Autumn in Turtle Valley

Here's the progress so far..if you click on the picture it will open up bigger. I still need to stem stitch all the green leaves, add a bit more embroidery and some beads (clear ones in the river for bubbles)..not sure what else..maybe a bird in the sky...one of my GF's thinks I should accentuate the turtles in the green batik, but I am not sure what would look right...then I need to figure out how to quilt this!

Coastal Shop Hop

Yesterday, a group of us went on a 'creative crafting' shop hop - usually we just go to quilt shops on the big So Cal Quilter's Run..but this one had a bit of a different flair..there were a couple of quilt shops, a couple of bead shops, a couple of gifty type stores, a couple of yarn shops and one that had scrapbooking supplies too..

Most of the day we were hugging the coastline and it was quite overcast as it usually is at the coast in the spring...it was nice hopping weather! Not too cold, not too hot..and not too bright...

Starry Night Hollow...a very interesting Quilt Shop..in a house! The gardens around the house were so pretty, I asked if I could snap some shots...

Notice the gate in the picture..it has a quilt attached to the gate!

The poppies are starting to really bloom out around the freeways - these two shots were taken thru the car window as we were going down a freeway ramp (which is why they are a bit blurry):

I think there is some blue lupine mixed in there too...

At one of the shops...I found wool roving in a vast array of colors..the lady asked me what I was going to make with the wool and I said I wanted to try making some felted animals - she said 'I have just the book for you!' and indeed, it had to come home with me:

if you follow the link to Amazon, you can see more of the pictures inside the book..the animals are sooooo cute!

Beaded Kaleidescope

Back in 2007, I took a class at Road to California from Nancy Eha on making beaded Kaleidoscopes...I finished the beading of the kaleidoscope in late January, but did not get around to designing and working on the quilt until late last year...

The frame for the outer ring is made of Timtex..but that was not strong enough to support the extra beading that I did in the outer ring, so I cut a very sturdy cardboard ring and that is sandwiched inside - that made it sufficiently stiff! I was going to picot bead around all of the edges but after I saw the effect of the outer ring, decided that would be going overboard.

This is a picture before the wires were sewn down and the outer ring beading was done:

And...here it is - Done! I just need to figure out how to hang it...any suggestions on how to hang it, especially if I entered it into a show, would be welcome!

What to Do With Class Sample Pieces - Make a Tote!

The third day of Road classes was free motion quilting - and we made a cute little zipper pouch out of one of the pieces..but that left TWO more quilt sandwiches that were still just sample pieces...One of the ladies at work suggested I make them into a tote..so that's what I did!

(sorry about the picture being a bit washed out..but otherwise you would not see the quilting...)

I used some of my precious stash of Laurel Birch animal fabric..because the black background matched the black sampler pieces (matching black is more difficult than you would think!) AND it had red in the design - the hardest part was cutting into the Laurel Birch fabric and wondering if I would like the end result!...It's made so that it's completely reversible and I thought I was going to like the black on black side better, but when I turned it inside out to show DH that it was reversible, I was charmed by the red on black..especially with the white bobbin work!

I am going to try to find some Laurel Birch buttons for the strap area..I think that would look cute!

Sweet Magnolias Update

Here is the progress on my version of the Sweet Magnolias from the class at Road to California...all of the applique is done, the embroidery is done (the eye was made by making a teeny tiny black yo-yo and adding a wee white highlight - something I learned how to do from Sharon Shamber's applique lessons), the borders have been found and added , its pin basted and ready for quilting. So far, I have not decided on whether I should do the quilting by hand or by machine...but hopefully I will get to it soon. Just in case I want to do it by hand, I used muslin for the backing, though I do have enough of the outer border fabric to fit..but hand quilting thru batik is a little harder than thru muslin! I have just enough of the inner border fabric left to do the binding.

My friends and I went on a road trip last Saturday to find the border fabrics. First we went to Oceanside to a museum that was having a quilt show - that was interesting..there were some really well done pieces there. Then we headed to our favorite Mexican food place. Its been in San Diego for many years and has pretty much perfected 'fast' food! When we got there, the line was out the door, but we were up to the register in just a few minutes and had our food by about 10 minutes later..pretty darn quick for the number of patrons...and yummy! Then we headed to Rosie's Calico Cupboard...one of the largest quilt shops..and with the best prices! We spent a couple of hours in there - I was looking for just the right fabrics for the borders for Sweet Magnolias - I finally found the right ones after going thru bolt after bolt of batik fabric! It was even sweeter with the '10% off batik fabric' coupon I had in hand! We headed over to Amidon Quilt shop - I did not get too much there and then back home.

I was initially concerned that the pattern called for pink in the magnolia blossoms, but found there actually IS a pink magnolia! Curiously, called a 'Susan Magnolia'!! I have never seen one up close..the only magnolias that I have seen that I could identify as a magnolia are the white ones.

Road to California - Day 4

On the fourth day, I took a 'Fabric-scapes' class from Martha Nordstrand , from whom I had taken a class using her applique technique 3 years ago at Road..I still have that piece (several lovely California poppies) up on my design wall..waiting for the perfect place to put it...

Her technique is to cut templates from full sheets of label paper that get adhered to the right side of the fabric, then you turn the piece over, coat the edges with glue and use tiny screwdrivers to turn over the edge..she does absolutely lovely pieces and in fact, won the first place ribbon in the large applique quilt category at Road this year - here is her quilt...

Being currently fascinated with landscapes and landscape quilts, I wanted to see how she approached them. First we picked a picture to use - and reduced it to just the major elements...then auditioned fabrics and cut chunks of those fabrics, glued the edges and built up the picture against a piece of stiff clear plastic..for tricky details, we used the label paper, but mostly you just cut a piece that roughly matched the shape from the picture and worked from there...

I picked a Tuscan landscape to work with..I changed my mind about the back fabric and the sky a couple of times...until I got this - its just in the 'glue basted' stage..have not done any of the appliqueing yet...

After dinner (we opted for really fast for this last night and ate at In-N-Out - a local burger joint that makes delicious cheeseburgers), I took a class on Cathedral Stars by Shelley Swanland. I was seriously hoping to finish this quilt during the three hour class, but realize I was seriously deluded and out of my quiting mind! I got done with the top by the end of the class...but I was not happy with how the sashing came out..had to take it home and have several conversations with Jack (the Ripper) but finally, it came together ok - not perfect, but acceptable...I quilted it Sunday and thought about adding one of the piped bindings like I had seen in the Roundabout..rummaged around in my Granny's stash..found a package of unopened piping and started sewing it on...well..much to my dismay, the fabric had dry-rotted! There was black fabric dust EVERYWHERE..on the floor, on my clothes, under my fingernails, all over my machine....after that debacle I decided that the quilt was just going to get an ordinary binding!

I got the binding sewn on the front and took the quilt with me to the Dr's office to do the hand stitching on the bask while I waited..no sooner had I taken the needle out to do the very first stitch than the nurse called me back! That happened a couple more times - I had to have my mammies grammied and it happened in their waiting room too, and at the pharmacy!..I guess taking handwork is a way to ward off having to wait for long..and if you do really have to wait, you have something to do...

The flowers are formed during the quilting and then afterwards I added the beads and some embroidery thread stamens..overall, its pretty darned cute! And I love the colors of the kit I got!

Road To California - Day 3

The third day was spent learning more machine quilting with Lois Smith. We experimented with free form designs, spent lots of time learning to control the speed of quilting and generally just having fun quilting. At the end of the class, we created a small triangle zipper bag out of one of the samples.

After dinner at El Pollo Loco (I had my favorite - three chicken wings!), we went to whats called 'Roundabout'..this is a facinating event...a bunch of the teachers and vendors put on 10 minute demos and every 10 minutes a bell rings, and you run to another demo..this goes on for a couple of hours..you are given a packet of info at the start of the show and list of the demos so you can decide which ones to attend..We saw soooo much..and had lots of fun..One of the demos, I was very facinated with - Silk ribbon embroidery by machine...Susan Schrempf was demo-ing her beautiful method..and I just HAD to buy the book, and the tools!

We also saw demos for

- the StarBuilder that is a set of rubbing pads for the Shiva Paintstiks - makes gorgeous star designs.

-how to make dogtooth borders

-how to make some really interesting quilts with nickle pieces and fusible grid

-some beautiful ribbon postcards

-how to do 'applique on the edge' - an interesting applique technique using bobbin work to outline the pieces

-the Great Glue Stick Caper - applique using glue sticks and small screwdrivers (more about this technique in Day 4 as the teacher is the same as my full day class) - but my friend had never seen the demo...

-how to do a piped binding

-printed kaleidescope cards using a pretty cool piece of software that makes the kaliedescopes for you that you can then print out on photo fabric sheets

and

-using the multi-angle Wedge ruler...

Road to California - Day 2

The second day I spent learning machine quilting. The class was taught by Lois Smith - here is a bit about Lois on the Backroads to Road to California blog. We warmed up a bit with a small practice piece then started making a set of three panels on white sateen using the purple air erase markers to define where to sew..after we finished the three pieces, we put them together using a 'quilt as you go technique'...the class sample had a border, but I decided just to make mine have a facing and use it as a table runner.


Here is the class sample:



























And here are the three panels that I got finished...I have since put the facing on it so its not a UFO anymore!And the purple marker is almost gone...you can still see faint lines...


























After dinner at Olive Garden (I went wild and ordered a delicious steak..half of which I took home to DH!), one of my friends and I went to a needlefelting class and made this cute strawberry pincushion. This class was taught by 'Bird Brain Designs' - a bunch of delightfully funny ladies - and was one of the most fun classes I have attended! I really enjoyed needlefelting..so much so, that I now have the foam block, three single needles, a 4 needle tool, lots of wool roving and a cute tote bag from the Bird Brain ladies! I just need to make a cotton cover for the foam block to keep the roving from getting stuck in the foam..and I am all set to experiment with making balls, and critters and whatnot out of wool...I might have to buy me a sheep if I really get into this!

Road to California - Day 1

The first class I attended at Road to California this year was on Needleturn Applique...Teacher was Cathy Van Bruggen and the pattern she was teaching from is called 'Sweet Magnolias' - a design with a mockingbird and several magnolia blossoms. I think I finally 'get' needleturn! It was a good class..I got finished with constructing my birdie except for the embroidery for his eye, beak and maybe some feathers, and the branch he will sit on.


This is the class sample that the teacher did:


















Here is what I got done:

The bird is all from one fabric - we cut out template pieces from freezer paper, then I picked out the areas on the fabric that were the right value for each piece..my poor piece of fabric now looks like swiss cheese! But since its all one fabric, the color goes together marvelously..greys are usually hard to match. The bird is built on a piece of interfacing as a unit - this is a great technique - once you get all your units ready, you can line them up with the pattern (or adjust if you want or need to) and no problems with a piece being just a smidge too short to match up.

After the class, my friends and I went out to eat at Red Lobster..I had stuffed mushrooms and asparagus..yummy! (and only ONE cheese biscuit! I had never tasted one...it was very good!)

Then we attended the preview show for class participants. It was marvelous seeing the spectacular quilts - check out the winners! One pretty cool thing that they did this year was have a wonderful harpist playing during the show...

Before the Stroke of Midnight...

This was the third quilt for the Finish 3 Quilts by 12/31/2008 Challenge - I made it with 22 minutes to spare!

In March of 2007, we started a HUGE project at work..with brutal hours..I worked sometimes 70-80 hours per week, week after week..my laptop was my constant companion! (I even had to bring it to the Arizona Retreat last year! I was running the daily jobs at our Christmas party last year and during our milestone celebration dinners)...I would roll out of bed, head for our project trailer, work til no one else was still there except my boss, head for home and sometimes even get back on the computer after I got home...It got so bad that I was even DREAMING about the work we were doing and the people on the project...could not even escape the project in my slumber!

One night...I remembered what my Mamma had told me when I was a small girl and having bad dreams...If you are dreaming about something you don't want to dream about, wake yourself up, turn over in bed and think about something pleasant...so..I did..and there was a cow! In a field! With the sun shining and a fluffy white cloud and trees and butterflies and flowers!

This quilt was started shortly after we implemented the project (on time and under budget!) in May 2008....and finished just before the stroke of midnight 12/31/20008!

It's quilted on wool batting which is why its so poofy! It's 22x26 inches - hand pieced, hand appliqued, hand quilted - even the binding was put on by hand!...I named it 'She's Out Standing In Her Field'...

Orchid Convergence

At the last Arizona quilting retreat, one of the activities was learning how to make a convergence quilt from Ricky Tims technique. Not knowing if I would like this technique - you never know till you are done with the piece if the fabrics you have picked 'work' for a convergence - I used some sample pieces that I had gotten in a Rosie's Quilt Cupboard run a few months earlier. The orchid fabric came in two sizes and I thought that might make the convergence look more coordinated...picked out a green and a black from the pile of sample fabric and made the convergence top at retreat. Its been sitting in a zip bag as a PIGZ (Project in a Gallon Zippy) with its backing and batting since I got home..kind of buried in the stuff on top of my cutting table..I was looking for a cable template that I wanted to use on the Butterfly Heart...and found the bag..but no cable template (I ended up free handing the cables..) Thursday afternoon, I was in the mood for a little machine quilting, and this was calling to me...so I added the borders, fused the scraps of the orchid material and trimmed out what orchids I could, arranged them on the borders, fused them in place and quilted the center of the quilt! The next day I added the viney leaf quilting to the border, and the binding..Went together very quickly! And..I like it!



















Here is a detail of the larger orchid in the corner:

Butterfly Heart

I renamed the Crazy Heart quilt to Butterfly Heart...its finished! I put the last stitches into it last night. I blocked it by spraying the non-embellished areas with sizing..and ironing..but that made the wool a bit flat, so after it dried, I went back and steamed the quilted areas so the wool would puff up again..

Here is the full quilt. I love how the wool batting makes the quilting seem to pop out. Wool is my favorite batting to hand quilt...needle goes thru like a hot knife thru butter! I did end up having to tack the heart down - it looked too strange without it being tacked..so I took hidden quilting stitches along all the seams and it looks much better. The center butterfly was not originally quilted or embellished..but it looked poofy too, so I quilted around it...because there are so many layers at that point, I ended up doing one stitch at a time - it has much better definition now..I don't think I have seen the technique of using both encrusted crazy quilting and sane (traditional) quilting in the same piece..but I like how mine turned out!


















Here is a detail of the upper quilting...I added an orange outline of the butterfly in between the outline quilting of the butterfly feathers to make it stand out a bit - hopefully you can see it..the picture is a little dark to keep the flash from washing the orange out...














Here is a detail of the corner feathers - the butterflies are made of feathers too:

Crazy Heart Progress

Here's the progress so far on the Crazy Heart..

I have it stabilized..now to put in the detail quilting around the heart and in the border.

The brown edge is just the back pinned to the front to keep the wool batting from shedding all over the piece..I think I don't like the brown on the outer edge so the binding will have to be something else..probably the orange fabric.

It looks kinda wrinkly in this picture, but I am pretty sure its just because its been stuffed in a project bag...I am going to press it before I mark it for the detail quilting...

Also..the heart may need some tacking down on the interior..it's pretty stiff and puffy..

Older post about this piece is in September 2006

Back in the Saddle...

Well hopefully I won't be as absent as I have been with blogging..I finally got a new battery for my camera, it's charged up and I can take photos again...

I joined the 'Finish 3 UFO's by 12/31/2008' Challenge on the quilting forum - I have at least 14 UFO's or WIPs... These are the three I am working on:

1. Valentine's Table Runner...this was hand pieced at Retreat 2007 in the Mystery Blocks Challenge that Lindahoo ran. I finished quilting it today and gave it a quick wash...it caused me sooooo much trouble! Once I got it sandwiched, I could not find the metallic red thread I wanted to use...then once I found it and started quilting..the red material stretched all over the place, even though it was pinned within an inch of its life and looked HORRIBLE...tore all of that out...got some regular Gutterman hand quilting thread...not much better luck with that (by this time I was considering throwing it in the trash!) ...so I popped my Big Foot on my machine and subdued this recalcitrant piece!!! It looked fine with just the machine quilting, but there were a couple of large open areas (the batting is fleece, so it did not HAVE to be quilted) so I added some hand quilted hearts there...now I like it! And its DONE!!!

This picture makes it look more pink than it is..the fabrics are really red and a cream color...














Here is a detail shot of the hand quilted hearts (sorry they are a little hard to see):















2. Crazy Heart Wall Hanging - which is in quilting now. UFO since 2006, when I did most of my crazy quilting. I am mounting the heart in a frame and quilting around it..it will probably get some braiding added to the border...

3. My Cow Quilt - it still is getting a bit more applique done, then will be quilted.
There is a story behind that one - when I was working on the 'Project from You Know Where' last year, I was working so hard and such long hours that I kept dreaming about the people from work...now..they are nice folks and all, and I like working with them (we had many hours of meetings every day) but I could NOT get away from them, even in my sleep! When I was a little girl, I remember my Mamma telling me if I was dreaming about something I did not want to dream about, I should wake my self up, turn over in bed and think of something pleasant..so I did..and there was a cow, out in a field, with a blue sky, and puffy white clouds, and some trees and some flowers...This quilt is a memory of that!!!

I will post pictures of the others later...

I've also done some amigurumi (crochet) too..a mouse and a cat..the mouse I gave to the Resident Quilt Inspectors..it's getting a wee bit ragged already!

Aloha!

We spent our vacation this year on the Big Island!
DH and I have wanted to get to Hawaii for a long time...this year we just said it's TIME and made the reservations! I desperately needed a bit of time off!

We drove down as close as you can get to the Kealakekua Bay that has Captain Cook's Monument -
DH wrote a children's book about Captain Cook so the subject fascinates him...we asked a bunch of the local folks if they had ever seen the actual plaque that's IN the water at where they think Captain Cook met his demise and they looked at us like we were nuts - but I have seen pictures of it on the Internet!!! The only way to get over there is by kayak...but we did not really realize that until it was too late to rent a set and paddle over there...there used to be a arduous trail, but it was not available - there was a landslide in that area after a recent earthquake that we think is why the trail is out of commission.

We watched a luau from our balcony at the hotel - it was a trip being able to wander in and out of the hotel room instead of having to sit there (captive) for several hours - we could see perfectly well!...the only thing we did NOT get out of that was tasting poi..which most people that have tasted say it tastes like you would imagine wallpaper paste tasting...not dreadfully high on my list of things I gotta do!! -
we did get to taste the kalua pig at a buffet though so we did not miss much as far as the food goes - it was interesting seeing the imu - I thought the room was on fire when they started the pit in the morning as the smoke wafted up to our windows - it wasn't until I saw the guys messing around in the dirt that I figured out what was going on!...We stayed at the Royal Kona
and since it was our anniversary, they upgraded the room and sent us a bottle of (alcohol free) bubbly..which we shared whilst watching the luau...the room was incredibly big...since it was on the corner, the balcony stretched around both sides...I brought some material and started a Hawaiian Applique block..it was pretty cool to work on that in Hawaii while listening to Hawaiian music!

We went on a flying tour of the Island...saw the 10 mile wide bubbling lava,
the macadamia groves, the eucalyptus groves, saw the waterfalls off the cliffs, and the ritzy resorts to the north of Kona...One is the Hilton at Waikaloa..the pilot pointed it out to us as we flew over it...we were so intrigued that after the flight, we drove up there and had one of the most wonderful buffet dinners (that's where we tasted the kalua pig)..
if you have never been there, it's a trip in itself - there are 5 huge hotel buildings connected by a monorail and a canal boat system!!!! Hammocks are strung between palm trees and the most incredible collection of oriental art...just sitting right out there to be enjoyed. There are waterfalls and lagoons - it's quite fascinating just to walk around there.

We drove out to the top of the Island to see if we could see Maui..and we could...then we drove thru Parker Ranch lands...zowsers is that awesomely gorgeous (if ever we moved to Hawaii, I think I would want to be up near Waimea...)...We made it all the way over to Hilo..but since it was already dark by then, there was not too much we could see - we did try hiking down the pathway to Akaka Falls..but the only flash lights we had were our cell phones!!

I got some 'interesting' flash shots of the vegetation! And the night sounds...pure heavenly music...I could listen to the frogs singing any day...

We went on a tour up Mauna Kea to see the observatories...they provide parkas since its below freezing (imagine that on a tropical isle!) We had dinner on the way up, watched the sun set on one side and the moon rise a few moments later on the other side...
saw the top of Mauna Loa in the clouds in the distance and on the way down we stopped to see the Space Station hurtle from one side of the sky to the other...then they put on a star show with telescopes so we could see some sights...that was the night of the total lunar eclipse so as soon as we got back down to Kona (it would have been even cooler if they had delayed bringing us back until AFTER the eclipse..but they have a 'schedule' to keep...) we hightailed it up the highway a bit so we could get away from the clouds and see the full show...it was pretty spectacular in itself!

We chartered a motor boat and tooled around in the ocean for a half a day...that was the only day I was out in the sun enough to get burned...just a scrap of the back of my arms where the sunscreen unfortunately got forgotten...but, owie!!! We did get a bit closer to the Captain Cook monument
..but you can't dock there, so it was not as satisfying as actually going there! It would have been better to have the boat for the whole day and to have another couple with us so that we could go snorkeling and exploring the lava tubes. We were a bit squeamish about tying down the boat and both of us being in the water without someone looking after the boat...

I bought a lava-lava (or sarong)...bright, bright green! I am finding its a rather effective wrap when we go to the movies and the AC gets to be a bit much...there I am, wrapped up in a bright green lava-lava....

We saw so many blooming trees and colorful bushes...and a gecko and oodles of myna birds, and a silversword plant, and coffee groves and spinner dolphins...the only things we didn't do that we thought we might have wanted to was to go on the helicopter tour that sets down in a meadow for lunch (mucho, mucho dinero!), see the Volcanoes monument, see more of the rainforest and I did not get to go into a Hawaiian quilt shop!!! I had some thought of bringing back some barkcloth...but I guess that's for the next trip...

I could have stayed there for a couple more weeks, but it was not to be. At the luau...the announcer asked how many were there for the first time..he had a name for them that he said translated to something like 'first time visitors'...then he asked how many had been there more than once...he had another name and said it translated to 'Rich People'...it sure is expensive doing the 'touristy' stuff!..but we did find there were two WalMarts and at least 1 K-Mart..and the prices seemed pretty much in line with the mainland prices, at least on the stuff we looked at...

I am still incredibly busy at work with our massive conversion of the accounting system - it's not scheduled to be done until April next year...so it was kinda traumatic to them to have me gone for even a week! I did drag my laptop with me so I could keep up on emails and do emergency fixes...fortunately they did not plague me too much! Even though my laptop is pretty tiny and weighs hardly anything, the bag they gave me for toting it around was tooooo heavy...so I made a quilted slipcover for it and stuffed that inside my sewing tote! Not only was it much lighter, no one could tell it was a laptop in there!

Twinkle, Twinkle

I finally finished my 12 x 12 x 4 Challenge piece that was supposed to be done by April!!! (Better late than UFO, I say!)

This is a 12 inch circle. The pattern is 'Seven Sisters' - a variant of the 'Baby Blocks' or 'Tumbling Blocks' patterns. There are only two pieces of each of the colored fabrics..I used one in the stars, and one in the border.

Hand pieced with yummy wool batting and hand quilted with gold thread. Beaded with gold and iridescent beads.

This was a joyful quiltlet to work on..the colors are cheerful and just looking at it makes me happy. I was a bit surprised at how long it actually took me to finish it..but it looks just as I imagined so it was worth the effort.

It's Been A While...

but..I have been REALLY, REALLY busy at work...hopefully it will slow down in a few days and I can catch my breath!


Last weekend I went on the Southern California Quilter's Run...a pretty much annual event for the group of quilters I hang out with...Most of us either used to work together or still do, a one lady used to go square dancing with the lady that does the organizing and we were introduced to a friend of hers from church this year.

34 shops, 900 miles, 7 ladies, hundreds of dollars and all that in only 2 days!!!
It was kinda close for the last couple of stores...we short changed them a bit - we had to run in, get our passports stamped and boogie right back out...hopefully next year they won't be in the tail end of the second day and we can visit longer. There was one I want to go back to and probably will as its close to family.

I have a stack of 4 inch fabric charms - each store gave us a packet of at least 4 squares..sometimes more...and three neck chains full of real pewter charms...only one charm was repeated in amongst the offerings...pretty cool. I will probably separate out the ones that are obviously quilting related and make a necklace with them..the rest may find homes on crazy quilts... or I might just make the whole thing into a bracelet...

The reason we were dashing into the last few stores was the miserable traffic on the worst freeway in the US..and probably the world...the dreaded 405 South...by the time we got to the store off that freeway (Sewing Arts Center in Santa Monica), we were pretty frazzled...and were grousing about having to go there at all...We all said "THIS had better be a terrific store!" and to our utter delight, it was! The theme of the Run was Movies and each store picked a particular movie - the store named Cotton and Chocolate had, obviously, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (complete with Willie Wonka serving up chocolate bars!) The rest were not quite so obvious...but some of the stores really got into their themes...Sewing Arts Center picked 'Superstar' - all the employees dressed up in Catholic school outfits - even Russell...the totally crazy quilting guy that works there...He turned his skirt so the zipper was in front and said that made it a 'man skirt'..He had us laughing so hard..and it was just what we needed to revive us enough to finish the rest of the run!

We had a marvelous time!

And..least you think that was actually a couple of days off from work...nah...I had my laptop with me and remote-ed into work from the road during the drive times. They got me an AT&T phone card and it worked pretty well..there were only a few spots that did not get good reception...I got a lot done...

Wednesday WIP

I actually have some quilty stuff to show this week! I started working on my tiny hand pieced Seven Sisters which I HOPE I will get done with in time for the next Quilt Studio reveal. The circle will finish out to 12 inches so these are really small pieces. And all of it is from my scrap bag!

I started working on these at the car repair shop last Saturday - I had to do my bi-annual 'smog certificate' and I knew the car was going to need some work so I got there when they opened at 8am, hoping that they would be able to fix whatever needed fixing, and get the results to the state so I could get my car re-registered, all in one day. The car did indeed have to get a bunch of stuff done - they had to change the check-engine light bulb which meant they had had to take the dash apart and then there was some fancy-smancy part that only comes in an assembly costing 180 bucks(!) that needed to be replaced...but..it got done and whilst I was waiting, I ensconced myself in the waiting room with my Seven Sisters stuff...I only had the scraps picked out and put into baggies...so I marked and trimmed and stitched and got lots of comments (interestingly, mostly from the guys, though there were a few ladies that brought vehicles in to be serviced). The service guys were cute about coming into the waiting room to keep me informed of the progress (the rest of them had to go up to the counter to talk with them) so I did not have to get up and mess up my sewing setup..And by 1pm they were done, I had 5 stars completed and I was headed over to the AAA to get my car tag. I just need two more stars, the joining diamonds and the circle of diamonds around the outside border.

On Sunday, I took a class with my friends (most of them are quilters, one is a rabid knitter and only tolerates quilting because the rest of us are quilters!) on 'Color Theory For The Fiber Artist'. This was a very interesting class on why some colors make quilts look blah and why some make them pop. Part of the class was the teacher giving the groups assignments on what colors or color schemes to find and we went out into the store and pulled bolts of fabric that matched the assignment using our handy dandy 3-in-1 Color Tools ....wow, that was exhausting! Sometimes we just had to 'make do' because that color wasn't IN the store (at least that we could find!). I came away with a new appreciation of color.

Wednesday Progress

I am home today with a horribly sore throat and have taken numerous mad dashes down the hall...ICK!!! Someone must have breathed on me at the show that had germs...sigh...one of the hazards of going out into a venue with thousands of people.

But..beading is one of those activities that does not take much energy or moving around, so I worked on the Kaleidoscope...and the beading is done! Now I just have to figure out what to put as the border for my wall hanging...I am toying with the notion of it being one of my Circles for the 12x12x4 Challenge - since its definitely a Circle!!! I have some lovely fabric with gold veins on it that may work great. I really like how this turned out!

More Road Show and WIPS

More from the Road to California Quilt Show:

Saturday-

My class on Saturday was 'Garden of Eden' with Laura Wasilowski. Her style is similar to Melody's in that it uses fused hand-dyes, but the result is a little different. She is funny too like Melody - I wish I could have gone to the "Chicago School of Fusing' Luncheon...the ladies that went said it was very very funny!

I also attended a lecture by Gabrielle Swain on Creativity...I enjoyed listening to her very much! One of my girlfriends took Gabrielle's Leaf class and was quite inspired...I loved seeing the drawings of her design unfolding. Gabrielle was also one of the judges for the Quilt show.

Later Saturday night I attended Alex Anderson's trunk show...she is a hoot and a half to listen to. She's the kind of person I really wish I lived next door to - seems down to earth, sweet and really intelligent.

Sunday-

This is as far as I got on my Beaded Kaleidoscope in Nancy Eha's class. I was one of the faster beaders! I kept getting done with the rounds before she called time, so she would come by and show me how to do the next round...One thing almost tragic happened...in the process of setting up my bag the night before, somehow the prepared square to stitch on got misplaced...I was almost in a panic when the lady next to me said "I made two... one a little smaller than she asked for, but I brought it with me anyway and you can have it if you want" - Was I ever relieved!!!! A true 'Quilting Angel'. I gave her a nice fat quarter in exchange!

This is what the project sample looks like:

And here is Princess Suze wearing her 'tiara' in class...


Tuesday night:
Here is the progress on the beading. I have a minor problem - some of the embellishment beads are missing from the kit...so I may have to improvise if I cannot get them sent to me. Shoulda checked the kit more carefully before I left the classroom!




In other news:
This is picture of some of the 'Ugly Fabric Challenge' quilts for the Arizona Retreat I am going to next week. Mine is the smallish placemat sized quilt on the end...it was made ENTIRELY of the 1/2 yard of challenge fabric - including the back. Its name is 'Arizona Fever' for a couple of reasons...first, I had a pretty high fever when I put it together...and...I am in a fever to go to the retreat! All the quilts shown in the picture have the challenge fabric in them! They are hanging in Sally's Fabrics, an LQS in Phoenix, Arizona...the patrons are voting on their favorites...if you are in the area, stop by and have a look!

Look at what we had to start from! The ladies at Sally's picked the fabric for this year. Next year we are going to do a challenge, but not an 'Ugly Fabric' challenge!



Oh...and if you check out Melody's post for Tuesday Jan 23 - there is a picture of my class doing the Bodacious Bloomers...I am kinda hidden behind the lady in the pinky-salmon sweater who has her back to the camera - but that is ME there in the green sweater, auditioning fabric!