April Showers Bring May Flowers...

April Showers bring May flowers....While shopping in JoAnn Fabrics...Sherry found these pin kits a couple years ago..They were on a clearance table...These are beautiful Sherry...I have noticed that Sherry is getting a lot of UFO's done...the problem none of them are on her UFO list for this year...giggle...The Ol'Blogger

Easter Bunny was Busy....

Easter Bunny Sherry was busy for months before the family gathered for their Easter meal...The knives for Sherry's great nephews and grandsons are in the Easter bags...For the men in her family she made the Easter baskets...She embroidery these with her embroidery machines...in each are Easter candy..One of the guys said it had been many years since he had received a basket. :0) She also made each box to hold the necklaces and bracelet's for each of the girls and women in her family...We are all trying to get adopted into her family...Not only does she always have gifts but wonderful food...The Ol'Blogger

NLCS 32nd Annual Fine Arts Festival 2010

The NLCS had their The 32nd Annual Fine Arts Festival 2010

Pictured above Ally's Pottery..She is the grand daughter of Sherry and is in the 2nd grade..As you can

see she did a great job..

Her grandson Bryce's Fourth  Grade Class made this quilt from paper.Wonderful...

Sherry's grandson Nathan playing his Bass Clarinet at the Festival...He is in Junior High School.

They had a concert with the Art Festival...

Next generation of Artists..

The Ol'Blogger

Hoop Bag

Sherry designed this hoop bag for her embroidery hoops and a sewing table..24"by 21"and 8 1/2 deep..

Sherry place the pockets in the middle with Velcro so they are removable..

She made up the pattern as she went along..

As she said "One can never have too many bags"

The Ol'Blogger

Handkerchief Quilt

I don't know who made this...but I adore it..She had collected handkerchiefs over the years from women she knew..which lead to this quilt top..our friend Sharon embroidery the names of each beside their hankies...shaping the handkerchiefs she made  skirts...in some... parts of the hankerchiefs were use in the blouse..

Close up of one the blocks.....if you enlarge one can get a closer look...

I was impressed with them all....but this one really jumped out at me...

Geisha Tea Ceremony

Rhona's April UFO.Geisha Tea Ceremony

The origin of the Japanese tea ceremony came from China in the 8th century as an aid in alertness during meditation for Buddhist monks. Through the tea master Sen no Rikyu in the 16th century, it developed more detailed guidelines and spread to all levels of cultured society. It became an art form that both men and women participated in for formal guests or performances. It also became one of the geisha arts, in addition to dance, music, flower arrangement, and calligraphy.

She had purchased the piece of fabric at Shiisa Fabric Shoppe in Bloomington..She added fabric to area's and quilted.....which made it extra special...so peaceful...We all loved it..so did the workers at the shop..as she had it with her the day we had our monthly meeting at Jarad's...and of course we were to close to not stopped in at Shissa..so we insisted she take it in and share...They loved it...The Ol'Blogger

And the Winners Are...........

Half of SoTA Sisters were able to make the trek to Chicago.   We were able to get a picture of us standing next to our winning Hoffman Challenge Group quilt.

It was so exciting to see other people looking at our work.

Cindy's Hoffman Challenge was on display.   Can you believe it -she had forgotten it would be there!!!!
Kathy also has a Hoffman Challenge travelling this year.  Unfortunately, her quilt is in a different traveling group, so we weren't able to see it in Chicago.

Shopping is Fantastic in Chicago

One of the high points of our yearly trip to Chicago is a visit to the Discount Textile Warehouse.  This year we picked up a few items........

Oh, the trims, and trinkets and treasure we found! 

Another Chicago Project

Rhona's new kitchen curtains. Every year when I go to Chicago I look for fabric for new kitchen curtains and I finally found something I liked. Makes the kitchen much brighter and cheerier! PS - I made them on my new sewing machine. More on that later!

International Quilt Festival Chicago - Day 4

Breakfast at Eli's Cheesecake Factory and we head for Indiana.
On our first stop at Albanese Candy Factory, we promised Amy a piece of chocolate cheesecake -
and we delivered!!!!
As we left town, we picked up a little lunch to tide us over till we got back home.

And another memorable Quilt Festival Chicago is now history.

On our first stop at Albanese Candy Factory, we promosed Amy we'd bring her a piece of chocolate cheesecake