GO cutter play date....and a shout out to LINDA!

Today was a fun day. I went to a meeting of the "minis". We are a small group of long armers. We made our own group (and we are keeping it small on purpose) and we take turns hosting. It is all about fun and no rules...no blocks to bring, no strips to bring, no food to bring (but we always DO anyway), no kitty...you get the picture.

We always try to come up with something fun to do. We all have long arms so sometimes we just have a muslin on and play around but for the most part we try to come up with a "theme" per se. Today was GO cutter day! There were 7 of us there, three with GO cutters and only three with projects to cut. Boy it was fun. I cut lots and lots of 1.5" strips for a new string quilt I have been wanting to make. Here are my strings. You can't tell in the picture but there are a LOT of strips on there. That would have taken me a LONG TIME to cut them by hand.



Also I had help with pressing and prepping so we got a lot done. Linda cut out oodles of squares for a quilt she is doing. Here she is cutting...




and here is her stack of blocks....IMPRESSIVE HUH?




Here the girls are just hanging out and trying Gails's long arm. You have L to R, Lea, Lou and Nancy H. Lea and Lou don't have long arms...YET.





It is a long drive out to Gail's (2.5 hrs total driving for me (I met Nancy at her house and she drove to Gail's) and almost an hour for nancy to drive there and back. A lot of driving because we are all spread out. It's worth it tho.



Oh and this is a special hello to my friend Linda...HI THERE!

A Gift from Jo

You know about my mini long arm group? Well 3 of the gals, Nancy, Linda and Jo came over to sew last week and while they were here, I noticed Nancy's little thread catcher/pin cushion. It was so cute! She had won it as a prize at MQR. You will never guess what I got in the mail yesterday!
Go ahead, GUESS............................Give up?

Jo sent me this along with a little thank you for a fun day. She is so sweet. I love this little bag and am already using it. I have the best friends!

Mini Meeting- Jan 2009-Castle blocks quilt 1

Introducing .......The Minis:

From Left to right: Diana (me) and Nancy in front, then Margaret, Gail and Lou


Here is Linda (she took most of the other pictures) This isn't the best picture of her but the only one I had (bummer).







My small longarm group called the "minis" had a meeting yesterday. We take turns meeting at each others houses. This month it was Nancy's turn. She has a great studio in the whole lower level of her house. (Basement really) Three of the 8 women involved in our group have Intellequilters (IQ). I, of course, am not one of those people. Nancy generously offered for me to bring a quilt to do to the meeting. I picked one that has been a UFO for a very long time. I started this quilt in 1992 I believe. It was one of the very first quilts I ever pieced. I taught myself to piece from books and didn't know how important the 1/4 seam would be. There is lots of piecing in one direction of each block and I never checked to make sure they were square (see where this is headed?) When I laid it all out and started to put a row together, WTH? It doesn't fit! I THEN measured the block and found my blocks were almost all 7.5x 8". Well they wouldn't work so I threw them in a box. A box that I finally unearthed last summer. I took them with me on a trip I took and had time to kill and trimmed a 1/4" from each end and came home and put them together. So I decided I would bring this one to quilt. We used the "Come Dance With Me" Panto. Nancy was so great about explaining and really showing me how everything worked.


It was so fast and organized too. There were 6 of us there and they jumped right in to pin the backing on and get it loaded and wind bobbins etc. Here is Marg (pinning) and Gail

We talked and talked while the IQ quilted....

LOOK MA, NO HANDS!
Here is the finished quilt:
It was a great day! I love when we have our meetings. We always do something fun. Next meeting is at Linda's and we are all bringing blocks and going to make pot holders. Unfortunately it started snowing when I got to Nancy's house at 10am and was still snowing at 5pm when we left. Let's just say it was a white knuckle ride home. My Sebring has front wheel drive and it hardly slides around at all (surprisingly). Took almost 2 hrs to get home (a 1 hour drive usually). All in all it was a great day!

Quilts on the Grand-2008

I belong to a mini long arm group and we call ourselves the "minis" . A few of the gals couldn't go but me, Linda and Nancy went to the show together (Terri has been invited to join us in our meetings but it is very far to drive out our way). PS, we missed you Margaret!


We went to the quilt show out in Grand Rapids on Friday. Linda drove and she picked up Nancy and then they met me at a Meijers parking lot. It made it easier for me to find my way. I GET SOOOO LOST! Linda had the coolest GPS in her car. I couldn't stop watching it. I NEED one of those! My friends would agree, (I am always getting lost)
It was over a two hour drive but the time went quickly. We never run out of things to talk about!
(imagine that)
Terri Watson was working the show but took a break and spent lots of time with us giving us a personal tour. It was great having our own white glove lady with us. I have lots of pictures I took but not sure about posting them (not being my quilts). But we did take a group shot by Terri's quilt where we boldly TOUCHED it all over. It was a blast! (we were being so bad).
Here we are being bad: In order. Linda E, Terri W. (the tall ones) and then me and Nancy H.

Also Terri made this big banner for the show and here is Nancy showing it off a la VANNA WHITE!

Ups and downs and my daddy

Went to a great quilt show out in Grand Rapids Michigan yesterday with two of my good friends and we had an awesome time. I will blog more on this later. Today is my wedding anniversary. 22 years. Mark and I went to breakfast this morning. We will be going to the hospital to see my dad today though. My brother called early to tell us he was on his way. Dad was ill and wouldn't call an ambulance. His doc saw him and he thinks it is his gall bladder. More tests are happening now. We will most likely spend the day with my brother and sister waiting for dad's outcome. Good thoughts are appreciated. I will check back tomorrow or later tonight and do a proper blog.

All Good news!

COMMUNITY COLLEGE:
I start classes tomorrow at a local community college. My company (the one that laid me off) got a government grant for training and is sending a lot of their people for this Catia V5 training. I'm not sure how much I will ever be able to USE it since it is a 3D design software and I'm NOT a designer. I'm still going to take all the free training I can get though. Also, there are 10 of my very good friends (co-workers) that will be in the classes. I haven't seen anyone from work in 6 weeks and I miss them. It is lonesome not working. So I have classes on Mon. and Wed from 5-9pm until the end of Aug. I am looking forward to it.

MI WORKS:
I went to the Michigan works and asked about the "No Worker Left Behind" program. I was wisked in back to get an overview and take 3 timed tests (and me w/o my reading glasses!)
I found that I completly SUCK at math! I seriously cannot do long division. I forgot HOW. I only made it partially through that section...how embarrassing! Luckily for me they help you every step of the way at this place. This is a training program that re trains workers in a different field. I am qualified for this program. I have my first appointment with my adviser on July 1st.

QUILTING:
My mini group got together yesterday at Gail's house. We had some show and tell and some sandwiches and talked a mile a minute. Then we went to the LA and fooled around with different feathers and leaves. Margaret showed me the way to get the shape of my leaves right. I was so stuck on that!


DIET:
It's TIME. I have denied it long enough. I have looked away and made excuses until I have run out of them. I am about to embark on a 6 week high intensity program. I am hoping for good results. I won't be done at this point but should have a good start. I'm ready for tomorrow.
I start tomorrow!