Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Once upon a time, there was a quilt shop called "Going To Pieces", and it was situated in Pleasanton, California. It was my favorite quilt shop of all time, at least so far. They did a wonderful window display in their large front window. One year, not too long after I moved to that area, I saw this little quilt in their Christmas quilts display. It just really appealed to me. I spent quite some time standing in front of the window, trying to figure out how this quilt was put together and memorizing as much of it as I could. Then I went home and made this quilt. Now, I'm sure my version isn't quite as good as theirs was, but it was the best I could do at that time with my skill level. And, you know, I'm still happy with this little quilt. It measures 20.5 inches wide and 15.5 inches high. I still like it's graphic appeal.

The cardinals quilt in my last post isn't the only cardinal piece I made for my mom. I also made this tablerunner for her, a few years after the quilt. It was a pattern by Atkinson Designs, and very easy to do. This runner also lives at my house now.

And, of course, at every photo op, Shade has to "test" whatever quilt-y thing I'm photographing. This time we managed to do it without Dunkel. Shh, don't tell him he missed it!

Snow day! This is the view we were greeted with this morning. The snow started last night and was sticking before we went to bed. We got about 3 inches or so of the white stuff. The wind howled all night and most of today too. It's still blowing like crazy out there. We're currently at 24 degrees, but with the wind chill it feels like 11 degrees, according to The Weather channel. Our high today was a whopping 28 degrees, which lasted all of about an hour. So nothing melted today. It's supposed to get down to 17 degrees tonight. Wow, that's pretty cold for us. I know that's wimpy for some folks that live where it does this all the time, but we're not used to it. We were going to go to Seattle to see all the Christmas-y sights in City Center (where the Space Needle is) tomorrow, but decided that perhaps it would be best to delay that for a few days. It's still supposed to be sub-freezing temps. Yes, we're wimps. As long as we don't lose power, we're good for a few days here. I have my fingers crossed! If the power holds, I may do some Christmas baking. Uummm, that sounds good!

I've been sewing away on some Christmas presents but I can't show anything on my blog, yet. Still have lots more sewing to do, and only a little shopping left. I've been enjoying seeing everyone's decorations and preparations on their blogs. It helps put me in the Christmas spirit. I hope everyone else is having a good time getting ready for the big day!

The Cardinal Quilt

My mom loved cardinals. They were her favorite birds. As Mom got older and we kids left home, she stopped decorating for Christmas. (I didn't understand how she could do that back then, but I sure do now!) So, when I found this fabric with cardinals on it, I decided to make this wallhanging for her. That way she could enjoy her cardinals AND do at least one easy decoration for Christmas. This is about 30 inches square. This quilt lives at my home now, so now I get to enjoy it. And it reminds me of my mom, which makes me happy.

I don't remember doing this machine quilting with metallic thread. I'm surprised to see it looks as good as it does! I didn't have a very good sewing machine at that time and it hated metallic thread! The pin dots on the green fabric are metallic too. It's from the glitzy 90's - I made this in 1994. I know this because I actually put a label on the back of the quilt. Woo hoo! (more on that thought later)

Last week we had some pretty cold weather for here, and lots of local fog. One day we were really foggy. Then, about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, the sun actually came out! DH took this picture in our back yard. We thought it was really pretty to see the sunbeams through the fog. That grey area on the right hand side of the picture is fog on the lake. By the time he got out there with the camera, the fog was dissipating pretty quickly.

I have some more links to share:

First, remember that I told you to remember about quilt labels? Well, Carrie from Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, has some wonderful suggestions AND instructions for quilt labels on her blog La Vie En Rosie. She tells us what she uses to write the label with, how she incorporates the label into the backing of the quilt and even that she puts quotes she's collected onto her quilts. It's very informative and some really great ideas! I'm inspired to actually do some more quilt labels. Because, truthfully, I've gotten lazy about putting labels on quilts and wallhangings. I think it's important, but I'm just lazy about it. And I think a lot of quilters are that way too. I know I wish my grandmothers had labeled the quilts that I now own. It would make the quilts even more special to me.

Kim at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure blog has a post that's an easy Christmas Santa applique tutorial. It's very cute, and pretty darn easy.

There's been a wonderful ad on TV (I know, that sounds impossible, doesn't it?). I love this ad. It's the best I've seen in a long while. It's very heartwarming and always makes me teary. I love the little penguin. Believe it or not, it's for the Washington lottery. Although I'm pretty sure it was filmed in California - it looks just like the Mission Peak area. Anyway, it's called "Every Bird Should Get To Fly". Take a look and see if it makes you teary too! (maybe I'm just wierd)

My DD sent me to this fun little game. As a quilter, I pride myself on my being able to "eyeball" measurements, etc. Well, this one will test you! It's called the "eyeballing game". You have to "eyeball" parallelograms, right angles, midlines, and other geometric shapes and things (but no 1/4 inch test!). At the bottom of the screen on the left-hand side, is a link to Help/About that will help you understand how the game works. You go through the measuring things 3 times to get a score. My first score was bad, because it took me a couple of times to figure out what you're supposed to do. I'm finding that I'm consistently good at some of them, like the convergence point and the circle center, and consistently bad at others, like the parallelogram. It's fun to see how you do, as the game gives you a comparison to what you thought it should be and what it really is.

And last, here's another fun "find out about yourself" personality test. But this one has a twist! It's all visual! It's called Visual DNA. I don't know about most quilters, but I'm a very visual person. So this was fun. The email I got about it said this:

VISUAL DNA
This is not scientific but fun. At the end where they give you the results, you have to click on the tabs of the notebook and it'll open into a new page. Interesting . . .This is different...try it !When you click on the link, a series of about 14-15 pictures will come up. Click on a photo in that category that appeals to you. Again, 14-15 different pictures will come up, click the one for you and move on. Just continue to keep picking. At the end it will give you a profile of yourself.... It's called a visual DNA.... Your choices dictate your profile.

Some catagories, I didn't really like any of the pictures, so I don't know how that skews it. I didn't learn anything new about myself, but I still like taking these "tests". My test told me that I'm a "hands on" artist. That's it in a nutshell.

Have some fun with these. They're a good break from shopping, gift wrapping, cookie baking and all that other fun Christmas stuff!

Another Little Fabric Book

Do you remember that I started a "secret project" for my sister, way back in July? I started a fabric book, inspired by Gwen Marston and her little fabric books, and then didn't like it for my sister. You can see how this started here and here. So, I made her another one that I showed here. Well, I have finished the original fabric book that I first started and have given it away. So, now it can be revealed! The above picture is the front of the book.

I'm going to babble on while I show you the rest of the pages.

I made a vest for my oldest granddaughter, which I completely forgot to take a photo of! (Duh!) It was a printed panel, and was a vest for school - you know, 'A B C' and '1 2 3' and that sort of thing. She's been patiently waiting for it since I showed it to her last summer. (Note to self: do not show children something you're going to give them until you're ready to give it to them!) She started kindergarten this fall, so I figured it was just right for her at this age. Any older and they won't wear that kind of thing. I think.

Well, you know how it is with little kids. You can't give something to one without having something for the other one. So, I decided that this little fabric book would be just the thing to give to the younger granddaughter.

I think she was a little disappointed that it wasn't something to wear, like her sister's, but she loves kitties, so I think she'll be OK with this.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We had a great time over at DS's house with almost all of the family; DD and her hubby couldn't make it up here from Nevada, and we missed them! But my sister and her "sweet baboo" joined us for the day. It was the 1st time we've had Turkey Day with her for about 15 years.

The next day, "Black Friday", we met my sister and her sweetie in Seattle - we went to dinner and then saw a play. That was also a lot of fun! I NEVER EVER go out shopping on that day - or even that whole weekend. There's nothing in this world that I need badly enough to go out that day!

I'm finally feeling better. Got rid of the sinus infection (Yay, antibiotics!) and the accompanying headache. Now, maybe I can get back to sewing jars for the witch's pantry, and also all those secret projects for Christmas! (I can't believe it's December already - where did the year go??) My quilt studio is calling me to come visit it and play for awhile. Now if I could just find someone to wash the dishes and go to the grocery store for me. If I ever win the lottery, that's what I'm gonna spend the money on!

Ride 'Em, Kitty!

I just have to share this video of a cat riding the Roomba (robot vaccum) that I found. I think this is just hilarious, and it makes me laugh every time I watch it. I hope you enjoy it too! Since I can't figure out how to embed the video into the blog post (me? computer literate?), I'm just gonna put in the link. So click here to go see this one. And I have to admit, I've spent waaayyyy too much time on the LOL Cats web site. They're just really tickling my funny bone right now.

I'm not getting much done. I have a killer headache - 3 days now - and I think I have to admit that it's gotten to be a sinus infection. So, I guess I'll go see the doctor in the morning. This is really putting a crimp in my productivity, quilting or otherwise.

I did get that whole stack of fabrics ironed on Tuesday. That took some time! I've been working on sewing down some bindings on two little Priority Alzheimer's quilts. Not quite done, but almost. Why do the bindings seem to be endless?? Last night I went to a local quilting "Stitch & *itch". It was nice to get out and mingle with other quilters!

Still working on my wonky jars. It's slow going with the headache. Ugh.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Time to Get Busy

Do you realize that it's a mere 38 days until Christmas?? Oh my! I need to Get Busy!! And try not to panic!
Last week, the store where I buy most of my quilting fabrics was having a 20% Off Sale, so I went and bought the above stack of fabrics. DH even helped me pick these out! We spent at least two hours doing this, which was a marathon for poor DH. I had fun, but I'm not too sure he'll be volunteering to help me do this again anytime soon! These are my projects for Christmas presents. I can't say more than that without giving away the secret. But it does look like I will be busy! Really, I'm looking forward to it. New fabrics to play with! Yummy!

This is Shade. He came into the sewing room to "help" today. He wanted my attention and purposely laid down right in the middle of what I was doing. That made me so happy! You see, we almost lost poor Shade.

My DH was very sweet and brought me flowers about 10 days ago. I was a Bad Cat Mommy and left the flowers out overnight where Shade could get to them. I know better than that. He's always been a plant chewer. I now only have silk plants in the house, because he'll eat the live ones. Every time. Well, these flowers weren't super toxic, but they sure made him a sick kitty. He didn't even eat them, just chewed on them a little bit. No vomiting, just lethargic and he wouldn't eat or drink. He slept a lot, and often would just stare off into space with no response to us. He lost about 2 pounds. (That's on top of the 2 pounds he lost while being boarded during our trip to Nevada last month.) He didn't interact with Dunkel and barely interacted with us. Every night he curled up on our bed, right in between our pillows, and slept there all night. He rarely sleeps all night with us. That told me, as much as anything else, that he was really sick.

He's been better the last 5 days or so, but very fearful of everything. He wouldn't come downstairs if he heard DH down there. He usually only does this when there's people visiting. He's much better the last 2 days, and even came downstairs to see our friend K when she was here last night, and even let her pet him! I was amazed at that! He's usually the world's biggest scaredy cat. Anyway, I'm very happy and relieved that he's better now.

Here is a picture of the flowers that Shade got sick on. They're Alstroemeria or Peruvian Lily.


I hope those of you who have cats will make a note of this, and keep the cats and the flowers separate. I'd hate for anyone else's kitty to get sick. Fortunately, Shade is better now and starting to act like his old self. I sure hope he doesn't have any lasting ill effects from this episode. I'm pretty sure he lost one of his 9 lives on this one!

We had a really busy week last week, galivanting around some days and too much housework on other days. So I didn't have much time for sewing. I did manage to get a few "witch's pantry" jars sewn one day last week and today I got the lids on them.

I'm not real sure about the top on that middle jar. I might take that off and try it again. DH suggested that I lop off some of the point on the bottom of that 'square on point' (lid) before I sew it to the jar. I think I agree - it looks too much like it's floating in space.

These jars have little pieces of paper pinned to them, with the name of the "ingredient" on each of them. I'll be putting permanent labels with a more "witch-y" font on the jars before I'm done. I got the list of ingredients for spells from a Harry Potter web site.

Here's another picture of Shade. Some people have an Alpha cat - I have an Olfa cat! *giggle!*

And here's Shade at his post in the quilt studio. He's back on the job, supervising! All's right with the world.

A Quick Visit

My sister came to visit overnight this week, as my local quilt guild had a speaker she was dying to hear: Jane Sassaman. We had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed Jane's talk, seeing her quilts and even speaking with her during the break. I had to get this pattern, which is the "short" version of Jane's famous quilt "Willow", which you can see here. I love that quilt! This pattern is done with a fusible, and finishes at 18 inches. That sounds pretty do-able.

And, I also had to buy a packet of her fabrics! These are half-yard cuts of big, bold fabrics and I don't have a clue how I'm going to use them yet! But they just had to come home with me. There's only one quilt store in WA that carries her fabric, and it's about an hour or so away from me. I think that's pretty good justification!

If you're interested is seeing some of Jane's work, you can visit her web site by clicking here. You can view Jane's quilts, her fabric collections and even get some free patterns. I love her work, it's so bright and uninhibited. She's very influenced by nature, which is a big factor for me.

My sister wasn't here even 24 hours, but we had a good time. Lots of talking and laughing going on. A nice break for both of us!

I haven't been in the quilt studio all week. No excuse, just been doing "fun" stuff like laundry and grocery shopping and bill-paying. I did get 8 boxes of quilt studio stuff unpacked and sorted. Now I have 2 boxes of stuff to find places for! I don't want to put it away, I just want to sew! Maybe tomorrow. I think I'm done with urgent chores for the moment.

I found some interesting quilt sites on the internet:

* If you weren't lucky enough to go this year, you can see a virtual tour of the Houston Quilt Festival on-line, with the winning quilts and photos from the floor. Click here.

* At The International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Nebraska, you can search the Collections database and view the exhibitions . You can also see their Quilt of the Month, where they feature one of the quilts in their collection. You can also subscribe to the Quilt of the Month and they will email you with a link to see each month's quilt. Check it out here.

* The Smithsonian Museum has a page devoted to Quilts, Counterpanes and Throws, where you can view selected items from their collection.

* The Library of Congress has "Quilts and Quiltmaking in America 1978-1996", which showcases materials from two American Folklife Center collections, the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection (1978) and the "All-American Quilt Contest" sponsored by Coming Home, a division of Lands' End, and Good Housekeeping.

* Are you interested in making a Mystery Quilt? Judy Hopkins has 3 FREE downloadable mystery patterns on Marsha McCloskey's website. Take a look!

* And lastly, another silly but fun computer game to waste your time on: Penguin baseball. To play, you swat the penguin with a baseball bat and see how far you can get him to fly/slide. You're trying to beat your best score. It's all a matter of timing, like so much in life.

Back At Home

We've returned home after a week in Nevada, visiting our daughter and son-in-law. It was a good visit and we had lots of fun, good food to eat, and fun seeing all the animals at her ranch. We went to one casino, and I'll just say this: If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all! Fortunately, I know that going in, so I'm a very cautious gambler! I think I bet a whole $2! Last of the big spenders, huh? All 4 of us had a good time playing the slot machines, for under $10 total!

This picture up above is the aspen trees in the eastern Sierras in Nevada. The picture just doesn't do them justice - the trees were stunning, at the peak of their color and glowing in the sunlight. The weather was warm and dry and sunny and both DH and I enjoyed it!

Since we got home, it has been raining almost all of the time. The kitties are very glad to be home after a week at the kennel. They can't get enough love and attention at the moment, although I'm sure that won't last much longer! Now it's back to laundry, paying bills and the "catch-up" after a week away.

I've included some pictures from our trip, mostly of the animals at the ranch.

This is the bantam rooster, who was practicing his soprano crowing almost all of the time. You can see a little bit of the side of the strawberry roan horse on the right side of the picture. DD has 3 horses in her corral, but they actually belong to a neighbor. She gets to enjoy the horses, but doesn't have to support them. Best of both worlds, she says!

These are some of the (14?) chickens that DD has. These are two roosters in the back: on the left is the Frizzle and on the right is the Barred Rock, who looks just like Bob at Front Porch Indiana. DD and I both kept calling him Bob, although that's not his name. The Leghorn hen is in the front. (I hope I have all this correct!) You can see all the leaves from the cottonwood trees had fallen, without even turning color. They were everywhere on the property, and it was kind of like surfing to walk on them.

Here is Hazel, the Nubian goat. She's a real sweetie. Very tame and gentle. I got to hand-feed her. I've never "met" a goat before. I'm sorry this isn't a better picture. She didn't want to look at the camera. She thought all those cottonwood leaves were yummy, just like potato chips!

These are the 2 billy goats (or bucks). They're not as sweet as the doe, but still very tame and well-mannered for boy goats.

Here are some of the chickens in the driveway. They were following DH as he was taking photos.

This is Zany, the turkey that DD raised from a baby. Unfortunately, she is no longer with us. She suffered a dog bite on Sunday and succumbed to the injury by Wednesday. It was very sad. I'll miss the stories DD told me about her. Zany was quite a character. She survived her first Thanksgiving by befriending a pregnant horse next door. The neighbor bought DD an organic turkey for the big day so that she wouldn't kill the turkey. He didn't want his horse upset. We thought she was a pretty smart turkey!

These are the eastern Sierras in California. This was taken about 20 minutes from DD's house and at about 9,000 foot elevation. That means these peaks are probably about 12,000 to 15,000 foot elevation. And that's not very much snow on them for this time of year. They've been having a drought for 3 years now.

And, I actually did get a little quilting/sewing in while visiting. I ended up sewing down the bindings on two little wallhangings I had sent to DD about 2 years ago. I'd sewn the binding on the front, but not on the back. Well, DD never got around to sewing them down either, so I worked on them while I was there. You'll recognize this one. It was the 2nd Boo! wallhanging I made. It's a slightly different version than the one I own (see previous post).

I just did a crazy wandering quilting in the border, with a variegated thread. I'm not entirely pleased with it, but it's finished, and that's good!

I'll show the other wallhanging later, as it's a Christmas one.

Now, I just have to catch up on my blog reading and commenting. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone's been doing while I was away!

BOO!

My Boo! quilt is finally finished. It took me 2 years to do it! Of course, there was moving in there too. This is my first one, kind of. And I have another one to finish yet. I made one of these tops (my original) and gave it to Purple Pam as a trade for something. Then I made one for my DD. Then I made one for me - this one. It didn't get finished that year, 2006 I believe it was. It got packed up for the move. Then last fall, I totally forgot that I had started one ('moving brain'), so I started another one! Then I found this one as I was unpacking this year.

Are you confused yet??



This top was already pin basted when I "found" it, so I decided to just quilt it and get it done. I stalled on this for awhile, because I knew that whatever I quilted in the border would really show, as it's solid black. But I decided that finished was better than perfect and just did it. I did a wandering meander and it came out much better than I thought it would! And it only took like 15 minutes to do the entire border. Don't know why I stalled so long on it! I don't think the border quilting really shows up too well in these pictures, so don't know if you can see it.

I did a new-to-me binding technique on this that I learned in one of my guild workshops. You sew an accent strip to the binding fabric, then apply the binding on the back of the quilt. When you turn it to the front, you just machine stitch in the ditch between the binding and the accent fabric and it's all done! The way to do the corners was a little tricky to wrap my brain around, but it worked and I'm happy with the way it turned out.


I just thought this fabric was so cute when I saw it, that I had to get it. Love these jack o'lantern faces!

I made these letters with some stencils that I found at WallyMart. The letters are 3 inches high.

I used a spooky tree fabric that I love on the back, and I used a fusible for the quickie label, and it worked like a charm. I need to do more of these labels!

This wallhanging has gone to live with my granddaughters. I may get the other one done this year, but probably not. It gives me something to look forward to! (riiiight)

I've been working some on my project for Tonya's Quilt Together. Here's what I have so far:

My 1st attempt at free-pieced letters. These were just a test. I think the "H" is too small and the "M" is too big, but not too terrible for my first try. I found it harder than I thought it would be!

I've decided to do a version of a witch's pantry for my project. These are my 1st attempts at making jars. They also are harder than I thought they would be. And not as "wonky" as I wanted, either. But, it's an on-going process and I expect I'll learn a lot as I go through this project. I'm pretty jazzed about doing this!

That's all for now. Happy quilting, everyone!