Archive for the ‘QQQ Birthday Party’ Category

THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
(Thank you to Susan my sister for these pictures.)

Thanks to my wonderful husband I have these shots of the exhibit while is was very quite with no visitors.
And thanks to all those that attend to help make this such a WONDERFUL afternoon!!!!!!



This quilt was designed by my daughter – Emily

This quilt was designed by my daughter – Jennie.

UFO Walls

All the blocks pictures above were given to me on June 9 from the wonderful members of the Village Squares Quilters. Thanks for letting me be your president for the past two years.

The 6th Generation

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Here is my granddaughter at the QQQ 50 1/2 Birthday party with the quilt she made me. She is already planning other quilts she wants to make.

Five Decades of Quilting

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
In preparing for the QQQ Birthday Party I realized that I had made at least one quilt in each of the decades of my life. Here they are:

1960’s

My First Quilt: With the help of my mother, I embroidered the bear blocks and completed this quilt to display at a church young girls’ activity.

1970’s Red Tied Quilt: I made this quilt to take to college.

1980’s

Seasame Street Quilt (1982): (above) This quilt was made when I was pregnant with my first baby. We Won, We Got the Right Baby!: For Christmas in 1985, I made my 3 year old daughter and her doll each a purple nightgown and tied quilt. Matching infant sized items were made with the left over fabric. After finding out she had a sister, Emily exclaimed – “We won, we got the right baby!”

1990’s
Cow Quilt: Emily loved cows and wanted a “Cow” quilt. Only fabric in the sewing room was used. This was the beginning of “FUN BACKS”. (Back of the cow quilt)

Jennie’s Animal Bedspread with Wooden Animals: Having just learned about machine quilting, I made Jennie this animal bedspread and painted the wooden animals to coordinate with the bedspread.
2000’s

Living Room Easy Pieces: (Left) While taking a log cabin quilting class with Nana (my mother-in-law), I also signed up for an Easy Pieces class. It was during this class that I realized that you could do more with your quilts than just blocks and sashings.

She Quilts – I Cook: (Top right) When I saw this panel, I immediately thought of my dear husband and how supportive and patient he is of my quilting obsession…and it’s a good thing he cooks!!

Living Room Water Color Basket: (Bottom right) This watercolor basket was created to match my New York living room.

Breaking NEWS!!!!!!

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Visit my sister’s blog to get the first news on the Quinquagenarian Quilt Quest. It was a great day. Thanks to everyone that came. More from me later.

P.S. We had an very special unexpected visitor – The Mortensen Owl. Thanks Rodney!

And the Winner is………

Thursday, June 11th, 2009
The preparations continue. This morning I finished the ribbons. At the QQQ 50 1/2 Birthday party we will be having Viewers Choice (1st, 2nd, & 3rd Places) along with one special Honorable Mention. Of course the ribbons had to be made with folded hexagons.
And here is the container to hold the ballots.

Pin the Square on the Block

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
At the QQQ 50 1/2 Birthday Pary visit the Quilt Olympics room to play this game ………….. Pin the Square on the Block.
Here is the back pocket to keep everything organized.


And of course – a quilt label.

YIKES!!!!!! Only ONE week left!!!!

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

This past week I have been busy with LOTS of paperwork and running around trying to get things organized for the QQQ 50 1/2 Birthday Party. I can’t believe that it’s a week from today. (Hopefully at this time next week we will be having a nice relaxed breakfast with all our family – do you think I am DREAMING?????) Our house feels like it is being taken over by quilts. My children’s sewing classes ended on Wednesday so I took a couple of the sewing machine down and put this table up in my studio to stack some of the quilts on. (We actually have a couch in our living room.)

Here is my quilt rack with a bunch of the smaller quilts draping over it.

I have also been working on the plan of how/where to hang each quilt. I have made a template like this for each panel that we will be setting up. I have taken pictures of most of the quilts and have been moving them around to try and get what seems like a logical and appealing way to group and hang the quilts. As I have been doing this I have also remembered some of my older projects that I have up in my attic. I have matching tied quilts and nightgowns that I made for Emily and her doll for Christmas 1985. Along with that I had made matching a baby quilt and sleeper (I was due in February but didn’t know if it was a boy or girl). I have found all these pieces except Emily’s nightgown. Fun to see all this stuff together. I think this will make for a fun panel to show what kind of work I was doing back then.
Anyway, I am cleaning house today. The wave of family starts to arrive today. Let the FUN begin!!!!!! Hope to see you next Saturday.

Party Preparations Continue

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Preparations for the QQQ 50 1/2 Birthday Party continues. Here is what our couch looks right now. Many areas of our house are starting to have quilts stacked in them. Kind of fun, until someone stops by and they need somewhere to sit.
This is a close up of the quilt my Grandma made me. It has seen better days. I wanted to wash it before I put the rod pocket on because it will be hanging in the Six Generations of Quilters special exhibit. I was afraid of what might happen to the torn edges during the wash.
Here is the same part of the quilt, but after I did my repair job.
I think it turned out pretty good. This was the best one that I did.

You can see this one alittle more,
but still much better than the frayed edges of the holes showing.

Here is a picture of the rod pocket I put on the quilt my mother made me.

Some of the quilting lines had came out so I even fixed those. This reminded me that I am not a hand-quilter. On the Generations Unite my embrodiery stitches looked pretty nice next to my mother’s, but my hand quilting stitches stood out like a sore thumb.

This is the wallhanging that Jennie made me for Mother’s Day – 2003.

It now has a rod pocket also.

A Quinquagenarian’s Quilt Quest – Five Decades of Quilting

Monday, May 11th, 2009

During December of 2007 I attended two funnerals. At one there were alot of flowers and I as I was thinking about when I died I would rather have people donate to a worthy cause instead of buying flowers that will just die and have to be thrown away. But, then a few days later I went to a funneral and there were NO flowers. Changed my mind – I thought I wanted a few flowers, but then still have money donated to a worthy cause. But, with all those stands that they have to put the flowers on – that would be a great place to drape my quilts on. Having the quilts displayed would really add to the celebration of life atmosphere that I want to have. It would really be like a party and people would enjoy coming to see me dead. Later that month my kids were visiting to participate with me in the Emerald Nut’s Midnight Fun Run at Central Park on New Year’s Eve. I was telling my girls about the additional plans that I want when I die. (I have already told them I want upbeat music playing at the viewing – I really do want it to be a celebration of my life.)

A few days later my daughter came to me and said that we don’t have to wait until I die to do a party like this – I was turning 50 in 2008 – why not celebrate my 50th Birthday by hanging all my quilts and inviting family and friends to enjoy an afternoon together and see my quilts.

My birthday is in December and this really is a very hard time of the year to do something like this. As we started to look at the calendar we realized that my exact 50 1/2 birthday was on a Saturday in June – thus the idea for my 50 1/2 Birthday celebration was born. But, I needed a more catchy name. I asked Janaradan (one of my son-in-law’s) to come up it a catchy name. He went to his computer and started doing some searching. He found the word – Quinquagenarian (which means 50 years old). I decided this was perfect. Put it together with Quilt (since that was going to be the focus of the party) Quest (journey). As I was making plans for the party and lisiting the quilts that I had (or had made) I realized that I had at least one quilt from each of the decades of my life.

A couple of months ago I saw a postcard that Jane Davilla had designed for Fiber + Thread = Art exhibit. She had taken slivers of five different quilts and merged them together to make one photo for the front of the postcard. I thought this would wonderful for my postcard invitations. I included a sliver of quilt from a quilt made in each of the decades of my life. The party is a month away.

Date: June 13, 2009
time: 1:00-5:00 pm
(Program at 3:30 pm)
Location: 111 North Ave.
New Rochelle, NY 10801
It is going to be like a quilt show with the exception of a few quilty party games (requested by my sewing students). You can come and look around (there will be over 70 quilts), play some games (if you want), participate in the Viewer’s Choice vote, have some refreshments, stay for the program (my daughters are in charge of this) and leave whenever you want. I think it should be alot of fun.
Also, my four cute grandchildren will be there! What more could a quilting Grandma want – oh yah, one more thing. Since family is so important to me and I have made it part of my quilting life and career (The Legacy Lives On – Six Generations of Quilters), we will also be displaying Six Generations of Quilts. Which will include quilts from:
1. My great Grandmother
2. My grandmother
3. My mother
4. me
5. My two daughters
6. My five-year-old granddaughter
There will be a Family History specialists demonstrating what resources are available to help learn how you can do your genelogy.
For those of you who know how I love the kitchen (NOT REALLY) – not to worry, a dear friend who is very gifted with the whole kitchen thing will be in charge of the refreshments.
During the past 1 1/2 years I have been working on some of UFOs (UnFinished Objects). Planning for my 50 1/2 Birthday Celebration has been a great motivator. I still have alot of UFOs though, maybe we will include a display of some of these projects also. I also had a QQQ quilt planned and pieces cut out. But that is as far as it is going to get.
If you would like a postcard – please send me an email with your address and I will be glad to send you one. ( info@sewingandbeyond.com )
Looking forward to seeing many family members, friends and quilt lovers on June 13.