Gabriele's Spot

Wall hanging give-away on Roslyn's blog

2009-03-03T12:36:00.000-08:00

Please go take a look at ROSLYN'S blog for the give away of a Koala wall hanging she is having, in an effort to assist with help for the Australian Bush fires.
She will be collecting names for the drawing till March 14th.

Slow progress on my UFO

2009-02-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

The 48 sashing pieces are finally all finished and squared, to be attached to the finished blocks. I'm still debating if I should just use the fabric I used for the unpieced blocks as setting and corner triangles or maybe choose a lighter pink that doesn't conflict with the star tips of the sashing. Once that's decided, I'll add a narrow dark purple/pink border and then a wider border of fabric that coordinates with the unpieced blocks. But for now back to sewing at least some sashing strips onto blocks, so I can get all of this off of my bed.

Heart and Flower and DJ block

2009-02-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

First of I want to thank Kristina for the beautiful hand appliqued Heart and Flower block she sent to me. Your thoughtfulness is very much appreciated.

Then below is my last Dear Jane finish - H-2.
The center is paper pieced and I finished the block off by hand appliqueing the two small triangles on the outside.
Today I'll work on this weeks BOW and with tomorrow's UFO sew-in scheduled, I'll concentrate on making progress on the QFC quilt.

My first gradation swap

2009-02-14T12:58:00.001-08:00

With DD and myself fighting colds and me having had 3 classes to teach and doctor's appointments to go to, I didn't have time to post a picture of my first gradation swap, but here it is. It is so much fun to see all of the different colors come in. The next swap I'm waiting for is the "make purple". It'll be neat to see how different the swatches will look like for that.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T12:48:00.001-08:00

Hope you are all able to spend your Valentine's Day with loved one's.

Although DD and I are still fighting our cold's and my voice is pretty much gone, we're also celebrating DS's birthday today! Happy birthday Aaron!

I also want to share pictures of the beautiful flowers DH sent for Michelle and me with you all.

The fun smiley face bouquet is for Michelle and the beautiful red and pink roses are mine. :o)

Two more Dear Jane blocks!

2009-02-07T17:07:00.000-08:00

L-8 Box Kite

L-7 Town Square

With the finish of L-7 (Town Square) and L-8 (Box Kite) I'm up to 72 finished blocks and 1275 pieces.

American Hero quilt top

2009-02-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

This is my first American Hero quilt top finish for this year, ready to be mailed to Sue Nebeker .
Most of the blocks came from ROBIN .

Valentine's postcards I received

2009-02-07T13:22:00.001-08:00

These are two Valentine's postcards I received from members of the Stashbuster group.
The left card is from Diane B. and the one to the right is from Melva H.
Thank you ladies. Both cards are lovely!

70th Dear Jane block finished

2009-02-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

This is what my Dear Jane wall looks like with 70 finished blocks. All in all there are 1243 pieces in the blocks so far.
E-7 / Bread Basket is my finish for today with 41 pieces. I changed the block a little, because although I don't have problems with y-seams, I just wasn't in the mood for those today, so I used straight seams on the outside units. I will put the steps in another post.

Stash busting on UFO day

2009-02-01T17:39:00.000-08:00

These are some of the strips I started out with for the 31 blocks I needed to make.
The small 4-patch units used 1 1/2" squares of the colored and wow fabric.

Here I am sewing the units back to back.

These strips were the quickest to sew for the blocks.

And here are all 31 blocks laid out, ready to be squared up to be mailed to Moira tomorrow.

I also got a little bit further on the sashing for the Quilt for the Cure top, but haven't gotten around to taking a picture of the progress for that.

Now I really need to clean up the mess I created while sewing up a storm. :o)

I missed my 100th post!

2009-01-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it? I just thought to check how many posts I have with so many people doing 100th blog post give-away's and I totally missed my 100th post. Well, with this post just by 6, but anyway. Ugh! Maybe I should do something different and pick a different number. LOL
I think 150 might sound like a good idea.

C-5 finished!

2009-01-28T12:17:00.000-08:00

Here you can see my preparation work to create the "Eye of the Cyclone". If you compare the HST units with the block diagram, you see why the colorway of the two units is reversed.

In this picture you see that I fused a circle to the backside of the smaller block. After this step I cut the excess fabric around the circle away with an approximate 1/4" allowance and then used a water soluble glue stick to turn the seam allowance to the back.

Just laying the circle on top of the larger unit, you start seeing the block come together.

To create the outside border I traced the shape on freezer paper (you just have to love this stuff and even if it's just for quilting lol) and then carefully cut the inside shape out to fuse it on the backside of the lighter fabric. I then used the glue stick and turned the allowance back again. This always creates nice smooth curves.

I appliqued the circle as well as the outside shape by hand and in this picture I have not removed the freezer paper yet or trimmed the block, that's why it still looks a little bumpy.

With this block my Dear Jane numbers are 1202/0/0/69.

My mom's birthday!

2009-01-28T10:57:00.001-08:00

Today My mom would have turned 71.
While browsing through some pictures I found this one of her working as chief secretary on Bitburg AFB, Germany in the 1960's, before I was born.

Below is a Hawaiian wall hanging I designed in memory of my mom - Christina's garden.

I-3 finished and QFC layout

2009-01-25T19:47:00.000-08:00

I-3 is finished!

Today I cut out some sashing pieces with star tips and sashing squares. This is what it looks like so far. The quilt will be a double/queen size once it's done with borders.

Kim's 100th post give-away

2009-01-25T08:59:00.000-08:00

Kim, of http://bittybitsandpieces.blogspot.com/ is having a 100th post give away on her site. Here's the link to that post.

http://bittybitsandpieces.blogspot.com/2009/01/100th-post-giveaway.html

I'll copy the prize description directly from her site, so prize one is:
"One is a cute Valentine Mini Purse filled with 100 bitty bits & pieces of Valentine Fabric from the Sandy Gervais collection called "Hearts A Flutter."

"The second prize is one of the Love Note Pillows ..."

These prizes are too adorable! And they're Valentine's Day themed. Gotta love that, especially with my DS having a birthday that day! So go check out Kim's blog.

Forgot to mention, if you leave a comment on Kim's blog, please let her know you found her through my blog here. This would give me another chance to win. ;o)

All 12 blocks are finished

2009-01-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

Here are all the blocks I need for the quilt quilt top together.
Sorry about the crooked picture. Since my Dear Jane blocks are taking up the design wall, I had to lay these blocks out on the floor and the only way to get a picture of all of them was to be standing/balancing on my bed with arms stretched out. Probably quite a site. lol
So, these blocks will go in an on-point setting with alternating blocks of the small print that I've used in all of the blocks.

I did the calculation for the sashing last evening, but now have to see if I have enough of the fabric in my stash, I intend to use for it. You'll be able to see the results of that in another post.

This is the last block I made yesterday to go into this top.

2009-01-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

4:27pm and 3 blocks are DONE.

Now one more block to pick fabrics for, cut out and piece and all of the blocks for the top will be done.
Next I'll have to calculate the amount of fabric I need for the sashing and see if I have enough of the fabric in my stash, that I have in mind to use for that. OK, off the computer again to get some more work done.

this morning's progress

2009-01-24T09:21:00.000-08:00

OK, as you can see, I've cut out two of the 4 blocks so far, using Marti Michelle's templates.
Now I'll be making some cinnamon buns for the kids quickly and a big pot of green tea for myself and then back to cutting out the next two blocks, which have more pieces in them. Be back later.

UFO day

2009-01-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

So, today is official UFO day. No, nothing to do with aliens, just my unfinished quilt projects.
What I've chosen to work on today is the Quilt for the Cure top that I've posted about a short while ago, so no pictures for this post. Plan is to get 4 more blocks finished today (if I don't get too many interruptions from my kids) and I'll post pictures here as the blocks get finished.

Dye swaps for Dye Hard Run-off

2009-01-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

The lighting was a bit funky while I was taking pictures and the batteries on my camera are running low, so the pictures aren't the best quality, but you can get an idea of what the swaps are about. The first swap was a half-step color gradation using #65 Raspberry from Dharma and the second swap is a make purple using #65 Raspberry from Dharma again and #22 Cobalt Blue, also from Dharma. On the make purple I had to lighten the photo in my editing system so much that the writing on my white cardstock is disappearing, but at least the colors look more true to what they look like in person and not just like black pieces of fabric. lol Both swaps are on their way to the swap hostesses.

Dear Jane L-10

2009-01-18T17:37:00.001-08:00

So, first I started out by tracing the shapes for the center of the block on the backside of the fabric, using a light box. Next you can see how I hand pieced some shapes and the third picture shows the center finished with the border added by machine.

I then went ahead and traced the shapes for the applique onto the block.

Here you see the block partially finished.
And below is the block in all it's glory. As you can see it's far from perfect. I also took the liberty to change the color placement around - it's my block afterall. Why go through all of the piecing of the block, if you put the same color next to each other and not even see there's a seam?
Boy, this block was a beast to tackle and although it's not perfect, it's DONE!

January gradation swap

2009-01-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

The fabrics above were dyed with Dharma 65 Raspberry in a half-step gradation for a swap on the Dye Hard Run Off Yahoo group. They even match the color of my signature! lol

Mail from Sue

2009-01-15T12:55:00.001-08:00

SH Sue, one of my quilting friends from Washington State Internet Quilters, has sent me a heart block each for the loss of my father and our kitty and the great cat panel for two pillows.
Thank you so much, Sue!
Michelle is claiming the pillows already, so I better get some swaps I signed up for out of the way, so I can finish those for her.

Looking forward to moving back up to Washington the end of this year, so we can sew together again.

Valentine's postcards

2009-01-15T11:24:00.001-08:00

These are two quilted postcards I've made for the Valentine's swap on Stashbuster. Unfortunately the pictures don't do the cards justice, because the lighting doesn't allow for the dimensional sparkle from the Fairy Frost fabric and Angelina fiber to really show. Anyhow, I don't have the name of the recipients yet, but I hope whoever gets these cards will like them.

First finish for 2009

2009-01-09T14:24:00.001-08:00

Wohoo, I finished my first little project for this year.
A little background to this wall hanging - I took the Flower Power class offered at Quilt University from Susan Brittingham in February of 2007 (you can see more about that if you browse my blog entries for that time) and Susan provided us with the pattern for the Thistle. This week I finally decided on how I wanted to quilt it and you can see the result of my freehand quilting in the picture. Now talk about procrastinating on finishing something this small, but I'm glad I can strike one project of my UFO/WIP/PIG list for 2009.

A-5 is done

2009-01-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

This weeks BOW is A-4, but since I finished that one already, I paper pieced A-5 today.

Quilt for a Cure

2009-01-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

Above are pictures of blocks for the Quilt for a Cure quilt I started working on again.

The story behind the quilt blocks is that the pattern is the Quilt
for a Cure pattern from Marti Michell and I used the Quilt for a Cure
fabric line with coordinating fabrics mixed in with it from my stash.
The plan was to make another quilt for my mom, who had been battling cancer for 10 years (she was diagnosed with breast cancer while I was pregnant with our first child).

I started making 4 blocks the end of 2004, but then my mother mother's health rapidly declined and she passed away from cancer Feb. 13 2005 (a day before my son's birthday), so I really have not felt up to working on this quilt for all of those years, because it brought more pain than pleasure to me to be working on it.

Now nearly 3 years after loosing her and with my mother's 71st birthday coming up on January 28th, I'm ready to tackle the quilt again and maybe I can even finish the top before her birthday.

Comfort quilt from my friends

2009-01-06T13:56:00.001-08:00

Last week I met with Moira and Susan to go to The Bernina Connection in Phoenix and to lunch afterwards.

What they did not tell me was that they had a surprise for me - this beautiful comfort quilt from all of my friends at Trading Fabrics. I want to thank all of you again for this beautiful quilt. I absolutely LOVE it!

Tea time

2009-01-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

Normally I purchase loose leaf teas from Adagio - just love their teas and the Ingenuitea, but the other day I purchased this tea set from Costco with flowering tea.
These are really beautiful to look at while enjoying your cup of tea.

So you start out with one of the hand crafted tea bundles (this one happens to be a Jasmine scented white tea bundle) that you put in a glass teapot.
After you pour boiling water into the teapot, the blossom opens up into this piece of art and releases the tea flavor.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T09:44:00.000-08:00

Some of my friends and family have leaped into the new year already, so here I'll be wishing all of you lots of happiness, fun with your family and friends, good health, jobs or sources of income for everybody wanting/needing to make a living in this worsening economy and time to enjoy the passions in your life in 2009!

Picture source: http://www.pdphoto.org/PictureDetail.php?pg=5873&mat=pdef

Peek-a-boo Puss and A-4

2008-12-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

I've never posted the finished healing quilt I made for Michelle, so here's a picture of it on her wall.

Below is a picture of A-4. No tutorial to this one. I printed out the paper pieced version from my Dear Jane software and made up the block like that. If you need instructions on how to piece this block, go to:
http://dearbabyjane.blogspot.com/2008/10/4-courtneys-stethoscope.html
You'll need to copy and paste the link into your browser. Haven't figured out how to make the link clickable in the blog.

B-2

2008-12-29T17:04:00.001-08:00

I couldn't see myself piecing all of the pie shapes, so I took a shortcut by making two of the units below.

Measuring the circle from the block print-out, I cut the freezer paper circle without seam allowance, centered it on the wrong side of one of the pieced blocks and used the glue stick method to turn the seam allowance back for a perfectly shaped circle.

I then used the largest stitch on my machine to baste the circle on top of the other prepared block and then hand appliqued the circle in place.

After the applique was done, I cut away the fabric below, spritzed the block with water to loosen the glue on the freezer paper and remove the paper. Turn everything over, press and trim the block to size and you're done!

M-13

2008-12-29T16:37:00.000-08:00

On this picture you can see that I extented the lines from the templates in order to cut squares from the dark and lighter fabric.

By clicking on the picture to enlarge it you can see that I was sewing the small squares from corner to corner.
This is how the pieces look like after I trimmed off 1/4" and before pressing the small triangle units out.

Next step is to prepare the "drunkard's path" shape for the outside of the units.

Since you need the seam allowance on the outside of the block, but not the curved part, take a closer look at the picture above, how I measured the cutting distance.
Taking the 2 5/8" measurement I cut out a circle first, that I then quartered.
As you can see on the picture, I drew the seam allowance on the straight edges of the quarter circle. The curved portion of this quarter circle will be used to turn the edges under with a glue stick, so you'll add the seam allowance to the fabric in this part, but not to the pattern.
Below is how the prepared section will look like from the backside. As you can see I left fabric beyond the calculated seam allowance just in case I'd come up a little short. Not that something like that would ever happen. haha Just kidding.

Now line up both sections as shown in the picture below and applique the quarter circle down either by hand or machine applique.

Once all four units are prepared, you simply sew them together like a four-patch block and trim the block to the correct size.

Now wasn't that easy!?

H-8

2008-12-26T10:56:00.000-08:00

Here is my finished H-8 block, but since some of my quilting friends asked how to go about this block, I've added some pictures of the steps I took below.
You also can find instructions for this block on http://dearbabyjane.blogspot.com/ in a slightly different approach from mine. She's doing a fantastic job at breaking the blocks down into manageable bits and pieces. :o)

First off I always start out by printing out the block I'm about to work on and then start doodling notes on the paper on how to tackle it, as seen above (you should be able to enlarge the picture by clicking on it).

So, first I started out by piecing the center.

I cut out all of the other pieces and lay them out. BTW, the corner triangles are pretty much cut to size, so if you want to follow my approach and build in a bit of a security, you might want to cut the squares for those 2 1/2" instead of the 2" I used. There really wasn't much to trim for me from the corners, when I squared up the finished block.

Next I took my Olfa circle cutter and adjusted the cutting distance to 1 1/4". The measurement was taken directly from the block without seam allowance, because of the method I use, which should start making more sense in a second.
So I cut the circle out of freezer paper and ironed the shiny side of the freezer paper to the backside of the fabric I'm planing on appliqueing to the center.

With the freezer paper "sticking to the fabric I cut out the center, leaving about 1/4" seam allowance. In order to be able to turn the seam allowance back, I make little snips into the fabric, then I use a water soluble glue stick to apply glue just on the seam allowance and start turning it back onto the freezer paper, smoothing the edge with my finger as I go along.

The result is this perfectly smooth circle that's ready for the applique.

I place the circle exactly into position and baste it with the largest stitch by machine. Then I choose the applique thread that most closely matches the fabric that you applique (in this case a light blue).

Here's a picture with the finished hand applique and the machine basting stitches still in place.

And this is how the applique looks from the back side with the freezer paper and basting stitches still in place and the applique fabric not trimmed down to the 1/4" seam allowance yet.

I then go ahead and remove the basting stitches, trim the seam allowance and to remove the freezer paper I spritz the backside with water and let it sit for a moment, so the glue has time to dissolve. The freezer paper will pull off very easy.

This is a close-up of how I trimmed the QST's.

I hope the pictures are helpful, but don't hesitate to ask if you want me to clarify one of the steps.

A visit from Santa

2008-12-25T08:42:00.000-08:00

LOOK AT ALL THE THINGS THAT WERE IN THIS STOCKING FOR ME FROM DAISY T.!
WOW! Thank you so much, Daisy, for having been my Secret Santa! I have no idea how you were able to get all of the items to fit into the stocking. LOL This will keep me busy for quite some time and I will put all of the items to very good use this coming year.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

From my family to all of you - Merry Christmas!

John Greenleaf Whittier
A little smile, a word of cheer, A bit of love from someone near, A little gift from one held dear, Best wishes for the coming year… These make a Merry Christmas!

The beautiful quilted postcard above is from Karrin H. from our card swap on Trading Fabrics.

Happy Birthday Michelle!

2008-12-24T07:25:00.001-08:00

Today is Michelle's birthday! My little girl is growing up so fast!

We had her birthday party last Saturday, because we were hoping more kids would be able to come, but just one of the invited kids came and we never heard from the rest.
Michelle still had a good time and it ended up being a sleep-over.

Michelle wanted some trick candles on her cake, so that's what's smoking! It surprised me that we didn't set off the smoke detector. lol

After some cake the girls went off to play.

And then started crafting:

Here's Michelle unwrapping some gifts.

And this is Aaron playing with one of our dogs and the neighbor's Chihuahua Nibbels (in the AC/DC shirt hehe).

Apple core table topper

2008-12-23T11:10:00.000-08:00

Forgot to post a picture of the finished Apple coretable topper.
Now the cutting out of the shapes hadn't been a problem at all and the piecing isn't really a problem either, but I really do not like pinning and with the concave and convex shapes there's no way around pinning the gejeebers out of the pieces in order for them to fit properly. So the topper is done, I can say been there, done that and I'll move on to more enjoyable projects.
I have so many other quilts in waiting that I can't see myself making a lap size or larger quilt with the apple core shape.
BTW, below is a picture of how I had to pin one of the Dj blocks and for the Apple Core pieces you would pin each piece in a similar way.

Dear Jane progress

2008-12-23T10:12:00.001-08:00

This week I finished my 61st block on my DJ journey. I've also finally chosen the fabric I want to use as the sashing and for the unpieced triangle units in the border - a dark blue Moda Marble.
You can take a look below at the blocks that are finished so far.

The fabric below the blocks is what I'm planing on using as the sashing fabric.

Below are my most recent block finishes:

This is where I check off my blocks. Once as numbered and then as pictured in the layout.

Hamster time

2008-12-23T09:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we were gifted two female Hamsters with cages from one of the members of the Freecycle group I run (Glendale AZ Freecycle). The kids absolutely love them, especially Michelle, who had been asking me for a hamster for the longest time.

Can you spot the difference between the two?
The one to the left is a Chinese dwarf (longer tail) and the one to the right is a Siberian dwarf.

How's Your Spelling?

2008-12-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Your Spelling is Perfect

You got 10/10 correct.

Your spelling is excellent. You also have a great memory and eye for detail.

How's" Your Spelling?

Thank you for brightening my day!

2008-12-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

Today I was teaching a hand quilting class at Bearly Stitchin, and three of my quilting friends from Trading Fabrics made a special trip to visit me briefly for my birthday. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do lunch with them, but it was still great to see and meet with all of them.

From left to right it's Fran, Susan, me and Moira.
The quilt in the background is my Shaded 4-patch quilt I'm teaching at Bearly Stitchin.

The mail brought two more beautiful cards, that are displayed on my livingroom wall-unit.
The card on the left is a hand painted card/ornament from Gail and the one on the right came all the way from Germany from Inge. Unfortunately the pictures don't show the sparkly part on each of the cards.

I've also gotten a bunch of birthday greetings by e-mail. I want to thank all of you for making my birthday brighter! The last few days I've been hitting a pretty bad low emotionally, but the moral support and prayers of so many of you are helping me to keep it together and not totally loose it. I'm doing better now, but I'll take the advise of my friends to seek professional help for depression. Thank you for being so honest with me - you know who you are! ;o)

Sunday doings

2008-11-30T14:55:00.000-08:00

Today I finished the BOW of the Dear Jane list, I-13 Sweet Harmony. I edited the pattern slightly, but then it's my quilt, so I'm allowed to use creative freedom. lol
With this block I'm up to 56 blocks now and total 877 pieces.

This is the second postcard I received from the Stashbuster swap I'm in.
Pat L. sent this cute card to me. Thank you Pat.

Here's a Bucilla ornament kit I'm also working on. Patriotic felt ornaments. So far I've cut some of the pieces out and bagged them individually. I hope to have all ornaments done before Christmas.

So much for today. Hope you all had a great weekend!

More quilty things

2008-11-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

On Monday, I was able to meet up with Barbara, one of my WASIQ friends from Washington State. We had lunch at the Olive Garden and then headed to Sun Valley Quilts (where I teach a Hawaiian applique and hand quilting class) to do a little shopping. I think we both behaved pretty well in the shop and didn't spend too much money. I did purchase someAngelina Fiber to use on some fabric postcards and a pattern, but no fabric for me this time around, because I signed up for a no-buy challenge for fabric on Stashbuster and so far I'm not having problems sticking to the rules. Barbara also brought the "green monster"as she calls it (a queen size Hawaiian quilt) to show me, which is fabulous! Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of it.
Here are some more of the quilted postcards I made for a swap and for friends. I didn't take pictures of all the postcards I made, because I was in a rush to get all of the cards ready to mail on Tuesday.

This one has red beads attached, but I don't think the picture shows it very well.

I'm also making progress on my Dear Jane. The BOW on the Dear Jane list really helps to keep me motivated to make at least one block per week. For last Sunday's deadline I finished two alternate blocks, because I had previously finished the BOW for that week.

Tomorrow I'll have to finish this week's BOW to stay on track. Finishing the swaps and traveling put me a little behind on getting this weeks block done, but tomorrow's another day and I've scheduled time in for sewing, so all is good.

These are the two blocks I made for last week's BOW.

Then I also made this little reversable table topper from 12"orphan blocks. This might turn into a small Christmas gift for Michelle's teacher.

Secret Santa's Christmas Stocking

2008-11-29T18:43:00.000-08:00

Wednesday I finished the Christmas stocking for a Secret Santa exchange I signed up for on WASIQ. I freehanded the pattern, because the stocking has to be big enough, so all the goodies fit inside it. The picture doesn't show the stocking outline I drew for the pattern too well, but this is how I checked the size of the seminole center I used.

All the fabrics I used for the stocking are batiks and I think it turned out pretty well, if I might say so myself. lol

I hope the recipient will like it and the contents that all fit in the stocking.

The stocking will be mailed out on Monday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-29T18:21:00.000-08:00

OK, this post is two days late, but I went with the kids and pets to my inlaws in CA for Thanksgiving, which also happened to be our anniversary, so below are some pictures I took while we were there.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and were able to spend it with people you love and care about!

Natalie and Michelle were crafting. Kathy and Brandon were working on some foam Christmas trees and wreaths.
My father in-law.
My BIL, Anthony.

And my MIL.

Michelle and Aaron.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

2008-11-29T18:18:00.001-08:00

Although you're half way around the world from us, our hearts and thoughts are with you on your birthday! Since you have tomorrow already, I'm posting this today, so my birthday wish to you is on time. Haha!

Love you!

I've got mail!

2008-11-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

While loading up pictures for today's post, a DHL van pulled up in front of our house to deliver the beautiful roses from my hubby in Korea, for our 16th anniversary. Love you Honey!

I've been getting quite a bit of mail the last few days, so I'll share some of it with you below.

Yesterday was really weird! DH said he was going to send some packages for Christmas, so I thought one of his packages had already arrived when I opened up the lock to retrieve my package. When I pulled it out, I was wondering, why was the package was addressed to him and the next thought - hey, that's my handwriting. With me having just mailed a package of that size to him last week a little bit of panic set in and I was thinking, did I put our home address on the package in a haze? Nah! And then it hit me, looking at the date the package was stamped - this was the missing package I had sent while I was in Germany with the kids this summer to surprise my dad for his birthday. Wanna know the date it was sent? June 18th! Yeah! It finally made it, even if it took 5 months! LOL

Then I've also received a beautiful heart block for my dad's passing last month and a prepared kitty applique for Michelle for the death of her cat Mittens from Bert from WASIQ.

Since the cards and blocks have come in, I've taken them out frequently to read over the heartfelt messages and look at the blocks. Words can not describe how much those mean to me.

Here are the blocks I've gotten to this date:

This hand appliqued block and fabric is from Molly N.

Two hand appliqued blocks from Robin M. The block to the left is for my dad and the kitty/heart block is for Michelle.

This block is from Natishia (Tish) Ch.

Janice G.

Bert K.

Barbara Sh.

Julie B.

Sue B.

Larrianne S.

Thank you so much ladies!

For the Christmas card exchanges I signed up for, I've received one of two cards from the Stashbuster exchange from Dorothy W. and one card from the Trading Fabrics group from Moira M. Aren't those cards great?!

Last but not least, there was another package waiting for us, but the key for that specific box did not open the door, so I called the PO to find out how to get the package. Here I'm thinking, they have a general key and they open up the entire front to load the mail into all of the boxes so it really shouldn't be a big deal if they can get a hold of the delivery guy to come back and open up the unit, but the lady said they'll have to send a locksmith out to open the box, because if my key doesn't open it, they'll have to switch out the locks??? Still waiting on a call back from somebody/anybody, but so far nothing. If I get the package out today, I'll post about it later, if not, a post will unfortunately have to wait till I'm back from CA, because I'll be driving with the kids and pets to my inlaws to celebrate Thanksgiving and my anniversary with them.

So I'll end this post wishing all of you a blessed Thanksgiving!

Holiday mailing deadlines

2008-11-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

For those of you having to mail cards, letters or packages overseas to military members, please keep the following mailing dealines in mind so they arrive by Christmas:

FPO/APO to CONUS (USA)
Priority & First Class letters/cards:
- Addressed from 093XX / 964XX locations: 6 Dec 08
- Addressed from 098XX locations: 10 Dec 08
Parcel Post / Space Available Mail (SAM): 19 Nov 08

CONUS (USA) to FPO/APO
Priority & First Class letters/cards:
- Addressed to 093XX / 964XX locations: 4 Dec 08
- Addressed to 098XX locations: 11 Dec 08
Parcel Airlift (PAL): 1 Dec 08
Parcel Post / Space Available Mail (SAM): 21 Nov 08

The following information was listed on http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/09/military_holidaymail_deadlines_070913w/

Some tips from the Postal Service:
* Packages must be addressed to an individual service member. Mail cannot be delivered to “any service member.” Use the member’s full name, military organization or unit and APO/FPO address.
* Do not include the country name in any part of the address when using an APO/FPO address.
* Choose a box strong enough to protect its contents, and use plenty of cushioning material such as popcorn or newspapers.
* Consider using the Postal Service’s free Military Kit — eight boxes of three different sizes popular for mailing to military personnel, along with mailing labels, tape and U.S. Customs forms. Kits can be obtained by calling toll-free to (800) 610-8734. Choose option 1, and when a live agent responds, ask for Care Kit 4.
* Write the delivery and return addresses on one side of the package.
* Place a return address label inside the package.
If you miss the parcel post deadline, here are your options for getting mail to an APO/FPO address by Dec. 25 (subtract 21 days from these deadlines to ensure delivery in time for Hanukkah):
* Space Available Mail (SAM): Nov. 27.
* Parcel Airlift Mail (PAL): Dec. 4, except for ZIP codes starting with 093, which are all areas of contingency operations. The suggested deadline for those locations is Dec. 1.
* Priority Mail: Dec. 11 (093 ZIP codes, Dec. 4).
* First-class letters and cards: Dec. 11. (093 ZIP codes, Dec. 4).
* Express Mail Military Services: Dec. 18 (not available to 093 ZIP codes).

Fabric Postcards

2008-11-10T13:07:00.000-08:00

I've signed up for the 2008 Christmas postcard swap on Stashbusters.
Since I've never made fabric postcards before, I am still experimenting with what I want to do, but here are two cards I've finished so far. The dark card was simply made using Laurel Burch Christmas fabric, on which I stippled shiny Sulky thread and attached rick-rack. The edge is bound using Razzle Dazzle from Superior Threads.
For the white card I used Stampin'Up rubber stamps and colored the design in with Sakura Micron brush pens. To add a little more color and glits, I stippled with metalic Sulky, added baby rick-rack and used a silver Razzle Dazzle in the bobbin for the border. Having had just a little 2"x 6" piece of the fusible Pellon left over and not wanting any of it to go to waste, I also created a bookmark. I think those would make some nice quick gifts, too. I'm thinking of putting some of those up on etsy, too, and see if they'd sell. Which reminds me, I also still need to list all of the scissor/cellphone fobs/charms over there, before the holiday season is over.

One month mark

2008-11-04T10:38:00.000-08:00

One month ago, today, my dad passed away.

With his passing and loosing our family pet on the same day, I had filled last month with so many things to stay sane, that I don't know where the month went.

Staying busy is my way of coping with things, but you wouldn't be able to tell by the shape the house is in right now, so this month I need to shift my focus a little more from creating things to creating more calmness by reorganizing things that surround me. Guess this happens when life gets out of balance. You focus so much on one area of your life, that other areas suffer. I do feel out of balance at this time and the only way to get back in balance is to re-evaluate things and change priorities. A while ago I started listening to some of Anthony Robins' CD's, about creating the time of your life. He speaks about just this scenario, where your life gets out of balance and how to go about creating more harmony to make things work for you. Quilting and creating is important to me, that's why I do it, but with things changing around here and us adjusting to not having Cliff around at this time, I will need to modify a few things to work better for us. It's hard to believe Cliff is in Korea for two months already, which means that we'll have him back in 10 months!

OK, I don't want this post to sound too depressing, though, so back to posting about the productive things I've accomplished.

Quilting and making gifts for others has always helped me release some stress, so I've been working on some Dear Jane blocks over the last few days. Today I finished my 50th block, which brings the total of pieces in this quilt to 786 so far. Here are the blocks that I've finished, since posting the last block.

OK, now off to declutter my craft table. A clear table definitely helps me to lessen visual stress and free the flow of creativity.

More crafty things

2008-10-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

After backing Michelle's healing quilt with the black and bright cat fabric, I still had plenty left over for other crafty/quilty items. I ended up making some more checkbook covers, wallets and napkin holders for the staff at Dreaming Summit Animal Hospital and the small table topper for Dr. Hillebrand.

Then I also finished my 46th Dear Jane block. So far I have not counted pieces, but I think if I want to add the statistics to my siggy line I should start, before it's too much too count for the entire quilt. lol This block alone consists of 40 pieces.

Michelle's healing quilt

2008-10-18T21:08:00.001-07:00

This is how far I've gotten with Michelle's healing quilt for now. The top is entirely done and now I just need to piece the backing, baste, quilt and bind it for her to hang in her room. Mittens had green eyes, so instead of using two different colors for the eyes like the pattern showed, we decided to let all of the kitties have green eyes. Michelle is really looking forward to get this quilt.
Below are some items I sewed up as thank you gifts for the staff at Dreaming Summit Animal Hospital. Dr. Hillebrand and his staff were wonderful during the care of Mittens. Everybody there is very professional and caring, not only to the pets, but also to the owners.

Wallets:
Checkbook covers:
Cell phone FOB's:

Camp Thunderbolt

2008-10-18T21:07:00.001-07:00

Michelle processing through the deployment line to pick up her backpack and other necessary items.
Here she is trying on a pilot's helmet.
Of course there is a pre-deployment briefing to attend. Michelle is practicing her handgrenade skills.

The OSI (Office of Special Investigations) enlisted Michelle as a junior agent. The task was to lift fingerprints of items to see who didn't clean the room. Here she is using dusting powder to lift the fingerprint. Now it's time to get combat ready with face paint. Posing with a sniper of the security forces.
Michelle's arm - impaled by a stick.

Saturday morning at 6:30 the kids got a call for their deployment. They deployed for 5 hours (with mom in tow) to a far, far away place on the other side of the base. ;o)

It was good to get out of the house and do something different, but I'm not used to being out for 5 hours in this heat, so I ended up with a whopper of a headache (beginning of migraine) by the time we got home. Even with that we had a great day today and the kids got a whole lot of goodies thanks to so many different organizations that generously donated items and their time to make this a huge success!

This "deployment" was mainly for kids to get an impression in a very fun way of what their parents have to do when they deploy, early recall included. In a real deployment those calls can come any time of the day. Cliff had phone calls at different times of the night for the real thing throughout the years. Families with deployed family members had sign up preference, but the event was open for all military families, active duty, reserve, DOD etc.

They had about 250 kids from what I heard, which were split into 8 different groups (group color was on their special laminated deployment ID) and we were picked up with two tours of 4 buses. When we got back to the starting point, they staged a coming home party in the hangar, where everybody walked through a line getting high-fives and leis and then after a short post-deployment briefing they got more gifts (i.e. Diamondback baseball cap, Coyotes shirt etc.) and cake.

Mercy Me - Word of God Speak

2008-10-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

A day of mourning

2008-10-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

Eleven hours apart from each other, both my father Karl-Heinz Dedisch (*June 3, 1936- + October 4, 2008) and Mittens have left this world.
I want to take a moment to thank all of my cyber-friends for their condolences and prayers to get us through this difficult time.

Cup Cozies

2008-09-30T13:34:00.001-07:00

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 :

http://www.connectingthreads.com/fabric/cup-cozy-kit_KD1610.html

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.

Quilter's Wallet

2008-09-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-29T07:43:00.001-07:00

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.

Yesterday's doings

2008-09-25T11:58:00.001-07:00

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!

Moon Glow

2008-09-19T17:38:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

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.

The Star Tower

2008-09-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-14T11:30:00.001-07:00

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.

Cliff is in Korea

2008-09-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

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

SURPRISE!

2008-07-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

Do you remember from my last post to the blog that I didn't know what all can happen after DH makes rank? Well, I found out this morning.
DH will be sewing on his stripes some time in August and since they don't have room for two Master Sgt's in his shop we knew he'd be moved around somewhere else.
Well, that somewhere else will be Korea for one year! Now you'll probably wanna know when this is going to happen?
As far as Cliff found out this morning (he called around 6:30 to tell me this news) he'll be leaving in September.
Good thing is, I get to stay in the house with the kids. I'll update you all on more as information comes in.

It's JULY already!

2008-07-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I just realized that the last post I've made to my blog was in March! A lot has happened since then and currently things are a bit crazy again. Since I didn't have a chance to blog about it, some of you didn't know that I went to Germany with the kids for a little over 3 weeks last month to surprise my dad for his 72nd birthday on June 3rd. He had no idea we were coming, so the surprise was a good one. We made it back home 10pm on the 25th and since then I'm just going, going, going to catch up on things around here. DH has been feeling sick with coughing, body aches and no energy since the day we got home and he's not getting better, so he's home sick right now, waiting on blood results etc. to finally find out what's wrong with him. Then yesterday I also received a phone call from my sister, that my dad is in the hospital again. While we were there, he was on antibiotics for an infection on the leg, which he had an amputation on. The infection did not go away, so now he might need to have some surgical intervention. My fear is that, because he still has not slowed down on his smoking a bit, his circulation is very bad in that area again and that the doctors will have to remove even more of the remaining leg. Not that there is much more to work with, so if you have a moment, I'd appreciate prayer for my dad.
On a happier note, I did sign up for another of Marjie McWilliams' dyeing classes (Quilter's Palette) at Quilt University - the down side, with me keeping the kids busy on their summer break, Cliff sick and me waiting on a maintenance guy for two days to fix some things around the house I have not been able to touch any of the dyeing materials and the next lesson will be loaded tomorrow already. UGH! Well, maybe I'll get to try both lessons over the weekend.
In my first dyeing class (which I didn't blog about here either - hanging my head in shame) I was able to do my set up outside on the patio. I thought of dyeing outside again, but I guess I need to get up early for that, because the temperatures hit the 90's before 8am already and from there on it just gets too hot to stay out there for very long.

Last but not least - Cliff made Master Sgt.!!!!!
Don't know yet what changes will come with that, but I'll try to be better about updating my blog. I might just throw some random posts with pic's in, here and there to follow up on some things I have not posted about earlier.

Diagnosis update

2008-03-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

Aaron is home with his arm in a cast.
His accident resulted in a Salter-Harris fracture (growth plate fracture) as well as a Colles fracture (forearm bone) of his left arm and he had to have his bones reset last night before we were able to go home.
His pain seems manageable, but he's sleeping right now, so we shall see how he'll do once he gets up and is active.

No boredom here

2008-03-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

DS Aaron was out riding his bike and using a jumping ramp with other kids this afternoon when he crashed at 4:15pm. I called DH at work, who was about to get off, to let him know what happened and he rushed home to get him to the emergency room, because Aaron was in a lot of pain and his wrist started swelling. Aaron let me give him some Tylenol, but didn't let me put ice on it or make him a splint to immobilize his wrist.
So far they think his wrist is dislocated and he might have a hairline fracture. I'll keep you updated. Did I tell you I don't get bored around here? lol

On the bright side, I finally finished the wallet I've been working on for 5 days now.

OK, DH just called from the hospital and Aaron wants Michelle and myself down at the hospital, too. Looks like he needs surgery now to insert a pin.

Weekend doings

2008-03-09T20:14:00.001-07:00

My weekend wasn't quite as productive as I had hoped (we have a carnival going on on the base, to which the kids wanted to go to, and I was helping out for 4 hours at the school carnival yesterday), but I managed to make four little wallets. The patriotic one is the one I'm keeping, then Michelle wanted a pink one and the red and blue/pink ones are for friends.

Other than that I was playing around with some layout ideas for another American Hero quilt top.

At this point everything is just put up on the design wall and nothing is "set in stone", so which of the two do you all prefer?

OK, time to let DH on the computer.

My mini vacation

2008-03-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

You've probably been wondering where I've been since November.

Things have been very busy around here, but I don't want to bore you with details about that, so I'll get directly to posting about my mini vacation.

My sweet DH thought it'd be a good idea for me to fly up to WA state to attend the annual Sew Expo in Puyallup and visit with my friends up there, so who am I to argue about that?

Oh, before I share pictures about my trip I have to show you a picture of an antique desk that I've gotten off of my local Freecycle group two days before I flew. My Freecycle co-moderator was offering this desk that she had sanded but not finished and Michelle begged me to try to get it for her. Well, she was the lucky recipient and I painted it white for her (on her request) and it looks beautiful in her room next to her white IKEA bed (which she got the frame from Freecycle in pristine condition as well).

Isn't this desk beautiful?

OK, so I couldn't go up to WA state empty handed and was able to take 3 finished quilt tops for American Hero Quilts with me to drop off with ladies selling raffle tickets for a beautiful quilt top to raise funds for American Hero quilts at the Quilt Barn in Puyallup. I bought 3 tickets, but unfortunately don't have a picture of the raffle quilt to share.

This top was very fast to piece using Marti Michell's large Kaleidoskope ruler.

The second top was pieced using a large panel and some fabric Karrin from Trading Fabrics sent to me in a large box for use for American Hero quilts.

Since most quilts I piece are more masculin looking I figured I needed to make a top for one of our female soldiers. I still had some heart blocks left from a previous quilt and by putting those on my design wall (fuzzy backed plastic table cloth that's up on my wall) with some half-square-triangle blocks I came up with this design. The striped fabric was ideal for the border, which was a snap to sew mitered with Marti Michell's mitering ruler. BTW, did you notice that I really like to use Marti Michell's rulers and templates? lol

The day I flew out, DD sent me off to the Expo with a mission to take pictures of famous people and so I did - she was so thrilled to see me with sewing and quilting celebs that she keeps seeing on TV.

Here I am with Libby Lehman. I have been to two of her seminars and she is a wonderful source of inspiration for contemporary quilting. Pictures of her quilts really don't do her work justice. You have to see one of her pieces up close to really get the full impact of her work.

This year I've also taken Kaye Woods seminar and after having seen her at Quilters Night out last year and experienced what a hoot she is, I also went to this year's special even with her and was not disappointed. I also found out that she is a snow bird and living just up the road from me this year.

Here I am with M'Liss Rae Hawley.

And I got to meet with Sharlene Jorgenson.

Here's a scrappy Apple core that I've pieced just the week before leaving, using her Apple Core template - yes it's curved piecing and I really don't like pinning, which you have to do plenty of with this, but I can now say "been there, done that" and once this piece is quilted it'll make a nice little table topper. ;o)

This year I've also taken one of Pam Clarke's seminars again . Her method of marking and quilting has really taken the fear out of quilting my own quilts for me. If you're stomped at how to quilt anything, getting her DVD and books is great for inspiration.

The dvd is like a private one-on-one class at home and worth every penny.

Here I am with Nancy Zieman. Her sewing show was the first I have watched when I came to the US a little over 10 years ago. To me she is one of the big influences in the sewing industry and I love her catalog. ;o)

Martha Pullen is a very sweet lady and although I will never see myself sewing up all of the beautiful lacey garments she creates I highly admire her creations.

Of course I had to take a picture with Marti Michell again. I took both of her seminars this year and below you'll see the BOM of her's that I was teaching at Parkland Parish using Marti's fabric line.

Last but not least a picture with Marci Baker. I've been teaching her strip pieced Tumbling blocks quilt in Washington, so it's been nice having a picture with her taken.

After two days of Expo it was time to meet with friends.

First I was meeting with my friend Lupe, Molly and Tara at Shari's for brunch and then I went on with Molly to visit a few quilt shops.

Here I am with Molly, Kat and Judi at Evergreen quilting.

It was great to have this break and be able to meet a lot of "old" friends. It recharged me, gave me fresh ideas and energy to tackle several things I've been putting off.

OK, you're probably tired of reading by now, so I'll try to post less lengthy, but more frequently again.

Base car show and festival

2007-11-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

It's been two weeks again since I last posted. So what have we been up to? Michelle for one had fun at a small fest here on the base. That's her doing flips in the picture. lol She waited almost 50 minutes in line for not even 5 minutes of jumping time, but she enjoyed it.

Then we also had a small car show going on here. Somebody even brought a Delorian!

And what do you thing of this car?

It was fun to look at, that's for sure.

What I'm currently working on

2007-10-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

These are some of the blocks I'm currently working on from a BOM I took at the Quilt Barn in Puyallup, WA. There are a total of 12 pieced and 12 appliqued blocks, but they didn't all fit up on my design wall. Of the pieced blocks, all but one are done and since I fused the first 4 months of the applique blocks I decided (instead of redoing those by hand) to fuse the remaining eight blocks as well, which means they all need satin stitching now.

For the satin stitching I had to change my usual machine set-up from my Juki, which is a pure straight stitch machine, back to my Pfaff Quilt Style. Once everything was set up I used a 2.0/.3 zig-zag setting for the satin stitching and tear-away stabilizer. It's quite time consuming (about an hour per block), but it just makes some of the lighter fabrics "pop".

I think the top will be large enough without the use of sashing, but I haven't made a final decision on that yet. Since I have to buy fabric for the border and backing anyway and the blocks are not all done yet, I will let inspiration hit me whenever it comes. lol

Two quilts done

2007-10-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

Looks like I totally forgot to update my blog with my two latest finished quilt tops. Both of these tops have been sitting in my UFO pile for quite some time, so it feels good to have them done.

The first top is my comfort quilt for my mother's passing from cancer February 13th 2005. Members from WASIQ had sent me the heart and flower blocks for this top. To make it large enough to really snuggle under it I added two of my own blocks and then alternated the blocks with wow (white on white) plain blocks that provided a great quilting surface. Each of the plain areas has a different design on it, using Pam Clarke's method.

On the back I used "Quilt for the Cure" fabric.

The second quilt below (African Queen) was made from a BOM at the Shibori Dragon in Washington state. After the blocks for 12 months were complete I used EQ5 to design the final layout. The quilting on this top was also done using Pam Clarke's method.

And how's this for the backing?

2007-10-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Time sure has been flying this last month, but stress seems to bring out the productive side in me. When I know I have a lot of appointments with waiting time coming up, I always try to have at least one project ready, that's portable, so I don't just sit around, wasting time. So if you should have wondered about how I get a lot of quilty things done, that answers the question. lol
First off I wanted to share a picture of the finished table runner I was working on in the Quilt University class by Nancy Chong. It's on our dining table right now.

Since I had dabbled into drawing my own Celtic design and still had oodles of self made bias strips, I prepared my fabric for the next project:

If you remember, this is the doodle that I created. The left side shows my drawing with highlighters, because I wanted to see how many fabrics I'd be able to use for the bias and the black line drawing to the right eliminates the "stop marks" I used for the designing process. It gives a better overall impression of the design without distractions.

I then created the real size drawing using a 2" grid that I drew on some drafting paper. This step is more time consuming, because it involved quite a few more steps than just redrawing the original line drawing at a larger scale. When you click on the picture to get the larger view you can see that I had to draw the lines to the left and right side of the design line, then I had to create the over/under effect and finally to make the tracing on fabric easier for myself I traced over all of the lines with a Sharpie.
After this step the pattern is ready to be traced onto fabric and the appliqueing can begin.

After several days of appliqueing all of the required bias strips down by hand, this is the top I've created:

At this point it's "aging" on my design wall as I am working on other UFO's. I've decided I want to completely finish at least three more projects before the year is over and I think I'll be able to finish more than that, but three is my minimum goal, but I'll share more of that in my next posts.

Today's progress

2007-09-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

So this is how the Celtic applique looks finished. The third and last lesson was loaded today about how to finish the table runner. Instead on working on finishing this I spent this morning with redrafting my doodle from the other day into a workable pattern.

The final size of this comes out to be about 18 1/2" for the design itself. At first I thought I could work it to be a 40" wall hanging, but the proportions of the bias would be off. One option I'd have to bring it up to 40" is to use double lines and fill the areas between them with different colored fabric from the main background to give it a stained glass effect. Definitely something worth looking into. ;o)

Sometimes you just don't know ...

2007-09-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

how things will turn out. lol Take the picture above for example. This is how I start my Celtic doodles - set up a frame and then add "stop" lines. At this point I have no idea where the design is going.

Here I fill in my turn points, but it still doesn't give me too many clues.

And I keep going till the design is filled. Sometimes (with this many lines) I can't tell if a design consists of one uninterrupted line of if there is the possibility of a multi color application.

Once I follow the line with a highlighter I can tell at once - one color application. To see how the design would look like without the background grid and stop lines I trace it on an overhead projector sheet. The design has symmetry on the diagonal and as I said above, you don't know what you get till it's done - this design isn't my favorite, but it was good practice.

Here is another example of an unexpected outcome, but I like this one. :o)

And below is a design, I am planing on turning into a wall hanging in the near future.

Then I was also playing around with some practice pieces with rectangular grids. Can you envision the top one as a table runner?

OK, now back to some applique!

I got to work a little more on the table runner last night and the picture shows how much I've gotten done so far. Plan is to have all of the applique finished this weekend, because I have quite a few other projects waiting for me to work on.

Celtic knotwork class project

2007-09-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken at an earlier stage of the knotwork. I'm almost done with all of the applique and I really like how it's coming along. I made one change to the instructions - I'll be using two different fabrics, instead of a one color application, but other than that the design will be the same.
I've met Nancy Chong (who is teaching this class) in person, while we were still living in Washington state, but living in AZ now, it's nice to take classes from her long distance at Quilt University. Her classes there are great, because her material is very detailed and you work at your own pace, while still having the benefit of classroom discussion/input.

I don't know if I'll finish the applique over the weekend (DD is having little guest over), but if I do, I'll take a picture of the finished top to post here.

Sewing machine caddy-mat

2007-09-01T13:17:00.001-07:00

This is a sewing machine mat I made as a gift, using 3 Fat Quarters. The nice thing about these mats is that you can put some supplies you need, while using your sewing machine, right in front of you in the pockets and it seems to muffle the sound of your machine a bit.
I wrote up instructions, as I went through the steps of making this mat, and I'm thinking of possibly teaching this as a class. What do you think?

Celtic Knotwork doodles

2007-09-01T12:30:00.001-07:00

After having signed up with Nancy Chong's Celtic knotwork class at Quilt University, I've ordered a few books, how to "draw your own Celtic designs". Last evening I started experimenting with some practice designs of my own and I wanted to share the process with you.

Here I'm working with a 7x7 block grid. The red marks tell me where the grid will be interrupted and the light pencil markings are the beginning of the knotwork. (You'll see an oops in the picture here, where I didn't highlight one of my "stop marks")In the next pictures you see how I'm working my way out of the center.With some lines I stop to take a moment to see where the lines will lead me.And then I can continue to close the lines. By now this looks pretty confusing, don't you think? To make the visualization easier on me I decided to use different color highlighters. Later on, if I decide to turn this into an actual project I can use different colors of fabric in place of the different colors of highlighter that I used, or make the design all in one color, but I think different colors make the projects more interesting.Here you see more clearly that some parts of the design are continuous and others (although continuous in themselves) are not continuous throughout the entire design.

Now it's time to fill some of the empty spaces, shown with the orange highlighter - and you probably can see that something's still missing.So to balance the design out, I mirror image the orange line and fill the rest of the design in with the yellow highlighter.

Voila! This is the finished design doodle. I think this design, once worked out in a larger scale would make a nice table topper or wallhanging. Maybe you'll see this as a finished project in the future on my blog. ;o)

American Hero top

2007-08-21T07:44:00.001-07:00

Browsing through some old posts of mine I realized I never shared a picture of the finished top I made with blocks that I received from Robin M. (+ two of my blocks) to use for this American Hero top. I have some more blocks left for another quilt top, but I need to bring most of the blocks up to size first, before I can piece the top together, but that will have to wait for another post.

Selecting fabrics for the Northern Lights quilt

2007-08-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

Boy, it is work to find a decent focus fabric from which you can pull the rest of the colors that need to go in the quilt. Just about all focus fabrics with a dark background that I've found were either way to pink or had too few colors to pick the other required fabrics from. So the above is what I'm working with now. I'll need to make a quick trip to the quilt shop later to find some more of the light fusions fabric, to have enough to use throughout the entire top. The blocks above are just laid out, so if I can't find enough of the fabric I'm looking for it'll be easy to switch a few pieces out, before sewing the blocks together.
I was hoping to find a focus fabric with a dark blue background to build my quilt around that color scheme, but didn't have any luck with that, so this fabric has a black background.

More cloud pictures

2007-08-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

Impressive clouds

2007-07-28T12:10:00.001-07:00

These two pictures were taken right outside our front door. Aren't those clouds impressive? I'm glad things are cooling down a little bit with the clouds moving in, but we could use a little more rain here for sure.

Aaron received his blue belt

2007-07-28T11:56:00.001-07:00

This morning we went to the Kung Fu graduation ceremony for Aaron to receive his blue belt.

In the picture he is receiving his new belt and the certificate from one of the head instructors.

Aaron's instructor is Master Dining, who is an 8th degree black belt (wearing the black with yellow uniform), so he is in good hands.

Tumbling Blocks wallhanging & Shaded 4-patch top

2007-07-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

I finished this wall hanging July 3rd.
The top was pieced using Marti Michelle templates quite some time ago and I was debating if I wanted to incorporate it into another larger quilt or finish it as a wall hanging. Well, as you can see the wall hanging won. lol I'm just at a point that I want to cross things off of my UFO list and finish things.

BTW, yesterday I finished piecing the top with blocks from the Shaded 4-patch block swap and here it is. Michelle's claiming it already, although it's not quilted yet, but I should be able to finish it for her birthday. ;o)

Two wall hangings finished

2007-07-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

Back in April I shared pictures of these two projects in progress and can say they are both finally finished. :o)

With the amount of UFO's I have (I stopped listing them after 45 projects) I'll try to get at least one of my tops (regardless of size) finished per month. Some of my UFO's will take me a year or longer to be finished, like the Moonglow and Robert Callahan quilt (haven't started on this one yet other than letting the fabric age for several years already hehe), but I know they'll get finished eventually and I'll keep you all updated here on my progress.
First I want to finish two more American Hero tops to send out to Sue to be finished. One is just about done, but the second one still needs a lot more planing with all of the block sized being different, but I should be able to finish both tops by the end of this month and then I'll have a total of 6 tops to send out.

Trip to Disney Land

2007-07-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

Since I bet all of you have been to Disney Land at one time or another, I'm not going to bore you with details, but I wanted to share a few pictures we took. ;o)
After a 450 mile drive and a stay at a Hotel we were ready the next day for a full day of adventure at Disney Land.

Day two was started out at California Adventure park. First ride we went on, Michelle and I got soaked, but with the weather having been great, it wasn't all that bad and we both dried fairly quickly.

Of course you can't go through the parks without taking a picture of Minnie and Mickey, so when Minnie came our way at CA she posed with the kids.

And at the end of the day we were able to see Mickey at his "film barn".

We all had fun, but by day two we were worn out and ready to make our way back home the next day.

Four American Hero tops

2007-05-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

Michelle had helped me sewing up enough rail fence strips that we were able to make one Rail Fence top and one Heart top using what was left over from the strips. The hearts were fused and then button hole stitched.

Then from the pre-cut fabric for shaded 4-patch blocks that Robin sent I was able to create two tops as well, adding my fabric for the alternating squares, setting triangles, and borders.

So these four tops are ready to be mailed to Sue for American Hero quilts and I have some more blocks in preparation for two more tops. Those will take me a while longer though, with the blocks all being of a different size and my kids going on summer break soon.

This is the beginning of one top I'm working on with blocks of varying sizes. Once the center is pieced, I'll add a narrow red border followed by a 6" wider border.

As always, to get a larger view of a picture, just click on it. :o)

Table topper for Mr. Garrett

2007-05-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

Michelle wanted me to make a wall hanging for her favorite teacher (Mr. Garrett), but with the time I had on hand this little table topper had to do. lol
I was able to piece and quilt it while the kids were at school.
You can enlarge the picture by clicking on it.

This is the label I put on the back.
I had ordered a Bubble Jet kit from softexpressions. com, because I could not find the Bubble Jet set or the rinse here locally and I like their service.
The reason I like the Bubble Jet set over the prepared fabrics is the price for one, but also that I can choose any cotton fabric to print on. When I prepared enough fabric for 4 sheets the other day I hung the wet fabric over a clothes hanger outside to dry and it just took minutes before I was able to iron it on to freezer paper and cut my 8 1/2"x11" sheets to print on.

Two American hero tops in the making etc.

2007-05-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Robin had sent me a nice stack of partially prepared shaded 4-patch blocks (among an assortment of other finished blocks that I'll show below) to use for American Hero tops. I went right ahead and finished the blocks and squared them up to 7" and put 4 of these units together in one larger block.

Here I was playing around with a layout option of the blocks.

With the amount of blocks that I have I'll be making this center for a top. In this picture I simply laid out the pieces to take a picture last evening, I'll try to get everything sewn together over the weekend. Today I will have to purchase some more fabric for the setting triangles for two quilts and the border.

This is the second version I'll sew up.
Michelle likes the first center better, I like this one. :o)

The border fabric I intend to use on these is the same I used for several other quilts. It seems to really pull out the colors of all blocks.
The rail fence top is another American Hero top. It's ready to be mailed, but I'll mail it together with the other two tops as soon as they are finished.
In this picture are some more of the blocks that Robin had sent and I was playing around with them to see how I could incorporate all of the different sizes into one top. I don't know yet if I want to float the blocks on a white or blue background, but might have a clearer thought about that once the other two tops are completed.

Here is my completed "1st quilt", well complete, other than the label. I couldn't find Bubble jet set anywhere around here, so I ordered some yesterday online. Once I have that, I'll print a label out for this and quite a few other quilts, like the deployment quilt, on which the quilting is also finished. The binding is attached by machine on it, so now I just need to sew the binding to the back by hand. Another quilt I'm sewing the binding on by hand right now is the Lone Star wall hanging, so things are moving along nicely and I should be able to finish quite a few more UFO's by the end of the year. :o)

Deployment quilt

2007-05-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

I just did some browsing on a Yahoo group that I belong to (WASIQ) to see when exactly I received the 12 star blocks that are shown in the quilt and it was April 18th, 2003. Boy, time flies I tell you!
Members with deployed family members or some close family member in the service were gifted with these deployment blocks. At the time Cliff had been on an 8 month tour, so having been gifted with the star blocks touched me deeply.
I used EQ5 to design a setting for the blocks and came up with a quilt that has 50 stars total. Go ahead and count them. ;o)

Well, as you can see in the close-up of one of the star blocks above, I finished outline quilting all of the stars (1/4" inside and outside of each star) and did some loops on the red border of each star.
To quilt all 12 blocks in this way it took me two hours, which I spread out over two days.
Now I'm debating how I want the blue sashing and white sashing stars to be quilted, but in the meantime I'll sew on some bias binding I made yesterday to the "1st" quilt, before I get back to working on this quilt again and maybe inspiration will have hit me by then. LOL

MY FIRST QUILT EVER!

2007-05-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

This is the quilt that started it all!

After I got burnout from running a licensed daycare for almost two years without a break, I decided to do something nice for myself and took a quilt sampler class from Dawn Kucera in Hawaii.

The class started in March of 2000 and I had the top complete by the end of the class. I even was able to get together with two other gals, who also completed their tops to thread baste the quilts and that was as far as I got with it. At one time I tried to squeeze it through my machine (Pfaff), but that was not too much fun due to lack of space and inspiration how to quilt the sampler blocks and then it sat again. With the Juki set up with matching red, white and blue King Tut thread I spent the last several days working on it and took my last stitch yesterday. Now I just need to find matching blue Moda Marble somewhere for the binding. Good thing that there's still Moda Marbles on the market. :o)

It feels really good to have this quilt finished. It wasn't that it took so long because I no longer liked it or got tired of it. I've always liked r/w/b quilts and for my first quilt the piecing even looks good. lol There are also two blocks in it that represent my kids. One is the palm tree applique block for Michelle, because she was born in Hawaii and the other block is called Star Wars that I made for Aaron, who liked Star Wars at the time. :o)
My hang-up was how to quilt it (for hand it seemed quite large - for machine it seemed quite large hehe) with method and design. I just need to let loose on the design part. Seems I make the decision making harder than it has to be, so I just leafed through some Pam Clarke design booklets and started puttering away. Don't think there's just one PERFECT design anyway. The fabric is so busy that the quilting isn't dominant on it, other than on the sashing and borders, but you'll see that in the pictures.

Oh, and of course my official quilt tester had to jump on the quilt as I was trying to take pictures. He gave me his paw of approval. ;o)

See-through toilet?

2007-05-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

Now how comfortable would you be using a toilet with one-way glass?
This public toilet was photographed in Switzerland.

You can find more info on this on:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/toilet.asp

Quilt ADD?

2007-04-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

By now you all probably think I suffer from quilt ADD, with me switching from project to project, but switching keeps the process more interesting to me and I know all projects get done eventually. lol
Sooooo, to test my theory why the green Hawaiian wall hanging (that I posted about the other day) seems to be so hard to hand quilt, I pulled out this blue wall hanging and started hand quilting on it.

As you can see, the applique and background fabric are tone on tone fabrics.

I quilted the center of this piece with dark blue hand quilting thread, so it barely shows and the outline and echo quilting in the lighter blue space is done in white hand quilting thread.

This is the back side of this quilt and as you can see it's a batik.

OK, now you want to know what my conclusion is to the above question. ;o)
The green wall hanging has a total of 3 layers of batik fabric, which all have a very tight weave to them. This makes it really hard to needle and the only way to pull the needle out every few stitches is by using the rubber needle grabber. With this project and only having one layer of batik (the backing fabric) the quilting goes a LOT smoother and is much more enjoyable. So don't be surprised if you see the blue wall hanging done before the green one. ;o)

Alternating between hand and machine quilting

2007-04-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

This morning I finished outline quilting this Hawaiian applique wall hanging. The original design is from Nancy Chong (Woodland Lei), but I had to modify the outer ring (basically eliminating it) to fit the fabric I had. With any projects like this wall hanging that are done entirely using hand applique I also hand quilt these. The applique went really smoothly, because batiks are less likely to fray unlike other fabrics, but having used batiks for backing, top and applique fabric I find it's harder to hand quilt and I have to use one of those rubber needle grabbers to get the needle out of the top after each stitching sequence.
This is a close up - don't know if you can see the quilting stitches very well along the outside of the applique.
Next I'll need to do some echo quilting and then it'll go up on one of our walls. :o)

This is a small Lone Star wall hanging that has been sitting in my closet for way to long.
After having received my book order from Pam Clarke I found a design I liked to go into the corner squares and triangle units. With the star having been closely machine quilted I needed something to balance those blank areas out.

This is the design I used for the squares and I halved it to use in the triangle units.

I've been working on the quilting part of this top for 3 days so far. Right now I'm trying to decide how I want to quilt the border and then it's almost ready to be displayed as well.

Working on various things

2007-04-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

Before I sent the table topper off last week I took a picture of the back with the label on it. Small projects like this one are really fun to quilt on the Juki and I have some larger projects lined up already that I'm planing on quilting soon. My main problem is that I'm making the quilting process more complicated than it has to be, because I want to find the "perfect" pattern for each block. Well, with several sampler block quilt tops that is taking me quite some time and I've come to the conclusion that I just need to learn to relax and just go for it. lol The one's that are causing me problems are my quilts anyway, so who really cares how I quilt them, other than me? ;o)

I didn't want the quilt police to get me for not having equal quilting on the entire surface, so I added some echo quilting around the heart center I worked on the other day. Since I wanted the heart motif to remain more dominant I echo quilted it using plain white thread.
Right now I'm in the mood to just get things FINISHED, so I think I'll just sew a "flip" backing on without a zipper and no binding around the pillow. OK, I know there must be some formal and correct term for my pillow method, but I can't think of it right now, so if you're wondering what I'm talking about, I'll try to briefly describe it. I'll lay two overlapping pieces of fabric with right side down on the right side of the "top" (the two back pieces will have finished edges), then sew around the entire thing and just turn the whole thing right side out and voila, finished pillow case! :o)
I'll try to get that done today and if so, I'll post a picture later.

Here's yet another American Hero top that Michelle is helping me work on - a simple Rail Fence top. While I do all the cutting and ironing, Michelle sews the strips for the rail fence together.Then I piece the center and put the borders on. I just got done putting the top together and will try to go out to buy some batting and backing for it next week to finish the quilt.
Michelle started working on more Rail Fence strips, but I thought we should try another layout. So I was tracing, fusing and button hole stitching some heart blocks and the result so far is below. Michelle still has a few more strips to sew to make the top larger, but so far I really like it. The border is going to be similar again to the top above if I have enough fabric.

Sewing kit etc.

2007-04-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

This is a little mesh bag I made for Aaron to keep his sewing utensils and a yard of fabric in. Next week they'll start on a basic sewing class at school and everything he needs for that fits nicely in his bag, so no digging in his backpack for lost items.

This is another piece I created on my Juki last week. The heart measures 13"x 13 1/3". The picture doesn't show it very well, but it's stitched in a burgundy King Tut thread. Since I used a scrap of Warm & White for the batting I'm debating if I should add some more quilting around the heart or not, before turning this one into a pillow, so for now I'll let it "age" a little bit before making my final decision. :o)

Table topper

2007-04-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of a table topper I'm making for a member of WASIQ. To me she represents all of the soldiers that have been sent to war areas. We know the names of those fallen and we get to know some names of those injured, but how many come home with mental scars, like flashbacks, post traumatic stress disorders and the like that nobody seems to want to talk about or acknowledge?

This table topper will not take any of the images and experiences away that our soldiers go through, but we need to let all of our service people know that we care about them, regardless of political orientation.

One finished / one to go

2007-04-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Remember the stippled heart I was working on the other day? Well, it's a pillow now and sitting on my bed. :o)
Then I got playing some more with the fabric I bought last week and used my Marti Michell Kaleido ruler to make the pinwheel blocks (12"). The center is all sewn together already, but this morning I cut out the red inner border and outside border. I might have a chance to work more on that later - after DH comes home for lunch and before the kids come home from school.
BTW, this is my official quilt tester. lol Right now it's too bright for him while sleeping, so he's covering his eyes. hehe