A few more units done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) classic black and white movies
(2) a new camera
(3) a full tank of gas

Gasoline -- is it up this week, or "down?"  When I was a teenager, I remember my mom fussing at my brother... "you drive up and down the road every chance you get, gas is 35 cents a gallon!"  Ahh, the good ole days!

My wastebasket runneth over!

I'm still working on the Texas Tumbleweeds quilt, and this popcorn tin is completely overpowered by trimmings!

Straightening the edges and trimming the units after sewing makes quite a mountain of rejects - is this a sign of progress??

My progress so far:  I finished all the rectangular units for the ladder block (gotta love all that variety of neutral fabrics!)...

Just combine a left and right pair with a 4-patch, a brown square, a neutral square - and the ladder block is done!

Now I can focus on finishing up these rectangular units for the spinning star block: a neutral square sewed onto a medium or dark rectangle.

The pattern calls for 144 of these; I'll just sew, flip and trim 30 more and they too will be finished.

There's just one more rectangular unit to make after this one... looking good!


That's all for now, sew forth and sew on til later!

Working on units

Three things to be happy about:
(1) holiday music
(2) the book of Proverbs
(3) new marking pens

I've been working on the Texas Tumbleweeds quilt that Bonnie Hunter taught on the cruise this month.

I didn't want this one to become a UFO because it's such a pretty quilt!

Looking at some of the pictures Bonnie posted, you'll see happy ladies holding up handfuls of finished blocks; my goal during the cruise was to finish at least one of each block.

It wasn't a race and I can't sew lickety split on an unfamiliar machine and still be accurate - that's just me!

If you haven't been "Bonnie initiated" you might look at the entire quilt and go "eeeek!  all those little pieces!"   But if you think of the quilt as series of units, it isn't hard a'tall!

Anything hard about the basic 4-patch?

Nope!

You sew a single unit at a time...

Trim...

and sew some more...

Three units in one block, two units in the other!

Before you know it, you have every unit done...


you just have to make more of em!


And it's a start   :o)

Can a quilt's progress also be measured by the amount of trimmins' you leave behind?

I like to think so  ;o)


Sew forth and sew on til later...

Belize and Cozumel

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a piggy bank
(2) t-shirts with a message
(3) reading upside down

Thursday was our day in Belize!  The ship docked a few miles offshore and we reached land by tender, about 15 minutes away.

Here's an eye opener:  I somehow thought Belize was an island, a part of Mexico, but it isn't - it's actually a peninsular and a country in it's own rights!  In Belize, English is considered to be the official language; it was a British colony until 1981.  Many people also speak Creole among family members.

What's a trip to Belize without chocolate!!

We visited the Moho chocolate factory in the tourism village, where chocolate from organic cacao beans is made and packaged right on the premises.

They offered samples of chocolate flavored with chili (hot!), ginger (hot!), almonds (yummy!), Belizean coffee, salt and lime (I wasn't that curious!), peanut butter, and coconut.

Friday morning we docked in Cozumel alongside the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas...

They were looking at us with binoculars - and so were we!



Our tour that day was to the Mayan ruins, arranged through the ship...  

Our guide explained that these particular structures had been devastated by an explorer who was looking for treasures, using dynamite, which virtually leveled every structure to the ground before he was stopped.

I was fascinated by this tree, this very old tree!

Hundreds of years old, its roots have grown around, under, over and through the stones of the structure.

It's almost sad when you visit an artifact and all that's left are piles of stones in a national park.  You have to rely on tourist info and your imagination to know what it was like before.  Great tour though - we had a 20 minute stop at a beach before heading back to the ship.

My sister Michelle, Renea, and her daughter Megan

bye Cozumel!

Sunday morning, right back where we started!  

One last cuppa in the Windjammer before departing the ship for the airport!

I had a great time on the cruise!  The tribute to the Temptations, Ice Dancin', the ice cream machines, people watching, music on the Promenade (one night I was humming along to "Allllll my exes live in Texas...." - sheesh!), big coconut (and lemon, and oatmeal and chocolate chip!) cookies in the cafe, window shopping in those expensive shops, the casino, movies on the big screen... sew forth and sew on!

Quilter's cruise!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) pure vanilla
(2) sales receipts
(3) dinner and a movie

Lovely, lovely time on the quilter's cruise last week!

We sailed from Galveston, Texas on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas - you always knew the day of the week because they changed this piece of carpet in the elevator daily.

I loved exploring the ship; this is a view looking down part of the Grand Promenade on deck 5.  It was just like being inside a large mall!

Look up... and up... and up!  Elevator lobbies on decks 7 through 11 - impressive!



On Monday and Tuesday we had our classes while the ship sailed through partly stormy seas.  Fortunately the foul weather they were predicting before we left, didn't affect us too too much!

Rough sea on Tuesday though - ask my tummy how I know!
Monday and Tuesday we had four half-day classes - Pam Holland showed us how she gets dimension in appliqued pieces to make them more interesting...

Pam Holland

 Kim Diehl taught a wool project...

Kim Diehl

It was a lovely piece and she does beautiful work, but I don't think wool is my thing right now.  The other classes were an embroidery class by Catherine Redford and a quilt by Bonnie Hunter (no pics!), with quick projects and lectures in the evenings.

First day in port - Roatan, Honduras!  The ship was welcomed by this group of dancers...

musicians at the port 

The locals are always glad to see cruise ships come in because they depend so much on our money. 

We opted for a tour of the island by one of the tour guides on the pier; he took us around the city, up in the mountains to the highest point of the island...

I thought I'd try a fresh coconut milk...

It was good!  I just now noticed the dribble from the shell, LOL.  He ran out of straws.

Our guide told us there is no welfare in Honduras; basically if you don't work, you don't eat unless someone brings you food.  If you get sick and can't afford the hospital, you can literally die from an illness that in the US can easily be treated with our readily available medicines.

What's in a word?

In Roatan we were looking for a "drug store" (can you say "CVS"?) and were directed to a farmacia.  Well, surprise - they only had pharmaceuticals!  No shower caps or mouth wash.

I got some great quilt seeds, though...

After our two hour tour, we scuttled back onboard the Navigator for lunch at our favorite lunch spot, the buffet at the Windjammer!

Then we lounged around the pool til dinner...

ahhhh, a cruise.....

That's all for now, I'll try to compress the remainder of the cruise into one more post!  Sew forth and sew on til later!

International quilt festival

Three things to be happy about:
(1) going on vacation
(2) being waited on 24/7
(3) coming home to your own bed

Hello everybody, I'm baaaack!  Thanks for visiting and being patient!  This posting is later than I meant it to be, both clock-wise and the day of the week - I intended to post something on Monday about the Houston quilt show.

Anniversary t-shirt and tote bag!

The show was just grand!

What were you doing in 1974??  Founder Karey Bresenhan was having a light-bulb moment which became the Houston International Quilt Festival - 40 years strong!

Since this was the ruby jubilee version, a lot of focus was on red and white quilts, and that's what I'll share with you this afternoon...

If anyone saw the exhibit of Mrs. Rose's red and white quilts in New York a couple years ago, you'll remember how impressive the circular display was.  They followed the same format for most of the quilts in this display:

The placement of lights interfered a bit, so there were a lot of the red and white quilts I couldn't photograph, but I wanted to share these two:

Two members of my guild submitted quilts for this very impressive red and white display!

Looking good!  This shot was taken through a window on the second level...

There were lots and LOTS of quilts displayed that we were asked not to photograph, either because of copyright issues or they were antiques.  But I got a few of the others that I want to share with you - tomorrow!

Stay tuned, more good stuff to come - sew forth and sew on til then!