A Whole Lotta Sumpin' Goin' On

I haven't blogged in several weeks because it's been crazy busy around here. Good and not-so-good crazy busy.

Let's see...

I've been quilting on and off and finally have a top put together. It's pastel tumbling blocks that I cut with my GO! cutter. Let me tell you, that GO! cutter is the best thing since sliced bread. I still haven't decided whether I want to put borders on it. Right now it measures 79-3/4" x 57-3/4" (unfinished). I'm thinking borders will give it a more finished look, and in my mind's eye I see three borders -- the inside border being solid white, a center border being the leftover pastel scraps somehow pieced, and a final white outer border. But I don't want the finished top to be gi-normous. I've played in my new EQ7, but nothing is speaking to me. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

More prizes from my block design have been coming in. I get very excited when the UPS guy stops in front of my house. In the past couple weeks I've gotten a $50 Gift Certificate from Electric Quilt, 10 quilting-related DVDs from Nine Patch Media (one of which is THE Roses of Remembrance DVD), and 12 books from Martingale & Co. They accidently sent me a duplicate of one ("It's A Wrap II") so they are sending the corrected book, and I already had "Follow-The-Line Quilting Designs Volume Four". So, I'm either going to hostess a giveaway here on my blog for the two duplicates, or donate them to my Quilt Guild. The Roses of Remembrance book will be arriving in August. :o)

Next up is more family time. Chris is now in the hospice program (he's lost 20 pounds and is having difficulty swallowing). So while he's feeling fairly good and is still up and around, my sister, brother-in-law, niece and my dad decided to come for a visit from NJ last week. We had a wonderful time together. Gosh, I miss them already. So between family visits and visits from hospice (nurses, counsellors, pastor, etc.), and my trying to squeeze in some quilting time, we've had pretty full and fast-moving days. I am grateful for hospice, though. At first it sounded so scary and so final to have hospice involved in our lives, but it is a very positive thing for both Chris and me. And we thank God for our blessings every day.

Hugs,

Suzy

Kids Quilt Camp 2010

Guess where I was last week? No, not the fabric store, silly. I was volunteering at Kids Quilt Camp. I even managed to coherce Kathy (the "eh, I'm not really that into quilting") into coming and we both had a blast. The kids were so great and sucked up the knowledge like the sponges they are. Most amazing was that I would say 70% of the kids had their quilts completely done by Wednesday. Guess what they did the rest of the week? Worked on piecing quilt tops for charity quilts! How awesome are they! I'm so proud to be part of this group.

Friday was Show 'n' Tell with their families in attendance where they showed off their completed quilts and even got to show the 3 (yes three!) finished charity quilt tops they completed by working in groups. Great fun was had by all.

This year I had a cutie pie named Catherine. She was such a ray of sunshine and so outgoing. The clown of the group, she had us all laughing at her antics. These kids are all so much fun to be around.

I'll leave you with some pictures from Camp so you can see for yourself how much everyone (volunteers and kids) enjoyed themselves.





Each one teach one,
Suzy

Sedona Sunset and the AccuQuilt GO! Cutter

This weekend I had a blast with my new GO! Cutter, which I purchased a couple weekends ago on sale at JoAnn Fabrics in anticipation of the $100 gift certificate I would receive from AccuQuilt as one of my prizes for the Roses of Remembrance quilt design (which I recently received, BTW).

I cut, pieced, quilted and bound this quilt in only 2 days! It's 20" square and was so much fun to make! I call it Sedona Sunset.

For the half-square triangles, I just used some leftover charm squares from my Bali quilt (still in progress) that didn't match the color scheme.

If you have the GO! and want to duplicate the quilt pattern (feel free), I used the half-square triangles from the value die that comes with the Cutter, the 1-1/2" strip die for the inner border, the 3-1/2" strip die for the outer border, and the 2-1/2" strip die for the binding strips. Easy peasy.

A GO! convert,

Suzy

My Prizes Are Starting To Arrive!

What fun to check the mail every day! The UPS/Fed Ex guy is now my BFF. LOL! Just check out my first arrival!


Aren't they GORGEOUS! $500 worth of Island Batik fabrics to die for! The large stack on the left/bottom are 1-1/4 yard cuts. The large stack on the right/bottom are 2 yard cuts. The two other stacks are FQs. There are also 18 hand-painted 5" squares and two very large hand-painted murals.

I can only dream what to make with them all! Although I did use one of the yellow FQs for a wall-quilt top I just completed. Pics of that coming soon...

Batik crazed and loving it,
Suzy

A Memorable Trip

We're back and we had a wonderful cruise! Being treated as VIPs didn't hurt either! LOL!

We have lots of pics. We took about 80 and are awaiting the pics from Heather and Rachel, too. I'm thinking of uploading them all to either Facebook or Picasa. Haven't decided yet.

Food, fun, family. It was all amazing. Anthony got a little motion sick the first night, but was fine after the first full day. To see his face at the show (Toy Story - The Musical) was priceless. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Disney's island, Castaway Cay, was beautiful! I was able to get the massage, but Chris wasn't. Apparently if you have cancer they can't do a massage for fear it may cause it to spread or whatever. They did give him a complimentary hand, foot and scalp massage, though. We also were presented with two complimentary robes. Comfy!

But the highlight of our trip was a private invitation by the Captain to tour the Bridge. Anthony even got to sound the horn (which was shaped like a Mickey Mouse face) while we were leaving port. How exciting!

I could go on and on about the trip, but will blog more once I get the pictures posted.

Cruisin' fun,

Suzy

(*Sings*) Cruisin' -- On A Sunday Afternoon!

Yes, we will be leaving Sunday afternoon on the Disney Wonder headed for the Bahamas. For 6 days and 5 nights we will be enjoying Deluxe Suite Stateroom w/Veranda accommodations. Our two daughters and grandson will be in a suite right next door. Family Time!

We really need this right now, as Chris's cancer is progressing faster and faster. He had a choking episode yesterday afternoon that scared the heck out of me and I thought God was going to be calling him home. :`o(

Chris is really looking forward to this and having the girls and grandson together, so we are planning to thoroughly enjoy the ship, the ports, the deep blue sea, and each others' company. Chris and I even have a couples massage arranged one of the days we are on Disney's private island, Castaway Cay -- in our own private cabanas out on the sand overlooking the ocean. I can hear the seagulls already.

Time to make more memories...

Suzy

The Quilt - Roses of Remembrance

Here it is in all it's splendor. THE Quilt. Made to help support Alzheimer research. My block is middle/far right. Isn't the quilt stunning! Keep an eye out for the book, dvd and embroidery cd. They should be out soon.

Roses of Remembrance Quilt

Roses of Remembrance Quilt - Back

My prizes will also be trickling in over the next two weeks. Squee!!!!!

Quilty happiness,

Suzy

The Secret Revealed . . . I WON!

Yes, I can hardly still believe it myself. One of my EQ Rose of Sharon Quilt Block designs was chosen as one of the 12 final winners. See the original posting here. When I found out several months ago (December 14 to be exact) I could hardly contain myself! Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson actually picked this block as a winner!



We were told there were over 850+ entries and 11 countries represented. Sharon and her business partner Elizabeth at Nine Patch Media narrowed it down to 50 blocks and Ricky and Alex took over judging from there. They "complained" that they were given a very difficult task of picking only 12 of the 50 they were given. LOL!

My block will now be in Sharon Pederson's Rose of Sharon Block Book, as well as the DVD of the same name and it will also be available as a CD from OESD Embroidery. I also won approximately $1,700 in prizes. I am soooo tickled!

Funny thing is that I was most proud when Sharon herself told me that she uses MY block as a teaching sample in her classes because it eclipsed a variety of nuances, such as placement, color, sizing and motion. Wow, what an honor! Oh, found the e-mail: Here are her words exactly, "...here's the block we fell in love with. It's not only going to be in the book, the DVD, and the Embroidery CD but I have chosen it to be the class sample block for the Rose of Sharon class. It has the perfect combination of shapes, sizes, colors, etc. and is 'traditional' enough but still sort of contemporary at the same time."

Doing the happy dance,
Suzy

Move Over Thelma & Louise -- Here Come Kathy & Suzy!

Ok, ok, so we weren't that bad and we made it out alive -- but we DID have a fun time on our little getaway weekend to St. Augustine.

Hubby was down in Stuart with his mother this past week (his Dad had to unexpectedly have quadruple bypass surgery but all went well). So while the cat's away the girl's decided to P-L-A-Y.

First thing Kathy said after I told her that hubby would be gone for a week was "Road Trip!" First thing I said in response was "St. Augustine!" Aside from the silly "pushing all the elevator buttons" and various small sundry things, we were what we consider well-behaved. Hehehehe. No falling down drunk or peeing on people's lawns and such. No, we were trying our best to stay out of jail and spend the night at the local Holiday Inn instead.

We walked and walked, and took the trolly tour and walked, and walked, and...well we were TIRED when we got home from the trip. Only a few pictures to share, as we couldn't be bothered with the camera. We were too busy window shopping and touring and real shopping and such.

We did take pictures of each other at one of the places we had dinner. The place was soooooo cute! It was an Irish Pub and Seafood Restaurant. We ate upstairs on the outdoor balcony overlooking the water, bridge, pirate ships, sailboats, yachts and even horse-drawn carriages. We even saw 4 dolphins playing amongst the boats. And the food was great, as well! Forgot to take pics of the food, but we both had the fish and chips. Dang they gave you alot. We could have shared after it was all said and done. :o)

Oh, and I can't forget to tell you we found a quilt shop! Right there in downtown St. Augustine. It was a really wonderful shop with friendly staff and great fabrics! Yes, of course I helped our fledgling economy by plopping down almost $200. But see my pretty treasures!

Hope your weekend was as great as mine,

Suzy

I Have An Exciting Secret!

...And finally after waiting several months, I'll be able to share it with you here on my blog on Friday, May 21, during the Spring 2010 International Quilt Market. YAYYYYYY!

Stay tuned,
Suzy

P.S. If you want to guess what it could possibly be (hint: check previous blog entries), leave a comment with your guess and I'll e-mail you and let you know if you are correct. I can't officially B-L-O-G about it until then, but I have been able to tell family and friends. And I consider y'all my friends. :o)