My mom's birthday!

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quilt for a Cure

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

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

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.