Lucky Me

Annie over at Annie's Quilt Orts recently had a giveaway to celebrate having 100 followers. She decided to pick a 13th name for a second winner - guess who was Lucky 13. Whoo Hoo!

I follow Tonya's blog also and have followed along as she was writing her book and creating some of the quilts in the book. I have really wanted this book.

So do you think I should make this quilt first...

Or should I start simple with this little quilt...

Oh I'm going to have fun with this book. Thank you Annie!!

I finished the panel. This is the back: tension looks good, stitches look even (I am SO glad I got the stitch regulator), and it doesn't look like I quilted rows (which I was really worried about).

The hardest part was the last 4 inches of the quilt.

I'm pleased with the results, but I still need to take more baby steps.

PIQS

The Pacific International Quilt Show is BIG. Over 500 quilts from local, nationwide and international quilters, and over 160 vendors. The imagination and creativity of quilters astounds me every time. Below are a few of my favorites.

I love dragonflies.

This iris quilt was very large.

Wouldn't you love to see this mosaic in your entryway. This was also a very large quilt.

This was one of my show favorites. Very dramatic colors and design, I really liked the mix of traditional with contemporary. My picture doesn't show it very well but there is a bird quilted in each of the fly geese and throughout the quilt.

What I thought was fantastic is the large bird is created with thread, no piecing or applique.

And then it's back to reality...lol...I've loaded a panel that looks like a pieced quilt on to the beast.
I want to do in the ditch, some curves, a few different fillers in the blocks, maybe pebbles in the border (ha! like I could do all that on my first quilt on the beast) - getting back to reality again, I am going to meander from edge to edge. I have two of these panels, if I do okay on this one maybe I'll get a bit more adventurous with the next. I have to remind myself that baby steps are good.

I'll post more quilts from the show later this week.

I'm So Excited

I've decided practicing frame and machine quilting on muslin is BORING.

Last Saturday I had my aunt Roberta and Jayme sewing blocks while I ironed and cut (I don't think my aunt has used a sewing machine in 40+ years). I've been piecing backs, making binding and adding borders this past week - I've actually done a little bit of sewing every day this week. I'm excited about quilting again. I now have two panels ready to quilt and three small donation quilts that just need their final borders added.

And I'm really looking forward to putting each quilt/panel on the frame to quilt.

But not this weekend. This weekend I'm going the Pacific International Quilt Show in Santa Clara, CA. I'm so excited. Nancy, Dawn and Stacey are going with me. Stephanie is meeting us there. The girls are gonna have fun! I'll have lots of pictures when I get back.

Have to show pics of the boys...Obba and Fred are my official quilt testers...

Obba testing the softness of one of the donation quilts. Soooo soft flannel charm squares from Moda in nice guy-like tweeds, plaids and herringbone prints. I like petting this flannel as much as I like petting Obba (don't tell him that).

Fred inspecting Nancy's layout of her Kaffe snowball quilt on my design floor, he moved a few around for her.

Sigh, it's so nice living with two handsome helpful guys.

Misc. Stuff

Are praying mantis good bugs or bad bugs? I was working in the yard this morning an found these guys.

One was in the lantana, the other was in a pot with some not to green daisies. I might have to Google them after this post.

My hen and chick is blooming:

This is the first time it has bloomed.

I got the half square blocks for the first quadrant of my friendship triangles quilt squared up and laid out.


I think it is going to take me a while to sew this together.

My latest civil war blocks are done. Both really easy.

I like Ohio Stars.

And last but not least...the monster lives!

Now I need to learn how to tame the beast. Lessons learned so far:

1. Don't roll the quilt up too high or you get gaps in the quilting.

2. You are delusional if you think you don't need to practice A LOT.

3. You need to breathe every once in a while...holding your breath is not good.

I'm sure there will be more lessons to learn before I get to my first quilt.

Quick

Talk about customer service! I talked to a technical support person at the Grace Company on Wednesday morning, by Friday afternoon a new Sure Stitch Regulator was delivered. Wow. They tested it on site to ensure it works with my Juki 2000....does it work? Don't know. I'm not as fast or efficient as they are. Installing the first regulator was a pain in the keister. I'm not looking forward to taking it off and installing the new one.

Two new civil war blocks... one was exceptional easy and the other was exceptional difficult. Can you guess which was which?

Difficult Easy

I started out using Barbara Brackman's pattern and templates for the Confederate Rose block. I should have tweaked this one like I have a few of the other blocks, it would have been simpler to just make a square in a square in square block with cheater corners. Having said that, it is one of my favorite finished blocks.

On a side note: I got called in for jury duty today. It was a civil case, someone ran a red light that caused an accident. A passenger in one of the cars sued both drivers. I didn't get picked but it was interesting to watch the jury selection process.

Sew Eventful Weekend

Lots of sewing did and did not occur at my house this weekend.

On Saturday Dawn, Stacey and Nancy came over to sew. They were my motivation to get everything attached, plugged and pinned...


Nada, nothing...literally. I could get it working with the presser foot, but not the regulator. So disappointing. We tried everything, Googled everything, and no luck. So very disappointing. Does anyone in blogland have a Sure Stitch Regulator hooked up to a Juki 2000? Any suggestions?

To add to it all Fred peed on Stacey's sewing machine carrier and an ex-boyfriend was in the area and decided he wanted to visit even though I told him I had a house full of women sewing and it wasn't the best time. (I talk to him about once year and haven't seen him in 11 years.) His comment once he got here..."I didn't realize you were so into this stuff." Really?

I was so distracted I didn't take any pictures on Saturday. Stacey worked on friendship star blocks, Dawn worked with templates to make a complicated sunflower block and Nancy worked on making very colorful snowball blocks with Kaffe fabrics.

Yesterday was more relaxing. Nancy came back over and we watch p.s. I love you with Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. Now if Gerard Butler had stopped by on Saturday I would have kicked all those women out the door so fast they wouldn't have seen the boot coming. Good movie. A 5 Kleenex rating.

Nancy finished putting together the rows for this Just Can't Cut It (more Kaffe).


The picture doesn't do the quilt justice. It is SO bright and cheerful.

I've mention the charm packet challenge Nancy and I have going...here's where she is.

And this is where I am...


Hmmmm... doesn't look quite right does it.

Caught Up

Whoopee!!! I am finally caught up with my civil war blocks. I even got this week's block done.

I may Y triangles but I don't do Y seams or curves. So I adapted two blocks.

The Indian Puzzle block ends up a little blah (different fabric choices may have helped), but the Carolina Lily looks just as good as the original.