Pointless Quilter

Another Whisper Challenge quilt finished

2012-02-06T22:31:00.000-08:00

But of course I can't show it. Not my favorite but not my least favorite quilt either. Check back in July after we share all our quilts.

I don't have anything else finished but what I do have to share ... I finally won a blog contest from Quilted Squid. I won a signed bag from Eleanor Burns and a cute fat quarter of fabric.

Took Sue Rasmussen's machine quilting class (sponsored by the Common Threads Quilt Guild) on Saturday. Just her lesson on needles was worth the cost of the class. She helped me perfect my stitches. Since she is a judge at quilt shows, I will take her word that my machine quilting stitches are too big. She also gave me some great ideas for the background quilting of the Vintage Moments quilt which I WILL START QUILTING ON THIS WEEK! She also spoke at our guild on Thursday night and she was very impressive. And funny. Here's a picture of her during her lecture.

I also finished my green and white quilt top. Need to figure out a good backing fabric for it. I'm sure I'll piece it but since it's a lot of white on the front, I'm afraid to use a dark backing fabric and I had a lot of greens left over so I have to figure something else out.

I still have to work on FMQ Challenge with Sew Cal Gal (see link on right). It's a feather design and the teacher this month is Diane Gaudynski. She does feathers a little different than what I normally do so this should be fun.

Thanks for looking.
Barbara

Road to California shopping

2012-01-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

I did a little shopping at Road 2 California this year. But first I took a great class by Karen Echmeier called "Let's Make Waves" It's a technique class on curves. We didn't really get a finished product but we did get to play and make a "piece of fabric". Here's what I did. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with it yet. I do know I'll add more to it.

Then there was shopping.
I have been working on a green and white quilt - one I can use on bed (or hang) during St. Patricks Day. I needed more of the right greens for the quilt. I also bought a wide batik fabric for the back of my Vintage Moments quilt.

Here are some misc. items, some flower purse handles, 2 sets of Kai scissors and some embroidery and other small scissors, 3" finished thangles, some yarn (for my mom to knit or crochet me a scarf or show me how to), some DMC floss, a material girl sign and a turning tool.

Some great fabrics. Soccer fabric so I can make my nephew Shane a quilt, some aqua and orange because I like that combo, some purples for a challenge I'm working on and the folded set I just loved from Jillily Studio. (Nice lady too). Oh and 2 yards of radiance fabric just because.

Here's two more kits. The gray kit on the left is for the pattern on the left and it just wasn't going to be big enough for me so I bought some more fabrics to go with it. The other kit is an applique kit with a blue background and beautiful bright color applique - a last minute, spur of the moment splurge.

I guess I need to work on my applique because I also bought 6 new applique kits, a redwork Halloween kit and another Halloween wall hanging. There are some new stencils too. Some 4th of July ones for the red, white and blue quilts I want to make and some Celtic and clover stencils for my St. Patrick's Day quilt.

And some thread - the left is Sulky and the right is Superior.

We had a good time but missed our friend Debbie. We didn't forget her though. We had her picture with us and we took pictures of her with us everywhere and texted them to her. Here she is in bed at the hotel.

And here is Anna and Barbara sampling some snacks before dinner.

Thanks to the wonderful ladies I spend the last 3 days with. I loved every minute.
Thanks for looking.
Barb

Oh my

2012-01-20T22:54:00.000-08:00

Another show and tell from my 2 days at Road to California and one side trip to Candy's Quiltworks in Northridge. I spent way more than what I should have but oh what pretty stuff I got. I also saw some very beautiful quilts - very inspiring and took a great class. Pictures of all when I get home.

Honolulu by Alan Brennert

2012-01-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

It's a book I just finished reading. It's amazing how many references to quilting there are when you really pay attention to what you're reading. I see more and more in tv shows and movies and now I'm reading about them in books. This reference surprised me because she mostly did seamstress work so a passage about patchwork took me by surprise.

It’s a story of a Korean girls life from a childhood in Korea and then how she moved to Hawaii in the early 1900’s. She goes back to visit her family many years later and is talking to her mom about her seamstress work. As a child her and her mother would have thimble time, an hour a day where she and her mom sewed together. She was telling her mom about her life in Hawaii and her regrets about leaving some of her friends and family here and what would have happened to everyone is she had stayed. Her mom said that her patchwork life was “fine and far richer and more colorful than anything you would have done here, and far from completed.” Her mom then proceeds to pull out a piece of cloth, with a green border enclosing a checkerboard of a dozen little rectangles and squares, red, yellow, gold, green, brown, blue, and black. “You see these?” she pointed to a half dozen of the black rectangles scattered randomly across the checkerboard, “ I added these on the day my mother died many years ago because that was my mood that day. There is no pattern to where I placed them as there is no sense to be made of death. One’s eye may not go to them first, but next to them the blues look bluer, the red’s richer, the gold’s more brilliant. Without them, the cloth is pretty but without character or contrast.” “Yes” I said quietly, “I see.” She placed a tender hand on mine. “Look around us child, listen to the sounds of war coming from the east, you could have made a [insert Korean word here which I assume means life] here in [insert Korean town here] but you might have had more patches like these than you could count. “

I listened to this on my ipod through Audible.com so I didn’t get the words exactly as Mr. Brennert had written them, but I love how he used patchwork to describe life events. I wanted to keep them somewhere where I wouldn't lose it because I love the meaning of the passage and I'm sure I'll be referring back to it in the future.

http://www.alanbrennert.com/Pg_Honolulu.html

Off to Road to California tomorrow. Will have pictures and stuff to share when I get back.
Thanks for looking.

Free Motion Quilting Challenge - January 2012

2012-01-14T22:27:00.000-08:00

I decided to join Sew Cal Gal's Free Motion Quilting challenge. I love to machine quilt but have always had a problem with background or all over design challenges. I can do pretty good with stencils and I am fairly good at feathers, but all over designs stump me. I have a problem keeping the designs consistent in size and look so I thought this challenge would help. She (Sew Cal Gal) suggested some tops to make to keep all the samples in the same place and because I normally make things little more difficult, I decided to make a different top. I wanted to use my neon threads against black and designed this top for the monthly challenge.

My dog Walter who instinctively knows when a quilt hits the ground.

Here's my January sample piece.

I didn't do too bad. I went slow and tried not to get myself locked in a corner but I did a few times. Anyway I practiced on paper and you saw my Valentine quilt I made for Anna where I tried to make this design to look like a heart. Practice practice, practice. That's what we have to do.

Thanks for looking.
Barb

Some little quilts for a friend

2012-01-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

My friend Anna. from my art group Loose Threads, wanted small 5 x 7 quilts for each month. I drew February and December and kept my themes very traditional.

I also finished the latest Whisper Challenge Quilt. I finished it Monday night because I had to deliver it for the meeting on Wednesday. I added an "element" lets say to the quilt on Sunday and after my husband and I discussed the piece he brought up a good point and I pondered it all day Monday at work and decided he was right. Took something off and then added something else.

I was not able to make the Loose Threads meeting because I went to go see My Fair Lady at the Saroyan theater in Fresno. I am getting tickets for Rock of Ages which plays there in March.

I also finished the top of the Free Motion Quilting challenge top which I hope to pin baste tomorrow night and then start my practicing. I will show that when I do the 1st block.

So what a boring post - no pictures. Sorry about that.

If you made it this far, thanks for looking.
Barb

What you get when you hate to dust...

2012-01-02T22:41:00.000-08:00

2 more table toppers that fit the bedside tables. Instead of dusting, I just have to shake. I have some for 4th of July, Christmas and now Valentines. They are all double sided so they do double duty. They are quilt as you go patterns I altered to fit from a Scrap-Therapy pattern. My first finish for 2012 but not on my resolution list.

Side 1 (matches--sort-of--my Valentines quilt)

Side 2 (this matches another Scrap-Therapy quilt I've made)

I've also had two add two more quilts to my resolution list. A wonderful friend reminded me that I still had to quilt my Vintage Moments quilt and then I also signed up for Sew Cal Girls free motion quilting challenge. (See link on right). Been working on my sampler for that today.

Also, I have to show you this cute little book rack my dad and mom gave me. I'm sure my dad made it. I found the perfect little books to go on it.

All the above photos were taken with my new little camera (Canon Power Shot A3300IS) my husband got me for Christmas. We have a very nice Kodak camera but it was so big and hard to carry around to quilt shows and stuff. This one I can keep in my purse and he got me a red one to match my laptop. What a guy.

Thanks for looking.

Resolutions Quilt List and Jack!

2012-01-01T21:36:00.000-08:00

Yep, did it! Updated it. Will I get all of them done this year, heck no. Like last year, I did more than half and I made quilts that weren't on the list. Life happens and things change* but I like having a list so I don't forget what I have. I do have a goal to make more scrap quilts this year. I didn't really make any except for a few small charity quilts with left over fabrics from recent quilts. I have 5 shoeboxes full of 5" squares, 3 of 3.5" squares and 2 of 2" squares (all Scrap-Therapy quilt cuts) and a hat box full of light strips and a bigger box full of dark strips and I need to use some of those up.

*Like today - putting away my Christmas decorations and putting out my Valentine's Day stuff, I realized I needed some bedroom end table covers (because I don't like to dust). So out came my scrap therapy boxes, pulled some pinks, whites and browns, and am not making some quilt "mini-quilts".

Now on to some cuteness. Yesterday we had our Christmas with my step-daughter, her husband and my grandson. He is such a happy little boy and he was really into opening presents - anyone's presents. Here's a picture of me and Jack.

The quilt I gave him, the Eye Spy quilt, is in the background. He liked it and so did his folks. But notice the box behind me. Yep - we got Kelly a Bernina 215. She was so excited to have a big girl sewing machine--and she'll probably be making costumes and all kinds of fun house stuff with it. She's not a quilter - yet. I hope she'll have a lot of fun with it. Chad got some tools - guys stuff. He was excited about that too.

Here he is coming to give me a kiss for a great quilt.

Loves to read.

But of course, boxes are as much fun as the toys.

"Grandpa, remember the swing set Oma promised, when will you make it?"

This is the annual doxie ornament I get from my husband.

My dog Walter loves to drive. We take him around the block occasionally and he honks the horn the whole time, so this ornament will always remind me of Walter.

I have another day off tomorrow so I'll have time to finish cleaning and laundry and quilting!!!! Yesterday the only quilt related thing I did was order from Hancocks of Paducah.

Thanks for looking.

2011 IN REVIEW

2011-12-30T22:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a montage of the quilts I've finished this year. Only a little over 1/2 of these were on my resolution list for 2011.

Not a bad year. The 3 whisper quilts are part of a challenge and I can't show anyone until mid year 2012. But I wanted credit for getting these done. I didn't include all the ornaments I made this year too.

I need to work on my 2012 resolution list. I hope to have that posted by the 1st. I want to focus on some scrap therapy quilts this next year on top of the other quilts I want to do.

For the records, I want the 2011 resolution list posted here because the list on the right will change when I update in a few days.

I'm excited - tomorrow I get to see my grandson. We're having our little Christmas tomorrow.

Thanks for looking. Have a happy new year.

The last finish of 2011

2011-12-28T22:45:00.000-08:00

All ready for summer. Pattern from Moda Bake Shop. Finished this on Christmas day.

Thanks for looking.

2011 Ornaments

2011-12-27T23:03:00.000-08:00

My mom cross stitched this card. I will frame and put with all the others I hang each year.

Each year, my family exchanges ornaments, hand-made ornaments. Here's what I got this year.

From my brother and his wife - need to add bow on top where tip broke off.

From my little sister.

From my older sister. We got light bulb snowmen a few years ago.

Here's what I made.

For my niece-she's a little angel (who will be taking piano next year)

For my nephew Drew.

For my nephew Shane.

The rest are for my sisters, sister-in-law, mother, mother-in-law, step-daughter and oldest nephews.

That's it for the night. I will post tomorrow a picture of the quilt I finally finished. Yea!
Thanks for looking.

Loose Threads and boy meets Santa

2011-12-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

We had our Loose Threads Christmas get together last night. I brought my camera but didn't get any pictures but no one really brought any quilts anyway. We mostly gabbed and nibbled and then exchanged gifts.
This is what I gave the girls.

I embroidered them on my machine from a design pack I bought on OESD They are so beautiful in real life. I was going to make ornaments from them but thought they were pretty enough to be framed.

I got the final 2 birthday strips from Grace and Sara. Grace made me a National Hamburger Month (which is May) and Hamburger Day July 28th strip.

Sara made me a sewing machine strip for National Sewing month which is in September. I have a set of some really cool holidays quilts now. Can't wait for next year to display them.

My step-daughter made my week by sending me the following pictures of my grandson. He had his first visit with Santa and apparently it all went well until Santa decided to take Jack's thumb out of his mouth.

Makes me laugh every time I see these pictures. Isnt' he just adorable even throwing a hissy fit!!!!

I still have two quilt tops that need to be pinned and quilted. Going to Party Party Party (aka Cut Throat Quilters) tomorrow night and am starting another top. Crazy huh? It's going to be a green and white quilt - hopefully will done by St. Patrick's Day. I have parties and things to do all weekend but next week is free and clear - will hopefully get at least the basket quilt pinned. I don't have a backing for the Vintage Moments quilt yet.

Thanks for looking!

Material Girls Christmas Party

2011-12-03T20:49:00.000-08:00

Another great day with my Material Girls. Today was the day we reveal our annual challenge. This year it was all about hexagons. I showed mine a few posts ago, the I Spy quilt I made for my grandson. Here's what the other girls made.

Neither Diane nor I got good pictures of Kathy M's flowers.

Anna K's top. Check her blog for a full picture (Annatheartistwithin.blogspot.com)

Diane's M's cute floral strip quilt. So precious.

Lynn Marie N's wonderful 3-d like blocks. Love her color arrangement.

Maxine K's flower quilt.

Rita B was kind of sad that she got hexagon confused with octogons but we figured the little areas around the octogons are elongated hexagons. :) Happy accident.

Debbie VF's -her quilting is amazing on this.

Pam L's quilt -oops she did the same thing a few years ago.

Deolinda followed in Pam's footprints and didn't get a challenge in.

The beauty of our challenges are they won't get mad or kick you out of the friendship group if you don't participate. It's purely voluntary and it was a way for us to challenge ourselves to try something new.

So some of us brought show and tell.

Here's me and my Vintage Moments top.

And my summer basket quilt

Elaine's Vintage Linen top marked and ready for someone else to quilt. :)

Diane K's quilt for another baby.

Maxine has last years' challenge quilt all basted and ready for quilting.

Debbie finally finished her Cathedral Window challenge. This picture does not do it justice.

Carol took some old jewelry and made this gorgeous tree.

I think I will be going through my mom's jewelry box when I visit at Christmas.

We have in the past each given little gifts for Christmas. One of the things I was making these last few weeks were these little giveaways.

Starbuck bottles filled with Nutella Puppy Chow

And then I wrapped each one with a fat quarter.

I came home with lots of great stuff. I love these ladies. Here we all are.

In order from the top - Elaine, Me, Pam, Sheila, Rita, Lynn Marie, Barbara B, Deolinda, Anna, Maxine, Debbie, Kathy, Diane and Carol

We were missing 3 of our girls today. So Janice, Sue and Adena, - we missed you. Hope to see you all soon. Well I'll see Janice on Wednesday, but Sue and Adena, well I might see Adena on Friday at Party Party and I'm going to her house next Sunday for a cookie exchange. Okay Sue - I hope to see you soon!

Thanks for looking.

Some Grandson cuteness

2011-12-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

I have been busy crafting except that they have all been gifts so I can't show yet. So in the meantime, enjoy looking at this cute little boy - these are from his 1 year old photo shoot. (His uncle is a professional photographer.)

Jack and Kelly

Jack

Jack and Beast

Off to my friendship group Materials Girls lunch. Will definitely have show and tell later.

Thanks for looking.

Loose Threads meeting

2011-11-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

My art quilt group, Loose Threads, met tonight. We were a small group as Sara is up north taking care of her son who needs all the prayers you can spare, Barbara Sawyer's son was in an accident in Fresno so she had to head up there to him (I don't think he was injured - I didn't get any more details) and Grace Hoya was out of town. So Karen, Anna, Janice and I had a meeting and we had a lot of fun. First off here are some of the projects that we shared.

Karen Taber made this for Janice's birthday which was last month.

Janice made this for a raffle or prize. It's beautiful in real life with glitter paint and glitz.

I finished this top but probably won't be quilting it until next year.

My Vintage Moments center finished - hopefully will be done with this top this weekend.

We had some wonderful Dutch Apple Pie and ice cream in honor of today (November 16th) being National Dutch American Heritage Day.

It was my birthday month which meant that the ladies brought me goodies. I requested strips that represented obscure holiday - well any holiday other than Christmas or Fall. I said if they chose a really obscure holiday, I only ask that they put the date on the back so I will know when to hang it. As usual, I was impressed by the talent of these ladies.

It's called Surf's Up - for Penguin Awareness Day on January 20th and World Penguin Day on April 25. it's a two-fer made by Janice Minyard

Karen Taber and I have a love of Doxies in common so she made this back end of a Doxie in honor of National Doxie Day on February 24th.

National Zipper Day by Anna Koelewyn. April 29th. Yes, the zippers go up and down and all the fabrics are her own hand dyed fabrics.

So fun. Sorry you other ladies missed it. I hope we can all be together for our Christmas gathering.

It's been a busy week. Tonight was Loose Threads. Tomorrow I'm going to the Orange Blossom Guild in Visalia, Andi Perejda is speaking about quilt show judging. I don't belong to that guild but really want to hear what she says about that. Friday night is Party Party Party at Thimble Town (the almost all night sew in) and Saturday is the final Vintage Moments class. Whew!

Thanks for looking!

A few small finishes

2011-11-10T22:43:00.000-08:00

Our guild is having a Christmas potluck and auction on December 1st and everyone is asked to donate a basket or something to donate. I wanted to create a unique basket and thought of a Basket of Baskets. Some fabric baskets made by a friend, a basket quilt pattern and fabric to make the quilt, and some candy and an ornament with a quilt basket on it. I'll keep looking around for some other "baskety" things. Here's a few of the things that I put together so far. My friend Diane made some baskets but I don't have them yet.

Basket ornament

Fabric basket

Basket quilt pattern and enough fabric to make the top.

I'll take a picture of the basket of baskets before we give it away.

Until then I'm working on my own basket quilt and must get started on my homework for the Vintage Moments class. And Christmas gifts. Need to 1. figure out what I want to make and 2. make it. Now that it's finally getting cooler and fall like I'm starting to get more into the spirit. I did finish my latest Whisper Challenge quilt and shipped it off to Sara who is up north taking care of her son and his family while he goes through treatment.

Mom update: She had a doctor's appointment this week and they said there has been no significant change in her numbers (cancer related) and they don't want to see her for another 2 months. She's to continue doing what she's been doing. So very thankful for that.

Well thanks for looking, sorry no finished quilts. I have a feeling it will be a while before I get any of those done.

Next Year at this Time

2011-10-29T22:52:00.000-07:00

I hope to be in Houston or on my way at least because next year I'm going. (Can't do the market thing but definitely the show.)
Thursday night I finished the latest Whisper Quilt (which I can't show) and yesterday I requilted the first one - I painted on the first one and it was absolutely horrible. I took pictures and sometime next year, you will all see them. So far I love each and every quilt I've made for this challenge.

This is what I've been working on today. I started this quilt started at the spring retreat in Cambria where I got all the bottom of the baskets done and at the last retreat I finished cutting out all the parts and started ironing them on. A couple Friday's ago I finished ironing all the pieces on so today I started the button hole stitching. It's tedious but this will be a beautiful summer quilt. It's a free pattern from Moda Bake Shop. Of course I'm making it bigger than the pattern calls for so instead of 12 blocks I am making 24.

And to end on a cute note - here are two pictures my step-daughter sent of my grandson Jack. It's amazing how fast he's growing up.

The boy loves his food - amazingly he gets food in his mouth.

Anyhow, going to a birthday party tomorrow and need to do some house cleaning.

Thanks for looking.

I'm Embroidering Again and Loose Threads meets again

2011-10-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

Made 5 "in the hoop" phone holders - one for my mom, one for each of my sisters, one for a girl at work and one for my sister-in-law. I also made 6 labels. 2 are shown here, 3 I can't show because they are for my Whisper Challenge quilts and one was still stitching when I took the picture. I got Bernina embroidery software version 6 at the PIQF show and was afraid to load it in case it caused me problems. I had problems all week copying stuff from my old laptop to the new so I was really afraid to load a big program like that. It has so much to it that I believe I will need to take classes on how to use it all. I couldn't figure out how to even delete part of a design. But I adjusted and made it work.

On Wednesday, the Loose Thread ladies came to my house. It wasn't a "whisper challenge transfer" month, but we did have some birthday gifts for Janice.

Barbara Sawyer - 1 of 3 hexie balls for Janice (2 not yet made)

Sara Kelly made this for Janice.

I think Grace Hoya made this for her.

Anna Koelewyn made this for Janice.

This is what I made her.

Since a few of the ladies have missed previous months, we had some other gifts to give.

This is another Crack piece for Sara from Janice.
(Crack of Dawn)

I want to say that Janice made this for Barbara Sawyer.

Janice had this to give to Karen Taber

Janice made this for Karen.

So that's been it. I still have to load Photoshop on my pretty new red laptop then I just have to test iTunes to make sure my iPod and iPhone will transfer okay. So far iTunes was the only thing that has given me the hardest time.

Wish me luck and thanks for looking.
Barbara

A Whole Lot of Cuteness

2011-10-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

In the form of my grandson and quilt show loot!

First, my grandson's first birthday was today. Guess what the theme was?

My step-daughter and her mom did a great job - there was cookie monster stuff all over the place. Kids with blue fingers and mouths all over too. The photos in the back were done by their friend who is a professional photographer. He also did their wedding photos. I hope to be ordering some of those soon.

She made a big cookie monster cake for Jack to eat. He was not all that impressed. He looked at it, he looked away and wanted away - maybe it was all the people standing around him and singing. Here's a picture and a little video.

And then great-grandpa cleaned and put a new mane on this wonderful horse. He made this for Kelly on Christmas right after her first birthday (She's 27 now). Now it belongs to Jack. And Jack liked it although he will need to be supervised as he is still a little unstable.

And here's a picture of Jack with his Grandpa Jeff and Great Grandpa Al (the maker of the horse).

He did very well considering there were so many people around. And I think he is soooo darned cute.

On Saturday I went to the Pacific International Quilt Show in Santa Clara with 3 other friends. I took over 60 pictures of quilts with most of them coming out okay. I did very well and only bought a couple things: 2 stencils, 2 spools thread, needles, a thread stand, and 2 pieces of radiance fabric and a couple more pieces of Halloween fabric. Oh, yea, I bought Artista Version 6 software for my embroidery. My new laptop comes next week so hopefully by next weekend I'll be catching up on my embroidery projects. I couldn't resist the show special price - saved a ton.

Thanks for looking.

Fall Finish and I did a binding tutorial

2011-10-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

The pattern for this quilt is from Fig Tree & Co. and the pattern is called Jelly Girl. It was pretty easy but due to either my seams being inaccurate or I measured from the outside of the jelly roll strips and they measured from the inside (you know the pinked edges), the triangles around each hexagon were too small. Luckily I had enough of the light to cut more.

So what does one do with the incorrectly cut triangles, well I added the pieced border (that is not originally on the pattern). Also luckily I bought some matching solid 5" strips when I bought the jelly roll.
Here's a close up of how I quilted it.

And at guild last week a few ladies asked me how I finish off my bindings so I thought I would try my hand at a tutorial. It's not a video, not ready to do that plus I usually sew in my pajama's and you don't want to see that. Click on the tab above to check it out.

Will be having a busy weekend. Friday night is Party Party Party at the local quilt store (aka CutThroat Quilters). We usually stay until 2 but since I have to be up early on Saturday to go to Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara (about a 3 hour drive), I won't stay that long. Then on Sunday, my hubby, in-laws and I head up to Livermore for our grandson's first birthday party. So stay tuned for some great PIQF Show pictures and some cute cute cute baby pictures.

Thanks for looking.

Kings Art Center Show

2011-10-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the Open House for the Common Threads Quilt Guild's "A Stitch In Time" show at the Kings Art Center. I have 4 pieces in this show. And....yep - I sold my Dresden Plate quilt already. And a friend of mine, Carol bought another friends quilt (Diane Mitchell's).

This is what you see when you first walk in.

To the left is Grace Hoya's, center Sara Kelly and Mary Jane Loya on the right. Bowl by Grace too.

Some members chatting

MaryAnn Wlaschin -Just love this sweet little thing.

What a soft and pretty vintage sheet quilt by Jodie Bissig

Some more friends enjoying the show. (Debbie and Larry Van Fossen on left, Debbie's mom and Mary Jane Loya.

If you're in the area, check the show out. The info on the Kings Ar Center can be found here. Superior Ice Cream is only 2 blocks down (within walking distance and there is a quilt store probably about a 1/4 mile from the center as well.)

I Spy With My Little Eye

2011-10-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

The I Spy quilt I have made for my grandson for Christmas and it also fits the Material Girls' challenge to make a quilt using a hexagon is finished!

Thanks to all my friends who contributed fabrics for the blocks. I hope he and his mom will love this. I quilted a little note on the bottom with his name and love from his Oma.

I did a lot of house cleaning this weekend and even got my Halloween decorations out. Here's a couple little vignettes. My table...

A shelf in my quilt room...

and a corner of my sewing room....

I have one more quilt pinned and ready to go except I feel like working on Janice's birthday quilt--she wants something - anything just not bigger than 11 x 14. So, I have a few ideas knocking around my head and I may get one idea on fabric.

Thanks for looking and have a great week. Guild on Thursday and I have a few for show and tell this month.

Another Guild Charity Quilt finished

2011-09-28T23:02:00.000-07:00

This little baby was made with the left over fabric from my Dresden plate quilt. I used almost every last piece I had -including scrappy strips for the binding. All I have left are a couple of 3.5" squares.

I spend the weekend in Pismo Beach with my 11 of my Material Girl friends. Didn't take one picture. I pieced the above top and also finished another fall quilt using Fig Tree's Jelly Girl pattern. Also got a few more of the Dream On baskets ironed on. We had beautiful weather, lots of good food and great fun. We got to see our friend Janice's house in Los Osos (she just moved over there) and Sue who lives in the area came to sew with us a few days.

I have two more quilts pinned and will post once I get them completed.

Thanks for looking.

Cracked and a touch of Fairy

2011-09-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight my art friendship group met (Loose Threads) to exchange our whisper quilts. But since we can't show what we made (until the big reveal next year) we exchanged Sara's birthday strips. She asked for 6" x 30" (or about) strips for her birthday with the theme cracked. She even made one for herself.

Anna made the one on the left and Sara made the one on the right for herself.

Grace made this for her.

Karen's piece - this is hopscotch.

Here they are together

I showed mine on the last post. What an interesting theme and what great pieces. Sara's had a wonderful quote - I should have written it down - maybe she'll post it in the comment section. You might be able to read some of it if you click on the picture.

Then last time we met we gave Karen her fairy quilts for her birthday, but Anna hadn't finished hers. Here's what she made her. She used an ornament for the fairy - quite impressive. Karen loved it Anna as did we all. For someone who really didn't want to do a fairy quilt - it rocked.

I'm so proud to be a part of this group. I saw a quote on Pinterest that I pinned that said "Comparison is a the Thief of Joy". So...no more comparing myself with these talented ladies. We all have special gifts and talents that really come through our art. Thanks ladies for letting me be part of this group.

Now on to folding laundry. :(

Thanks for looking.

Fall, Free and Crack

2011-09-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

What a pleasure to work on my favorite color combinations - a little table runner for the Common Threads Quilt Guild's Little Quilt Raffle.

If it looks familiar - I made something very similar to this for myself last year.

Then at the last guild meeting I won the Block of the Month blocks. There were 14 blocks but this setting only needed 12. I skipped adding 2 blue blocks because they wouldn't go with this border fabric I found in my stash and they were about 1/2 smaller than the rest of the blocks. This will be donated to the guild's Charity quilt committee for some little girl.

Now on to a little art piece. Sara - don't look past this part as this is your birthday piece that you will get Monday night. This is a Loose Threads Art Group birthday gift. Sara wanted 6" x 30" strip with a theme of cracked. This is supposed to be a sidewalk with weeds growing in the cracks. The only thing I could think of that would work. I thought of other things but couldn't figure out how to execute it.

Well my Bernina 640 went to a shop on Thursday for service and repair -I haven't been able to get my laptop to talk to my embroidery part of my machine. This guy said to try a new cord (he didn't - tried and it didn't work) then he said to use a USB stick but I told him several times that I have never been able to use the usb stick for designs. So I decided to drive to Bakersfield Saturday morning to drop my machine off at Strawberry Patches to see if their tech guy can figure it out. He's only in town on Tuesday so I have to wait until then to see if they can fix it. Luckily I have a friend who's going down there with her mom on Tuesday so if it's repaired, they can pick it up. Luckily I still have my 150 to sew on.

And to top this next week, I get to have a colonoscopy on Thursday. Sounds like fun huh? The joys of turning 50 - all the tests they want to run.

Thanks for looking and I hope you all have a great week.

Bowled Over

2011-08-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

The Orange Blossom Guild in Visalia that I had my trunk show on Thursday had a bowl class today that I just had to do. I've wanted to make one of these for a while - I actually already had some of the rope that you wrap the fabrics on, but didn't have a book on how to do it. Glad I took a class. Linda Matthews had several great hints and tips.

Bright orange fabric and black thread. Decided to add a bat applique piece to go with my Bat Crazy quilt I did earlier this year.

My trunk show went very well once I got over my nerves. A few friends and members of my guild, Common Threads came to support me as did my Aunt Carolyn from Bakersfield. Anna and Janice took me out to dinner afterwards and it was so nice to relax and catch up with two friends who have moved away in the last 2 months.

Thanks for looking.

Celebrate

2011-08-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

I bought this panel a few years ago and now I don't know why. It's cute and all, but...in my quest for a quick project at retreat last month, I threw it in my bag of projects to work on.

The panel had 8 dessert squares and to set it 4 x 2 or 2 x 4 would have made an awkward sized quilt so I made an extra block, appliqued the word celebrate (because all these desserts are for celebrations) and made it a 3 x 3 quilt. I barely quilted it (didn't need too much) and used the big ric rac as the binding. Not my best work but something cute to hang for birthdays.

Thanks for looking.

Pop Art Flowers

2011-08-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Not sure if that's what I'll call the quilt but Pop Art is the name of the pattern that I followed (but of course altered to fit my size and floral needs).

A close up of all the quilting I did

My sister-in-law Marcy picked the pattern and fabric because she wanted something for her guest room/office. However, I like it so much I may keep it.

I do believe this is also a resolution quilt that I get to check off my list on the right.

I started working on the dessert quilt top (it was a panel that I threw together) and after that is done I have to work on my Loose Thread challenge. It helps that I have an idea of what I want to do.

Oh yea, today is all about cleaning out my clothes closet (purses and old clothes I will never fit in again) and then packing up the quilts for my Trunk show on Thursday.

Thanks for looking.

Two posts in one day..

2011-08-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

wow. As promised here are the Loose Thread pictures. But first...

I think he liked it.

Now on to Loose Threads. We have all been working on our Whisper Challenges but we aren't allowed to share them until we reveal next year. But in the mean time, there are birthdays and for each of our birthdays we give gifts. Here's what Karen Taber got - she wanted quilts with fairies on it.

This is what I made for her.

Grace Hoya made for Karen

Sara Kelly made a wing quilt for her.

Barbara Sawyer played with her inks and made this.

Now Barbara Sawyer wanted something horizontal to hang on a new rack she has in her kitchen.

I made another of these paper pieced leafs (pattern from Deb Karasik)

Sara Kelly made this for Barbara

A close up.

Karen Taber made this one.

Grace Hoya made this for Barbara

We exchange our challenges next month and also bring our quilts for Sara's birthday - her theme --cracked. I have ideas. I have not worked on either yet. I am in a machine quilting mode. 2 or 3 more days on the Pop Art quilt and then the dessert quilt and then hopefully will work on the challenge and birthday gifts.

Thanks for looking.

Quick Quilt

2011-08-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

Really quick - I started this baby on Friday night and finished hand sewing the binding down last night (Tuesday).

My boss asked me last year if I would make a quilt for his son's birthday in his school colors and I said sure. In January at Road 2 California I purchased a bunch of blue and gold fabrics and then it sat. Last week, he asked me if I remember him asking about a quilt for Lucas and I said sure, I have all the fabrics. He said you know his birthday is next week. I said oh, I forgot when. So Friday night at Party Party Party (6 pm to 2 am sew night at our local quilt shop) I put this super easy quilt top together. It's from the Happy Hour quilt book. Pinned it Sunday afternoon and started meandering quilting that night and finished it Monday night and did a bias binding --because it's a striped fabric and my friend Elaine said I HAD to do it on the bias. :) I hadn't done a bias binding in a long time and it took me a while to figure out the continuous binding technique at the size I needed it. Anyway, it's done and wrapped and ready to give to him today, his birthday. It's called Cuggle Koldre. My boss named it. Cuggle because that's what his son used to ask him, can we cuggle daddy? and Koldre which is blanket in Yiddish. They aren't Jewish but that's Greg--find a different name for something.

Tonight I'll post some pictures from the Loose Threads meeting from last week where we gave Karen T and Barbara S their birthday quilts. (I'd post them now but I'm at work. shhhh don't tell my boss.

Thanks for looking.

A quickie of my grandson

2011-08-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

He has finally got some teeth in. Even while going thru that he was not too grumpy when we saw him this weekend.

Chad and Jack

Kelly and Jack

Gpa and Jack - he was very impressed with his mustache.

Jack, Gpa and Oma (me)

Oma - see my new teeth?

Just love that little guy!

Been busy machine quilting (and fighting with the tension) on the Pop Art quilt I put together in Cambria a couple months ago. I hope I finish that this weekend.

Thanks for looking.
Barb

Almost 1500 2.5" squares gone

2011-07-31T22:39:00.000-07:00

I had a shoebox sized plastic box of 2.5" squares--not the size needed for Scrap-Therapy and I wasn't about to trim them all to 2", so I decided to use them as leaders and enders - you know - something to sew off and on to to save thread. So once 2 squares (light and dark) were sewn together I started sewing the pairs together and so on. At the last retreat I put the twenty 64 square blocks together, sashed and bordered and straight line quilted diagonally yesterday and today. Here it is.

It's a little over 80" wide and 99" long and will be used to cover my husband's recliner so I can claim my 4th of July quilt back to repair and keep safe. By the way- I only had about a stack of about 2" tall of 2.5" squares left. Mostly yellows and blues. I'll figure something to do with them - I have a hard time throwing scraps away.

Next Sunday I get to see my step-daughter and son-in-law and of course, grandson Jack in Cambria. Looking forward to seeing him again and hopefully this time he'll let me hold him for a little longer than usual. Luckily she updates her blog with videos and pictures so I feel like I'm not missing out on much.

Good news too on my parents - my mom's new treatment is not making her sick - just swollen feet. Her numbers aren't getting better but not worse either so they will continue this treatment some more. My dad is waiting to find out about an epedural (spelling) to help with his neck/shoulder arm pain, but other than that, they have stayed out of the hospital for almost 2 months. wahoo!!

I have two more quilts pinned and ready to quilt but with guild this Thursday, girls meeting on Tuesday and class on Saturday and gone Sunday it might be a little longer before those get done. They need to be custom free motioned quilted so they will take a little longer. They aren't as big as the one above though.

Anyway....Thanks for looking. Have a great week.

Another Great Cambria Retreat

2011-07-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

Got back today from 4 wonderful days in Cambria, cool wonderful Cambria. It was a weekend of getting things done and we all accomplished so much. Here's the 'guests' and the stuff that they worked on.

The person who got the most done was Deolinda. She got 3 charity quilt tops done, quilted a Halloween runner and a block runner, made 4 paper pieced tea cups, and finished making her Sushi Hoochie Mamma blocks.

Janice finished quite a bit as well. She finished quilting a soccer quilt and got that bound, cut 250 1/2 square triangles for her Vintage Moments quilt, got her dresden plate blocks done for a quilt, machine quilted (with feathers) a fall colored quilt, and put the final border on a block of the month quilt she won.

Debbie didn't do so bad either. She finished a Halloween quilt (pieced and quilted), finished nickel quilt top, and some cup holders .

Kathy got her Bella Bella top pretty much finished, she's going to do some embroidery in the center and the corners, she also finished a fall runner.

And finally what I did. I finished the top of my leaders and enders quilt top, I completely finished one full spring dream basket quilt block and the bottoms of the other 23 block basket parts. The rest of the parts are fused and ready to cut. I also finished most of my grandson's I Spy quilt blocks, I need to finish 4 more and then find a border, and then I finished the top the my sister-in-laws pop art quilt top.

The weather was perfect. Deolinda even brought her machine outside to sew.

The rest of us stayed inside with the windows opened to sew.

As usual, lots of good food, conversations and laughs.
Back to real life tomorrow - back to work.
Thanks for looking

Laptop Case for My Sister is DONE!

2011-07-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

My sister Beverly finally got a laptop and asked me to make her a laptop case like mine. She picked and paid for the fabric--I got to sew it together.

At first I was using my Bernina 640 but I had to pull out the old workhorse 150 and even sewing thru all the layers of headliner foam and fabric and straps was hard on that poor baby. The pattern was made by http://www.byannie.com/ I bought it several years ago at Road to California quilt show at the Superior Thread booth. I think she has a new laptop case pattern. She's great because I emailed her with some suggestions on how to prevent skipped stitches sewing thru all those layers and she wrote back right of way with needle size and thread types that I should try. So Beverly, I'll get this in the mail to you as soon as possible. I may keep it for next month's guild show and tell so it might be a few weeks. :) It was my pleasure to make this for my sister. She and her son visited my folks a few weeks ago and she cooked and cooked and cooked and froze food for them. It was the least I could do. And Brenda (my other sister) I know I owe you the iphone case. I hope to get that done in the next month or so too. Don't ask for this laptop case though because I don't ever want to make another one. It was hard on my machines.

So that's what I've been working on besides my Vintage Moment's half-square triangles. We need a total of 260 of them. I have about 50 cut out. I will start working on those next - trying to get one batch cut each night. (a batch consists of about 48-50 using the strip method.)

I've also had the urge to scrapbook the other day and created this page of my niece and her cast.

I used a freebie template from Designer Digitals.

Thanks for looking.

Red Doors and Plates

2011-07-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

Dresden Plates that is.

Still needs a name and a label. But it's done! I took Analie Belden's Thoroughly Modern Dresden class 2 or 3 months ago and finished the quilting yesterday and got the binding on this afternoon while waiting for the first coat of paint on my door to dry and listening to the Casey Anthony trial on HLN. This finished quilt is one from my resolution list at right - so one more to check off!

Here's a picture of my door. My in-laws got this door for us about 5 or 6 years ago and it's been unfinished this whole time. I had been waiting for the house to get painted and my hubby and father-in-law say they are finished with it now. So while my husband was out of town, I got busy and painted it. I didn't want him here for 2 reasons. 1st - he really didn't want a red door. 2nd - he would just keep telling me how I'm doing it all wrong.

It's not a bright red - more of a brick red. I like it. Let's see how long it takes him to notice.

Well it's time to start working on my Vintage Moments quilt class homework. 2 down (from class) and 15 more to go. Anna (she's the teacher and know's I dread this block) will laugh because I just bought a bunch of 4th of July fabric to make a whole quilt using LeMoyne stars. So I better get good at making them.

Tomorrow I go to the Lemoore Park for our guild's Little Quilt sale. All day in over 100 degree temps. Fun - at least I'll be spending it with like minded friends.

Thanks for looking.

I'm still here and I've been busy

2011-06-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

but have no pictures to share again. I am almost done with the "whisper challenge" quilt, which I won't be able to show a picture of for a year. All that is left to do is sew down the binding, put on the sleeve and label. Then I hope to also hand sew the yo-yo's for my Dresden plate quilt tonight and pin it tomorrow and quilt it and be done with that one this weekend! Then I have to start working on the rest of my Lemoyne stars for the next Vintage Moments class.

My sister commissioned me to sew her a laptop bag and we bought all the fabric and parts for that this weekend while she was down visiting my folks. I got the car headliner foam today at lunch and maybe I'll even get that started this weekend.

I had a great visit with my little sister and her son, my folks and my brother and his family this weekend. My mom is doing good - building up strength for the next round of chemo or whatever they decide to do this time. My little sister was great and made all kinds of great meals - always extra to freeze for when my mom doesn't feel up to cooking. Her son is so easy going sometimes you hardly know he's there. I won 3 out of 5 Scrabble games against my sister-in-law Marcy - it's unusual for me to win so that was quite a treat. We also drove north a bit on Sunday (my sister, mom, nephew and I) to see Kelly, Chad and my grandson Jack. He's 8 months old and growing like a weed. Didn't get any pictures of me and him this time. He was a little overwhelmed with all the company (because my in-laws were also there) so no one really got to hold him without him fussing for his mom and dad.

Vintage Moments Class has begun

2011-06-18T22:59:00.000-07:00

And today we worked on LeMoyne stars. Not one of the easiest blocks for me but I managed to get 3 of the 17 needed done today. Luckily we have a month to get the rest finished. This is a 6 month class and we meet once a month.

Here's a block by almost everyone in the class. My block is the top left block. (photo quality poor because I had to use my cell phone for pictures). Janice's is the purple one next to mine, Linda Matthews is the top right. On the bottom row - from left to right, Lynette, Rita, Sara and Barbara Brown.

Here's Anna Koelewyn (left) the teacher and another student Hiley (not sure how she spell it) with 2 more blocks. Anna is holding Linda Blasingames.

Great class and I can't wait to see all of them finished.

Finished the top of my Dresden Plate quilt and got the back and binding ready to go. Just need to pin and quilt. (Just, right!)

Tomorrow I have my in-laws over for dinner for Father's Day and my father-in-law's birthday, so not much quilting - need to go to Joannes for more batting.

Thanks for looking.

You Are My Sunshine!

2011-06-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

Loose Threads met tonight - all but Janice made it - she succumbed to the flu poor baby. So now I can finally show a finished quilt. Our technique was using metal and the theme was sunshine. Here's mine. I was inspired by a quote/poster I saw on Pinterest.

Obviously I used the metal on the letter O in You. I quilted it before I laid the words down so I have the quilting radiating from the O in You as well. Simple but I really like it.

Here's what the rest of the girls did.

Karen Taber

Sara Kelly - Solar Power

Anna Koelewyn

A Close up of the metal mesh she used as a border detail.

Anna Koelewyn - from last month but she dolled it up more.

Barbara Sawyer

Barbara Sawyer's is on a t-shirt jacket she's making - it will have a metal microphone and the rooster will be "singing" to the sunshine.

We talked more about our Whisper Challenge and getting excited about that. I think I've narrowed down my photo to about 2 or 3 pictures. I have until July 12th to get it done.

I also finished quilting my friend Deolinda's baby quilt for her. Here's the finished quilted top. It's not bound - that's her job.

She said she liked what I did. Quilting for other's is kind of stressful. What I would let slide in most of my own quilts you just can't do that with others.

Starting another class this Saturday. The pattern is called Vintage Moments. I'm using batiks and will make it pretty scrappy. It's a 6 months class (we meet once a month). My friend Anna Koelewyn is teaching it at our local quilt store Thimble Towne. Can't wait.

Thanks for looking.
Barbara

A peek at what I'm working on...

2011-06-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

The Loose Threads Art group meets next Tuesday and we were to use some metals in our piece with the inspiration word of sunshine. Here's a peek at my piece. Yes, it's done!

Then I started working on 2 of the 3 birthday pieces due in August. Here's a snippet of what I've done. The tops are done, they are pinned and just waiting to be quilted. Not telling who they are for either. :)

And then my friend Deolinda asked me to machine quilt this baby quilt. I am almost done with the block quilting and need to figure out what to do on the border. This still has the marking pen marks on it. I used Valdani's variegated thread in pastel colors (called Early Spring). I love these threads but wish they were a bit thinner, but the colors, oh my.

On the family scene, my mom started her next regimen of chemo pills and was doing great for the first 3 or 4 days, even baked some cookies, went out to dinner and then last night her face was itchy again so she got up in the middle of the night to put some cream on it and passed out (blood pressure dropped again) and hit her head this time. She's back in the hospital, probably for another 3 days and they will do more test to get to the bottom of the blood pressure problems. She also got 2 stitches on her head. Please pray that the oncologist, the kidney doctor and the other doctor at the hospital can figure out the best course of action for her. Pray for my dad as well. This has been hard on him and I'm sure very frustrating. Not sure if/when to call 911 or the doctor, along with all the other things he has to worry about. Still waiting to find out when he'll have his other leg stinted. I hope soon because he said the leg they did already feels better. And a big thanks to my sister Brenda for being there these past few weeks. Depending on how my mom is doing when she gets out, I may go up to stay for a few days next week. Then the week after that my little sister and her son will be coming to visit.

And for an element of cuteness on the blog, here's my grandson. He was fighting crime Batman style this past Sunday. He's trying super hard to crawl. It's fun to see videos of him on his blog trying to crawl and make funny faces and noises.

Thanks for looking!
Barbara

I have been quilting

2011-06-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

but I can't show anything. I hope to be able to show you something by next week. I have 3 birthdays in August that I need to make quilts for (Loose Threads ladies) and I have the top of one done, 1/2 of another done - not sure what I'm going to do for the 3rd. Plus I have to make a quilt for our Whisper challenge by August. Plus, plus plus. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I'll get over it though.

So my step-daughter is opening an Etsy shop. I'm going to try to put a link on the right so please take time to check it out. Maybe I'll give her some quilts for her to sell for me.

Must get back to work on my quilts.
Thanks for looking - sorry no photos. Maybe I'll give you a hint or a peek in a day or two.

Bat Crazy

2011-05-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

Yep that will the name of this quilt.

I did some stippling which I find pretty hard. Hard to keep consistent size and move it around items. But I did it. Turned out pretty cute in my opinion.

Here's a picture of my girls running to the finished line of the Shop Hop.

And once in the shop, Jeremy of Thimble Towne in Visalia had a fun photo booth.

It was good to be home!

What can be better than finishing a quilt after a fun weekend.

Thanks for looking.
Barb

2nd Annual Heart of the Valley Shop Hop

2011-05-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

We finished the hop today. What fun. We laughed so much. Here's a picture of the 4 of us at each of the stores on the hop holding our Thimble Towne (quilt store in Visalia, CA).

We texted Jeremy, the owner of Thimble Towne, each of these these photos showing him we were using our bags. We ended our hop at Thimble Towne in Visalia this afternoon. When we got there Jeremy and Becky put a finish line out for us to run through. Too funny. Once inside we got to enjoy all the fun he had for the masses in the store. Once he either sends the picture of us crossing the line or puts on his blog I'll post it here.

Now for shopping, I really didn't think I bought that much but when you lay it all out, yikes! It was hard finding room to put all of it.

Kit purchased at Bolts to Bindings and additional FQ from Quilters Quarters

Fat quarters or 1/4 yards purchased at most stores for my grandsons I Spy Quilt I want to make him.

Just some gorgeous whites and a deep beautiful green (and thread)

Some stencils (missing one) and I already had the big one :(

Just really liked this.

And this...

Here is the pile of goodies from all of the stores and their block patterns.

Just a great weekend. Now I have to get to my bank and update my checking account. Not really looking forward to that one.

And Debbie, remember, be nice to me... I have a great shot of you in the car that you wouldn't want anyone else to see. :)

Thanks for looking and all you people from the Central Valley in California, please make a point to do the Shop Hop next year - grab a buddy or two and go.

Thanks for looking.
Barb

Heart of the Valley Quilt Shop Hop

2011-05-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

Today was day one of the Central California's Heart of the Valley Quilt Shop Hop. Me and three friends left and one pm and went south - first to Maricopa (love that shop), then to Bakersfield to see 3 quilt shops there. Strawberry Patches (great if you have young kids), To Quilt and Sew and then to a new store, not officially on the hop, called Bolts to Bindings. A great new store - one we'll definitely have to visit again. The ladies were friendly and like I said they weren't on the "hop" but had goodies to eat and drink and gift bags and a drawing for a basket Above and beyond. Great selection of fabrics too.

Pictures - well do I dare show what I bought today? Nope. You'll have to wait for the big haul. I'm collecting fun fabrics so I can make my grandson an I Spy quilt so I'm looking for FQ's with big fun prints to use. Amazing that a lot of stores don't sell Fat Quarters anymore.

So we're also taking pictures of our group in front of each store and texting them to Jeremy at our "home" store Thimble Town in Visalia - all holding our Thimble Town bags. Too fun.

Thanks for looking!

I Am a Molehill Among Mountains (photo heavy)

2011-05-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

First of all, I spent all of Saturday on my embroidery machine making these wonderful ipod/iphone cases. I will be donating these to our guild for their annual sale in July at the Lemoore Park. See the Hawaiian print case hiding in the back? The directions tell you 2 times in red print - to move the zipper part over to the middle of the case. The second one I forgot. So this one, the zipper doesn't work. My friend Debbie said she'd take that one for her camera.

These are all "in the hoop" designs from DigiStitches and go real fast.

Now for the mountain/molehill thing. I belong to an art group called Loose Threads. They are such true artists and humble me each time we meet. Here's a comparison. Two months ago we had to do pin tucks or tucks using any method and the inspiration word was wave. Here's what the other ladies have created.

Grace's finished

Karens

Sara's

Anna's

Janices (Not finished yet)

Here's mine.

Mind you this is only like 4" long and maybe 12" wide. And it's from a panel. Yea, see what I mean. Mine's cute and fun but not really art. Remember these pictures don't show you all the wonderful detail in their quilts. Anna's is beaded heavily, as is Sara's, Karen's wave is thread heavy and I know Barbara Sawyer did one but I can't find a picture of hers.

Anyway, this month our inspiration word was Rejoice and the technique was thread play or thread lace. Here's what they made.

Barbara Sawyers (not done yet)

Grace - she needs to put on a quilt but so cool.

Another one of Grace's

Janice's

Karen's

Sara - she will put on a postcard (said she had a hard time with the word)

Anna's (amazing close up)

And again, here's mine. And keep in mind that mine is maybe a 5" wide x 4" tall piece.

I'm not saying mine are horrible just not awe inspiring.
Then it was Grace's birthday and she wanted 6" strips, any length with a theme of Garden.
Here's what we all made for her.

Sara's (combining 2 of Graces favorite things)

Barbara Sawyer

Mine

Anna's

Karen's

Janices

I want to be them when I grow up. We are going to try some new challenge after next month. Too tired to explain it now but if you get Quilting Arts magazine, they had an article about a whisper challenge and we are going to do that.
Thanks for looking.

Vintage Postcard quilt and Lil Twister and....

2011-05-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

Done. Finished. Well, I still have to do labels. Will drag the embroidery machine out this weekend to work on that and some stuff for guild. But glad I got these things done. I still have the Halloween quilt top pinned and ready to go.

This is the 3rd Vintage Postcard quilt I've finished (of 12). The patterns are from Fig Tree Quilts. They are super easy as I'm just using fusible. But they are cute and I have the perfect spot in my hallway for the these monthly quilts. (And this is one of my resolution quilts I get to check off on the right side of blog.)

This is the Lil Twister. It starts with 5" squares and you use a special square ruler to make these unique blocks. Pretty easy - just looks complicated. I first saw these at Canton Village Quilt Works blog and ordered it along with 5" solid squares. I used a wonderful variagated thread for the outer border to quilt a big feather. Debated on if I should take it out and use black thread. Decided to keep it and call it a day.

Now at this point my Loose Threads friends need to stop reading. Here's the pintuck piece I did which was for last months technique. The theme word was wave.

Used a flag from a panel, tucked the stripes, re-added the stars. I love it.

And for birthdays this year, the girls are exchanging strips but they need to be vertical and will not be connected in a long worm like we did last year. Grace said she'd like garden themed strips so I got my Whimsical Quilt Garden patterns from Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins (Piece o' Cake Designs) and used different flowers from their blocks and made this little beauty for Grace.

Having a busy week. Today was the guild board meeting, tomorrow is the nominating committee meeting, Thursday is Rock the Mall (at the mall I work for and should be there for the 1st one) and Friday morning I will be going to a memorial service for my cousin who passed away in Bakersfield and then zoom back to Clovis for my hair appointment.

It's a sad thing about my cousin. He died of a heart attack and was only 40 years old and had 5 kids. He's had his problems the last couple years and as his wife said, he is finally at peace. My parents can't go to the funeral due to their health so I will represent the DeKruyf's. I feel for the family, especially my aunt. My uncle (Michaels dad) passed away just a few years ago, way too young as well. If you pray, keep her and Michaels wife and kids in your prayers.

Again, thanks for looking.

Visalia Dames Retreat (and some)

2011-05-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

A new "mini-semi-quasi-friendship group" Visalia Dames had a retreat in Visalia this past weekend. We had room for a couple extra people so we invited them as well. It was in our little home in Cambria and it was just a spectacular weekend weather-wise and every other way too. We all got so much done, the conversations were interesting, and the food , oh the food. So much food. Good food.
Anyway here's what we accomplished this weekend.

The first person to finish something was Deolinda. She finished the veggie/fruit coasters first and then the baby quilt (middle picture) and then the rose quilt after that. Before we left she was working on her Raider quilt but didn't finish that.

Barbara Brown worked all weekend on the binding on the brown/blue quilt. She had to sew the binding down and hand sew the binding down. And in between that she whipped up this sweet little flannel quilt top. Just adorbs.

Debbie had all the applique pieces turned and glued down and spent most of the weekend zig zagging four borders of a quilt top down (the picture above is just one border I copied 3 times.) I cant' wait to see the full quilt when finished - stunning.

Kathy has a sweet little granddaughter Georgia who is having her 5th birthday this week. Each year she makes her granddaughter a quilt - this year it's this ruffle quilt all made with vintage sheets. It's so beautiful in real life and this picture doesn't do it justice. She also made her the lounging capri pants and almost finished the "flowere dress/pant" outfit. Can't wait to see a picture with her in it.

Janice machine quilted this quilt for her teachers aid and she also made 20 pillow cases for her students. (No photos.) She's a high school math teacher and every year she gives one of her classes a little gift at the end of the year - the last few years she's made pillow cases. This is her last year teaching (she's retiring and moving to the coast and we are all very jealous).

I too got a lot accomplished. I finished a purse which I started at the last Party Party Party, on my resolution list, I made the twister quilt (top right), Halloween quilt which was a kit, and the 3rd of 12 "vintage postcard" quilt tops. None of the quilts are quilted - I just got the tops done.

Elaine was there and she worked studiously on her calendar quilt tops but she didn't finish either of them (she worked on 2). She's a perfectionist and takes such time and care with all her pieces.

Anyway - a wonderfully productive weekend. Oh, we did take several walks and breathed fresh air instead of staying inside sewing all the time. We also watched a few movies, saw the big "wedding" (the next morning of course) and American Idol on Thursday night.

Now, I have to figure out some days to take my sis-in-law, niece and nephew to the coast because we had such fun last time and the girls want to go back in July.

While gone this weekend, another friend of mine started a blog. A put her link on the right of my blog. Her blog name is "Sew Much Fun". Check our her work and send her some love.

Thanks for looking.
Barbara

Close Ups on request

2011-04-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

Marie Du Toit of http://machineembroiderybyaquilter.blogspot.com/ asked for close ups. I'm not a great photographer so this is the best I can do. Considering I was just going to do an all over, this custom design really gave me a lot of practice.

Hope you like it.
Thanks for looking!
Barbara

Another No Name Finish

2011-04-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

The pattern is Lincoln Watch and the fabric is Coventry by Jo Morton- Coventry means the state of being ostrocized or being banished. Don't like Lincoln's Watch for a name. Suggestions always welcomed. When I first started making these blocks from hell, I didn't think I'd like the quilt, because each block separately is pretty ugly. However friends encouraged me and when I had about 10 (of the 120) done I laid them out and squinted and saw the pattern emerging and kept on. My husband loves this quilt so this will his. I quilted it heavily. I even added more in the lighter parts of the blocks I showed earlier. The border is full of feathers.

With the leftover fabrics I whipped up this quick quilt for our guilds Charity committee.

Two more days of work and then I'm off to the beach for 4 days of sewing with friends. Can't wait - I have the most of my stuff packed already. :)

Thanks for looking.

A peek at what I'm working on - and my art group projects

2011-04-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

pattern: Lincolns Watch - Fabric: Coventry by Jo Morton

This is what I have been working on. I've quilting the inside with feathers and swirleys up in the points (suggested by Janice Minyard), the inner border I used a stencil I had. I had to go around this bad boy 4 times for this little border. I plan on doing a feather design in the main border. Being challenged by my friend Anna's (annatheartistwithin.blogspot.com) said that she is not going to cop out and do an all over design and challenge herself to customize even if the quilt is busy. My original idea was to do an overall design. However I'm glad I didn't because I really like how this is turning out.

My art friendship group met last night. Only 4 of us were there and 3 of us did the project (pin tuck with inspiration word wave). I was the one who didn't get the quilt done. I couldn't think of anything in time and when I did, I didn't have enough time to work on it. I hope to have it done when we meet the next time as well as the next months' project. Here are what the other girls did and what we get to work on for next month.

Sara Kelly (sarakellyartquilts.blogspot.com)

Grace Hoya - that is stabilizer she is using to mark her border.

Janice Minyard


Jancie showed us how to make thread lace. Here's a sample.

and in process. Inspiration word is Rejoice

Thanks for looking. I'm hoping to get the border quilted by the end of this weekend and the binding on at least. My hubs and I aren't doing anything for Easter so I'll have all weekend to sew. I also need to get ready for my Cambria retreat next weekend. 4 days of sewing with friends. Can't beat that. I need to figure out what I want to work on and get things ready and packed.

Thanks for looking.

Best of the Valley Quilt Show 2011

2011-04-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

Our local quilt show was this weekend. It's called Best of the Valley. I spent all day at the show -selling our guild's opportunity quilt tickets and docenting and of course shopping. I took pictures of all the quilts from my guild members who entered. I was very happy to report that a lot of won ribbons! Yea Common Threads members. Here's a link to the facebook album of the quilts.

In Harmony (Best of Show - Machine Embroidery)

Common Threads Quilt Guild Best of the Valley entries

I myself did very well at the show. I won Best of Show for machine embroidery, a first place for my Deb Karasik class project and an honorable mention for my Pine Brrrr quilt. The Claire with the Kaleidescope Hair didn't win a ribbon and the comments weren't all that great - but I'm okay with that. It was not made all that well I just thought it was groovy. Here are pictures of my quilts.

Claire with the Kaleidescope Hair

Pine Brrrrr (Honorable Mention)

Didn't get a picture of this at the show - it won 1st place

But what was really cool was my friend Janice Minyard was the featured artist. Here she is in her booth. It was fun seeing her older works - stuff I had never seen before. (Who knew she hand quilted at one time?)

Of course I did a little retail therapy.

I didn't do too bad. The orange fabric is to make a little quilt for my in-laws. They asked me today to make a little quilt for their Orange Cove reunion raffle. (In 2 weeks.) The bling quotes - one for a friend, the red and cream kit - finally get to use my tri-rec ruler. A necklace that matches the earrings and bracelet I bought last year and two fat quarters of fabric I just thought were very pretty. I was looking for some of the fabric with Scrabble icons on it and didn't see any - maybe on the shop hop next month.

Last weekend I spent up north at my folks house and my younger sister, her husband and son were down from Washington state during their spring break. On the way there I stopped to see my grandson. What a little cutie.

That's my granddog Beast. My niece was there with me and she took all the photos.

At my folks house, they were both sick with the cough and cold and my sister was recovering from the cough and my brother-in-law was fighting it. Luckily the rest of us were okay. And so far...all I have is allergy problems. We went to see 2 movies - Diary of a Wimpy Kid which I thought was funny and Hop which I loved. It's fun to go to kids movies with kids! And we ate a lot.

Thanks for looking.
Barb

Loose Threads-March 2011

2011-04-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

So my art quilt group met this past week and our project was pleats with inserts (trim, other fabric, etc.) Anna was even kind enough to give us all a baggie full of fun trims. The inspiration word was passion. I'll show my piece and the others' and explain mine later in the post. Pictures from iphone so not best quality.

Mine

Anna's (Annatheartistwithin.blogspot.com to see better pic)

Barbara Sawyer sample

Barbara Sawyer (almost done)

Karen Taber


Sara Kelly (sarakellyartquilt.blogspot.com)

All were incredible (Sara's is not quite done but keep checking her blog for when she posts a better picturej. You can also see a better picture of Anna's on her blog). Passion was the word however, my only passion is quilting so anything would work. However, when we got the trim the month before, the first piece of trim I saw was the one I used for the mustache and that idea stuck in my head and that is all I could think about doing. It's kind of a silly piece but I like it. I guess I'm going to name it 'Boy Crazy".

So my sister and her hubby and son are coming for a visit and I get to take 2 days off of work to play with them. But before I do that, I'm going to visit my grandson. I ordered pictures finally from his professional photo shoot - this is one that I just love.

I haven't seen him since January so I'm super excited. I bought him a little easter bunny today (not real) and I'll be able to give him the book and whistle I got for him when we were at the Grand Canyon. My niece Claire is going to come with me too. I'll be taking lots of pictures I'm sure.

On the quilting part of my life (other than the art part above) I finally finished the top using the Jo Morton Coventry fabric using the Abraham Lincoln pattern and templates. I pinned it last night and will start quilting it next week. I also have pinned some postcards that need to be quilted - hopefully will get those quilted and done tonight. Now I get to think of what I want to work on next. So many choices. Do I dare show you my cabinet with projects....Sure why not.

There are two layers plus two single cabinets on each side of these two rows. Yep, I have a lot of choices. Remember this is just project boxes. I have a bigger cabinet full of fabrics sorted by color. :)

I also finished my scrapbook page of my niece - it's her Interview at 8.

Thanks for looking.

Barbara

Ruffled Scarf

2011-03-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

This wasn't even on my list of things to do this weekend but I just couldn't resist --wanted to try it. I didn't have enough material but you would never know it. It's about 3 inches too short. I can live with that. This is a spring scarf and I got the pattern from Bernina's website its created by Ashley Johnston. Mine will go so pretty with a pink shirt.

Now - on to my boring blocks. I have 60 more to make.

Thanks for looking.
Barb

I did some shopping!!! Oh my!

2011-03-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

First, I want to thank all of you again who commented on my last post. I will look at the comments from others about my "talent of finishing quilts" as only positive and I hope I will be just as cautious about my comments about others as well.

So, I did a little retail therapy this week. I have seen all these cute Lil' Twister quilts and decided I needed to make one too. So off to Fat Quarter Shop to purchase the tool and the 5" solids. It's not like I don't have a lot of 5" squares, but I decided I wanted only true solid colors for my first try. I will use a black border as well. Here's my purchase,

I also bought about 7 yards of kona white as well.

I also bought 3 books from Amazon. I used to go to Scrap Therapy at the LQS but it has changed ownership and the new owner isn't continuing the program. I contacted the owner of 'Scrap-Therapy" and she said she was having a book for Scrap Therapy out in March so I have been patiently waiting. While browsing Amazon, I got sucked into buying more than the one bookand found 2 other books I've wanted to get. Hey, I got free shipping and it only took 3 days.

Cut the Scraps is the Scrap-Therapy book, Simplify just has some very modern looking, easy quilts and Don Linn's Machine Quilting has some very cool quilting designs and hints that I want to use.

So with all this quilting stuff, I haven't touched my sewing machine all week. I decided I needed to do some cross stitch. I have been working on this Pumpkin Patch design from Donna Vermillion Giampa (pattern found in the 2000 Just Cross Stitch magazine. I have been working on this for about 2 years and am not even half way done.

And last night, it got chilly again so I turned the wood stove back on and all three of the dogs took to their beds to keep warm. My hubby took a picture because he thought it was so cute. (I agree.)

But even cuter, look at this little guy...doesn't he look cool in his new shades. And of course the photo with his dog Beast is a hoot.

He's growing so fast.

Thanks for looking and for your support.
Barb

Two finishes -and I feel guilty

2011-03-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

Here are my finished quilts and I'll explain the guilty part later.

The first quilt is from Judy Sisneros 9 Patch Pizzazz on point class I took 2 Saturdays ago. I had the top done except for the border at the class and just added the borders and cut out some of the focus fabric to applique for that extra "pizzazz". As I was quilting, I noticed that I had 2 blocks switched. I won't tell you and you probably won't be able to see it since it's kind of a busy quilt. The close up shows you the free motion quilting I did in the border too. I used Valdani's variegated thread and I love the color variations but I have to say it's not the easiest thread to use - it took a while to get the tension/needle/bobbin thread combination right.

This second quilt are the circles I had to cut out for this quilt scroll down to see it. This little baby will be donated to my guild's charity quilt program. Was super fast and easy to make and used all leftover fabrics from the first quilt.

Now the guilty part, maybe guilty is the wrong word, but lately I get more and more comments from guild members and friends about how many quilts I finish. I don't know why it's such a big deal that I actually finish quilts. I don't have a lot of quilts that are started - I finish the ones I start. I have a lot of what I call UFO's - quilt kits - fabric and patterns - but not sewn in any way. I like to finish the quilt I'm working on before I can start another. People are always amazed that I can get so much done. Maybe because I work full time and commute, I need to use my time more efficiently. I rarely just sit and watch tv. I have it on all the time I'm sewing so I don't miss any shows, but I work while I watch - whether I'm quilting, cross stitch or blog writing/reading. Now there are things in my life that I should spend more time on. My housekeeping skills have a lot to be desired. I do the minimum each week unless I am expecting company. My floors get swept and mopped most weekends, the sheets get changed and laundry gets done weekly, and my bathroom gets cleaned but that's about it. I don't have to cook big meals - it's just me and my hubby at home and he eats at weird times so I usually whip something easy up for myself. But ladies, please don't give a finisher a hard time or tease her for finishing her quilts. I know a lot of it's jealousy on your part but I now know how another friend felt --she actually stopped showing her quilts at show and tell because people used to give her a hard time too. I hope I never did and if I did Anna, please know I'm sorry. I love show and tell and I love showing people what I've worked on but if I continue to get teased, I may stop too. Is there anyone else out there like me? Do you get a hard time from others for finishing your quilts?

Thank you for looking and for letting me share my finishes with you.
Barb

Big Ditches

2011-03-10T17:22:00.000-08:00

My husband and I just came home from a whirlwind trip to the Grand Canyon. I had never been and we saw this AAA deal where you start in Williams, AZ, and take a train to the Grand Canyon for the day, then back to Williams for another night, and then home the next day (today). On our way home we stopped at the Hoover Dam to see the new bridge. So - saw two big holes in the ground - one man made and one God made. Both were pretty awesome to see.

Grand Canyon - picture taken from the south rim

Hoover Dam

The train ride was slow - 63 miles and it took 2.5 hours. They tried to entertain you with musicians and we even had a train robbery on the way back. It was fun to see that because we had 2 young boys on our train and they made it more fun. The Marshall kept trying to hit on the 4 girls who sat ahead of us - was pretty funny to see the old fart flirt. I have to say the musician we had on the way back also told some very funny jokes. He was a Native American Indian and his music was great too, but his jokes were funnier and he told them well. Not much else to do in Williams so we had a lot of down time. We were in bed and lights out by 9 each night which is not like me at all. They wanted $10 for 24 hours of internet so I lugged my laptop all the way there for nothing, because I wasn't going to buy that when most hotels have it for free. I am very glad we went and Jeff and I didn't kill each other. We listened to a book on tape both ways so we didn't have to converse alot. ha ha

Oh, and there was a quilt store in Williams and we found it but it was closed by the time we got there and the next day we were gone during the day when they were opened and we left at 6 am this morning so couldn't go today. However one of the Grand Canyon shops had 4 - 4" x 6" old photos of the Grand Canyon on fabric to make a little quilt and I got that.

Oh, no quilting done for 3 days. Will start tonight sometime. I'm itching' to get to the machine!

Thanks for looking.
Barb

It is well with my soul!

2011-03-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

This past Tuesday was the Loose Threads meeting and I didn't have my project finished. I did show them what I had started, and I finally finished it today. The technique was to use dimmensional flowers and the inspiration word was soul or sole or any other way you want to use the word. I used soul and found this quote that was just perfect.

I took a class from Judy Sisneros (of 9 Patch Pizazz fame)that was sponsored by our guild yesterday. If you ever get a chance to take a class from her I would recommend it. My original idea was to use my tiger eyes I painted 2 years ago but she said it wouldn't work with the "on point" we were going to work on that day. She was right - but I figured I could sneak it in. Instead I ended up buying a kit from her. I finished the top last night and got the back ready today as well as the binding and label. I just have to pin it. I plan on doing just a basic all over design so the quilting shouldn't take long. It's pretty busy with big flowers-it's very pretty. I like it but if I had brought my own fabric I would have made it bigger.

Anyway, thanks for looking.
Barb

8 Year Old Birthday Party and 4 quilts in the Quilt Show! Yea! Oh and Spamalot.

2011-03-03T22:46:00.000-08:00

What a busy week I've had. I went to visit my folks this weekend - not only was it the Almond Blossom Festival in the big town of Ripon, California (went to the parade) my niece Claire turned 8 and I was the official photographer and am now on the top of her favorite aunt list. Here's me and Claire.

My niece Claire

It was a chef party and here are all the girls

Me and Claire

It was a fun party -each girl got to decorate their own chef's hat, each got an apron with their name on it (and no I didn't make them her Grandma Marcia and her mom did all that work), they made their own lemonade, pizza, decorated their own cake and then had smell and taste tests. My sis-in-law did a great job with the party.

Then on Tuesday night, my art group met and we revealed our "soul" project. I didn't get mine finished and I'll show it later when it's done, but here are Karen's (not quite finished either), Anna's, also not quite finished, Sara's, Barbara Sawyers, and I was sure I got picture of Janices (pieces) but they aren't on my camera. . Grace made some flowers but didn't put in a piece (yet).

Anna's - she had more flowers and a title to add (Heart and Soul)

Grace


Karen - she still needs to add	her dimensional pieces

Sara's (sole)

Barbara Sawyer

Wednesday night I went to see Spamalot at the Saroyan theater in Fresno. What a hoot! I need to rent the Monty Python Holy Grail movie now.

Tonight was guild and Judy Sisneros was our guest speaker. She's incredible and has a nice show. I am also taking her 9 Patch Pizzazz class on Saturday. Check out her website (google her - I'm too tired to find the link for you.) And I'll report on the class over the weekend.

But the GREAT news was, I got my notice from the Best of the Valley Quilt show that my 4 quilts got accepted. Wahoo!

Tomorrow I get to stay home (after work) and I will probably just get ready for class on Saturday.

Thanks for looking.
Barb

Terry Waldron Class Project DONE!

2011-02-21T19:56:00.000-08:00

Tried to get a close up so you can see that I actually did some beading on there and there are dimmensional butterflies that I got for a Christmas gift. Had fun playing with this. I use my embroidery machine for the Danish looking horse thing and free formed the rest, a la Terry Waldron. And this is a resolution quilt - so one more off my list. :) Check out my friend Debbie 's blog - she has her class project posted too. Hers is much prettier and her quilting is out of this world and her's has a real sentimental story.

My husband met with our tax guy today and we are so screwed. Jeff is still reeling. We have to make some adjustments this year so we don't get dinged again next year.

And I usually don't talk much about my work, but I'm being audited this week--it's an internal audit (we hire a company to do this each year) and today was madness getting ready for it. Still didn't get it all done but they will be at our office for at least the next 3 days so I will be able to work on what they need while they are here. (On top of my normal duties of course.) Oh well, it's only once a year - I have survived and passed with flying colors every year.

I will be attending my nieces 8th birthday party this weekend - so excited. I get to be the official photographer. I can't wait.

Thanks for looking.

Doxie Love

2011-02-14T22:48:00.000-08:00

At Road 2 Californai 2010, I took Joanie Zeier Poole's class, it was all about designing, adapting and marking quilting designs. I finally finished it. I don't know what took so long. I'm calling it Doxie Love. I used the doxie's design from the fabric in the middle border as an inspiration for the quilting. As it's Valentine's Day, I pushed to finish this one on Valentine's Day. Here's the blog entry about the class. (scroll to middle of page) Road 2 California 2010

Speaking of Valentine's, it was a quiet one here. When I got to work my boss Greg had a bunch of kisses and Dove candies all around all our desks. What a sweetie! I got him a card and a big Hershey's kiss too.

My hubby left yesterday for Cambria to spray weeds at the house there so our Valentine's wasn't very romantic. He did make me breakfast before he left.

Anyway, I have another finish for the year. It wasn't on the resolution list but it should have been.

Went to a friends house on Sunday to quilt with a few Visalia ladies, worked on my Lincoln watch quilt. Not thrilled with it - only have 30 blocks done of 120 (that's working on it 2 days -Friday night and Sunday afternoon). I will persevere and finish it though.

My next need to finish will be my quilt from the Terry Waldren class last year.

Thanks for looking and hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's!

I love quickies!

2011-02-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

Bought this pattern and 2 fabric kits at Road to California last month. They were super easy to put together. Made me feel like I accomplished something. They are from The Calico Horse based in Redlands. CA. The pattern includes mats for Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving/Fall and 4th of July. Didn't buy kits for those and now that I've made these 2 the rest can be made with all my scraps.

Started cutting my next project. It's called Lincoln's Watch and I'm using a fat quarter pack I bought about 2 years ago called Coventry by Jo Morton. I've had to add some additional fabrics from my stash that aren't part of the "pack" but it will be super scrappy and you won't be able to tell.

Thanks for looking.

While Everyone is Watching the Super Bowl...

2011-02-06T16:54:00.000-08:00

I finished this baby! It's from our guild class last month (January) called "Look Ma, No Curves" with instructor Deb Karasik. I love how it turned out. Still no name for it yet. As usual, I'll take suggestions since everyone else is so much better at it than I am. I spent so much time going around each peak with my walking foot and I should have done it all free motion. I am horrible at straight lines. Oh, I can check off two of my resolution quilts because I used my red and aqua fabrics that I had collected and finished a class project. YES!

Now, I will work on some mindless little seasonal candle mats. My hubby is at a Superbowl Party that I had no desire to go to.

Thanks for looking.

Some Miscellaneous Items

2011-02-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

First and foremost - a most recent picture of my grandson. 3 months old and wearing 6 months old clothes. He's a really chunky monkey.

Second, about a month ago, I brought my car in to be smogged - because I couldn't renew my registration without a smog this year. It wouldn't pass and it would cost me about $1,300 just for the new cadalytic converter and more if you include the labor to replace it and the car isn't even worth that much. (Kelly Blue Book is $2,000). The part is so expensive because of the California state requirements.:( So I had to buy a new car. My old car was a Toyota Corolla. It had 226,000 miles and I had it for 8 years so it did do me good. So instead of paying for a repair that would take me months to pay off, I decided just to get a new car. I looked at the new Corollas, but for the same price and a few more "extras" I ended up getting a Nissan Sentra. Here's my new baby.

Now it's back to full insurance and car payments. Yuk - but I really do love the car. It has bluetooth built in for the cell phone and it has a jack for my ipod and the menu pops up on the car screen on the dash. And my favorite thing is I finally have cruise control. I commute over 40 miles one way to work, so a gas efficient and comfortable car is very important.

Now here's a gross/funny/weird story - you be the judge.

Two nights ago my husband brought our Jack Russell Terrier, Guy, to me and said look at his penis. And hanging out from it was a piece of string. So I tried to pull it out while Jeff held him but it wouldn't budge. We figured whatever it was, was wrapped around and stuck in there so the next morning Jeff took him into the vets. He said he had to figure out a way to explain to the doc how this happened. We had cut a piece of the hanging stuff off to see what it was and realized it was from this old blanket that he uses to "love" on, and he must have just had a piece of string wrap around his thing while he was playing. So into the garbage that blanket went because we can't afford to let this happen again. They had to knock him out and remove it. It's a good thing we caught it when we did. It would eventually have cut off his circulation and done a lot of damage to that whole area. Poor guy. He was still pretty groggy last night when I came home. But this morning he wanted to chase the ball so he's back to his old self.

These are some miscellaneous things that I wanted documented on my blog. Thanks for looking.

Loose Threads Meeting

2011-02-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

We finally had our January meeting on Monday (was delayed due to fog) and we revealed our "photo" quilts which only 3 of us actually did the project. Sara did it I guess since she included photos in her piece to Anna below) but she went to go visit her new granddaughter. Here's what was done. The fractured piece on the left is Anna's, mine's in the middle (shown on a previous blog post) and the flower is Janices. She used excel to tile print the flower. Came out great - she got the directions from the latest Quilt Life magazine.
.
The project was to use a picture and the inspiration word was Joy.

Then Anna had a birthday and this year we're all making 6" strips for each other but instead of putting them all in one long strip - we're making vertical pieces that we can hang together or separately. Anna asked for pieces no longer that 44" and with tabs and they had to reflect the maker. Mine is the leaf piece, 2nd on the right. I used a free pattern from Deb Karasik.

left to right: Grace Hoya, Sara Kelly, Karen Taber, Janice Minyard, me and Barbara Sawyer.

Karen taught us folded or origami flowers. Here's a couple of her samples. We're to use it somewhere on our piece next month and our inspiration word is "Soul". I've already found a bunch of quotes that use the word soul and hopefully will get inspired by them as well.

Still working on quilting my Deb Karasik glass project. About 1/2 way through. Tomorrow night is guild. Looking forward to hanging with my quilting peeps.

Thanks for looking.

Me and American Idol Winner Lee DeWyze

2011-01-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

I have a great job. A couple months ago I got to meet David Archuleta from American Idol and today last years' winner Lee DeWyze played at our mall and I got to see him, get his autograph and talk to him for a minute. Really nice guy.

I couldn't stay for his whole mini-concert as it's an hour drive home and the fog has been pretty bad so I had to leave 1/2 way through his set. He was great, sounded good.

So now that I got home late, did some house errands not a lot of time to sew tonight (hence a blog post). I just have the last border to paper piece on the Deb Karasik class project. I really am loving it. So clean and crisp.

Thanks for looking.

Look at what I bought at Road 2 California

2011-01-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

If you want to see some great photos of the show quilts, check out Darlene's at Sew Cal Gal. She did a great job summarizing the show and the quilts. More importantly this is what I worked on and what I bought.

Fabric for my bosses son quilt. (His school colors)

Marimekko Oyj Suomi fabric.

Another Marimekko fabric.

The books I bought.

The thread and crystals I bought.

And to add to my fall fabric stash.

Misc. fabrics, a pattern , 2 fabric packs to go with pattern.

Some of the yellows and greens and browns I got to use on my class project.

The picture I used for my project.

This is as far as I've gotten. I'm using this green instead of appliqueing all the leaves.

Want to make a red, white and blue quilt - here's a start of it.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the Marimekko fabrics. I was thinking of just finishing the edge of the red one and using as a table cloth. My friends think I need to machine quilt it (whole quilt type). The blue would make a cool shower curtain or curtain somewhere. I know on my yellow fabrics I'm sure I bought more but i didn't remember what I bought versus what I brought for the class. I know I bought a bunch of greens too, some before the class and some while at the show. After a while, they all looked alike!

I travel with a great group of ladies. Not only my roommates and classmates shown in the previous blog, but Anna Koelewyn (Anna the Artist Within-link to the right) was there and shared meals with us. She took Mary Lou Weidman's (spelling) class and was there for show and tell with us each night. And the last two nights, Grace Hoya and Barbara Sawyer were there too. Too fun.

Thanks for looking. Hopefully some more finished projects soon!

Road 2 California

2011-01-21T22:24:00.000-08:00

Our last evening at Road to California and we are very sad and very broke. Here's a picture of my three roommates and classmates. We all took David Taylor's Advanced Pictorial Applique class.


Back row: Kathy Morrison and Debbie Van Fossen Front: Diane Mitchell and Me

Here's the infamous David Taylor. He was a lot of fun. He has his way of doing things and he's a perfectionist and I know I musts have driven him crazy with my boring piece. I won't show it until its done which may not be for a while. Against his advise, i will probably do the "f" word with it - FUSE MY PIECES instead of hand applique. We'll see.

I took pictures of some of the phenominal quilts - will share at a later date. Will also take pictures of some of the fabric I bought - I used some in my project. All boring yellows.

Thanks for looking.

The Leftover Half-Square Triangle Quilt Done!

2011-01-16T21:11:00.000-08:00

The center of this quilt is made from the remaining blocks left over from the first idea I had for my Material Girls Challenge. I was going to put the signature blocks among ocean wave blocks but ended up doing the art piece instead. So I didn't want all that work to go to waste so I put the squares together, added borders and used the rest of the scraps on the border and the back. Had fun quilting these feathers and added shell motifs to keep with the ocean theme. I've never done them this way before. (You can click on the picture to get a closer look - use your browsers back button to get to this page again.)

Also finished today my Loose Threads Art Group project (which isn't even due until the 24th!). We had to use a photo on our fabric and the theme word was joy. This is my niece at my nephews wedding this past August. She was having so much fun and we all were having fun watching her. She has always brought me joy. This just shows her goofy side.

It's printed in black on white on the fabric and I used white to black threads to quilt it. Used blue on her eyes and pink on her tongue to make them stand out. I think it came out quite good.

I leave Wednesday with 3 other friends to Ontario to go to the Road 2 California Quilt Show, where we will meet a few other friends who already be there. I have signed up for David Taylor's class. If you don't know who he is, here's his website. David Taylor Quilts website If you get any quilt magazines, you will have seen his work. He was the featured artists at Asilomar last March when I went and he was very funny and very talented. I'm pretty excited about taking the class.

Thanks for looking. If I have time, I'll check in during the show.

Look who I got to see this weekend.

2011-01-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

Only for the 3rd time since he was born in October!

We caught him before he started crying again. Kelly had to go to the store for a few minutes and he slept for half the time and then he woke up and realized she wasn't there. I can vouch that his lungs work. I finally got him quiet for about 5 minutes and he and I had the nicest conversation. I told him all the fun things we're going to do - like reading stories, playing games, swinging and running amok. He just stared at me like he was excited. But then Kelly came home and he heard her voice and the crying began. Too funny. I also told him the grumpy gramps (he really didn't like that name because he kind of puckered his face when I called Jeff that) will build him a swing/play set that will make all the neighbor kids jealous. I guess I need to tell Jeff that he has to do that now.

He has the bluest eyes. He's adorable. Of course I'm prejudiced. And look what he made Grandpa and me for Christmas.

3 months old and look at that talent. He even has his name and date on the back.

I also surprised my mom on her birthday --I stopped by on my way home from visiting Jack to hand deliver her card. She really was surprised. Love you mom!

Quilting is on hold for a few days. I took a fall yesterday and fell on my left arm. Luckily there are no bones broken but I am S O R E. And I have some pretty good cuts. I took pictures but they didn't come out very good - hard to take pictures of your own arm and elbow.

Thanks for looking and letting me brag about my grandson for a minute.

First Finish for 2011 and I need help finding fabric

2011-01-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

"Needs a Name" quilt

Close Up

This is a kit from John Flynn- laser cut pieces - started working on this a few months ago at retreats or Party Party Party and finally finished it last night. No name yet, I will take any suggestions. The package calls it a Pine Burr pattern.

And I need to find at least a fat quarter or 1/2 yard of this above fabric. If you know the name at least it will help. I bought a fat quarter pack on Etsy through Sew Dearly Loved and I check her website and it's not there anymore. I need it to finish this quilt.

See the blocks to the right of Janice-that's the project.

Anyway, our guild had Deb Karasik this Thursday and she was so entertaining. If you ever get the chance to see her, do it. Also if you have a chance to take her class, take it. We had a great time.

Now I have to go back to contemplating how I want to quilt my blue/green/turquoise fabric scrap quilt. Lots of quilting space so want to do something unique in those areas.

Thanks for looking.

Out with the old, in with the new (resolution quilt list)

2011-01-01T11:46:00.000-08:00

Wedding Dress Blue's blog had some wonderful goals for 2011 and I want to share them. Her blog address is weddingdressblue It's kind of a positive goal list which I loved. I'm still going to make my resolution list but not because I want to get them all done by the end of 2011, but I like to keep track of what I have in my cabinet.

Here's last years list. Posting it here so I'll have a record.

New resolution list on the right.

Here's the goals:
1. Quilt! Duh!
2. Keep buying fabric. As Wedding Dress Blue says, it makes me happy! I don't really "need" more, but since I love fabric and it makes me happy, I'll buy more. It was also be unreasonable to say I won't.
3. Keep blogging! This has been a fun way to show off my quilts. I know my family looks to see what I've made. That makes me happy.
4. Use Scraps. Even though the quilt store isn't doing Scrap Therapy anymore, I will continue to make scrap quilts. I love the look of scrap quilts and I don't feel guilty using those for my dog beds and sofa covers. When you have 3 dogs, you do what you can to protect your furniture and quilts makes it look prettier than an ugly sheet.
5. Continue to take classes. Learn more. Create more. I already plan on taking classes next year with David Taylor (at Road to California), Deb Karasik (January guild lecture and workshop); Judy Sisneros 9 patch pizzaz (March guild lecture and workshop); and Anelie Beldon Thoroughly Modern Dresdon (May guild lecture and workshop).

Here's to a great new year.
Thanks for looking.

2010 Quilts

2010-12-31T09:48:00.000-08:00

Here's pictures of the quilts and/or projects I finished in 2010. I know these are all the quilts, but I'm not sure if I got all the little crafty things I finished on here. Sometimes I foget to take pictures. Or they were part of a bigger quilt like the pieces I did for the Loose Threads ribbon quilts. I only finished 13 of the 25 quilts on my resolution list for 2010. However, one of the quilts on the list has 12 different mini quilts and there are 2 of those finished. Then I have the top of one other finished and I hope to get that quilted or at least started this weekend. Tomorrow I work on the new years resolution list!

When you see them all together you can really see I don't have a particular style of quilting. I'm game to try anything and any color.
Tomorrow comes the "NEW LIST OF RESOLUTION QUILTS". Today it's all about putting Christmas decor away. Which I'm stalling because I dread going back and forth to the storage shed to get the boxes and then back and forth to put them back.
Thanks for looking.

2010 Ornament Exchange and other gifts

2010-12-27T21:42:00.000-08:00

Every year my family exchanges home-made ornaments for Christmas. It's so fun each year to see what we all come up with. Here are the ornaments I made this year for everyone. Of course I also make them for my nephews and niece (except I didn't get a picture of my nieces ornament yet.) I did all mine with counted cross-stitch except for the Santa - my embroidery machine did that.

And this is what I received in return. I'm showing the ornament my husband gave me this year. He actually has been giving me these collectible ornaments for the last 6 years.

You can click on the pictures to get a closer look and use your browsers back button to return to this page.

And other crafty items received and made are here.

The buffalo watercolor was done my mother-in-law for my husband. It was from a picture he took on his big adventure earlier this year. She has always been artistic but usually with oil paints and at 82 decided she wanted to try something new and started taking watercolor lessons this year. Amazing isn't it? My niece Claire painted the rose watercolor in January 2010 (by the way she's only 7 years old). The name on the sewing machine, the flower pins and the towels I showed earlier are gifts I made for others and were shown on previous posts. The scarfs don't show the white fuzzy on the bottom but my mom made those for me to give to friends (I bought the supplies.) I (my machine) embroidered these napkins for my mother-in-law and the jewelry wasn't made by any one I know, but the necklace was purchased by my husband on his travels earlier this year and he bought the ring and earrings locally.

I had a wonderful holiday and still have one more celebration with my step-daughter and her family - just not sure when that will be. I hope everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends.

Now - back to quilting - just can't figure out where to start.

Thanks for looking.

Some gifts received (and sneaking in one I'm giving)

2010-12-20T23:15:00.000-08:00

Okay maybe I'm not sneaking it in because I'm going to start the blog with it. My step-daughter asked me to make her husband and my grandson matching hooded towels because her hubby Chad just thinks they are so cool. She even found a blog with directions on how to make them. (Thanks http://www.makeandtakes.com/easy-hooded-bath-towel). So I made these. I know Kelly checks my blog occassionally but I don't think Chad does so it's safe to share this.

Chad's is made with a bath sheet and Jack's is made with a regular sized towel. I hope they'll like them.

Now being part of two very talented friendship groups, I have been getting some wonderful gifts. Here are just a few of the handmade items. This is just a tip of the iceburg of the wonderful gifts I've received - not all of them.

Anna Koelewyn belongs to both the groups I'm in and for one she made us these cute magnetic pin holders. They are just clay saucers she's painted and glued strong magnets on the bottom. The second item were these painted and mod podged boxes. I love organizational things and when I got home I saw that the box would be perfect to hold the fabric/fiber postcards I've been making and receiving.

Sara made this great bookmark with this quote on the back. "Think where glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends. W. B. Yeats." She also got us some embellishment supplies (buttons and butterflies and we're wondering if she has some plans for us to use them), and this cool stone with Glass Eye on the back.

Barbara Sawyer made these wonderful pins with fabric, wire and beads. (I get so amazed how they can even think of making something so pretty.)

Now here is where my sisters have to close their eyes. Janice made these adorable ornaments and I think this is what I'll make for my family next year.

Last but not least for tonight...the art group I'm in is called Loose Threads and when Grace was in Long Beach this summer she saw these great pins and picked them all up to give for gifts. I think she got them at the Pin Peddler. (It says Loose Threads on the top.)

No quilting lately. I did put together the remaining 256 half-square blocks to make a center of a quilt. I've been looking through some books to find a great finish for these blocks. It's pretty scrappy. It's all the colors of the ocean waters (blues, aquas, greens). Also have the Christmas pine burr top almost finished ordered some fabric on line that I thought would work for the border but sadly didn't even come close - so will have to continue looking. I hate having unfinished tops like this. I'm itching to quilt something.

Well, it's late, I should proof this (but it doesn't mean there won't be typos above anyway). Thanks for looking.

The Great Reveal

2010-12-11T20:41:00.000-08:00

The Material Girls Friendship Group met today for our Christmas party and the big reveal. In spring we exchanged signature blocks and we had until today to make a quilt with them. We were missing 4 of our group for various reasons and they were all missed. I hope to see their quilts soon though. Since this is my blog - my quilt is first. Mine is a wall hanging that will hang above our bed in the Cambria house. I'm showing the pictures of the blocks when we got them and the finished products.

These neutrals were Adena Joseph's. She not only made this quilt with neutrals, she made us each ATC cards and she made herself a tote bag to carry her quilt around. She plans on doing an applique around the border when she finds the time.

Anna wanted orange and pink - love how she added the turquoise. Gives the blocks a whole new look.

Carol Chadwick wanted oriental fans and she twisted them in her setting which gives it a very untraditional fan setting, which I love.

Debbie Van Fossen who couldn't make it but made sure we saw her quilt, made this beauty. In case you can read the top it says "I'm a real witch if I don't get to stitch". She designed the witch herself and had to add two blocks to make the setting work.

Deolinda used some great sashing fabrics and with the variety of values set these off beautifully.

Diane received 6" fall blocks and made a table runner (the big block she will use on the back). The fabric in the middle is from a panel she received (from me) is all about friendships.

Elaine Berry was one of 4 who chose Sunbonnet Sues as her blocks. She set hers off in a muted pink and because she asked for all different sizes (6, 9 or 12") her setting was a real challenge.

Janice also received Sunbonnet Sues and she also had the same setting issues. Both did a great job working with different sizes.

Kathy Morrison also asked for Halloween blocks. I love her big cat in the middle - so cute and sets off the 6" blocks so well. (the finished picture is 2 pictures kind of merged together poorly - sorry).

Rita asked for black, white and red blocks and made this very sophisticated lap quilt.

Here's a group shop of those who were there. Pam and Lynne who were there didn't get their tops done but they did bring show and tell of other quilts they've been working on as did a few others. However this post is long enough.

Tomorrow I plan on finishing my cross stitch ornaments (2 more to go--woo hoo) and then I can work on Chad and Jack's gift. Also have been going through my old magazines (2007 and 2008's) and will be giving those away after I'm done scanning the quilts I like from them. I hate to tear pages out so I scan and give the magazines away.

Thanks again to my Material Girl friends for another great challenge. Next years challenge is to use a hexigon in a quilt or make a hexigon quilt. Any size any color, no other rules.

Thanks for looking.

Postcards and Puppies

2010-11-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving with just my in-laws, got my house decorated for the holidays, and started working on some Christmas gifts (which of course I can't show). I can show these postcards for the guild show and tell. Sorry about the photo - taken with cell phone - don't know why it's sideways. Anyway I quilted with metallic thread on velvet and used crystals to decorate. I'll try to take better photos with real camera.

So on to the puppy part, my husband told me this morning he was going to the local flea market to go look for a bike (he plays with them, puts engines on them, etc.) but instead of coming home with a bike he came home with this little girl.

Here she is snuggled inside my sweatshirt. We won't be able to keep her but my husband just couldn't leave her running around the flea market. Looks like she was dumped there. He walked around the whole place hoping someone would claim her. He said he saw 2 little girls holding 2 other puppies so he figured that had to be the case. Anyway, we bathed her and fed her but are keeping her away from the other dogs in case she has some disease. She's awfully thin but a good natured little girl. She won't get huge because she has tiny little paws. We can't figure out exactly what she is - a little chihuahua or boxer or terrier or a mix of all. Jeff will take her to the vet tomorrow and find a place where he can place her where she won't be euthenized.

So if you live in the central valley California and want a sweet little girl, let me know. I'd love to find her a good home. (I already have 3 dogs which is why I can't keep her. I like to joke that there is no room in the bed for another dog, which is actually pretty true.)

I have enjoyed looking at everyone's blogs this weekend. Fun to see all the decorations and Thanksgiving pictures. Let the Christmas music begin!

Thanks for looking.

I've Been Busy

2010-11-24T23:08:00.000-08:00

See last post for how this obsession started. They are so pretty.

I have been having some I-tunes problems tonight and spent way too much time reloading, finding and crap. For some reason it just said when I tried to open Itunes "Ituneslibrary.itl cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of itunes" Of course all the googling just confused me. Sometimes these things just get me riled up. I got Itunes reloaded and now it's saying my iphone is not being recognized with that itunes so I'm afraid to sync my ipod.

So I will leave this be and enjoy my 4 day weekend. Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. I plan on sewing on Thursday, decorating my house for Christmas on Friday and sewing some more on Saturday and Sunday. Since I work for a shopping center, black friday shopping at a mall is the last place I want to be.

Thanks for looking.

Christsmas Gift Idea, Art Group Quilts and of course, Jack

2010-11-16T21:02:00.000-08:00

First off, my older sister Brenda was in town (well my parents town) so I went up north to spend some time with her. As usual, she had a great gift idea for friends at Christmas. Well, not all my friends, the ones who will probably get them already saw mine and oohed and aahhed and kind of hinted they would make a great Christmas gift. So this year, they all get one. The other friendship group is getting something else that my older sister is making for me. Anyway, here is what she showed us this weekend. She found a tutorial on oneprettything.com and her and a friend perfected it and shared it with my sis-in-law, mom and I.

They aren't that hard to make and are so pretty. She made the black one and gave it to me for my birthday and together we all made a silver one. So today I was already at Hancocks Fabrics to buy some synthetic fabrics to make more. Black, gold, silver and white.

While she was here we took a little trip further north to visit my step-daughter Kelly and my grandson Jack. I was just getting over a cold so I wasn't allowed to hold him but everyone else could. But I did get more pictures. I can't believe how much he changes in such a short period of time.

My sister Brenda and Jack (sleeping)

My mom and Jack - finally waking up.

My niece Claire and Jack hungry but not for his binky.

While in Ripon, my sister-in-law Marcy's brother Jeff and his wife Marianne were in town and we had a Texas Hold-em Tournament. Jeff had the whole thing organized and even gave us newbies lessons earlier in the day. We had a lot of fun. I was the first one out so I became the official shuffler. Great fun.

Marianne Laun, Patrick and my mom

Jeff Laun, Brenda, Marcy and Drew

And right after I got home from work on Monday, my Loose Threads Art Group met at my house for our November meeting. We are going through the Fabric Embellishing, The Basics and Beyond book. This month our technique was bubbles and wrinkles and the inspiration word was Illumination. Here is a picture of what we all made.

Anna's came out blurry - check her blog out as I'm sure when she's done (she wants to bead on it) she'll have it on her blog. (annatheartistwithin.blogspot.com) Unfortunately you can only comment on her blog if you look at it thru Internet Explorer. (I use firefox.) Karen's piece was her interpretation of the Book of Kells. I had no idea what it was so I had to look it up on-line. Since I was hostess, I had to choose a technique for next month (but actually it will be January) and the inspiration word. I chose photo on fabric and showed them the basics of photoshop and how to play and use filters on photos. My word is JOY! It will be exciting to see what everyone does with that.

Anyway, tonight it's all about getting ready for another busy week. We have a guild board meeting on Wednesday night, a late night quilting party (Cut Throat Quilters) at the quilt shop on Friday Night and all day Saturday and Sunday our guild's stacation type of retreat. (we sew all day at Country Manor but get to go home to our own bed each night).

Thanks for looking.

How to Improve an Already Completed Quilt (and I turned 50)

2010-11-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

First off, I finished this quilt a few months ago for my grandson. This picture shows it unfinished, but he got it finished before he was born.

But there was something missing and I just couldn't put my finger on it.

And then I got this picture and realized that it needed this to improve the quilt.

Kelly said Jack loves his quilt.

And last Saturday I had my 50th birthday and had a party at my house. I had a great time and was so happy so many of my family and friends could join me in celebrating this milestone. I have a good life and am very thankful for all I have. My youngest sister couldn't be there but she sent this box of 50 leaf items. Since I was "leaf"ing my 40's behind.

It was like a treasure chest full of leaf goodness. (leaf cookies she bought and she made some too, a cookie cutter, a frame, a magnet, a necklace and earrings, chocolate bar shaped like a leave, a notebook, kitchen towels, a candle holder and candle, all individually wrapped in a a box.) In the background of the picture you can see a pile of fall fabrics. My Material Girls Friendship group ladies got together and put a basket of 1 yard pieces of fall fabrics (they each donated one yard) knowing how much I love fall and fall fabrics. I will make a leaf quilt with those fabrics. (Next year though.) I also received other very nice gifts which surprised me since I put no gifts on the invitation.

It took me two days to recover from the party. I think I had one too many margaritta's. It could have been the shots of tequila though. Not sure. :)

Thanks for looking.

Another Scrap Therapy finsihed and I finally met my grandson

2010-10-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

Won't be a lot of quilting going on here this week. I'm having a big birthday party this coming weekend and I need to get busy cleaning and cooking. But I wanted to get this Scrap Therapy project done before and I finally finished it last night. I will probably be donating to our guilds charity quilt program.

It's made with a lot of the scraps I cut from my grandson's baby quilt. Maybe I'll keep it and give it to him for his 1st birthday. Speaking of my grandson, I got my husband to drive to Livermore yesterday so we could meet him. He was not happy - 6 hours of driving for a one hour visit. He wouldn't even hold him. Said he was too small. I was pretty nervous myself. And since I was holding him the whole time, I was unable to get more pictures.

Happy Halloween everyone. We don't have street lights so we never get any trick or treaters here so I don't get to see all those fun Halloween costumes.

Thanks for looking.
Barb

Testing Smilebox

2010-10-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

Personalize your own slideshow design

The quality of the photos is poor but that's my fault. I wanted to see if this worked. These are pictures of some of the quilts I showed during my trunk show earlier this month at our quilt guild.

Thanks for looking.

Another Finished Quilt and a Fauz Hawk!

2010-10-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

I didn't start this one this weekend. I started this in Pismo Beach a few weeks ago, but had to pick up more aqua fabric at Pacific International to do the applique pieces. It's from a kit from Cherrywood Fabrics called Endless Horizon. Can't remember if I bought it last year at Pacific International or Road 2 California. Oh and this is a quilt from my Resolution List! Yea! One more down.

Now I have some scrap therapy blocks to finish and the guild's block of the month blocks. I also need to make a few fiber postcards for guild.

And because this picture made me smile, I'm going to share it with you all. My new grandson Jack got his first sponge bath at home today and Kelly styled his hair and took a picture for me. I love his little smile and she said that's the face he makes when he's pooping. I still think it's adorable.

Thanks for looking.

Fall is in the House

2010-10-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

Remember those beautiful Fall fabrics I bought at Pacific International last weekend? Well I whipped up this table runner this week. While I was quilting the last leaf of the piece I noticed that there is a mistake. I would have to have undone alot of quilting to fix it and thought, I didn't notice it until this point and hope no one else will notice it either. Fall is my favorite season and Fall colors are my favorites.

Well hubby said dinner is ready. Thanks for looking.

Loose Threads Meeting

2010-10-22T23:36:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, the Loose Threads met to show off our flour paste resists pieces. The inspiration word this month was grafitti. I think we all did a great job. Each of our pieces came out so different - we used different types of paints and I suppose different thicknesses of flour paste.

We also celebrated Janice's 59th birthday so we each made her 59 inches of a ribbon for her. She loves flowers and without discussing it with each other, we all made some type of flowery piece.

I will be working on a little table runner this weekend with that glorious fall fabric I bought last week. I'll show it when it's done.

Thanks for looking.

Officially a Grandma

2010-10-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

Meet Jack Richard Buck. Is he not the cutest baby ever?!?! He was born on 10/19/10 at 12:25 a.m. and mom and baby are doing fine. Kelly said he has a healthy set of lungs. I hope to meet him in real life in the next few weeks.

Pacific International Quilt Show

2010-10-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

What a great show. Was inspired by a lot of quilts, took lots of pictures but not sure which ones were my favorites to share here. I went with 3 wonderful women who I just adore. They are the nicest gals and the best travel partners. We are all sharing a room at Road to California this January and I think all 4 of us are also taking David Taylors class.

I pretty much stuck to my list of things I wanted to buy. The only variant was the gorgeous fall fabrics and the civil war pattern. Not bad. I couldn't carry anymore anyway--fabric is heavy!

The fabric bundles and the fabric on the bottom left are from Fig Tree for the Vintage Postcards I want to make. (see the Halloween quilt I showed at the post before this one). I had some fabrics but after finishing 2 of the 12 I realized I need more variety and they are just adorable. The solids go with that set too. I only needed the aqua color of the blue/brown fabric pack but they didn't have any without the rest of the fabrics and since I love their fabrics, I went ahead and bought the whole pack. The lights to the right of those are for the David Taylor class and the pattern is for some Coventry by Jo Morton fabrics I bought over 2 years ago just waiting for the perfect pattern. And those fall fabrics I just couldn't resist. Think I'll make a little table runner with those.

Anyway, did you go to a show today - what did you get?

Thanks for looking.