Girl's Day Out

Lovely little nut chopper in original green paint.

    Last Saturday, friend Mandy and I planned on going to a local auction.  We are both antiquers and this promised to be a good estate sale.  We were a little concerned about the weather because the forecast was temperature in the 40's.  Ok, Missouri weather in March is a little dicey at best.  It is all about the humidity and the wind.  40 degrees with dampness and wind is a lot different than 40 degrees with sun and no wind.  Well, we experienced the downside of that discussion.  We lasted two hours (even in long johns) before we decided a hot lunch and an antique store looked better than any possible bargains at this auction.  One of our favorite places in the area is "The Simple Life" in Concordia, MO. Great lunch and two floors of antiques.  We went to the car on frozen feet, turned on the seat warmers, and headed to I-70.  30 minutes later, we were shopping and lunching in the WARM confines of The Simple Life.  And guess what, we still found some bargains.

The tin candle holder, the set of hand carved boxes and the felted wool eggs were in the shop.  I made the bunny to go with them.  (Pattern in the Spring 2012 Primitive Quilts and Projects issue, by Janice Minear)

Inscription on the back of the box holding the felted eggs.
The front says "To Dan, From Carrie"

And saving the best till the last, the pin-keep.  I have been admiring these in the antique shops.  This one is satin.  I have also seen them made of velvet.
     All in all, it was a successful day, although we had to go to Plan B.  There's a lesson there.







Hold this thought....
"For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come."
Song of Solomon

March Quilt Guild

One of my favorite times of each month is the Second Tuesday, which is Guild night.  I have belonged to this guild for 5 or 6 years and enjoyed every minute of it.  It is a great bunch of girls and we have a lot of fun together.  Last week, we had a sew-in for charity quilts.  I wish I had taken a few more pictures, but will share what I have.

    Here we are.  As you can see, a lot more visiting is accomplished than sewing.  I don't know if you can see them, but several of us have Featherweights and it is always fun to let them play together.

                                           
We always have sew and tell and here was the star of the show last week.  We have been saving selvages for Mary for two or three years and she made a selvage quilt.  It was amazing!  Each of the little stripes within the blocks is a selvage.  I'm not sure I have the patience for it, but it was sure impressive.  

Gina has been crocheting and made each of us a little spindle cover for our machines.  Isn't it cute on the FW?  It would even spin while you were sewing.  See why I love these girls so much?

Time Flies

Wow!  Where did that week or 10 days go?  I know a lot of it went into fretting about the oldest grandson, Drew.  He decided several months ago to join the Navy and left on 3/7 for Boot Camp.  We spent the week-end before he left at Branson, as a family, sort of a send-off vacation.  Last week I felt like I needed to prop up his mother, who was suffering some separation anxiety.  It was a busy week overall, but I did get some sewing done.
    Last Spring, a friend gave me these scraps from some of her projects to use in charity quilts.

Now, I have scraps, but mine are nothing like her "scraps".  I would be inclined to call hers "yardage".  Many of them were 10-12 inches square and 2-4 inch wide strips.   I cut a portion of it into 5" squares and 2 1/2" squares and made bow tie blocks (you have probably figured out I like that block).  Here is the little quilt all laid out.
It's pretty bright with lots of cute prints.  It should make some little one happy.
   Thanks to Julie,  I have enough "scraps" left to make another quilt if I make four or nine patches.  
   

Just as an aside, what is your favorite way to mark your rows before you start sewing them together?  Here is mine.  I have marked those flower head pins with letters of the alphabet, then I stack the blocks in order, pinned together with the pin for that row.  I always stack left to right.  It works for me.

Have a great week-end.  I'm going to a local estate auction, so hoping for some luck buying antiques.