Fun times with family and friends even during the bad weather....See what's happening with my friendship group the Sew What's

Last Friday, I took off work to go to the doctor. After the doctor, I went and picked up a friend and we went for a small shop hop. We drove up to McKinney, TX, which is about 35 miles north of us and went to three quilt shops that my friend had never been to. She had bought from the shops at the quilt show but never had been to two of the three shops. The third shop she had been to but it had been years ago and they had moved locations. This was her first time for the new location.  She was looking for some fabric for a project. It didn't have to be the same fabric just in the same family.  She found something at the last shop we went to....We also stopped by to see my sister and took her to lunch.  Saturday was her birthday and I wasn't going to be back up there for that so Suzette got to meet my sweet sister and shop too.  It was a great day.  On the way back home, we stopped at the Antique Mall in Allen, TX and walked around there.  We found a few items that we liked but only a few things went home with me.  It was a fun day with a sweet friend and family too.

We went to Happiness is Quilting, the Quilt Asylum and Stitched with Love. All three shops are excellent shops and the staff are all wonderful.  If you get a chance to go to McKinney, try to visit these shops...

Friday night, I was going to go sew at the church but my kids scheduled a last minute birthday party.  I went to watch my granddaughter and 12 other kids celebrate her 10th birthday.  They had her birthday party at Urban Air.  It is an indoor trampoline place.  Great place for parties for kids.  It was a lot of fun....I might have to go back and try that place out when my foot gets better.

I went and sewed with friends on Saturday and had a great time there as well. My husband and son went to a car swap meet up in Decatur, TX so I had to go somewhere!  Anyway, they had fun and so did I...

I also got to stay home Monday and Tuesday due to icy weather in my area. It was too scary to drive. I stayed in and stayed warm and sewed both days.  I was not bored at all!  Kind of like a retreat but I had to do my own cooking.....anyway, I got my 48 blocks ready for swapping with one group, my 30 blocks ready for another group and one quilt top ready in strips. Now I just have to sew the strips together.  When the top is together, I'll take a pic and show you what I did.

I don't know if you know it but I also do another blog. This one is for my friendship group.  I publish it once a month after our meeting.  We are called the Sew What's.  There's a button on the right side of my blog or here's a link. http://sewwhats-mesquite.blogspot.com/
Check out the heart pillows we did for breast cancer last Thursday night.  I brought them all home to package up and get ready to take to the two places.  (There is a sheet underneath them but you can't see it. ) We did 130 pillows!

Gotta go for now and get busy, have a great week and stay safe and warm. 
Happy stitching!

Wednesday and Thursday happenings.

This has been a super busy week for me.  I'm sorry to say I could not fit blogging into my schedule...so, I'm going to update now for the whole week....

You know what I did Tuesday night, yeah, that's right. I have to brag one more time that I got to go see Bonnie...
Here's sweet Bonnie:

Here's the quilt she teaches her Scrap User System with:

All of the other pics I took were too far away but if you have her books, you know what they look like anyway....


It was great but I was sure tired the next day,but no rest for the wicked!!! He, he, he, guess who I mean?!

I went straight over to my friend's house after work and helped her with her knitting. She is doing pretty good.   She gets confused easily but she is catching on and doing very well.  Rhonda wasn't there Wednesday night but she has caught on and is already doing an afgan.  She is doing squares out of the book, Teach Yourself Visually Knitting and will be putting these squares together.  I loved this book and Debbie Stoller's book, Stitch and Bitch.  These two books helped me so much as a beginner knitter and these are the books I told them to get.  They like them too and are following along in the books to knit by...We are having a great time knitting together and will be continuing the lessons weekly.  

Thursday night was my small group night.  It was so much fun.  We have some fun and talented ladies....Here's some of the show and tell for this week...




This is the quilt for the church this year. Everyone made two blocks and Glenda and Jackie put it
together.  This will be quilted and given to the church where we meet as a thank you for allowing us to meet here.  We do one for the church every year and I'm very proud to say, they have all been very beautiful.




One of Martha's lovely quilts.



Another of her quilts.  She loves to applique.



Aren't these cute.  Glenda made these for her Mom's kitchen. It was a quilt pattern with 6 different teapots.  She made the four that she liked best and framed them.  She said she did it this way because a quilt would not work on the wall in her Mom's kitchen.  She framed them herself too.





A Christmas quilt top for the DAR, ready for quilting.



This was a mystery quilt that the group did several years ago.  This was the second one of these that we did.  This one is Jackie's and she said she's  going to add a few more details or appliques before she quilts this one.  I love the moose!




This one was Bennie's. Bennie passed away in October  last year and Boneta and several other friends are finishing up the quilting on the quilts Bennie had ready and these are going to the family.  Boneta has quilted four of these little quilts since Christmas. 



This one is a twin.  Nona had to make two of these for her granddaughter's twin beds.  You can't tell it but the plaid border fabric has pink in it too.  Too cute!  Some of the blocks came from another friend of hers with health problems. Joy decided she did not want to finish this and Nona ended up with it....I love it for a little girl..



Judy calls this her left handed quilt. She worked on this while she was recouperating from hand surgery on her right hand....




This is our Mystery Row By Row wallhanging we are doing this year.  Martha (doesn't she have a great smile!) is in charge of this mystery.  Gee, I wonder what next month is going to be?!




This is what we will be making this year.  Each year we have a fabric swap to make a quilt. 




Here's a close up....this is called Wheel of Fortune.

  We have a busy year ahead but it looks like fun!!!









Sew What's Group

Ok, I'm sorry, it's been a busy week for me and I just haven't had time to blog.  I've done Grandma duty a few times and meetings and I wanted to sew and watch the World series....I think I've covered all the excuses now so I'll just stop right there.  I have been busy and just because I haven't blogged doesn't mean I haven't been sewing or knitting.   I have alot to show so I'll start with last Thursday and my small group meeting....

These are some friendship star blocks for Diane

Look at this wonderful One Block Wonder from Carolee...I think this is her 2nd quilt!!! Wow, love the colors!

This is one of Irene's little quilts

Judy's Halloween vest.  Ok, I chopped off her head...it's a Halloween picture, what do you expect???? She was ok with it! 

Irene's Floating Four Patch Quilt

Jackie made a cute

This is Martha's big sewing cushion. It's a cushion to rest her hands on while she's doing hand work...It even has pockets.

This is Dee's One Block Wonder.  Beautiful!  I don't know if you can click on this to make it bigger or not, but this is Christmas fabric. The picture does not do any justice to this beautiful quilt.

Karen's Calendar quilt.  She's made three of these...

Karen's Tea Time quilt.  I think she said she's made three of these too...She's also made tablerunners and placemats out of this fabric line. She loves this line of fabric and can't get enough of it...

Bev made this as a quick gift.   All scraps.

This is a frienship Signature exchange from 2003. Lois is finishing up old projects too.

This was a Christmas block exchange from 2 years ago.  Lois won these blocks and another member won the other set of blocks.  She just got this one back from the quilter and hasn't even trimmed it yet.  The quilting was gorgeous on this quilt.

Double Pinwheel Quilt by Lois

We have some talented ladies in our group and this is just some of the items that were shown last week. 

Sew What's and some great quilts to admire!

Thursday night was my Small friendship group meeting, the Sew What's. We have some great quilters in our little group and we always have a good time when we get together. Here's some of the quilts that our group have been working on.

Nona's little quilt. This one is going to be a giveaway.


Nona did this quilt out of her stash. She said this was a pattern out of a current magazine. I found this one in Quilt magazine and I just bought it. I love this scrap quilt...



Ruth won these blocks from our group. She didn't like them too much but she likes the quilt now. Very cute quilt. The edges of the flowers are frayed...


Sharon made this quilt from a kit she bought at the Mesquite Quilt Show last year.



One of Sharon's strip quilts.



The back of the quilt:


A beautiful raffle quilt from the Kaufman Guild.



Bev's cute baby quilt:



Bev's doll quilt:


We all loved Bev's shoes that she got in Florida. Bev always comes up with cute clothes and shoes when she goes to Florida. Way to go Bev!




Judy's beautiful Basket quilt...Judy had hand surgery so Irene hand quilted this for Judy and even bound it for her. That's what friends are for. You rock, Irene!



A close up of Irene's beautiful hand quilting. I know Judy loves this quilt...


Ok, this is just a sample of the talent in our group. Don't you want to come join us? We always have great get togethers!

Til next time...

Sew What's Group and goodies in the mail

Last night was my small group meeting. It was our annual picnic and installation of new officers for the coming year. Good food and fellowship was on the agenda for the evening and we were not disappointed. We had sandwiches and drinks from Jason's Deli. It was just right for our picnic. No one had to cook or slave over a hot stove for this meeting! We had a good turnout and everyone had a great time. We had a little show and tell too for the meeting. Here's what some of our members are working on..

Judy's basket quilt. She's going to have this one hand quilted by another one of our members. Irene will be hand quilting this one for her...




Irene's bluebonnet pillow.



Cathey's pieced baby quilt. Cathey is not friendly with her machine. She is an appliquer and scared of the machine. I think she's getting a little more friendly.


Sharon's wool pillows:





Helen's quilter pillow:






Dee's Quilt top:


Martha's friendship quilt. She made this along with several other ladies to give to the bus driver that always drives them to the Houston Quilt Show. His favorite color is purple. They will be giving him this when he drives them to Houston.... Look at the sweet label, isn't that cute?







Martha's Mola:


Cindy's cute bag:





The Church Quilt. Our group meets at a church each month. One of our member's is a member of the church. We don't have to rent the room or anything. We do give them a quilt each year to raffle off as our way of saying thank you for letting us meet there. This is the quilt for this year...





Our leader gave each of us a cookbook or member's recipes and she gave me this sweet coin purse. I was the treasurer for our group this year and this was her way of saying Thanks. Thank you, Glenda. I love them both.





Weren't those great? We had a wonderful meeting and our members are so talented. I love this group.

When I got home, I had more goodies in the mail too. I received my wonderful bag from Terry with so many cool things inside. She had the goodies inside the bag and it was all wrapped up with a sweet fat quarter. She gave me some floss, two Aunt Martha's transfer patterns, a vintage apron pattern and some wonderful patterns too. What a sweet and generous gift. Thank you, Terry. I love them all.





I also received a beautiful hand made card from Jane along with my first signature block. I'm going to have to get busy and start making some signature blocks to send out...this is going to be so much fun. Thank you so much, Jane, I love them.





Wow, I had a great day and got lots of goodies too. It couldn't have been a better day unless I had won the lottery.