Pointless Quilter

Needed a quick piece to make for a giveaway at the guild for this Thursday so I found this pattern in a magazine (can't remember which one right now).  Anyway, now that I see the picture, I should have put some type of backing behind the white part of the rabbits, but too late now.  Guild tomorrow night.  Tonight I sewed about 200 1/2 square triangles together (red and white for The Great Little Quilt Sale quilt) and yes, it's another quilt NOT on my resolution list.  My One Block Wonder is sitting here all pinned and ready to go - just not in the mood to get into it I guess.  Maybe this weekend except I'm taking a class from the Linda Schmidt - where we get to play with all kind of unusual and fun things.  Until then...

And not to a puppy baby!  My lovely step-daughter and son-in-law called me today at work and gave me the exciting news.  She's 10 1/2 weeks along and will be having a baby in mid-late October.  I screamed out loud in the office and I know that everyone knew then the news.  On the way home from work, I couldn't stop smiling.   With these two beautiful people, I will have the most adorable little grandbaby (I don't care if its a girl or a boy). 

Here are my blocks for my friendship groups 2010 challenge  - part 1.  All 16 of them are done.  Whew.  Now all I have to do is work on my ATC cards for guild this Thursday and some type of gift to give away for the mystery.  What I'm really doing actually is stalling on quilting my one block wonder--not sure what to do on the inside - have the outside borders decided and the bottom part decided. 

I may not have been inspired at Asilomar by my teacher, but I was very inspired by my friend's teacher Don Linn.  He uses these types of book for quilting designs and  they can also be used for applique designs.  So exciting and so many possibilities.  I already found some koi fish that I can use for my one block wonder quilt. I have been working hard on my Material Girls friendship group blocks.  I have 8 of 17 done.  Can't really show them because some of them read the blog and I kind of want them to be a little surprised.  Maybe I'll try to show a little of them when I have them all done.  We are exchanging in June (challenge part #1) and then we have until December to get our blocks into a quilt (challenge part #2).  Each of us gave our wish list like size, colors and some designs (like Sunbonnet Sue).   And we have to sign our names on each block so it's kind of a signature block exchange.  I've requested blocks in ocean colo...

I just found out today that I am a step grandmother to a bull dog puppy.  His name is Beast.  I hear he is the perfect puppy who hates to go outside but loves to cuddle and sleep.  Sounds perfect.  I can't wait to meet him. I figured since all my friends are bragging about all their grandchildren, I would too.

This is the finished quilt project from Roberta Hortons class from a couple months ago.  I had to get a couple more Japanese Yakata fabrics to finish the border.  It's not my favorite quilt, but it will do.  It's a small lap sized piece, quilted simply with straight line stitching. Last night was my art group, Loose Threads, meeting.  We are working through the Fearless Design book and last nights meeting was all about borders.  Several of us didn't get to do the project, but two members did.  I did bring quilts, like the one above, where I had to make border decisions. Here's Adena's pieces - And Grace did the project too.  Here are her 4 pieces. The books says they were to be quilted too, but we're all pretty much working women or have been traveling lately, therefore not alot of participation this time.  I thought it would be fun, but with Asilomar last week and all the other projects I have started already, I just didn't have the ti...

from our hotel room at the Asilomar Conference Center while attending the Empty Spools Seminar. Do you feel sorry for me?  It is gorgeous here - cold and breezy - a little rain - but it's not stopping us from having fun.  My friend Anna is taking Don Linn's machine quilting class.  She is LOVING IT!  And you should see what she has done.  She has a blog - linked on my right here - Anna the Artist Within.  Give her a week or so to show you her stuff. My other friend Debbie (also has a blog on the right -crazy debbie- and she's taking Ruth McDowel and is also loving her class.  She's doing a picture of her 16 year old dog Squirt and so far what she has done is amazing.  I'm taking Elly Sienkewitz (spelling) applique.  I hate to say this because she is the sweetest, nicest lady, but I'm not really thinking it was worth the money to come see her.  She is giving us a lot of history about Balitmore Album quilts (her specialty) but she's...

Just a quickie to brag about the haul I won at guild tonight.  Our guild has a little raffle each month to help earn additional money for speakers.  Kristin Eilers, a member, dyed these fabrics and donated them for our raffle.  I'm a lucky girl!  And Kristin is an awesome fabric dyer.  Thanks Kristin.  I leave Sunday for a week at Asilomar--sooooo excited.  I'll report when I get back.

Okay so only the pincushion is really completely finished but I just couldn't wait.  I needed to post.  Here's the finished pincushion.  I'm giving this away as a giveaway at guild on Thursday for the drawing of people who have kept up with the Mystery Quilt.  An almost finish - another little table topper for March - another giveaway.   And finally the scrap therapy - all that's left to do is to sew down the binding on 2 sides and put a label on it.  I'm thinking the name will be Tequila with Lime.  The green is so strong that I tried to tone it down with some royal blue quilting.  I think you see the stars a little better.  Who knows.  You can still see some of the chalk marks on the border.  This is another Scrap-Therapy  pattern called Star Gazing.    And I also finished this Scrap Therapy purse - I made it with my orange, lime green and purple scraps and found this fun cat faced fabric to go with it.   ...

I had a picture of a table runner that I found on the web years ago using this 3 corner snowball block to make a clover block.  This is a "test" version of the picture -it didn't have instructions.  I think I will need to make a few for guild gifts but I think I'll make them smaller.  Super easy to make though.  And I cheated and machined stitched the binding down - looks horrible but for what I need it for, it will work.  It now has a home at the end of my counter.   So another finished quilt, but unfortunately it isn't on my resolution list either.  On the positive side, the latest scrap therapy quilt (that is on the resolution list) is pinned and ready to be quilted.  However, I have my Loose Threads Art friendship group project I need to work on.  I'm stumped so I have to stare at it longer to see if I get inspired.  Maybe I'll just start cutting.  We're playing with panels - we have to "maintain unity using panels".  Okay...

Oh, she got a gift card too, but I whipped this long pillow up at the "Party Party Party" night at the quilt store last Friday.  Here she is modeling it.  She was being goofy and would only show her back side.  Thanks to my friend Kathy M for giving me the letters from her panel. She loved it.  But she's always been so gracious about gifts.  I got a lot accomplished last Friday.  Finished the backing for the latest Scrap Therapy quilt and the binding, a shamrock table runner top done and backing and binding ready for that.  Well, back to work!

Once I finished quilting the guilds quilt, I had a few of my own to finish.  The first thing I had to do though, as stated in my last blog entry, was make my sister her hat and neck warmer....here it is.  (Oh sis, I mailed it yesterday - you should get it by the 5th or 6th.) The ATC theme this month's guild meeting was FiRe.... burning passion, hot flames.  This is what I created.  I first painted the fabric with inks and then I just stitched with a few different color threads.  I only made 4 so I won't get to keep one if everyone participates this month.   Just noticed the picture is upside down. The next thing I finished was my Hawaiian Fall quilt.  I just straight line quilted it.  I thought I'd let the fabric do the talking.  This fabric was in the local quilt store Thimble Towne and spoke to me every time I was there so a year ago I broke down and bought a bunch of it without a pattern in mind.  I kept loo...

This is what I have been working on lately and I finally finished my part. (The picture doesn't show it all the way finished tho.)  This is our guild's (Common Threads Quilt Guild - Hanford/Lemoore, CA) opportunity quilt and I was asked to machine quilt this.  I said yes.  It was a labor of love.  I thought I did pretty good for an amateur- but don't look too close.  This was done on my home machine (Bernina 640) with the feathers in Superior Thread's Nature Color and Rainbow thread and the rest in Bottom Line.  I do get to cross off something from my resolution list on the right there.  Now on to my own projects.   The first thing I have to do is make a fleece hat and neck cowl for my younger sister.  She picked the fabric out at Christmas and I feel I better get that to her before the weather warms up.  Oh, wait, she lives in the Seattle, WA area so she needs it for a lot longer than us Californians. :)...

I did some damage to my wallet at Road to California this year.  I consolidated the photos so it wouldn't look like so much.  Luckily I went with a plan and I didn't veer too much from it.  I didn't just shop either, I did take 2 classes.  The first was the "Painting with ink" class from Patt Blair.  She's a wonderful teacher and very talented.  Here's what I finished in class. The second class I took was from Joanie Zeier Poole, it was all about designing, adapting and marking quilting designs.  (Thanks to Sue--I got this class because she couldn't make it and needed someone to fill the space).   I learned alot.  We didn't sew - but we all brought the same size piece to work on and each got to play with drawing designs on paper.  This is what I created.  I used the fabric to help me chose a design.  The show itself was fantastic.  I took lots of pictures. I had a friend who had a quilt in the s...

Our guild started raising money by having monthly raffles of small quilts - silly me signed up to donate a quilt for January.  Here's what I came up with.  I saw this from the Quilt Sampler 2002 magazine - it was a quilt from the Quakertown Quilts store.  There wasn't a pattern so I kind of winged it. I hope it can make some money for the guild.  I also had some time this weekend at my folks house to create these two simple pages from my step-daughter's wedding.  These pages are about her wedding dress. Hope you are enjoying your first week of 2010.  I am getting ready for a busy quilting weekend and also leave next Wednesday for our annual trek to the Road to California quilt show.  I'm taking Pat Blairs class and am getting nervous.  She was the featured artist last year and I was so impressed with her art and was lucky I got in her class.  Anybody else going? 

This was hard to do--list all the projects I have started or at least have fabric packs or kits for quilts that need to be made.  This will make it really hard for me to go to a quilt show and buy something.  Ha ha!  That will never happen.  Anyway, I'm putting this list on the side of my blog and will mark off when they are done.  Do you think making the list itself is a good enough resolution? 

Well, now that the holidays are over, I can show everything I've been working on.  First off, my sisters and sister-in-law decided year ago to exchange ornaments each year instead of other gifts - however the ornaments must be hand made.  Here are the ornaments I made.  (Some of these are for my niece and nephews too.) Here are the ornaments I received.  The wood cut ornament my brother made and the wreath from my little sister.  My older sister made these wonderful family cookbooks (picture to come later) instead of ornaments this year. Here are some needle savers I made for my art friendship group ladies, Loose Threads.  I didn't get a picture of the wooden reindeer I made for my Material Girls. Here's the rag quilt I made for my step-daughter. And on to the stylish hats, my niece asked for hats for Christmas.  When asked what kind of hats, she looked at my sister-in-law and said "Stylish Ones".  Okay - so my mom knitted or crocheted...

Every year my friendship group has a challenge.  We usually decide in December or January what our challenge will be and then we reveal the challenges at our Christmas party.  Today was the day of the big reveal.  I gave each person a paint chip with 5 or more colors on it and the challenge was to make a quilt using at least  5 of the colors on the chip, we could add one more color and it must have at least one bead on it.  I took pictures of the finished quilts with the paint chips, however the glare from the camera bounced back on the chip so some are hard to see.  I belong to such a talented girls. This is Kathy M's quilt and her paint chip.  It was great that her chip matched the fabric line exactly.  Dear Rita B.  had the pattern, the material and just picked up her fusible to work on the quilt but at bowling that night, she tripped and broke her wrist/arm and it was in a cast for 8 weeks so she was unable to work on it.  We ca...