Caricol Creations

Wedding Stuff Prototypes

2009-12-31T19:43:00.000-08:00

DD is getting married in May...I offered to make the ringbearer pillow and flower girl basket and since she likes stars, I said I would try to make them in star shapes...I finished the prototypes this evening...will have to see what DD thinks of them!

You have to imagine them in satin brocade...I just used some scrap material to see if the patterns would work out..so they are not even her colors..

First, I had to re-learn how to make a 5 pointed star out of paper for my pattern (yay Google!)...

The first ringbearer pillow I did was a flop..the points would not stay stuffed! and it was way too big..cut down the star pattern and made another one..this time I stitched each side of the star fabric to cotton batting..which when the seam allowance is poked into the points, makes them stay pointy..and the cotton batting seems to hold the polyfluff better..

This is the flowergirl basket..I only did one of these..and again, I think it may be a bit too big..On the real one, the outside will be satin brocade, the lining will be satin and I will probably use shiny rayon thread for the satin stitching. It does stand up on its own and I think its pretty cute! The bows should probably be bigger satin ribbon...and I think they may end up pink, as that is one of her colors...

Horsing Around...

2009-12-31T13:05:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, one of the bloggers that I follow announced she had just gotten a new fabric line that she designed published..she had a little contest and I was chosen to recieve some of her very cute fabric to make a pillowcase...So...here is the pillowcase and if you guess that it's going to DGD, you would be guessing right! She has a LARGE collection of horsies..but so far, not a horsie pillowcase!

You can see the whole fabric line here. Isn't it just the cutest design?? It's supposed to be in Quilt Shops sometime in February in case you are interested in getting some for yourself..

I love the main panel! Have to see if DDIL would want me to make a wall hanging for DGD's room out of it:

Christmas Gifts and Cards

2009-12-31T12:45:00.000-08:00

Here is one of the Christmas gifts I made this year..the number of folks that DH and I exchanged gifts with this year was cut down to just our kids..the rest of us donated to a charity and we had a marvelous Christmas Feast!

A little fleece pony that I made for my DGD:

And here are the Christmas Cards I made, I attached a Grany Star to the front of the card. The Grany Stars were all made with yarn and gold cording that came from MY Granny's stash that I inherited. All the materials for the cards were stuff I had on hand:

I put the following story inside of the cards..it's similar to one I read but that one was too long and not quite right for my purposes, so I wrote my own version:

The Christmas Star

One day there was great excitement among the stars in the heavens. God had called a meeting of all the stars to announce something 'Very Important'. Each of them polished their rays until they sparkled and made their way to the meeting room, from the biggest and brightest stars, to the littlest star.

God told them, "I am sending my beloved son to Earth to give comfort to all the people. I wish to announce his birth by sending a star before him. I am looking for a very special star."

Each of the stars, one by one, came before the Throne of God and told of their qualifications.

“I am the North Star," said Polaris. "I help guide the Men of Earth on their journeys over sea and land."

Sirius said "I am the brightest star. I shine on all the Men of Earth."

"I am the closest star to the Men of Earth" said Alpha Centauri.

The parade of stars before the Throne of God lasted for quite a while. Finally God asked, "Are there any more stars?" From the back corner of the room a little voice was heard. "Only me, Lord.'

The Littlest Star made its way to the front and kneeled before the Throne. "I am just a wee little star. I don't have any great qualifications, My Lord. My light is hidden behind the other brighter stars. But I would be honored to be chosen to announce Your Son. I humbly do Your Will the best I am able. Whatever You say I should be, I will be." The Littlest Star returned to the back corner.

The meeting room was still and quiet as the other stars thought about what the Littlest Star had said.

Then one by one the other stars approached the Throne. "Pick another, Dear Lord. I am not worthy of such a great honor." And one by one the stars returned to their places in Heaven.

Soon, only the Littlest Star was left. "Why did they all go?" the Littlest Star asked God.

'Because, " said God, "each of the others told of their abilities. You were the only one to have faith in my abilities. You will be the special star to show the Earth my glory."

And so God made the Littlest Star into a blaze of beautiful light, shining brightly over the town of Bethlehem. Below, the shepherds in the fields were amazed at the light and became afraid, until an angel of the Lord appeared and said "Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy. For unto us a Savior is born this night." The angel pointed to the bright beam of light and said "Lo, He is born in a stable in Bethlehem." And the shepherds gathered their flocks and went to see the newborn babe, guided by the light of the Littlest Star.

The Littlest Star, its job done, still shines humbly in the evening sky, its light hidden by the bigger and brighter stars. But it still remembers those wonderful hours when it got to be the most brilliant star in the heavens as a reward for having faith in God.

Susan Noonan 2009 inspired by ‘Heli, The Star of Bethlehem” by Harrison Woodard

Making 'Terry Birds'

2009-12-02T22:56:00.000-08:00

Terry Grant designed a pattern for some cute stuffed birds...the pattern was published in the Special Commemorative Edition of the International Quilt Festival Quilt Scene magazine that is in the bookstores right now...its a dilly of a price ($14.95!!) but I wanted the pattern for the birds, so I ponied up the bucks! There are a couple other cute patterns in the magazine that I might make too, so maybe it will amortize out..
The wings are supposed to be fused with heavy interfacing..but for my prototype bird I just used freezer paper!! I know the bird is not going to get washed, so it should be fairly safe! On the prototype bird, the beak did not turn out quite right..it's a bit off center (gives Mr Birdy a bit of personality!)..And I did not have any wire to make the armature for the legs that allows the bird to stand..so he just has a bit of fleece for wee feet peeking out at the bottom.

I ventured out early on Black Friday to get some wire and the brown floral tape to make the legs..then spent at least half an hour arguing with the wire but it finally was pliered into submission..and as you can see in the picture, the Blue Bird does stand - so..it must be close to right! If I end up making a few more of these - and I probably will - I think I will build a jig for the feet.. The bird goes together pretty quickly after the legs are made and all the pieces cut out - 'stash diving' and deciding on just which pieces of fabric to use can take up a bit of time though...'Oh look..that one is really cool..but this one is even cooler..no wait..THIS is the perfect combo'.

The standing bird was made as a present for my Mom, who loves fat birds (she is the reason I wanted to make this pattern) When I showed her the prototype..she thought the two birds together looked really cute..so they both are living on her kitchen counter!

I have some lovely batiks picked out for the next bird!

Midnight in the Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

Here is a little doll quilt that I finished...I did the Fall Doll Quilt Swap on the forum as a Challenge (being a swap virgin...and not sure if I could meet the obligation of making and sending a doll quilt in the allotted time period)..I was pretty much right that it would be a bit too much while I am still working..if I did not have to burn some vacation time due to a policy change in the number of hours we can carry at work..I would still be in the applique stage and not done..'course if it had been simpler, that would have been better too!

But..it's done and I think it's pretty darned cute..WAY too involved though...It's an original design...I kind of went nuts with the number of green leaves and the tendrils..the original did not look THAT involved when I drew it! (deceptive, eh?)..If I had done it with fused applique instead of needle turn, that would have been faster as well..The tendrils, grooves on the pumpkins and the kitty's face are done with stem stitching..I managed to use up an entire skein of green embroidery thread!

The yellowy orange of the large pumpkin was the nastiest stuff to stitch thru (and of course, it had to be the biggest pumpkin!!) I was very glad when the quilting on that was finished! The others were softer hand dyes - no idea how or where I acquired the yellowy stuff though.. Batting is wool, which, with outline quilting, makes the elements seem a bit three dimensional. It's quilted with clear poly..slippery, tricky stuff to hand quilt with! But..I like the effect - it does not intrude on any of the colors.

Penrose Posey is DONE

2009-09-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Penrose Posey

started Feb 2005. Finished Sept 2009.

Its an interesting story behind how the Penrose came to be worked on. There was a discussion about using mathematical concepts as designs for quilts on one of the forums I belong to...one of the ladies posted a link to some mathematical quilts that she had found...I went and looked at the link and saw some really neat quilts. A group of us were working on the Giant Dahlia pattern at the time and I thought the Penrose Tile looked kind of like a different version of the dahlia.

I mentioned it to one of the ladies who promptly designed the two tiles in EQ5 (Penrose Tiles are made of just 2 shapes - a narrow dart and a fat kite) as an exercise to see if she could do it.

I meanwhile was doodling on a layout..and figured out what colors I wanted where - the medallion reminded me of a flower...

Of all the parts about quilting, I like cutting pieces the least (actually I detest it) so the lady that designed the tiles templates said she would do the cutting for me for a very reasonable fee! I sent the fabrics to her, she marked and cut out the tiles and shipped them back to me...all nice and neat little piles of kites and darts...

I sewed the penrose medallion together - I think it took just a weekend to do the hand stitching of the tiles, designed the vines, and appliqued the center to my background - this was the first time I had cut out the background on an applique - decided it would just be too much to quilt thru if that extra layer of fabric was still there... it was pretty nerve-wracking before I did it..but it turned out fine...

Eventually, I was finally able to track down the designer of the mathematical quilts on the above link! Her name is Pat Storey and she lives in England. Her mathematical quilts were published in a magazine...amazingly, I just happened to see the magazine (the store only had ONE copy!) and had to buy it!

There is a lot of info on the web about Sir Roger Penrose - an English mathematician...and his tiling designs.

It took 4.5 years to finish this quilt..the first time I started hand quilting it, I was using cotton batting..and it was a bear to get the gold metallic thread I decided to quilt with thru the cotton batting..ripped it all out and restarted with wool batting..much easier, but still a tricky business hand quilting with metallic thread..

Here is a closer picture..the gold thread is a little hard to make out..but it does sparkle in person.

The vines were made with a Clover bias maker..I used Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It to keep them in place..the tile buds and leaves had the seam allowances glued under as well (that was before I had learned to do needleturn!).

It feels good to get one of my really long outstanding UFO's done!

(but I still haven't made my Giant Dahlia yet!)

Landscape Friends Round Robin Progress

2009-09-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

These are the Landscape Friends Round Robin pieces that I have worked on:

Kim's:

Kim's was round 1 for me..I added the dogwood blossoms which were made of felt rickrack, clear beads, florescent green thread and shaded with aquarelle crayons. I also did the seam treatments on the sun.

Ami's:

Ami's was round two for me. I added the fence, the flowers on the fence and the ruts in the road.

Kathi's:

Kathi's is round 3 for me. I went kinda wild with adding seam treatments on this one..knowing that I was the last one and did not have to leave some for a next person...I added the antique tatted lace and braid, the starfish, the oyster stitching, the shells embroidery and the real oyster shell in the sand area. I added the blue fish, a dophin and the coral by 'broidere pierce'..added some beaded and fiber seam treatments in the ocean part.

Can't wait to see what MINE will look like when the ladies get done with it!

Autumn in Turtle Valley Finished

2009-09-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

I quilted and quilted yesterday...and finished the quilting on 'Autumn in Turtle Valley'..today I put a hanging sleeve and a label on it..so it is truly DONE!

The design of the quilt was from a pattern by Kathie Alyce - I took a class from her called 'Down the River, Down the Road' at Road to California. I decided I liked the look of the inset trees she did on a different pattern, so I added the tree...I took the piece with me to retreat and Ellen encouraged me to actually be brave and CUT the top to put the tree in...Nyla gave me the border fabric (It's a Patrick Lose fabric)...and Sharon let me hunt thru her scrap bag for the fall colored batiks for the leaves...Thank you, my friends!

Here is a detail shot of the top of the tree:

Here is a detail shot of the river with the quilted outlines of the turtles:

How I Spent National Quilting Day

2009-03-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, which was National Quilting Day, a group of my crafty friends got together to work on quilting (and knitting) projects..we had lots of fun..lots of good food and got a bunch done! We did not know it was National Quilting Day when we set the date..it just worked out really well!

Three of us are quilters and one prefers knitting..she does really nice knitting!

This was a mystery quilt from Road to California's Lakeside Mystery that got sewn together into the center of the top..it needs borders and then will get sent out to be quilted..I love how my friend put the calla lily in the black diamond (a 'design opportunity' as the teacher said)...I think this may be my favorite mystery quilt ever! It is so vibrant!

These are paperpieced arcs that another friend is working on... She took a Judy Neimyer class recently and learned how to do the curved arcs..I think they are turning out really beautiful.

This is one of the things I was working on...I am adding dogwood blossoms to the tree..This is a base that is being passed around in a Round Robin. I bought some felt ric-rac at the Coastal Shop Hop the prior weekend and its turning out quite nicely for the dogwood blossoms...I snip off two sets of two 'bumps' of the ric-rac, dab red Aquarelle crayon to make the pink, then the felt pieces are attached using crystal beads and lime green rayon thread...I need to do the other side of the tree and maybe add a few leaves..

The lady that is currently working on my base (the Tuscan Landscape) has put a vine with hundreds of silk ribbon roses on it coming out of one of the pots! It looks gorgeous!

I also added more seam treatments and some beads to 'Autumn in Turtle Valley' but it does not look that different yet! But..its getting there...I hope to get done with it by the end of the next month..

and the answer is: Mulberry Trees!

2009-03-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

We have identification of the mystery trees thanks to the guys on the Forestry forum...they are mulberry trees! Will have to see if we want to keep all of them as they can be invasive and the female trees which have the berries are kinda messy..BUT the fruit IS tasty! I remember a friend having a mulberry tree when I was growing up and we would come home with purple fingers and lips and drips all over our playclothes when the fruit was ripe.

I wonder if I should raise a couple of silkworms!

Autumn in Turtle Valley

2009-03-15T14:11:00.001-07:00

Here's the progress so far..if you click on the picture it will open up bigger. I still need to stem stitch all the green leaves, add a bit more embroidery and some beads (clear ones in the river for bubbles)..not sure what else..maybe a bird in the sky...one of my GF's thinks I should accentuate the turtles in the green batik, but I am not sure what would look right...then I need to figure out how to quilt this!

Volunteer 'Trees' Are Blooming

2009-03-15T11:41:00.001-07:00

There are little flowering buds on several of the volunteer 'trees'...I still do not know what these are...I was able to pull up one of the little ones without much effort... I am thinking I will have to take a branch to a nursery and see if they can tell me...Even if it is a weed, it's a nice looking weed..and unless it's poisonous, I think we might just let them grow...

Coastal Shop Hop

2009-03-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a group of us went on a 'creative crafting' shop hop - usually we just go to quilt shops on the big So Cal Quilter's Run..but this one had a bit of a different flair..there were a couple of quilt shops, a couple of bead shops, a couple of gifty type stores, a couple of yarn shops and one that had scrapbooking supplies too..

Most of the day we were hugging the coastline and it was quite overcast as it usually is at the coast in the spring...it was nice hopping weather! Not too cold, not too hot..and not too bright...

Starry Night Hollow...a very interesting Quilt Shop..in a house! The gardens around the house were so pretty, I asked if I could snap some shots...

Notice the gate in the picture..it has a quilt attached to the gate!

The poppies are starting to really bloom out around the freeways - these two shots were taken thru the car window as we were going down a freeway ramp (which is why they are a bit blurry):

I think there is some blue lupine mixed in there too...

At one of the shops...I found wool roving in a vast array of colors..the lady asked me what I was going to make with the wool and I said I wanted to try making some felted animals - she said 'I have just the book for you!' and indeed, it had to come home with me:

if you follow the link to Amazon, you can see more of the pictures inside the book..the animals are sooooo cute!

First Picnic of the Season

2009-03-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

DH and I ate our dinner out in the back yard today..kind of a picnic of sorts! We had little hot dogs with mustard, diet soda and steamed broccoli... The back yard is very green and trees are starting to leaf out.. the lemon tree is full of blossoms (and lemons!):

We are trying to figure out what this tree/plant is..its a 'volunteer' along with about 20 more of them in the back yard..they lost their leaves during the winter and are the first of the trees(?) to leaf out..right now they are about 15 feet high...so I don't think they are weeds (I hope not anyway)! Our best guess is some sort of oak..but if anyone knows for sure, please let me know...

They are directly under where the birds sit in the trees...

Neighbor's horse is enjoying the fresh air and has munched all of the grass he can reach from his stall...

The moonrise over the trees:

Arizona Retreat 2009 - Part 2

2009-03-05T20:02:00.000-08:00

We had a grand time at there retreat..I worked on my string blocks for the Hearts Garden Quilt (its been in a few posts!)

Here are some sample blocks..

I THINK I am done with all of the blocks I need for the back and hopefully I can start working on putting the quilt together now..I need to design a quilting pattern and start tracing it, get some sashing strips cut (need to figure out if I have enough of the green fabric for the sashing left over), and lay out the back so I know which block goes where..

I also worked on the batik landscape that I made in a class at Road To California in 2008...I wanted to add a tree to the landscape..and that involved cutting the landscape..I have been putting off doing this for MONTHS! But..one of the ladies at the retreat encouraged me to 'just do it'...and so I did...another of the ladies gave me a wonderful strip of fabric for the border, and another let me dig thru her bag of scraps, looking for fall colored batiks to make leaves for the tree...I appliqued most of the leaves on the trip home. I have been working on embroidering on the seams as well...

Some of the fun stuff we did:

learned how to make cathedral windows blocks
one of the ladies taught a class on how to maintain your Featherweight sewing machine - she brought one that she auctioned off and another of the retreaters went home with a real treasure!
Patrick Lose, a fabric and pattern designer that lives in Arizona, came to be our guest speaker...you can read about his take on the retreat on his blog...
we had 'Secret Sisters' again this year...that was a blast again.. My SS gave me lots of wonderful goodies - including an organizer basket that I have wanted for a long time and lots of material and my very favorite tea (Stash Chai Spice)...I gave my SS (not the same person) batiks, a pink pincushion, a glass nail file, dark chocolates and a laser leveler (she said when she got home that she had to carefully explain to her DH that No, the leveler was NOT going to live in the garage, but in the 'forbidden room'!) In case you are wondering what possible use it could have for quilting, its used to square up large quilts...
Went shopping several times at the 3 Dudes Quilt Shop across the street

Here is what my workstation looked like..before the madness and flurry of activity started! It looked considerably less neat as time wore on!

Arizona Retreat 2009 - Part 1

2009-03-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well..I am FINALLY getting around to starting to post about the retreat..it was a couple of weeks ago now!

I went with another lady that lives a couple of hours north of me..its much easier packing when you don't have to worry about overweight bags, seperating out the liquids and just how much you can haul around! I took way too much, as usual, but I did find a use for most of it! Fortunately I took a couple of extra tote bags..judging from prior years experiences..I knew I would need them..and indeed, they came back stuffed to the brim!!

On the way over, we did not stop much..but did see some cool cactuses and wildflowers in bloom..I posted on the forum as we were driving that we had seen them and Sophie asked if I was going to blog about them, so..when the driver needed a break, we stopped at a rest stop and I went running around, looking very 'tourist-y', snapping pictures of cactuses, wildflowers and trees! We got a few more shots on the way home...

And, Old Glory, flying beautiful in the breeze!

Beaded Kaleidescope

2009-02-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

Back in 2007, I took a class at Road to California from Nancy Eha on making beaded Kaleidoscopes...I finished the beading of the kaleidoscope in late January, but did not get around to designing and working on the quilt until late last year...

The frame for the outer ring is made of Timtex..but that was not strong enough to support the extra beading that I did in the outer ring, so I cut a very sturdy cardboard ring and that is sandwiched inside - that made it sufficiently stiff! I was going to picot bead around all of the edges but after I saw the effect of the outer ring, decided that would be going overboard.

This is a picture before the wires were sewn down and the outer ring beading was done:

And...here it is - Done! I just need to figure out how to hang it...any suggestions on how to hang it, especially if I entered it into a show, would be welcome!

What to Do With Class Sample Pieces - Make a Tote!

2009-02-08T09:58:00.000-08:00

The third day of Road classes was free motion quilting - and we made a cute little zipper pouch out of one of the pieces..but that left TWO more quilt sandwiches that were still just sample pieces...One of the ladies at work suggested I make them into a tote..so that's what I did!

(sorry about the picture being a bit washed out..but otherwise you would not see the quilting...)

I used some of my precious stash of Laurel Birch animal fabric..because the black background matched the black sampler pieces (matching black is more difficult than you would think!) AND it had red in the design - the hardest part was cutting into the Laurel Birch fabric and wondering if I would like the end result!...It's made so that it's completely reversible and I thought I was going to like the black on black side better, but when I turned it inside out to show DH that it was reversible, I was charmed by the red on black..especially with the white bobbin work!

I am going to try to find some Laurel Birch buttons for the strap area..I think that would look cute!

Sweet Magnolias Update

2009-02-08T09:33:00.000-08:00

Here is the progress on my version of the Sweet Magnolias from the class at Road to California...all of the applique is done, the embroidery is done (the eye was made by making a teeny tiny black yo-yo and adding a wee white highlight - something I learned how to do from Sharon Shamber's applique lessons), the borders have been found and added , its pin basted and ready for quilting. So far, I have not decided on whether I should do the quilting by hand or by machine...but hopefully I will get to it soon. Just in case I want to do it by hand, I used muslin for the backing, though I do have enough of the outer border fabric to fit..but hand quilting thru batik is a little harder than thru muslin! I have just enough of the inner border fabric left to do the binding.

My friends and I went on a road trip last Saturday to find the border fabrics. First we went to Oceanside to a museum that was having a quilt show - that was interesting..there were some really well done pieces there. Then we headed to our favorite Mexican food place. Its been in San Diego for many years and has pretty much perfected 'fast' food! When we got there, the line was out the door, but we were up to the register in just a few minutes and had our food by about 10 minutes later..pretty darn quick for the number of patrons...and yummy! Then we headed to Rosie's Calico Cupboard...one of the largest quilt shops..and with the best prices! We spent a couple of hours in there - I was looking for just the right fabrics for the borders for Sweet Magnolias - I finally found the right ones after going thru bolt after bolt of batik fabric! It was even sweeter with the '10% off batik fabric' coupon I had in hand! We headed over to Amidon Quilt shop - I did not get too much there and then back home.

I was initially concerned that the pattern called for pink in the magnolia blossoms, but found there actually IS a pink magnolia! Curiously, called a 'Susan Magnolia'!! I have never seen one up close..the only magnolias that I have seen that I could identify as a magnolia are the white ones.

Road to California - Day 4

2009-01-21T20:50:00.000-08:00

On the fourth day, I took a 'Fabric-scapes' class from Martha Nordstrand , from whom I had taken a class using her applique technique 3 years ago at Road..I still have that piece (several lovely California poppies) up on my design wall..waiting for the perfect place to put it...

Her technique is to cut templates from full sheets of label paper that get adhered to the right side of the fabric, then you turn the piece over, coat the edges with glue and use tiny screwdrivers to turn over the edge..she does absolutely lovely pieces and in fact, won the first place ribbon in the large applique quilt category at Road this year - here is her quilt...

Being currently fascinated with landscapes and landscape quilts, I wanted to see how she approached them. First we picked a picture to use - and reduced it to just the major elements...then auditioned fabrics and cut chunks of those fabrics, glued the edges and built up the picture against a piece of stiff clear plastic..for tricky details, we used the label paper, but mostly you just cut a piece that roughly matched the shape from the picture and worked from there...

I picked a Tuscan landscape to work with..I changed my mind about the back fabric and the sky a couple of times...until I got this - its just in the 'glue basted' stage..have not done any of the appliqueing yet...

After dinner (we opted for really fast for this last night and ate at In-N-Out - a local burger joint that makes delicious cheeseburgers), I took a class on Cathedral Stars by Shelley Swanland. I was seriously hoping to finish this quilt during the three hour class, but realize I was seriously deluded and out of my quiting mind! I got done with the top by the end of the class...but I was not happy with how the sashing came out..had to take it home and have several conversations with Jack (the Ripper) but finally, it came together ok - not perfect, but acceptable...I quilted it Sunday and thought about adding one of the piped bindings like I had seen in the Roundabout..rummaged around in my Granny's stash..found a package of unopened piping and started sewing it on...well..much to my dismay, the fabric had dry-rotted! There was black fabric dust EVERYWHERE..on the floor, on my clothes, under my fingernails, all over my machine....after that debacle I decided that the quilt was just going to get an ordinary binding!

I got the binding sewn on the front and took the quilt with me to the Dr's office to do the hand stitching on the bask while I waited..no sooner had I taken the needle out to do the very first stitch than the nurse called me back! That happened a couple more times - I had to have my mammies grammied and it happened in their waiting room too, and at the pharmacy!..I guess taking handwork is a way to ward off having to wait for long..and if you do really have to wait, you have something to do...

The flowers are formed during the quilting and then afterwards I added the beads and some embroidery thread stamens..overall, its pretty darned cute! And I love the colors of the kit I got!

Road To California - Day 3

2009-01-21T20:27:00.000-08:00

The third day was spent learning more machine quilting with Lois Smith. We experimented with free form designs, spent lots of time learning to control the speed of quilting and generally just having fun quilting. At the end of the class, we created a small triangle zipper bag out of one of the samples.

After dinner at El Pollo Loco (I had my favorite - three chicken wings!), we went to whats called 'Roundabout'..this is a facinating event...a bunch of the teachers and vendors put on 10 minute demos and every 10 minutes a bell rings, and you run to another demo..this goes on for a couple of hours..you are given a packet of info at the start of the show and list of the demos so you can decide which ones to attend..We saw soooo much..and had lots of fun..One of the demos, I was very facinated with - Silk ribbon embroidery by machine...Susan Schrempf was demo-ing her beautiful method..and I just HAD to buy the book, and the tools!

We also saw demos for

- the StarBuilder that is a set of rubbing pads for the Shiva Paintstiks - makes gorgeous star designs.

-how to make dogtooth borders

-how to make some really interesting quilts with nickle pieces and fusible grid

-some beautiful ribbon postcards

-how to do 'applique on the edge' - an interesting applique technique using bobbin work to outline the pieces

-the Great Glue Stick Caper - applique using glue sticks and small screwdrivers (more about this technique in Day 4 as the teacher is the same as my full day class) - but my friend had never seen the demo...

-how to do a piped binding

-printed kaleidescope cards using a pretty cool piece of software that makes the kaliedescopes for you that you can then print out on photo fabric sheets

and

-using the multi-angle Wedge ruler...

Road to California - Day 2

2009-01-21T19:54:00.000-08:00

The second day I spent learning machine quilting. The class was taught by Lois Smith - here is a bit about Lois on the Backroads to Road to California blog. We warmed up a bit with a small practice piece then started making a set of three panels on white sateen using the purple air erase markers to define where to sew..after we finished the three pieces, we put them together using a 'quilt as you go technique'...the class sample had a border, but I decided just to make mine have a facing and use it as a table runner.

Here is the class sample:

And here are the three panels that I got finished...I have since put the facing on it so its not a UFO anymore!And the purple marker is almost gone...you can still see faint lines...

After dinner at Olive Garden (I went wild and ordered a delicious steak..half of which I took home to DH!), one of my friends and I went to a needlefelting class and made this cute strawberry pincushion. This class was taught by 'Bird Brain Designs' - a bunch of delightfully funny ladies - and was one of the most fun classes I have attended! I really enjoyed needlefelting..so much so, that I now have the foam block, three single needles, a 4 needle tool, lots of wool roving and a cute tote bag from the Bird Brain ladies! I just need to make a cotton cover for the foam block to keep the roving from getting stuck in the foam..and I am all set to experiment with making balls, and critters and whatnot out of wool...I might have to buy me a sheep if I really get into this!

Road to California - Day 1

2009-01-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

The first class I attended at Road to California this year was on Needleturn Applique...Teacher was Cathy Van Bruggen and the pattern she was teaching from is called 'Sweet Magnolias' - a design with a mockingbird and several magnolia blossoms. I think I finally 'get' needleturn! It was a good class..I got finished with constructing my birdie except for the embroidery for his eye, beak and maybe some feathers, and the branch he will sit on.

This is the class sample that the teacher did:

Here is what I got done:

The bird is all from one fabric - we cut out template pieces from freezer paper, then I picked out the areas on the fabric that were the right value for each piece..my poor piece of fabric now looks like swiss cheese! But since its all one fabric, the color goes together marvelously..greys are usually hard to match. The bird is built on a piece of interfacing as a unit - this is a great technique - once you get all your units ready, you can line them up with the pattern (or adjust if you want or need to) and no problems with a piece being just a smidge too short to match up.

After the class, my friends and I went out to eat at Red Lobster..I had stuffed mushrooms and asparagus..yummy! (and only ONE cheese biscuit! I had never tasted one...it was very good!)

Then we attended the preview show for class participants. It was marvelous seeing the spectacular quilts - check out the winners! One pretty cool thing that they did this year was have a wonderful harpist playing during the show...

Before the Stroke of Midnight...

2009-01-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

This was the third quilt for the Finish 3 Quilts by 12/31/2008 Challenge - I made it with 22 minutes to spare!

In March of 2007, we started a HUGE project at work..with brutal hours..I worked sometimes 70-80 hours per week, week after week..my laptop was my constant companion! (I even had to bring it to the Arizona Retreat last year! I was running the daily jobs at our Christmas party last year and during our milestone celebration dinners)...I would roll out of bed, head for our project trailer, work til no one else was still there except my boss, head for home and sometimes even get back on the computer after I got home...It got so bad that I was even DREAMING about the work we were doing and the people on the project...could not even escape the project in my slumber!

One night...I remembered what my Mamma had told me when I was a small girl and having bad dreams...If you are dreaming about something you don't want to dream about, wake yourself up, turn over in bed and think about something pleasant...so..I did..and there was a cow! In a field! With the sun shining and a fluffy white cloud and trees and butterflies and flowers!

This quilt was started shortly after we implemented the project (on time and under budget!) in May 2008....and finished just before the stroke of midnight 12/31/20008!

It's quilted on wool batting which is why its so poofy! It's 22x26 inches - hand pieced, hand appliqued, hand quilted - even the binding was put on by hand!...I named it 'She's Out Standing In Her Field'...

100 Things Meme

2008-12-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

Here's another meme that's making the rounds:

1. Started your own blog - well, yeah!
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland - and Disneyworld..want to go to EuroDisney and Disney Japan...
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo - I have an 'unreliable voice' - not something I would get to do - unless you count singing in the shower
11. Bungee jumped - not interested in bungee jumping..though DD said it was a blast
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child - had two..quite enough!
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty - I may have..not sure though - I know we visited the island that the statue is on...I seem to remember lots of stairs...
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked - not interested in doing this either!
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill - mental health days are very important!
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb - did hold a couple of geese (they are not really cuddly though)
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon - used to run track in HS...
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run - don't remember hitting one...and not likely to at this age!
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - but..always could use more!
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing - but not with ropes
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke - at home.. not in public!
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted - well..it was a 'scherenschnitte' portrait - and I had a caricature done once
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling - if you count snorkeling in a swimming pool...I did have the snorkel, face mask and flippers on!
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie - was an extra in 'Seabiscuit'
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen - did help prepare food baskets for Christmas
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies - was 'Cookie Mom' one year too
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving - not dreadfully interested in this either! Ballooning would be ok though...
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check - not something I would deliberately set out to do!
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt - a few!
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle - and ONCE was quite enough, thankyouverymuch!
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book - did help edit several though
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car - and had to teach DH how to drive it as he'd never driven a stick shift..
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible - have read most of it...in bits and pieces..should read from cover to cover sometime...
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - went squirrel hunting with Daddy...(yummy) and have caught and cleaned fish
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury - yeah..and got named 'Foreman' because I was wearing a suit...Note to self...do not wear suit to courthouse if picked on jury again
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone - or is that be owned by a cell phone?? DH and I even call each other when we are in opposite ends of the house..better than yelling...
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day - many times!