Building a beauty

Sometimes I have a definite idea of what a quilt should look like, and sometimes I just go with a vision.  I had seen a quilt on Pinterest that I loved.  It was a four

patch in a four patch and there was a cross of colors.  I knew I wanted to make it.

I had pulled some fabric back when I did the curved ruler quilt, and I had this stack that hadn't gone with what I used ... I knew it would be perfect!  Reds, greys and a little black.  I cut it all

out one day and then started sewing.

When my daughter had pneumonia and it was 100+ here we were holed up in my bedroom.  The only area of the house with central air... 

I set myself up on the nightstand and sewed away.

The dogs were with us too ... It was a little crowded in there, but that was ok.

Our dogs are allowed on the bed, but Todd is not because he is so dirty all the time.  I think Charlie and Sophie like to get up there and rub it in.

He likes this spot under the bed because it is nice and cool.  Usually it's his short little legs that stick out.

Then when I went to Irvine and spent the night the day before sweet daughter went back to school, the quilt came too.

Wanted to show you I still have my boo boo.  It's all healed over, but super sensitive, so I keep a bandage on it until the skin grows back and gives it some cushioning.

All laid out on the bed.  I should have looked back at this picture as I sewed it together because I got my blocks messed up.

Got the blocks all sewn together finally!  Then I thought it needed some borders to make it bigger, although I was tempted to just leave it because I liked the way it looked.

Three borders later and it is finished!  I was supposed to teach it last Friday, but I have been home sick with my daughter's virus.  So I will teach it on Halloween Friday from 10 to 1.  Come join us!  I think I'm going to whip up a small sample in Halloween colors ... Wouldn't that be fun?!

A beautiful gift

I thought for sure I had blogged this quilt, but I can't find a post on it.  This is a Christmas gift my friend made for her son.

Isn't it beautiful?  Oh the colors are just so wonderful together.

It is a Jacob's ladder pattern, but you can see a couple different patterns in there.

I used Omni thread in top and bobbin and because it is a bed quilt for a man and will get a lot of wear and tear, I did a small stipple.

She did such a beautiful job on her piecing (and starching!) that the quilt

was scrumptious to work with.

This quilt would look great on my bed ...maybe it's really a Christmas gift for

Me!!!!

Stash Report - Week 38

Here's my sample for my class this Friday ... Isn't it fun and happy?

I was trying to get a really cute picture, but I was by myself and the wind was gusting.  Everytime I tried to hang it outside somewhere it fell!  I used some bad words and then just laid it on the ground to get a pic.  The yardage I used this week is for the borders and backing.  

This is what it looked like before the borders ... I almost left it like this.

When I was in Orange County last week with my daughter I had some time to kill and supported two local quilt stores.  One of them I bought 3 fat quarters, and the other I bought a yard and a half that I used in this quilt!

Used this Week: 7 yards

Used year to Date: 107 yards
Added this Week: 2.25 yards
Added Year to Date: 70.50 yards
Net Used for 2014: 36.5 yards

Stash Report - Week 37

Ok I am working on my sample for my September class even as I sit in a hotel room near my daughter's campos.  She came home last Friday for the weekend, intending to hang out with some friends, but had had a fever since Monday on and off, mostly on ... At 102!  I took her to urgent care and she had pneumonia.  Wow I was surprised at how fast a cold turned to that ... Thank you to my nurse friend who said over a week of a fever, yes, needs to go be checked out.  So we kept her home until today as she still had a fever yest am.  She is good. Now on antibiotics, fever free for 24 hrs so can go back to school.  She is worried about being behind in all her classes.  All of this in the middle of a heat wave .. No a/c in campus dorms, so I drove her up in my car and we are spending the night in a hotel.  She'll go to class tomorrow, and I will make sure she is doing ok; her dad is driving up her not air conditioned car tomorrow after work, and then hopefully we will leave her.  I can stay another night, but I think she'll be good tomorrow.  I brought my sewing machine and have been finishing my blocks tonight.  I only have the room until noon tomorrow, so I am not sure how much more I can get done.

Used this Week: 4 yards

Used year to Date: 100 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 68.25 yards
Net Used for 2014: 31.75 yards

Screwed up my math in one of the earlier stash reports which is why the used number jumped so much ... That is exciting!  And how about a super huge Whoop Whoop for reaching the goal of using 100 yards this year!  Wowzer!

Bright and not so bright

I made myself get busy and got a couple of quilts done last week!  Was determined to catch up to my friend who is always producing more quilts and I never have a chance to catch her!

First up is a beautiful quilt made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics

Very challenging all those diamonds and bias fabrics

Didn't want to take away from the lovely design so I just did my little swirl.  I used a beautiful Superior King Tut variegated thread in a rose color.  Glide in the bobbin.

You can see the thread color here.

Yummy colors ... So happy!  

The next quilt is a beautiful French general print quilt.  I love FG!

It is such a classic looking quilt.  I wanted to really give it some texture.  

I chose to do a flower that I saw in the design is one of the prints.  Well, my version of the flower at least ... A flower with a couple little vines and then a squiggle over to repeat the design.

Really happy with the way it came out.  It took a long time because the design was tight, and on the small side.

Love this quilt!  You can see the design better on the back of the quilt.  I used a Signature cotton thread on top, and Omni in the bobbin.

I have mentioned before how much I love Superior Threads.  I use them almost exclusively.  My favorite being Omni; if price was not a factor I would use their King Tut thread ... A beautiful Egyptian cotton.  Honestly, I want to drench myself in some of those colors.  Check their website out at http://www.superiorthreads.com.  They have great information on their site as well!  And they are super nice to boot!  If you ever get to St. George, Utah, make sure to stop and check their warehouse out.  You will not believe your eyes!  This is not a paid advertisement, I am just a happy customer!  If someone can tell me how to type a name in and link a web address

to it, that would be great!

See her little pancake turner?  I think she's going to love cooking like her daddy.

Stash Report - Week 36

Nothing happening on the sewing front.  I have a sample to make for my September class, so I'll be sewing in the next few days.

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 96 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 68.25 yards
Net Used for 2014: 18.75 yards

Stash Report - Week 35

No sewing going on this week.  Have been trying to longarm; got two quilts done last week and this week paralyzed by lack of motivation!  I have no excuse ... I think it's something that happens every September.   A throwback from the changes that usually occurred when the kids were young ... A big change in our house; my son and his fiancé have decided it is not going to work, so my darling granddaughter will not be coming to live in California.  I am not surprised, just deeply saddened ... Mostly for Kylee.  My sweet daughter is back in college and I have been missing her.  I will manage through, but it has just set me back a bit and my heart is heavy.  :-(

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 96 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 68.25 yards
Net Used for 2014: 18.75 yards

My HUGE Story

Well I promised you a story.  I went on a quilt retreat a few months ago to the mountains.   The same friend whose parents shared their mountain home with us, have a beach retreat in Coronado!  Well it is a condo, but for us ... A beach retreat!  Only a 20 min drive ... We planned a short 3 day trip.

This was what we walked into ... Wow!  Right on the beach .... Let the relaxing begin!

This was our view ... The Hotel Del was right next to us ... We got to see the SEAL Team trainees training in the ocean every morning.  I thought they looked tired swimming, but upon closer inspection through a monocular, they were only swimming with one arm!  Wow ... That's all I can say.

It was day 2 and I was sewing along on my Metro Hoops quilt.

I was talking, squaring up a block, going too fast and not paying great attention ... I was also using a dull rotary blade.

Can you imagine what is coming next?  I was cutting up and over and whack .... Ran into something hard that went flying .... Oh dear, I sure hope that was a chunk of fabric that flew across the table.  But alas it was not, it was a chunk of my finger!  I dropped the rotary, grabbed my hand and quickly applied pressure.  I would like to say that my quick thinking came from watching Shark Week over the weekend ... All I could think was apply pressure to stop the bleeding!  My three friends were kind of doing like a comedy act ... No one had seen what happened, but they did see my finger on the table!  I should say it was a big chunk

of finger and nail, not my entire finger!  While one friend grabbed me a paper towel, the other one tried to find the number to the front desk to find out the closest Urgent Care, and my third friend grabbed the finger off the table, stifled the urge to throw up, and put the finger on ice in a paper bowl.  They couldn't find a ziploc bag!

My friend quickly changed her clothes and grabbed the bowl and we were off to the Coronado Emergency Room.  They were so nice and got me in super fast ..,,

Until they started poking around.  I had to release my vise like grip three different times so they could see the wound.  Then the doctor poked around ... Owww ... Then I started freaking out.  No offer of anything for the pain, and I went into my Shirley MacLaine impression in Terms of Endearment when she was trying to get pain medicine for her dying daughter.  

I had my friend in stitches.  The doc said the piece was too small to sew back on and the area too large to stitch.  They put a piece of foam bandage over it and it would soak into the cut and stop the bleeding.  It hurt like heck as they applied it ... The nurse trying to get the bleeding to stop, and the assistant holding my finger to try and still the flow.  Finally it worked ... I got a tetanus shot

And I was out of there within an hour.  WARNING:  Graphic picture to follow:

This is the bandage I went home with and a splint over to protect it.  I will spare you from the picture of the chunk of finger.  The doc said the area will take about a month to heal, that it will grow back and to change the dressing 3 times a day.  I was horrified the first time I changed it and had to see the thing, but it wasn't as bad as I thought, so all was good.  

I quickly learned how to quilt with a bum finger

The proper way to cut with your fingers as far away from hanging over the edge as possible!  What I learned:  like using a knife, NEVER use a dull blade ... You have to press harder to make a cut; slow down ... No prizes for going fast, and pay attention!  This quilt will forever be engraved in my memory banks ... Every time I look at it I will remember it as THE quilt I lost part of my finger to!