Hunter's Star Class

Last year at the quilt show at the Farmparks one of the vendors was showing a Hunter’s Star quilt and was selling a new ruler called the Rapid Fire Hunter's Star that made the construction a snap. This past weekend some of the ladies from my quilt guild got together to learn how to use the ruler to make the quilt or wall hanging. The ruler comes in 2 different sizes and each ruler will make 4 different size quilt blocks. I needed to make a quilt for Christmas so I chose the 10” block.

It was a little confusing at first for some of us but after we make our first block the light bulb came on. Some of the ladies had made the Hunter’s Star the old way with inset seams and triangles which can get very tricky. With this ruler it was all straight seams and it went together very quickly if you chained stitched.

 It is amazing what color choices people use to use and the way they put them together. At the end of the first day we had at least 4 blocks sewn together so we knew what our quilt would look like.

On Sunday we got together to finish up making blocks until the raffle quilt blocks got together. Three of the ladies spent time arranging the Orion's Star Quilt blocks into various patterns and we took a vote on which one was the most appealing to the eye. Now all we have to do is to decide on the border and find a quilter to have the quilt finished, then we can start selling raffle tickets.

We all had a great time getting together to learn a new technique or trick to make the construction of a quilt quicker, because we all have so many quits and so many to finish. I know I have at least 5 that I have started and have not finished yet. So it is nice to have a class to work on a new project and to get it almost finished in 2 days then to start on one at home and take 3 to 4 weeks to finish it.

NQA Quilt Show

 Last Thursday I took a bus trip to Columbus to attend the NQA Quilt show. I wish I could post photos of the beautiful quilts that were on display but do to copyright issues I cannot post them on my blog.

 Our buses left Chardon 7am and headed to Lakeland College to pick up some more blurry eyed but excited quilters. Most of my quilt guild sat together in the front of the bus and started talking about what we were looking for. Just a tip, do not sit behind the bus driver if you are worried about how the bus driver is driving. I will never again sit in that seat. We made good time and arrived at the convention center around 10:15 am, got our hand stamped and away we went to the show.

The theme of this year’s quilt show was the Mariner’sCompass, something I’m not sure I want to try. The front half of the room was all the quilts in the show, which were very beautiful, and the back of the room was all of the vendors.

 There were over 100 quilt shops and other vendors selling their stock. Some I have seen there since I have been going and some new ones. My small group decided to bee line it to the vendors to get the best deals first, eat and then take in the quilts on display.

I found some great fabric and a few patterns that I was looking for. I found out last year that if I saw something I better get it then and there because it won’t be there when or if I can even remember which vendor was selling it.

Around noon we all headed to the hotel food court to rest our feet and get some food and to see if anyone found something that we all needed.

Heading back to the show I took some time to finish the vendors then I got my camera out to take photos of the quilts that inspired me, which there were quite a few.

I fell in love with 4 wall hangings, one was of Geisha women which was hand quilted and along the top were silk cherry blossoms. The other 3 were panel wall hangings which look like 6 individual strips but when hung together they make a complete scene. These had thread painting, hand quilting and 3D textures to make up the flowers and the forest floor. If only I could do something that beautiful. I would have to quit my job and my hubby wouldn’t like that.

5pm and it was time to get back on the bus and rest our feet and backs. It was show and tell for everyone with a lot of “Where did you find that?” and “Why didn’t you get that for me?”

 We stopped for dinner at DerDutchman Restaurant, they changed hands a couple of months ago and the sign has not been changed. We had 2 kinds of chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad and bread. There is also a huge shop within the restaurant selling everything from gifts to homemade pies and fudge. My friend always buys 2 peanut butter pies or she can’t come home. While we waited for the bus drivers we got to sit on the big porch with rocking chairs.

After we got back on the road we played Bingo. Prizes ranged from fabric to boxes of garbage bags. Even the bus driver got to play bingo (we played a card for her) and won 2 stuffed animals.

A great time was had by all of us and I can’t wait till next year.

Delivery of the Pet Beds

I got an email from the recipient of the pet beds that my quilt guild made that I had to post here.

First of all I would like to thank Kathleene for meeting me at my work place, loading up her car and delivering them to Society for the Protection of Animals, Inc. in Fremont, Ohio

Dear Vandy, Kathleene and Joellen,

Thank you so much for donating the beautiful pet beds the quilting group made to S.P.A.!

When I distributed some of them in the cat room, I swear the cats were smiling! We will give some as gifts to families who are adopting pets, too, as you requested. Hope its okay that the foster kitties in the Cat room enjoy them as well.

Just look at their faces!

Please share this special "Thank You" with your quilt circle, Vandy.

And Kathleene, there are not enough words of thanks to convey to you all that you do for so many animals in need.

I hope you know how much your support (especially emotionally) has meant to me over the past years, and your support of S.P.A.'s efforts has helped to save the lives of so many worthy, castaway dogs and cats.

 And Joellen, thank you for riding along to meet us and helping to unload and reload the pet beds. It was really nice meeting you.

What adorable, unique beds!

And thanks so much too, Kathleene, for treating us to breakfast. That was a really nice surprise!

 We unloaded and placed all of the beds into the Cats room storage shelves.

When Terry and I moved to the country, ten years ago, we designed and built the cat room here with our own hands and our own money.

We currently care for 58 cats each day, and nine foster dogs. And that's here, at our house. Dianne, Char and Dale, Pam and Karen are fostering animals for SPA, too.

CAT (pronounced See-a-tee) was interested in

touching each bed with her paws.

Michael couldn't wait for us to place each bed. He was pulling them out of the plastic sacks, eager to pick his favorite one!

Michael climbed up to the top of the stack while we were unloading before placing on storage shelves.

 

Macdaddy and CAT watch with delight!

Meow-Meow helps unpack! Don't worry, we normally don't allow them to crawl into plastic bags. New things to see, new things to smell, new things to touch.

That all makes for a pretty exciting day in the Cats room!

 

I picked these wooden shelves up at Goodwill a couple of years ago. Several of the beds fit perfectly into the baskets! Talk about a comfortable place to snooze!

 Wish I could fit into one of these special beds!

 

 Sisters in rescue...

Roger saying... 

"Hey! Don't I get to try out one of the new special quilted beds!!!???"

 

 Again, heartfelt thanks from...

Michael, Susie, CAT, Valentine, Clemintine, BW, Saturday, Bert, Ernie, Meow Meow, Pee Wee, Jilly Bean, Bindy, Mindy, Macdaddy, Jimmy the Artist, Coaly, Sierra, Tux, Iris, Fast Eddie, Rasa, Hazel, Eve, Earl Gray, Judy, Cassie, Bella, Roger, Espen, Medie, Tucker, OJ, Lucy, Splish, Guido, Hobo, Sweetie Pie, Zeena, Cleopatra, Scotch Pine, Wally, Patchy, Cally, Susie Pooper, Little Bud, Maria Tiponi, Mandy, Grace C, Shaman, Black Pearl, David, Ronnie, Autumn, Mackayla, Duchess, Eugenia and Josie Falquette.

Barbara McGrady
Society for the Protection of Animals,Inc.
P.O. Box 1047
Fremont, OH 43420

In memory of our servicemen and servicewomen

I thought it the right time to talk about a project that I am involved in called "Home of the Brave." The main goal is to make and provide quilts to the families of fallen servicemen and servicewomen, of which there are simply too many.

I decided to join this effort in memory of my dad, Charles Prentice, who was a career Army man. What really got me going was the death of LCpl David Raymond Baker, a local serviceman in my home town. I didn't know him, but he touched my family in many ways. My son was working with my uncle's tree service down the street from Baker's parents' home when the Marines arrived to give the family the news. My husband was working at Kohl's in Mentor when a member of the Baker family came in to buy clothes for the funeral. My husband had also placed the story in The News-Herald the day before. His sister worked with my best friend's sister at a local bowling alley. 

I decided to stand with the grieving community when he was brought to the church for the funeral.

I talked to my quilt group and got a sew date to make blocks to use to construct quilts. With the help of my friends who donated money and signed blocks, the business owner who let us use her overflow room and the The News-Herald that published a story on our efforts, we have made a few of these special quilts.

The Ohio quilt block is a little different than what is on the website, but it is keeping with the tradition of a signature quilt. We use the patten of the Civil War, meaning no bright reds, as red is said to remind the families of the blood of their fallen son, daughter or spouse.

We still need to have batting, backing and to have them quilted and delivered to the families. If you know any quilter who does Longarm Quilting and would be interested in assisting in our effort, please contact me. You can find the detailed history here.

Holiday Door Hangings

Do you like to dress up your door for the holidays?

My hubby is a huge Christmas fanatic and I am a Halloween freak so I was looking for something different to hang on the door besides a wreath. I found a Halloween panel at one of my trips to the NQA Quilt show in Columbus and stashed it away in my stash until I found myself temporally unemployed this summer. I looked through my stash and found many panels and my brain started working overtime. I ended up making 2 for my sisters, 1 for my step mother, aunt and my cousin. I even added some extra large rick rack to add a little something extra on some of them.

Where was mine I thought. I got an idea from a wall hanging I did of funny turkeys and thought that would be cool to make one for my door for Halloween.

This is what I ended up making for Halloween and it looked so good I thought that I would take the turkey wall hanging and hang it on my door. They looked very cool since I have full glass storm door.

What to do for Christmas? I came up with an idea for snowman for a door hanging. I made my own pattern using white fleece for the snowman heads and fabric for the hats and felt for the noses and flower on the snow lady’s hat.

I posted a photo of the snowman door hanging and got a Facebook message from a friend asking me if I could make her one for each season and she ordered a bunch of the snowman hangings for next Christmas

Here is the first one that I made for her.

You don’t always need a pattern just an idea and some imagination.