Loved and Stitched

It's great to be home again! These are the little people I left behind, and who were the reason I was in Kansas City - to take care of them while their parents were away. 

Aesa, 2 years; Tay 3 years

Honestly, I didn't see much of 13 year-old Celina who was in school or in her room studying during about 90 percent of my visit.

I also left this color behind. This tree was next door to our daughter's house. Check out that blue-blue sky! I very much appreciated seeing this beauty.

I also had the chance to visit with - several times! - my good friend, Carla. Here we're at the Blue Valley Quilter's Guild quilt show, standing in front of Carla's "Liberated Crosses" quilt, a perfectly lovely, free block pattern you'll find here on her blog.

L: Carla; R: me

My Monday flights went fairly smoothly - Kansas City to Chicago to Tampa - and I arrived only 20 minutes late, due to a strong headwind, or so the captain said. The best part was that my hubby and my luggage were waiting for me. My suitcase was easy to pick up, sitting as it was in the American Airlines baggage claim office. Note. Don't lose track of that little baggage claim ticket! It was used to confirm that the suitcase was in fact mine.

While traveling, I had a happy finish. I completed the last two of the 21 embroidered blocks for the Snowmen A to Zzzz quilt!

Checking back to older posts, I first blogged about embroidering these blocks here, in September 2009. So it's been a UFO for three years, two months. And it's still a UFO until I get it made into a quilt!

The Snowmen embroidery project was something my friend, Miss Kim, and I did together. Mine was mostly embroidered while traveling, by car and by plane, and at 90 minutes of Happy Stitchers every week since June.

Kim came to visit me from Iowa while I was in Kansas City. It's so great to connect with friends!

L: me; R: Kim

She brought along her Snowmen A to Zzzz quilt top so I could see it.

We agree that the border fabrics are what set the tone for the quilt.

Being one who's into brights, I'll be looking for something modern, perhaps with aqua. (And who would have guessed that?!)

As for my next embroidery project, I have a small piece in mind, an Australian design of Matroishka nesting dolls.






But for taking along to this afternoon's Happy Stitchers, I've resurrected a hand-pieced UFO, this Starfish quilt that I began in March, 2011. (Isn't blogging a great way to keep track of one's projects?) It's only about 30" X 40", and is looking a little rumpled for being jammed into a bag for so long.

On Thursday, I'll be focused on preparations for the first meeting of the Central Florida Modern Quilt Guild. I'll be at Sharky's Vac 'n Sew (Wildwood, Florida) at 5:30 pm to get set up for our 6:30 meeting where I'm offering the program, "The Modern Quilt Guild: Quilting for a New Generation" that will mostly be presented on a big screen TV. I'll show modern quilts from the Flickr Fresh Modern Quilts group, while explaining what modern quilting is all about. We'll have about ten modern quilts on display too. I'm just not sure what to expect as far as turn-out. Twenty? Thirty people? Sharky's can seat 42. Here's hoping to filling up the place! Linda