Saturday, January 31, 2009

Crazy Quilt

My quilt guild, the Tri-County Quilt Guild of Cypress, Texas, has finally finished our raffle quilt for this year. It's a fabulous 82" x 82" Victorian-style crazy quilt called (aptly enough) "Victorian Elegance"
We've been working on it for over 6 months and after hundreds of hand-stitched, blistered hours, it's ready to show. We'll be drawing the winner at our guild show February 12-13, 2010.
Details are at www.tricountyquiltguild.org

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Thimbles


I love my thimbles! Almost 30 years ago, when I first started quilting, I bought a $5 thimble by mail. We were living in London at the time and I couldn't find a thimble to save my life. When we got home, I went thimble-shopping and found that they actually come in sizes. And styles. 






















I even found a really large topless one that I bought just because. It wasn't til later I found out it was a tailor's thimble for my thumb. How weird.  So I bought it.



















Then one year when I was at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, I took a handquilting class from DeeDee McElroy of Roxanne's Thimbles. That's when I discovered that thimbles not only come in sizes, they can be pretty, and ergonomically correct! I'll take two!
















A few years later, same place, different handquilting class. This time I took Liuxin Newman's class (The Thimblelady) and found a totally new style of thimble where you push with the strongest part of your finger, instead of the tip.
The one on the left goes on your index or middle finger and the one on the right is for your thumb.
I'll take two of those, too, plea$e! 


So now I have my original mishmash of thimbles and that giant tailor's 'topless thumble'  and my 2 beautiful Roxanne ones and the 2 silver Liuxin Newman ones.
You can tell by the gold-plated Roxanne's thimble that that's the one I use most, but The Thimblelady's silver ones are effortless to use.

I even found a teensy book with a thimble bookmark!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

January 2009 Desktop Calendar

Click to expand image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - a whole new look every month!