quilts talk

My friend Nancy gave me this quilt top months ago made from 6 1/2 inch squares that were cut about a year ago. It has taken this long for the quilt to tell me where it wanted to go.

On Saturday, I read on the Facebook page of a good friend from work that her Aunt had passed away and how much her Aunt had loved Easter. After reading that, I knew this quilt needed to go to my friend to comfort her in her loss. All the quilt needed was binding to be finished. I got it done Sunday night and gave it to her yesterday.

I have to share some more iris pictures. They are really starting to show their colors now. The problem is we are leaving for a week starting Friday and I hope I don't miss the best of the show while I am gone. I am flying out to visit my daughter at college. I might have to leave my camera with the girl who is watching the house and pets so she can take pictures for me when I get back.

These are all in the backyard.

This hill will be covered in color soon.

This is a little tiny flower on a teeny tiny plant.

Practice quilt

I am doing a lot of thinking about something and while I am thinking I decided to practice some of my quilting patterns on this quilt. Each box has a different quilting pattern in it. I thought when it was done, I could use it to show off my different patterns that I know. It was really hard doing this. I had to change patterns each time I went across the quilt and then back again because each box took two passes with the quilting machine.

I had to really think as I was doing each pattern and then think again on the back pass to remember what was in the box because I had rolled the quilt up to where I couldn't see.

Also for some reason, in the middle of the quilt, the thread tension got all funny on me and I had to rip it out twice. That was really frustrating and made me rethink my original thought.

But, for all of the trouble, I'm glad I tried this idea out. This quilt took 6 bobbins where normally a quilt this size takes 4 so I know I put a lot more thread into this quilt than normal.

It is really hard to take a picture of the quilting on the quilt. The light was going down outside so I tried using the flash, but that didn't help either. I think I need morning light coming at an angle. I will figure this out.

I sure am enjoying this new quilting hobby!

Here are some of the patterns I tried

Wonky Feathers

overall flower pattern

loops and hearts

flower echo pattern

different leaves

sunburst baptist fan

square stipple

more rounded baptist fan flowery thingy?

swirls

triangular stipple

Iris season

Iris season is starting for me. I'm not counting the purple ones that bloom twice a year for me. Sometimes they bloom three times a year! Can you believe it. These guys bloom in December and then again now and sometimes again in September. They are so weird. I just love them. They obviously can't read because they are only supposed to bloom twice. About 3 years ago, I found a local place and have visited it twice--missing it last year. It is in Napa, Ca and if you are close enough to make the drive, I promise you that you will not be disappointed.

http://www.napairis.com/

Take a look at their website. Even if you don't live close enough and love iris, you can order iris tubers and they will ship them to you in August or sometimes late July and then you too can have gorgeous iris at your house next spring. I have probably 100 bloom stalks out there, just waiting to explode with color, so be expecting to see a lot of iris pictures over the next few weeks.

Today after getting the boys haircuts, I saw that Raley's had iris in 5 gallon pots for $14.39. They each had about 3 to 5 bloom stalks on them. There weren't any colors I don't have, so I couldn't talk myself into buying one, but maybe when I am weak, I will go back and pick up one or more. You can't buy fresh cut flowers for that price and these guys last a long time.

I wish I could send you the fragrance with these pictures. The purple ones especially smell so good!

Here are some more pictures of things in bloom here in Northern California today. And some pictures of the things growing in my garden. Peas and tomatoes and squash are doing well so far and the raddish have come up. There is nothing that makes you feel like a successful gardener like raddish seeds. Even if you don't like eating them, just knowing that you can throw the seeds in the ground and in a week have little seedlings, makes you feel like you have a green thumb. Even if you don't.

Today I got the lawns mowed, loads and loads of laundry done, the kitchen cleaned, the boys' haircuts and other parts of the house cleaned. A good start to the weekend. I think I will reward myself with some quilting. I am watching my quilting DVDs (pajamaquilter and Fast and Furious 0.5) and want to try out some new things. Just not enough time in the day.

It sure feels good to feel good again.

Here are the two quilts I finished last weekend and this week. The first went to the wife of a co-worker who has been in the hospital since Dec 23. He has an infection in his pancreas and has been in a medically induced coma for most of the time. He does better and then regresses. The principal said it brought his wife to tears.

The second was for a dear friend whose dad has heart failure and is in a nursing home now. He is too weak to do surgery. I made this for her, but she gave it to him. I should have made it a little more masculine, but I think he liked it anyways. Felt good to be able to give her a hug like this.

I'm back

and just barely alive :)
I have a terrible head cold and have been working all week and just not had the energy to do much of anything else. When I get a terrible cold, it always ends up with a hacking cough that makes me feel like I'm going to lose a lung or break a rib. I actually did break a rib once coughing so it can happen and it isn't fun. I think I am finally starting to heal now and hope to have things to post this weekend.

Next week I will be heading to Ohio to visit my oldest at college. This will be the first all family trip since she was 1 1/2 years old. We are all flying out on Friday and coming back late Wed night. It is going to be so much fun and I can't wait to see her again.

Today I am trying to get the house cleaned so the girl who is coming over to take care of the two little dogs, guinea pig, cat, two parakeets, guppies, and koi won't have to trip over everything to get to all of the creatures. She is a friend of my daughter's and has agreed to come over every day we are gone to make sure everyone is fed and cleaned up after. The big dog is going to the kennel where she can bark to her heart's content. I have to take her in to get shots tomorrow.

The boys need haircuts today too. I'm also trying to book our hotel and car reservations today. Nothing like waiting for the last minute. I was hoping for a deal, but no such luck. Travelocity and Orbitz have deals all of the time on hotels, but only in exotic places. I guess Ohio isn't a vacation spot in April. Oh, well, we are going to have fun anyways. I'm hoping to find a good quilting store and visit the Amish. My daughter went for an Amish breakfast a couple weeks ago at a farmhouse and said it was really good.

The garden is doing great and I hope to post some pictures later today, after the sun is shining on it more so you can see the plants a little better.

It feels good to be alive again!

keeping busy

I have been keeping busy this last week. After taking Monday off and cleaning the house and getting some gardening done, I have been working on my feathers and quilting. I did another practice quilt, just two pieces of fabric with lots of different feather patterns on it. My daughter #2 loves this one, so when it is done, I am going to surprise her with it.

Then, a teacher at my school has been in the hospital since right before Christmas and is not doing well. I quilted this happy and bright quilt for his wife to give her some encouragent. I need to bind it tonight or tomorrow because the school is getting a basket of things together for her on Monday.

This is the back of the quilt.

And finally, this last quilt is for my friend whose dad has heart failure and is in the hospital. Again, more feathers and other leaves and swirls as I am learning new things. I love being able to hear the quilt tell me what it wants where.

Now, to start feeling better so I have more energy again. I have some kind of bug that is going around school and am really tired and have a stuffy head. My ears are plugged up and when I take medicine for that, it makes me feel sick to my stomach and not feel like doing anything.

Happy dogs

Well, Lily is happy to be home from the vet and I think learned a little lesson because she won't go near the garden! I stayed home from work today to keep an eye on her and because I had to get up at 4:30 this morning to pick her up. Since I had some time today I took Harper in to the groomer and she likes being able to see again. Having dogs that have to go to the groomer is a new experience for me and a big learning curve as well. I don't know how long I can go before having to take them back in again and waited too long again because this time her back hair was too matted and they had to cut it short. I will get this figured out eventually.

stupid, expensive mistake

I finished planting my garden today and put out snail bait because I know there are lots of snails out there waiting to eat everything I just put out. I didn't think about it, but this time around, I have two little dogs. I wasn't paying attention to them after putting the snail bait out and the younger of the two got into the snail bait that I had just put out and ate some. She started shaking and panting and I had to rush her to the emergency vet. Of course, on a Sunday evening, traffic was crazy and what should have taken 20 minutes took almost an hour. Poor little girl. It is going to cost $942 for my stupidity!

I'm glad the older of the two little dogs is a little smarter and didn't get into the snail bait as well. My big dog has never shown an interest in the stuff, so I didn't even think that it would be a problem, but this little girl gets into everything, so I should have thought more about it and kept her inside and away from the garden.

She is at the vet still, I have to pick her up in the morning. The vet said it looked like she didn't get too much of the poison.

I certainly learned a life lesson today.

feeling miserable

I woke up this morning around 4am with a terrible ear ache. I've never had my ear hurt like this and had the worst time getting back to sleep. So, I went to urgent care at 9 and the doctor thinks I have strep throat. She did a quick test which came back negative and the longer version which will take until Wednesday to get the results. By that time, I will either be cured or dead. Ok, so maybe not dead, but sicker. They don't give out antibiotics anymore like they used to so she sent me home to take a decongestant for the fluid that was behind my ear and now I feel worse. I hate taking medicine that makes me feel spacey. It is a gorgeous spring day outside, although we are having a bit of wind, and I am stuck inside feeling sorry for myself. Maybe when the medicine wears off I will feel like quilting or cleaning the sewing room, or getting some grading done at least. Grades are due on Tuesday, so I hope I feel at least well enough to get a little work done today.

Quilt Show today

I went to the local quilt show today and I looked at quilts differently than I ever have before. First, I topped at the sales table to check out the fabrics and books/magazines. I was disappointed with the scrap fabrics. Last time I remember them having tables of scrap fabrics for every cheap. This year, they had some fat quarters and some bigger pieces but the prices were nothing to write about. And I don't need more fabric. I checked out the books and picked out 6 I didn't have and 1 I did, but love so much that I can give this one to a friend because the patterns are really easy and the quilts turn out nice. Then, I picked out a bunch of magazines for 50 cents each. I spent $14 so far. I put all of those things in the car and then started the quilt exploration.

This year, I was most interested in the quilting on the quilts, so I examined each quilt carefully, looking for interesting quilting patterns. There were lots of quilts with simple meandering which made me feel pretty good about my own machine quilting. Hey, I could do that! I picked up some good ideas for new things to try. I found that I wasn't impressed with the obvious pantographs. There were several quilts that had the same pantograph used on them and although the quilting was nice and uniform, when you have so many quilts side by side with the same overall design, it loses its specialness. I like quilts that have been freemotion quilted with all of their mistakes and unique drawings. There was one quilt that had animals quilted into it. You couldn't see the animals unless you stared at the quilt for a while because the thread color blended in with the background, but I thought it was really neat that they did that with the quilting.

This quilt won best in show. It is a One Block Wonder or Stack and Whack quilt and there were several of those there. I am going to make one of these sooner or later, because I just bought a book a couple weeks ago and have to justify the purchase. I think what the judges liked about this quilt was the ovement of color across the quilt with the different blocks making a wave of color.

This quilt was the favorite of everyone at the quilt show. Everyone who stopped stood to admire this one for a long time. It has animal prints as the focus and is also a stack and whack quilt. I like the different color background and wonder if that was planned or happy accident :)

This is another of my favorites, with red being my favorite color.

When I look at this quilt all I can think of is the amount of time it must have taken to coplete. I love the stained glass look of it with the black sashing and the wide borders with the patchwork outer border.

I told you there were quite a few of these type of quilts there.

and another one.

This one is my style. Small, simple, but makes a nice statement. I also love the colors in this quilt, very relaxing and restful. I could take a nap right now...

There were quite a few of these quilts too. I think the pattern is called Pick Up Sticks. I think I have this pattern around somewhere. What a great way to use up some scraps.

another great scrap user, this one takes more work, but WOW!

And finally, my all time favorite. Love the bold colors and did I mention, my favorite color is RED?

After walking through the quilt show the first time, I realized I hadn't looked at any of the quilts. I couldn't remember what any of them looked like since I was standing up so close to see the quilting on them all. So, I had to make a second trip around the whole show to actually see the quilts this time. It is strange when you look at quilts from two different perspectives how you get a whole new view of them.

I stopped by and picked up 20 more magazines, mostly Fons and Porter the second time around because for 50 cents each even if there is only one pattern in the whole bunch, I think I did well for myself. I will be keeping busy with ideas for a while now.

And when I got home, the mailman was waiting with a quilting DVD for me! What a happy quilty day!

You Tube Videos

See the new links list on the left side? I'm looking for good quilting demo videos to add to this list. Let me know if you have any, or know of any that I can add. I'm always on the lookout for ways to improve my quilting skills and want to share what I learn with all of you. Take a look at these videos from You Tube and see if you can pick up a thing or two to help you out.

It's Friday! Yipee!