Updates

Dear Readers,

I have a contract on my house in Columbus, and so far, so good...so say your prayers and please keep your fingers crossed!  I know they are not sold till everyone signs on the bottom line.  So they buyer wants a pretty quick closing so I needed to get the rest of the furniture out of the house.  I was worried that it wouldn't all fit in the moving van so I ran over there and filled the minivan.  While I was poking around, I found a hoop skirt I had been intending to donate to the city to use in their annual pilgrimage.  If you want more information in it click here.  So I went in the Convention Center to donate the skirt and cape and was greeted by our Possum Town Quilters Ultimate Guild Challenge Quilts and some dear friends I had not seen in awhile.    I think today is the last day so if you want to vote on them, stop by and view them in person.

You guys know I bought a fixer, up that I thought was mostly cosmetic and updating.  Well about three weeks ago, we had a massive rain and water came in under the wall.   The room was smelling musty to me so I had David a local contractor and friend to take the wall off to check for mold.  He didn't see any, but I thought it still smelled so we agreed he would take the rest of the wall down and replace the insulation.   Luckily it was in a room with no furniture and concrete floors so the clean up was not too bad.   David  had a friend of his come and give me an estimate for a french drain.  Well we agreed that he would do it and I haven't heard from him yet.  Well today another massive down pour.  This time the water came in the front room and ran through to another bedroom I had put a rug in.

David,the local contractor,  said he would forward the photos to the drain guy and hopefully I can move up the list.

It is hard not to be discouraged, but there were a number of blessings...neither room was done yet so at least I only have to do them once.  There is no furniture to move to clean up and I am bringing more furniture from Columbus tomorrow and I will have some help to move the rug some place to dry...I just have to figure out where that place will be.  I am thankful that we are getting this done before everything was in the rooms.

I missed Bonnie Hunter's quilt cam last night, but hopefully next week I can update you on quilt stuff. Don't have a date for the closing yet, but hope to know early next week.  William is going to meet me in Columbus to help a guy I hired and me move the furniture.  Excited not to have to be responsible for two places.

Scale has been stuck for two weeks.  The final weigh in for the school contest is Monday, so hopefully all this moving business will help move the scale!

Sew long!!

More about our Ultimate Guild Challenge Quilts

Dear Readers,

I thought you would like to see the photos of the other Magnolia quilts, both selected and not, because all are really good.  These pictures were taken by Keri.  She did a wonderful job.

Naomi's is hand pieced and quilted.  Her flower is 3D.  Cool.

By Naomi

Julia's has the micro quilting that she has gotten so good at.  I love her use of color.

By Julia

 Barb did a paper pieced work that is wonderful.

By Barbara

 Watana also included 3D elements.  Love the variation in the leaf fabrics.

By Watana

 Brenda used pieced diamonds to do her quilt.  If you have ever pieced with fabric that is not on the grain you would know this is a spectacular work.  I also like the colors in the diamonds.

By Brenda

 Mary Anne painted her picture on fabric then quilted it.  I really like how she used some irregular quilting to make the frame look more like wood.

By Mary Anne

 CC took a selfie with her I-pad and then made it a quilt.  This is an amazing work of art.  You really need to see it, and the others in person.  The bead work and the details of the hair blowing is amazing.

By CC

Linda paper pieced using the same patten as Barb.  Isn't it amazing how fabric choices change the look of a quilt?  Nice clean lines.

By Linda B.

Tonya's quilts always seem to have a feeling of playfulness.  I love the children running on the hill chasing the butterfly's.  One of the girls under the tree is reading the Bible.

By Tonya

 Carol had wonderful use of color and workmanship.

By Carol J.

Linda G came up with an original design combining a tree limb and a table decoration.

By Linda G.

There were two other magnolia quilts that were taken home before Keri & I got to get pictures of them.. :(.

Hope you enjoyed looking at them.

I will post some pictures of what I have been working on this spring break on the next post.  So far no progress on the projects other than errand being run and things set up to be worked on.  Slight set back today when I was changing a water filter and bumped the supply line and caused it to start spewing water all over the place, but I guess I needed to mop anyway.  Tax information is taken to the tax man and some other business stuff taken care of.  It feels good to check those things off.

Sew long.

Update

Dear Readers,

It feels a little redundant to put this on here, as I put it on Facebook, but I would like it recorded here too...

My Magnolia Quilt made the top eight.  The next step in the process is to photograph the eight top and make a group photo of the quilters and submit it to AQS.  Then they will evaluate all the groups and decide which ones will be shown in the AQS Show in Grand Rapids.

In the mean time, they will most likely be hung in the Columbus Convention and Visitors Center, Columbus, MS during the pilgrimage.  Here is a link  to the brochure about the dates and what houses will be open this year.

I don't have photos of the others but I plan to try to get them on Saturday...until then here is a link to Julia's she was a selectee too.  And Keri took photos of a lot of the others and they can be found here.

Enjoy the links to their blogs.

Sew long.

The Magnolia Challenge

Dear Readers,

I had my first finish of the year last night, or really this morning, when during the PTQ meeting I was sewed my label on my magnolia quilt.  While I never worked out the tension problems, as a whole I am not as unhappy with the quilt as I was before.  I really like the colors and if you don't get too close and look at the tension problems on the back, it is really pretty.  It is a wall hanging right???  That means you don't look at the back!!

The challenge given the guild was to make a 36 inch by 36 inch quilt (+ or - an inch) that showed a southern magnolia.  The quilt had to be bound in the green you see in the photo.  The top eight will be chosen to be sent the the AQS Ultimate guild challenge.  Then they will look at photos of the top eight and decide if your guild will be invited to participate in the show.  To choose the eight, the quilts will be displayed at the MQA meeting in Hattiesburg next weekend.  When the blog is published with the minutes from todays meeting, you will be blown away by the variety and workmanship of the quilts.
You can click here the link to the blog.

I pieced this last summer when a couple of friends and I got together and had a sewing retreat.  Sue Harmon and Diane Brown were working on a quiet book for her granddaughter, and I was working on this quilt.  I got the inner part done, but didn't bring any black fabric, so on my way home I stopped and bought some and got it the borders on.  I then set it aside, hoping my sewing room would be complete before time to quilt it...unfortunately it is not done yet so I quilted it on my small babyloc but it does a great job with piecing it just doesn't do well with the tension for quilting.

I named mine "Winds of Change in The Magnolia State"  I thought the fractured flowers looked like they had been hit by a big wind.

It hangs nice and straight.

Here are some closeups of the the quilting.

I wrote a bible verse and Mississippi State Flower and Tree - The Magnolia  State in the black border.
Free motion quilting words is not for the faint of heart.  But it is mostly legible.

Here is the label that Judy printed for me.

Sew long!