High Fiber--Quilting Fun and Hitting the Road!

Vintage Stitchers met on Thursday out on Barbara's lovely covered patio.

Brenda had finished quilting her Hungry Caterpillar quilt. Her's the front:

And the back:

She did the quilting herself with her long-arm quilting machine.

Anna was visiting from Texas. She used to be a regular attendee of the group until she moved away. She was finishing up a quilt her daughter pieced, the daughter's first quilt and a gift for a friend who was getting married.

Here's the back:

Anna told us a funny story about the label. The daughter made a mistake with the bride's new last name. Oops! She had to cut the label apart and piece it with the name spelled correctly.

When Julie, our resident professional quilter, shows up with finished quilts, it's almost like Christmas! She brought this one for Anna. It's made of hexagons that were pieced using the "stack and whack" method, so each one is a pie made up of six identical wedges. It's called stack and whack because you stack up six identical pieces of fabric, matching up the pattern on all six, then cut. Here she shows one of the hexagons:

The 3-D tumbling blocks are also hexagons. She added them to the quilt because she accidentally cut some of the original pieces wrong. I think it makes the quilt rather special, so a happy accident! She put more 3-D blocks on the back for the label:

Barbara is finishing up an applique quilt. The stylized flowers have running stitches made by hand with black embroidery floss. What a fun quilt!

As usual, Rebecca is working on an applique project. She's our queen of applique!

I'm working on this project, which I started several years ago:

The pattern is Mary Sorenson's "Delectable Pathways."

My Daisy Chain quilt came back from Julie, so Barbara brought out her similar quilt. Her white spaces are bigger than in my quilt, and my border is different.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my quilt. I'll try to post photos next week. I love the '30s repro fabrics!

The knitting group met this week, too. Everyone there was named Barbara except for me! The Barbara who was hosting had finished these baby hats for her twin grandchildren. This was for the girl:

This one is for the boy:

Another Barbara had just finished these socks:

She usually works without a pattern, and her socks turn out great!

Sunny and I had great visit at the nursing home last week. Here one of her clients bends over for a kiss, which she is only too happy to bestow:

I'm her driver, appointment secretary and holder of the leash, so it doesn't drag on the ground. Otherwise, she does all the work. We're registered as a Delta Society team with Therapy Animals of Utah.

We will be off in the trailer tomorrow and will be gone for 2-3 weeks. I will try to post to my blog next week, though. We're visiting Oregon to take part in the wedding of DS2 and his lovely bride, our DDIL2B. Most of our family will be there, so I will have lots of photos to share. Daphne will be meeting her new cousin-in-law, Leo, who is just three months older than she is.

I will be taking part in another Mitts of Steal delivery while I'm in Oregon. I will try to get photos to share!

(If any of you plan to stop by our house while we're gone to see what kind of goodies you can remove, you will find only a lot of dusty books, my stash of yarn and fabrics, my Featherweight sewing machine, my ball winder and swift, and a big container of recycling. Everything else of value will be in the trailer, including my iPad and MacBook, and DH's computer. I'm also taking my spinning wheel, so I can be ready for Tour de Fleece when it starts. If you do break in, please adios the recycling. The recycling center is on the hill next to the freeway. Thanks!)

What's on my needles: DBIL's "Prayer" cardi, front and back finished, and I'm just waiting to get a properly fitting sweater from DBIL as a guide for the sleeves. Also making good progress on Daphne's Bees' Knees cardigan, as I'm starting the honeycomb pattern in the body. My applique project is staying here, since I'll be participating in Tour de Fleece while I'm gone, but I will probably CO another pair of Mitts of Steal.

What's on my wheel: The Louet Olive Green Corriedale, ready to ply.

What's on my iPad: The Shelters of Stone by Jean Auel.

What's on my iPod: Various podcasts, still including The Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini, read by the author. 

What's my app of the week: AAA's TripTik app. Not very up-to-date, but I'm hoping it will be soon. Also plan on using my GasBuddy app and Free Wi-Fi app during the trip.

What's in my wine glass: Ironstone 2009 vintage Cabernet Franc. Not bad!

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and MacBook working together, but no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.