The First Half of January

I've managed to stay busy so far this month. I'm back to making lists to help me stay focused. It really helps. I've quilted 5 quilts so far on my new to me quilting system, and #6 is loaded and waiting for me to start on it.
The 20" throat sure makes the quilting go a lot faster. I'm very happy with my set up. The 10' table fits nicely in my quilting studio and is a good excuse for not doing king size bed quilts. The biggest quilt I've done so far was 80" square, but I don't think it will be a problem to do queen size bed quilts. I'll find out, I have one to quilt.

The 8th was the first meeting of 2009 for the Paradise Piecers Bee. I'm Queen Bee this year, so I conducted my first business meeting with four out of seven members present. We made several decisions, like continuing to meet at the church, keeping the dues the same and using the left over money from last year to buy batting for us to use in our community service quilts. We also decided on 1yd. fabric cuts for birthdays. Last year we did 2 fat quarters and before that we had a $10.00 limit.

The 13th was the AQG meeting. Sandra and I rode down together. I took tuna, noodle casserole this time instead of my usual deviled eggs. We had a nice crowd. Our guest speaker brought a trunk show that included her quilts, crocheting, and embroidery projects over the years. She does beautiful work. Unfortunately, I've forgotten her name.

This is some of the beautiful embroidery that she has done. It is her own design.

This is her "Giant Dahlia" quilt. Seeing hers, reminds me that I haven't finished mine yet.

This is her Jacobean applique. She designed the borders. She is the lady on the far left.

The 16th, the Needle Turners Bee met. Three out of five of us attended. We had a nice visit. I got a start on hand stitching the binding down on a baby quilt.

When I got home from bee, Dora and I went to Applebee's for lunch. and then to Office Depot"s going out of business sale. I bought some photo paper for 20% off, only to find out next week Staples has it for buy 1 get 1 free. I may run over there next week, I have the EVQG quilt show pictures to print. Besides, I need to turn in some empty ink cartridges.

I turned in my first community service quilt to AQG on Tuesday.

Sandra and I quilted it on her long arm in Dec, that was before I got mine.

This is the first quilt I quilted with my long arm.

This was also my first attempt at following a pantograph pattern. Can't say that I did too well. The pattern is "Wicked Easy" it was a free pattern available on the web a few years ago. I can't remember the name of the web-site and have no earthly idea what I did with the pattern. I made enough blocks for three quilts. This is the crib size. Dora wants this one. The lap size one went to a friend and the twin size is on my frame now. It will be a community service quilt for EVQG.