Simply Charming

I originally showed this quilt top here.  At that time I was playing with the borders using leftovers from the center blocks.  Yesterday I finally managed to get the borders sewn on and it’s now been moved to the “waiting to quilt” pile.  Unfortunately, I have quite a few tops waiting their turn to be quilted.  Oh well, I would guess I’m not alone. 

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday – 6/28/10

Wow, it’s Monday already!  Last night I managed to get the blocks made for the class I am teaching in a few weeks in Las Vegas. 

Here it’s arranged as a straight set but it will eventually get turn so that it’s on-point.

I turned my camera 45 degrees to give you an idea of what it will look like.

And as a reminder it will be a “Magnolia Lane” when finished. 

To see what others have on their design walls, head on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times.

Enjoy,

Sunset in Seal Beach

Last night John and I headed to downtown Seal Beach for dinner at our favorite Mexican Restaurant, El Burrito, Jr.  After dinner we decided to take a walk out on the pier.  It was just before sunset and we didn’t know it at the time, but we were in for a treat. 

A view of Long Beach, CA from the Seal Beach Pier

Although Seal Beach is in California on the west coast of North America, we drive south to get to the beach.  We could drive west and reach the ocean eventually but because of the curve of the shoreline, the beach has always been south for me.

 

Here’s a map, with an arrow pointing to Seal Beach.

The water is really cold but this brave soul was still out there waiting for just the right wave.

More gorgeous pictures from last night. 

Enjoy,

Gettin’ Ready for Vegas

Every year I head to Las Vegas for 5 days of heaven, sewing at a quilt retreat, in July.  This year I will be teaching one day and the project that was selected is my “Magnolia Lane” pattern. 

Yesterday I finally settled on what fabrics I would use for my “story board” and sample.  For me, my story board shows each of the steps in making the quilt and concludes with me, hopefully, finishing the quilt. 

Here’s the fabrics:

The fabrics in the middle will make up the center of the quilt, the green on the left is the binding and the print on the right is the backing.  When finished, it will probably be donated to my quilt guild (unless one of my granddaughters claim it as their own). 

I’m going to work on it this weekend and will post pictures of my progress. 

Enjoy,

My Friend Patti

One of my earliest memories is when my family moved into my childhood home on Montair Ave. in Long Beach CA.  It was my parents, my sister and me.  I didn’t know anyone else.

I was 4 years old and I remember venturing outside and hanging out on the driveway.  I looked up and there stood another little girl who said “Hi, I’m Patti, who are you?”  That was just the beginning.  As it turned out, Patti lived two houses south of me.  The next thing I knew another little girl appeared and it was Linda and she lived 3 houses to the north.  I was sandwiched right in-between.  Little did I know at the time that they would both become my life long friends.  I was the oldest by 4/5 months.  We went all the way through school together from our first day of kindergarten until graduation. 

I’m not sure how old we are here but it was probably shortly after we met.  Patti in on the left and that’s me on the right.

As we got older we went our separate ways but they’ve always been my oldest and dearest friends.  2 days ago I got a call from Linda and I was so excited to hear from her until I heard her voice and knew something was terribly wrong.  We had all been there for each other as our parents grow older and passed away but that never prepared me for this phone call.  Linda told me that my oldest friend in the world, Patti Anticoni had passed away an hour earlier after a long and very difficult illness. 

Patti leaves behind her husband Pat, her son Christopher, her brother Bruce and of course her two oldest friends Linda and Robin.  Please say a special prayer for her family at this difficult time. 

Sadly,

Design Wall Monday – June 21, 2010

I’m playing with the borders of my Simply Charming quilt.  I started this a few weeks ago after finding this fabric hidden in a drawer.  It must of been in there for many years because I didn’t even remember buying it. 

If you’d like to see what others are up to, head on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times Blog and spend some time clicking here and there.  

Enjoy,

Quilters Run - 2010

The Southern California Quilters Run is going on this weekend and next.  My friends Marilyn, Linda and I decided to spend the day doing just a small portion of the run.  We started out this morning around 10:45 and came dragging back home around 5:30.  We had a great day helping the economy.

 

We started out this morning by visiting Quilt Cupboard which is located right around the corner from me.  I’m in there fairly often so I really didn’t expect to buy anything.  WRONG, as I was leaving I saw this and couldn’t resist.

Next stop, Bear’s Quilt Shop.  Once again I wasn’t planning on buying anything but then I found this fabric.  It’s charcoal grey with red swirls.  It an In the Beginning fabric and was really well priced.  The picture’s not great but in person it’s wonderful.

Moving on down the road we headed to Flying Geese Quilt Shop in Tustin.  This is a shop where I normally can’t resist making purchases.  They have a huge selection of Kaffe, Amy Butler and others.  Believe it or not I didn’t buy a darn thing.  It was sort of like a miracle. 

We then headed north to visit the new location for Quilter’s Garden now in Anaheim.  Although I didn’t buy anything here either, I did snap a picture of their Letty’s Bag display.

Wait, I did to buy something.  I forgot, I found this great girls soccer fabric in they’re discount room.  40% off, yea.  My granddaughter, Emily is off playing in a tournament in Oregon so maybe I can figure out something to make for her or the coach.

On the road again, we decide to stop by one of Marilyn’s favorites, Fresh Picked Fabrics.  Although they’re not officially on the run they certainly made us feel welcome.  As you enter you play bingo and based on what number you get determines how much discount you get on your purchases.  Linda hit the jackpot of 50% off.  She quickly became my best friend and graciously purchased two fabrics for me.  Both fabric have a texture to them.  Sort of like a home spun but different.  The red is my favorite but the white is also wonderful and can be dyed. 

Around the corner we went to our next stop Calico House.  They have a really nice new location with a wonderful, large class.  I didn’t buy anything but Marilyn found a dog fabric with a Pug on it that she’d been looking for. 

Cozy Cottage was next.  Kris the owner has been a wonderful customer of mine and has sold a gazillion patterns for me.  So today I was able to deliver her latest order and save her the shipping.  While there I picked up nine Halloween fat quarters.  I plan to make another Nine Patch Surprise with them. 

 

Finally we headed to our last stop of the day, Timeless Quilts.  Our friend Sue manages the shop and has her longarm quilting business there.  I didn’t buy anything but I did get a couple of pattern orders so it was a good stop for me. 

That’s it, I’m home now and pooped even though we only went to 8 out of 38 shops on the run.  It was a fun day with friends and shopping for fabric, what more can a person ask for.   

Enjoy,

I Love Comments but…….

I love to receive comments but sometimes it can be frustrating.  I try to respond to everyone, especially those that ask questions.  If you haven't received a reply from me, I really am not ignoring you, I’d love to answer but many of you are set to NOREPLY and you probably don’t even know it.  When I first started blogging someone had to tell me I was set to NOREPLY and then tell me how to fix it.  Here’s a great tutorial on how to fix it.  http://www.sweetsimplicityblog.com/2009/08/noreplyblogger.html  She does a great job of stepping you through the noreply dilemma.

In the mean time, I’ve had questions regarding the Kindle case I received as well as some of the quilts I’ve shown.

This was a gift from my sister Melinda.  If you head on over to her blog http://melinful.blogspot.com and leave her a message with your questions, I know that she will respond to you, but remember to leave an email address or change your settings so that she can reply. 

Enjoy,

L. A. County Quilt Guild – Part 3

Please, please  take the time to watch this.  Thanks to Debbie Scire the Historian for LACQG who took pictures at my lecture and workshop.  She then put them into a Smilebox slide show.  What a great job she did.  My lecture was “K.I.S.S.” Keep it Sew Simple.  I had a ton of quilts to show and she certainly did a great job of capturing the highlights. 

http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d54637a4f44417a4d544e384d7a677a4e7a6b784d6a553d0d0a&sb=1

Thank you Debbie, I love it.

Enjoy,

Look What I Got!

I’m just going to say it up front – I am very, very spoiled – and I love it. 

My sister Melinda recently posted a picture of a Kindle case she made using selvages.  When I saw it I was very jealous and pouted just a teeny tiny little bit.  Well it worked and she agreed to make me one. 

A couple of days ago she posted a picture of the completed cover and also had a picture of something else she was sending me as a little gift.  All I could tell from the picture was that it was red (I love red).  I guessed it was a hat (I have not idea why a hat popped in my head, neither one of us wears hats) but needless to say I was wrong. 

Want to see pictures of my gifties?

And the red object?

Isn’t it the cutest basket you’ve ever seen?  I can think of lots of uses for it.  Melinda, is it from IKEA? 

So don’t you agree, I’m a lucky duck (and spoiled) to have such a wonderful sister? 

I love you big Sis!

Enjoy,

L.A. County Quilt Guild – Part 2

Isn’t this a great looking group.  They were all there bright and early and couldn’t have been nicer to me.  88 member and 13 guests.  They had a fabulous show and tell but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any pictures of all the wonderful quilts.   Thank you L.A. County Quilt Guild for being such a great audience. 

Check out this ingenious solution to a problem. 

Look closely, can you tell what it is?  They cut up one of those big plastic soda bottles and then hung it on the front of the coffee pot.  No more drips on the floor.  I think it’s just so cleaver, I had to take a picture of it and share it with you.  

Tomorrow I teach the Magical 3-D Stars workshop.  With this group, I know I’m going to have a great time. 

Enjoy,

L. A. County Quilt Guild

I’m all packed and head to a speaking engagement at L. A. County Quilt guild. 

What do you think, will it all fit in my little VW?  I think so, I’m pretty good at stuffing.  The duffle bags are about 4’ long and hold a lot of quilts to share.  I used to pack in suitcases but have found the duffle bags work a lot better.  For one thing, they’re just easier to stuff in the car.    

Tomorrow I will be teaching a workshop.  The guild chose to make my Magical 3D Stars. 

It a really fun quilt to make.  The stars points are 3 dimensional.  The blocks are made, sewn together as a straight set and then by magic, and two strategic diagonal cuts, the entire thing is turned on-point.   I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun.  I’ll post pictures of the workshop. 

And of course, if you’d like to purchase any of my patterns, you can head on over to my website.  Or for that matter, if you like to have me visit your guild, you contact me either through my Blog or my website. 

Enjoy,

Design Wall Monday – June 14, 2010

I’m afraid my design wall is a little sad this morning. 

There hasn’t been much sewing going on around here.  My blocks from my “Five, Ten, Twenty” (Forty) are still hanging up there, partly sewn together.  And then a couple of blocks that are for various projects. 

Here’s a close-up of of a block I made for a friend that loves Halloween.   Other than that, not much.

To see what others are up to, head on over to Judy’s, Patchwork Times Blog. 

In the mean time, I have to start working on my “story board” for a workshop I’m teaching later this week.  I’ll blog about it later today or tomorrow.  Until then,

Enjoy,

Thrift Store Find

My friend Beth is forever finding treasures at the local thrift shops.  The other day she posted a darling teachers quilt that has the best backing.  The backing was a new curtain that she found at a thrift shop.  Take a minute and head on over to her blog and see this terrific quilt.  Then come on back here to see what I found. 

I’m in the planning stages of a new tote bag, something to take your workshop/retreat supplies in.  I was planning on going shopping for some upholstery weight fabric.  Inspired by Beth, the next time I drove by one of the local thrift shops I parked and went in to look around.  Well, look what I found.

About 3 yards long, 56” wide, it’s brand new and colors I love.  But best of all it was only $3.00.  Check it out -

If you look closes (actually you don’t even have to look all that close) you will see that one of the cats has already but their stamp of approval on it. 

So Beth, be warned, you have competition for those Thrift Store finds. 

Enjoy,

EQ7 – It’s Arrived – Yea!

I’ve been waiting patiently for my upgrade to EQ7 to arrive and sure enough, the mailman delivered it yesterday afternoon. 

I haven’t had a chance to install it yet but I will definitely start playing with it this afternoon.  A few of my designs start out in EQ but all of my quilt designs end up there even though some of them start out as paper, scissors and tape or glue.  It’s a wonderful design tool.

Do you EQ?

Enjoy,