Retreat Post #3

Here are three pictures from retreat that Deanna emailed me. The first is Danelle's vase of flowers. She started and finished (including binding) this wallhanging at retreat.

This picture is of Monica's snowflakes. The blocks are from different exchanges, and she is putting them together in one quilt. After this picture was taken, she measured and cut strips to place between the blocks. This will be a challenge to fit them all together.

This last picture is of my Carolina Crossroads (without borders). I finished the last step, then sewed the blocks into rows, and sewed the rows together at retreat.

Retreat Post #2

This is a Four Patch for the Nineties that one of the ladies was binding. She did this at a class from Linda Ballard who came to teach for our quilt guild the year I was workshop chairman. She also had a row quilt that was darling. She was also working on a churn dash type of block.

Here is a picture of Danelle's Bento Box top. She worked on this all day and into the night. She also started, and finished, an applique wallhanging of a vase of flowers. I did not get a picture of that. Sorry. She was also working on several other projects. She always gets so much done at retreat. She is dedicated to finishing. She usually machine quilts a top or two while she is there.

Here is a picture of Deanna's Carolina Crossroads. She had the center done when she came to retreat, and attached the borders while she was there. She did a beautiful job of piecing, but then she always does a beautiful job. When I saw this top, it energized me to get my blocks finished, and the center sewn together. That was my number one priority for the retreat. She also was working on a darling pink and brown top among other things.

What a Great Retreat!

The retreat was super! It was four days of sewing, laughing, eating, and sewing some more. There were quilters from out of state, out of the area, and local gals. My friend, Monica, and I went on Thursday, and returned home today. It was so nice. Someone else makes the food, and washes the dishes. There are clean beds, and we don't have to make them when we get up. All we do is sew, sew, sew, and of course take field trips to local quilt stores. I will try to get pictures in, but I am not sure how many I can post. I finished my Carolina Crossroads. Well, almost finished it. It is without borders, but that will be easy to do. I also finished my NYB top, and made a back for my Halloween top that I passed on to a longarm quilter who was there. I took a community quilt top that I am working on and a book to read, but I never got around to either one.

Monica was whirlwind sewing, as well as some of the other ladies. She sewed up her nine patch exchange blocks into a top (mine are in a project bag under my sewing table). She put together her Baltimore Album blocks (mine are still in a box, waiting for finishing), she and BB made a purse (just a slight unintended variation of the pattern), she put together an applique strippy top that she has been working on ever since I first met her, and she worked on her snowflake blocks. They are different sizes, and she put them up on a portable design board that another quilter brought. I know she did other things, but those are the ones I remember most.

Orange fizzy

Today was my last class on the longarm quilting machine at Sisters 'n' Stitches. The owner, Denise, is so sweet. She has a HQ 16 that she rents out to quilters after they have taken her longarm class. Today I took my crumb (Mile A Minute) top to quilt. I wanted to see the quilt as I was working on it, so I did a free motion swirly design. Since taking these classes and working on this hunk of a machine, I have much more respect for the work longarm quilters can do. I need to learn some new styles of overall quilting, as that is what I like to do. I would like to have some beautiful feathered wreaths and other such great designs, but I will probably not get that good. I really enjoy the free motion work. The pantograph designs are great, and I like them a lot, but you need to work at the back of the quilt to follow a pattern sheet with the HQ 16. I found it difficult to not stop quilting, and walk around the frame to see the quilting. So, I decided that in front of the quilt is where I like to quilt. I need to see what I am doing! While I was at the shop, I met a quilter who had been in our quilt guild. to work. She was buying this orange/pink swirly fabric, along with a great pink fabric, and an orange fabric, that will blend with the swirly one. I already have some of that fabric. When I saw it, I could not resist buying it. I considered this a *challenge* fabric until today. My friend is making her niece a quilt, using the three fabrics, the swirly, the orange and the pink. She said her niece has her bedroom painted bright orange, like in the swirly, and these three fabrics would go great in her room. So, someone else has met the *challenge* with the swirly already. This swirly design reminds me of a orange fizzy. With Bonnie's new Orange Crush mystery quilt coming up, and this orange fizzy fabric, I feel the need for some orange drink, maybe an Orange Crush, or as another mystery fan said, a Grape Crush! I also bought two more yards of the orange psychedelic fabric. Since I have used the turquoise/purple one, I decided the orange psychedelic fabric is the next on my list. I want to meet the *challenge* again! The last one was so much fun, I am hoping the next one will be as much fun, or more. I am off to a retreat tomorrow, so I will be gone for four days. I am so glad that we have Monday, March 31 (my wedding anniversary) off from work as a holiday. That will give me a day to rest after the fun retreat weekend! Happy Quilting P.S. It looks like I have lost my paragraph spacing again! I wish I knew what I did to lose them, and what I can do to get them back!

New York Beauty

This is a design layout I thought I might do with my NYB blocks. I had made 12 blocks up to this point. I have this beautiful Asian fabric that I thought I might put in the center, with the NYB blocks surrounding it. A couple of the ladies in the class were doing this layout. They did buy their Asian fabric first, then built their colors around that fabric for their NYB blocks. I picked the purple and turquoise first, then thought of the Asian fabric later. Wanda suggested, and I agreed, that the blue in the Asian fabric was too grayed to go with the turquoise. So I dropped the Asian fabric as a center medallion idea. I decided to make four more NYB blocks for the center medallion, as in the sample for the class. Below is a picture of the layout that was shown in the sample for the class. I like this layout, but just was whiney and did not want to make four more blocks. They were paper pieced, and were a bugger for me to do since I am not very good at paper piecing. But, I persevered and made the other four blocks. I discovered that it was easier to take the paper off and then sew the rays to the arcs without paper. In class, the teacher had us use the paper throughout, but I fought it every stitch. When I made these last four blocks, I took the paper off after I sewed the rays, and then it was a piece of cake to sew them to the curved pieces! Well, almost a piece of cake. I did not check the paper pattern before I cut out my inner and outer curved pieces. One edge of the outer piece was wider than the other edge. I am finding this out as I am trying to piece them all together! Silly me for not checking the pattern before cutting! The center four blocks are sewn together. The others are just stuck to my design wall. I am thinking of putting a 2 inch border around the center medallion, as in the sample to make the center float more. In the sample, there was a 2 inch outer border going around what you see in this picture. My borders will be in the turquoise fabric. I think I have enough to do that. Then there was another yellow border around that, then another 3-4 inch black border around everything to finish it. The sample was in yellow and black, very dramatic. I do not have enough of my turquoise fabric to do the last outside border, I guess I could use some purple (I have lots of that), but I do not have anymore of the purple paisley fabric that I used as the inside curved piece. What do you think?

I really like this pattern, and I am eager to finish it.

Happy Quilting

P.S. It seems that I have paragraphs back again, sort of. Thank you to all who replied to my *Confused Questions*. I was having a mental moment and needed some feedback.

Confused Quilter

No pictures, just questions. I am a quilter who makes quilts from patterns, classes, and occasionally from my own original designs. I like to make quilts from other quilters' patterns. I make quilts from patterns in magazines, books, classes, and patterns other quilters share, etc. I am not into quilting to make money. I do not have a lot of original work because I do not feel the need to be original very often. When I see a quilt design I like, I want to make that quilt. Sometimes I very the design somewhat. Sometimes I make the quilt exactly like the pattern. Question #1: Can I post pictures of my quilts if I have made them from someone else's pattern? I enjoy taking classes. The best benefit for me is seeing what all the other quilters are using as their color palette, how they may tweak the design, how large/small their quilt will be, etc. Can I post my own quilt picture? Can I post someone else's picture with their permission? Question #2: Do I need to publish the name of the pattern designer, or where I obtained the design? If I make a quilt using part of one pattern, and also part of a different pattern, must I put both pattern designers' names? Question #3: Can I post pictures of quilts I take where I do not have the name of the maker? If I have the name, but cannot reach the quilt maker, can I still post a picture of their quilt in my blog? Scenario: taking a picture at a quilt show. There is no sign posted where picture taking is not allowed. The name if the maker is on a card on the quilt, but I cannot find this person at the show. I take a picture of this quilt. Can I post this in my blog? Another scenario: I see a quilt somewhere on my wanderings, but no name attached to the quilt. Can I post a picture of this quilt in my blog? I am not taking credit for this quilt, but I like it and want to share a picture of it in my blog. I do not want to do anything wrong, or cause anyone grief over what I post in my blog. I did not read anything about censorship when I signed on to blog. Maybe I missed that part, I don't know. If you have any insight, or guidelines you would care to share with me, I would appreciate it. If you do not wish to post a comment, please email me. Thank you for taking time to read this post *without pictures*. Also, I have changed my comment name (?) to Purple Pam. When you see this name in your comments, it is only me, no one new! Happy Easter Last question: how in the world do I get paragraph spaces in here? All my posts are run together when they post, without paragraph spaces, even though there are set paragraphs in my draft! What button did I push to make this happen? Help!

Spring Break

Spring Break has started for me. Yeah! I have the next week off of work: no school, no classes, just lots of time to sew, read, or whatever strikes my fancy! Last night I went to my favorite quilt store and sewed for the evening. Once a month they have a type of UFO night: bring your own project and sew. I took my twist quilt and almost finished sewing the binding. Then there is a sleeve, and the show label. This week I want to get the other bindings on the quilts that I want to put in our quilt show. So I had better get busy! Below I have included a picture of our guild's donation quilt. You cannot see clearly in this picture, but there are leaves appliqued on the border. The committee did a beautiful job on this quilt. The quilt was hung at the quilt store, so I took a picture of it last night. I wish I had a darling Easter quilt to share, but I have not sewn one in a few years. I do have a set of exchange blocks that I could put together and then I would have an Easter quilt to share. That is one of the items on my "To Do" quilt list, among many others! The weather here is just gorgeous: sunny, almost warm, no wind. Our weather people predict wonderful weather this weekend for all the Easter egg hunts, etc. Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

Happy Quilting

National Quilting Day

Saturday was National Quilting Day. Did you quilt yesterday? I did, or rather I sewed down binding. This picture below is a quilt I sewed last year (one of the projects from my evening quilting class), and it was quilted this last summer. You cannot see the quilting really well, but it is a great job of machine quilting. Diana Johnson quilted this for me. I had the binding sewn on the front for a while, but I just started getting it sewn on the back so that I can exhibit it in our upcoming quilt show in May. I have four more quilts that need binding, but I don't know how many I can get done before the cutoff date. I baked chocolate chip cookies in the morning, then I went to my favorite local quilt shop and sewed for a while with some other quilters. They had their store classroom open for anyone who wanted to come in and sew on National Quilting Day. I brought along some chocolate chip cookies and took them in to share. I did some shopping, and sewed on my binding for a couple of hours. Then I went to the church for an Applique Society meeting at 3:00 p.m. after leaving the quilt shop. I took another plate of chocolate chip cookies and shared them at the meeting. It seems everywhere I go I have chocolate chip cookies with me! I sewed some more on my binding at the meeting, shared a new book on appliqued flowers that I purchased at the quilt shop that day, and shared a new Ricky Tims book that I bought at the last quilt show I attended. After the TAS (The Applique Society) meeting, I stopped and picked up some Mexican food to take home for dinner. After dinner, I sewed up two more arcs for my NYB blocks. So, all in all, it was a rather busy, enjoyable National Quilting Day for me. Today DH and I went to the marina for a picnic for his 60th birthday. Our daughter planned a picnic with family and friends. The weather was sunny, but windy and cold. It was good to see the kids all together interacting and having fun, and friends also. DH enjoyed the day a lot, especially since he was the center of attention! I enjoyed it as well since I did not have to do any cooking. The kids took care of everything. DH did make a pot of Firehouse Beans, and some deviled eggs (two of his favorite things). And here is DH cutting his birthday cake. This was a good weekend after all. The weatherman forecasted rain. It did rain on Saturday, but today it was sunny. We all enjoyed the BBQ, the cake, and the time together.

Happy Quilting

Here It Is!

I took my top to quilt class tonight. I took this picture. One of the other ladies shared her quilt, and it was black and white, with a red inner border, and a black outer border. Very dramatic. There were some other quilts shown tonight that were great. This is one of the best benefits of taking classes for me. I like to see what other quilters have done with the same pattern, but using different fabrics, or changing something just a little. If you look carefully, you can see the two different units. I love this turqoise fabric. This is the first sharing I have taken to class in a while. It felt good to have something to share. Now I must get my feathered star done, and my Carolina Crossroads that have been patiently sitting on my sewing table waiting for attention. A cute basket pillow project was presented tonight, appropriate for spring or summer (depending what fabrics are used) for this week and next week. In a couple of weeks we will have another quilt project to present. It is hard for me to keep up with the class projects. I like them all, but must pick and choose what I will do as I do not have the time to do them all, even though I would like to sew them all. Below is a picture of a book I purchased at the last quilt show we attended. This book was written by Terri Thayer. She and I worked at the same quilt store for a while. I did some applique classes during the summer. I also did an applique block of the month a few times. I wanted to do more classes, but just could not keep up with samples and the time to devote to it. Maybe when I retire! Terri was working on her book while she worked at the store. She would tell us about it sometimes, and I always wondered if she would really finish it. She really did! From reading the inside cover, it appears that she has another sequel in the works coming out soon. I just started reading it. So far, it has captured my attention, and I want to find out what happens next! I don't read as much as I have in the past. My eyes do not want to stay open long enough to get very far along in the book! I read more in the summer time when I have time to read in the daylight. When I get interested in a book, I will read it from cover to cover, nonstop. My eyes do not support that behavior now. They want resting between chapters. My eyes are requiring some rest, so I am headed to dreamland. Have a great week. Happy Quilting

Wild and wonderful!

Okay, get ready. I finished the quilt top with the wild and wonderful turquoise fabric. And it is really wild and wonderful! Looking at it makes me smile. I wonder if I should go back to the quilt store and buy some more of "The Last One" and figure out what to do with it? I just love the challenge. This has been too much fun! Of course, the easy pattern turned out to be more time consuming than I thought. It would have helped if I had not sewn all the units the same. The pattern has two different units repeated in the pattern. I looked at the first unit, and the last unit, and discovered they were the same. The teacher said to make a quarter of the quilt and the other parts are the same. So, in my peanut-size brain, I translated that to be each unit was the same. Yesterday I woke up so early, even with the time change. We had not changed our clocks yet, so the time was the same as the day before. I was up at 6:00 a.m. I don't even get up that early on work days! I was full of energy. I had a shower, dressed, went outside (in the beautiful California sunshine) to retrieve the newspaper, came in and heated water and made some tea, then I went into my sewing room and started sewing. I stopped about 8:30 a.m. because I was getting hungry. DH was sleeping in (unusual for him). I opened the bedroom door to make sure he was still breathing! He was awake by then. I went into the kitchen and made breakfast. DH usually cooks breakfasts. He is a better cook than I am even though he does not like to cook that much. I was whizzing through this pattern. By 12:00 noon I had my units made. I spread them out on the bed (the biggest flat place in the house). That is when I discovered I had made 8 similar units, and I should have made 4 of unit A and 4 of unit B. Just a small error, but it meant hours of unsewing and resewing! When I was almost done, of course I ran out of bobbin thread. I had sewn only two units without thread. I wound a bobbin, and started sewing again. I played salsa and hip hop jazz music all day while I was sewing. Until I started unsewing, that is. I decided if I had not been having so much fun dancing around and singing along with the music, I might have paid more attention to the pattern and realized there were two different units, instead of only one! I wanted to use the darker fabric for the border, but I only had a few inches left after I cut the strips. So, I used the turquoise fabric for the border. In essence, I made this quilt top from my stash, even though I returned to the quilt store and purchased more of the turquoise fabric to use on another project. I am taking my quilt top to sewing class tomorrow night and hopefully, there, I can get a good picture of it. The wind is blowing too much today to get a picture outside, and the light in our house is not bright enough for a good picture. So until tomorrow..... Happy Quilting

What a Sweetie!

Isn't this a beautiful purple quilt block? I received this in the mail, along with the cut pieces and bits of fabric in the second picture that are pieces ready to assemble to make more beautiful purple blocks. I was reading Wanda's blog one day, and she was trying to figure out what to do with a quilt she had finished. In my comedic way I commented that she could send it to me if she needed somewhere for it to live. Well, lo and behold, a package arrived shortly after that and in the package was this beautiful purple block, and the pieces Wanda had cut to make more blocks. She even sent some extra purple fabric to go with the other fabric pieces. Isn't she a sweetie? See, sometimes it pays to whine and fuss! This wasn't the quilt she originally posted. But, while she was cleaning out things, she came across this purple project she had started. It was at an unfinished stage. So, since I am a passionate purple quilter, she decided it could live with me. Isn't she a sweetie?

This last picture is a gift from my friend, Elmira. Isn't she a sweetie? She gave this purple angel to me one day, and it wasn't even my birthday! I have it pinned on my design wall. This little purple angel watches over me while I sew. I wish she would stop me when I am about to make a mistake. Maybe she does talk to me, but I am too busy sewing to listen!

If there are any other quilters who have any purple projects they would like to send my way, just let me know. I will accept them finished, almost finished, hoping to be finished, or even in the design stage!

I am sewing on a project for my adult quilt class today. It seems like an easy project, so I am hoping to get it put together by tomorrow. I will post a picture when it is completed. I wanted to get my New York Beauty wallhaning done this weekend, but I want to get this other project done first. I think it will be wild and wonderful. I am using the turquoise fabric pictured in a previous post as the background fabric and I want to get a picture of it in my blog for you all to see, and me too! I encountered a design problem with my NY Beauties blocks. The Asian fabric I was going to use just doesn't work. I think I will end up making four more blocks and make them the center medallion block after all.

Well, I am washing fabric, and the dryer buzzed me to let me know it is done. I also have some other wash to do, so I must get busy. I am still not feeling 100% great this weekend, so I am working at a snail's pace. Hope you have a great weekend.

Happy Quilting

A picture of Daughter and Me

Today I had my hair cut. My daughter works at the same salon where I have my hair cut. She is a massage therapist, and also does skin care. Isn't she a beauty? Yes, she really is mine! We looked more alike when I was younger and thinner! She is such a delight! We are the same astrological sign, so watch out world! Here we come! There are purple walls at the salon, so I took my camera today and had some pictures taken.

No sewing done this week. I will do some this evening. I want to see if I can get my New York Beauty put together. I have 12 blocks done, so I have decided to stop there. I want to get something finished this month. Oh dear, it is already next month. Oh well, I will need to get two things finished this month.

DH and I went out and about today. We had a breakfast burrito at our favorite taqueria, a stop at the post office to mail Bonnie's quishy, then on to the salon. After that we made a run on two local quilt shops, Bolts End and One Quilt At A Time. There is a shop hop organized next week for this area. There are 20 shops in it this time. I will not get to many since the hop starts Wednesday, and I work all week. Bummer! I have never gone to all the shops in a shop hop, ever. When I told DH about it, he said we could make them all next weekend if I really wanted to do it.

Each shop has a pattern for a different quilt block. If you go to all the shops in the hop, you can get patterns for all the blocks. Then, when you get home (with all your fabric), you can make the quilt. It is a sampler style quilt this time. I have seen a finished top already. The colors are black and white for the blocks. Of course, you can add any other colors you wish, or make your top out of any colors you want. Kits for the blocks are available at each shop, so you can spend some money and buy the block kits, or just get the pattern and make your own blocks. There are also drawings for free stuff, and freebies at each shop. I think a shop hop would be lots of fun, especially if you attend with quilt friends.

Our adult class quilt teacher arranged a one shop hop at One Quilt At A Time for our quilt class once, and it was lots of fun. At that time the shop was in a very small space. There were more than 30 of us. Some of us waited outside while the others were inside shopping. Of course, there was a table full of bolts of fabric outside, as well. Those of us waiting outside could spend our money, too. The shop has moved to a bigger location, so we could all fit in there now. I want to remember to ask our quilt teacher if we can do that again. We had one scheduled a while back, but one of the owners had an accident out of state (at a quilt market up north) where she broke her leg/foot/ankle. So she was out of commission for quite a while.

It is getting darker and I am getting hungry, so that means dinner is near. I need to get busy if I am going to get any sewing done today. I hope DH will make dinner, but if not, I REALLY need to get busy if I want to get any sewing done today!

Happy Quilting