Ringing in the New Year

Time to say good bye to 2012 and welcome in 2013. 

Wishing everyone a peaceful celebration tonight. 

The quilt pictured was made with bright jewels set in black. I quilted the swirls in a purple variegated thread for an explosion of color to ring in the new year... Happy New Year!

Mail today!

Look what came in the mail today! 

When the mail man rang the bell I had a feeling it was something wonderful! It was, there was the return address label from Barbara Brackman! Yipee!!!! I couldn't get it open fast enough :0) It's her new book Civil War Sampler all about the Block of the Week Barbara posted on a the blog she set up for this quilt. Lots of quilters participated from all over the world. Search with Barbara's name and you will find lots of my posts about the project we did last year for the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Barbara included some of the blocks made by participants in her new book, including three of mine! Can you feel me grinning from ear to ear! Also included are blocks from Ellen of American Homestead, here is her post yesterday. More blocks made by fellow bloggers ~ Liesbeth Wessels in Holland, Donna of Quilting Bear Gal in Texas, Ann Champion, plus Becky Brown who made all the sample blocks for Barbara, and from Dustin, our wonderful friend and fellow quilter who set up the Flickr site. The civil War quilt pictured on the cover and inside is made by Becky.

Link here to Barbara's Civil War Blog. There are also pics of completed tops made by quilters that followed along. The book is wonderful and contains all the blocks that we made and more new blocks as well as how the blocks represent the history of the Civil War. 
These are my blocks in the book

Louisiana pg 28

Barbara Frietchie Star pg 12

Grapes of Wrath pg 84

Also pictured in the book is the Civil War quilt presented to Barbara at Christmas last year as a thank you from blocks made by the Circle of Friends. It's a wonderful project and allot of us are participating again for the Grandmother's Choice quilt started this year by Barbara. Lots to catch up on as I have not posted for more than a month now... just way too much on my plate these daze.

I am off to order another copy so I can keep this autographed book in good condition. It's already gone with me to see Beckie and Donna today to get new glasses for my mom :0) 

Mom is 97 today!

Today is my Mom's birthday, she is 97! Amazing. So far it's been a very good day :0) Birthday cupcakes and cookies. What's not to like!

Thursday was the last block of the month workshop at Cathy's/Honeyrun Quilters. Kathy T finished 2 quilt tops and Claudia was wrapping her's up at the end of our meeting. Kudos to 2 of our group that finished their quilt tops! This is Kathy's second top:

She was finishing that last block and I did not get a picture of it! Below is the first one we put up on the design wall last month. It is now finished and again we didn't get it up on the wall for a picture.

Claudia's quilt top is as the sample I made for this BOM.

Theresa at Honeyrun had a new book she showed me that same day that would be fun to do as the next Block of the Month program at the shop. The book/quilt is called Green Tea and Sweet Beans by Jen Kingwell, an Australian quilter/author. It was done as an online block of the month a year or so ago and just came out in book form. More on that later.

Also very excited to hear progress about Barbara Brackman's book Civil War Sampler coming out in December. It can be pre-ordered now. I found it on Amazon where you can see a few of the pages including the index and guess what... there's my name! (Three of my blocks are in her book) I can't wait to get my hands on it. Click here to see her post about the book. American Homestead (Ellen) got to see the galleys for the book at Quilt Market in Houston. She says the book looks great!

This is too funny :0) Just looked at Barbara's last post on the Civil War Blog about a new product. Microfiber cloths with an image of Becky's Civil War quilt! Check it out here!

Happy Halloween

Wishing everyone in blogland a very Happy Halloween. Thoughts and prayers for everyone on the East coast as the clean up begins. Lovely to see all the ghostly quilts made for tonights Hallows Eve.

Our Color Me Happy Block of the Month at Cathy's/HoneyRun Quilters is coming to a close. One year later, Thursday is our final meeting as we add sashing and borders to our blocks. This is Kathy Ts quilt top in progress. A few more cuts and one more row. I absolutely love her colors and fabrics!

Following are quilt tops in progress made in my Two color/Two block quilt workshop.
Here is Michelle's in blue and white:

 Judy is making her blue version for her hubby:

Gail (above) is adding blocks to her red and white quilt to make a queen size quilt. Below is my scrappy version in blue and off white:

Sue B joined us to make progress on her quilt top started in my last workshop Woven Rail Fence. She was unable to make all of the sessions. One more session coming up next week Thursday when we all add the borders!

Another year

From my Sweetie. Proof that he doesn't wait until the last minute to wish me a Happy Birthday :0)

Veggies from our garden along with the pumpkin Micheal scored my name into when the pumpkin was very small and green. This little guy was hidden in the vines and since he is doing most of the gardening these days, a fun surprise for me! Isn't he wonderful !?!

Another year plus it's been a month since my last blog post (my apologies)... time is going by way too fast. Birthdays seem to prompt a time for reflection. My life has changed dramatically in the last seven years and it's about to take a new path. We (Mr. Wonderful too) made the decision to move my Mom in with us. After a month of planning, rearranging the house and adding some safety features, we moved Mom in on Sunday. So far the transition is going well. Mom has severe dementia and that will be a challenge. She always knows us and until that changes we hope to have her here with us. With a new Memory Care facility being built here in Chico we have that as an option. 

There are lots of quilts lined up between now and Christmas. Life is good... quilting, gardening and spending time with three people I love very much. That includes Chris, my son who recently moved into a house close to us. Just got a birthday phone call from by BFF Sally. Life is good :0)

Lots 'a Longarming

Here are pics of quilts made by friends, students and employees at Honey Run Quilters... thank you for trusting me with your quilts while I practice longarm quilting!

King size Bordello made by Stephanie

Linda's Color Me Happy, my BOM class at Cathy's

Pam's quilt quilted with 'Just Roses' design

Lori's whirligig quilt with the Feather Meander design

Judy J made this large quilt with Kaffe fabrics

Heidi's sister made this quilt for Heidi ~ quilted with music notes

Nine patch by Sandy with Tulip quilting design

This is a fund raiser quilt made by Arlene, a fundraiser for Scotty's Landing

Thanks for stopping by

Have a wonderful week and enjoy some time quilting!

Art quilt for Karen

Today was a fun day finishing the FMQing on Karen's quilt. It's called Just Drillin" from a pattern by a member of our guild, Lynne Pillus of The Mechanical Quilt... www.mechanicalquilt.com

Just Drillin' made by Karen

Close up of wood grain FMQing

Lynne did a trunk show and a workshop for our guild last year. Karen did the workshop along with other members, including myself. Yea! for Karen for finishing her top. Mine, sadly is on my UFO list. My first attempt at an art quilt. Way out of my traditional quilting style but...
 it's good to quilt outside of the block!!! Right? once in awhile!?!

Karen did a beautiful job and I had fun quilting it. Hope Karen likes it !?! She will see it tomorrow at our guild meeting.

Tomorrow will be a busy day... Block of the Month at Cathy's at 10 am, Session # 3 ~ Adding Borders to the Woven Rail Fence quilt at Cathy's at 1 pm and Annie's Star Guild meeting at 7 pm with a trunk show by Thom Atkins. As well as Friday. Months ago (before I had way too much on my plate) I signed up for a Friday class with Thom Atkins, a guild workshop. It's a class on beading quilts. Click HERE for a link to see his class projects.

Here I go again... quilting outside of the block!!!

Grandmother's Choice

Yea! started Barbara Brackman's new Block of the Week. Finished block # 1 today. Grandmother's Choice is the first block for this quilt project. This is my version done in purple, cheddar, green and red...

Grandmother's Choice Block # 1

My fabric choices for this quilt

After some research we found this 1918 banner for The Netherlands suffrage movement. Holland won the vote for women in 1919. My fabric color choices were not too far off!

"Let me in, I bring new light"

 
Australia's banner had gold and green, the Brits did purple, green and cream and Alice Paul's along with many of the USA banners were purple and gold as this one by the National Women's Party. On  the flickr site you will see many versions of these and more colors for this quilt!

Clink on Grandmother's Choice to go to Barbara Brackman's blog with more info... and here is a link to flickr and a photostream of pics of everyone's blocks participating in this project from all over the world. Never too late to join in!

 Other projects I am working on this weekend: A paper pieced block for Jill, our outgoing President of Annie's Star Quilt Guild...and our guild's paint chip challenge coming up in October...

 Can you guess which two colors are my paint chips? It's supposed to be obvious and we have to incorporate at least one nine patch block. Finished size is 24" x 24"

Happy Quilting and have a safe Labor Day

Carpenter Star Quilts

Gail finished the quilting on her Carpenter Star Quilt that she made in my class at Cathy's Sew and Vac. This is a class that I repeated, original pattern by Kathie Holland of Inspired by Antique Quilts. Completely quilted by Gail using a walking foot and free motion quilting...

Gail's Carpenter Star Quilt

Close up of quilt back ~ Gail's border and leaf corner quilting designs

 Check out the great job she did with her binding as well

Gail's quilt back

 Here is a re-post of Kathy W's Star quilt made in the same class.

Kathy W's Carpenter Star quilt

 And this is a picture that Kathy sent to me of a quilt she made after the class on her own! Pieced, quilting and binding all done by Kathy.

I am so proud of both Gail and Kathy for completing their quilts and jumping right in with FMQing.

Kathy T is right behind them with a black, red and white quilt she made in the same class. I saw it yesterday and it is beautiful. Well done ladies!!!

Have a great Labor Day weekend

Tomorrow is Saturday Morning Post!!! First block for the Grandmother's Choice: Votes for Women quilt project. Everyone has their fabrics selected and are ready to start. Not too late to join in!

Quilt Classes at Cathy's

Classes at Cathy's.
Tomorrow is my quilting workshop ~ Applique by machine. This is the first one so will see how that goes. We will work on a Mariner's Compass. There will be a flower applique to do as a second choice. This is my sample for the class:

Last weeks woven rail fence class was lots of fun. Four quilters, Kristi, Darcy, Sue and Betty took the first class. Here are pics of Kristi and Darcy's progress:

Darcy's in blues and green

Kristi's in earth tones ~ for her hubby

Next week's class we add borders. Sue had to drop out for health reasons but plans to take my next class and then get caught up on the Woven Rail Fence quilt in one of my UFO quilt days. Sue is a beginner quilter! Yipee!

Kristi and Darcy have taken more of my classes and are well on their way into intermediate quilting. They are doing great! Betty is an accomplished quilter and took the class just for fun. She already has her borders on and is ready to quilt the top. Can't wait to see it!

Our Block of the Month... this month's... Block # 12...

Block #12 made by Kathy T

my purple Color Me Happy block #12

Claudia has hers to bring in at tomorrow's applique class. We have one more alternate block in Sept, after that we will be ready to start putting our tops together. 

Added ~ Claudia's block # 12

Thanks for stopping by...

Samples for HoneyRun Quilters

Theresa at Honey Run Quilters has been very busy making store samples. It's great to have these to practice my longarm quilting on! Here are a few that I machine quilted. This one is quilted with a bamboo design...

 This one will have large flowers appliqued onto the blue fabric over the quilting...

This one is quilted with an all over leaf design and will have brightly colored leaves appliqued in one row...

 close up of the bamboo quilting design ...

 and the owl Theresa appliqued onto this quilt after it was quilted...

There are a few more ready to be quilted. Some of these quilts will be shown at Quilting in the Garden coming up soon in the Bay Area, Northern California.