Purple Spa Bag

Today I finished my tote bag from last week's class. I am sad because I found out that the quilt shop where I take my tote bag classes is closing mid May. So, last week was the last tote bag class there.

The picture of the darling purple bag is my "Spa Bag" from our last tote bag class. The pattern is from the Bags, Pillows and Pincushions publication from Better Homes and Gardens. There are several things from this book that I would like to make. There is a darling three tiered pincushion that I like, and several other bags. There is a lovely appliqued iris pillow that I would like to make, also. I saw this publication advertised on a Better Homes and Gardens website. I was going to order it through them, but I decided I wanted to actually look at it before I bought it. I am so glad I was able to get a copy at the quilt shop.

Actually, while looking through the publication again today, I have decided that I would like to make almost every project in there. I could keep very busy with all those projects, not to mention all my UFOs that I would like to finish...eventually! Ahhh.....sew many quilts (and projects) and sew little time!

Tomorrow I am off to meet a blogging friend at the Amador Valley Quilt Show in Pleasanton. I am so excited to meet her! I hope the weather is good. It rained a little on Friday. Today the wind is blowing a lot. Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny and clear. Our weather lately has been crazy. A week ago Friday it was 52 degrees in our little city, and that following Monday it was 93 degrees. From cold to hot in four days. The temps are cooler today with a cold wind chill factor.

I wish for you all a great weekend. Stay well and happy.

Happy Quilting - Pam

A Giveaway and a Donation

Vickie E is giving away a wonderful Scrap Bag from Moda. Hurry over and check out her blog and sign up. On a more serious note, JoAnn's husband, Don, is needing open heart surgery. She has a picture of a quilt on her website and you can purchase donation tickets. It is a beautiful dresden plate design. Check out her blog for pictures and info, please. http://piecefulquillting.blogspot.com/2009/04/donation-quilt-open-heart-surgery.html Thank you. Happy Quilting

The weekend whizzed by

This weekend absolutely whizzed by me. Friday night was my tote bag class. I did finish the bag, but I cannot find my purple cording that I was going to use for the drawstring. I also need to sew on the purple buttons. I will get a picture of it as soon as I do the fine tuning.

Saturday was my Quilting 101 workshop. Our workshop was lots of fun. A wonderful member of our quilt guild volunteered to do a demo on binding. She does absolutely beautiful bindings, but then she does beautiful quilts as well. We also sewed the Delectable Mountains block. It is the first block that we have done with major bias edges. It is a very interesting block, and can be used in many ways as design possibilities.

Today DH and I drove to Tracy to attend a small quilt show. It was sponsored by the Tracy Adult School. It was fun. We enjoy the smaller quilt shows. The folks there are usually very friendly. There was a good representation of quilts, some large quilts, some wallhangings, and some beautiful miniature quilts (or small scale quilts as Sally Collins would say). The vendors were varied and interesting. I bought this tin with purple reproduction prints. It is so cute! I couldn't resist it.

This book is one I was given by a quilting friend. It is by Spike Gillespie. It is interviews with quilting folks. If you have a chance to read it, it is very interesting. I apologize for the blurry pictures. It seems I was too close and my little camera does not like to take close ups.

Scrap Quilt Class

Today I attended a quilt class sponsored by our guild. It was a scrap quilt class. I have wanted to do this pattern for a while, so when I saw it offered in our guild newsletter, I signed up for it. I actually sewed 10 blocks in class today. That is unheard of for me. I usually get one block done, maybe two, but never ten before today! Of course, I did have most of the squares already cut, and was able to start sewing fairly early in the day. I want to do a lap quilt size, and that is around 45 blocks.

I have also included a few more pictures of projects from my last retreat. The quilt is a picture of Janene's Convergence Quilt she did a while back. She machine quilted it at retreat. I really like the little bits of fabric that she has falling down (or up) in her border. Also, the little purple pocket thingy-dingy was made by Sharon. I love it! It is so cute and fun.

There is no picture of my Valentine's Quilt yet. I took it to have it machine quilted this week, and forgot to get a picture before I dropped it off with the quilter. I will get a picture of it after it is finished. I also took my Mystery Quilt to be quilted as well.

I have included pictures of my sherbert blocks for our next block exchange. The date for the exchange was moved to July, so I have all my blocks done well in advance of the date. Another unusual occurrence for me!

Spring break is over for me. I will be back to work on Monday. I hope you all have a fun, egg-filled happy Easter tomorrow.

Happy Quilting

More Retreat Pix

Here are a few more pictures from the retreat. The purple sampler-type quilt is one that was put together from friendship block exchanges. This is where some of those purple blocks I was making went. The nine patch quilt is another one made from exchange blocks. Also, the orange log cabin type quilt (with the nine patch centers) is from an exchange. I am still making more green and purple blocks from the same exchange so that my quilt can grow up to be as big as this one (its big!). I will get pictures this week of the projects I finished, and post them.

The picture of the quilt hanging on the curtain (it looks like a star block) is really a dahlia block, another block exchange. When we all agreed to do this block, we did not realize the type of work that would be required for the construction. We each made 12 blocks for the exchange. The coordinator of this exchange received lots of flack from all of us about this block after we were done sewing them! We were still dishing out complaints to her at retreat. I should find my blocks (they are in a box in the closet) and get a close up of a block so that you can see the three dimensional petals. I remember that my hands were sore after finishing them!

It was so fun to see all the blocks from block exchanges that were being sewn into quilt tops. I have all these blocks still to put together. They are in bags under my sewing table, and in boxes in the closet. I have blocks from exchanges from over 15 years ago that I have not sewn together. Some day I am going to get them all out, make a list, and start putting them together. This is one of the reasons that I say that I could sew quilts without buying any fabric for years to come. I would only need fabric for sashing and backs, or if I sew the blocks together without sashing, only backing fabric. I want to do some different sets for some of my blocks, so I would need fabric for that as well. I am fairly confident that I could find most of this fabric in my stash, so I would not NEED to buy more fabric, but I will still WANT to buy it I am sure. I could be busy sewing for months, even years, with what I have under my table and in the closet!

There are some ladies in our exchange group that sew up their blocks fairly quickly after the exchange. I am in awe of these ladies, and admire them greatly. To have that kind of ambition makes me envious, and very humble! I have decided that I am definitely a process person more than a product person. I love the process. I spend lots of time thinking of what fabric to use, sometimes what pattern to use, how will these blocks be received by the group. So many things come into play for me in getting exchange blocks finished.

Sometimes I have a definite plan for what I am going to do with my blocks once I receive them. I have a set of tree blocks that I want to set into the same pattern that was published in the book where we found the pattern. That involves making another set of blocks, and setting the exchange blocks on point, and an applique border. But it will be worth the wait when they are finished I am sure! I know once I retire, I will not be bored for want of something to do! I also have enough sewing machines to use that if one is broken down, another one can be enlisted for finishing any projects!

Right now I need to get busy finishing my PIF projects. I finished one PIF gift at retreat, and gifted it to the PIF quilter at retreat. She came down from Washington for our retreat. I forgot to get a picture of it, though. Maybe she can send me one.

Well folks, I hope you have a great week. I am off work this week for Spring Break, and have a lot of things I want to get done. Maybe I can get at least half of them done, who knows? But I want to have lots of fun this week no matter what I do, or don't do. I wish this for all of you as well.

Happy Quilting