Thrift Store Finds

The military community has a great tradition of thrift stores.  Most often, people can consign items and recieve most of the money, but a certain percentage goes to the thrift store.  They may have one or two part time employees, but most people who work there volunteer.  The proceeds are given either to a scholarship fund or disbursed among a group of organizations who apply--such as the schools in our military community, the Red Cross, area scout troops, etc. 

I'm always ready for a foray to the thrift store.  Just as in every other one you may have visited, there is a lot of, er, "junk", but every once in a while, you find a treasure.  However, any military thrift store savy person knows that now is THE TIME!  I would say that 90 percent of military families who PCS, do so in the summer.  (PCS=Permanent Change of Station=move) 

Last week, I was there all three days the store was open.  I didn't go by myself, I was with different people but we stopped for a quick browse.  I found a neat treasure each day.

This is a handmade patriotic basket.  I got it for $4.  It should fit right in to my decor!

Check out this unusal 18 inch ruler!  I collect rulers and yardsticks and I wasn't expecting to find anything that day since I had just been there, but I really like this.  It was made in Maine and is really nice wood.  I paid a whopping 50 cents for it.

Just a day later, I was back.  I went with a friend to show her the sewing machine that was in there.  I took some thread and fabric and we got the machine out and sewed on it and it worked great.  The price had been reduced, so she took it home.  While she was paying, I wandered about, again not expecting to find anything new when something laying on a shelf caught my eye.  What was it?  I picked it up and discovered this:

An antique rug beater!  I've always wanted one but whenever we were antiquing, I found something I wanted more.  It is long, maybe 24-30 inches and heavy.  The price:  $10!  They are $40 and up in the antique shops.

All in all, it was a great week.  And, the thrift store is open this morning!  I think I need to get going!

Aloha,
JoAnne

Omigosh!

It's finished!  Finally!  Presenting my version of the Omigosh quilt.

I used very light water color like batiks and marbles for the lights, but all the colors are my own hand dyed fabrics, including the border.  Shall we take a closer look?

Now you can see that the quilt is made up of a churndash block and a double nine-patch block.  What is that laying on the quilt?

It's a...   dime!  Yes, now you can see the true scale of it.  Because one inch finished squares are so, er, "last year," I embraced the half inch finished square for this quilt!
I've been working off an on for the past 6 weeks, so I'm glad it is finally all together.  Now I just have to decide how it should be quilted.  Any ideas?  I KNOW it won't be by hand.

Aloha,
JoAnne

Hawaiian Quilt Guild Show

I should have blogged about the show before it actually got over, but my it has been a busy two weeks.  The show was fabulous!  I can't describe how gorgeous it was to open the door to the gallery and enter a world of color, cotton, and creativity.  What we as quilters do is to create art and to see it displayed as so, in a gallery, with great lighting, is so awesome.  Here is a shot of what you saw after entering:

On opening night there was a group of string players which really added to the festivities.  Here are some more gallery shots.

Our featured quilter was Sharon Nakasone and her quilts/bags/postcards etc. were remarkable in their craftsmanship.  Sharon is a gorgeous machine quilter and a master embellisher.  At a glance, they look great, but when you study them close up, the detail is extraordinary.  Here is an example:

I'm not sure if you can see in this photo, but the octopus's legs are encrusted with hundreds of tiny beads to represent the "suction cups."



All in all, it was an excellent show.  So many people worked hard to make it a success but I'm only going to mention Cheryl Lynch, who bravely volunteered to be the head of the show.  So many other people worked on various aspects that I don't want to start mentioning names becasue surely I would forget someone.  Everyone, your hard work made for an beautiful show!  Thanks to all.

Aloha,

JoAnne



Iron Scrapper

Today was the big day!  Yes, despite not having scrapbooked at all since way before Christmas, and only stopping by the shop once since the New Year, I participated in our local scrapbook shop's National Scrapbook Day Iron Scrapbooker as a challenger.  I and one other challenger competed against last year's Champion in a three way contest of creativity!

I was asked because I am on the design team for the shop--this means I get to make samples with all the new, wonderful product.  I can't believe that I haven't been in in months to get new samples to make.  Now that I spent some serious time in the shop, I'm all motivated to pull out all my scrapbooking stuff and play with it for awhile.  The problem is that the same workspace that I use for quilting is also where I scrapbook.  I love to do both of these activities, but it seems that quilting has been winning out lately.

Back to the contest...  I was curious as to how it would work because I hadn't seen it last year.  The shop had just recieved samples of brand new papers from BoBunny.  There were three different themes, and we drew numbers to see which theme we would get.  The choices were a very Hawaiian-like packet (I cannot wait until they are out because I'm going to buy all of it, LOL) a Patriotic Packet (also very cool papers!) and a Zoo/Natural set.  Each packet had maybe 8 sheets of printed papers and we had to choose 3 of them.  Also we had to select 2 cardstock papers of our choice.  Some of all 5 of the papers had to be used.  Required elements included:  ribbon, at least 2 photos (dummy cardstock is used instead of actual photos) the 5 papers, and at least two of the following techniques (sand/emboss, ink/chalk, pop dots, glitter glue/paint, and others I think I'm forgetting)  Also the secret ingredient:

A 12" bracket die from Quikutz.  We had to cut one of these and use it on our layout.

We had 15 minutes to gather supplies and get organized.  We were allowed to bring our own cutters and adhesives.  Whatever tools, embellishments, inks, etc. we wanted to use had to be selected during this time.  Once we were creating, we could no longer pick anything out.  Boy did that 15 minutes fly by! 

At the conclusion of the prep time, we immediately started creating.  We had 20 minutes to make one 12x12 page.  Luckily, I find Bobunny papers to be very "user friendly."  They really make it easy to make a page with all the coordinates.  I found myself rising to panic whenever they announced the time remaining, but I would calm back down.  I tried to stay focused.  My first issue was during prep--my packet had 2 different options that I wanted to make.  I left the decision up to the embellishments, though, and one of my ideas was the clear winner in that regards.  I wish I had instantly made the decision, though, because the "waffling" time was wasted.  Despite being out of practise, though, I mostly did all right.  I did forget one important thing and so I'm not feeling so great about my design.  I included all the required elements, it was just a part of my design that I forgot about.  We all finished with the required elements. That 20 minutes went by faster than the 15 minutes of prep!

Judging will be done by customers via email or ballots in the shop.  The entries are anonymous--that is why I haven't shared my theme.   The results will be tabulated in a week. It was so much fun, even though I got a bit stressed!  By the time I got home, I was pretty much done for.

Of course, since it was Nat'l Scrapbook Day, there was a sale--20% off everything--so I did not come home empty-handed.  I also have a packet to make up for a shop sample AND I have extra papers from my contest packet to use to make another 12x12 sample to display with the contest entry.  My sample packet is a snowflake theme.  I seems no one here has those kinds of photos, LOL!  They saved it for me because I lived in Alaska for 4 years and they know that I still have photos to scrap from there! (How long ago has it been?--I won't say)

Aloha,
JoAnne

Quilt Show post #1: Challenge Quilts!

Our quilt guild's show opened tonight and it was a wonderful evening.  I'm going to post more about it later, but I was most excited to see the challenge quilts, and I know my mom has been, too, so without further ado, here we go!

These were the fabrics.  The rules stated we had to use at least half a fat quarter of two of them.

This is mine.  I'm not too artisitic with my quilts, but I was happy with this because it is so unlike my usual style.  I knew there would be entrants who saw something in the fabric that I didn't and I couldn't wait to see the interpretations.

This is the first place winner:  "Misty Mountain and the Water Loolie" by Sally Bartholomew.  So stunning and dimensional.

Second Place went to Holly Jessop with her "Hawaiian Dichotomy."  The story is the blending of Hawaii's native flora and fauna with our modern urbanization.  Can you tell she is a Biologist/Scientist?  I love it!

Rowena Ballando was telling me at aerobics just a week or two how she was trying to get her quilt done in time.  She finished "Butterfly Garden" and won third place!  Rowena is pretty new to quilting, too.  Awesome

Rain Forest by Judi Faris

Fantasy Reef and Anemone Sea by Jean Harr

Night Sky Over Diamond Head by Susan Haushalter

Challenged!! by Maureen Lamb

Love of Life by Jo-Ann Marques

Challenge 2011 by Claudia Marr.  Dimensional

Chrysanthemums and Cranes by Joan Masaki

Turmoil by Sharon Nakasone  Sharon is our featured quilter this year.  I think you can see why!  I sure never looked at that fabric and thought "volcano!"

What a Challenge! by Ellen Owens

And finally, "Challenge Me" by Charlotte Szarmes

All the quilts turned out so beatiful and so different!  This is why I love to participate in challenges.

Stay tuned for more quilt show blog posts!

Aloha,

JoAnne