My House!

I have always prided myself to "soldier on" when ever I am presented w/challenges in life. I say this sincerely. I have faced a few "dark days" in my life and then the "sunshine comes"! Of course I always credit all the "sunshine" in my life to "Him"......who never would or has given me any task I couldn't handle.... until now! I don't think "He" knows about "mini paper piecing" quilting!!! (I am not shouting, really!) Our "mini" class was told by our teacher that we would be more "challenged" this year. She wasn't kidding!!! I was very anxious to do the house blocks and we have the option of creating a "Christmas sock" or a "mini" quilt. I opted for the quilt! So, here is as far as I have gotten! Eeeek! As you can see this "block" is 3 inches. The inner block, the house is 1 1/2 inches. The house alone has 15, count them, 15 pieces! "Oh," you say, it is paper pieced". Yes, but, I was frazzled just trying to choose colors, you know I am "color challenged"! I have seven more to design. The block is somewhat "wonky" besides! So....I think this is going to be a long time in the making!!! I am exhausted just thinking about it! Of course I could make them look all the same, but, would you live in a house that was painted like your neighbors?? I don't even know if this is a 3 bedroom 2 bath home!

President Dottie's Block!

This is my contribution toward our http://llqg.org President's gift of the guilds namesake block! aka "Ladies of the Lake".

We were asked to create it out of "poka dots" w/white on white as the background. Even though she is going to serve a second year we do this after the first term! It is supposed to be a "surprise" at the May "birthday" meeting! I hope all of the members can contribute one block! That should put about 90 blocks at her disposal!! I need to "autograph" this before I turn it in! Wouldn't that be a super sized quilt!!!!

Penny's Purse

Shhhh....don't tell! Our second daughter will be celebrating her "50th" in a couple weeks!!! Eeek! (She looks 16...still!) Well, almost! Same size anyway!
She likes to receive handmade items from Mom!
Sooo....last fall when she saw my own leafy purse I made...she requested I make her one in black. Of course I told her I wasn't sure if I could do it again successfully. I had fun doing this one as I could take my time and look for just the right fabric colors in batiks. I did learn a valuable lesson on selecting the beads to attach to the front of the purse. I thought I had chosen black ones! When the purse was finished I accidentally was holding it up and the light caught the beads "just right" and reveled them to be blue!!! But, ya can't really tell it! So....next time I buy any beads I was advised by my "quilty friends"to take them outside to "checkout" the true colors !!! The ballpoint pen in the purse is a really old papermate that DH contributed from his vast collection of odd and interesting out of date pens and pencils. I'll fill the inside w/"fun girl stuff" and of course a "few pennies" to spend . She is a wonderful daughter . Click on photos for closeups!

The Winnah!

Good Friday was really good to me. I picked up my winnings from a LLQG http://llqg.org/ quilter friend that went to pick up her basket and mine.
Can you see how full this basket is? Wow, I could hardly carrry it! I was so lucky! This is a quiltaholic's dream basket! 8 yards of fabric,patterns, threads, so many little neat "sewing toys"! A pin by artist Jim Shore! I spent an hour at least unwrapping it! Caressing the fabrics reading the pattern books. The Yuba Valley Quilt Guild really knows how to fill those baskets.
I would guess it could be valued at $100! I need to correct my last blog about the wonderful work that was done by Jody. It was not handquilted, it was machine done. I don't know how that word got transposed! Her motto is: "When I learned to quilt....I forgot how to cook!" Don't we all wish that! Well, tomorrow I will start preparing the Easter Feast for Sunday!

Show Time!

I haven't been to a "out of area" quilt show for several years and when I read that the Yuba Valley Quilt Guild was having their 25th annual show last weekend I call my neighboor quilter Louise and said "what do ya think? not that far to go,huh!" and she said" great". So we left early and the drive was 2 hours and we only got lost for a few minutes in the town, trying to find out what "Google" meant by their directions. There were NO advertising signs of the show to say how to find the fairgrounds where they were! It was a nice show,265 quilts,24 vendors. The featured quilter was Jody Ort, also a NCQC registered Show Judge!!! She has judged our local guild show, Falling Leaves, and so it was a nice treat to see her beautiful quilts. She does fabulous handquilting Trapunto on old linens! I am showing you a few photos of the show! She also handquilted the center of their Opp.Quilt, of which I forgot to take photo. The "rearend of the cow" quilt was a great photo opp!

We were really tired by the time we left. It is hard work having fun! When I walked in the back door the phone was ringing and a voice said, "Rosy, you have won Raffle Basket #25"! We'll get it to you!" That made my day! I don't even remember what was in all the baskets, but they were really loaded with quilters "desires"!! Sunsweet Corp. sponsers their baskets of goodies! Hope it isn't full of dried prunes . We were given sample packs of their products going and coming at the door! Please click on the photos to really see the excellent works!

Challenge Progressing!

The "Egrets" are so beautiful hanging around here! DH took these great photos,I just had to share!

A while back I showed you the 4 "pine tree" blocks as a start of a challenge . Well, after much agonizing I came up with this "wall hanging" or "table runner"( I think I am leaning to the "wall hanging"!) The final backing,binding,etc is yet to come! I made the border of the "jelly roll" fabrics that the challenge committee furnished and also added some "stash" fabrics to meet the length I needed. Then after measuring "twice" I still came out some goofy size and so not all border squares are of equal size. I just like it anyway!!! It definitely is "my" color palette! I still have 2 months until "show time"! Hope you can click on the photos to enlarge them!

FabricArtPostcard

Saturday was a "somuchfunday" at our LLQG llqg.org "Skills Day". Our "resident" expert Leslie piecefulmoments.blog.com
gave us instructions on making the FAP's. We had a potluck lunch and sewed the day away and came away with some really neat FAP's. This is my creation. The background is a scrap of DH's jeans and I fussy cut the rest . I did a blind hem stitch around them and scribbled a "rope" effect outlining them. To keep the relaxed look I "pinked" the edges and then just overcast one time around. I backed it w/plain muslin for the message area.

I am on a "roll". This is addictive...(the good kind!)