This weeks work

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me!! Yep today is my birthday. This will be the last one cause I don't want to be 60!!

Anyhow this is what I've been doing. The lady that makes all the animal panel quilts and this one wants lots of quilting and it takes as long if not longer than custom so I went halfway between freehand and custom for her charges. I really hate doing these quilts.

These other pics are of baby quilts I made for Angels in Waiting. A group of nurses that take fragile babies to care for.












I have to get the boys quilt quilted today and the binding because our guild's meeting is Saturday. I've done 8 receiving blankets also but I need to get my serger rethreaded so I can make up the rest of them.

I hope everyone has a great holiday.

Monday

Last night John had leftover soup for dinner and he didn't give Tazzie any of the noodles....which she loves.......so she invited herself to join him.
She is so much fun but needs to have her wings clipped again. She insists on visiting when we are in the kitchen or I'm in the studio. She has discovered the pens sitting on my desk and throws them on the flooring saying "Uh Oh Crash".

Our snow is melting but we have a lot left. Now rain is in the forecast. The sky is dark and cloudy so we may just get some.

Got all my presents wrapped this morning. The kids will be over later and I didn't want to have to cover them again. Anyhow, just one more task out of the way.
I still have one of my own quilts to finish as a Christmas present then I have the 3 that came in the other day. She said, "no hurry" on them. But 2 of the women are in their 80's so I think I better get started on them.
Still working on quilts for Angels in Waiting. I have 4 tops done so far and 8 receiving blankets done. Still have a lot more receiving blankets to cut and serge......if I can get my serger to work properly.

John took the folios in for the ladies that work with him. I did one large and one small for each of the 4 of them. Today is cookie making day for them also which he will take in Wednesday.

Hope everyone has a fabulous week.

Kids and snow

It's been snowing for 5 hours and we've gotten about 5" of snow. Since my son and his family moved into an apartment in town, they decided to come out here and play in the snow. The one in the pink jacket is 8 yr old April Rose, the one behind her is 9 yr old Jessica Dawn and of course the other one is Lil Man, aka John Patrick.
Had to go to the hardware store and picked up some gloves for the girls. At least they had a little protection for their little hands.
But they had a ball and that's what counts with kids and snow.

Can you stand another picture of our snow?
This one was taken out our front door around 4pm and it's been snowing like crazy since 7 am. Said it's supposed to keep it up till 6 am tomorrow.
Looks like John won't be going to work tomorrow.

SNOW

We gots it!!

This is the view out my studio door. And it's only been snowing for an hour.



And this is a view looking north out my front door.
I love seeing snow fall........as long as I don't have to go out in it.
I know some people say "Big Deal!!" but it is to us since we only get snow maybe once every 3 or 4 years.

I plan to have a gift sewing day since I am done with customer Christmas quilts. And I'll be warm and snug in the house.

Have a fabulous day everyone.

Peacock done

And it only took me 3 days!! Then I had to put the binding on it.
I love the way it turned out but couldn't understand why the feathers on the right didn't work out the same as the left side. After I took the pic, I noticed that the flower groupings are higher on the right than the left. And the ones in the corners aren't exactly pointing right which threw off my hearts.


I thought I had just finished the last customer quilt then a friend/customer called and wanted to know if she could bring one over for a Christmas present for her husband. I said sure, why not. So I am finishing that one up now. It's a simple stack n whack put together a whole different way. I really like it and since she is a good friend, I'm going out of my way on this one. It has a leafy fabric for the filler triangles so I am doing Kim S's Just Leaf It kind of idea on it. I will have to use this again!

I hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Fun filled Saturday

I joined a quilt guild in Lake Arrowhead (near Big Bear Lake, tourist area mostly) a few months ago at the urging of a friend.
They meet the first Saturday of the month and today was our Christmas exchange and pot luck.
We were asked by a nurse that founded an organization called "Angels in Waiting" if we would be interested in donating baby quilts. The quilts will be for "fragile babies". Babies born addicted to drugs or alcohol or anything else that would make them "fragile".
Of course I immediately jumped on it. There was an article in a local paper of the newest addition, the most beautiful little 6 month old angel you ever saw.

If anyone that reads this is interested in helping out, I would be more than happy to take whatever baby quilts and receiving blankets you want to donate to our meetings. I know they will be appreciated.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend.

New quilting site

http://www.allourquilts.com/

This one is up and running and seems like a great site to join. Check it out!

John just left for Ontario Airport to pick up his sis who is visiting for Thanksgiving. They live in Houma, Louisiana so we don't get to visit very often. We did stop by there in May and got to take them to the zoo in New Orleans. They have an amazing zoo there.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

My new favorite and a visitor

This is my new favorite border treatment.
I draw lines every 2" apart......most borders will allow you to do this.....then I use the leaf template sitting there to quilt lines....sometimes I will add a smaller one inside these lines.




And I just had my favorite visitor. I think this one is the male because I didn't see a tag on his leg. The female has one. He came to visit right after I fed the outside birds......guess he was looking for a meal too because all the other ones took off.

Friday again!

Mark got his quilt yesterday. His boss wouldn't let him take off to test it out. He did last night tho and said it was nice and warm. Good thing, he said tonight it's supposed to get down to 16 degrees. That's cold in anybodies book!!

Did a massive quilt for a very sweet customer. She wanted her son's name on it but not so that he could see it. It's the new French Braid but done in squares and rectangles and all batiks. So I wrote his name and 2008 in one of the braids on the top corner. And believe it or not but I spelled his name wrong. I put Telli and it's supposed to be Terri. I thought I wrote it as she spelled it but I guess I didn't hear right. She is coming over today and should take me 5 min to do a partial reload and redo his name.

I joined a quilt guild with a friend and I volunteered to quilt a lap quilt for them. Had to find a piece of fabric big enough for the backing then I can get started on it after I finish with the reload.

Have a couple quilts coming next week that are huge but they will be done either with a panto or freehand. Then maybe I can work on something for Christmas gifts.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Wednesday's quilt

This is Libby's quilt. Have no idea if it has a name or her own design. She wanted simple and cheap. Should have done a leaf panto on it but since I had the time and the inclination, I decided to do something different. I did CC's (continuous curves) all over but after watching Tracey Browning's video, decided
to do a little extra in the large blocks to add more quilting to it.
Thank you Tracey.

Just Can't Cut It done

Finally got the binding finished on my brothers quilt. Now I can ship it off today. Going to go out and look in my stash to see if I have enough flannel to make pillow cases. Too bad my serger doesn't work so I can clean up the edges and make it faster to put together.
This isn't the prettiest quilt I've ever done, although I do like it, but it will certainly keep him warm on those cold Ohio nights. I used all the plaid flannels from my stash and 3 pieces for the backing with a Simplicity Air batting.

Friday again already??

Where does time go?? It's going by so fast I feel I'm missing something.
I finally got my brother's quilt top done. It's certainly nothing to jump up and down about but it's manly plaid flannels front and back and I'm going to use a nice thick batting. He lives in Ohio and it's already cold there so I better hurry and get it done.

Not much new going on around here. Temps are low at night and mid 60's during the day.
Quilting has picked up so I think we can start putting some money away for Christmas.
Went to M and L (discount fabric store in Buena Park) Got 11 1 yd pieces of 30's, a couple yards of a cute pastel pillow panel fabric and enough of 2 soft greens to finish the king sized double wedding ring quilts I bought off ebay. I am going to give one to my sis and keep the other one. I couldn't pass them up. One was 39.99 and the other was 29.99. No way I can make one for that.
I've made a couple for customers but have never made one for myself. I guess I can't afford me!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Happy Friday

It seems like it's been a very long week.
Went and picked up Lil Man (3 yr old grandson) yesterday afternoon. Lisa is sick (stress I think) so I offered to keep the little terrorist for a couple days. He has been such a joy to have. He has been helping me around the house, cooking, cleaning and being my little gofer.

Tomorrow I get to go to M and L in Buena Park. For anyone that isn't familiar with M and L, it's a discount fabric store that is in an old grocery store. The most expensive fabric they have is only 7.99. Moda has gone up to 3.98 from 2.69 and all flatfolds (stacked 6' high) are 1.69 from 1.50. Batiks are all 3.69. I only get to go once a year so I really stock up every time.

I had a big surprise the other day. I got an email from my youngest brother, Mark. I hadn't heard from him for about 22 years. There were 7 of us kids and there is only me, Mark and my younger brother Ed left. I really miss having family so it was the thrill of a lifetime hearing from him. Now if I can just find the other one! Everyone needs someone they can call family.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.

AND THE WINNER IS::

This one was hard because 2 people came up with it so I'm choosing both. Michelle and Sammi for "Xcellent"
Michelle, if you will pm me I will finish drafting this up and get it to you.
This quilt finishes at 56" square.
Congratulaltions to both of you.

Hopping Mad!!

I joined an online quilt group because a member said it was a fantastic group. Well I found out today that they aren't.
Someone posted about seeing a quilt or a pattern and copying it......is this ok or stealing? IT'S STEALING!!! No matter how you look at it, it's theft! All but one person told her "sure go ahead and do whatever you want. Once it's out for the public to see, you can do whatever you want" BULL!!
Even quilt magazines, and I'm sure other craft mags are the same, there is a blurp in the front that states that the patterns belong to them. You may make a quilt for yourself, a friend or a gift....that's it.
Patterns all tell you up front that they are an original design and not to be copied without written permission from the designer.
If you see a quilt at a show, or whatever, you can not copy it!!!
And to think that I put my ORIGINAL patterns out there, either on my blog or on an internet group.......how many people are actually honest and abide by the rules?? I can honestly say that all my patterns are original or I change the heck out of something before I call it mine. Just changing the fabric does not make it "your original".
How many magazines or books do we open and see an old tried and true pattern made up (new fabric) and it says "designed by so and so"? A lot!
It just makes me so angry that people just don't care if they take money right out of someone elses pocket. As designers, we have to pay to print the patterns, market them, pay taxes etc not to mention the money spent on the fabric, batting, backing, time involved to make the quilt or whatever and the time to draft it out and everything else that goes into it.
Ok I'll step off my soapbox but you can bet your bottom dollar that I dropped out of that group and deleted everything I did or said.

Quilty name

http://www.thequiltingpost.com/QuiltyNames.htm

Mine is Tsarina, Quilt Shop Explorer.

John left for his 11 day hunting trip yesterday morning. I am so enjoying all the peace and quiet.
Working on a really large oriental quilt right now. I really hate working with black. It tends to attract anything floating in the air. And it's hard on these poor old eyes to see black on black.
Here is a small sampling.

I drew out several ideas inbetween the arcs but settled on feathers. I got a new chalk at Joann's and love it. It was in the quilting section and comes with a holder, several white very thin white chalks and several colored chalks. I am loving it. Easy to see and easy to remove. It's called Dritz Chalk Cartridge Set.

Well, Mari is at Ft. Benning Georgia today trying to get all her paper work done and get signed up for housing. Then she goes home for the weekend and pick up her 13 yr old then back to Georgia on Monday. I hope things go smoothly for her.

Have a great weekend.

Another idea

I doodled on my vacation. This is one idea I came up with so stopped by the quilt shop Saturday and picked up a Jelly Roll with Moda batiks and a couple pieces for borders and sashing.
I think I will hold a contest for this one. Anyone that comes up with a name will get the pattern. How does that sound?

Have a great week everyone.

Sign up

And pass the word to all women you know.
armyofwomen.com
They are looking for one million to join. It's for research to find out what causes breast cancer. Why do healthy women get it, what causes some women to get it if they have a family history and some not. Did you know that men get it too.....my nephew had it when he was in his early 30's.
Please sign up........I think it's worth our time if we can keep one more woman from this.

Flag

I decided to quilt this up for Mari and put the Army caduceas in the blue. I printed out the pic from the front of my shirt and enlarged it for this. I used gold Arc thread on the top and gold Maxi loc in the bottom.

Pretty quilt

This quilt was done by a good customer named Nancy B. Unfortunately it had a damask backing that was cut really crooked......I mean up to 2 1/2 feet on one side and 10" on the other. And I had tons of pokies. I did a quilt before and one after and not one single pokie!! Must have been the poly in it. But the top turned out awesome.
I still have some work to do on my feathers, especially the inside of circles, but they are better than they were.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Another pic of Lt. Allen

Here are more pics of my daughter. I am so proud of her.

Got a call from her last night at 9 pm our time..11 pm their time. Her best, and probably only, friend, Robyn, lost her very short battle with pancreatic cancer. I feel so helpless because there is nothing I can say to help her hurt. And on top of that, she has had a migraine since Tuesday.
And she still had to get up this morning for classes. I feel for her.

I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend.

Honey........I'm home!!

Just got back this evening from a week in San Antonio, Texas.
Our oldest daughter graduated from OCS (officer candidate school) on the 19th. The nurses still have 2 more weeks of training then she will be stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia.
This is a picture of her daddy giving her the first salute as a 1st. Lieutenant in the Army.
It was awfully hard to leave her to come home. I miss her terribly, her being so far away all these years. I only get to see her once a year, if I'm lucky.
While there, we took her to some caverns not too far from Ft. Sam Houston where she is in school.
But the most important thing is we got to spend time with her.

But I'm also glad to be home with the "kids".

Tuesday!

Time sure is going by rapidly!
The granddaughters start back to school today.
My oldest granddaughter started college last Wednesday.
AND I LEAVE FOR TEXAS THE 17TH FOR MARI'S GRADUATION FROM OBS!!

John came home Friday trying his best not to have a shit eating grin on his face.
He asked me how would I feel about driving to San Antonio. YOU BETCHA!!!
We didn't know there would be a first graduation. We thought it was in the middle of October.
Which meant, the day he came home from his hunting trip he would have to, dump the trailer, take a shower, change clothes, grab another suitcase and get back on the road to drive straight through all 1300 miles. No can do!! So he gets to be the first one to salute her. She was feeling horrible because no one was going to be there for her. Everyone was talking about all the family and friends that were going to be there and poor Mari had no one. Well, now she will!!

Yesterday I got bindings put on the 2 fall tablerunners, the Dancing Daisies and my sis's "leave me alone" quilt. Today I finally got the binding put on the Tennessee Walking Horses quilt.
I have been invited to go to a quilt guild meeting on Saturday. One of my best customers has had rave reviews on the quilting I've done for her and they wanted to meet me and see a show and tell. Whoo Hoo.
I also got my Civil War "Austin Block" quilt top done. I was going to use the bonus HST for the middle border but couldn't make it fit so took it back off and just a straight border. Now to decide whether I want to do custom or a panto. Probably custom since it's for me.

I hope everyone has a fabulous week.

Busy busy

Got 2 more tablerunners done yesterday. Decided to go with a fall theme this time.......but also have some ideas for winter......but I have no winter fabric. Hmmm maybe a shopping trip is in order.

Got a call from Mari yesterday early evening.
Since they had all been good boys and girls, they let them come home a day early. They go back out on Tuesday for another 6 days. She said the worst part was not taking a shower. She tried to keep clean by using baby wipes but said it just wasn't the same thing. They were all pretty ripe for the bus trip back to base.
She said that her daughter, Heather, started college Wednesday. She still has no idea what she wants to major in. I guess that will come in time. At least the girls haven't killed each other yet.

New stuff

I've been busy designing again. A little anyhow. This is what I've done so far and I working on
seasonal table runners now also.




I don't generally do table runners but these are so much fun to design. Not near as much work as designing quilts.



Mari gets back from the field tomorrow. Can't wait to talk to her to see what she thought of her experience. She will be home for 4 days then goes back for 6.
I hope they don't have too much trouble with Gustav! It's headed in their directions. Plus I have in laws that live in Houma, Louisiana and they are right in the path also. I will keep them all in my thoughts and prayers.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Will keep you posted on my ideas.

For Sammi

Let me introduce you to Flower ( in the rear) and the baby, Buddy. John didn't like the name Bird. Said I would constantly get mad at him for not pronouncing it right.






This quilt is for my sister in law's
granddaughter, Hannah. She is 12 years old
so I didn't want to put juvenille fabrics on it.
I used fabrics left over from my LARR. Now for the quilting.

Saturday's happenings.

After John got the watering done this morning, we headed into town.
First stop was Lowe's where I bought another Shephards hook and some more purple grass. I love how the "tassels" sway in the wind. I am going to put them in the corner of the back yard where we have buried all our babies. I have 2 new hummer feeders for the hook.
Then we went to our favorite feed store for a new baby boy. I have named all our tiels after Bambi characters. The first were Bambi and Thumper. Thumper got outside so we replaced her with Faleen. She wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box (she bit through the electrical cord for my stove) and we replaced her with Flower. Bambi passed away one night at the age of 16 years. I replaced him with Prince. Prince just passed away from an upper respritory infection. I ran out of Bambi names so for right now I'm calling this one Bird.......the way Bambi said it. He is only 19 weeks old.

This is what I'm working on at the moment. I started it a few months ago. The blocks are done, the HST from making the flying geese are done and pieced and the outer border is ready to go. Now I have to figure out what fabric to use for the small inner border and how big to cut it to make it work with the HSTs.

I still have to put the side squares borders
on the new Dancing Daisies quilt
then the outer borders. I am liking
it better than the first one.

Monday Already??

It's been an eventful week to say the least.
Friday night the pharmacy my dil works in got robbed again. Thankfully, no one was there is time.
A sheriff deputy was going into the hospital across the street and saw shadows in the window. Couple of officers and one from SMASH shot it out with 3 suspects, no one got him and they got away.

This morning at 3:30, Texas time, my daughter, Mari, left for 11 days in the field. She is in OCS (officers candidate school) in the Army. They will be gone 11 days, home for 4, then back out for 6. In that 11 days, they will be able to take 1 shower........1 shower!! I know that is going to make her or break her. I can't tell you how proud of her I am.

These are the quilts I finished this week. The first one I asked for help on the pieced border but not getting any ideas, I decided to SID the whole thing. The blocks in this are 4" and the quilt is 100" square. As soon as she brought it out I told her she wasn't getting it back.











This next one is for a local lady that
was given to them as a QOV but she didn't think it was big enough so they are going to raffle it off and use it to buy more supplies to be used for more QOV's.