I’ve been busy with lots of things but my design wall doesn’t exactly show it.
In between completing a quilt made from my Quiltmakers 100 Blocks, block and working on the upcoming Two Wacky Women retreat, I’’ve managed to get the sashing added to one side of 58 blocks. I still have more TWW work to do but will continue to work on these in the mean time.
Check out what others are working on over at Judy’s Patchwork Times Blog.
Enjoy,
Have you seen this? I found the link over on my friend Lyn Brown’s Blog. It sure looks like a lot of fun.
How many of us have a jelly roll sitting around that we haven’t figured out what to do with yet? Doesn’t this look like a great charity project?
To my Wednesday Wacko friendship group – Don’t you think we should do this? I know Sue would win (she is the fastest sewer, ever) but it would still be a lot of fun. I can hear those sewing machines humming now 
Enjoy,
So this week I borrowed stole this link from Terry’s Treasures blog. I laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face.
If you need a good chuckle, click here. You won’t believe what people will do and say when a photo booth talks to them.
Have a great weekend.
Enjoy,
The Story of my First Quilt
Often I am asked how many quilts I’ve made over the years and the answer is “I HAVE NO IDEA”. I know someone that has always numbered their quilts but unfortunately I never even thought of doing that. I’ve given away a lot of quilt over the years, how many? “I HAVE NO IDEA”. I’ve also been asked many times, how many quilts do I have in my house? Can you guess the answer?????? “I HAVE NO IDEA”.
As part of my dog and pony show when I visit guilds I do a trunk show of lots and lots of quilts and each time it’s a different collection depending on which lecture and depending on which quilts I pack. There’s always a big variety but I almost always start off with my first quilt.
I’ve decided that each Thursday I will post a quilt from my trunk show and in the process maybe I’ll figure out how many quilts I have, although I really doubt it.
So here’s my first quilt. Not only the first quilt of the trunk show but my very first quilt.
It’s all my sister Melinda’s fault. She lived the other side of the country from me but manage to convince me over the phone that I could do this. After all I’d been sewing most of my life but had never been interested in making a quilt. In fact, I was afraid of making a quilt. All that stuff about 1/4” seams really intimated me. Well anyway she talked me into it so I headed out to my local JoAnn’s and bought this book.
I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and no imagination at all. I opened the book and found the quilt I liked the best.
Notice any similarity? I told you, I had a no imagination. I took the book and wondered around the store until I found almost exactly the same fabrics. I managed to get it made but then I had to quilt it. In the book they had just done a cross hatch in the center, so guess what I did. A cross hatch of sorts. Then it was time to do the border. The book said to free motion quilt in the border. I had no idea what that was so I decided to do what I knew how to do best, absolutely nothing, no quilting at all.
I will tell you this, I was so proud of this quilt that it hung in my family room for years until………..the owner of a quilt shop came for a visit to talk to me about teaching in her shop. She was very nice and even complimented me on my wall hanging. She said it was a very “friendly quilt” it was waving to her. I was so embarrassed because sure enough, since I hadn’t quilted anything in the borders it didn’t lay at all flat it just waved and waved.
After that the quilt came off the wall and became a feature of my trunk show. I like to think I’ve come a long way from that first quilt.
Enjoy,
It’s been two weeks and my Bernina is still at the Bernina Doctor for a little love and care. Here she is when she first arrived home almost two years ago.
When she first came home she sat on top of the cabinet but with a little tweaking she is now able to sit down even with my sewing table. I’ll take a better picture when she makes her way home again.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my old Pfaff. She’s always ready and willing to step up to the plate and “do her thing”. Here she is all happy to be helping out even if she is filling some big shoes.
I really love both machines. As they say (whoever they are) they are different but the same. They both have a wonderful stitch and are easy to use. I do think the even feed feature (IDF) on the Pfaff is a little better. However, for machine quilting the Bernina wins hand down with that big throat area and the stitch regulator (BSR).
I’m a lucky girl to have both machines that I can use. I’d be lost if I only had one machine. BTW, I’m not saying how many other machines are hiding in the house and the garage. How bout you? Are you willing to say how many sewing machines you have?
Enjoy,
On the list of reasons why it’s great to live in Seal Beach, watching the sun go down over the Pacific has got to rank pretty high. I found this in my local paper the LosAlamitos-SealBeachPatch and couldn’t resist sharing it.
Enjoy,
A while back I was asked to submit a block for the summer edition of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks magazine. They are also going to have a gallery of quilts featuring quilts made with the blocks. So I am working furiously on completing a quilt made with the block I submitted. That being said, I can’t show you the block or the quilt but I can give you a peak at what’s on my design wall.
and this on my cutting table
and sitting by the sewing machine
I need 12 blocks and each block has 45 pieces. WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I THINKING???????
Now back to sewing, I have to keep my nose to the grind stone (as they say). I promised my quilter I’d have it to her by tomorrow for a fast turnaround.
Wish me luck. To see what others have on their design walls head on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times Blog.
Enjoy,
Earlier this week I was excited to received two Mug Rugs in the mail. They made it all the way to Southern California, from Wiltshire, United Kingdom. Angela Hart of http://angelcatuk.blogspot.com/ made them for me and I just love them.
Thank you Angela,
Enjoy,
I’ve been playing with making myself a new name tag for guild.
Can you tell what I used? Does this help?
Pretty clever, if I do say so myself.
Enjoy,
Yesterday I was delighted to spend the morning with the Quilting Bees at Leisure World, Seal Beach, CA. Leisure World holds a special place in my heart, my Mother lived there, and loved it, for over 35 years and it’s only a hop skip and a jump from my home.
This is the giant globe in front of the main entrance. Leisure World is a gated senior community. It is about 1 mile square (although it seems larger) and is virtually a city within itself. About 9,000 people call it home. Along with several churches, golf course, amphitheater, medical center, post office, etc., it has quite a few club houses that host many clubs and activities.
Club House 3 hosts the Quilting Bees every Wednesday morning. The actually have their own sewing room that has about 12 fairly new Janomes for use by the residents. It’s a great room with lots of workspace including big, high tables for cutting or basting a quilt. And yesterday they invited me to bring my trunk show and do my song and dance routine. I had a wonderful time with this great group of women and hope to go back and teach some classes real soon.
A big thank you to Ruth Ann and Barbara for inviting me. Love you guys!
I’m participating in a Mug Rug exchange over on Facebook’s Quilting Gallery. I’ll be sending two of them off within the next few days.
Here’s the fronts and the backs of the three I’ve made.
What a fun little project.
Enjoy,
On Sunday’s post I showed you a very, very old UFO that I was determined to finished. Well guess what? I did it. I managed to get the binding completely done and it is now in the completed pile.
This quilt will no doubt end up as a charity quilt so instead of the traditional way of sewing binding on a quilt I did it a little different. Typically I sew the binding to the back, mitering the corners, and then turn it to the back and hand sew it down. In this case I reversed the process. I sewed the binding to the back of the quilt, mitered the corners, and then turned it to the front. Using variegated thread I selected a button hole stitch and sewed it in place. Here’s a few close-up pictures.
Here I am sewing the binding to the front of the quilt. Notice the foot? I love this foot and use it a lot. It’s called various names depending on the machine manufacture but the most common name is a joining foot, or lace joining foot. In this case I rode the center flange along the folded edge of the binding and had the needle stitch right along side the fold and then take the “bite” to the right.
It’s not quite as neat on the back side but it looks OK and can withstand a ton of wear and tear and the corners are still beautifully mitered.
If you missed how I miter my corners, I did a little tutorial here. It works every time. BTW this quilt is made using my Wacky Devine Nine pattern. It can be ordered from my website.
Enjoy,
I’ve dug another UFO out and have started working on it again. It will be a Magical Slice and Dice quilt.
Lots and lots of kaleidoscope blocks. The next step is sashing and then they will be set on point. Something like this.
Since this is Valentine’s Day . . . . . . Happy Valentine’s Day everyone . . . . . . I thought I’d show you what my granddaughter Emily made yesterday to take to school and share with some of her friends.
Red Velvet Cake Balls, the recipe can be found here.
To see what everyone else has on their design wall, check out Judy’s Blog.
Enjoy,
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