Fig Tree Club!

Okay, I am going to tell you about that but first on my mind is really about Pine Needles Quilt Camp. My friend Virginia and I put on this retreat. She also teaches at Cottage Quilts and works there part time.

So, it's that time of year when I need to start thinking about the retreat we hold at Bass Lake.

I have been distributing fliers for the event for the last couple of months but as summer comes near I really need to start getting things organized and projects decided on and all the gifts and prizes in order. Oh, and the menu planned!

Food is a very important part of the weekend!

The picture above is from last years retreat. I will find some other pictures to share. We have a lot of fun! A big reason for that is the two women that are surrounding me in that picture!

On another note:

This is a picture of Lewis Creek. Next June, our son Todd & Jillian will be getting married at Sierra Sky Ranch which is right next to this creek. Come to think of it, Jill was "the girl next door" when we lived on Lewis Creek. She actually lived across the creek though. That was over 10 years ago! Krimminie! I found this picture and was going to send it to Jill and just had to share some "nature" with you too.

Okay, now:

Have you heard about the Fig Tree Club? It will be starting up at a variety of quilt shops all over. I am excited about it because I get to head it up for Cottage Quilts. I just got a view of the first project and I think this is going to be a lot of fun! There will be home dec projects and lap quilts and I think maybe even a bag or tote project. The club is designed to meet 4 times a year. But it will be available on line also. Stay tuned. I will get the when & where hammered out this weekend when I am at Cottage Q's. All I know that the first kits will be made up from the new fabric line Mill House Inn which is beautiful!

I will be teaching a class at Cottage Q this Saturday on the Topsy Twosey quilt. It's made using the X Block tool. I showed a photo of my sample last week. It was made from Gypsy Girl fabrics. I think the picture was of it hanging in the shop. Anyway, it should be a fun day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to Work

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Weekend and took some time to remember those heroes who have served our country.

I don't know how I got so far behind but I usually have my house decorated accordingly for this occasion and keep it that way throughout July 4th and up to Labor Day. But I do have some trivia for you to make up for that. Do you know why they do a "21" gun salute to honor those who have fallen? It is the number you come up with when you add the numbers in 1776.

My sewing room was completely neglected last week but I do have one quilt to show you that I got back from the longarm quilter. I really like the way she quilted it in an all over design. It has flowers in the center of the blocks. Now I just need to find where I put my binding for it. I usually do set aside binding strips for the quilts that are done so that I don't forget and use that fabric in something else. If it's cut, it's a pretty good clue that it is going on something!

So here is where our vacation starts. We went to Pam Springs/Palm Desert area. The weather was merciful to us and remained very tolerable. We played; we were tourists; we golfed and spent time at the pool! We taught Jan and Al (my sister in law and her husband) how to play Dominoes. Whoohoo! More people to play Mexican Train with. I love playing games!



The golf course is just so pretty! And the ducks are so cute at the little ponds... or as the real golfers say: "water hazards".

Here is a momma with some of her babies... or preteens!

I had no idea that they had stars down the sidewalk on the main street of Palm Springs. Here is one of Marilyn Monroe's and I took one of Debbie Reynolds also.

I finished up the vacation with Jury Duty yesterday... can you believe that! They let me go though so I can't complain. I actually would enjoy it (I did go to school for stenography) but the court is about an hour away. I didn't want to have to drive that everyday!

A Little Get Away

I thought I would take the opportunity to introduce you to Hannah. She just got back from getting groomed and is with me at my office today. Her groomer is son #4's girlfriend. She love to go there and see the other dogs and get taken care of by Olivia. Lucky for me I can take my dog to work with me. It's a pet friendly and extremely relaxed environment. Hannah is a sweetie and loves everyone.

On another note: earlier this morning I was starting to quilt one of the quilts that will be a sample for Cottage Quilts and I had to stop. I thought: I should have listened! I got about 1/4th of the way into it and decided that I just don't like it. It was pretty much a consistency problem. Urg! Frustrating. I should have heeded the advise that PamKM gives about using the quilting paper on rolls. She always suggests using this product called Quilting Made Easy. It even sounds good! So I am going to order myself some of that and in the meantime I have some unstitching to do. Doesn't sound very appealing does it?

Anyway, I am looking forward to a great holiday weekend. After 5:00 today I am on a little vacation. Just a jaunt down to Palm Desert... because I just can't get enough of the heat! Just kidding! It should cool down a bit over the weekend. This is a view from my sister-in-laws place down there. A nice view of the 14th fairway! (There is a reason I don't mention that I golf). It is gorgeous down there and we always have a lot of fun with them. Then we will swing over to my parents... in Chino, which is very close proximity to where Road to California is, if you have ever been down to that quilt show. They always expect to see me in January for that event!

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday. I will miss not having a BBQ at home... but not so much that I would pass up this view!

More Quilt Show & Lunch Today

First place winner! Don't you think this is a stunning quilt? I have had this on my "I would like to do someday" list for a long time. I did ask Barbara if she would bequeath it to me... after all, I am her grandson's godmother... that is almost like family, right?

I think I had a better shot of this one but I hope you can still see all the embroidery here.

I do have a fondness for baskets. The quilt below was entered by my friend Dianne. It was a row quilt that each of us, in our group, made a row for her quilt; she requested a basket theme. I think it all went together pretty well.

The quilt here, with the black background was titled "the Quilt from Hell". Sounds like she won't be doing that pattern again. Below it is one with dogwood trees (which are beautiful and in bloom right now around here).

You can tell that I was having a hard time getting the picture straight. I didn't have enough space... well, that's my story anyway.

During my lunch today I had to run to the bank and make a deposit for work. While I was there I thought I would snap a picture of the quilt they have hanging. It was made by Jean Ray Laury; she is a great quilter with a unique style.

Then I had to run and buy a pair of these... well, because you can never have enough flip flops and also because I was going...

here next. To get a mini pedicure. I'm going to stretch this out as much as I can. One of the reasons I love to go there is because they have these chairs that massage while they are working on your poor pitiful feet. Time very well spent!

Quilt Show Pics

Well, before you start looking at any of the quilts from the quilt show I wanted to take you over to this vendor booth. I thought it was so adorable! I tried to get a couple photos with the lamps in view because they were so darn cute! They have Yo Yo's hanging from the lampshade; the center of the lamp is glass and it's filled with pink yo yo's! I need a pair of those!

This quilt (below) was done by Laura Schwartz-Smith. I don't know if you recognize the name but she is a pretty well-known quilter. She is a member of our guild. This is a quilt she made for her mother. Her mother got married in Yosemite in the 40's. I just loved how she did this one! Kind of like a scrapbook and not just a photo quilt... and of course she has the hands and arms in the quilt. She does amazing work.

The quilt here is just beautiful and had hand quilted too! To bad the photographer didn't do such a good job! (sorry)

This is a Dresden quilt that I had mentioned in an older post. The pattern is by Laundry Basket Quilts, called Dresden Star.

One of our members, Lupe, just makes these up from her head, much like the style of the artist Diego Rivera. She herself is from Mexico and from a family of 13 children.

This one of the cottages was so sweet. It was a Block of the Month project. The fence in the border looks great... but looks pretty hard to do!

I really like the simplicity of this little quilt. The pattern is one of Brenda's from Acorn Quilt Co.

I have more photos. I will show them tomorrow. Especially the one that won first place!

The Beginning, Then and Now: the Debut

It was a good thing that we had our own quilt show here in Oakhurst this last weekend. It was a good distraction from having the Spring Market envy that I was feeling. I know I wasn't alone. I had been on Twitter and blogs in every free moment to try to see what was going on there in Pittsburgh. Everyone did a good job keeping the posts coming, showing photos of the booths and all the goodies. You could just feel the excitement! (Yeah, for the Jolly Jabber peoples)
Now that market has come and gone I can show you my photos from what they refer to as my celebrity stunt job. I had another opportunity to sew for Joanna at Fig Tree & Co.
Here is where it all started. I trim the fabric edges as little as possible. I am always afraid that I am not going to have enough or I might make a mistake. The latter one being more of a possibility.
So here we are with the scraps. The fabrics used were from Patisserie and from Mill House Inn, which will be released in the near future. I don't have any photos of blocks in progress, so we go right to the finished top. I have the finished product lying on top of the bed in my guest room. I found this photo on Jolly Jabber blog of the Fig Tree booth where you see it hanging!
Ahhh, the finished product... alive and well.

I was happy to see that this will be a quilt in the Fresh Vintage #12 issue. It is one pattern but it has 5 different possibilities. The Mill House Inn fabric line is absolutely beautiful. The aqua fabric used has little dots. So very cute. Joanna is amazingly talented and so sweet.

Side note: remember when I wrote and said that I had been down for the count with a terrible migraine? Well, that happened when I thought the package with the quilt top in it had gotten lost in the mail... it just sent me for a tail spin! Joanna was confident that everything was fine but I was a complete basket case!
I will be back with pictures of the quilt show!

Not Heaven but Shangra-La

I did it. I found a few extra minutes this morning and made up some Dresden blades. I love them. It's so much fun! These are the woven fabrics from the Shangra-la group. I have the charms for this also (well, and the jelly roll and some yardage, yada, yada, yada) and I will work on sewing up those next. I actually think they look good on my ironing board. I might have to get some more Dotties and make that the centers. So thanks to those people showing the Material Obsessions book, Sherri at A Quilting Life, and Venessa at V & Co. I am hooked on making these!

I wanted to follow up and show you a couple more examples of patterns using the X Block. The first one is called Venetian Tiles and the one below is called Last Mango in Paris. They are just 9 patches cut on an angle. I think they look a lot more involved but they are super easy.

I have the raffle baskets all ready to go now. With just one more to put cellophane on. I was waiting to add a book to it before I wrapped it up. Then they just have to have tags put on them stating the approximate value of the basket.

Tomorrow after work we start setting up for the quilt show. It will not compare to all the fun those girls are having in Pittsburgh... but for those of us left behind, it will do. I am looking forward to the vendor's that will come for our local quilt show.

Newsflash

I ran across this giveaway today and wanted to share the news! You need to check out Pigtails & Snails blog. Elizabeth is so sweet & talented... and her giveaway is so adorable! There are a bunch of "runner up" prizes too. The name of the quilt is Pink-a-boo. This one is a pattern hot off the press...she has another original pattern called Spring Up that is really cute and you can order from her website. The giveaway ends on May 18th, so you still have time to enter.

Another Fun Tool & A Shop Tour

Well, while I was on the subject of fun rulers to use I remembered another one called X Block. It was developed by Patricia Pepe. She has lots of patterns now for using it. This pattern below is hers and it's actually a two for one quilt. You can make the second quilt from the leftovers of the first quilt. You need to add extra for borders to.

So here is where we start the tour of Cottage Quilts, this is my version of the pattern above. I used the Gypsy Girl line from Fig Tree and a few others thrown in. I have made up a few quilts using the X Block. I will have to remember to dig those out at home and take some pictures of them. This is going to be a class in the near future. The Sweet Dreams quilt in the last post is another quilt I have hanging in the store, in their classroom area.

Here is some other views of the store. Carolyn McCray is the owner along with her husband, they are super nice people. I just love the feel of the store. It's so light and bright in there... and cottage-ie too! Lots of eye candy. A girl can get into trouble in there.

Ahhh, well that's all I've got for today for the fun stuff. I have been trying to get my sleeves and labels on my quilts and de-hair them. Whoever said that Labradoodles don't shed didn't explain that they actually do lose hair. Tomatoes/tomatoes. So all of that got done this morning and now the quilts are now turned in for the quilt show. I have made up the raffle baskets and will be putting the finishing touches on them tonight. I ended up making 13 baskets filled with quilting goodies and I have another 4 top dollar items that will stand alone to be raffled. I will have photos tomorrow.

A 60's Obsession

This is one well used and much loved ruler! As you can see I have florescent tape in a variety of areas marking different cutting lines for a variety of projects. I have been having a 60's obsession! Actually I am stealing that line from Heather Mulder-Peterson's new book which is titled: Sizzlin' Sixties. Her quilt patterns in this book uses the 60 degree ruler. Easy peasie... I'm telling you! No Y seams are needed for any of these quilts.









This is a photo of a pattern called Twist & Turn by Laundry Basket quilts. I did this pattern using an assortment of Fig Tree fabrics. I also taught a couple of classes in this and there was a variety of fabrics people used from 1800's to Batiks. They all looked amazing. My quilt is with son #1 in Chico. Sorry I don't have a photo of it. Thanks Edyta from Laundry Basket for the picture.

I have showed this one before... no, it's still not quilted. But, I wanted you to see what you could do with the same ruler. This is an American Jane pattern: Triple Crown.

I had shown this one a couple of weeks ago also. This is called Wee Spin but Merry Go Round looks about the same, which was in McCalls Quilting magazine last fall. Most of these can be made with jelly rolls also. (woohoo!)

Here are a few other things you can do with the same ruler. I have had a lot of fun with this. The quilt here is still in strips- I haven't sewn the rows together yet. I'm sure you have seen other quilts from the One Block Wonder books. They just use one fabric. I know the idea is similar to stack and wack, but (in my opinion) a 100 times better. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you can see the strips and how it goes together without the Y seams.

Here is a couple of pictures of another one I did. It's the "basis" style. The one above is using a couple extra techniques. I am really looking forward to getting my hands on the Sizzlin' Sixties book and playing with the more traditional blocks some more!

Until then I might just play with the Dresden block a little. I have seen some of those done at V & Co. and at A Quilting Life. (I haven't figured out how to link those yet... please help me if you can). Edyta has a pattern that is a variation of the Dresden also, called Dresden Star, you can see it on her web site.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me. I enjoy your comments!