College Sorority Sisters A "Few" Years Later

How exciting for all three of us to be together after all these years. Donna and I live within about 10 miles of each other in Florida and Marilyn was in the area. It was so great that we were able to find a time for all of us to get together for a visit, catch up and have lunch before Marilyn and Rich headed back to Wisconsin.

Marilyn's husband Rich also went to school with us. He is such a great guy. He brought Marilynn over here and then spent time with their really special dog while we all caught up and had lunch.
It is so great when you get together with long time friends and they still are as special as they once were. Donna was the first person I met when I arrived at my dorm room as she was one of my room mates. She still is as exuberant as she was then.
If I am not mistaken Marilynn lived on the 3rd floor of the dorm while Donna and I were on the second floor. I remember lots of special times Marilynn and I spent together and things we did. You may have seen the post from several years ago last time she came for a visit and brought me a red plaid pleated wool skirt she bought from me in college.  How special she still had it and even more so that she could find it after several moves in their lifetime.
I feel so fortunate to be able to reconnect with long time friends.

Robbie Porter Payne Day On My Blog

Robbie does amazing beading. She worked on this squirrel for at least two years. It was beaded and she has a system for putting it on a background.

I am sharing this closeup of this piece so you can see the dyed background, the machine quilting and the hand embroidery. She LOVES doing handwork.

She is currently taking a year long online class. She had so many examples to share with us. These are just a few. They are done with paper, paint and dye. She is making her own stencils and making compositions with the papers.

You can see Robbie's blog here: https://robbiespawprints.blogspot.com/

I am so fortunate to have such talented and creative friends.

Beth Sherman Day On Today's Blog

This is the Pinnochio doll Beth recently made. 

Beth quilted this and then painted it with watercolor paints.

This was done with soy wax and painted. Beth always has a lot of new work. She loves to try to processes and new products.

We Are Three Of A Kind

Robbie, Kay and Beth all love to play with fabric, fiber, paint, dyes, design and  creativity. We each have our own way of doing this.

We all are continually trying new things and even revisited things from our pasts.

Friday the three of us got together for lunch and sharing, showing and telling.

It was an amazing day with each of us having things that were so different that what the other two were doing.  

Robbie does some of the most amazing beading I have ever seen. She is constantly trying new things and currently is taking a year long class online from an artist in the UK. Beth is an accomplished doll artists. She also does a variety of surface design techniques and is continually trying so many new things.
All of us make quilts, with each of us producing totally different types. I hope to be able to share some of the pictures I took at our get together on future posts. Blogger is still making me fight to put up a post so I feel one photo is my limit right now.
Robbie has a blog which I am sure you will enjoy: robbiespawprints.blogger.com

Eagle River Quilt

I made the blocks for this quilt close to 20 years ago. Each and every block took a lot of time to make. 

They sat in a box until I decided it was time to make them into a quilt this month. 

I was able to assemble the quilt in only 2 days which surprised me as there was a lot of figuring and filling in empty spaces to do.  

It is now quilted and bound and I'm pleased with the finished piece.

2019 First Quilt

This is a quilt I started in November 2018 using a Box Quilt block I made in 1993. I expanded the block in a medallion format.
You can see the circular quilting I used on it.

I designed and taught a sampler quilt class and this was one of the extra blocks I made as a demonstration block to show students how to construct it.

A Hug From Grandma Kay

I knit this shawl for my DIL Julie to wear for the wedding. I asked her to wrap it around Jessica and Kevin as a hug from Grandma Kay.

We are so happy to have Kevin as a part of our family.

Jessica and Kevin's Wedding

My granddaughter Jessica Sorensen and Kevin Brian got married on January 26th. I have been trying to write this blog post since then. 

Personal Wine Coasters

Now you won't get YOUR wine glass confused with someone elses! It will also protect your table.

I made each one different. Having each one totally different from the others will make it easy to remember which glass is yours.

Happy Valentine's Day

I am sending you this Valentine vignette of some of my favorite things!

Otedama

I have wanted to figure out how to make one of these for a long time and I finally did it. It is a Japanese bean bag or pillow depending on it's size.

This is another view of it. I used an upholstery sample to make this one as I wanted something with body. I consider it a small pillow.

Five Fantastics From Leftovers

I made all of these from the leftovers from the trimmings from this quilt that follows this picture. 

What I made was dictated by the shape and sizes of the pieces.

There are 3 zipper pouches and 2 pin cushions. The only thing left when I finished making all of these were scraps too small to use so they went in the garbage!

The quilt was a mystery quilt at a Jinny Beyer Seminar. It is the only mystery quilt I have ever made. I made it my own by the use of the lily fabric.

It Takes A Long Time To Make These Little Things!

I wanted to make a zipper pouch to hold all those little things in my purse. I had made this piece of patchwork a while ago.

My goal was to make it double sided with 2 separate zipper pockets.

This is the front or the large pocket.

This is the back or the small zippered pocket.
It was a real challenge to figure out how to make it work.

I ripped the seams out at least 5 times.
It did finally work and I am pleased with it.

It holds all the little things I wanted it to and it fits well in the outer pocket of my purse.

It seems it takes more time to make small items that larger ones!

I'm Working On It

These blocks were created as demonstration pieces as I taught this original sampler class. It took me over 20 years to use them in the following quilt.

Although it may not seam I am working on this now, deciding how to quilt it is one of the steps in creating a finished quilt. That is where I am on my journey right now.

The Quilting On A Quilt

I have no idea why this is moving like this and I can't stop it. 

How much quilting does a quilt top need?


 How does the quilting enhance the quilts design and execution before quilting?


 Is the quilt top need quilting or can it be layered with a fusible? I think these are all important questions. I'd love for you to think about these questions and share your opinions.