A Little Quilt

I haven't had any time this week to play with my new machine.  My boss was in London for the Rams/Patriot's game and so I ended up working a lot more than I planned.

Today, however, I was able to finish up this little quilt I showed you a while ago.  I tried one of the new decorative stitches (circles) on the binding.

I was trying a new half square triangle technique and thought my PKM fabric was perfect for this.  I also just did some stipple quilting.

Back to more sewing.

Later,

Tracey

Not Much Quilting But A Lot of Music

If you want to see a fantastic concert, go see Brad Paisley in his new Virtual Reality Tour.  We went on Thursday and it was truly one of the best concerts I have ever been to (and I'm a Jimmy Buffett fan).   There was even a "surprise visit" by Carrie Underwood, but since the name of the tour is "Virtual Reality" you soon realize Carrie is virtual as well.  But boy, did it fool us!

On a quilting note, there's some news from Ami Simms on the Alzheimer's Art Quit Initiative that I would like to share:

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative has received it's 12,000th donated quilt. It's a beautiful quilt by award-winning quilter and teacher Charlotte Warr Andersen and it will be included in our October online quilt auction (October 1-10). 

See all the auction quilts here http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html

See the press release about the 12,000th quilt (with pictures for you to use) at http://www.alzquilts.org/aare12doqu.html

2. August 2012 was the most successful month in AAQI history for selling Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts online. (http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltsforsale.html)   The AAQI sold 248 quilts bringing in $13,469. The average price per quilt (and this includes the monthly online quilt auctions) was $54.31. The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative has raised more than $763,000 for research since it began in January 2006. The AAQI prides itself on transparency with an online explanation of every dollar earned and spent. See the "Show Me The Money" page at http://www.alzquilts.org/show.html

3. Thanks to the incredible generosity of the quilting community, the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative will be bringing MORE than 2,000 quilts to sell at International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX (Oct 31-Nov 4). With a month to go (before the shipping deadline) more than 1,600 quilts have already been tagged and bagged and are waiting to be shipped. In  2011 the AAQI offered approximately 1,200 quilts for sale.

4. The AAQI will be putting out a call for helpers to staff the booth at IQF Houston. Please follow the AAQIUpdate blog (http://aaqiupdate.wordpress.com/) for announcements and sign-ups. Follow the AAQI on FaceBook athttps://www.facebook.com/AAQI.News

Did you notice #3?  2,000 quilts are going to Houston!  That's awesome!

Today is errand and lawn mowing day.  We have a home game against the Bengals tomorrow so not much will get done before we head to the game.  

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tracey

Quilt Fest 2012

Went to Quilt Fest on Friday with my mom.  Sooo many beautiful quilts.  My mom commented that there were so many and not one was the same.  I have to agree.  Lots of variety.  The quilt above was done by my friend, Cathy Peters.  She is our long arm quilter at Cinnamon's.  She won a blue ribbon!  Sooo proud of her.  Great job Cathy!!

This was a scrabble quilt.  Love the creativity.

I took a couple of the dog quilts for my friends at work.  They're big dog lovers.  For you girls!

One for my husband who has been bugging me for a couple of years to make him one of these:

On Saturday we headed over to the Goodwill Thrift Store.  Found a SUPER buy.  This camera bag was $4.99 and brand new!  Woo Hoo!  Love deals like this.  You can see my mom in the background holding it for me.

On a football note, my Jaguars won today.  Great job guys!  Not pretty, but you got the job done.

More later,

Tracey

My Olympic Moment

We had a surprise visitor today.  Gold Medalist Sanya Richards-Ross is in town.  She's actually here to see her husband, our own Aaron Ross.  She spoke to the staff and we were all able to get our picture taken holding one of her medals.  What a thrill!

Oh, and she's an itty bitty thing.  ;-)  I'm going on a diet.

Later,

Tracey

P.S.  She does 1,000 sit ups a day.  I better get started.

An Early Halloween

I decided to get a jump on Halloween this year.

I love my Halloween Village!

Some News From AAQI

I received an email from Ami Simms asking me to pass along some more information from AAQI.  I'm happy to oblige.

AAQI Starts Hoarding Quilts For Houston

 

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative hopes to bring 2,000 quilts to sell in its booth at IQF Houston. (Exhibit area, number and row as yet unknown.) They've already started moving quilts from the Quilts For Sale page(http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltsforsale.html)  over to the Hoarding For Houston page (http://www.alzquilts.org/houston2012.html) They will continue to move quilts, starting with the lower numbers first. So if you're not going to Houston, it's time to shop now!

 

And, if you've got a quilt in the works: GER 'ER DONE!

 

We are working really hard to shorten the time it takes to get your quilt from registration to sale.  

Thanks for the update Ami!

September Already?

I could have sworn we were just starting August.  I looked up today and suddenly, it's September.

These past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of cuts and signings.  We had to cut the roster to 53 and then re-sign 8 to the practice squad.

This weekend, I'm finally able to do a little sewing.  I learned this technique from Quilting Quickly II on Craftsy.com.  Using all Jelly Rolls, you sew a strip set with a dark, a light, and a dark (in my case I used white).  Then, on the second strip set sew a white, a light, and another white.

After sewing your two strip sets, put them right sides together and sew 1/4" down each of the long sides.

At this point, you cut.  Line up your 45 degree line on your ruler with the stitch line and trim off the edge.

You're now ready to cut your triangles.  Move your ruler to the bottom stitch line and line up your 45 degree line to this stitch line and cut.

Continue cutting, alternating top and bottom stitch lines.  And when you open it up to press, voila:

Now play:

I think this will be a cute throw when it's done.  Lots of choices and you get a different look depending on how you turn pieces.  

Ok, time to go watch my team play.  More later!

Tracey

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

Hi everyone,

Several years ago my husband's grandfather passed away.  However, in the years prior he started to decline with what was later diagnosed as dementia/Alzheimer's.  This is a terrible disease.

Ami Simms, who is Founder and Executive Director of The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is trying to change things by raising money for Alzheimer's research.  Please check out her site, AAQI, to learn different ways to help.

To date, the Initiative has raised $735,000 but so much more needs to be done.

Olympic Gold

Congratulations to Sanya Richards-Ross for winning the gold medal in the Women's 400m.

We know Aaron is so proud of you and Jagnation is proud of you as well.  We can't wait to see the medal!

A Productive Weekend

It's been raining a lot here this weekend which means - sewing!

This the baby rag quilt I made for a baby shower in a couple of weeks.  She's having a girl.

I also finished all but the binding on this table runner.  I had a wild hair and wanted to do some half square triangles.  I learned a new technique, which I'll share in another post, and it was sooo easy!  Using my PKM fabric from Lakehouse.

And last, I'm taking the Hawaiian Quilting 101 class from Quilt University taught by Nancy Chong.  Ever since I returned from Hawaii earlier this year I've been wanting to make a Hawaiian Quilt.  This is a whole new process for me since I've NEVER done hand appliqué before.  So far though, the class instructions have been fabulous and I've been able to follow along easily.  It's all pin basted at the moment.  The fabric is one that I brought back from Honolulu.

Next step will be the thread basting.

Thanks for checking back.  I'm off to make dinner.

Have a great day!

Tracey