Posted By drsao on November 13, 2011

I LOVE OLD BUILDINGS…..in fact historical buildings are on my list of FAVORITE THINGS.    The Virginia Methodist Assembly Center is NOW on my list of favorite things!   If you are ever in Blackstone, VA you should really visit!

The Virginia Consortium of Quilters met in Blackstone, VA this weekend and we stayed at The Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center.  One of our community service projects is making pillowcases for Foster Children in Virginia and I have to say that this was quite an inspiration place to do this!

I just HAD to share!  It is such a wonderful place – really – I was smiling for two whole days!

Since 1892 this building has been collecting memories!

It was a female institute in 1892 and was later a college for girls.  Now it is an Assembly Center – and quite impressive!!!

It is now the VA United Methodist Assembly Center

We stayed in the dorms, sewed in a big room – ate in the dining hall – and soaked up the history!  As you can tell, the autumn leaves were gorgeous!  It was a wonderful experience!

Category: Life Comments, My Favorite Things, Pillowcases for Foster Children, Quilt Guild, VA methodist Assembly Center, VCQ | 1 Comment »
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Posted By drsao on November 13, 2011

Friday and Saturday the Virginia Consortium of Quilters met in Blackstone, VA to make pillowcases for Foster Children.  We became ONE HUMONGOUS PILLOWCASE MAKING CONGLOMERATE.  Thirty-one VCQ quilters completed 186 pillowcase and had another 110 in various stages of completion *some of the VCQ members took them home to finish – for a GRAND TOTAL of 296 pillowcases.  I think that is absolutely AMAZING!

We did it assembly line style…..Catherine and I sewed the FIRST SEAM…….and our sewing machines were HUMMING.  I love my little SINGER FEATHERWEIGHT – what a workhorse!

Here are some of the pictures of our FUN!  A few people who were there and working hard are not pictured – because of BLURRING issues!!  But everyone had a great time and I hope that a lot of children will be comforted by having their own pillowcase.

Category: Pillowcases for Foster Children, Quilt Guild, VCQ | 1 Comment »
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Posted By drsao on November 13, 2011

I have to say that it was A BEAUTIFUL PERFECT FALL DAY – the first Saturday in November – in Williamsburg, VA.  I love fall – the crisp clean fall air – the beautiful artistry of the autumn leaves in full color!  The icing on the cake was getting to enjoy the Colonial Piecemaker’s Quilt Guild Meeting and getting to enjoy it with special friends.

I think that the SHOW AND TELL period was one of the best ever!   LOVED seeing all of the beautiful creations – and I hope you enjoy the pictures too!  And Catherine – our product specialist – was hysterical, as usual.  By popular concensus we think she should GO ON THE ROAD with her Comedic Trunk show!!! The BIG ENTERTAINMENT was her turkey hat….yes, a TURKEY BODY WITH LEGS  – on her head!

After our CATHERINE SHOW – we had lots of fun learning to use different rulers.  Do you ever buy a special ruler and never learn how to use it?  Well, it does happen!  I learned so much!!!

After the meeting we continued to have fun – visiting the new bead shop in town and THE CHRISTMAS TREE SHOPS – don’t miss this one if you get a chance to see it.  I think that I could have spent HOURS just looking!

OH YES – one more SHOW AND TELL…..Carmen got a new car!  Isn’t it pretty!!!

Carmen's NEW CAR

Category: Colonial Piecemakers, Quilt Guild | 1 Comment »
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Posted By drsao on November 7, 2011

My DESIGN FLOOR is full of wondrous things this week!

My WORMS AND JELLY ROLLS Mystery Quilt is on one corner of my design floor!  The top is together and now I have to piece the back.  I just LOVE PIECED BACKS and so I am going to search my stash for fabric that will go with this (my favorite is to make 12 1/2″ squares pieced together for the back.)

Worms and Jelly Roll Mystery

And on ANOTHER CORNER of my design floor is my HOPSCOTCH BUTTERSCOTCH QUILT (remember the piano key border was on my design floor last week!)  This is A Bonnie Hunter quilt from her last book.  Actually, the TRUTH is that this went to my longarm quilter, Sara Parrish today – so it isn’t really on my DESIGN FLOOR – but in my DESIGN MIND….lol.  I just wanted to show you what happened to it when it was on my design floor last week!

Hopscotch Butterscotch

AND TA DA….today I took a class at the Powhatan Quilter’s meeting taught by Linda Cross.  She is a great teacher and I enjoyed it so much.   I so want to be able to do hand quilting that I will be proud of.  So far I have hand quilted a dog quilt for my niece dog, Aby and I have hand quilted a Halloween wall hanging – but I am not really proud of my stitches – so I figured that a class would be VERY HELPFUL!

My Quilt Sandwich marked and ready....

A big thank you to Karen who made these quilt sandwiches…..and it was my first time to quilt through wool batting.  OH MY GOODNESS….when I attempt my first large hand quilted quilt I WILL be using wool batting.  It was wonderful to quilt through……..the batting really makes a big difference.

The Hoop is on!

I decided that I would TRY MY BEST to use the hoop (I actually had three hoops with me at this class – just in case I was able to negotiate the quilting correctly.)  I COULD NOT….I could not even make the first stitch with that hoop on.  I need to be able to manipulate the cloth instead of the needle.

My Hand Quilting - can you see the orange thread!?

TA DA – here is what I did – my hand quilting with orange thread.  I so love to do this.

If you want to see what quilters around the country have on their design walls – go to Judy Laquidara’s blog at Patchworktimes.com!

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/11/07/design-wall-monday-november-7-2011/

Category: Design Wall, Hand Quilting, Hopscotch Butterscotch, Quilts in Progress, Worms and Jelly Roll Mystery | 3 Comments »
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Posted By drsao on November 3, 2011

Category: Life Comments, Quilts of Valor | 1 Comment »
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