Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Cup Cozies



This morning I made two cup cozies from a kit I ordered from Connecting Threads. I think they turned out cute and I have plenty of fabric left from the kit to make several more in different color combinations.
Here's a link directly to the Cup Cozy Kit :
OK, now I need to straighten out my sewing corner and get ready to pick DD up from school.
I'll get to do some more quilting this evening, because I'll be teaching a 2 hour hand quilting class later.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Quilter's Wallet

On Saturday I was teaching the Quilter's Wallet by Pat-e-Patterns ( http://www.pat-e-patterns.com/index.htm ) in a 4 hour class and I finished my wallet on Sunday.
You can make this wallet with 5, 10 or 15 credit card slots. I like to make the wallet with 10 credit card slots and that's what you see in the pictures above.
One very important thing with this pattern is to really label all of your cut out pieces and place the numbered pieces in the appropriate stacks, or it's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
For the class I prepared the labels for the students, so they just had to cut them out an attach them to the appropriate fabric, batting, lining pieces, as soon as those were cut.

Progressive Sampler


I realized I've never shared the picture of the Progressive Sampler I was teaching at Bearly Stitchin in Goodyear, AZ.

This was a 6 week class with 3 hours / week.

For the quilt top I mainly used my hand dyed fabrics from Marjie McWilliam's cotton dyeing class at Quilt University and added some batiks from my stash to it.

Below is a color wheel I dyed and the dyeing set-up in my backyard. Unfortunately life has been too busy to dye anything for several months, but I hope to get back into it again soon.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Yesterday's doings

Yesterday I picked up my shirt for the Phoenix race for the cure on October 12th.
This cause is very close to my heart, because my mother passed away from breast cancer on February 13th 2005, after a ten year battle. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer while I was pregnant with our son and she passed away the day before his tenth birthday and just a little over 2 weeks after her 67th birthday. I miss having her around. She is probably the strongest woman I've ever known. A fighter with a big heart, who touched many lives.
Contributing to organizations like the Susan G. Koman foundation will hopefully make a difference in the life of many families, so that they will not have to suffer the loss of a loved one to cancer.
Remember, breast cancer awareness month is in October!
Here are a few links:

http://cms.komen.org/komen/index.htm
http://www.nbcam.org/
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast


Staying with the color scheme of the t-shirt, here's a little table topper I'll be putting together.
The four Drunkard's Path units were made in a demonstration for the Progressive Sampler quilt I was teaching and I don't like blocks or samples to go to waste, so I'll be adding some sashing strips and the purple center square to turn the blocks into a small table topper. :o)

This next block is another quick block I used to quickly demonstrate sashing to the class.

Don't know if any of you have tried out some of the new battings that are on the market now. Since I had to kill some time to sign up for the Race for the Cure, I visited JoAnn's. They had all packaged battings on sale (40%), so I thought I'll give the new Bamboo batting from Fairfield a try. It's a 50/50 mix of bamboo fibers and cotton. Very soft to the touch. I' bought a queen size batting, so I can try it both for hand and machine quilting. I'll let you all know how I like it after I had the chance to test it.

Last, but not least, I received my signature blocks back in the mail from a swap that was done on WASIQ (Washington State Internet Quilters). Unfortunately 13 participants dropped out, but it still leaves me with 77 signature blocks (if I counted correctly lol). This should be a fast quilt to put together, once I can decide on the layout I want to use for the blocks. Oh, so many options!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Moon Glow

This year I also started on some Moonglow blocks with Jinny Beyer's pattern and fabrics. Above are the blocks that are done so far. I intended to make one block a month, but you probably all know how that goes. lol
If I get this quilt finished, before Cliff comes home from Korea, I'll be very happy, so keep watching for updates on my progress.

45 Dear Jane blocks


Just finished my 45th Dear Jane block. I took all of the blocks I've finished so far out of the folder I stored them in and put them up on my design wall to get an idea of what it's going to look like. Definitely a far cry from the traditional Dear Jane. Once all of the blocks are done, which will probably take me a year, I am planing on using a blackish blue sashing and colorful cornerstones at each intersection, but we'll see how this quilt comes along.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Star Tower


Yesterday Michelle and I went to Goodyear to check on Cliff's aunt and uncle's house. Every time we drive out there, we pass this tower and never knew what it was about, so on the way back, we stopped there to check it out.
As one of the plaques below tells (click on the pictures to see a larger view), The Star Tower is a living memorial to the many Native American cultures that have studied the sky from this very location.

Below is a blooming cactus we saw on our way up to the tower and a small waterfall. There is also a small picnic area, that we are planing to use on one of our other trips up there - maybe as soon as next weekend.

Here's Michelle on top of the Star Tower.


Pineapple blocks

I offered Moira to make two blocks for her Pineapple quilt and here are the finished blocks. She sent me the paper pattern and pre-cut pieces, so the blocks went together very easy.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Cliff is in Korea

At 4am on September 3rd, I brought Cliff to the airport for his one year tour to Korea.
He was able to call yesterday evening to let us know that he made it safely.
I miss him already, because he used to come home every day for his lunch break and we'd have lunch together, but I'm staying very busy here, which seems to make time go by faster.
Tonight Aaron will have two of his friends sleep over, but I told him that they have to be picked up by 9am tomorrow, because I have to go to the "meet the teacher" event at Bearly Stitchin, since I'll have 6 classes there this next quarter. So you can see, it's not going to get boring here. lol