I'm back

We recently did some travelling out to the east coast... so if you have sent me an e-mail or called & I haven't replied, it's because I was out of town.  If I've missed your call or e-mail, don't think I'm ignoring you!  Send me another message & I will reply. 

New York City is so much fun.  I loved seeing all the skyscrapers & people.  It is mind boggling to think you could fit everyone from the whole state of Iowa in NYC and not even fill it up.  Just amazing.  It's just like you see it on TV- sirens, cars honking, and so many people.  We visited the Statue of Liberty while we were there. 

Washington DC is a little more subdued... less traffic & people.  We put on many miles walking to all the different monuments. 

Lots & lots of security around the capitol building.  Like guys with M-16 machine guns.  Yikes.  We saw one woman try to get past security- she was headed downtown in handcuffs last we saw.   We did get a tour of the capitol & also got tickets in to the House of Representatives gallery. 
A tour guide said that 10,000 people visit the capitol every day.

We saw the White House, but didn't get a tour inside.  Only a few people get tickets for that, and you have to get them through your rep or senator & then only about 20% of the applications are approved. 

My advice if you're headed out that direction- get up early & get a head start on all the crowds!  We woke up at 6 AM to get to the Statue of Liberty, and were still not the first ones there, even though tickets start selling around 8:30 AM.  There is quite a bit of traffic, but it's not impossible- just don't leave home without your GPS.

Embroidered quilt

Cute, cute, cute!  This baby quilt is so adorable.  I've never seen these particular embroidery patterns before, they have some really cute details. 
I used a simple cross-hatch design in the blocks.

Two quilts done in June

These beautiful quilts were pieced by Alvina R.  This first one is a sampler, and I used the "Gala Vine" pattern on it.  I love how this viney pattern give so much texture to the quilt, without distracting from the various pieced blocks.  I love the colors in this quilt... I've always admired sampler quilts, I really should make one myself. 

She also piece this strippy quilt, and I did some custom quilting on this one.  I used a braid pattern in the plain strips, and a square feather wreath in the blocks.  The wreath had an open section in the center, and so I filled that in with a star pattern that I made up, to mimic the pieced star section.  I think it makes a fun little unexpected detail in the center.  The braid pattern was repeated in the outer border. 

Sampler quilt

I have some pictures of a sampler quilt I worked on, pieced by Carolyn E.  She has worked on this for many years, using scraps from other projects, and most of the blocks were hand-pieced.  I looks like quite a complicated block to piece. 
I repeated a block design that coordinated with the piecing, and a simple sashing design.  We were both happy with how it turned out.