2020 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge - Introduction

 Heh...I decided to try the blog writing challenge from Cheryl Sleboda of Muppin.com . Let's see if I can keep it up - every day for the entire month. Probably more posts than the whole rest of the year!

The first prompt is Introduction. OK -  Hang on to your hats and glasses - we are in for a wild ride!

I had gone to a Craft Show with a few of my friends. I was not a quilter - yet. We went to a demo of the Jodi Barrows 'Square in a Square' ruler because my quilter friend noticed the class was about getting Perfect Points. 

The lady demo-ing this ruler was so fun. She did the demo and then asked "Why would someone cut up perfectly good fabric into tiny squares, just to sew it back together again?" The answer she said was "Why, to make it more beautiful"...that made perfect sense to me. So when she asked if anyone in the audience thought they could use this ruler - you set it down on the block by lining it up on the seams and whack off what sticks out, I kind of said under my breath "I think I could do that", my friends all turned towards me, like I had grown a new head or something and were totally amazed. 

We trooped over to the vendor booth right after the demo and all three of my friends bought the ruler. I was still a bit on the fence - but my friends said we could share the ruler at a Craft Day - we periodically would meet at one or the other's houses to indulge in Crafting. 

One friend had a sewing room that all of us could meet in. I went to Walmart, Husband G helped me pick out three fabrics, I took my hither-too unused sewing machine down to her big sewing room and they taught me how to use the rotary cutter and how to use my machine and how to chain piece. 

I got a good bit done at that first meeting - went home, co-op'ed the kitchen table, worked like a dog and had the quilt quilted by the next weekend when a couple of us got together to go Christmas Shopping - I was the first one of the group done. And that is how I became a quilter!

My Mom bought me my own Square in a Square ruler for Christmas that year.

It's a neat ruler...those points are Pointy! and Perfect!

I still use this quilt. It's had to have the binding replaced and some of the quilting has popped, but it is a favorite. There is so much that I still had to learn about how to start and stop quilting and about burying thread tails. And how to measure borders -  I just laid the fabric up against the center - hence the kind of 'friendly' waves in the outer border. I did the most difficult quilting for a beginner to try - stitch in the ditch. I dived right in!

I backed it with fleece so it is very cuddly. The original pattern on the ruler had the star points alternating colors, but I decided to make them match. And the size for the original pattern was just a wall hanging but I knew if I didn't make something I could use, I would not want to continue quilting, so I figured out how much extra fabric I needed to make it couch quilt sized - and bought extra just in case! (Turned out I needed the extra red for the replacement binding)

Link to the Muppin Blog Writing Challenge

Quilter's Run 2019

Ah...the Quilter's Run...

We Did It Again!

It was a blast as usual...we ended up in Norco at Quilted Together and they had this cute photo station set up. The theme for their shop had something to do with cooking so they made cute aprons and we had mixing bowls and rolling pins and spatulas as props. I forget what the whole theme of the Run was.

This year the theme will be Parties...if they even HAVE it this year and if we decide to go, if they do have it. With the Quarantine/Stay at home requests, I don't know if its a good idea to even plan for it.

I do love going on our journey though...the four of us have done it every year but one since we started. And we get our I DID IT bars for our pin collections (The husbands claim those are IDIOT bars). Sometimes its pretty close to the closing time for that last couple of stores and we hold our breath but somehow we have managed it...with careful planning, timed visits to the stores (we usually plan 20 minutes per store with a couple of our favorites getting a bit more and a few of our non-favorites getting a bit less), using the GPS in several devices, and praying that the traffic will not mess us up.

Road To California - Party Time

This year was a bit skimpy for the classes...I thought about going for some of the lectures but just did not have more than the Monday and Thursday reserved for Road - we have been super busy at work and since I hadn't paid any money for them, I decided to just skip them.

I did go to Party Time...that is always a blast and we came away with a bunch of goodies.

I met my friend Sabrina in the afternoon - she had gone to the preview night they always have on Wednesday night before the full show opens, so she had already seen the quilts. I went about an hour or so earlier than we were meeting and looked at the quilts until she got there - she was taking a class on Dresden Plates. We went thru the vendor mall, I bough a couple of things, she bought a couple of things. We went over to line up for Party Time as soon as they closed the show for the evening...and that was not quite soon enough to get into the very front of the line, though we were closer than we have ever been. Sabrina's hubby went and got us food from Wendy's and we ate it in line. We were hoping to meet up with some other friends that come to the show from Las Vegas, but one of them had a medical emergency in the family so they all stayed home.

So we played games, we won prizes, we laughed, we ate tasty snacks...it was a fun night!

Road To California - Day One

This year I took a class from Rosa Rojas, the inventor of the Appliquick Tools. I used the tools for the 'For Ann' piece that I started the prior Road and wanted to learn if Rosa had more tricks that would be useful. Indeed she did have more tricks and I got done with prepping this piece that Rosa called 'Little Boy' and learned a lot. Those wee little buttons...you turn them with the tools and amazingly, they come out perfect. I have the pattern for her even SMALLER figures ice skating...there they are on the bottom picture!

An 'Exciting' Night

I wrote this on October 15th....

I had an 'exciting' night last night...I was down at my parents. We ate dinner and then it was time for me to go home - we put my Mom in bed and my Dad was in the bathroom..my Sis walked out with me to my car - she wanted to see the Moon since it was still close to being the full Hunter's Moon...I kinda turned around a bit and o.m.g...I saw smoke  and an eerie  red glow and it was CLOSE... both my Sis and I were instantly terrified...we kinda ran down the sidewalk and the passageway between the next door neighbor and his next neighbor was on FIRE!!!! Flames were shooting up over the top of the building - its two story...so my Sis called 9-1-1 and I went up and banged really loudly on the screen door and shouted at the top of my lungs...THERE IS FIRE IN YOUR HOUSE!!! The flames were roaring and I could feel the heat...I scurried back to the sidewalk as both houses the residents came out (saving me from having to bang on the other neighbor's door - he came out to see what the racket was!)...Sis called out to the next door neighbor's kid to get a hose...they started hoses from both houses...and we found out a bit later that the neighbor behind them also had a hose going full bore...about this time 4 or 5 police cars came roaring up...and started to take charge of the situation.. a minute or two later 4 large firetrucks and the fire captain showed up - actually a bit late to the party as the hoses had reduced the fire to just embers...meanwhile...I moved my car from the street into my parents driveway to get out of the way of the firetrucks...there was no leaving that street at that point!....all the neighbors were out in the street...and so many were in front of the houses that had the fire that the firemen bellowed 'GET OFF THE SIDEWALK! My parents have lived in that house since 1975 and I think this was the first time we meet all those neighbors!! Dad and Mom are both profoundly deaf...but my Mom could see all the flashing lights and sent my Dad out to see what was going on..we were so scared that we were going to have to evacuate them...but..all's well that ends well...someone said it was a couch between the houses that was on fire..how?..that is one for the mystery books.

My Sis says the next order of business is to clear out THEIR passageway!! it has some overgrowth...

My poor knuckles are bruised purple...but we got to see hunky firemen in their uniforms!

The House Hippo

One of the Facebook groups I belong to has this thing about House Hippos. The notion of a House Hippo comes from a Canadian PSA. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBfi8OEz0rA

So everyone in that group is constantly looking for their very own House Hippo.

My granny lived in a mobile home park called the Fountain of Youth Spa in Niland, near the Salton Sea for many years, She had a friend, Glenn, who carved many wooden items as a hobby. I found the hippo in a container of things that he carved and gave to my granny. I have a couple of his birds - a goose and a quail - with flappy wings hanging from my planters in the living room. 

So my very own House Hippo came to live with me. I named him Henry.

Do you have your own House Hippo?

Fruits and Vegetables

This is a hexie piece that I worked on most of the spring and summer in 2019. In October, I started putting it together. It will be a table runner when it gets done. The main body is done, but it needs...something...

I thought about appliqueing it to a couple of yellow linen placemats. May still do that. It is waiting to be finished.

I started out glue basting the pieces, but ran out of glue when I was staying at my parents. I remembered on of the gals from Retreat uses a thread basting technique where you leave the basting in when you take the paper hexie pieces out... so I tried that and discovered I like that method much better than the glue. 

The hexies were put together using the 'flat back' stitch. Nothing shows on the right side of the seam so it looks very elegant. 

The 'fruits' part of the fabrics were from one of the Quilter's Runs in the last few years. I got a packet of 2.5 inch squares stuff with these yummy fruit fabrics. The oranges are the centers of the flowers. The other fruits, apples, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries are the petals on the hexie flowers. The leaves are veggie prints I have collected over the years. I used three different greens.

In October I went to Texas for work. It was interesting to meet team members who were mostly just voices up to that point. We stayed in a very nice hotel and my boss, who has club privileges, let me join her for dinner and breakfast..and the food was very tasty! We had dinner one night at an Indian food place. I got 'gajar halwa' which is a very tasty carrot pudding...YUM!

The Attack of the Micro Mini Ants

I loathe red ants... big ones, small ones and especially these almost microscopic red ants that infested us in August of 2019. You would not believe how big the welts were from something that small. It's that wee brown spot to the left of the dime. I put my arm down at the kitchen sink and man, those wee beasties were all over my arm in nothing flat. 

It was time to Amdro the house again. Not quite sure why it works or how it works, but it is a barrier bait that ants that turn up their noses (antlers? feelers?) at normal ant poison will happily ingest. Which gets rid of the colonies for at least 3 months. Best stuff on the market.

A Long Time, No Posts..

Has it really been over a year since last I blogged?

During that time Blogger changed! Working thru what changed is interesting.

Many things have happened over this last year. I probably won't remember all of them, but I have found having a record is very useful.

I will try to catch up.  And...not be so bad about posting!

May of last year...we went to a little town in Nevada for a mini vacation. Pahrump. Means 'Water Rock'. This was taken at a very nice lake. We stayed over night in an RV. That was an experience. It was a nice RV, albeit shaky. Not sure, but we probably won't be buying one anytime soon! The drive out to Pahrump is pretty lonely once you get past Baker. We did see a couple of donkeys grazing on the sparse vegetation but other than that, only a few cars. We rented a Chrysler 300 so we went in style.

The Hills are Alive.....with Mustard!

Driving home I had to stop and snap a picture or two of the mustard covered hills..this is just a shot from my mobile..the yellow was way more intense than this shows. So beautiful!

MaryJane, the Pirate Gecko

So..Mr Gecko arrived at my house in due time...I made six sandy colored fabric squares for the background...but Mr Gecko has undergone a sex change (suggestion by one of the ladies from Retreat)  and is now going to be referred to as MaryJane, the Pirate Gecko!

Notice the wee pirates in her lower hind foot...that and of course her belly explains the name...

She will have purple outlining...and purple borders...with a sandy striped fabric for the binding...
And I may even give her a eye patch...

QuiitMama Class at Retreat

Our speaker again this year is a gal who is known as 'QuiltMama' - Jessica Dickenson...She gave her second half of her trunk show (we had the first part last year!) and wowzers...she has some unique ways of creating quilts! Can't show any of those pictures here...but if you get a chance to go to her trunk show, its wonderful!

A bunch of us took her class on Silhouettes and Circles....you 'make' fabric, either for the background or the foreground figures...and trace a shape (or shapes!) onto Heat N Bond Lite...

For mine, I did butterflies....

I opted for making the fabric for the butterflies and applying them to my blue FQ....
Others did black silhouettes on made fabric..but I really don't care much for that style...

I have blanket stitched the outlines...but that is as far as I have gotten...hope to get it done before next year's Retreat.

One of the gals at my table did a gecko..she got home and decided she didn't care much for the Heat N Bond technique (she much prefers back-basted needle turn applique)...so she sent him to me...

Mr Gecko peeled off the black background (he wasn't all the way fused)...so I just had her send me Mr Gecko...going to try my hand at making fabric for his background...maybe in light pink, light orange, light beige....sand colors.. Have to audition some fabrics! If lights don't work...will go with darks!

AZ Retreat 2019 Sewing

This year at the Arizona Retreat we made charity quilts.....
A whole bunch of charity quilts!

Here are a few that I was involved with:

I added the borders to a Froggie panel and birthed the quilt....LeeAnn quilted it after Retreat.
The back was a cute piece of fabric that I had for years...Frogs on Scooters....It will make some kid happy!

I made a whole bunch of receiving blankets too....

I think I made at least 6 or 7.....

and I made a Quilt As You Go lap quilt with a couple of layer cakes - one was a layer cake of  white Cuddle fabric that I got from Party Time at Road To CA last year and the other was one of an Oriental fabric medly - it will keep someone warm but that is about the best that can be said for it! I don't think anyone even got a picture of it...(Ya can't win them all!)

Post Kyphoplasties...and Other Stuff

A couple of weeks ago, I had two kyphoplasties...on T12 and L1...
I had NO pain from the actual surgery sites...and they have healed up very nicely! Very happy I had them done....
I,  however,  have had unrelenting pain from what the ER doc said was Sciatica...but which I really think is the nerve that runs down the thigh muscle...technically known as the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve...I am taking heavy-duty muscle relaxers...This condition was probably caused by being flat on my tummy on the operating table for the kyphoplasties...sigh...if I have any more of them, will ask them to put a pillow under my hips!!

Thank goodness I can sleep!

I am working on a sweatshirt conversion....I bought this lovely mint colored sweatshirt right before Christmas and hadn't worn it yet...came back from Retreat with a chunk of Laurel Burch fabric and lo and behold, it has that same mint green so OF COURSE, I had to design a way to use the scrap of fabric on my sweatshirt...

I wanted to convert it to a zip up...with pockets...and I just happened to have a separating zipper in blue! And..it will have a collar made of the bottom banding....

I still have some work to do on the zipper....needs the stops at the top of the neck...that is the next thing I am working on.

It will have cuffs and a bottom border (just draped for effect!)...and the pockets are made of the focus fabric lined with the cuffs banding

Oh..and see my latest sewing machine acquisition...isn't it cute? Was my door prize at Retreat....

Will leave you with some pictures of the snow in So Cal this Feb...its been an incredible year for rain, rain, rain - or as we call it - Liquid Sunshine (cuz you know 'It Never Rains in California'!!) These are our three big mountains....

Mt Baldy

Idyllwild

Big Bear from Lamb's Canyon

Butterfly Quiltlet Done

I finished off stitching the butterfly and its background during the week. My foot for FM is not as good as the one on the Bernina that I was using at Road, but I made do...Cut out the butterfly from the background and soaked off the Solvy and the interfacing..Soaked off the Solvy on the background piece too.

Here is what they looked like before I got to work on them yesterday:

 Now...if I were making something that looked like the teachers - this is where I would have started quilting. For reference...this is Nancy's butterfly:

But...I am ornery and thought that the thread sketching should have color and so..I got out my Inktense pencils and colored away! Here's what it looked like when I was done coloring - before quilting:

I added wool batting..probably should have picked a thinner batting..but I wanted the puff in the flower and leaves - it almost is like trapunto.. Was going to bring the green backing to the front but...that just did not want to work..so I cut the green off and it was just long enough to make a binding. My poor hopping foot got stuck when I was stitching the butterfly to the base and partially cracked - it probably can be repaired with plastic glue...but for now..its out of commission...sigh...

Here is the finished piece:

I like it!

Paducah Museum Shirt Refashion

We went to the National Quilt Museum in Paducah for our anniversary last August...Beautiful  place!

Enjoyed all the quilts. Outside of the Museum, there is a river flood wall that is decorated. That was fascinating too!

 

One of the things I got at the Museum was a lovely T-shirt..I bought it big since I hate T-shirts that hug my posterior.

It's pretty shapeless too.. but I loved the design on the front and over the print there is shiny gold! (hard to see in the pictures..but it shines!)

After taking the Double Gauze shirt class at Road, I was inspired to do some 'refashioning' so...out came the shears! I cut up the sides, took the sleeves off and laid the Scout Tee pattern onto the remains...and came to the immediate reckoning that the Scout Tee was NOT going to work! It's a bit wider than the fabric...after a few hours of kicking my backside for ruining at perfectly good T-shirt...I decided to take the one I was wearing in the picture above and see if that would fit..I like that shirt a lot and like how it fits! So..onto the ironing board and voila'...it fit onto the Paducah shirt. Marked it...cut it out - almost 5 inched in length removed too - cut a wee bit off the sides of the sleeves to fit the new armcyce  -  stitched the sleeves on and seamed down the sides.. I kept the shoulder seams, the neckline (though I may not keep that long term!) and the sleeve hems. The bottom is dished like the one above.
So..now the Paducah Museum shirt fits!

It will be making its first appearance at Retreat next week!

Road to Ca 2019 - Day 6 - Thread Painting and Thread Sketching

Instructor for this class is world famous Nancy Prince - and she is a wonderful instructor!
Taking this class was on my Quilter's Bucket List!

I don't know if I have ever had as good a teacher as Nancy..terrific class..and I learned so much!

Here is her butterfly on the quilt...she had us take one with our phones for reference...

She shows each step of the process using an overhead projection of what she is doing on the machine...so much nicer than crowding around a machine and barely getting to see what the teacher is doing...She gave us reasons for why she does each step the way she does and then had us do our own!
 

Here is what I finished in class for the thread painting part of the class. Just have a few more white areas to finish and the top yellow-gold area..I kinda think he needs a second wing (though I have seen plenty of pictures of Monarchs with their wings folded together like this)...so I may add the second wing (makes mine different than the teacher's!) and I think I need to tone the red down to a burnt orange..and the bottom part needs another pass or two with the lighter yellow or maybe a light gold...and it needs some more shading...Thread painting is like coloring books...you have to blend the thread by layers... many layers! All of her thread paintings are done the same way we did in class...off the quilt and only attached after the quilt is quilted, bound and has its label on! She uses a stencil cutter to singe away the edges of the bridal tulle that supports the stitching - not having one of those, I will have to carefully clip the pieces of netting away... I have almost no distortion in mine - just a wee bit near the top of the wing.

And here is what I got done for the thread sketching part of the class - just have to finish the one butterfly in the top left corner....now..I am thinking I am going to use the Inktense pencils and color in the objects... The lines look darker than they will after I wash the Solvy off - if you look at the bottom where I traveled from one spot to another without lines, that is the real color...because the design was printed on Solvy with an inkjet printer, the thread just looks darker..

I finished off this year's show with a massage..(I get one every year...they are so soothing to aching backs!)

Road to Ca - Day 4 - The Quilts, the Vendor Mall and Party Time!

I got to the Convention Center and noticed a whole lot of people streaming up the sidewalk..one of the ladies said there was a fire alarm and they evacuated the Center! So I stopped walking towards the Center and talked with a Security Guard  for a few minutes and after a while, we noticed they were all going back into the Center..Made my way to the Center and almost immediately ran into one of my friends! It was fun to catch up with her!

Saw all of the wonderful quilts (Road to Ca will have pictures of them on their website in a few days..much better pictures that I would take!)
Here is one that I really liked:

Espalier - Joann Webb

Walked the vendor mall and found a booth for a designer that I follow - this was her first time at Road...I asked her if she had any of her cute HedgeHog fabric and she said it had sold out almost immediately! (this was the first day of the vendor mall!) She offered to look at home to see if she had any so I did come back on Saturday and got a piece...soooooo cute!

I met up with one of my friends after she got off work (one of the same gals that took the shirt class on Monday) - we walked around a different part of the vendor mall...

After the vendor mall, it was time to get in line for Party Time...we snagged some food and were probably 20th or so in line...We knew a group of other friends were going to be coming so we got to a table once the room opened up and we had 9 seats filled! Two were guys! One of the gals had persuaded her hubby and her brother to join her and her sister-in-law in the quilting adventure - they each have their own Featherweight!!

The theme for this year's party was Elvis (they had a traveling tribute show of quilts featuring Elvis) - our table's name was Hard Headed Women...one of the guys said...but what about us guys..so he wrote '...And Two Guys' on the card! This same guy got a huge set of fabrics from the Left, Right, Center game...a beginning to his OWN stash, LOL!

Loot that I came home with:

There is an Infinity Scarf  kit in there! (so I will have two!)...A king size quilt backing, a crib size batting, a pounce pack with miracle chalk, chalk pencil, sharpener and several stencils, a yard of Star Wars fabric, 3 fat quarters, a yard of Christmas fabric, three patterns, and  mini pack of hexies...I also have the fabric necklace that I won in the vendor mall - fabric is rayon - makes a really nice necklace!

Road to CA 2019 - Day 3 - For Anne

This class was an applique class where we were learning to us the Appliquick tools... Teacher was Diane Kirkart.

This is the end goal! A pot of flowers!

We worked on just the bigger of the roses and the bigger of the amaryllis flowers.

Here is what mine looked like at the end of the day:

Not dreadfully impressive as to quantity..but I did like the technique enough that I bought the Appliquick rods...one has a 'pickle fork' end and the other has a kind of a hoof! Better than my homemade version of a Popsicle stick with a grove in the end and Pearl's wooden turning tool (it got  very gummy with the gluestick).

The gal (Rosa) that invented these tools was also at Road and was demoing in the vendor mall...I ended up watching her technique and it was a bit different that what I was struggling with in the class..I hope this will make the rest of the flowers turn out better!
She has some really nice scissors..with an extra hole and a kind of a curl at the bottom...would be nice to have but they are so pricey!! Maybe someday...

I have most of the applique done on the inner pieces...not quite sure how to do the stamens on the amaryllis...gotta read the pattern to see if she describes how to do them. And I think the pink needs to be darker...so I will go over that part again..

Road To CA 2019 - Day 1 - Double Gauze Class

Road to CA 2019

I colored my tote bag from last year...it was just begging for inking!

Day 1...Day dawned bright and WINDY!
This class was making a T-Shirt out of Double Gauze...a very interesting, lightweight and almost airy fabric...
My three friends that go on the Quilter Run also were in class so it was a fun day for all of us!

First we had to cut out the pattern...deciding what size was a major dilemma for me! I brought a t-shirt that fits to try to get a sense of how the sizing went..but finally just matched my measurements up to the package..one of the ladies at our table said sometimes she doesn't follow all the exact lines and so that gave me the idea to grade it to a larger size on the bottom since I detest shirts that hug my posterior! So I went maverick!! Turns out I probably could have gone a size down on the shoulder and sleeves.

My back was hurting quite a lot, so at the suggestion of this same gal, I moved my cutting board over to the ironing board so I did not have to lean over the table.

I had made a mat board tote bag a few weeks ago for my new folding mat. Its built on Peltex - a double sided stiff interfacing...

That worked out well!

After we cut out the pieces, we first sewed the seam on our domestics, then went to one of the sergers that was set up in the back of the room..might have been nicer to have twice as many, but...we all did get to use them.

We got done with the shirts so fast - even though double gauze is a squirrely fabric and wants to slide all over the place -  we were done right after lunch. Some of the gals bought Infinity Scarf kits from the teacher...but...I was looking at my leftovers and with just an extra seam, I figured I could do on from the scraps..so I did...

It felt GOOD to walk out of the classroom with TWO completed projects - WHOOHOO!! (that doesn't happen very often!)