Pointless Quilter

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.

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 d...

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...

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. ...

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.

So last Thursday I did a trunk show at the Nipomo Quilt Guild.  What a nice bunch of ladies and they really made me feel so welcomed.  One lady even gave me some brownies to take to the retreat.  It was great to see my friend Sue and fortunately I had my "groupies" with me so I wasn't among all strangers.  These were ladies who were coming to our house in Cambria for a weekend retreat.  Here's me on the stage and my friends who came with me. From left to right - top:  Janice, me Sue, Elaine.  Bottom:  Debbie and Kathy Even though it rained a bit this weekend, we had a wonderful time - probably because we don't get out much.  We went out for dinner one night and went to town one afternoon to do a little shopping.  We all got a lot done and as usual, plenty of laughs, food and fun.  Here are some of the projects we worked on. Anna - a quilt for her daughters boyfriend Debbie's scrap top (center) she made it bigger and bette...

I'm packed and ready for a retreat in Cambria and I'm also the speaker at the Nipomo Quilt Guild (doing a trunk show) and because I have to take not only my retreat stuff (you know, machine, tables, chair, fabrics, threads, rulers, food, etc) I have to take 4 suitcases and 1 plastic tub full of quilts to show so I have to borrow his "new to him" half ton truck to carry it all. He has mentioned this several times to me tonight. So the last few days when I've had a few extra minutes, I've been finishing this little baby.  It's from the class I took at Road 2 California, the class was Layered Waves by Karen Eckmeier.  I decided to make mine a pillow to keep at the beach house in Cambria. An the picture below is the reason we went to Livermore on Sunday.  We brought the parts for this shelving unit to the kids.  Jeff and his dad had all the parts and pieces of trim and it was their job to paint and put it together.  I am amazed at how fast they did it  Appa...

I got to see my grandson this weekend and being the great Oma that I am, I let him play with my camera.  These are some of the pictures he took (with a little help from me). Mom, GG and Gpa Brother Beast looking at mom in the backyard. Oma and me - I was crying so she let me play with her camera. Another Beast picture My chubby little foot. He's a great little boy and so funny.  He and I were playing in the backyard and he stuck a handful of dirt in him mouth and I ran to him and washed his face off with my hand (and by this time he was trying to spit it out) and he also just thought it was hilarious - I was trying to tell him it was yucky and he kept giggling.  Then he'd do it again and laugh.  After the third time, we came inside.  He's pretty much potty trained during the day Kelly said but that doesn't mean he always makes it into the toilet.  Let's just say they need a little cup guard on his little toilet seat.  He's a happy l...

I finally finished my green and white quilt and I whipped up two table tops to cover the nightstands as well.  Whew.  I love how this turned out.  The pattern is from a magazine however, this magazine didn't have the magazine name or date it was printed and I copied it a few years ago.  (I only keep magazines for 3 years - after that I go through them all and scan all the quilts and patterns I want to make one day.)  Anyway, here it is. Now I'm going to spend the rest of the evening making half-square triangles for my Friendship Group's 2012 challenge.  I need 260 by April 22.  I got 86 done yesterday.  If I do a little each day I won't get bored. Thanks for looking.

While my machine was set up for machine quilting -finished my green and white quilt - just need to hand sew the binding down and do a label) I figured I'd work on the Free Motion Quilting challenge.  I also picked up another charity quilt from guild and figured I could practice on that too.  When I saw the tutorial for this months teacher I realized I had already completed the stars and loops last month.  See  here  and scroll down .  For information re: the challenge check out  Sew Cal Gal's Free Motion Quilting Challenge This is March's sample.  Used neon yellow in honor of the flowers. Just her basic loop design from the tutorial.  (Charity Quilt) Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to finally show the green and white quilt.  Yea!!!! Thanks for looking

Thanks to Suzanne Kistler from Quilt by Faith blog for giving me the coveted Liebster Blog award. According to her post,  The Liebster Award takes its name from the German word meaning Beloved, Dearest or Favorite.  It's to be given to blogs with less than 200 followers and for someone who inspires you.   As part of the tradition it is passed along to 5 bloggers that have motivated and inspired. To accept the award you must: 1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them. 2. Post the award to your blog. 3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you appreciate and value. 4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have been offered this award. Here are 5 bloggers who inspire me.   Paula from Paula's Pins and Needles  - she inspires me because of how much she gets done.  She's a dedicated quilter and donates so much of her time and energy for charity quilts as well as to her family and frien...