Reflection...2012 Accomplishments

I was asked the other day how many quilts I have made this year.  I wasn't sure, so I spent some time this evening totaling them up.  Not including the ones that still need to be bound and quilted, I completed 17 quilts in 2012!  That also doesn't include the other sewing projects: Lined drawstring bags, an apron, bean bags.....That is more than I ever imagined I would do...so I am pretty stoked and proud!  Though I made many of them as gifts, I am building up a stash of quilts for donation as well as for an art show I am aiming to enter next year.  Thank you to those of you who believed in me enough to make these quilts for your loved ones.  Thank you for reading my silly rants over the last year.  Thank you for asking me about my latest creative endeavor.  I appreciate all the help, support and encouragement over the year.

I know I haven't posted much in the last month, but I put away the sewing machine to work on cleaning up the craft room.  It was long overdue for a cleaning overhaul and I have been promising the hubby for quite some time now.  This week, I managed to discover the table top in there and cleaned it off!

The Craft Room (aka "crap room")

Today, I spent three glorious hours cutting and sewing the quilt top for the "blue" quilt using my new room.  I loved staring out the window while I sewed and I am looking forward to many more hours at the machine in there.  I am hoping to finish the blue top tomorrow so I can finish piecing the "green" quilt this weekend.  I still don't know what I want to do for the "purple" quilt, but I will try to decide this weekend too.  Although I didn't finish my rainbow of quilts by the end of 2012, I still have accomplished so much and I think I will be able to finish by the end of January.  Then I can start my next set of quilts....tribute to the holidays.

Thanks again everyone...see you in 2013!!

Happy New Year and Happy Crafting!!!!

Red, Orange, Yellow Quilts all done!

Just to catch you up...I was excused from Jury Duty...thank goodness.  This case would've bugged me just based off the other folks in the jury box...not the plaintiff or the defendant.  Luck was on my side though, so I could go swim and jam and quilt some more.  I've lost 5 lbs since swimming three times a week and my clothes are getting looser and looser.....

I am pretty proud how the "red," "orange," and "yellow" quilts turned out.  The frustration with the back puckering continues, but as long as you just stare at the front, its all good!  I am going to have a hard time giving these up, as I have really fallen in love with these quilts, but alas I cannot keep them all.  I guess I need to give them to friends and family so that I can visit them often.

Without further ado, here they are!!!!

The "Red" Quilt....gotta love Dad in the background

the "red" back

The "Orange" quilt

The "orange" back

The "Yellow" Quilt---I'm going to call it "Lemon Meringue Pie"

Pretty proud of the "yellow" back....I did the circle in the middle improve style

The "red" quilt came from a pattern by Laura Nownes called "Sweet Rolls."  I loved this log cabin style modification.  It came together super easy and quickly.  Mom was a huge fan of all things red, so many of the fabrics in this quilt are hers...this may be a keeper.  Also, I was able to use up this huge pile of off white muslin she left me, so it was a great way to use some fabric from the stash.  I really liked how quickly this quilt came together and I would seriously consider making more of these.  Maybe a multicolored one next time!

The "orange" zig zag quilt came from another blogger, the Bee Square Blog.  I have seen a ton of these zig zags all over the internet and I am drawn to them for some reason.  I had been wanting to try one for a long time, so I am glad I did with these pretty orange fabrics in my stash.  I based the color palette off the orange one with the brown polka dots and the dragonflies.  I am in love with dragonflies, so this was a fun one to work with.  I wanted to branch out with this one as well so I used a natural linen color for the background instead of white....just to try something different.  I AM IN LOVE!  Linen is so fun and I really liked the natural, earthy tone.  I really think I will be using more of this in the future.  I already got some grey and an ecru colored linen for a future quilt.  I worked in the blue zig zag to provide a little contrast so it wasn't so light colored.  Since blue and orange are complementary, I thought it would look nice.  Came out ok, huh?

Sweetwater's "mama's strawberry pie" pattern was the inspiration for the "yellow" quilt.  Mom loved lemon desserts, especially lemon meringue pie, so I thought renaming this quilt "Lemon Meringue Pie" would be appropriate.  I had fun mixing many of mom's plain yellows with my more elaborate ones.    I haven't done a lot with triangles, so this piecing job intimidated me a little.  I asked a lot of questions when I bought the ruler for this.  However, once I got going, it was easy.  When the front was all put together, I still had a bunch of triangles left over, and since the top looked so good (even after worrying about the outcome), I thought I might join them together in a circle.  I had the triangles laying out on the table for three days unsewn until I got up the guts to try to join them all together.  But these pieces went just as easily in a circle as they did in lines.  I even tried out a different stitch pattern available on my sewing machine to applique it to the backing.  Even though I didn't sew it perfectly to the back and the decorative stitching could have benefitted from some stabilizer on the "wrong" side, I was pretty proud of my impromptu applique job.  In fact, I have plans to do another quilt with different sized circles on it.  I need to get over my fear of curves, so I will make a point to keep trying more designs that include curves.

I am working on the green quilt now.  The squares are all pieced, and now I need to lay them out in the order I want.  The squares make leaves and all the leaves are joined to a stem running the length of the quilt.  I am really using a lot of mom's fabrics in this one, so that is good.  I just went home to help dad clean out some of mom's stuff and discovered two more boxes of fabric.....ugh.  Since much of it is themed by holiday or events, I am thinking my next project (after the rainbow of quilts is complete) will be to make a quilt for every holiday and event celebrated by her.  A nice tribute, I think.  I will hopefully get to put together the green quilt this weekend.  And I need to update you on Super Q's battle with the Robot Vacuum.  So until then.....

Happy Crafting!!!!

Entertaining myself while in jury duty

Been taking a little hiatus from quilting and jamming.  Following a difficult visit to the doc, I was tasked with losing 40 lbs.  This is no easy feat for anyone, much less anyone who loves food as much as I do.  So, I have been getting back in the groove of swimming four times a week.  Not very motivated as the air has turned chilly and they haven't seemed to take a clue at the gym and turn on the pool heater.  But, nonetheless, I am trying.  Unfortunately, this cuts into my quilting and jamming time....the price of staying healthy.

I started my day with putting together the "red quilt".  I had it all pinned and decided on a more structured loopdy loop pattern than I have done before.  All went well until I reached the end of the quilting and I noticed that the back fabric puckered a bit....ugh.  No matter how long i spend pinning, I always manage a pucker or two in the back.  It's frustrating, but obviously not enough to utilize the seam ripper and start over.  I think this one came out much better than previous quilts, however, I would like to figure out how to keep everything laying flat.  Truth be told, if I cleaned off the end of the table, I am sure that the quilt would lay flat as I navigate those curls, but that requires way too much effort right now.  I wanted to get this quilt done so that I can begin putting the "orange quilt" together and begin piecing the yellow quilt.  The orange zig zag came out so cute with the background linen that I used...it's going to be difficult to give up.  I haven't quite decided how I am going to quilt it yet, but I am thinking about doing a meandering zig zag pattern in white thread.  I welcome any thoughts you may have.  The yellow quilt will be strips of triangles sewn together.  It's a pattern called strawberry pie, but because I am doing it in yellows, I am going to call it lemon meringue pie.  It should be sunny and cheerful.  Already making plans for the green quilt....I may actually finish this challenge before the year is over!

I have the binding mostly done on the red quilt and plan on finishing it as soon as I get out of here for the day.  The most annoying thing about jury duty today is that they called us in to be here at 11am....we watched a video and were promptly excused for lunch.  So far, unimpressed by our judicial system.

Damn...Ran out of fabric

I promised I would share the process...no matter how frustrating...so here I go:

So when I made Caroline's butterfly quilts, I accidentally read the directions wrong and made enough butterflies for three quilts instead of just one.  Fortunately, my dad's friend Debi said she needed some little girl quilts for some new girl babies, so no biggie.  I just figured when I had the time to catch up on some other projects, I would go back to these quilts and finish them.  In case you don't recall, I made the butterflies on top of a background fabric of white with small sage polka dots....sooo I know I had some to complete the other two quilts that I started.  I spent Sunday piecing together the sashing for the first butterfly quilt and managed to do so with no problem, ensuring I used all the scraps that I had strewn all over the table.  Then I started with the second quilt.  Utilizing scraps went well until I reached the last row of sashing.  I couldn't find enough of the background fabric to finish.  Panic ensues.....I start going though my stash in the back bedroom for more.  No luck.  I frantically search the kitchen table for scraps or a lucky 1/4 yard of fabric left....none were found.  Then started thinking back to where I got the fabric in the first place. I tried all the local quilting shops.....NONE...even close to my fabric.  I scoured Etsy, Ebay, and any of my typical online fabric shops....nothing.  Ugh.

I then had a dose of reality....really, I am talking about one stinkin' row that would be different.  Does it really matter?  Only I or another quilter would know the difference.  So I started thinking what to use in its place.  White muslin?  Another polka dot that is similar?  Sage solids?  Needless to say my anger and frustration was heightening.  This isn't that complicated of a fabric.  Why is it so hard to find? I called a couple of fellow quilters to explain my frustration.  All had great ideas of what to do in this situation, but then my perfectionist nature started taking over again and I wanted to make these quilts well...not half assed.  So, in a last ditch effort, I drove to JoAnn's to try to find something close that would work, or I would just use white muslin on the bottom.  When I got there, I spied a bolt from afar that seemed to be my fabric.....I started getting really excited as I ran over to grab it.....and.....FOILED.  It was the same sage polka dots (that seemed to be in the same size as my fabric) on the white background....but it was flannel.  Ugh.  I stared at it for a while in the store trying to decide if the texture in fabrics would be more glaringly obvious than using white muslin.  I wandered the aisles a bit more and found a similar fabric again but the polkadots were much larger...and it was quilter's cotton, not flannel.  Which one would look better?  I decided to purchase a 1/4 yard of each, take them home, hold them up to the squares and then decide.  This agonizing decision took two days of thinking about it.

That day I received a book

Denyse Schmidt: Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration: 20 New Designs with Historic Roots

While thumbing through it, she talks about quilts and their historical roots.  Quilts original purpose of using up scraps and using what you had.  Many antique quilts have mistakes in them or a fabric change because they simply didn't have enough of their primary fabric, so often you will find a row or random square of a different fabric.  This gave me the inspiration to finish my quilt rather than agonize over it not being perfect.  Isn't the saying, "its not a quilt unless there is a mistake?"

Ultimately I decided to use the flannel fabric that looks nearly identical to my original background fabric.  I showed a couple people who all agreed it blends in nicely.  Only an experienced quilter would notice...or if you could tell the texture difference when you run your hand across it.  This event has taught me something important about quilting and being a member of the modern quilting world.  Don't worry if it isn't perfect.  Sometimes our "imperfections" are what make things more beautiful.  Here is a picture of the flannel mixed in with the original background fabric...hopefully you cannot tell the difference:

I've also been holding out on showing you some quilts.  As you know, a couple of them were to be used as gifts, so I wanted to show the recipient first...how selfish of me!!  Anyways, this one is another one that I finished a while ago with the intent of giving it to my friends Steph and Darren.  They were recently married and just bought their first home in Petaluma....always deserving occasions for a new quilt!  I chose the Fig Tree and Co. pattern "Clovers" to feature some great modern fabrics that I had been itching to use.  I loved the orange lotus flowers and some of the gardening type fabrics that I chose...plus I had many coordinating fabrics that reminded me of my friend Steph, so I thought this quilt would be perfect for her.  I used this really high quality muslin as my background fabric and pieced bright blues for the border which I really think bring out the oranges in the quilt.  I had fun quilting the random organic lines across the length and width of the quilt.  It was a different style I had seen on some of the blogging sites online, and I think she will appreciate the art involved with this quilt.  Well, Steph and Darren....Enjoy!  Congrats on your marriage and your new home!

Darren and Steph's Welcome to Your New Home Quilt

Darren and Steph's Quilt--back

I enjoyed the organic lines used to quilt this fabric....It was interesting to do and I like the outcome a lot

The quilt of all "reds" is pieced and ready for quilting as soon as the three butterflies are done.  I have already decided what I will do for the "orange" quilt...I want to do a large zig zag chevron across the quilt utilizing some linen that I have as the background.  Should be a really pretty combination.  Until then, happy crafting everyone!!!!

His, Hers and a little Princess

I've been so busy.  The wedding finally came and went this past weekend in Los Angeles...you know, the one that I gave up pizza and tots so I didn't look like a whale.  I did manage to lose some weight...but not the pound a week I was hoping for.  But, quite honestly, I didn't work out as much as I should have.  So, oh well.  Back to tots and pizza.  I really enjoyed the pizza I broke the trend with.  We ordered some while doing arts and crafts for the wedding down in LA, and it was rather tasty.  However, I broke my tots fast today at breakfast, and it was a little disappointing.  I guess that is a sign that I really don't need them.  Oh well.  I think the one thing that helped the most with losing weight was this stupid bite guard that I am being made to wear 24/7 for the next three weeks.  I lost the most weight in the last week than I did over these past 5 months.  Who knew, if you would just make it impossible for me to eat, drink and talk, that I would finally drop some pounds??

Anyways, I have been so busy crafting away the past few months.  I kept it a secret from all of you (five or so) people out there, but I made "his and hers" quilts for my sis-in-law and new bro-in-law as gifts!  As they are two of the five who read this, I didn't want to give away the surprise, so I didn't blog about the journey on making those.  But to recap, the piecing went together really quickly.  I did hawaiian fabrics using the Planeterium pattern in Elizabeth Hartman's book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork.  Hers were in shades of turquoise, pinks, sages, and yellows and featured sea turtles, her favorite.  His featured prints with "woody" cars (which he loves) and colors of turquoise, royal blue, red and teal.  Even the quilting went well....a simple stipple in variegated thread.  The only bummer stitching them was that my machine decided to crap out while doing the binding.  Fortunately, we took Estelle into Meissner's Sewing Center to receive a tune up right before heading to Europe.  So while I drank beer and ate waffles, Estelle was receiving the love and care she needed to keep on going.  I also decided to pick up my mom's Bernina when I was in the bay area after the trip, so I went and had her serviced as well.  I decided mom's machine shall be named "Betty."  In case you aren't picking up on the reference, all my machines are named after actors from the "Golden Girls."

I like the outcome of both....each unique but they look very similar.  I think the couple was happy with them too.  Hopefully, they will take pictures of themselves wrapped in the quilts, but until then, let me present the His and Hers quilts!!!!

"His" Quilt....front

"His" back

Stipple technique....getting better, eh?

"Hers" quilt front

"Her" quilt back

Aren't the sea turtles cute???

I also worked diligently at finishing my first "princess" themed quilt.  I was asked my my coworker to make a Disney Princess quilt for his daughter who is enamored with the Disney Princess characters.  My lack of girly characteristics made this quilt a bit of a stretch for me since I do not own a lot of pinks and purple fabrics.  So I purchased some cute pink/purple prints with castles, crowns, and unicorns on them to go with the Disney Princess fabric I found online.  I used a cute pattern I found on Faith Jones' blog, Fresh Lemons Quilts, called Nancy's Cabot's Antique Tile.  It went together really quickly and I found the quilting to be fun too...simple loop-dee-loops across the horizontal width of the quilt.  I was told by my co-worker that his 4 year old daughter loved the quilt and hasn't put it down since.  I brought it to work to give to him, and I think I may have even gained a couple more customers from the quilt!

Sofia's Princess Quilt

I had fun with the cute Loop-dee_loop quilting style

I decided to try to whittle down some of the stash that I would start quilting a "rainbow" of quilts.  My next quilt would predominantly feature red fabrics.  The following quilt will feature oranges.  Then yellows....etc.  I would like to get the stash down to a more manageable pile so that I can start quilting what I want to quilt....and not necessarily the random fabrics from mom's stash.  I started working on the red quilt....a modified log cabin design.  So far it is coming out really cute.  And, i was able to dive into a ton of this off white muslin that mom had four or five yards of that I had no idea what I was going to do with.  It looks great with the reds and I cannot wait to see how the quilt turns out.

Back to trying to organize the craft room and quilting my way through mom's stash.  Let me know if you have any crafty requests....I would love a new challenge!

Happy Crafting!!!

A Tale of Super Q vs. The Evil Robot Vacuum

This is a story about an artisan quilter (Super Q) who was innocently learning a new quilt layout, when all of a sudden, an evil Robot Vacuum, Roomba, decided to viciously attack at her unbound quilt squares.  Thus, the squares were ruthlessly dragged all over the house, through the vacuum's wheels leaving tire tracks, and ending up inside the dirt catch mixing with dust, dirt, pet hair, and other unmentionables.....ugh.  This would be easier if I had a vertical push pin board on which to lay out quilt squares, but alas, no room for that in my tiny craft room.  Super Q meticulously extracted all squares stuck inside the vacuum, and with hope and determination, she stitched together the squares into a beautiful quilt top, scarred with tire tracks, black dog hair, and Super Q's pride.

The Evil Roomba's scars left on Super Q's Quilt

Isn't the diamond quilt design cute?

Evil Robot Vacuum, Roomba...the culprit

Currently, the quilt top is soaking in a cold washing machine as Super Q crosses her fingers in hope that her quilt top will not be further destroyed in the cleaning process.  Super Q is not exactly confident since all the colors in the quilt are prone to bleeding in the wash.  But, with all fingers and toes crossed, Super Q may triumph over Roomba.  Stay tuned for the results and the actual story......

Happy Daddy Day!

Well...the tour de cluck was a huge success!  We had about 300 people trek through our yard to check out our coop with lots of questions.  Some were quite legitimate, some not so much.  However, it was a blast to see all the curious faces at our chickens and our coop.  We received tons of compliments on our new yard, coop design, and fabulous deck....so that made me (and especially Ryan) very happy.  I was a little bummed that more folks from work and other friends and family couldn't make it out to celebrate with us, but being that it was Memorial Day weekend, I totally understand.  I appreciate those who did make it....and especially Larry, Kara and Jon who came especially to help out.  I am still deciding if we are going to participate again next year, being that the chicken people are a bit eccentric and not very flexible with schedules other than 8-5 M-F work weeks.

I was excited to put together this quilt for my dad's friend, Debi.  She asked me to make her a quilt for her new grandson, Jonah.  When I asked her what she wanted, she said to definitely include orange and blue, since her son Matt went to University of Virginia.  I took this opportunity to break out of the box and use tons of bright colors instead of the traditional infant pastels.  I found this great dinosaur fabric by Robert Kaufman called "Urban Zoologie--Bright Dinosaurs."

Not only did the quilt turn out exceptionally bright, I was excited to use many of mom's fabrics.  I really had fun using the pattern "Alice" I purchased from Red Pepper Quilts.  It is a modified log cabin design with two types of blocks.  The best part was not having to worry about color balance...since there was so much color going on!  And I had fun piecing the binding as well...I alternated polka dotted fabrics with bright blue....and it turned out rather well, I think.  Well, I hear that Debi and Jonah's parents are thrilled with the outcome of the quilt, so I am glad.  As this went together, I kept thinking that little boy-oriented fabric is more difficult to come by.  Thank goodness that when cut the fabric for Jonah's quilt, I cut enough for another quilt.....which I promptly send to another special baby boy.  Charisse was thrilled with Alex's new baby blanket as well!

Jonah's dinosaurs

(back)

I think I really need to work on more quilts for boys....as boys need a cuddle blanket as well as girls.  In fact I went and ordered the "Geared for Guys" books featuring quilts by Quilt Dad blogger John Adams.  So I have made it a personal goal to make more "guy friendly" quilts in honor of all the special guys in my life.  So, as a tribute to all you dads out there, have the happiest father's day!  I will keep on cranking out the guy friendly quilts!

Happy Crafting!

Strawberry Jams....forever!

The strawberries have begun their shiny red, appearance here in Davis, and the smell of Strawberry jam is heady in the air at the Gifford house.  So many people are excited the delicious berries are here, including myself, I am on my fifth batch of jam since the little Strawberry stand opened!  Keep the requests pouring in, and I will keep cranking out the jam!

So I know it appears that I have taken a long hiatus from quilting, but the truth is that I have been exceptionally behind in taking pictures of the quilts.  The weather has been cooperating, so we are working diligently on our backyard, preparing for Tour de Cluck.  New deck, planting fruit, flowers and trees.  Plus, I have developed a nasty case of tendinitis in my right arm, so the quilting, jamming and anything fun has been slowed....but I assure you, I have not stopped. I wasn't completely happy with how the fireman quilt came out. Greg, if you a reading this, I am sorry it isn't my best work.  However, I accept the fact that there are some things, no matter how hard I try, I just can't be perfect at doing....quilting is one of them. But, each time I do one, I get better. For example, I had fun doing my friend, Sandra's, quilt....it was a simple pattern that used many different fabrics in my stash, and I finally got the stitch length and tension right on my machine to quilt it as if I knew what I was doing. I am proud to give this quilt to her so she can raise money for her breast cancer walk this fall.

Sandra's quilt to auction off  to raise funds for Breast Cancer (front)

Back

This is a Thimble Blossoms pattern called "Pieces of Cake {2}."  It was relatively easy to put together and I quilted it using a "squiggle" pattern horizontally across the quilt.  I think it turned out really cute and I am especially happy with the quilting, thanks to Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial on her blog, "Oh Fransson!"  She has some great suggestions on there regarding how to quilt on your home machine that were very helpful.

Another quilt that I had fun doing was a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman called "Crazy Nine Patch Lattice. "  It really inspired me to use some of my orange fabrics, one color I don't use too much of, but I really like how mine came out:

I love the wine colored binding I used...it really brings out the purple color in the stars on one of the fabrics.  I wasn't as happy with the quilting with this one.  I got a little overzealous and didn't discover that I had the tension all wrong on it until I basically finished, and by then, I didn't want to start over.  Oh well.  I liked the way this one came together, so I am making another one in yellow fabrics and I plan on doing a few more!  I like the wonky blocks that have lots of room for forgiveness in non-perfect sewing.

I also finished up my "Lemon Squares" quilt by Faith Jones of Fresh Lemons Quilts.  I love how this ultimately turned out, but this is a perfect example of why you need two people to make your quilt "sandwich."  When I laid it out to quilt, I slightly turned it and missed the sandwich on one corner.  I used my mad stitching skills to hide it, but I learned a valuable lesson to utilize the hubby for assistance in laying out quilt stuff.

Fresh Lemons Quilts with "England Swings" fabrics by Rebekah Merkle

Back--Mistake hidden

While we were taking pictures of my quilts last night, we were graced with an unexpected guest on my roof:

We named the turkey, Tamale.  I was hoping that Jackson would tap into his retriever instincts and catch us some dinner, but he simply sat down and was bored as we snapped photos of the bird.  Oh well.  

Happy Crafting!

Proverbial Kick in the Ass....

So yesterday, after a LONGGGGG hard week at work, I came home to an unexpected package on my front doorstep....not to mention Ryan's aunt, uncle and cousin who happened to be up in our neck of the woods and wanted to rid of the 4 cases of wine they were storing for us.  I entertained them for a bit, making excuses left and right as to why we haven't made it to Sonoma to visit...,mostly because of mom and life, but as I was telling them what I had been doing these past many months, it sounded more and more pathetic.  I mean, I went straight from finishing up culinary school which took up 100% of my free time last year, into a spiral whirlwind of taking care of mom, building a chicken coop, being tested for cancer, taking care of my worried dad, and making jam to keep my head on straight.  After mom left us, I started in with the quilts to remind me of our precious time together and to do something with this massive pile of fabric she left me.  Ryan and I started working on the long over due project--the yard...trying to get ready for the infamous Tour de Cluck in May.  And here I am standing in my kitchen telling them all this, thinking to myself, I am absolutely crazy.  And, to top it off, this weekend is my birthday and I could honestly care less.  For those of you reading this and don't know me too well, I am usually a freak about celebrating my birthday....lots of plans, friends getting together, and usually scheduling some freakish activity that no one else would think of doing just to stir the pot a little bit.  (past activities = rollerskating, skiing, eating some weird food at a random restaurant, going to see an 80's cover band...)  I have always loved my birthday and don't mind celebrating all month one bit.  This year, I received many invites to schedule a nice dinner out, go to a concert, and lots of inquiries of the strange activity of the year....and I had nothing to offer.  As I was reflecting on a year lost to wallowing to Bill and Mary Jane, it hit me.  I need a kick in the ass to crawl out of this hole I have dug for myself...so that I can start to be me again.


And then I got it....the kick in the ass....


After Bill and Mary Jane left, I opened the large Fed Ex envelope that greeted me on my doorstep yesterday to find a huge surprise.  Honestly, I saw it was from my sister-in-law, Kara, and I immediately thought it was something for my birthday...but was already surprised since I just received my last year's birthday present from her in February...so I was thinking maybe she was just on the ball this year.  But no.....inside was a legal pad decorated to the nines with a message that floored me.  It really made me teary eyed, as I never would've expected this in a million years.

Of course the answer is "hells yes!"  I immediately called her to tell her that I received it in the mail and that I was floored she asked me.  After I hung up, I panicked.....this means I need to rejoin the world as a normal person, not a hermit.  About time to get back to the gym and lose that weight I packed on over the last year.  Oh god, how am I going to look next to all Kara's skinny friends....AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!  The thoughts were swimming through my head as I was chomping on the pizza I ordered.  Hmmm....I guess this is the last pizza for a while.  Its ok.  It's about time to start back working out and getting cute again anyways.

Now, for the realistic part of all this.  I can forseeably only lose a certain amount and still be healthy, so what should be the goal?  A weight?  A dress size?  I have found that the number is far too difficult to go by, especially since I swing ten pounds over a month.  A dress size sounds intriguing.  Right now I am oscillating having to buy clothes from the "big girl store" or just really large misses sizes.  Maybe that is the goal....get me down to misses only and a smaller size?  Or a combination of dress size and weight.  Her wedding is Labor Day weekend...which puts us at 20 weeks away.  A pound a week and a dress size or two seems reasonable, no?  Now, how to do this...and make jam, make quilts, and not be a grumpy butthead while I train people at work?  Hmmm....Ride my bike?  I love doing that. As a kid, I rode everywhere and I loved it.  The hubby even outfitted me with a basket for a trip to the market, so I can even do the grocery shopping on the bike...and I can start that today!  I haven't been on the greenbelt in a long time, and that sounds fun.  Yes....a bike ride this morning is just what I need to get going.  I just got a new racing swimsuit for working out.  I can start that again this week....but I really need to actually start this time and not just stare at the swimsuit in the bag from Big 5 with the tags still on it.  Anyone want to go with me?  I love having a buddy that I can chat with in between laps.  What else?  I just got those new running shoes for WALKING.....not running.  Running is silly.  But, the weather is so nice this weekend, I could take advantage of that in between doing yardwork.  Yeah.  That sounds good.  Yoga...I could sweat off the pounds....my yoga teacher just opened up a new studio that I still need to check out.  Should I make that my goal for Tuesday?  Hmmm...starting to get a little overwhelmed here.  Maybe I should calendar this all out.  Then I don't have to think about it?  Anyone out in cyberland have ideas?  I have received the proverbial kick in the ass...now I need to get started.

Who's with me?

Off to get something to eat and ride my bike a little.

Too tired and achy to sew...

Not such great times on the sewing front.  I know I haven't blogged in a while due to vacation and trying to get some projects done, but as promised, I would always talk about the process...not just the finished project.  I have been rushing the past couple of weeks to complete a quilt that my hubby commissioned me to complete for a co-worker of his.  I really enjoyed piecing the top together and adding the sashing. The top utilized a block from Suzanne Woods' book called Modern Blocks.  I was excited that one of my favorite bloggers, Faith Jones of Fresh Lemons Quilts, submitted a block to this book and I wanted to try it.  Using assorted fire, flame, and fire truck fabrics, I assembled the top.  I even used one of the hubby's work shirts as it's own block in the layout which I haven't done before.  Mounting the t shirt on fusible webbing was a lot easier than I anticipated.  Unfortunately, I had a little trouble with the quilting.  Since I was dealing with such square blocks, I opted to do a square-shaped spiral in each quadrant of the block.  It turned out great in the end, but it was a lot of hard work to quilt, and it was not very enjoyable to do.  By the time I got to the binding, I was so tired of turning the quilt over and over again for those 90 degree turns, that I was sloppy with the binding and did not do my best work on it.  Ugh.  I was glad to finally finish the quilt and hand it off to the hubby to deliver.  I know he is happy with the outcome, and it is just my perfectionist self that dislikes it....but I am glad to not look at it anymore.

I was excited to try my hand at applique recently.  My friend asked me to make a tshirt for her for a one-year-old with a Mickey Mouse head and a #1 appliqued on the front.  I muscled through it, but in the end I think it came out really cute.  She seemed happy with it, so PHEW!!!

Recently, the hubby and I took some very needed R & R in Maui.  Little did we know when we booked the trip that it was humpback whale watching season!  I was inspired by those beautiful creatures swimming, jumping, and singing in the water right outside out hotel....I am thinking I will make a quilt that captured this serene experience....someday.  Once I catch up on all the other quilts I am making.  I did manage to find a cute little quilt shop while in Maui, and I was able to get myself out of there without breaking the bank too much.  I got a couple of cute patterns and some fabulous hawaiian prints.  They will make a great quilt, I am sure.

On the other hand, I have received a few quilt requests.  I was asked to make a baby quilt for a new little one for one of my dad's friends.  I have full design control with this one, so that is pretty cool.  I have been requested to make another penguin quilt and a puzzle quilt for a friend of mine.  And, I just received another request to donate a quilt to a dear friend that will be auctioning it off as a fundraiser for her breast cancer walk this year.  I am so honored that these folks are entrusting me to create quilts for them.  As a new quilter, this is humbling and amazing.  But I will be using this as an opportunity to hone my new skills and become a better quilter.  Pics to come ...as the weather has not cooperated for taking pictures of quilts.  Now, off to bed to get some rest so I can make it through the week at work.

Happy Crafting!!!

OMG...What a day!

Well, we came home from a lovely visit with dad with a car piled to the nines with mom's fabric and crafts and other stuff that dad didn't want to keep kind of exhausted from shoveling mulch for my dad.  We were down watching the superbowl with dad and a few of his friends...it was fun.  New recipes tried and we won $40 from the pool!!!  Anyways, I was especially tired from being hunched over the mulch pile and was starting to empty the car when Ryan came to the door.  A sly smile was on his face as he said, "I think you need to come see this."  I immediately knew what it was, so I slammed the doors of the car and came running to the backyard.  Low and behold, a bluish-green egg was waiting for us to find it inside the coop!  I couldn't believe it!  After 6 months of raising these chicks to grow up and be large chickens...we are finally getting eggs!  We knew right away that Bernice was the culprit....she is an Americauna breed that produces multicolored eggs....everything from blue-green to pink.  These hens are also called "Easter-eggers" because of their pastel colored eggs.  I couldn't be more excited!  Ryan immediately fired up the frying pan and we cooked up this tiny first egg.  It tasted AMAZING!!!!  As a baker, getting fresh eggs every day is so tempting.  The wheels in my head immediately started to turn as I was strategerizing all I would bake with those eggs.  What a red-letter day!

Well, I got a little overwhelmed bringing mom's fabric home today.  I thought I would start sorting it into color piles so that when the new closet is installed tomorrow (woo hoo!!!!) I can put it right away.  I managed to sort one box before I had to quit.  I cannot believe how much fabric she had!  OMG....what am I going to do with all of it?  I still haven't quilted my first quilt and I have this huge daunting pile of fabric in front of me and another box waiting to be sorted.  Oh goodness, how am I going to do all of this?  So after, I managed to collect myself, I pulled out some of those projects I started a few years ago.  I managed to bind a table runner that I made as an experiment.  Its ok.  It was one of the first quilting projects I tried, and if I were to do it over again, I am sure I would've been more careful with fabric selection and used a walking foot to quilt it, but oh well.  I think I will hang it on the wall as a memento.

Then, I poured myself a cocktail and decided to try my hand at free motion quilting.  I had some scraps leftover from the puzzle quilt that were sandwiched so that I decided to try working out a design there first.  It was a long strip of fabric, so I used the entire length to practice.  I managed to figure out a stitch length and tension that worked for me...and I managed to get the speed of the sewing down so that I could control the fabric into a relatively pleasing design.  So, I pulled out a pinwheel sock monkey pattern that I pieced for a pillow and decided that I would experiment on this item.  I sandwiched this with batting and a piece of muslin from mom's stash, and took a big breath and started quilting.  Actually, it came out pretty cute.  I need to practice some more, but it wasn't horrible.  I am pretty excited to finish it up this week.  It will make a perfect gift for my Anthropologist friend, Shamsi....because she loves monkeys.  I owe her a birthday and a Christmas gift, so this will definitely make a good gift for one of those occasions.

Sock Monkey Pillow

Check out my first attempt at Free motion quilting!

Also, I tried my hand at making a drawstring lined bag....a tutorial I found on "In Color Order" with very clear directions.  I had wanted to make my husband something for Valentines Day, and I plan on filling this bag with goodies for him on the heart day.  I know he reads this, so I won't disclose what I will fill up the bag with, but i will reveal after the fourteenth for sure.  I loved making this bag and I plan to make more, as they are easy to put together and they are super cute!

I can think of endless possibilities for these bags and I cannot wait to make more.

Now off to make something with eggs.  Happy Crafting!!!!

Dragonflies and Penguins???

So after a very difficult day of emptying one of mom's craft boxes, Ryan and I decided to trek out to the Davis Arboretum for some quilt photos.  He loves to humor me by taking pictures of quilts in natural settings, so we took Jackson, my bag of quilts and walked over half of the area searching for the perfect quilt perching spots.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring clothespins and beanbags with me...items that would be extremely helpful for a quilt photoshoot, but oh well.  We persevered.  And, in spite of the crappy light today, we managed to get some good shots...even one of a loon on a pier that was kind of cool.

I spent yesterday in heaven....inhaling lovely citrus smells wafting from my jam pot and sewing away at Estelle.  I was able to bind the last of the quilts taken to Cornerstone to quilt over Christmas...Dragonflies.  I will definitely have a difficult time giving this one up as it has all the right colors and my fav bug in the animal kingdom all over it.  It is such a soothing quilt and the colors came together so nicely.  Its from a pattern called "Slash a Stash" that I got from Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove.  I actually pieced this together a couple of years ago, but just recently pulled it out to finish it after being heavily distracted by other projects.  But when I pulled it out, I instantly fell in love with the fabrics all over again.  I really wanted to have it done this month in time for Chinese New Year.  Well without further ado, here is my Dragonflies:

What this picture doesn't show well, is the beautiful quilting pattern of dragonflies in green thread.  It is stunning against the predominately black background.  As I mentioned...this one will be particularly hard to part with, not only for the design and colors, but I picked out the fabrics and assembled the top along side mom.  However, I feel that keeping every quilt because it has some link to my mom is not realistic, nor is it healthy for me, so I will find this a good home....someone who will love and appreciate it.  The good news is that I still have scraps of fabric from this quilt, so I get to use these fabrics in a scrappy quilt again soon.

Around the same time as the Dragonflies were being created, I was working on a series of Penguin quilts.  I stumbled on a pattern called "Calling all Penguins" by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes at Thimblecreek Quilt Shop in Concord that I knew would be perfect for my house.  My husband love aquariums, and especially penguins.  We have travelled all over the world, and everywhere we go (with the exception of Egypt) we have managed to find an aquarium to tour...and he always insists on seeing the penguins.  Someday, I would like to get to Antarctica to see the Great Emperor Penguins there, but I digress.  Anyways, I saw this pattern and made a penguin top. After I pieced it together, I was so happy with it I made two more!  And, I took a quick quilting seminar on how to use a walking foot and do a little free motion quilting with a darning foot around the same time, so I sandwiched all three quilts and proceeded to quilt them all, stitch-in-the-ditch.  Now, I know that you aren't much of a quilter if you just stitch-in-the-ditch, and furthermore, it weakens the seams, but who cares.  I did it all myself and they actually turned out pretty well, though I know what all the blogs are talking about the beauty in the quilting process.  Stitch-in-the-ditch really doesn't capture the beauty, but it surely gets the job done.  And with this particular pattern, I didn't quite have the skills then to do detailed quilting on my own.  However, in hindsight, I probably could have done other interesting patterns in each penguin or some free motion swirls to add interest.  Oh well...maybe next time.  I managed to bind two of those quilts last night as well.  One is going to my husband, naturally, and one to my dad.

My favorite part of this quilt is that the beaks flap!!!

Well, back to sorting through mom's unfinished projects.  I fully intend on finishing them, but it will take time and a little courage.  Thanks for reading....

Happy Crafting!

Wrapping up January with a date with my seam ripper

I know I have been quiet lately...I actually haven't been crafting so much.  I have been working on cleaning out the guest room closet in preparation for our new shelving that we are installing to organize all my fabric.  I am thrilled!  I lost much of craft room storage to our new wine closet.  Although I was completely supportive of altering the storage closet for a wine cellar, which we desperately needed, I didn't quite think through where I was going to relocate all that I kept inside the closet.  Hmmm.  Sounds like me...Not thinking everything through!  So, for the past couple of years, I have been continuously piling fabric, batting, and all my other craft goodies inside the tiny craft room, which doesn't allow me to work in there...much less walk inside (its kind of a hop, shuffle, duck, and balance on one foot to obtain anything in there).  So, needless to say, this project closet-clean-out is much anticipated and needed for me to get my craft life under control.  Plus, this hasn't really curtailed my fabric purchasing habit, so even though I have no room to store it, I keep accumulating.  This is not making Ryan happy...so it is necessary to get this mass chaos under control.  So, in an effort to help, I spent the past couple of weeks at Ikea and Bed, Bath, and Beyond to find other stylish, storage solutions for my stash of crafty crap.  I found a really cool storage unit at Ikea that was quite affordable that looks absolutely fantastic in the bedroom.  I even adorned it with baskets and green boxes to punch it up a little more.  I am planning on using it for pending quilts, scraps, batting storage (which really takes up a lot of room, surprisingly)...and I am feeling quite "Martha Stewart"-like by labeling each container in cute font and awesome little, metal label holders affixed with ribbon.  Maybe if I make it look cute, I will use it, eh??????

So, to finish out the quilts that I had quilted at Cornerstone Quilt Shoppe before Christmas, I saved my Dragonflies to time it with Chinese New Year.  This one I will have the hardest time parting with because I love dragonflies, and I totally dig the colors in this quilt...vibrant greens, purples, blues, and black.  My kind of colors.  But, I foresee this as a problem with many of my quilts as I love most of my fabric and I love the simplicity of the modern patterns that I have been trying as of late.  So, I will just take some pictures and send this one on its merry little way.  Now...who will get it?  I don't know that just yet.  I think someone special should get it...mostly because I love it so much.

I have several quilts still pending....I have featured some of the quilt tops that need to be quilted.....YIKES!  I have a few penguin quilts that just need to be finished, but the rest need quilting.  I am up to the task, but a little nervous about quilting myself.  They're small-ish type quilts, so I should have no trouble at all manipulating the fabric through "Estelle" (the sewing machine), but I am nervous.  So as I fret about free quilting my own work, I am busy ripping out seams from scraps that were cut off some of my recent quilts.  And, I am taking apart a quilt back I originally made for the Dragonfly quilt, but I ended up not using it because I didn't care for the center fabric that I used....so I am ripping it out.  I will use the fabric elsewhere, but until I get up the gumption to quilt on my own, this is a great distraction and use of my time while I sit watching stupid TV on Bravo.  I admit, however, that I am distracted by all the quilts I want to make, and these cute little lined bags that I want to make for Valentines Day, but I must FOCUS!!!!!

I managed to kidnap Ryan when he was home last weekend for a quick trip to the Arboretum for some pics of the Puzzle and Butterfly quilts.  The ones I posted earlier sucked, but I was so excited that they were done, I took pics quickly with no consideration for light, location, or even focus...so I decided to do these quilts justice, I took them out to the Davis Arboretum for some pictures in natural light.  I am not too sure Ryan thought this was a natural act by any means, but he humored me nonetheless, and trekked out there in between running errands so that I could get my shots.

Thanks for your help, honey!  They turned out great!  Happy Chinese New Year everyone!  Lets make this year of the Dragon a great one!!!

Happy Crafting....

Another one...DONE!

So this quilt I finished today was a pattern by Liz Schwartz called "Quilter's Puzzle."  It was fun and easy to put together. And, it used a lot of fabric.  I will need to make another one of these for sure....good way to use up some of mom's fabric.  I had a rough time with the back, but in the end it came out just fine.  I am thrilled with the quilting job that the ladies at Cornerstone Quilt Shoppe did, as they mimic puzzle pieces.

A Quilter's Puzzle (top)

Check out the beautiful quilting job by Cornerstone

Quilt back

I am excited that this will be the first quilt I am donating to Project Linus.  There is a gal in Davis that collects blankets for PL and helps distribute them locally to kids in need.  I think this particular quilt is perfect for donation because it could be for a girl or boy of any age.  Too often I see the quilts up for donation and many of them are geared towards infants or toddlers.  I really wanted to focus on making quilts for the older kids because I think that they are too often forgotten.  So, I am excited about this unisex design that could work for any age.  I definitely will make another one of these.

I have one more quilt ready to bind.  I will hopefully finish that up this week amidst jam making and experimenting with new dinner recipes.  Gotta figure out what I want to plant in the garden next as we are currently harvesting our little crop of cauliflower, broccoli, beets, and onions.  Any suggestions?

Happy Crafting everyone!

First quilts of 2012...DONE!

Well, although I didn't actually do the "quilting" of these quilts, I am pretty stoked to feature my first quilts of the year.  I was not quite confident to quilt on my own just yet, and this particular quilt is going to someone really special, so I wanted to be sure it was done right, so I placed my trust in the wonderful ladies at Cornerstone Quilt Shoppe to use their long arms to quilt my creation.  In fact, they took care of three of my quilts during the Christmas rush, so I am quite thankful that they rushed to complete this one, because I wanted it to be ready in time for my new niece to be born.  My sister-in-law, Marianne, didn't know that when I originally posted the quilt top on Facebook, I was really looking for her approval of the quilt design I chose to make her pending daughter.  She ended up loving it (thank goodness) and I am thrilled to announce that she will be the recipient of this lovingly made quilt.  I am hoping that my niece, Caroline, will come home from the hospital in it.  Well, without further ado.....Caroline's butterflies:

Check out the beautiful quilting job done by the ladies at Cornerstone.  Its so cute and whimsical.

Totally digging my new labels for my quilts!

As is my usual style, I did piece multiples of this quilt top, so I will be attempting a quilting job on my own soon.  In fact, I trooped out to Sacramento this morning to buy a foot for my machine for the occasion.  So I will have a few quilts to donate soon.  Many many thanks for the binding tutorial from Jeni at In Color Order.  If you have ever struggled with doing binding, it is a great method and I really enjoyed the process much more than doing binding in the past.  Easier and faster!

I am looking forward to showing you the rest of the quilts, but I have yet to do the binding.  Maybe later today.....Happy Crafting!

Happy New Years....with a quilt!

So, in spite of a cold and sick kitty, I plugged away at my sewing machine, Estelle, all day to attempt to finish piecing my latest creation.  I am working on a pattern by Faith at Fresh Lemons Modern Quilts called Lemon Squares Quilt.  I like this pattern because it pieces together quickly and I am able to feature some of my larger prints in my stash.  And, even though I loved the color combinations that Faith used in her version, I was glad I could put my spin on the quilt and use some of my favorite colors instead.  I was really excited to use some of the fabrics from Rebekah Merkle's collection called "England Swings."  They are fun bright yellows, blues and greens...all the colors I love.

     
Currently, I am working on piecing the back.  I decided to utilize some scraps and make a freeform checkerboard in the middle of the back mixed in with white.  On the top and bottom, I plan on using some green fabrics that are not featured in the checkerboard.  It dawned on me that this may be the quilt that I use to learn to quilt myself.  It is a small lap quilt side and could easily be managed in my machine for an "at home" quilting job.

While I was sewing yesterday, I was being distracted and entertained by my chickens, Berta, Bernice and Phyllis.  They were enjoying the sun and poking around the backyard yesterday.  They really enjoy that we haven't finished the deck yet and use the support beams for perching.

They're hilarious to watch and keep me happy while I sew.  Happy crafting and happy new year everyone!!!!