend a week working with them to make our own fabric.  We'll have to see when we can do that.  Maybe in the winter time when it's really cold here.  See ya' soon,  

Here we go again

These quilts are just so jealous of each other.  We had a long talk with all our quilts and we told them that we loved them all.  This quilt is pink and green.  This is also one of the tops that Veronica completed on her five weeks on the quilting cruises.  We've got more to show, but for now, here is Tile Puzzle.  The pattern was a class from May 1993, yes it's that old.  The teacher was Trudie Hughes.

This is a queen size quilt and it took up the entire kitchen floor.  We'll get the borders on and to the quilter and voila, one more for the pile.

Blue got jealous

Poor blue.  Maybe that's where"ya' got the blues" came from.  Or am I the only one who says that?  I am a silly bear, after all.  Well, blue was jealous because red got all the attention the other day, and we've got tons of blue fabric as well, so that's what we're working with now.

We really do love blue and white quilts, we love red and white quilts as well.  Actually we love two color quilts a whole lot.  

Well, we love quilts with lots of colors, to.  Ok, you caught me, this silly bears just loves quilts!!!

So this is a really easy scrappy quilt.  This particular set of blocks was made by our friend Marion. Thanks for letting us use your picture and ours will be up pretty soon.  We don't even need to make our strips the same width for this one.  You just sew up all of your scraps, cut your blocks and sew them into these wonderful Sawtooth Stars.  Sew, sew easy to make.
See ya' soon,

 



 

For the Love of RED Fabric

What happens when you have a ton of red fabric?  What if it happens to be in strips or parts of what used to be a fat quarter?  It's not really enough to make into something without adding lots of other fabric.  You make a scrap quilt of course.  Veronica cut all of these fabrics up into the same size strips and started sewing.  She  was going to make a baby quilt, but it was so much fun, she cut more fabric.

And it grew and grew and grew.   This is actually only a quarter of it.  This is also the quilt that she made in the Scrap Happy class at Cactus Quilts a couple of weeks ago.  If you are interested in using up some scraps, come join us in our next class.  It will be in July, the last Saturday of the month, which is the 26th.  Stay tuned for more scrappy quilt.

Got Fabric?

Well, we do.

We've got this really cool yellow, blacks and white.  It all started with 5 yards of the floral fabric.  I received a five yard cut in the mail from Quilting Treasures.  Was I ever surprised!

I've had it hanging around for a while because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it.  Now I know, so stay tuned for this really great pattern.  Here's the fabric.

  I kinda' like that purple peaking in.  Should I add it in?????????????????  Stay tuned.

6" quilt block workshop

Ever have a block that's not quite the "right" size?  Well then this workshop is just what you need! Don't like 6" blocks, no worry there either.  You can make another size, we'll teach you how to "figure" it out.  We will be working with 6" blocks, because we love them.  No they are not miniatures, just smaller blocks.  We even use 3 1/2" strips, see, no mini pieces.

We will start on June 16th at Cactus Quilts.  The workshops are every Monday from 10:30 until 2:30 and the cost is only $15.00 a person per session.  Your teachers will be Veronica Cox and Elsa Tutt.  Come join the fun and you'll end up with a great quilt by summer's end.  We will only meet until August 28th.  If you can't join us for every session, that's ok, just join us every time that you can.  See you there,

     

Remember this picture?

Remember this picture, it is from waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in February.  We were going to count all the spools of thread that Veronica used in a year.  Well, here is a sneak peak as we're coming up on the end of the first half of the year.

We started with six spools in the bowl.

Then she added these 3 spools before she went on her 5 weeks of "cruisin" on her quilt cruises.

She took 6 projects that were already cut and a couple of UFO's, you know, just in case...

She took six spools of thread and guess what? She used them all up.  Yes, she really did, all by herself.  See, here they are.  We even have a picture of the sewing machine in her cabin.

She's not spoiled at all.  Shhhhhhhhhhhh, don't tell her I said that.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo,

now she's got 19 spools in her bowl.  She's been working hard to get lots of stuff done.  How many spools have you used?  I'll let you know at the end of the month what her half way total is.

Here is a bunny.  He's sitting pretty on that sewing machine.

And a puppy dog.

Nope, she's not a spoiled quilter at all!!!

Just for fun-towel animals and "The Seam Ripper"

Have you been on a cruise and returned to your room to find those wonderful towel animals on your bed, or hanging around your room. Well, I got plenty and  I got a private lesson while on Royal Caribbean last month.  It was a lot of fun and my cabin steward was just to doggone cute. He was so patient as he taught me how to make them.  I told him I was gonna give him a great tip. Do you know what he said?  He asked what was that thing on my counter in my room.  I looked over and he was pointing to my seam ripper, because of course, I had a sewing machine in my room.  I told him what it was and he asked where he could get one, he said that was much better than any (money) tip I could give him. I asked what he wanted it for and he said he could use it to clean the vacuum cleaner brush.  So, I had 16 in a baggie that I had brought along, you know, just in case...  We are after all on a quilting cruise.  I gave him all 16 of them and he was in hog heaven.
Now I know what to bring for my cabin stewards.  Here a few of my towel animals.
             

My favorite one.

Scrap Happy and Birthday Cookie

Wow what a great class we had at Cactus Quilts on Saturday. We also had a birthday cookie for the birthday girl.  We had a full house and got quite a bit accomplished.  This is our third Scrap Happy class, we meet on the 4th Saturday every other month on odd months.  So we will meet again for a different quilt pattern in July.  We welcome you to join us.  We always have room for more quilters.  Here are some of the quilters and quilt tops we worked on.          

Mary, hard at work.  Brenda and Edy's blocks on the flannel wall.

Edy working hard.

Sara and Susan in the corner.  But look, "the cookie" is right beside them.  hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.    

Joyce and Sara's blocks on the flannel wall.

The Cookie!!! yummmmmmmmy.

We'll show you completed tops shortly.  Edy and Susan each have one.