Trip to Charlottesville, Virginia

Marian, Lora Rookard and I hit the road on December 21 and headed for Charlottesville, Virginia. Our goal was to visit with our friend, Marco Harris. We met Marco when he was the Director of Operations for the University's basketball team. Lora, Juli Raines and I became good friends with Marco while he was here. Since he moved to California to do the same job with their basketball program, we have stayed in touch. We wanted to go see him, but we couldn't swing the price of the plane tickets. I discovered his team was playing the University of Virginia, so we decided to go. Juli couldn't get away but Lora, Marian and I went. We had a great time! The University campus is beautiful. The town was quaint. Marco gave us front row tickets right behind the bench. Turns out one of our Women's basketball coaches came to the game and was seated right next to us. Our families had fun watching us on television. The game went into overtime and Cal lost but UVa was in the top five so Cal did a great job.

2nd Annual Christmas Cookies Day

December 19th was the 2nd annual Christmas cookies making day for Taylor and me. We made two types of bark, chocolate covered pretzels, gingerbread men, hot cocoa cookies, cinnamon caramel cookies pumpkin snicker doodles, no baked cookies, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate peanut butter saltine toffee. It was a fun day then we went and looked at Christmas lights.

Southern Grace Merchantile

My best friend, Carol asked me to join her one evening at Southern Grace Merchantile. It is a store where merchants have booths to sell things they have created. They also offer classes in making things. We went to do a sign with believe on one side and welcome on the other. Here are our signs.

The first two are mine. Marian did welcome on both side. Here's is the green misspelled welcome. She got it right on the other side. The last one is Carol's. She only got one side completed. It was fun but the sign was much bigger than we expected. We thought it would be small. Instead it was about 5 feet long by 2 feet wide. Huge. 

Thanksgiving trip

My latest trip was Thanksgiving weekend. My sister, Marian and I went to Atlanta. We stopped along the way and ate lunch at Cracker Barrel. We stayed downtown close to where the Olympics were held.  On Friday morning we went to the Aquarium. It is a wonderful aquarium. We had scheduled a behind the scenes with the sea otters. We got to pet them and feed them. Here are our pictures with one of the otters.

The next day we visited the World of Coke. It was a blast. We did the guided tour. We got to head to the front of all the lines. I had a real Coke for the first time in about 25 years.

One thing we got to do was make pictures using the classic Coke bottle.

It was a great weekend.

2015 Fantasy of Trees

Our tree design for 2015 was red, white and blue. It didn't work out exactly the way I had envisioned it but we got several compliments while we were putting it up. Joining Marian and I were Taylor and my best friend, Carol. Afterward we took them to lunch to thank them for all their hard work. I should also mention, Taylor made the wreath under the tree.

Other trips

I had some more fun trips. First sister, Marian and I picked up Mom and went to the Upper Cumberland Quilt Show which is held each year in Algood, Tennessee. It was a sweet little show. Quilts are displayed in a couple of different buildings.  Most of them were hand quilted which is rare these days. They serve lunch at the AME Church. The church was so cute. Lunch was okay but eating in the church was nice. Here is my favorite quilt from the show.

 After we hung out in Algood for a few hours, we drove to Chattanooga. After checking into our hotel, we met friends for dinner. We laughed for three hours. So much fun! The next day we had breakfast with my son, Jonas and his wife, Keri. Then Keri joined us for the AQS Quilt Show. It was a better show this year. This is a picture of my favorite quilt.

After the show, we had dinner with Jonas and Keri. Then we drove Mom home. It was a fun trip.

Then the next weekend we went to Nashville to see Frankie Valli with the Nashville Symphony. It was fabulous! The venue was amazing. Our seats were behind the orchestra which you would think would be horrible seats, but we were so close we could read the sheet music.

Great couple of trips.

Book Club

I have been away from my blog for a long time. I didn't mean to but time gets away from you. Today I thought I would talk about the Book Club I started. I always wanted to belong to a book club but couldn't find one. Most of them read books I don't like. I found a mystery book club and thought I was in luck. However they read mostly books set in the Middle Ages, written by foreign author or they were just weird. My sister, Marian has stayed with the group but I just didn't like what they were reading. I wanted to read popular books. So I sent an email to all the women in the Athletic Department where I work. We had our first meeting in August. We came up with our first few books. Each month, the person who suggested the book decides where we are going to eat and leads the discussion. The books above are the ones we have read so far. It has been a lot of fun so far. I've read some new writers -Liane Moriarty and Nicholas Sparks being two of them. We laugh a lot and discussions are always friendly even when we disagree. I am proud of starting this group. It has been great and I can't wait to see what the future brings.

Wet Felting

Twice now I have taken a class on wet felting taught by Tone Haugen-Cogburn. Tone, a member of my quilt guild, has become a friend. Her quilts are always favorites of mine. She is an art quilter and extremely talented. She is originally from Norway and is skilled at many crafts. The first wet felting class was about a year ago. It was for people who had never wet felted before. I really enjoyed the class. Here is a picture of what we did in the first class.

This class was for making felted bags. When you wet felt, you take wool roving (fleece from a sheep that has been sheared, combed and cleaned) and pull small parts off of it.

You stack the wool in layers. You wet it with water and soap (we used Joy) and then you agitate it. You rub it, through it, generally rough it up. The strands stick together and become a felted material. 

Here is what we made Saturday.

The orange piece is a mug rug. I was not happy with the way it turned out. The second piece is a small bag. I like it. When you make a bag, you actually make a pod and cut away the part you don't want. That is the third frame. You can use the left overs to make some thing else. The last picture is my big bag. It is made with five different wools. We used merino wool which felts well.

I want to continue playing with this. It is an easy crafts and so much fun.

Basket weaving classes

I took a basket weaving class in February  at a local quilt shop. It made me want to start weaving again. I did it before I had children but I had to stop after I had kids. I just didn't have time or resources.  I did some internet searches looking for classes. I found the Tennessee Basket Association. They have a convention every year and teach classes. I joined and signed up for two classes. I was afraid to take more than that. I wasn't sure my skills were up to take more than that. 

The first class was taught by Billy Owens. He cuts down the white oak trees and cuts the reeds himself. His company was started by his Dad and is family owned. They sell the reeds and baskets plus he teaches. I loved the class. He was so helpful and such a good teacher. Plus I now own a white oak basket that I made. We made it on a mold, a first for me.

My next class was taught by the husband and wife team of Mary and Jimmy Earl McKenzie. I took it because it was built on a wood base. I had never done that either. In fact I learned several new techniques. The only thing I had done was straight weaving. The basket turned out beautifully.

I also won a door prize. Plus they gave us a goody bucket full of awesome stuff. It was a wonderful experience. Next year the convention is in Alcoa. I hope to take a class or two a day. I find weaving so relaxing. 

Vacations

It has been a long time since I posted. Life has been busy. Vacations being part of the distraction. The first trip was to Hilton Head with my sister, Marian and my daughter, Taylor. It was a great trip. The weather was extremely hot. Taylor and I spent most of the time in the pool. We played games and ate lots of ice cream. 

The second trip this summer was actually two trips. We began the trip going to Blowing Rock, North Carolina. It was Mom, sisters Karen and Marian and me. We drove up on Sunday stopping first in Gastonia to visit MaryJo's Fabric store. I had heard this store had the biggest fabric selection and was overwhelming. There was a lot of fabric. It would be a great place to go if you had something specific in mind. I only bought 3 yards of fabric. 

Then we drove on to our hotel which was actually in Lenoir. That town is about 15 minutes away from Blowing Rock. We drove over and had dinner there on Sunday at the Canyons Restaurant. It has a great view. The food is just fair. On Monday we went to the Blowing Rock which was beautiful. Then we wondered around town. Prices were a little high but we did stumble across a book sale at the library. The library was so quaint- they still check out books with patrons signing a card in the back of the book. 

Tuesday we intended to visit Grandfather Mountain but it was pouring rain. We decided to check out the quilt shops in Boone. Then we went to see the movie "Inside Out". It was cute. Kind of a bummer that we had to miss the mountain. That night we played a game in the room.

On Wednesday we headed home. While driving around we discovered an entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Since I was driving I opted to go home on it. Interstate 40 was a mess so I thought the Parkway would be fun. It was a beautiful drive. It was also extremely scary in a couple of places. It got so foggy at one point you couldn't see. Then we started running into tunnels. Lots of tunnels. It was fine until one of the last ones. It was pitch black and Mom's lights that were supposed to come on automatically did not come on. I ended up at a dead stop in the middle of the tunnel. I think I scared poor Mom to death. We pulled off an exit right after that and found an Arts and Craft center. Beautiful stuff inside. There was a woman there demonstrating basket weaving. I started talking to her since the next day I was headed to Kingsport to take 2 basket weaving classes. She mentioned the name Billy Owens who I was talking a class from. It was pretty neat. Here are pictures from Blowing Rock.

I forgot to say we visited the very first Mast General. That was fun.

2015 Quilt Show

Last weekend was my guild's annual quilt show. It was the 35th year the guild has sponsored a show. The quality of quilts was amazing but attendance was low. Here are a few of my favorite quilts.

Another thing happened during the show and it was special. My mother made a quilt that the Quilt of Valor organization presented to my nephew, Jeremy.

Here are the two quilts I entered this year.

I didn't win a ribbon but I made one of the special ribbons- it was for the Best Novice quilt.

The quilter who won it was a friend's daughter.

My sister, Marian and I also sponsored the Just for Fun ribbon which was won by our friend, Sheila Rauen.

It was fun to work the show but very tiring. Next year I plan to not be a committee chair. I have been a chair for the last six years including last year when I co-chaired the whole show with my friend, Cyndi Herrmann.  I just hope they have the show. There are a few members who want to have the show every other year which I feel will make the show become less important and devalue it. Let's hope they keep it going.

Quilting with friends

One of the best things about quilting is the social aspect. I have five friends who I share a love of quilting with - Marian, Carol, Mary, Gina and Nancy. We call ourselves the Stitch and Bitch group. We have done some projects together. One that most everyone finished was a fabric swap. We gathered at Mary's house and everyone brought six inch squares. We passed them around until we all had a variety. The we made half square triangles. Then we sewed them together in various ways. Here is mine.

And here is its label.

On the book front, I started a Book Club at work. Our first book is "The Husband's Secret" by Liane Moriarty. I am very excited. I have wanted to be in a book club for a long time, but I could not find one that wasn't super serious or read weird books. Our first meeting was fun. We talked about lots of authors. It was lively. I am looking forward to the next meeting.

Another old project

This quilt was made for Taylor's friend, Justine. She was getting married. The pattern was named Nebraska which is where she was from. Marian and I quilted it on a long arm machine we rented from Pappy's quilt shop. I did some of the piecing while Marian and I were on a trip to Philadelphia. It was finished in 2009 and I gave it to her at her wedding. Taylor was in her wedding so we drove to Nebraska for the festivities. Mom went with us. We had a great time. Besides the wedding, we visited the zoo, there was a quilt show and we saw the quilt museum at the college there. The drive was horrible but it was a great trip.

The first made for me

For many years I carried around quilt blocks that my Granny made for me. She died in 1982 before she could put them together to make me a quilt. My Mom promised to make them into a quilt when she retired. She finally retired in 1997. This quilt is one of my most treasured possessions. Mom hand quilted it. It is always on my bed.

Quilts from my past

Since I can't make enough things to post on this blog every day, and I want this blog to be a diary of the things I made I decided to do some posts on past projects. I am going to start with a paper pieced project I completed one year. It was my New Year's resolution. Carol Doak, a paper piece quilt block designer, published a book of 300 blocks. I started on New Year's Day of  2010. Here are some pictures.

It has three blocks I had signed by famous quilters - Alex Anderson, Susan Cleveland and Eleanor Burns. They were in Knoxville that year teaching at an AQS quilt show. I did not finish the quilt until New Year's Eve but I did finish it. It is one of my favorites. 

Blocks for guild meeting

This month's block exchange is a paper pieced block by Carol Doak. It is a free download on her website. It is to help teach paper piecing. I enjoy paper piecing. I made four blocks and I may try to make a couple more before our meeting Tuesday. What do you think? Update: I made four of the seven blocks and I still didn't win. Lol

The bottom left has seersucker. I also bought some seersucker fabric this weekend. I am going to make a quilt out of it. I can't wait to see what it looks like.

Today's creations

I finished another quilt top today. It was the class by Magic Cat Quilt Shop owner Anita Chaisty. The name of the pattern is New Year's Star by Deb Tucker. I went with different color than I usually used.

I changed the border from the original pattern. I like it better. I will start quilting it soon. I may enter it in our quilt show too. Depends on how the quilting goes.

I also made a block for the block exchange at my next guild meeting. It is a free pattern from Carol Doak.

It was a great weekend. Got a pedicure too!