nautical banners

We spent last weekend celebrating the marriage of my son… the rehearsal dinner on Friday

 evening and the wedding on Saturday evening.  The charming old church is

close to a big lake in Oklahoma, so naturally, we had to have an evening cruise on the lake for the

rehearsal dinner on Friday evening.

It was great fun, with lots of Mexican food, beverages, and "stories" with many

 close friends and family.  I knew there wasn't much need in decorating with the

beautiful lake surrounding us, so I just made a few banners to hang and flutter

 while we were cruising around on the boat : )

I didn't get any good pics on the boat of the nautical banners, so these pics will have to do!

For dessert we had the cutest sugar cookies shaped like anchors, but did I

get any pics before they were all gone….nope : )

It was a fabulous weekend, and now I have a wonderful daughter-in-law!!

piece,

elizabeth

virtual garden club

As I have mentioned before, one of my favorite things to do(besides quilting) is to work in my garden.

I feel like gardening is so good for the soul…digging in the dirt, breathing the fresh air,

hearing all the lovely outdoor sounds!  Well, I have joined a Virtual Garden Club and

thought some of you might be interested too : )

(I have added the VGC badge to the right, check it out!)

I started out my morning at a community garden close by my home.  It is always fun

to see what is happening there, and today there were 10 caterpillars on the fennel.

It is a great group of fellow gardeners, both old and new to gardening.  I found
it through the Urban Neighbors OKC Association.  It is fun to garden with
new friends, and I am unable to grow vegetables in my shady yard, so
I am blessed to have this community garden so close to my home!

Here are a few pictures that I have recently taken in my yard:

Purple Passion Flower Vine

Pagoda

Black Pearl pepper

Hope you had a chance to enjoy a little nature today : )

piece,

elizabeth

banner day

The OKCMQG is having a quilt show in October.  We are gathering banners

from our members to hang from the rafters!  We have over 60 members, so if

we each make two banners, we will have a lovely display above our quilts.

I first made these little cuties for "To Boston With Love" that I posted about here.

These are the banners that I made for Boston...

The tutorial can be found here, and believe me, they are a quick project that make quite

a cheerful display : )

For the October show banners, I started with strips of colors that were chosen for us

to use, so that all of our different banners will go together well.  Our local quilt shop,

 Oklahoma Quiltworks, sold bundles of fabric in our colors making it easy for people like me!

I used improv piecing by cutting the strips of fabric at different angles and this

is what I came up with for my banners.

As one of my FB followers commented:  "It looks like they are holding hands" : )

I look forward to seeing what my guild friends come up with when

making their banners!

piece,

elizabeth

sewing curves

I took a class on sewing curves at the SewOK retreat a couple weeks ago.  The teacher was

Dana Bolyard from Old Red Barn Co. blog.  She has written a wonderful book 

called Imagine Quilts from That Patchwork Place.

Here is the block that I made in her class using some black Essex linen and

Amy Butler's Hapi fabric.

I decided to add more borders of Hapi….why not?

I finished with an off-center block and now I am ready to start quilting!

It measures 45 X 45 inches….just the size for me to machine quilt comfortably : )

I am still deciding on how the quilting will look….

do you have any suggestions?

piece,

elizabeth