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Showing posts from April, 2012

April Free Motion Quilting Challenge

I joined Sew Cal Gal's Free Motion Quilting challenge and I got around to doing this month's challenge. April's FMQ Challenge This months teacher is Don Linn.  I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Linn and taking his Asian Salsa class when he came to our guild a few years ago.  Another friend took his free motion quilting class at Asilimar the next year and I got to peak in their room quite a bit and see what they were doing.  His seminars are funny and he is a wealth of information and an all around nice guy. I got this design from a Design Source Book - Oriental Flower Designs.  They are free designs that you can use and I find that a lot of them can be used for machine quilting.  At least an inspiration for quilting. I have a charity quilt pinned and my scrap quilt pinned this morning.  Will start those tomorrow. Thanks for looking.

Chicken Gigilo

We inherited some chickens about a year ago - a momma and 3 chicks (there were more at first - long story) and the chicks have finally started producing.  However now when we go out to check on the chickens, we've had this guy cattin' around. Or should I say cockin' around?  He's rather beautiful compared to our black chickens.  He does rile our girls up - they constantly move but the noise they make when he's around, wow. Here he is in our neighbors yard. This is a picture of our chicken coop.  Yes that is a swamp cooler on top of the coop.  We have "stairs" so they can go up there and roost.  Plus if they lay eggs up there, we can take one side down and check.  We're calling it the upcycled coop.  The box on the front are their nesting boxes.  We've been getting 3 eggs a day now.  They are a beautiful pale aqua blue.  I tried taking a picture but you can't tell the color. Here are 2 of our girls. They have nothing to do with quilt

Best of The Valley Quilt Show

Well the show was this weekend and it was another fantastic show.  All my friends won ribbons and am so proud of each and every one.  My friend Debbie ( Quilt Crazy Debbie ) won two big awards.  First she won the Chairman's Special Merit Award and then she won Viewer's Choice.  So proud of her.  Check her blog for her winning quilt.  It's beautiful and was the result of our friendship groups challenge we had several years ago.  Yes it's taken her this long to finish it but she is in to details and it took her a long time for the perfection.  Another friend ( Sara Kelly Art Quilts ) won Best of Show for Art Quilts.  Another friend, Diane  won 1st place for her double wedding ring quilt, another friend Deolinda who has never won a ribbon in the show before won 3rd place, and there were more, too any more to name.  Oh, and I also won Best Machine Quilting on a Domestic Machine with this quilt.  (Award sponsored by Thimble Towne in Visalia)   And a First Place ribbon with

Countertops and Dog Bites

I went away this weekend to visit my folks and my younger sister and her family.  Usually my home is very boring however this weekend while I was away, the contractors came and installed my new countertops.  They called by hubby on Friday night at 7:30 pm and said they would be there at 3 the next day - I didn't know any of this until I got a text from hubby at 9:30 that night. Before Before Before After My new farm sized sink.  LOVE IT! After So very excited about this  Then on Monday night at 9:30 pm I get a text from my hubby that our Jack Russell Terrier went across the street and got bit several times by their female pit bull who had given birth not too long ago.  Now Guy (the JRT) is a nice sweet dog and was over there probably just to say hello, but the momma did what a momma does and was protecting her kids.  Guy had several puncture wounds and a tear under his leg.  He will be okay - he's traumatized and is very sore.  We have him on pain meds a

Orange You Glad....

Finished quilting and binding the orange quilt for my in-law's Orange Cove reunion at the end of April.  They do so much for me that making this is the least I can do for them.  This quilt is inspired by A Little Bit Biased pattern called Fresh Squeezed.   Here's a link to her pattern.   She made hers with lemons but oranges were more appropriate for my quilt.  Plus I didn't add the borders like she did.  This was plenty big for what I needed. Here's a close up.  I kept the machine quilting very simple. Unfortunately, this is not on my resolution list so I don't get to check one off the list. And just because he's so cute, I wanted to share a picture of my grandson and his brother Beast. This little boy loves his brother and luckily his brother is a patient gentle Beast. Thanks for looking.