Pointless Quilter

This wasn't even on my list of things to do this weekend but I just couldn't resist --wanted to try it.  I didn't have enough material but you would never know it.  It's about 3 inches too short.  I can live with that.  This is a spring scarf and I got the pattern from Bernina's website its created by Ashley Johnston.  Mine will go so pretty with a pink shirt. Now - on to my boring blocks.  I have 60 more to make. Thanks for looking. Barb

First, I want to thank all of you again who commented on my last post.  I will look at the comments from others about my "talent of finishing quilts" as only positive and I hope I will be just as cautious about my comments about others as well. So, I did a little retail therapy this week.  I have seen all these cute Lil' Twister quilts and decided I needed to make one too.   So off to Fat Quarter Shop to purchase the tool and the 5" solids.  It's not like I don't have a lot of 5" squares, but I decided I wanted only true solid colors for my first try.  I will use a black border as well.  Here's my purchase, I also bought about 7 yards of kona white as well. I also bought 3 books from Amazon.  I used to go to Scrap Therapy at the LQS but it has changed ownership and the new owner isn't continuing the program.  I contacted the owner of 'Scrap-Therapy" and she said she was having a book for Scrap Therapy out in March so I have been pa...

Here are my finished quilts and I'll explain the guilty part later. The first quilt is from Judy Sisneros 9 Patch Pizzazz on point class I took 2 Saturdays ago.  I had the top done except for the border at the class and just added the borders and cut out some of the focus fabric to applique for that extra "pizzazz".  As I was quilting, I noticed that I had 2 blocks switched.  I won't tell you and you probably won't be able to see it since it's kind of a busy quilt.  The close up shows you the free motion quilting I did in the border too.  I used Valdani's variegated thread and I love the color variations but I have to say it's not the easiest thread to use - it took a while to get the tension/needle/bobbin thread combination right.  This second quilt are the circles I had to cut out for this quilt scroll down to see it .  This  little baby will be donated to my guild's charity quilt program.  Was super fast and easy to make and used ...

My husband and I just came home from a whirlwind trip to the Grand Canyon.  I had never been and we saw this AAA deal where you start in Williams, AZ, and take a train to the Grand Canyon for the day, then back to Williams for another night, and then home the next day (today).  On our way home we stopped at the Hoover Dam to see the new bridge.  So - saw two big holes in the ground - one man made and one God made.  Both were pretty awesome to see. Grand Canyon - picture taken from the south rim Hoover Dam The train ride was slow - 63 miles and it took 2.5 hours.  They tried to entertain you with musicians and we even had a train robbery on the way back.  It was fun to see that because we had 2 young boys on our train and they made it more fun.  The Marshall kept trying to hit on the 4 girls who sat ahead of us - was pretty funny to see the old fart flirt.  I have to say the musician we had on the way back also told some very funny jokes....

This past Tuesday was the Loose Threads meeting and I didn't have my project finished.  I did show them what I had started, and I finally finished it today.  The technique was to use dimmensional flowers and the inspiration word was soul or sole or any other way you want to use the word.  I used soul and found this quote that was just perfect.  I took a class from Judy Sisneros (of 9 Patch Pizazz fame)that was sponsored by our guild yesterday.  If you ever get a chance to take a class from her I would recommend it.  My original idea was to use my tiger eyes I painted 2 years ago but she said it wouldn't work with the "on point" we were going to work on that day.  She was right - but I figured I could sneak it in.  Instead I ended up buying a kit from her.  I finished the top last night and got the back ready today as well as the binding and label.  I just have to pin it.  I plan on doing just a basic all over design so the quiltin...

What a busy week I've had.  I went to visit my folks this weekend - not only was it the Almond Blossom Festival in the big town of Ripon, California (went to the parade) my niece Claire turned 8 and I was the official photographer and am now on the top of her favorite aunt list.  Here's me and Claire. My niece Claire It was a chef party and here are all the girls Me and Claire It was a fun party -each girl got to decorate their own chef's hat, each got an apron with their name on it (and no I didn't make them her Grandma Marcia and her mom did all that work), they made their own lemonade, pizza, decorated their own cake and then had smell and taste tests.  My sis-in-law did a great job with the party. Then on Tuesday night, my art group met and we revealed our "soul" project.  I didn't get mine finished and I'll show it later when it's done, but here are Karen's (not quite finished either), Anna's, also not quite finished, Sar...

Tried to get a close up so you can see that I actually did some beading on there and there are dimmensional butterflies that I got for a Christmas gift.  Had fun playing with this.  I use my embroidery machine for the Danish looking horse thing and free formed the rest, a la Terry Waldron.  And this is a resolution quilt - so one more off my list.  :)  Check out my friend   Debbie 's blog - she has her class project posted too.  Hers is much prettier and her quilting is out of this world and her's has a real sentimental story. My husband met with our tax guy today and we are so screwed.  Jeff is still reeling.  We have to make some adjustments this year so we don't get dinged again next year.  And I usually don't talk much about my work, but I'm being audited this week--it's an internal audit (we hire a company to do this each year) and today was madness getting ready for it.  Still didn't get it all done but they will be...

At Road 2 Californai 2010, I took Joanie Zeier Poole's class, it was all about designing, adapting and marking quilting designs.   I finally finished it.  I don't know what took so long.  I'm calling it Doxie Love.  I used the doxie's design from the fabric in the middle border as an inspiration for the quilting.   As it's Valentine's Day, I pushed to finish this one on Valentine's Day.  Here's the blog entry about the class.  (scroll to middle of page)    Road 2 California 2010 Speaking of Valentine's, it was a quiet one here.  When I got to work my boss Greg had a bunch of kisses and Dove candies all around all our desks.  What a sweetie!  I got him a card and a big Hershey's kiss too.  My hubby left yesterday for Cambria to spray weeds at the house there so our Valentine's wasn't very romantic.  He did make me breakfast before he left.  Anyway, I have another finish for the year.  It wa...

Bought this pattern and 2 fabric kits at Road to California last month.  They were super easy to put together.  Made me feel like I accomplished something.  They are from The Calico Horse based in Redlands. CA.  The pattern includes mats for Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving/Fall and 4th of July.  Didn't buy kits for those and now that I've made these 2 the rest can be made with all my scraps. Started cutting my next project.  It's called Lincoln's Watch and I'm using a fat quarter pack I bought about 2 years ago called Coventry by Jo Morton.  I've had to add some additional fabrics from my stash that aren't part of the "pack" but it will be super scrappy and you won't be able to tell.  Thanks for looking.

 I finished this baby!  It's from our guild class last month (January) called "Look Ma, No Curves" with instructor Deb Karasik.  I love how it turned out.  Still no name for it yet.  As usual, I'll take suggestions since everyone else is so much better at it than I am.  I spent so much time going around each peak with my walking foot and I should have done it all free motion.  I am horrible at straight lines. Oh, I can check off two of my resolution quilts because I used my red and aqua fabrics that I had collected and finished a class project.  YES! Now, I will work on some mindless little seasonal candle mats.  My hubby is at a Superbowl Party that I had no desire to go to.  Thanks for looking.

First and foremost - a most recent picture of my grandson.  3 months old and wearing 6 months old clothes.  He's a really chunky monkey.  Second, about a month ago, I brought my car in to be smogged - because I couldn't renew my registration without a smog this year.  It wouldn't pass and it would cost me about $1,300 just for the new cadalytic converter and more if you include the labor to replace it and the car isn't even worth that much.  (Kelly Blue Book is $2,000).  The part is so expensive because of the California state requirements.:( So I had to buy a new car.  My old car was a Toyota Corolla.  It had 226,000 miles and I had it for 8 years so it did do me good.    So instead of paying for a repair that would take me months to pay off,  I decided just to get a new car.  I looked at the new Corollas, but for the same price and a few more "extras" I ended up getting a Nissan Sentra.  Here's my new baby. Now it's ...

We finally had our January meeting on Monday (was delayed due to fog) and we revealed our "photo" quilts which only 3 of us actually did the project.  Sara did it I guess since she included photos in her piece to Anna below) but she went to go visit her new granddaughter.  Here's what was done.  The fractured piece on the left is Anna's, mine's in the middle (shown on a previous blog post) and the flower is Janices.  She used excel to tile print the flower.  Came out great - she got the directions from the latest Quilt Life magazine. . The project was to use a picture and the inspiration word was Joy. Then Anna had a birthday and this year we're all making 6" strips for each other but instead of putting them all in one long strip - we're making vertical pieces that we can hang together or separately.  Anna asked for pieces no longer that 44" and with tabs and they had to reflect the maker.  Mine is the leaf piece, 2nd on the right.  I used a ...

I have a great job.  A couple months ago I got to meet David Archuleta from American Idol and today last years' winner Lee DeWyze played at our mall and I got to see him, get his autograph and talk to him for a minute.  Really nice guy.  I couldn't stay for his whole mini-concert as it's an hour drive home and the fog has been pretty bad so I had to leave 1/2 way through his set.  He was great, sounded good.  So now that I got home late, did some house errands not a lot of time to sew tonight (hence a blog post).  I just have the last border to paper piece on the Deb Karasik class project.  I really am loving it.  So clean and crisp.  Thanks for looking.

If you want to see some great photos of the show quilts, check out Darlene's at Sew Cal Gal .  She did a great job summarizing the show and the quilts.  More importantly this is what I worked on and what I bought. Fabric for my bosses son quilt.  (His school colors) Marimekko Oyj Suomi fabric.  Another Marimekko fabric. The books I bought. The thread and crystals I bought. And to add to my fall fabric stash. Misc. fabrics, a pattern ,  2 fabric packs to go with pattern. Some of the yellows and greens and browns I got to use on my class project. The picture I used for my project. This is as far as I've gotten.  I'm using this green instead of appliqueing all the leaves. Want to make a red, white and blue quilt - here's a start of it. Not sure what I'm going to do with the Marimekko fabrics.  I was thinking of just finishing the edge of the red one and using as a table cloth.  My friends think I need...